Introducing Visual Communication: Project 1 - The Comic

We've just completed our first project this semester. In groups, we were to make a 9 page comic based on our interpretation of the nursery rhyme we were assigned. For our group, our nursery rhyme was 'What Are Little Boys Made Of'.

     I'll admit I was really quite excited that the first thing we were tasked with was a comic. I am a lover of graphic novels; I write a lot of fantasy literature, and I often try to put those stories into comic form as well. However, I am not the greatest at doing so - I was keen to learn more about the mechanics of comics in this project to help me develop this skill.

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We decided the best way to split our workload between the three of us was to have one doing the linework, one on colouring and background/fine detail, and one pulling everything together with digital editing and layout. I was responsible for the linework; below you can see some pencil sketches plus the penned finals.

The entire project was a learning curve. For me personally, the most important things I learned were:
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• TEAMWORK: the collaboration aspect of this project did prove to be a challenge. I have always found working in a group difficult; I struggle to put ideas forward, and feel like I'm talking out of turn when I do. I can stutter and ramble quite a bit when I'm nervous, and I am less adept at explaining myself verbally than I am in writing, which isn't helpful to the team. I had to learn to try and overcome these insecurities, and in doing so I learned the importance of communication; listening to my teammates, and suggesting things too. Brainstorming, narrowing down ideas and linking them together is what ultimately led us to our end result.

• TIMEKEEPING: once again, this is not something I am great at. In fact, I am rather terrible at time management. I learned that good timekeeping and organising your workload is extremely important in both solo and group work. Keeping on top of your work - and communicating with any teammates about where you are with it - ensures there is enough time for everything to be done to the best of your ability. Unfortunately for my team, I learned this the hard way by being late with the linework; this resulted in me rushing it a little, and leaving my teammates with less time to do their parts. This stress could have been avoided if I had a better grasp of time management, and I am determined to improve this throughout the course.

• COMIC COMPOSITION: from the reading materials we were given, I learned a lot about the mechanics of comics and how they actually work. A lot more work goes into the layout than I was previously aware of; the size and shape of the panels, the way they fit together, and the placement of their contents is key to creating a good flow. Something I found particularly useful was researching the "line of sight" method; an implied directional line that guides the eye smoothly with subtle, subconscious cues. These cues can be a character's position/movement/line of sight, visual background clues, or dialogue placement. Careful and deliberate placement of these cues moves the reader's eye smoothly from panel to panel, focal point to focal point, creating flow. In addition, panel size/shape/content can be manipulated to convey different impressions, senses and emotions.

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LECTURE NOTES