Self- reflection of Fmp so far/ Class Crituque

20/03/12
Seminar Given to Art History Class Feedback:
Egija:

• Nice drawings
• Like that you been looking into different techniques of work
• Your work with ps is interesting (ps = pshotoshop?)
• Showing 3 faces but in reflection more 
• Comic book
• Consider looking back like some demons etc (history)  - in the past people thought shape shifters (related to my changing alien) were as real as anything e.g witch craft..and in art history we looked at a painting with a woman laying on a bed with a gargoyle looking fury monster thing sitting by her...although my alien is not really going to be much of a scare thing

Emma:

• Comic - focus on split personality of alter ego ( continuing to psychologically analyse while surveying alter egos( superheros)
• Looking at more conventional + unique characters that may not sure 'real' human form - deviates - from typical stereotypes  - ( my revesara alien)

Experiments Done:

22/03/12
Im my Fmp time scale so far i had planned to do some research which included looking at Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, gABRIEL bA',  and j.H Williams....However i have done all of my research for up until week 3 but i am a little behind with annotation which i plan to catch up with by next week. Also i haven ended up doing other things which i had not planned or thought about doing before such as creating a logo design for my Comic book company and doing experiments based on some Noir comic covers i looked at. I am pleased that i have started with experiments as i have a habit of making every one of my experiments into a final piece but now i have learned to just leave things which may not be completely relevant to my brief.

I just need to be more focused in order to be up to date with annotations, i am up to date with my journal which i'm happy about.

I have decided that i will be having 3 characters which will turn into six...the heroes and the villains...really there are 9 since my theme is Heroes (the good) Villains (evil twin) and the Ordinary ( the heroes and villains in their ordinary state.... but i will be one of the characters...

It will be me and two other people, i wanted it to be a discovery of other peoples personalities as well as my own and it will be a more exciting adventure if i am taking part in it...in a way it is like I am becoming a child again getting to be in a comic book which i construct and get to do what i want and in a way i am giving the other two people a chance to be who they want and do what they want....

Next week shall be the first class critique and I aim to show my idea development what research I have been looking and and the experiments that i have done so that i can get feedback on how I am doing so far... Am I going towards the right track.

Questions I plan to ask the class are:
 Would you prefer an online comic or hard copy?


I might cut down the number of characters to 2 so i will end up with a maximum of 6 individualistic characters..... the main thing is just to show 3 different personas so it would not matter if I took part... i shall leave myself out of the comic book and base it on two chosen people...

Logo Designing

When annotating my sketchbook page on Dark Horse Comics I was drawn towards the logo for Dark Horse Comics which had me thinking i might as well start designing a logo for my comic book. I liked the look of  The Umbrella Academy logo crest which got me looking into heraldic crests and other type of crests. I was not too sure on what to create so experiment with different ways of arranging the letters A and E which would stand for Alter Ego....Alter Ego Productions...Alter Ego Comics maybe....then i had an idea of turning the word into Japanese.... I thought of having alter ego in Japanese because it reminded me of Japanese Manga which is similar to comic books....and i wanted a symbolic look that crests have...simply by changing the words from English to Japanese. I placed the Japanese word for alter ego in illustrator where i could make the words bigger and printed it off...i was experimenting different ways of creating a face with the words so that the letters would be the eyes of a face...but it was not working too well so keeping in the theme of Manga i looked online for images on how to draw Manga which i roughly followed....the letters now acted as part of the eyes of the character i had created...However i went on to create other graphic looking illustrations and patters which were loosely linked to the crest designs on top of the piece i had made.... I had advise from a peer that i could still use the drawing as a logo if i scan it into the computer and then repeat a part of it to create some type of flower looking thing...A logo...simple to the eye..then a closer look reveals much more.

Rough Noir illustrations

Having looked at some noir comics on monday i was not happy with what i was creating ...my experiments did not look very noir ..black and white looking at the way shadows affect an image... so i decided to do what i was doing yesterday with the tablet pen... creating very rough illustrations...but instead i was using a fine liner and i really like the effect the roughness has, i created really interesting pieces and as i began getting more comfortable with just letting the pen be, i could create texture and pattern... maybe the rough sketch way could be how i create my comic. I also looked at some personality tests which i will incorporate into my questionnaire for the superhero and villain character search.

Getting started with experiments

In my drawing lesson i finished annotating my alien design sheets..explaining what i looked at - what influenced ,me then i went onto experimenting with some left over ink i had used to go over the jelly fish (part of the design sheet). I had been looking into noir comics and noir films so made some noir looking drawings with the white ink which i quite liked because they are simple and quick which would be pretty useful when trying to make a comic book in the amount of time i have...i then went on to working on black paper with white and black conte which created a ghostly effect which my teacher and peers like ...that may be an option of how i create my comic book...i could just scan these in and resize them..to place in my comic... I also had advise from my drawing teacher on how i could start constructing the layout of my comic... The piece i made yesterday of a girls with a breathing mask on my teacher suggested i could photocopy it and re-structure it in different parts much like a puzzle...i really like this idea because it makes an image tell a story in a much more in-depth way....e.g. zooming into the story...i shall experiment more with this....

In C.A.D, i had a go at using the tablet pen just getting used to the feel of it.At first i placed an image on the tablet and was drawing around it...but it wasn't looking very good and it wouldn't be my work so i went onto trying to create very rough lined images which i liked the look of they were quick and had a sense of character...so i went on to make an A3 character page with different characters made up which where roughly made bu the tablet...done on photoshop.

Starting the FMP

Today was my first day working on FMP work and I had a rough outline drawing which i had made at the end of the pathway stage but intended for the FMP, which i worked on looking at the style of Noir comics. The piece i was working on has a character which i created in the rough summary plot of what i want to happen in my comic book. I find it much easier working in black and white and quite like the look i have achieved today. The piece looks slightly noir but also a little like H.R Geiger alien style... this is just one of maybe 4-6 experiments i am going to do when looking at Noir Comics.... however i do feel that if this piece was in colour it would be much more lively and captivating....

Thought process into Fmp and evaluation of pathway

Overall i think i have done well in experimenting with different methods of medium in creating my work and some which i have never used before such as digital painting which i really enjoyed. As the pathway project moved on i was moving more and more towards cartoon looking characters which made me decide for sure that i wanted to create comic characters for the FMP. Hence my project title Heroes, Villains and the ordinary. I would say i need to like into more historical research which i will do in the FMP and maybe have more in depth research about the methods i use( however, i briefly explain the advantages and disadvantages of the materials i have used.)....but other than that the pieces i have created in the pathway has been linked to the theme of Alter egos and i am expanding this theme into my FMP but focusing on Superheroes and Villains...the change being an ordinary human being to being someone with powers...someone more important in some way.