Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 172

[sigune]

So! Last Tuesday I had my illustration class "exam". I had to bring all my assignments, display them on a table, and then my teacher (Stijn) and his colleague (Other Stijn) had a look at them and gave comments. My teacher didn't say much as he'd already given me his comments on each assignment previously, but he listened to what Other Stijn had to say. And that had a bit of impact on the fate of this comic :p.

Other Stijn looked at my things and basically said, "yes, okay, nice, if a bit classic." When he arrived at my pencilled first comics page (this one), he couldn't place it, as clearly it wasn't an assignment, so I told him about my comic. He didn't like the page much and made fun of it, saying it looked like a Christmas card. So I told him about my difficulties in finding a style I like for the final look, and I showed him my current comics notebook with the brown and sanguine inked sketches. And at that he was all, "I LIKE IT!!11! Why don't you do the whole thing like this? Keep the size! Keep the colours! Do the sketchy thing! You could have it published on yellowish paper just like this notebook! You should totally keep the notebook look!"

And my teacher looked at me a bit cross because I hadn't shown him this particular notebook (I'd shown him the first TDA booklet because that is where the story starts - but you may remember that the quality of those pages was quite a bit lower than what I have been producing recently), and now he thinks I should completely go for the comic next year and produce him a definitive page a week, just like I produce a page a week on this blog.

So um, I guess that is the pencilled style out of the window (I am ... not too sad about that), and the prospect of one old and one new page each week, next year. I am not sure yet how Stijn is going to supervise and correct the new pages if I am going to do them the sketchy way, because I don't really see how this way of working leaves room for correction (the reason why it moves so quickly is because all the mistakes stay where they are and I barely use any reference). Maybe he'll have me redraw stuff and do cut and paste? I don't know.

Thoughts? Opinions? Please share!

Meanwhile: new page.

***

Arthur has pulled the sword from the stone. Having, in one swoop, freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into King Pellinore of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight, gives him a good beating, and then wants to be friends. Yep.




Concrit is still and always welcome :).

New page next Sunday!

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour
1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18, 19-21, 22-24, 25-27, 28-31, 32-35, 36-40, 41-44, 45-47, 48-50, 51-53, 54-57, 58-60, 61-64, 65-66, 67-69, 70-73, 74-75, 76-81, 82-84, 85-87, 88-90, 91-92, 93-97, 98-101, 102-103, 104-108, 109-111, 112-114, 115-119

Interlude: The Sword of Kings
1-4, 5-11


Part II: Sunrise
Brothers and Sisters
1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18, 19-21, 22-24, 25-27, 28-30,31-33, 34-36, 37-39, 40-42, 43-45, 46-48, 49-51, 52-54, 55-57, 58-60, 61-63, 64-66, 67-69, 70-72, 73-75, 76-78, 79-81, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171.

Comments

[rabid_bookwyrm]

I have always really liked your art style as it is posted here.

I don't know if this is how everyone does it, but my ex did a comic in ink wash. When she messed up or changed her mind about a panel, she would just copy the size of the panel on another clean page and redo it, then stitch it together on the computer after everything was scanned. It means the originals aren't necessarily pristine, but so what? That's physical media for you.

[sigune]

I think most artists work like that. I have always had a mild obsession with pristine originals - which is probably one of the reasons why I have been so painfully slow over anything supposedly 'definitive'. It's a bit silly. I'll just have to overcome my fears... :p

I went back to my earliest pages because I wasn't sure whether I started posting in 2008 or 2009, and I noticed that as early as that, people have been telling me that to them, the pages looked quite all right like this. But I could never have drawn them like this if *I* had thought they might be definitive. I've had to learn to like them. Just he thought that the lines between the panels aren't straight - goodness no, I could not have set out to keep these as as 'the' pages XD. I've had to recognise that I enjoy drawing these more because I don't feel that pressure to draw perfectly.

I still don't know what it's going to be like when I redraw old pages... But I'm looking forward to it.

[rabid_bookwyrm]

I so hear you. Giving yourself permission to just screw around and not make something "finished" can be incredibly useful.

One of the best things I've ever learned is that perfect is the enemy of done. At some point, you have to let go and put your imperfect thing out in the world, that's just how it is.

If the panel border thing is really an issue, you could always pencil them in and then do them on the computer after. Again, that's how my ex did it - she often worked a little over her lines, and then cleaned up the gutters and did the borders on the scanned artwork. I feel weird offering you advice from her work, but I don't actually draw comics myself, and we talked about her process a lot while she was working on it.

praise

[anna mette bladt (from livejournal.com)]

It is so great! At last your teacher gives you some of the praise, you deserve, and are willing to work with you on your comic. I think you are ridiculous talented, and you are making a wonderful work. Your storytelling is very good, and so are your characterizations. I know nothing about the art of drawing, so I'm afraid I can't say anything helpful about it. But I like your drawings very much, you can always make me feel the mood of the situation. And so many of your pictures I remember clearly - The page, Klingsor visits Ygraine, angry Gawain fighting with his brother, Morholt in the dungeon, Pellinor on the hilltop.

How DARE that teacher, Stijn, make fun of your work! You just say the word, and Morholt and I will come and beat him up! :-)

Great page today - I had been wondering, if Arthurs men really would have let him be killed. And off course an old fox like Pellinor would never ride out alone to challenge a band of warriors without any kind of backup.
But he still showed both courage and trust by meeting Arthur alone.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

That is very generous of you and Morholt, coming to rescue my reputation like that! But I'm afraid Other Stijn does have a point; I didn't 'feel' the pencilled version like I do my notebook sketches. Mind you, it's still not going to be easy for me to accept that less fortunate choices and things like my crooked lines that separate panels are going to be 'it'. But if I started to create and post the pages such as they are, it is because I knew in my heart that my perfectionism is too stifling. But I still told myself I could mess up because there would be a 'corrected' version one day...

It makes me really glad to hear that there are scenes that stay with you that way :). There are many people out there who draw a great deal better than I do, but I always hope that my pictures are effective. And characterisation is really what drives me to tell this story: my love for my characters is what inspires me. So, thank you very much for reassuring me!

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

In my personal experience, when you try to "correct" a page made in sketchy version (let's call it that way, although it isn't particularly sketchy; but you know what I mean) the result is often unsuccessful, because what makes the sketchy pages so charming is exactly the spontaneousness of it. When you start to think too much about it, you become self-conscious and the page becomes stilted. So I don't think your teacher - especially if he likes the pages so much - would actually correct them, but he can make suggestion about how to draw a new page better.

For example, I consider this page finished enough (and I especially like panels 2 and 4! I think the depth is quite well-shown!) but let's say there are other pages in which some elements could have been drawn better: in that case, is not so much a matter of correcting the existing pages, but of drawing them again (sometimes) giving more care to those elements that didn't work.

I am in a phase in which I particularly like my layouts better than my finished pages (as I usually do, but now in particular!) so I feel this matter deeply. When I do very detailed layouts, they could work as a page by themselves, so I'm usually disappointed with the polished version (it lacks the vivacity and immediacy of the layouts. So one solution could be to make sketchier layouts - or to make even more detailed layouts that could actually be used as finished pages. I'm still thinking about this.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

You are struggling with the same issue? Now I'm curious to see your layouts, because I have always thought your style is lively!

...I can do depth when there are trees. Architecture is a different matter entirely. Small wonder everybody is always traipsing about the woods in my story ;-).

Now that I have made the mental 'click' I'd actually like to start redrawing (or at least try, because I am not sure my mental blocks will disappear so easily). But it's the holidays! What do you think, should I start already or wait for the new school year? - Then again, I could also concentrate on the new pages :D... Move things on... Finally get back to Gawain...