Gawain comic: first thumbnails (G)

[sigune]

"'Tell us about Lot,' [the King] said. 'I want to know about him, if I have to fight him.'"
- T. H. White, The Once and Future King. Book II: The Witch in the Wood (1940)



A week ago, I drew my first thumbnails for the Gawain Project, because I had finally figured out where to start my story. This week, I have drawn new ones, because it struck me that I really couldn't start where I intended to start :). - Yep, that's me...

I have an awful lot of backstory for Gawain's parents and grandparents, and important backstory at that. If I draw it all, I'll never get round to Gawain's own story. So I decided to start with Gawain's own first adventure, a quest for a white stag. I would add bits of backstory as I went along. But I soon realised that there was some vital information that really needed to be passed on first. One of the elements that I missed most keenly was Gawain's early history with Morgana the Fay. This part of my story is not in the legend. That is why I decided on a Prologue. An extra advantage of this Prologue is that I get to introduce King Lot, who is already dead by the time his son has his first knightly adventure.

A note about the thumbnails:
My 17-page Snape comic was the first comic I ever finished, despite the fact that I had been working on several comics projects before. So far I have always started drawing in earnest, producing finished pages, often without a written-out scenario. I got stuck for weeks, for months, or forever, because I improvised and didn't anticipate specific creative problems.

The main problem, I think, is that writing scenarios is just not my kind of thing. But I do want to tell my own story. When I met Cecilia "Cabepfir" last year, she told me that she has her entire epic comic ready - in thumbnails. They are mainly talking heads, but the entire story is there. Me, I have painfully little to show for all the ideas I have had.

Laying out, or writing down, a story in thumbnails is much more attractive to me than typing a scenario. It's drawing, which is finally what I want to do. So I have decided to go about my Gawain Project that way. The drawback for you is that you will get to see the story in a basic, rough form first. It doesn't look pretty, and the dialogue's not polished. But it's on the move. A thumbnail is produced quickly and in circumstances that aren't ideal - those that I am about to show you were drawn on the train. It shows, but ... they are thumbnails. ;)

Because they are drafts, you are very welcome to offer suggestions for improvements.

Well, here we go then.