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Gawain comic: first thumbnails (G)
- 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.
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My only suggestion is to avoid dividing words, such as "her" and "feet" -- but I'm sure you already know that.
Little Gawain is adorable, especially as that's the last thing he would want to be. I hope you post more!
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When I do a page 'for real', I always do the text bubbles first, pencils and then inks, to make sure I don't get divided words like that (and be sure they fit on the page ;P). Here I drew the picture first. And it gets worse in my other thumbnails - there the text is in the margins of the page instead of in bubbles *g*...
When I draw, I'm always torn between the spontaneity and Schwung of a quick sketch and the finish of a polished image. These sketches aren't wooden; but they tend to end up that when I polish them. That's not so good. It's one reason why I have been drawing these with pens and brush pens. I'm trying to learn to draw better and more quickly. I think that might be the key to getting my polished pictures to look more lively.
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P.S. I don't remember now if I thanked you for the Christmas card, so thank you! I love the little splashes of color in the scarf and the red and gold gloves (a little intriguing back story there, I'm guessing! :). And the flair of his coat--squeeeee! :-D
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It's great to hear you are enjoying the non-Snape art too :D. It's making me do new things - very different from the Snape stuff - but at the same time I couldn't do it without all the things I have learnt while Snapeing. I think a similar spirit will be there in the new story, too; some of my themes always come back...
The free flowing style of the drawings is due to the fact that they are entirely spontaneous and unstudied. It is quickly obvious what I can and can't do. This is what my drawings look like when I can't erase anything :).
I didn't get to continue on the train today :/. Must mend tomorrow...
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I don't really have any suggestions to offer - I just think their pose in the third thumbnail's left top corner is a bit weird in comparison with the others. The pose of Gawain's father seems a bit too "soft" (?) to me while it's the other way round with Gawain's.
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It's true that I have never done anything of this kind - sketch loosely in inks. I'm hoping it will teach me to ink more quickly. I like my painstaking inks, or rather, I like the results they get me, but I realise that if I want to achieve anything like a longer story within a reasonable timespan, I will have to adapt my methods :/. It's funny: these pictures are, when I come to think of it, purely functional. They are very simply telling a story. I'm not sure that I'll be able to make the switch in my head when it comes to any final version of the story, but at least I am telling it now. It's such fun to be able to draw an entire page during a train ride! *g*
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I like how you portray the heroes, especially young Gawain. I know him only from Arthurian legends. I'm curious how you version will look, remembering your great Snape comic.
Do you plan to make the comic like the one with Snape in black and white or use the red as well?
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To be honest, I haven't made up my mind about the look of the 'definitive' version. I didn't really give the look much thought when I started drawing this one. I just had these dark brown and reddish pens at hand - I like to use them for sketching. In the meantime I have really come to like the effect I get with these two colours. It's funny how just that bit of red can make quite a difference in look :). I can imagine keeping the two colours for the final version, perhaps switching to black and white when it seems useful for the story.
I still like the look of the Snape comic, but all that black isn't appropriate for Gawain's story. If I go for black inks, they will have to be coloured - by me or by someone else. Also, I may have to opt for a more loose inking technique than the one I used for the Snape story, simply for reasons of time.
Ack, I just don't know yet! At this stage I just want to write the story down and see if it works. I'll worry about the definitive look later ;-).
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