Point of View

 Hello weary travellers. After your long week, I give to you...

Page 14

I don't often go for these high 3/4 downshots that you see in the top and the bottom panels. When I see a panel in which all the Super Friends are sitting around a board room chatting, I think the artist did them for the reader and the drawing works like a floor plan, so reader knows where everyone is at all times and all camera angles.

It's a good idea, but I find this point of view / camera angle contrived. Not only do these drawings often lack drama, but how the heck would you get the camera up that high - wouldn't it be sitting somewhere above the ceiling?  Sure, we're drawing fiction and can draw anything from any angle, but I like to see the images drawn from as close to a human-eye perspective as possible, which means if you couldn't easily be in there with a camera, I don't want to draw it.  Another thing is that the  size of the rooms often look HUUUGE with HUUUGE desks or tables. This last thing is up to the artist to make everything look proportional.

But having said all that, I did the the first panel that way because I wanted to suggest a hot, barren landscape.  I didn't want the camera too high, but perhaps it could be a bit higher to push the emptiness, the alone-ness more.

And the last panel was done this way because I wanted to show the woman (HA!  That pilot was a woman! Hmm... now we're getting somewhere) splayed out across the busted fence panelling and the shadow "reaching" out toward her. I thought this angle would be dramatic, but also not put any emphasis or subjectivity on the person who found her. 

Leaving Questions Hanging

Happy November, Readers.  

Following a scary, very quiet Hallowe'een, I give you the scary (number wise) page 13!

Page 13

Who is this veiled figure?  What are they doing?!

I tried to keep this question going as long as I could. I think it is interesting that we don't really know what the protagonist really looks like yet. I feel it keeps the reader interested and wanting to read more.

The top two drawings were particularly tough because for one, I was trying to continue the action from the previous page and also, the camera perspective made that continued action hard to show it all. I didn't want it be too tight or too wide a shot. Looking at the first panel again, I want to see the person's feet, but not sure why.

Perhaps I go overboard in showing every little detail of action, I mean, do we really need to see all of what happens in the second tier of images (panels 3, 4, and 5). I'm not sure panel 3 communicates so well, but I think it becomes understood by looking at the later two. Yes, I'm not going to tell you what happens there. If the drawings don't communicate the action, they don't work, so Class. your homework is to write me a brief description of what happens in each of those three panels.

I like panels 6 & 7.  I feel they describe a story detail well, a story detail that continues.

And 8, 9 and 10 perhaps show too much action.  I could have dropped panel 8, but it makes a nice harmony of panels on the page. I feel panel 10 is drawing the reader on. It doesn't answer anything, but instead I hope inspires the questions... "where's this person going?  What's going to happen next?"

Look Ma, No Tracing!

Hello Hello!

Here we are again, with the never seen before, page 12!!

Page 12

It's funny how some drawings work out so well and become one's favourite. Wish I knew how to make it happen more often, but that might wreck the joyful experience when a great one just happens.

I love that last panel, where the pilot's foot breaks. I love how you can see the tread on the right boot, the twist on the left ankle and the way the knee isn't twisted... OUCH! 

You know how when you do a nice drawing and then trace it, some of the magic is lost, and it's not so much fun as it was doing the original. All the decisions are made, there's no more exploration or imagination needed.

        (Side Note: Yikes! What if I finish this thing and then want to trace and clean up those lines!
        How will I be able to do that and keep them looking good and be fun to draw!  OH NO!!!)

The way I'm doing this story is a bit similar. I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but unlike any of my other attempts at longer stories, I didn't write any of the story down. Nope, no script! I know what I want to have happen and have an idea of how, but if something happens in a drawing I didn't expect, or I can't make something happen on a particular page, I don't stress over it, I just see if I can fit it in elsewhere or consider whether I even need it. As a result I am sometimes surprised by how the action or story goes, which is actually a lot of fun. It's like I'm forging ahead into fresh territory, not tracing over something I've already done.

Popping Out

 'Alo 'alo!  Here we are again but another week later!  Wow, and I'm actually posting this according to my plan - each Sunday! OK, enough of that.  Here it is...

Page 11

There's a few things I like on this page, particularly how the plane in the 1st panel is crossing the panel border. For some reason this really appeals to me - perhaps because to me, it pops the images out of the constrictions of the comic book medium, and the drawings suddenly look more 3d. Also, the panels are not so regular in shape here, to help suggest things are really messed up.

I like how the action from the first panel to the second flows downward and for the right-most jet, to the right, and  the pilot ejecting away from the falling jet repeats the falling jet's arc. 

Ah, and the rocks! Drawn nicely in the 2nd panel, both the near ones that the jet crashes into and particularly the screen right ones... for some reason it makes me think of some Star Trek (original series) backgrounds and styrofoam boulders, but that's getting us off track which might "pop" us out of this story!

Twists & Turns

Good-day, Faithful Readers!

Thanksgiving be... oh, and to help us all be more thankful, here's the next instalment.

Page 10

For some reason, I found it tough to draw the planes on some angles.  The top left jet looks too wide, and the bottom right one doesn't quite show the turn as I'd hoped to describe it. 

Regarding the jets in the bottom panel, specifically the one on the bottom right, I did try to turn it more nose up, but that didn't work because I want to to appear to be cutting off the lower left jet, not that it was tilting up. I also tried overlapping the jets slightly, but that didn't work either because I needed that interaction to happen a bit later. Again, this sort of problem should be easily sorted if/when I make CG models of the jets and then can place them and turn them as I need... if I ever get there!

I'm not a a big fan of "chatty" comics because I find I read them too much and spend too little time looking at the drawings, which seems to me to defeat the purpose of an illustrated narrative (graphic novel / comic... take you pick of name!) In this case, I found the dialogue fun, not too much and helped show character of the pilots. I think I have been able to make each a distinct character even though we haven't seen their faces yet.