Flat Perpective, Stable Content

Dang, last week totally got away from me.  Sorry for not posting, the puppy ate my time. But, here you go!

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I like comic book pages that have nice clean establishing shots, sort of like the top panel here.  It creates a distinct division from the previous page and also establishes time. Not a bad 1st panel. I can even imagine the final colours - that bright winter blue sky reflected in the windows, super white snow, browns, grey stick-trees, again, best not really considered till... no... when... no... if, IF I get the story roughed out. 

I did the 2nd panel on the fly - I hadn't thought ahead about names of companies who do pilot training, nor did I think about what their brochures might look like or even what sorts of planes should be on the front, I just whipped it off.  Looks ok. Might change it later.

Ah, and that bottom word bubble that goes between the 2nd and 3rd panels, great for suggesting off screen dialogue, then picking up who is saying it.

Now that I look at it and consider other pages, it is funny that at times I do dynamic panels with interesting perspective, and sometimes the perspective is so flat it is almost orthographic, like in the bottom panel. Don't ask me why, I'm just a crazy guy. But technically, I guess the really flat perspective makes the images look calmer, more solid, which works for the content.

Truth on Truth

 Ok, ok, I'm sorry!  Yes, one day late! I know, I know, I kinda promised. But enough already... here it is!

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This was a challenging page - maybe you can tell what with the smudginess of it due to erasing and redrawing. I think one major reason why it was tough was because while I've seen lots of American movies that show military funerals and grave yards, I don't really know what a Canadian (RCAF) funeral would look like. I fretted for a while, then thought, oh, just go for it and draw what you know there would be - flags at half mast, family members in folding chairs, graveyard. Check, check, check.

I like the spareness of the 1st and 3rd panels. Again, adding a bit of space and ambience where the reader can interpret and feel it out. I like the moodiness of the 3rd panel.

And I really like dialogue said by the Commander (Captain?  I dunno, I'll figure that out later).  She'd like to say the truth to the families, but no way would she be allowed to, but she does to her superior in the bottom panel, but more than that, she reveals more truth. I know I'm going to have to massage a lot of text when (I meant IF... Don't hold me to it, IG!!!) I go back and clean this up for publication by Drawn and Quarterly or, ooh, maybe some chic french comic book magazine! I bet they pay arachides but the fame, the adoration, the reputation the contributors receive is far... far ... oh no, head swelling... getting off track!.  

Being There

 Hello Reader(s)!

One day late here, but I hope you don't mind.  Lucky for you (Patient Ghsot), I have a page I particularly like.

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I like this page because I think I captured how it feels to be in the places shown in the first and third panels. I think the perspective worked really well in those as well as the light and shadow. I like how it feels bright and hot in the top panel, then bright but also shadowy in the last panel.

The perspective in the first panel was a bit of a challenge because I wanted to show the people in a reasonable (not too high, not too low) perspective, but then the airplane is HUGE, so it needed a low angle.  I think I got it working.

And I knew I wanted / needed to draw that last panel just as shown. It's one of those "pause" moments.  Nothing to read except the image, to put yourself in there, to imagine what the person is feeling.

And now I wonder if comics / graphic novels help people to become more empathetic, because ones that aren't too wordy, good ones, like shown here (snarf!!) force the reader to interpret, to be there with the characters, to understand another creature.  Eh wot?!  Good Masters's thesis topic?

Nothing Lost

 Hello Reader(s)

Here we are again, another week older, and with luck a bit wiser. OOOH, and more importantly, here is Flight of Fancy's latest page.

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Well, finally a close up of our protagonist!

You probably know this already, Mr. Ghost, but I have difficulty coming up with designs for female characters.  I think it has something to do with the hair - how the heck do women style it?  What looks good, what doesn't?

I (deftly) worked around this conundrum by having our hero with really short, Mia Farrow Rosemary's Baby short short hair. I think it works... A) because I think I can draw this person page after page, but also because B) she's a pilot in the military - fashion takes a back seat to skill, discipline and all that. Problem solved!

I really like the drawing in the first panel - the outside of the field hospital. Instantly recognizable for what it is, but also interesting. Buuuut... that's just part of the story. 

This was the first hospital I drew, and while it looks really good, I got thinking that I wanted our hero still in the place where the crash took place, which is probably some base overseas where there aren't fancy hospitals like this one. And here we have another reason / example of why it is great drawing in a crappy lined paper exercise book... who cares if the image is wrong or doesn't work.  Erase it down or turn the page and get at it. No damage done! Nothing really lost!

Point of View

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

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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.