Leonieblog

One of the first issues to address when making a graphic novel is the narrative. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. I'm going to talk about the second issue to address, which is the visual style.
Normally, I'll do a story and I know how it needs to look. This time though, I need more reasoning than "Because I wanted to" or "I thought it would look good" or the wonderful "that's just how it came out." A tutor gave me a great idea. He said to do a few different samples of styles and then ask a few artists their opinion. Simple!
So, I'm looking at some of my old comics to find a page that is as close as possible, narratively, to what I want to do. Then I will redraw it in a few different ways. This means that it is not a static illustration and that I am gaining feedback on how the visuals relate to the story too. I've started to develop some questions to ask, next I will have to decide on my panel. I think I will add in some people who aren't artists, but who have an interest in the field, such as writers and critics. I think I might also include some artists from other fields.
I wasn't looking forward to doing lots of samples and having to justify my choices, but now it's turned into a fun and (hopefully) useful experiment. I may post them all up for everyone to look at and comment on.
Moving into the new building today at 4 o'clock, apparently it's not quite finished. I just hope I have some kind of locker because I'm sick of carrying in all my stuff each day. And I'm lazy.
Andy Richmond and Shane Chebsy are doing a 24 day comic, which I'm guessing isn't intended to work like a 24 hr comic because that's a long time to go without sleep. Anyway, there is a call for entries on Bugpowder at the moment, the comic is intended for release at Halloween so there is a horror theme. Andy R. did mention it the other day, I think I agreed to do a single strip, but I'm a bit pushed for time. Also, there is no guarantee that strips will get into the anthology as I'm sure they have had a lot of interest. If I do get a chance to contribute it will be a real challenge to do a good horror tale in one page!