Graphic Fiction - Exercise 1.1: Drawing from History

For this exercise, I was tasked with choosing one of the artists that I had researched in the History of Comics task. I am approaching this task during that wonderful, tranquil time of year between Christmas and New Year. It’s a perfect time where you can feel comfortable with the lack of busy-ness. We’ve tried to make the most of any good weather by going for a walk.

Based on what I had learned in Illustration Sketchbooks I used the opportunity to take photos along the way to see if any of them piqued my interest. It was a quiet walk on a local common, so trying to get a photo filled with people (especially during lockdown!) was not likely! However, I did notice a lone fisher by the side of the pond. By the time I got around to his position, he wasn’t there for some reason! But I did manage to get a photo of his fishing setup, which I found really interesting:

Back in my studio, I started by gathering my thoughts in my sketchbook—I couldn’t decide which artist to choose! I find that when I am at the start of a project I can feel a little overwhelmed and getting thoughts out of my head onto paper really helps to organise and see a way forward.

I used my sketchbook to try and simplify the photo into its main elements and identify the planes so that I could tackle the foreground and background in a way in keeping with the artist's style. Out of the five options, there were two that I was sure that I didn't want to tackle - Hergé has been a huge inspiration for me since I was a child, and when I created a comic for a client of mine a few years ago, I used the ligne claire style to create a simple and clean-looking style.

The second artist I didn't want to tackle was Schulz. The exercise called for working at A3, and I didn't think that translating the comic-strip aesthetics to that size would work easily - especially in scaling up the line weight. For the remaining three artists I wasn't sure how to approach their style for this photo, so I again used my sketchbook, this time to try out thumbnails and use notes to reflect.

Looking at the three options, all were appealing in their own way. In the end, I decided to tackle Jack Kirby's style as it was the one which perhaps I felt most uncomfortable with, especially translating it up to A3 size. I decided as Kirby was known for his exaggerated and dynamic poses, that I should insert a character into the composition. Using reference and drawing on what I have learned so far with figure drawing, I chose a dynamic fishing pose I thought would be worthy of Kirby.

I worked on an A3 piece of Bristol board and decided to sketch my pencils with a blue lead so that I could erase them digitally later. As you might have noticed from the notes above, I thought it best to colour it digitally, as I would be able to replicate the 1960s newsprint that way.

I then inked on top of the pencils with black ink and a number 2 brush. Scanning the inks into my PC, I then digitally removed the blue pencil lines and tweaked the whites and blacks to create as clean a set of inks as possible. To balance the composition, I added in some grass in the near foreground, I also placed the figure in a logical place, but also in a way that hopefully the eye would be drawn to him.

For colours, I used a similar approach to my work in Assignment 5 of Illustration Sketchbooks to recreate the layered CMYK printing techniques used in comics at that time. I also used a scan of old newsprint paper to add texture and a touch of vintage ageing to the piece. Here is the final result:

I think that the lake and background could have been more successful, I don't think I judged the simplified level of detail very well, and the angles and perspectives of the lake are slightly (but meaningfully) off. What I really enjoyed, but was apparent that I could use a lot more practice in, was inking with a brush. I think some effort in experimenting in that area and practising how to make different marks could be really useful.

I think, while not perfect I got close in some areas to representing Kirby's style and choices. At this large size, I felt that adding in speed lines would not have worked well, but looking at it now, I am wondering if I could have done more with the fishing rod and line to add more dynamism?

All in all, this was an enjoyable and useful first practical exercise. I reminded myself in retrospect that usually the first exercises of a unit are meant to be easy and simple, and maybe I may have gone a little overboard. But I also counter that notion with the fact that I now have 2 units under my belt, and I can afford to treat early exercises with the same rigour and effort as I would those in sections four and five. Pushing myself this way will help me out of my comfort zone and push my work and skills further.