Notes - From Isabel Greenburgs's 'How to Make a Graphic Novel' Slideshow
Thought Bubble / Image Development Ideas
Tillie Walden
(Image 16).
Tillie Walden is an American cartoonist who has published five graphic novels and a webcomic. She won the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work for her graphic novel 'Spinning', which made her one of the youngest Eisner Award winners ever. (4.b).
The work she creates relies little on words, allowing the reader to focus in on the image and the story behind it. Her outcomes also uses minimal colour which helps to emphasise parts of the story. (If your picture is saying something, your words don’t need to).
(Image 17).
Outcomes - Continued
I decided to also try out Waldens use of perspective of a large room, although I don’t think I managed to execute it in the same way that she does. I also don’t like how the yellow around him looks as I accidentally added in orange and tried to make it look intentional by adding it all the way round but it did not come out the way I had hoped.
John McNaught
Image 14.
A landscape printmaker, John McNaught uses mark-making and colour-mixing of traditional lithographs and relief prints to create his square by square panels. (4.a). I decided to look into the work of McNaught as it reflects one of the tips that Isabel mentioned in her presentation, One Action Per Panel. I liked the idea of the story not being as rushed and show in a sort of minimalistic way the thoughts and feelings of Louis Le Prince as opposed to all at once.
Image 15.
Storyboard Development - Tillie Walden
The below Image is one of my favourite outcomes as it has limited colour which I think works with the image itself, it doesn’t distract you from the overall page.
I used minimal text much like Tillie Walden to allow the images to speak on their own and allow the reader to come to their own conclusion I drew out the first image and then went back in to add colour as I wanted to see if that made a different effect with the yellow, but I do think that the yellow should stay as an outline as it makes his eyes look strange.
I left the second panel blank with only the outer areas drawn as I wanted to have the same pose for each and I knew that I couldn’t replicate it the way I wanted by hand. I copied the image into the second layer of the outcome and edited the eyes to try and see if it would have a different impact to the overall image. I tried to make it look like his eyes were closed and then removed the eyes all together. I'm not entirely sure as to which outcome is better but I know that it is difficult to see the difference in his eyes being opened or shut, and so if I were to do this again I would make more definition in his eyelid.
(Above eyes shut).
(Above eyes removed).
Storyboard Development - John McNaught
I do not have access to any print making studios or materials at home, so I decided to use more of McNaughts layout as opposed to his style. I looked at movement and show simpler actions in my first set of outcomes.
I used a mix of other drawings I had made previously as I liked how the final product looked. I also used minimal text as I wanted the images to speak fro themselves but also have some of Louis inner dialogue to show what he is thinking. One thing I would change would be the use of colour as I do think it is too much but I am happy with how the composition came out.
Storyboard Development - Tillie Walden/John McNaught (Mix).
Again for these outcomes I used a mixture of previously used outcomes as there were some that worked better than others. The text from the outcome above was too small and thin to erase the background, and so I used the outcome of Louis and his wife Elizabeth in an embrace for the first panel. I like to envision Elizabeth as this supportive figure in his life that would be there in his moments of frustration and doubt, which is why I wanted to have the comic panel reflecting that.
I matched the yellow from Louis outline to the background colour as I wanted it to tie together as one panel. I did experiment with having a white background which I think is also effective and it has the highlights of yellow instead of all over.
One way that I think this could be improved is to swap the panels to make the story