slob on my knob

Hello, friends!

Hiya! I pop on iS every now and then, but I don’t use it for sketching anymore.. the new HTML shift kinda changed the feel of its response, and I’m just more comfortable working in Photoshop. Glad you like the replays though, it’s a great feature for sure.

There are multiple things that contribute to storytelling in an illustration/comic: Frame composition, shapes within the frame, camera lens, camera position, lighting, colour, props/background. And then there’s the characters themselves with body language, gesture and expression(acting). Alot of this study is closely tied to cinema!

Pushing for emotional impact often rely on camera placement and framing/shot size to ‘put you in the moment’ or ‘in someone’s shoes’. Colour and value(and every other element/principle of art) helps direct your eye and can enhance the emotions even more.

Book recommendations!!!!!  

Framed Ink : Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers, Marcos Mateu-Mestre

The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media, Bruce Block

Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know, Jennifer Van Sijill

What I like to first do when working on a scene is to decide what part of the story/moment appeals to me the most, then work toward selling that scene. It’s a highly subjective process and everyone has their personal way of composing from the same idea, the challenge comes in leaving a strongest impression.

The Blitz/Ori comic was really bare- simple render/lighting, no backgrounds, alot of close-ups. But its simplicity helped immerse you in the scene more, since the characters and their emotion(or lack of) are the focus of the story. (but this doesn’t work all the time, context is very important). The frames lead the viewer’s eye, and you have to be conscious of what visual information you’re putting in(or leaving out).

I left the general palette muted and dull to synergize with the mood, and let the colour blue be the contrast colour of the light(life). I’m not always aware of what I’m doing, but the more you understand what you need, the more you can design your work to be successful.

I can’t tell you how to UMPH a piece of art in the best way- there are only multiple variations with different focuses. Build your own visual library of artwork like illustrations or screenshots from film/comics that you find interesting. Learn the conventions that artists use by breaking down an image to its elements. You’ll start seeing patterns everywhere. And if that’s difficult, just look around online for blogs/tutorials/studies where smart people explain the thing for you.

This episode convinced me, personally, that peridot loves lapis so much. Through the whole episode she pretty much spells it out; -“ lapis hates it when i call it the gem cave so i don’t” *grabs hair in despair when lapis ran off, - runs after her screaming* LAAAPIS!! - “hey, nobody said theres a rush” - when lapis is sad because she is adjusting to earth slower than navy - overall looking at Lapis throughout the whole episode with so much love and concern in her eyes i can’t