In Design - Editing

In Design

• I have added all the pages of my comic to Indesign in order to see if the layout remains effective when the pages are put against each other as well as to prepare the document for printing.
• I am currently disputing wether to have an inner page or to have the comic just get straight into the action without one.
• At the moment the comic works well and I plan to create a separate indesign document to explore the comic without the inner page to offer another option.

Document 1:

Document 2:

• I think that I prefer the version of the comic without the inner liners of the book. Maybe because the inner liners were so plain?
• For now this is my preferred outcome but it might be worth adding illustrations to the inner pages and seining if that works.

 

Final Pages

 

Comic development

 Page 1:

• I began my comic by using reference images of Whales and drawing them in the same style that I would draw the Greek Urn in. So red lines of the drawing for a red background.
• I started off by trying to contain the red and make the page more of a splash page
• However I didn't think this emulated the metaphor so decided to try and make it look like the ocean/wine had spilled out of the boxes and the Whales with it.

Page 2:

• For this page I started off with my planned layout but found that it didn't work and made the comic page too boxy.
• Instead I opted for a more streamline look that made the hand look like it was actually reaching up. 
• I also found that I had veered from the style of spider I had planned to do so had to make sure the page remained consistent with the ret of the comic.

Page 3:

• For when the spiders were sleeping I wanted to Include the webs because that is the iconic motif of a spider. However, I found that a typical web wasn't really suiting the style I was leaning towards as it meant there was too much happening. It also meant that it was hard to focus on the spiders as the white web was drawing too much attention.
• As a result I tried a darker orange/brown for the web but that made it blend too much into the background. I decided as a result to opt for a more minimal web design and separate he page into more comic looking sections.
• My favourite design decision was the vertical box for the hanging spiders which really exaggerates the fact they are hanging downwards. This really adds direction to the comic and I am very pleased with it.

Page 4:

• This was the most difficult page to complete as I wasn't sure how I would reflect the simile of the spiders acting like 'huge dogs consuming their food'.
• I decided to focus on what the spiders would look like eating their food initially and then look at reference images of wolves eating as I thought that kind of imagery might portray the simile better.
• I experimented allot with the style of boxes I wanted and thought I had come to a final solution with a diagonal box. However, I felt like it made the spiders look too big in comparison to the wolves. As a result, I experimented a bit and found that a more traditional style aesthetic suited this scene best. It almost acts as a side by side for the event in the plot and the simile.
• I also decided to go for more of a black theme for this page which makes it look more put together and also adds an element of aggression to the dogs.

Page 5:

• In this page it was essential that I portray the window that the spiders are looking through. I found a solution to this by looking at a particular comic made by Jesse Longergan which features comic book squares that are made up of multiple small boxes.

• As you can see Longergan's style has influenced much of the beginning of this page strongly as I felt like it could reflect the comic style I wanted to reflect strongly.
• My favourite design choice was adding the web on the window so that it made sense that the spiders were sat there but also having the web expand into the box with the fist to give the illusion of sun light rays. This adds a nod to the metaphor of 'dawn punching the sky in the nose'.
• Again I opted for a long portrait box to highlight the direction of the fist reaching upwards. This kind of design choice has brought my project on greatly as I have begun to think about how to give my comic direction and focus. 

Page 6:

Page 7:

Front cover design:

• The process of making this was trial and error with fonts and experimenting with placement and colour.
• For the illustration I wanted to directly portray 'Spiders VS. Roaches' and thought back to my splash page I had designed which I was really fond of so I decided to experiment with that as a front cover design.
• I didn't want to directly replicate my splash page so I experimented with placement and size and landed on duplicating the image and laying them on top of one another flipped and I really like the outcome.

Research

Character development

Reference Images

It is important for me to look at reference images because I want to draw a consistent breed of spider and don't want the comic to vary hugely. Below are a few key images I found that show the kind of spider I want to draw. I think they are very identifiable and also aesthetic. Due to the fact that the spiders are the heroes of the story I wanted to make sure the spiders I drew were more acceptable and friendly looking.

Taking my reference images and planning how my spiders can look. I really liked a piece of art work I had done previously of a bee and thought that it would be really nice to incorporate that style into the spiders. I think this style would help the spiders look allot more friendly and would set them up to be the protagonists. I also looked at some more reference images to help confirm some design decisions such as the striped legs.

 This is a spread showing a 360 view of one of the spiders hanging which I thought would help me remain consistent within my design decisions throughout the project as I can refer to this. I also wanted to check that these designs would work on the orange background I planned to use so I added a sample orange section and I think they work really effectively together.

As a keen animator I couldn't help animating a 360 view of my spider hanging/spinning on a web. 

Cockroach reference images 

Similarly to the spider I continued to use reference images alongside drawing my final cockroaches which was really important because I didn't realise how intricate a cockroaches wings were. I also experimented with colour combinations one staying true to the colouring of my sample image and one which was inverted to keep with the Greek Urn aesthetic. I think for this project the Greek urn style works much better and an orange cockroach would blend in with the background too much.

More clean cockroach outcomes with the Greek urn style that I really like. I drew the cockroaches in multiples rather than individual images because I thought it would reflect more of an uncomfortable atmosphere which is what I aim to create with the cockroaches.