Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Graphic Novel Research.

When we we're given our brief for this project, it was mentioned that we should make our interactive narratives have little to no dialogue.

A long with looking at graphic novels and comics for some insight on panelling and narrative flow, I looked at a graphic novel which had no text. Pandala, written and drawn by Bertrand Hottin. What I noticed when reading Pandala (compared to graphic novels with dialogue) was that I was taking more time to appreciate the art and understand that story world - as there was no text, I had to make that extra effort to work out what was going on. For the most part, I enjoyed this experience however there were times when I was completely at a lost as to what was going on. Running into blocks like that slowed down the narration and ruined the experience.

Pages 9 and 31 from Pandala Vol 2.

Another thing I came to notice was that there were a lot of middle to full body shots within books, and close-ups/head shots used. I assume this is because the need for body language when verbal dialect doesnt exist.

I looked over a number of styles of comics to try and discern the ways artists have shown and emphasised expressions and situations. I was also looking for inspiration as to what art style to try and use for my project as I wanted to challenge myself with this project again.

One of the comics I'm looking at is Brodie's Law. The artwork is by David Bircham and I've admired his style for a few years now. The style he used in Brodie's Law isn't completely realistic but there is enough detail to give it a feel other than just a cartoon drawing. Also, as I'm still not confident with painting/drawing in colour, I found the way David bought colour into the pages helpful for my own work.

Pages 6 & 7 from Brodies Law Vol 1

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