compo1 week 6: long sleep, add some terrorism, art and stir!

Happy new year to all first of all!

the vilppuacademy was on holiday (very rare) for three weeks,what did I do during that time? My assignment (see below) and I…… slept! I was more exhausted than I thought.

I came back to Paris  in time to learn my favourite cartoonists (since childhood, they were now 70 or 80) had been killed one by one at Charlie Hebdo, and then that the supermarket ten minutes from my place was under siege with all of its clients hostage…. I’m still in shock and in a very bad mood like the whole of France.

Back to art!

These drawings and the critics of them and online chat with Glenn date back to a few days before all this horror happen so I was in a rather light lazy mood.

Do you remember that comic I id last time and that looked like it was about a man touching a pie or plate and getting electrocuted?

My red button (not a pie!) was totally unreadable, I redid it and here is the result:

 

Glenn was very happy with the change, this is clear, simple gag drawing with a **clear** readable button and pannel above it.

The only thing he said I could work on is the dead body at the end that looks a bit disjointed.

I did not feel like working on dead bodies even cartoony one this week so I think this is the end of this comic page.

The other comic page I had problems with was about christmas, soldiers, coming home etc. The big problem was that one of the 4 images depicting four key moments of the story was far more realistic than the other (the middle one, did not touch it). It had heavy shadows and I thought: oh I’m going to go heavy blacks….. here it is, sorry:

 

 

Glenn did put it in one word:scratchboard. I’d put it in another word: inverted black and white!

The last but one image (with the boat) is unreadable at the level of the characters (the soldier is coming back, his wife is pregnant, his son is holding hands with another man, ok he got a “dear John” letter but that does not read at all!)

Plus the white of the edges of say the table are not realistic if they are supposed to be made by light reflection.

Now here is where having a weekly two hours live chat with Glenn comes in so useful: I asked him to show me (us! we were 16 students) how he would draw with heavy black, thing Corto Maltese, Sin City, even Hell Boy.

Glenn did a three quarters of an hour drawing in that style for us (me lol) explaining each and every decision he took, what other choices he could

do, his drawing was amazing! and we asked questions while he drew. This is really like being in the classroom The rest of the chat was spent on other people’s questions. A fantastic chat, not to say they are not always great. I have watched it several time again (it(s recorded and on the site for the students) and I feel I have gotten something, now, can I do it, we’ll see!

Last but not least the topic of the week was (in my words) “crowd but on couple stand out due to composition”.

And before you say anything : yes, I notice I have a lot of dead people in my comics, I have wondered why, I think it’s because for a one page comic it make a clear final ending – either that or I’m going soon to stab people in their showers…. no, no, then I would have to clear up the mess… I prefer digital murder LOL (insert Vincent Price like laughter)

Here is my couple in the crowd submission:

 

 

Mais oui: it is ze french oulala ball ! hey, let’s make the most of the stereotypes about my country! (accordion is NOT a french instrument, ask any Russian or Ukranian and you’ll see!)

I think Glenn rather liked it, but clearly he found it too long. One thing that does not come out, and that is very clear is that I wanted the murderer holding the dead girl to look like an echo of the dancers holding each other, that was the main idea of my page – failure. What works is the compo leads you to the couple (why do I think Simone Signoret and Jean Gabin in the 30s? they did a movie a bit like this, with blood at the end and a lot of dancing)

I clearly have to work more clearly – the fact I “‘read” a picture doesnt mean other people will “read” it too. I spent some time redoing the “danger do not press this button” pannel and it worked. I should have spend more time making my holding the dead girl/holding your sweetie while you dance much clearer.

I’m going to work on that.

See you in a few days, as school is back to normal!

Peace to you all and your loved ones, where ever you are in the world (or on the ISS around it)