Environmental concept art for the graphic novel.

Week 1: here is an intital concept I sketched for the final end point of the book. This was my first time drawing in 2 point perspective. To start out I plotted all the points and began to sketch out the buildings and the hill. I took into consideration my use of line weight and use of proportion in my figures also the use of detail on certain shapes to convey depth in this drawing. I then inked over the lines. To develop this further if I find the time, I wish to produce 3 colour variants of this piece, all 3 showing different times of the day and I can just change the colour palet for each. Through producing this it has really helped my skills in producing backgrounds for my characters to take place in as well as learning how to draw in a 2 point perspective. This has widened my understanding of drawing backgrounds and will be a useful tool to illustrate the world this story takes place in.

Page 1 of my graphic novel (inked)

Week 5: this page the mentor goes into the carnival but his intentions are unclear. This is the first point where the viewer can start to wonder what these intentions are. To create this page I first lightly sketched in each panel and prodominant shapes, I then proceeded to add the shadows and details which I then inked over using brush tip pens. With this page I need to improve my facial drawing skills because right now they look a little bland and I want most of my characters to truly express themselves  in my illustrations so the audience can relate more. I've learned through the production of this page what aspects I need to improve on.

graphic novel finished front cover

Week 6: for my final piece I wanted to illustrate the front cover of this graphic novel and this is going to be the main selling point for the book. I wanted to combine the most useful techniques I've learned to develop my art style from the artists I've studied. With drawing this I used David finch's use of shadow to convey depth in the shadows in my figures as well as making them more sophisticated by edging lines in my shadows to still convey the shapes in characters. I came up with the design for this by looking at the Star Wars film covers as my inspiration. Normally the main villain will have a portrait shot that will take up most of the page while the other key characters are left a little smaller which creates the impression that both characters have to over come the much larger character. With producing this piece I've learned how to create very visually interesting front covers that have a good balance of simple yet chaotic aspects to them. For this piece I lightly sketched it out in pencil, inked over the details and then finished with digitally painting the product to give it a visually powerful finish.

Page 4 of my graphic novel

Week 5: in this page the brother first gets introduced into the book. for a side note in the first panel of this page both characters are still in the same room as the third page so I had to use a wider colour palet for this page.now this works really well with the introduction of the brother because his colour scheme clashes with the colour of the first panel. This makes him stand out more which creates a powerful first impression. In this page both characters talk and then set out into the street. This is the first time the reader gets to view the city that story takes place in. Later in the book the environment changes and progressively becomes a much darker and gritty place which builds up to a really dark key stage in the story. This page at the moment is very bright but kind of dull which works really well because the view gets to see through the main protagonists eyes. As it gets darker so does the character so this I've a very good use of composition in the book and it's working really well. Through the production of this I have now developed a deeper understanding of composition and how I can use it to influence the reader.

Page 3 of my graphic novel

Week 5: for this page it goes into the next scene where it jumps straight to the main protagonist where he gets woke up by his brother and pics up the tickets to the carnival where he eventually meets the mentor. The first panel for this page is blank because this is to show where he's asleep but gets called by his brother. I follows my process using pencil, ink and dicital painting to colour it. This time I experimented more with my use of cross hatching to create grey tones. I really like the use my colour palet choice for this page because the colour that this character is associated with is blue. for each character I have chosen a specific colour that each character associates with which is a really great tool to use, the way I will use this is by choosing the characters specific colour and making it the most dominant colour in the pages where the characters have their own specific crucial part in the story. This can be used to help make the reader relate to each character more by shifting the focus onto them. I during the production of this page I learned how I can use colour to make the viewer identify with each of my main characters throughout the book.

Page 2 of my graphic novel

Week 5: this page the mentor goes into the carnival owners tent to bribe his way into the carnival to get his own tent. For this I followed my usual process of penciling, inking and colouring. I wanted to not put as much detail in each drawing but rather to get the point across and each panel flows really well with the narrative. I took into consideration where the most darker shadows would come from. In this case because there are hanging lights across the higher walls of the tent I chose to have the shadowless come from the bottom. In each page I try to have atleast one thing that stands out from each other page wether it's layout, complex drawings etc. For this page I chose to draw one panel from an angle. This helps keep the viewer interested because the panels are now more visually stimulating. To colour this I chose a colour palet which I use for my composition. For each scene or new environment I'll change the colour pallet so the reader can break down the story easily which creates a longer lasting impression. The thing I learned from this is how to integrate certain photo textures in my work to create an interesting blend which gives my art style a simplistic but realistic look. I also learned how to make my comic pages more interesting by creating atleast one panel that stands out from the rest.