Graphic Novels; Creative recycling.

Two small air conditioning units on the side of a building

They are now a research facility roof for a graphic novel character to walk upon.

Is this any different from sitting in a cafe with a notebook and pen and listening to conversations in order that one is inspired to write stories. I personally think it is pretty much the same thing happening. It is about opening oneself up to what surrounds us and then taking that and making something else out of it. It is creative recycling I suppose. Someone designed these ventilator discs and they are beautiful, but they do not necessarily have to be seen by us as just ventilator discs. I saw them as interesting shapes and something that I might like to work with in the computer. They have become shafts that are high up on a roof for my character to now have to try and descend. The visual aids the story idea. In this case I have just put together a brief example to show how a stroll around a given area can throw up alternatives to the things that we naturally see when we are out and about. We don’t have to see the use immediately, sometimes we do, and sometimes it emerges on the desktop and of course we also throw lots of things away too.

I could of course sketch them and I have a new ability on the Ipad2 to do this. The wireless feature is only available with the latest version of Photoshop (5.5). This will prove incredibly useful as we are now able to easily carry very mobile lightweight authoring devices for our words, images and sketches wherever we go. The outside environment can be a creative space for doing, or it can also be a quick means of getting our ideas down and then bringing them back to the desktop environment for new story development and idea generation. This process is forcing me to write, draw, paint, and take photographs so regardless of the eventual outcome I think that is a pretty good creative workout. The work done here will pay off somewhere else if it doesn’t deliver a conclusion in terms of a graphic novel. I am creating a lot more and when I do that I feel happier so as an overall exercise I am pleased with where it is taking me.

I think with my interest in science fiction shows, as these images are all tending to refer to that genre. I do find the images useful also for stories that I write that have no graphical elements. They help me to visualise environments and situations a little better. They also provide an ideal method of producing believable descriptions for readers as I have the elements I need in front of me and I can see the smallest of details. I would refer to them rather than religiously copy from them as I want them for locking down detail. I don’t want them to prevent the imagination flow hence I am careful to just use them as reference.

I am finding the idea of making a graphic novel much more fascinating than I first thought I might. I have always read them but never analysed too closely why I enjoyed them. When one gets into the mindset of trying to tell a story in that way, a whole world of different art forms merge and I realise the discipline and hard work that must go into making a coherent cohesive (not necessarily linear narrative) story.   It is a great learning experience for all forms of creative endeavour’ form novel writing to film making. I am fortunate in that I have always read a lot and have a wide knowledge of cinema, so I am able to perhaps see Fassbinder in a street corner or feel Robert Bresson in the simple act of a opening a door onto a street. I have seen and felt what these artists have done with tiny elements and how they have created worlds with their unique vision. They simply make you more aware of the things that go unnoticed and for that these directors are an enormous help in thinking visually.  In terms of drama I love Tennessee Williams as an author he created brilliant memorable characters and lovely vignettes of place with small precise details much as Hemingway did.  Theatre in Greek originally meant ‘seeing place’ so it is very interesting to see how Tennessee Williams wrote very visually, some playwrights don’t manage to understand that point at all.

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Graphic Novel; Fitting your influences into the medium.

 

Painting to let shadow form the tree structure

The wood had suddenly fallen into private hands!

Drama is not so easy. Despite having the best intentions to deliver a dramatic sense of foreboding with this moonlit tree, I don’t seem to be able to deliver the idea. I have two images with slightly different emphasis on shadow, but I think ultimately neither work. This is disappointing but a good lesson to learn also. When coming to a scene one is full of many thoughts and ideas and one has a vision of how these ideas might possibly develop into a story. In this case I was feeling;  moonlit perimeter of a wooded area, that almost overnight, had signs placed upon trees to indicate the area was now in private hands and people should keep out. This would lead to a story asking why and who these owners might be. What would anyone want with an overgrown old wood that had been desolate for years. It couldn’t be built upon and it had no obvious value. The tree was supposed to be a symbol of decay but despite going for a dramatic low angle to make it loom out into the foreground as a bigger obstacle, I just haven’t succeeded in creating the menace and sense of questioning fear that I want my character to feel and thus the reader to feel.

It is one thing to develop some visual techniques that may deliver a graphic novel sensibility but it is quiet another to create the drama and tension one seeks to portray via the images. As this is the first shot and it stands in isolation it may be more difficult to deliver as it floats in a sea of non context currently. Would it be more powerful as part of a mid edit along with perhaps a setting shot of the entire wood first? I am thinking about this all the time when I sit down to write, where do I begin the edit. Do I start with a tight close up, almost a cut into a characters eyeball and then pull back and deliver the wider scene or do I need to set the scene first and the zoom into the specifics. There are thousands of ways to tell a story but it seems that expectations of what the graphic novel is for me and its close allegiance with a cinematic feel, makes certain rules hard to break.

I am a fan of Samuel Beckett, indeed I think he has come the closest to explaining the human condition along with Francis Bacon (painter)  . I have read everything he has written and thus I am familiar with his uniquely non narrative style. I have become used to being tossed into somewhere and following instinctively the way he wants to lead me into his world. I cannot come to his stories with known paths. I must allow myself to go with the feel of his words.  This has always appealed to me as I feel literature is one of the only arts that has few great exponents of  what one might call abstract style. Readers tend to need an overarching narrative, which isn’t necessary in other art forms. Finnegan’s Wake by Joyce is a fine examples of the difficulty of non narrative works in literature. People simply would not tackle such a book unless they were involved in some form of literary scholarship. I have read it and I have also listened closely to John Cage’s musical interpretation (sound works well in the abstract) and I love them, but they are hard work. My influences in cinema are also non narrative and primarily European. I am currently watching Jane Arden’s films (one of Britain’s finest experimental women film makers who sadly took her own life at 52) and her work also shows how she has used her chosen medium to speak in her own unique way.

So still images for graphic novels present their own real set of problems in telling stories, this is especially true if you are personally interested in non narrative art forms.  I am not sure if I am hitting the wall of my own censorship. I see other graphic novels that inspire me but at the same time they also intimidate me and they act on my subconscious so that I am filtering my own ideas through these high expectations. I have said in a previous post this is very damaging as it is the barrier that can prevent one from doing. It makes it hard to develop story telling and a graphic style of your own when one sees graphic novels whose style and sense you love. I come from a love of abstract art literature and music as I said and it is difficult to lose these influences that make me as a person and at then try to tell a story in another medium with a coherent narrative structure. I have an awful lot to learn. I still believe in doing things swiftly and trying and moving forward rather than giving in and simply replicating what I see.

I am at heart a photographer these are experiments in something other than complex studio lighting and working with models and so forth. I want to explore the graphic novel medium and also encourage others to come to it as a way of telling stories and not necessarily be frightened of doing it differently or inventing their own methods of creating.  One also has to be aware that to translate one’s love of things like Bergman and Beckett into a graphic novel sensibility may of course lead ultimately to disappointment but surely trying is better than not.  I devote about 40 minutes a day to the image and blog posts and so I feel this aids my writing too as I get used to putting together about 1000 words quickly and I get into the discipline of writing about 12,000 words a week here and elsewhere and I am now starting to find that much easier and equally losing my fear of the blank page.

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