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. Finding a voice of your own.

Using image and text to try and create a feeling in the viewer

I wanted to answer my own question in my last post and create an image that fits with where I feel I may want to take the graphic novel idea. These ideas as I said previously tend for me to come from a surrealist or abstract form of expression. I thought rather than just write about it I would quickly put together an image and text to see if I could represent that. I started with the premise of who am I and I then tried to think of how I could express that visually in a way that would make sense for me and perhaps convey that sense of identity crisis in the viewer. I was seeking to show my character in a form of crisis. I didn’t want to go for the traditional scream or comic book style range of expressions. I would use these, but in this case I wanted to see if one could create something that didn’t fit that mould, yet perhaps might still convey something through the dislocation of the imagery and also through the placement and simplicity of the text.

These are very early days, so I am obviously not going to be nailing too much right now. I think though I have created a sort of image that may define something that interests me more than purely reproducing what I like from others work. I am very interested in the films of Kenneth Anger and the way he builds an overall sense of something although the narrative is often hidden and obtuse. The films come together as we piece the individual elements and in doing so we get closer to the core feelings he is trying to express.

I am not skilled in doing this personally but I am aware subconsciously of these methods used by writers and film makers. This is what attracts me to their work and hence what inspires me when I sit down to create something. There is a big gap between Rothko and Millais in terms of methods of expression, one is pure abstraction the other is pure representation. They both deal with themes of love and loss but in wholly different ways. There is room for all of these ways of expressing feelings in  all mediums the important question for anyone creating art is where exactly do they feel comfortable and how do they want to tell their stories. This is a journey of discovery and I think one where a blog of one’s thoughts along the route is very helpful. I wrote down in an earlier post about influence and unique voice, then this encouraged me to answer that question in my next post. It focussed my mind on an area I was finding difficult and a small door opened and I felt slightly more positive creating the image above than I have creating previous ones that were based upon my feel for what a comic or graphic novel should look like or say.

I am not saying that I won’t continue to experiment with image creation and word integration in order to convey mood and feeling to tell a characters story. I am simply trying to highlight that it may be possible to come at the graphic novel in a way I didn’t think possible earlier this morning. For me the graphic novel idea would have to be something that was deliverable quickly. I like the phrase scale of fail which is used in IT a lot. The beauty of cloud based platforms now and open source CMS is that we have a way of doing this, so we try things until they work or until we  find the thing you want to say and how to say it. The idea of spending a long time doing this, fails to fit with my psyche. I am not only looking at creating ways of expressing my own unique voice and ideas but also importantly ways to do it quickly.

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Graphic Novels, the environments on your doorstep.

Toxic waste drums found at the old facility.

I was particularly interested in how my approach to working with images would cope with the wide variety of textures in a situation like this. I took a wide variety of images today all around abandoned farm buildings and again did this on my way to doing something else, so it was very quick,  free and unstructured. The area had texture which is what I was looking for. I wasn’t looking for more than this currently. I wanted to understand in this image if I could handle the colour subtleties of the leaves in the centre of the picture whilst also maintaining good texture in the oil drum. Wood and metal together with rope and weeds all combine in a very texturally busy image to make the process I work with much more difficult to lay across a single image. I am personally pleased that it has a graphical feel whilst also keeping the air of hyper reality I want and like. Each image created constantly surprises in the way it eventually unfolds and the way it actually ends up.

At the moment I am working on single images and getting used to the process. I then want to start placing several in perhaps a rudimentary grid form layout to begin the elements of story. I am very interested in creating drama through the images and in utilising strong angles and close ups and wide shots as in cinema. The visual style is the next point of focus for me. I want to look at how tension and drama may be built through not just layout but also through the flow of edited images and how the cut sequences run parallel to the story being told.

In the beginning it is about looking at the way I can take ordinary ever day  surroundings and turn those into a visual backdrop for story development. The sense now is to get used to the process of creating single images I think work in a graphic novel style. The style may be unique to me but I feel it goes beyond the photograph and drawing into graphical art in a way that represents the story I want to tell. These stories I hope will emerge as I get to develop a constant process and fully capture the same feel through sets of images. It is a strange but disciplined experience and interesting for me to explore what is possible using limited equipment. I am testing process adaptability at the moment so learning as I go along.

The key thing is to keep doing if only to see what emerges. It would be nice to get a fast and productive method from this approach but perhaps something entirely different will evolve over the course of the blog posts. I want to produce a graphic novel because for me it merges many artistic modes of expression into one place. I may not be able to achieve what I set out to do, but I would like to think I will learn a lot about my photography, drawing and writing as a result.

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Graphic Novels & developing a story.

Setting a consistent colour palette and feel.

I have used in this image what I would think is a more traditional palette of colours in a graphic novel or science fiction comic. The more I read graphic novels the more I realise that each image pulls , much like sentences,  and propels the viewer (reader) forward into the story.  They are essential pieces of ‘direction’ the author is using to draw us deeper into the characters predicaments. Each frame is an edit as in film making, except graphic novels use one still frame rather than 24/25fps to tell a story.  This by definition requires a strong collection of relevant still images, to create the believable environments the character occupies. Populating the environment with the character themselves is another precise matter of timing, gesture and appropriate dialogue.

I think the graphic novel offers a real challenge and requires tremendous discipline for the author. It enables her to think far more deeply about the world she is trying to create for her characters, and in doing so, this enables her to find out more about the characters themselves and she also learns how these created environments reflect a deeper understanding of them as individuals.  You live their lives because you have to connect in a real concrete and physical way with the environments they occupy.  You must create them not in your head but in physical space and I feel that is why graphic novels excel at creating memorable rich characters. Many comic characters have reached iconic status often more so than figures directly taken from literature.  The characters seem equally to continue to find ways of interacting with each new generation of readers.

This doesn’t have to be complicated. I for example take a small environment, in this case the example image is one I drew and photographed of Wembley central underground station in London. There are a huge variety of textures in this one environment; metal, wood, plastic, paper, concrete and so on. There are also; gates, bars, steps,  rails, seats, roofs, passageways and so forth. This is all within one vicinity. I have an 8GB memory card and one spare battery fully charged. I can take thousands of full size images before needing to connect these into a computer.  The story could be set here in this small place but in your graphic novel it  can seem like a huge world to the reader.

I like reading graphic novels and I like the discipline they bring in terms of thinking about a characters physical world and ultimately sharing that in a real way with her. I think it is also a good lesson in transmedia thinking as stories seem to have a much more immersive mixed media future now as publishing changes and authors access to the tools of production and distribution continue to expand each day. Random House for example have just signed a deal with a computer games partner and are looking at a new range of graphic novels to follow soon.

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Pocket camera, pen, notebook sci-fi storyboard on the go.

Sci-Fi storyboarding quick and easy

The most important element here in terms of capturing the textures and feel I want is the train.  The inclusion of the woman’s arm was designed to give me a sense of how skin reacts to the manipulation process.  I wanted to create a feeling of a city that is using its old technology to cope after a disaster. There is a crumpling effect as I have this idea of a disaster that involves some element of time and space shifting slightly and people now see in this overlapping way. The colours also react differently due to atmospheric particles that distort light beams so things do not reflect colour evenly.  The time of the story would be say 100 years from now. The photograph is taken using a pocket Canon Ixus 80IS.

My thinking is to create a comic strip story using the visual elements I can capture on foot in a city using a small camera. I then recreate the final image and feel I want on the computer. In this case metal texture and futuristic (yet old) feelings and so forth using some further hand over drawing on a Wacom and then using these as separate layers in photoshop (original image & hand drawn elements). I then run these both as one file through Topaz.
It is testing ways of how a visual science fiction type story could be set in a real modern city such as London utilising photographs, pen and a notepad to construct a storyboard that later links with the computer storyboard on the desktop.

I think the train result which has only taken about 10 minutes is something that could be developed upon. I must start storyboarding and seeing how I can possibly direct things which are not under my control to create an individual and visually different comic book story.  Have my pocket camera, pen and notebook so coherent story ideas may follow??

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