FMP Halfway Review

My FMP project is called Graphic Novel Project because it is about the development process of creating a comic book and also creating posters to promote it. The issue I am working on I have called “The School of the Damned”. I chose this name because the main event is about a mysterious missing key that the main character happens to find in the school and opens a door in the basement, releasing un-dead creatures into the town of Sanctuary.

One problem I’ve solved was one I had when creating the design for the demon creatures that come out from the basement, as my friend who I am working with wanted them to resemble the zombie demons in the first issue. But we wanted them to have distinct differences that set them apart and make them look stronger and more of a challenge. We had decided that we wanted them to have stretchable limbs to make them more intense, however I had a problem with this because it wasn’t very logical and it might confuse readers. I got over this by making them look very plant like, as if they had been overtaken by nature, living under ground. I gave them bark-like skin and fungi and moss growing on them. Their stretching limbs now make sense as they can grow them like tree branches or roots.

For my project research I focused on things that would inspire my style, other comic books and artists such as Jean Giraud, Roy Thomas, Alex Raymond and Mike Mignola. I have comics from some of these artists that I will take influence from. I researched images that would help me develop an aesthetic for the buildings and outfits in the sanctuary. I based the buildings on Victorian architecture that I found appealing. An architectural theme throughout the sanctuary will be arched features. I took inspiration for this style from images from Pinterest and also from pictures I have taken of buildings I have found and from video games such as Assassins Creed Syndicate, which is set in Victorian London.

I went on visits to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival for more inspiration.

I have experimented with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create multiple posters with varying colours. I have put the gradient map feature on Photoshop to good use to add colour to my drawings I created on paper. I also used the image trace feature on Illustrator to make my posters crisp and professional looking. These posters turned out very successfully as they are striking and exiting as well as having a distinctive style.

Most of the experiments I’ve carried out have been costume, character, and architecture designs. For example I have developed on the demon creatures turning them from a simple sketch to a fully thought through and fully designed product on a design sheet showing multiple variations and different angles of them.

So far I think I need to improve my research and design notes, as I haven’t got much in-depth analysis or description.