Last week's 52 Comic Challenge was to draw all five seemingly unrelated elements from a Pictionary card in one strip. Like some of the other participants, I only had access to Pictionary, Jr. cards, most of which contrast the challenge by listing themed items, like "A Day at the Beach," etc. I pulled a few cards until I stumbled across "Starts with S," and the words, though initially random (besides starting with "s"), became connected instantly through the scenario I illustrated above: a quick look at a child's struggle with the concept of justice. (I really wanted to avoid more autobiographical fodder this week.) Since the sequence wrote itself, I wanted to play with my pens and pencils a little bit, to see if I could generate some depth in the strip, versus my pencil sketches-filtered-thru-Microsoft Paint pages I've posted most recently. I experimented with thicker lines, shading, and even strategic erasing. I hope the results are the gateway to more consistent, linear, detail-oriented personal projects. Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Starts with S
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5 comments:
Awesome! Just, awesome! Very touching. You won me over with the first panel.
I have to honest, I'm not sure about inserting the pictionary labels within the comic. It seems to detract from the seriousness of the strip. But that's just one person's opinion.
Thanks, Andrew! I was thinking that the Pictionary, Jr. labels would maintain a sense of youthful innocence in contrast to the strip's theme of struggle and tragedy. It was the closest I could get to the juxtaposition concept, since the labels generated such a linear story for me. Still, I understand your point and debated it myself, too. Those bright primary colors are a bit much, eh? Keep the feedback comin', man!
I like the perspective in your third panel and the dark shading of the people on the first. Nice strip.
In my opinion, this really should be published somewhere. About the cards --
What if instead of pictionary cards, they were just flash cards? That would echo that the mother was working with him with letter sounds. With the pictionary cards, we are reminded that this is a drawing exersize, and takes away from the story.
Can't wait to see your next comic!
Yeah, the picture cards would've been a much better use of the 'multi-media' shtick! A simple, child-like picture of the object, with the s-word underneath, would certainly contrast the unfortunate complications of the characters' context.
I think Tod should post a Taboo card challenge soon, too -- drawing a strip about something without using its most obvious references would be fun. The potential for inside jokes could abound!
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