Illustration & Visual Narrative- Task 4: Webcomic

4 November 2024- 25 November 2024 (Week 11-14)

Chika Clarissa Widjaja / 0378636

Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelors Of Design (Creative Media) / Taylor's University

Task 4: Webcomic

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. LECTURES

2. INSTRUCTIONS

3. RESEARCH & IDEATION

4. DIGITALIZATION

6. RATIONALE

LECTURES

Week 11:
Mr. Hafiz introduced us to our final project, which involves creating a webcomic. He also shared reference materials and guides to assist us.

Week 12:
We learned the fundamentals of transitions and key elements to consider when creating the comic.

Week 13:
We had an in-person tutorial session where we received feedback on our progress.

INSTRUCTIONS

Research and Ideation

Comic

After reading The Monkey's Paw, I chose 3 potential lines from the story that I could illustrate into a comic panel:

1. The matches fell from his hand and spilled in the passage. He stood motionless, his breath suspended until the knock was repeated. Then he turned and fled swiftly back to his room, and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.

"WHAT'S THAT?" cried the old woman, starting up.

2. The visitor bowed in assent."Badly hurt," he said quietly, "but he is not in any pain."

"Oh thank God!" said the old woman, clasping her hands. "Thank God for that! Thank – "

She broke off as the sinister meaning of the assurance dawned on her and she saw the awful confirmation of her fears in the other's averted face.

3. It was about a week after, that the old man, waking suddenly in the night, stretched out his hand and found himself alone. The room was in darkness, and the sound of subdued weeping came from the window. He raised himself in bed and listened.

"Come back," he said tenderly. "You will be cold."

"It is colder for my son," said the old woman, and wept afresh.

The sounds of her sobs died away on his ears. The bed was warm, and his eyes heavy with sleep. He dozed fitfully, and then slept until a sudden wild cry from his wife awoke him with a start.

"THE PAW!" she cried wildly. "THE MONKEY'S PAW!"

After thinking how I want to illustrate each of the lines, I decided to go with number 2. I want to focus mainly on her emotions when she found out her son had died. So, I start researching and finding references on the internet.

I looked references for the environment, color palette, anatomy, lighting, and facial expressions. These are the references I used.

Fig 3.1 References

For the color palette, I decided to go with a Monochromatic color scheme. Although I've never tried it before, I use this assignment as a learning opportunity.

Fig 3.2 Monologous Color Scheme

Sketches

After deciding the color palette and references, I started on sketching the comic panel. I drew a lot of comic panels trying to decide which composition is best.

Fig 3.3 Experimentation

This was the sketch that I came up with and sent over to Mr. Hafiz. I thought it looked okay, but Mr. Hafiz told me it has too many spaces.

Fig 3.4 First Sketch

So, I tighten it together and deleted the second last panel as it wasn't necessary and takes up space. I also re sketched with clean lines and made better perspective for me to trace later on in Adobe Illustrator

Fig 3.5 Sketch

Cover

I've always liked the color combination black and red as It's very contrasting and eye catching. So, for the cover I looked through Pinterest and collected all the reference I used for the sketch.

Fig 3.6 Cover References

Sketch

My concept of the sketch is the person (Herbert's Mother) falling into the Monkey's Paw indicates her falling into the 'trap' while her husband falls while trying to catch her.

After sending this to Mr.Hafiz, he told me this was good and I can proceed, Although the text composition can be better.

Fig 3.7 Cover Sketch

DIGITALIZATION

Comic Panel

First, I created the panel using the rectangle tool. For the panels in the middle, I used the scissor tool and unite them together. Then, I placed my sketch on top of the panel and started tracing.

Fig 4.1 Panel Making

After tracing, I noticed that the mother's side profile's perspective was wrong, so I followed the reference I took and redraw it. I also changed the hair as it would be hard to shade since it's curly.

I used a classic font that most comic use: Anime Ace 2.0 BB Italic

Fig 4.2 Tracing and Changing Hair

I colored in the base colors with the shade purple. It took a long time for this process as I was figuring out what shade of purple I should go for. The first panel is more purple, while the bottom half of the panel is more on the purple-pink side.

As for the blue panel, I thought it would look good to add a little hint of blue since they both are cool undertones. Purple can add a pop of vibrancy to blue, while blue can tone down the intensity of purple.

Fig 4.3 Base Colors

I did simple shading to the base colors using the three colors: Dark, Medium and Light. When doing this process, I had to find several lighting references so it would look right, and logic. I did the same thing to the other panels.

Fig 4.4 Shading

To save time, I took the trees from my Task 2 Assignment: Vormator, where I had to make trees too, then I changed the colors to purple to match it with the surroundings.

Fig 4.6 Trees

For the tree branches, I traced a couple of creepy hand images as a part of my surrealism.

Fig 4.7 Tree Branches

I re-draw the man's body as the perspective and anatomy was lacking.

Fig 4.8 Fixing the Anatomy

Finally, since the text was camouflaging with the background, I added an elipse behind the text and drew another circle on top of it to make it look less stiff.

Fig. 4.9 Speech Bubbles

Final Comic Panel Outcome

Animation

For the animation, I used Adobe Illustrator. First, I copy and paste the artboard and made changes to it every artboard. In total, I have 8 frames.

Fig 4.10 Animation Frames

For the first animation, I decided to animate panel 1 with the tree branches. On each artboard, I moved the hand little by little so it will look like it's moving.

Fig 4.11 Tree Animation

For the second animation, I animated the fourth panel blinking by using the scissor tool to cut the edge of the eye and moving it down frame by frame to make it look like it’s closing its eyes.

Fig 4.12 Eye Blinking Animation

For the third and final animation, I animated the frowning eyebrows on the last panel.

Fig 4.13 Eyebrow Animation

Final Animation Outcome

Fig 4.14 Final Animation

Cover

First, I placed a black rectangle for the background and placed the title and author at the left bottom of the page. The font i downloaded from Google Fonts is called Anton Regular.

Fig 4.15

To make a sillhouette, I Rasterize the picture.

Fig 4.16 Silhouette Process

Then, I expanded it, ungroup, took out the background, and fill the sillhouette with the color I want.

Fig 4.17 Silhouette

For the hand, I took an image from google and rasterize it too, like I did with the sillhouette. I drew fur around the hand using the pen tool and added claws to it.

Fig 4.18 Monkey's Paw

Finally, because the silhouette's color clashed with the monkey's paw, I changed it to red and adjusted the text placement by moving it upward to avoid overlapping with the paw. I updated the background to include a gradient in the center, giving it more depth and reducing the flat appearance.

Final Outcome

REFLECTION

During this assignment, I experienced a mix of frustration and satisfaction. At first, I found some parts of the task challenging, especially finding the composition of the panel, coloring, and anatomy. However, as I got more into it, I started to enjoy the process, particularly when I start to put the shading. I observed that my initial approach wasn’t working well, so I had to adjust and made lots of changes such as the hairstyle, text layout in the cover, anatomy, etc. For example, I found that it is way harder to make a comic than it looks. Through this assignment, I respect comic artists more for the hardwork they put.

What I found most surprising was how long it took to make the coloring. I didn’t think I would struggle so much in choosing the colors, shading, lighting, how it would look like if the light was shining on this area of the face, but it ended up being one of the most rewarding aspects of the assignment. This experience taught me a lot, especially about how to make a Monogamous color, how light works, comic transitions, etc.

If I were to do this assignment again, I would probably add more shading, create more perspective in the panels, and learn how to do environment art for the background. For example, I think I would manage my time better or seek help earlier to avoid some of the struggles I faced. Looking back, though, I’m proud of how the comic, animation, and cover turned out. Overall, this assignment was a great learning experience, and I feel like I’ve gained a lot from it that I can apply in future projects.

Chika Clarissa Widjaja (0378636)

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