Sunday, July 15, 2007

The story so far

Those of you who are familiar with the story I am illustrating (well the one I am currently focusing on so I can finish it and deliver the next one), will realise that I am not so far from the end now. I think a further 10 pages, or thereabouts, will see the job done.

The tail is a modern day parable, but I have given equal waiting to the wondrous aspects of the story, and I think it casts it in a new light. I've also tried to focus on the story, on how the narrative shape works, rather than make it an exercise, as is often the case when two people, usually strangers, tackle a story, on how well the writer can write, and how well the illustrator can paint. The only tension in the story is often the struggle between the two monstrous egos writing and illustrating the thing. I think this is the advantage of having a cartoonist tackle these 'graphic novels', there is an understanding, in our profession, because we usually have experience of working on comic books and comic strips, of how the words and pictures should work together. I think this approach also adds to the text, rather than distracts from it as it often does when an 'illustrator' without that experience, is showing how much promise 'their' work has, rather than bothering to understand the nuances of the text and the space between what's said and what should be shown.

In these excerpts (haven't lettered them yet), the protagonist has left the Palace and entered the cavernous Black Mountain, and is about to go through his sternest test.





2 comments:

null said...

The blank spaces make you fill in your own words. Even though it's going to be filled in with the real story later, it makes for an interesting series of panels, and is also a good way to see whether or not the images carry the story.

I've just started selling art and illustrations again on blogger, come and check it out, I've added your page to my list of other talented bloggers

cheers,

http://www.indiefrogstudios.blogspot.com

Rod McKie said...

Hey Matthew. I'll put up a link to you shortly. Let me know how you get on with the prints project.

I got an email recently from a cartoonist who looked in on Glen Baxter's show and Glen was selling prints at £550 a pop - likely be Giclee (or whatever the heck it's called).

I think it has two lessons for us all, never call yourself a 'cartoonist', that's the kiss of death, and charge as much as you can.

If your project goes well you could maybe sell prints by a small group of artists under your indiefrog studios logo?