Webtoon: Initial concepts and sketches

For this brief I wanted to use this opportunity to enhance my skills with a comic that myself and Roxanne Shanks were in the process of building ideas for the main structure of the narrative. I wanted to use this brief to be able to design possible comic pages that would show the characters and backgrounds that would be used within the narrative. The comic itself is set with in a post apocalyptic world where technology has evolved and is controlled by an unknown force. The last surviving humans have separated into five main regions each with their own style of coping with the dramatic changes with the weather. The humans are able to defend themselves against the technology which form themselves into robots, through the weapons that have been created by the main character. To be able to pin point the narrative for this brief I have decided to separate the brief into two themes. One part being focused on the fighting side to the narrative involving one or two of the characters and the other being dialogue based that focuses on one of the characters.

In order to plan how many pages which would work with the initial themes I first began to sketch layouts of the panels with quick sketches of the content of the page. I found that this helped me to consider the atmosphere of the visual narrative and capture the imagery that would enhance this further. I wanted to create the fighting page without any need for dialogue, apart from the occasional sound effect in the panels to describe the movement, as I wanted to challenge myself and portray the action without the use of words. I felt that this would help me to create poses and panels that the audience would be able to easily understand and enjoy aesthetically. I felt that the fighting theme needed at least 3 pages to show the action that is happening, I initially considered the use of one full page and two single pages, however as I kept developing the layout, I quite liked the idea of a double spread with the full page detail in the center of the page. I came to this decision through the appearance of the full pages which only depicted a few details which would easily merge with the double spread, making it feel tactile and more aesthetically pleasing. I also felt that this would help the motion of the action through how the audience would see a form of sequential imagery appearing through inside and outside of the panels.

Initial fighting layout

Initial dialogue layout

I moved onto designing the dialogue pages in which I felt a full page was needed to be able to view the imagery and read the text without it over crowding the panels. I quite liked the idea of using smoke from a cigarette as the text speech bubble as it worked with the character that I wanted to base the dialogue pages with and merge well within the pages composition. Another idea for the dialogue was to have the second page merge with the fighting pages with the main fighting character to be stood before the robots with speech bubbles describing the situation that he is in. I liked the idea for this page as I felt the merge would work successfully however I needed to think more in depth about the dialogue for this page as I didn't think that the audience needed that much description of the situation as the viewer can see from the imagery that he will be fighting the robots. 

Initial dialogue/fighting layout

Initial dialogue /fighting layout

Webtoon - Visual Research

To gain inspiration for the aesthetic and structure of the comic panels that I will be making for the Webtoon brief, I looked into different comic arts such as Emily Carroll and Mike Mignola for influence. Carroll's work incorporates the panels to mix and merge with another with traditional printed textures to the quality of the work, making it tactile and aesthetically pleasing to the audience. I found her work inspiring through not only the layout of her comic pages but through the use of the dialogue that seeps into the other panels. I found inspiration in Mignolas work through the use of the matte bright colours to desaturated tones with a harsh black ink shade to the line art, which works well with the character designs, that range from humans to supernatural beings. Other examples of comics mainly inspired me through the detail and colour used with in the panels; some ranged from using extremely desaturated hues that emphasised the environment and tone of the dialogue, to bright and colourful panels with thick variation of line.

I was quite inspired by the comic Sandman Overture in which the panels became part of the character, the character would be placed on top of the panels, and the way the panels would contort into different shapes. I found that the comic pages were visually stunning as the panels itself were part of the art rather than something to situate the comic panels in. 

Visual moodboard

Sandman Overture

Notes on webtoon

Webtoon is an online webcomic publisher that hires artists to create comics for their site. The latest competition involves a submission of a new comic, that is original and has not been published anywhere else, for the grand prize of $30,000 and a three year contract of the continuation of the comic you have submitted for their site only. I felt that this competition would be a fantastic way to not only improve my skill set and locate my practice, but for one of the individual briefs for the responsive module. I scanned through the terms and conditions and the work that you submit would solely belong to you, however after looking at peoples comments on the competition, I began to have second thoughts on actually entering the competition.

Webtoon competition

Webtoon Competition

The comments that I found explained that in the fine print which is really difficult to find on the website, reveal that you give permission for any work that you submit, whether you win the competition or not, can be redistributed accordingly on their website or others; With the terms of the three year contract being the wage of the money you have won. I found this quite sneaky of the terms and conditions, especially the fine print being so hard to locate on the website, to the extent that I can't find it. I felt unsure and not confident about entering the competition, so I will create work that will adhere to the competition specifications but help me locate my practice further, looking beyond what is actually required.