Illustration & Visual Narrative | Task 03: Sequential Art

-Week 6 - Week 10

-Takeguchi Shunta/0386416/Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

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DOCUMENTATION

For this task, I needed to make a three-panel comic.

I  decided to make a comic with the shark character since it would be easy to come up with a story. My story is below, I made it along the three-act structure: Setup, Conflict, and Resolution.

Act 1 - Setup

There was a shark in Australia that loved interacting with surfers. He showed up at the surf spot every day and played with the surfers. The surfers called him Gremmie Shark and loved him.

Act 2 - Conflict

One day, Gremmie Shark met a teenage beginner surfer named Michel. Michel was eager to improve his surfing skills, but he was still struggling to catch waves. Gremmie Shark found out that Michel was afraid of being swallowed by a big wave. They practiced together for many days.

Act 3 - Resolution

After long training, a perfect wave came. Everyone who knew him was watching and hoping he would ride the wave successfully. Fortunately, he made it. Everyone celebrated him, but Gremmie Shark celebrated the most. They have a strong bond and have been surfing together ever since.

Moodboard

I drew the sketch next. I drew three panels sketch with the mood of the panel. I used moment-to-moment transitions in the first panel and the second panel.

Panel 1

-A perfect wave coming for Michel

-Michel whispers to himself, ‘I can do this.’

-Tension, nervousness

Sketch 1

Panel 2

-Michel riding the wave

-SFX ‘SHHHHHHHHHH!’

-Exhilarating, excitement

Sketch 2

Panel 3

-Gremmie Shark celebrates Michel

-Michel shouts, ‘I made it, Gremmie Shark!!’

-pleasure

Sketch 3

And below is the panel planning. I made the first and second panels in front of the third panel, and the third covers the whole space. I changed the square proportions of the first and second panels to match each scene. 

Panel planning

After panel planning, I moved to the Illustrator process. 

I tried to make the stroke of the line thicker, so it won't look cheap illustration. 

Comic lineart

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FINAL OUTPUT

Comic final output

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TECHNIQUES APPLIED

I struggled to express the texture of the ocean, so for this task, I used the pen tool and drew the shadows and highlights reflected on the ocean. I feel this way is more realistic and better. For the texture, I installed a grain effect on the light blue background to add a rough paper-like look. And for the text, I used ‘waves smooth color’ from ‘decorative legacy’ to match the ocean mood.

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SELF REFLECTION

I put effort into expressing the wave movement, especially for the second panel. I explored surfing illustrations on Pinterest and tried to mock them. I did not have the time or skills to draw the wave in detail, but I feel I could express the wave movement by placing large objects.

The hair of Michel was a difficult part. I tried to give him long hair, but I couldn't find a way to make the hair flow naturally.

Through this task, I found that creating shapes with the Pen Tool and expressing shadows, highlights, and material textures results in more natural-looking illustrations. I plan to incorporate this for future Illustrator work.