One of the wonderful things about the graphic novel genre is precisely the fact that people are not waiting to have professional artists to Be involved. It has enlarged and enriched the medium so very much, and brought numerous voices to the table who would not otherwise have contributed.

Cheers,

-cvj

As to decisions about the rendering, that was the point of the Big Question, as described in the post. Yes, sure, professionals rock! Hurrah for them, and long may they prosper. See my next post, however. You can decide or yourself whether you agree with the direction I chose to go in. Ultimately the key issue for me is time, and the other aspects are less of a concern now. I can work at a level that, for me, is good enough. I certainly don’t expect to match the finish work of a professional, but that was never the point.

See the next post.

Cheers,

-cvj

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/greek-maths-comic-is-surprise-international-bestseller-1801683.html

Anyway I think it’s a great idea, I had already thought about doing it a while ago and came to the conclusion that while the format seemed perfect in principle, when it came to actually putting panels together the explanations were just too lengthy and wordy. But I might have been aiming at something different.

One thing I would really recommend though is to seriously consider doing a storyboard style sketch of the graphic novel and giving it to a professional artist to render. I grew up drawing a lot, me and my brothers had a natural talent for it given that our dad was an artist and taught us to paint at an early age, and I drew weekly comics for a couple of years at university (tevong.com), but I wouldn’t underestimate the gap between an amateur that draws in his spare time and a professional. It’s like squash or tennis, anyone can get very good, but even the best amateur is miles away from a professional. Of course the illustrations only need to be as good as the purpose they serve, which is why XKCD works perfectly well with stickmen and Penny Arcade’s art is good enough to carry the crude videogame humour, but for a graphic novel art like tintin seems simplistic but it’s harder to make everything look right than it seems.

I hate to sound so negative, it’s just that I have a lot of respect for the medium and the work that goes into being a good artist, as someone who once wanted to be one. It’s like when you see certain amateur short movies, you appreciate how good professional actors and directors are. But then there are amateur short movies out there that are of professional quality, and there are some very well drawn webcomics by amateurs, so don’t listen to me and have fun!

I like that you are excited about the marketing/tour! Evidently you are publicist/manager material, since you’re way ahead of me…! Do go ahead and find me an agreeable publisher while you’re at it!

-cvj

As for posts about art and art museums. Yes. and No. I guess I would have posted about them anyway, since I’d have visited them anyway (as I do) but yes it is also true that I spent a lot of my research time in such places.

In fact, a tour of my old posts will find them full of clues, now one knows what I’ve been up to! That mysterious library I worked a lot in, for example, (I had a picture in a blog post), was in Madrid, and attached to the Riena Sofia museum, just down the way from the Prado. I loved that library! Started some of my first experiments with digital inking there…

-cvj

-cvj

On the off-chance you haven’t heard of it: Scott McCloud has a nifty book called Making Comics (2006) which you might appreciate.

I spent a very enjoyable plane journey recently talking with a guy who is involved with dragging education kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Have you considered tying in scientific pedagogy with some of the technology we have at our disposal these days, not that you don’t already have enough on your plate!

(Actually, you missed a lot of detailed inking work that I did while sitting in BL, long after you had left there.)

-cvj

Hello Ele – so the stick figures were not well-proportioned enough for you?

Seriously: Yes – working with live figure subjects is part of the fundamentals. I don’t do classes. I am self-taught, and sort of muddle along happily, figuring things out as I go. I draw a bit of everything when time permits, and that includes a lot of work with live figure models. It is, as you suggest, vital to do the latter. See posts to come.

As for inking. Oh my… I can tell you stories. It is a lot of fun, yes! Plenty more to come.

Best,

-cvj