~ 3 days in comic book land ~

Today was the last day of the comic book course I attended this week! 

It was really great, and I had SO much fun ^^I have been looking forward to this all summer, and I were so exicted that something like this would happen at such a tiny place like this. It was a really talented and experienced teacher that lectured us (6 students in all). He had worked with a lot of great directors in Norway, storyboarding and such. He was also one of the regular people to sit in the commité of a very well known comic festival held in Bergen, called "Raptus"!

  I learned a lot of new things that will be super usefull for me in the furture, working with comics. 

(The signs says "Comic books and storyboards - auspices on paper", and the screen made the picture darker)

In all, it was a three-day course, and we all met up at 10 am every day, and went home at 4 pm.

On day nr. 1, everyone shared their comic idea with the teacher, and got some help developing a good storyline.

The first day started out kind of slow, we went through a lot of things that I allready knew (basics and such), and I felt kind of embarrased, since the girl next to me was reeeeeally talented and had a super idea for a comic. In this course, OUR task was to produce a 4-page comic, throughout the 3 days we worked, but since I didn´t have a "short idea" I was allowed to work with some pages from a longer series that I am planning ^^ 

The teacher told us what is important, considering angles, what scenes to prioritze when you make a story, how to catch the attention of readers, and how to best adjust a page to the general reading direction of a comic book. It was really inspiring, and great to speak with someone that really knew what they were talking about! And someone that acctually understood what I asked about, using spescial words and such xD

As time went, I felt better and better! ^^ On day nr. 2 I felt just about 200% better allready x3 

I got in chat with the girl next to me, who was also into manga and anime, and she was just SO nice! I felt realy terrible for envying her on the first day. We discussed series we liked, and showed eachother pictures we had drawn earlier! She is great at drawing boys, and I mostly draw girls, so our styles really differed!

I had a cat in my comic, so suddenly, she just pulled out a clean sheet and started doodling little cats, and I joined her x3 It was really nice ^^  She drew the cutest cats <3<3<3 I just awwwed all over them xD

(Another thing that was really great about the course, was that we got all of the drawing supplies provided! And lunch also ^o^)

On day 2, we also learned a lot about how important it is to have the correct layout on a comic! How different American comics are to french or japanese ones, and how we best could put the speach bubbles up to make it easy and understandable to read! ^^ 

We learned things I never thought about before also, like how the first page in a comic book should have a really big development panel that shows the surroundings, with few details, so that the reader can easily see what is going on and where, and so that its easy to read, which is important to keep the readers attention. 

He also showed us how three very talented and well-known marvel artists interpretation of a comic manuscript, and how they worked with it ! ^0^ we saw sketches, roughs and lastly finished results :) 

learning about different styles and layouts! ^-^

☆

I worked really hard on my "manga", and when day nr. 2 was over, I had allready finished 3 sketched pages! (I won´t tell you what it is about, only that it has a witch, and a talking cat :3)  My new-found friend had drawn two pages, but she inked almost directly, so she had still got a lot further than me ^^" Hers had the most beautiful goldfish ever o_o

Today, being the last day, we learned a lot about perspective and anatomy ^^ 

 He drew a lot of fun drawings of different superheros, with horizontal lines and helping lines to easily place people in perspective, but still correctly, so that they didn´t look off in comparison to other characters. 

This day, my friend brought TONS of helping sheets, like the one with the heads that you can see in an earlier picture ;) But with poses, feet, hands, more heads, eyes and loads of helpfull things! It was really great ^^ I was overwhelmed! 

She also brought a magazine with info about anime/manga/games that she allowed me to look through! :D We had a blast making fun of the ugly drawings, and telling eachother what we loved with the pretty ones xD

 haha

I also showed her a book I have with clothing design and how to draw folds and such realistically on a body x3 

 (the teacher asked us to pay attention >.< uuuups, hihi)

I had to sit down and draw a seperate drawing of an old lady for the last page xD (Also, on the right is my storyboard/sketch to see what every page should look like and what it should describe in the story! )

The teacher told us about tons of interesting webpages to visit for buying art supplies easily and to get tutorials and such for photoshop! ^^ 

He also had a session where he hooked up his computer to photoshop and showed us how comic book artists that work for marvel colour and edit their pages! That was really amazing *A* He told us that these techniques where mostly unknown in Norway!

☆

( If you look really close, you can see the gorgeous goldfish she drew *A*)

I ended up with finishing one page intierly, with inking and all, but I still need to finish the three most detailed ones x3

So, to end this entry, I just want to say that I would do it all again in a heartbeat! It is one of the most fun experiences I have had! I think everyone on the course agreed that it should have been a lot longer, even though we had all worked hard and were quite tired! I know I stayed up til 1 AM almost every night, to finish some sketches and drawings for this >.< And one of the other ones even had to skip day nr. 2 until after lunch because she was so tired ... 

And lastly, I decided to show you guys all the pages I drew! ^^ 

On top, page one and two from the left, and on the bottom, page three and four :) 

(I will add more shadowing, speachbubbles and such on a computer!)

As you can tell, only page nr. 1 is inked ^^""" I took ages to draw that lightning with only a small marker pen @_@

Here is my favourite panels! ^^
(let me also add that most of these poses is the first time I ever drew! like the one below)

Sorry, I can´t draw shocked cats XD haha

☆

 Landed in a pile of trash!

☆

 Creepy old lady is creepy O.o

☆

 Seems like she got away though xD haha

☆

I hope you guys liked it ^0^  I very rearly have this much fun, and I never meet anyone else with my interest of drawing offline, so I was super happy about it ! XD haha

 Have you done anything productive lately? ^^

Now, since it is really warm here right now, and I am quite overheated O_o So I will take a walk to cool down ^^ 

Aloha! and thank you for reading ^^ 

Until next time!

Josephine