Beginning to put together my comic pages using the illustrations I completed as part of earlier research and overcoming design problems as well as creating solutions for difficult concepts. It is also important to make this appealing for younger age groups.
Iron Age crop fields:
I wanted to play with the pattern capabilities of the crop because its so detailed and works really nicely because of its repetitive capabilities. It also works well because with crops they always fill the field in lanes anyway so this is an artistic design solution to make something mundane look aesthetic.
(all of these pages have white boarders which isn't clear from the white background of the page)
Adding in my farmer an cow cutting the crops:
I played around with him overlaying the crops and not having any crops behind him and decided that it was too busy to include them.
The side angle of the farmer also showcases the farm equipment nicely whilst also playing homage to the very 2D Greek Urn style.
This was an earlier drawing which I really like with the swooping black background which I would like to incorporate more elements into.
Drawing a Roman Road
I wanted to show off a correctly drawn Roman Road stretching off into the distance. I focussed more on the accuracy of the layout and its aesthetic initially. After that I began to add the cobbles and elements of the road which would have existed. Such as the curb and the drain running either side of the road.
The Roman road looked very empty on the top half of the image. I realised early on that it would be appropriate to have Roman soldiers travelling along the road. I was able to add the images that I had drawn earlier on and then it was just a matter of figuring out how I wanted it to fit on the page. I chose to continue with the angles that I had created with the road and have similar dimensions happen the same as the road essentially inverted.
Experimentation:
Introducing an Iron Age farmstead:
The shape of an Iron Age house is key when illustrating it but is also providing the most challenges within this project. As a result, creating and problem solving is key.
Part of what's important about my comics is creating unique and dynamic comic boxes that aren't generic ones you would typically see. As a result I try and play around and try out multiple different layouts. In this pages case this included allot of rough goes.
- I really like the idea of having a smaller box like structure as a background with the animals sitting infant rather than being behind.
- I also thought it was important to showcase the whole Iron Age house rather than try to cut parts off of it for the sake of being artistic. This is important because it is meant to be an informative comic.
- The house seemed to make the image look a bit chunky when it was sat on top of the image so I decided to remove it. In fact it didn't entirely make sense to me because I the house didn't make sense being above the sheep and as a result didn't feel grounded.
The below layout it the one I have landed on for now as I really like the length provided by the taller box which provides relief from the intense box pattern to its right. I am unsure of what will feature in the box pattern but it will most likely be my protagonist/ farm activities.
In the end my solution was to portray the houses and the farm animals separately.
- I really like the continued box pattern with the houses placed in-front of it. I can really see this page sitting to the left of the one above with the sheep box providing a break between the two checkered spaces.
- I did also consider some more extreme ideas with curves for the boxing which I liked but I didn't think that they suited the Greek urn aesthetic which usually incorporated a much more angular and geometric shape.
I added smoke from the fires behind the houses to highlight the comic boxes which I think looks really aesthetic and clean. I also added the Iron Age fencing at the front of the image because I feel like small historically accurate elements like that are really important and make the page more interesting.
Due to the style being based off of Greek Urns this provides me with much design freedom when it comes to making things not look entirely accurate. As a result I played around with making the pigs into a semi-pattern which I think looks really nice. and then having my character at the bottom which does not make sense logically in really life but does look really nice as a singular layout.
Posh Roman farm:
I have begun to illustrate more Roman buildings for the animation. This was more difficult in terms of research because I want to avoid illustrating roman buildings from Rome, instead it is important I accurately depict ones from Britain.
- Adding crop fields to make it clear that its a farm house.
People playing dice and games in the street of the city (early illustration).
I really like this simple way of adding a line down the page to separate the image from what will be another one. ( A simple design soloution)
I am not massively fond of my design below although I thought it was clever to have the smoke billowing between the different scenes I don't think it really works.
Roman city
I have begun to draw the Roman city and initially have focussed on the geometric elements with the buildings to make them proportionally correct.
Similarly with the other buildings it has taken longer to draw this one because I want to ensure I draw the correct British roman building and not the architecture that was in Rome because they differ greatly.
Because the story is about the life and death of my character it was important to include his death. However, because of the age group being young children I didn't want to scare them with a visual traditional roman funeral so settles for my character being taken to his funeral by horse and cart.
Adding the black with the path of orange is really effective and almost suggests that this character is going 'towards the light' it also adds for quite a nice and visual final page.
