Mini Graphic novel Evaluation
For my FMP I decided to do a mini graphic novel/zine for this year’s theme of Pocket Planet.
Pre-production:
For the Pre-production I was tasked by doing a mind map and the initial ideas. I did a mind map of what my project was going to consist of and I had jotted down a minimum of 4-5 ideas for my final project. From my ideas I decided to do a mini graphic novel/zine. I decided to do this project because I wanted to achieve a higher grade in my course but also expanding my creativity. Another reason I chose this as part of my final major project is because it involves a lot of photoshop and graphics which is my strong suit in this course. I decided to do this because I get to be more creative, and it is what interests me the most about this course.
After choosing my project I was then given another task to do which was to complete a proposal and a pitch. I was tasked to do a proposal because I get to explain what my interest is in this course and what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I get to explain what my project is going to be about. After completing my proposal I decided to do a pitch which would allow me to further go in depth about my project and what it’s about and how it’s going to.
Research:
Since my project is going to be a mini graphic novel the theme, I decided to go with this project was superheroes which overall would link back to the theme of this years FMP theme which is Pocket Planet. For this the research I decided to do was on graphic novels mainly consisting of Marvel and DC. I decided to do this because it would help me find more about graphic novels and which type of graphic novel are out there. My graphic novel was going to have visual story narrative so I researched animated visual story telling on Pink Panther and Wall E. I decided to do research on Pink Panther because on visual storytelling and I also did research on Wall E because the main character in my graphic novel was going to be a bot.
I also expanded my research by researching different bot design. The bot designs I researched were a mix between digital, hand drawn and concept art. This helped me out a lot because it gave more ideas of what my bot designs could look like when it comes to concept developing. I also did another research like comic logos and covers. I did this because I wanted my graphic novel to have a comic vibe and look to it. To strengthen my research I decided to do some primary research on comic covers, novels, and logos. This helped a lot because I wanted to see what other people’s opinions are on graphic novels, covers and logos through interviews and surveys. This also helped me because it would add more to my project and strengthen my research both primary and secondary.
Concept Development (Mood boards/typography):
After I finished my research, I decided to do some visual research making mood boards and typography. The software I used to make these were Photoshop and Photopea. I wanted to do some visual research because I wanted to expand my research on what I am passionate which is supheroes. My idea for these mood boards were to research different comic book characters that have different cultural backgrounds. I decided to do this because I wanted it to link back to the overall theme of this year FMP which is Pocket Planet as it celebrates all cultures around the world. After completing the mood boards, I started doing a bit of typography is well. I decided to do this because I wanted to expand my visual research and it would help me get through my project in a way to giving me ideas on what I can do in terms designing and seeing what my product could look like in the end.
The positive thing is about doing the mood boards were that I got to expand and strengthen my research, but the negative was that I had spent too much time doing research and I was close to the deadline. But to make sure I managed to move straight on to the practical side and I started making and developing my mini graphic novel.
Bot Designs (Concept Development):
After completing my visual research, I realised I didn’t have much time left before the deadline of this project. To make sure I was caught up with my work I started developing my character designs for my graphic novel. I decided to do 3 because it would be less time consuming and easier to get through. The problem was that at the time of doing this was outside of college and I had no access to photoshop which was the main software I use for my project. However, I used another software called Photopea that is similar to Adobe Photoshop. This helped me a lot through my project because it was easy to use and gain access to. With this I started to use this software to finish of my bot design and colour them in and take screen shots and put them up on my digital space for evidence and progress.
Story board draft (Concept/Zine development):
When developing my mini graphic novel, I decided to do a story board to see what was going to happen in the story narrative. I did this because it would help me when it came to drawing out the pages for the zine. I used A5 paper to draw out the scenarios and for this my novel was going to include 8 pages instead of 5 or 7 as previously mentioned in my pitch and proposal. I chose A5 paper because it will look more effective as a mini graphic novel in the end and the quality of the zine would stand out.
After I finished doing the story board, I then decided to use my story board as a reference. I did this because it would help add more detail to it when redrawing the pages separately. I did this hand drawn and went over it with a black fine line pen to make it look clear visually. While redrawing the pages I added panels in some of my pages. I did this because my product was going to be a graphic novel so I wanted it to have a comic book look and feel to it. After finishing I scanned my pages in as PDF files and took screen shots for my digital space.
Mini Graphic novel development:
After finishing my story board and pages I then decided to open these pages on photoshop and started adding colour to them. The tools I did use were the wand tool and fill bucket tool. The colours I did use was were bright colours in tone. I decided to go with bright colours because I wanted my graphic novel to look vibrant instead of having a dull look. I also used them because they look more effective and eye catching when it came to the finished product.
The downside to this was that after almost finishing my pages I usually save my work on my USB stick, but my USB stopped working and all my work had been gone because I couldn’t get access to it. However luckily, I managed to upload all my work on my digital space before hand and the remaining work I had left was on desktop on the college macs because I had taken screen shots of my work on desktop. But to fix this issue I had PDF files of my artwork pages, and I uploaded the last artwork page to my google drive and manged to complete it.
Mini Graphic novel:
When I completed my drawing and pages it was time to construct my mini graphic novel. By doing this I opened up photoshop and used an A2 template. I used a ruler to set different midpoints and to make sure it was the right size for each section of canvas. After I did that I got my artwork/pages and started placing them on the canvas in photoshop. After completing it I had some help by printing it out and I started to convert it into a zine. With this I had some help by my tutors by using a ruler, scalpel, and a sharp tool to cut through the paper and I folded it into a zine.
The problem with this was the paper I printed out was a bit thick and the paper wouldn’t fold properly, and it had huge gaps when it was folded. To fix this problem I had it reprinted with the paper being a bit thin. This worked so well because when constructing it into a zine it folded nicely, and it worked out well in the end. After this I had finished my product, but I also took some photos of my mini graphic novel and sent them to my google drive. The issue with this was that when I downloaded the photos from my google drive, I couldn’t upload them on my digital space because the file was big. However, I fixed it by previewing the photos from my google drive and took screen shots of it. I did this because it helped upload them to my digit space for evidence.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think this project for this year FMP went well and I achieved from what I said I was going to do. If were to do this project again, what I would do differently is that I would get as much research done as possible but not spending too much time on it. This way I would’ve been able to get most of my concept development (mood boards/typography) done and move onto the practical side of my project like developing my character design and graphic novel.
If were to do this project again I would’ve also added and developed different logos as part of my evidence, I researched a lot of comic book logo company and I could’ve designed my own logo and even a comic cover for this novel If I had more time and it, and if I were to do this project again. This would’ve made it more professional. Overall, I think I achieved what I wanted to which was the main graphic novel that links to the overall theme which is Pocket Planet which celebrates all cultures from the world, and I think I accomplished everything I said I was going to do in my pitch when it came down to research, planning and production.