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I was initially working on this for something that required to be four pages: which were somewhat packed at twelves panels per page, so I've reworked it based on the (smaller) Dundee size, and including some larger panels.   
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This post shows the workings I went through to arrive at my final logo design. I explored two routes: a typographic design and a handwriting style font. I initially I tried design a logo in the context of a whole design, using dome of the distinctive imagery of Vermeer.In spin this I also tried to finesse the Composition and spacing.         A related initiative I scheduled to fit with this module was creation/publication of an interactive ebook from a comic called Tangled Tales that I created some years ago. It consisted of six sets of six panels readable in 6 to the power of 6 permutations: it was originally hand-made in tiny editions, and not viable to have commercially printed.
I had commissioned a web designer to create an electronic version to my specification, and under my supervision, in a web and then in ebook form. Ebook platforms such as Smashwords could not accommodate the interactivity, with only iTunes able to accommodate it. Getting this published to iTunes Store has involved some hurdles, as it required installation of iTunes Producer, which in turn required an operating system upgrade. Anticipating Sterling devaluation, I selected payment in US Dollars, although I had to adjust prices across territories from Apple's straight Dollar to Sterling/Euro conversions. The first completed version did not pass Apple's automated check due to some slight aspect ratio mismatch, and by the time of having a revised version Producer required reregistration which lost my saved 'project', i.e. publisher and pricing information, etc. Recognising that this is something of a niche project, I joined a number of social media groups for experimental and small press comics that I will use for targeted marketing, in addition to mainstream and comics press. The former networks have secured a recommendation from Matt (99 Ways to Tell a Story) Madden: '[...] beguiling[...] perhaps the earliest of its type I have seen.' This project then has let me apply: marketing, business (costing), design, and digital production aspects of the course, and take a live project to market. The semester 1 project required 8 pages minimum of a comic, which left me some pages to complete. One of the pages I had to complete was the front page of the story incorporating a cityscape referencing Vermeer's 'View of Delft' a creative challenge here was to locate the appropriate style between the painted look of Vermeer's original, and the more comics style (flat colours within black outlines) of the other pages. I think I achieved an effective balance: the slightly more painted style of the splash page mirroring the ‘higher modality’ rendering of e.g. 1960s Marvel comic covers, relative to the interior pages   The pitch:
‘Great painters across the centuries face turning points in their art and lives. This series of short comics aims to capture the outward realities of their lives, speculate from this on their inner perspectives, and channel their signature styles and imagery, letting the reader sees these moments through ‘The Eyes of the Artists’. I've made a short motion comic on Madefire. It took some investment in getting it working for me, but I got something completed with, I think, some nice touches. However, I couldn't get to to publish (it seems to be called 'upload' now) to the Madefire site. However, I was able to screen capture it income stills and a video.         Pitch ‘Robert Rauschenberg has found great success making art with objects he finds on the New York streets, but he is starting to find the city overwhelming’. Visual Style The story will be created in a multi-media ‘assemblage’ style, contrasting gestural ‘painted’ marks with real elements and rasterised photographs, found imagery, and multiple overlapping images. Rauschenberg paintings, and photograph of the artist. Bacon’s Broken Subject. Pitch ‘Francis Bacon is in Paris, preparing for his most prestigious exhibition, and isn’t about to let a troublesome partner ruin it’. Visual Style The story will be drawn in a visceral ‘painted’ style, and reflect Bacon’s palette. It will also incorporate some of his well-known source materials (see below): photos of his subjects; Muybridge photographs of figures and animals in motion; and scenes from Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin. Like many of Bacon’s works, it will be a triptych, in this case, with a sequence of images repeated across the three pages, and ‘framed’ by opening and closing pages. Story I have drafted an outline relating the story idea to proposed visual imagery, and then a script. 
  Paintings by Francis Bacon.  Some of Bacon's sources: Multiple photographs of his subjects; Edward Muybridge photographs of figures in motion; Eisenstein's film, Battleship Potemkin. Pitch 15th Century Florence - Paolo Uccello “A painter is too obsessed with the new science of perspective, to worry about making a living from painting. When his wife pressures hi to secure a commission, he promises an epic battle series for a local godfather: slowly it dawns on him what he's taken on, and just what’s at stake”. Visual Style The story will be drawn in a clear line drawing style with accurate perspective. It will be in primarily flat colouring, with minimum tonal modelling, to reflect Uccello's style (above and below). Synopsis Florence - early Renaissance. Paolo Uccello is obsessed with the emerging techniques of perspective drawing. Pressurised by his wife to get a commission, he promises an ambitious suite of paintings of a victorious battle to local ‘godfather' Leonardo Salimbini. Salimbini is excited about the paintings - and boasting to his friend Cosimo Medici. Uccello, - and Salimbini’s major demo, Rocco - soon realises he’s out of his depth. He seeks help from his old master, but he’s jealous and won’t oblige. Salimbini and Rocco visit and are disappointed with progress, but Uccello buys some time, while Salibini is on honeymoon. They come back weeks later to find still nothing on the walls. Salimbini ‘suggests’ Uccello not leave until they have satisfactory progress, and leaves Rocco to ponder what would be ‘satisfactory progress’. After implicit threats, Rocco finds a way to put the tentative and theoretical Uccello ‘into the battle’ and leaves him adrenalised to paint the scene. This pays off, everyone is happy and Uccello feels unburdened. Story Outline I have drafted a story outline, using the short fiction form of:
I also developed a script for a comic of four pages, although I later repaginated and expanded this.
  The three panels of Paolo Uccello's The Battle of San Romano: London (top), Florence (below), and Paris (bottom).  Below - Paolo Uccello - details of the above paintings, and more
The project will be an anthology of comics of different lengths about famous artists.
I've tried a few versions of my overall pitch: 'Great painters across the centuries face turning points in their art and lives. Capturing the outward realities of their lives, speculating on their inner perspectives, and channelling their signature style and imagery, we vividly see these key moments through "The Eyes of the Artists".' or We see through 'The Eyes of the Artists', in their signature styles and imagery, as they face their greatest artistic and personal challenges. or 'Great painters across the centuries face turning points in their art and lives. This book draws on the outward facts, to speculate on their inner perspectives, and show these key moments through The Eyes of the Artists.’ I will post pitches for proposed individual stories. |
AuthorGraham Johnstone ~ Master of Design - Comics and Graphic Novels student 2016-17 Archives
August 2017
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