MA Visual Arts - Revelation

After my group crit to today it seems that I have been avoiding the truth. I need to accept that '100 DATES' text is for a screenplay and my illustrations contain the information for a Storyboard. Thanks to my tutor Chris Brown for this suggestion. I've got a lot of work to do.


Karl

MA Visual Arts - Figure Textures

MA Visual Arts - Figure Textures

Working on these to get used to multiple figures.

Karl

Noir Noir Noir!

Noir is my middle name. Now to find a blonde bomshell, a femme fatale, a scarlet woman, a crooked cop, a bent lawyer, a sadistic doctor, an ex con going straight and a good man in the wrong place at the wrong time a four time loser.


Karl

MA Visual Arts - More progress

10 episodes set in a 'hotel' room. 10 interweaving narratives that may or may not be told by unreliable narrators. 'Hotel' room inspired by the Nostromo set for the movie Alien.


Karl

MA Visual Arts - Progress of sorts

I've finally made the decision that my graphic novel will serve the purpose of explaining how storytelling works. Each of the ten stories will retell the same story from the perspective of the protagonist. Now to finish writing the blessed things and draw the bastards. Oh BTW the noir post below is on hold since I discovered Self Made Hero have published 'It's Dark in London' featuring top flight artists and writers. I want to create something that will rival this type of book. Wish me luck.




 Karl

MA Visual Arts - Film Noir is under my skin

This week I realised that I want to create a neo noir look for my comic. Watching Jules Dassin's 'Night and the City' I got nostalgic about a lost and forgotten London. I want my story to make the reader long for something lost. The story could be described as elegiac or melancholic. The characters are out of time on many levels. Loss and longing is very cliche and this is well travelled ground but I think this will make my alternate world more believable if I can tap into the human emotions that we all have. Monochrome city shot mostly at night, underground or in claustrophobic rooms. Narration in, speech bubbles out. Time to get back to drawing this project. 


Karl

MA Visual Arts - Typeface design

Well this is the beginning of my new typeface design for my story. It will look more refined and I will add the missing characters eventually. I might even improve my handwriting.


Karl

MA Visual Arts - Unreliable Witness

I'm thinking about how story makers weave truths and half truths together to form engaging content and I keep finding myself drawn to the notion of the 'unreliable witness'. I like the way you can convince the gullable of almost anything and how you can fool the world if your lie is big enough. The plot for '100 DATES' appears as fantasy or fable but could some of it be true?

Are there really people out there like Desta, William and Kathleen? Will you believe them when they narrate their tales, I wonder? I am trying to locate texts that are exemplars of the 'unreliable witness' rule. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Karl

MA Visual Arts - 100 DATES

Over the last couple of weeks I've been reflecting on how information is usually communicated in a comic to the audience/reader. I decided two years ago that thought bubbles are of no use to me in this context. You cannot read other people's minds in real life so this should be the same in a graphic narrative. I like the challenges this poses also.

Dialogue is very hard to get right but it is only required to help the reader understand the motivations of the characters in a story and to lead them in certain directions. It may be unavoidable but I will try to minimise the amount of speech bubbles in the 10 stories I'm writing. Finally it is clear to me that the narrator's voice is the most powerful of all in the her/history of western literature. I will try to use only narrator captions to drive the stories along and of course rely heavily on the power of the visual content.

The biggest challenge for me is to get audio into this 2D medium. More later.

Karl

MA Visual Arts - Once Again

Now where is this leading me?

MA Visual Arts - Some more images

Hugh in his heroin days

Sleaze informs Jon Doe about 'Messian' connection

Virtual Glass Publishing and People Planet Guides are at war

SETAD 001 robots production line

The women in William's life will both betray him

MA Visual Arts - Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

Main protagonists and the storytelling method to be used within each episode.

MA Visual Arts - Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

There are ten episodes to my story. Each story is told from the POV of an individual protagonist. These stories can be read in any order you wish except Episode Ten, it will always need to be read last. This structure will allow me to explore different aspects of storytelling technique. London is also a character and actually narrates Episode Ten.

Episode 1 in which William Frank's story is told

Episode 2 in which Jon Doe's story is told

Episode 3 in which Nat O'Brien's story is told

Episode 4 in which Hugh Wycombe's story is told

Episode 5 in which Kathleen Tibury's story is told

Episode 6 in which Janitor 4891 (Jobsworth) story is told

Episode 7 in which Sleaze Jone's story is told

Episode 8 in which Desta Finn's story is told

Episode 9 in which Pompas Glass' story is told

Episode 10 in which Super Frank's story is told

MA Visual Arts - Drawing Words & Writing Pictures