comicsexperience.com

Monday, September 19, 2011

GUEST BLOG: Nathaniel Allen, Art Professor, on Sequential Art & the Workshop Challenge

In this guest blog, Nathaniel Allen, an Assistant Professor of Art at Alabama State University, discusses why he joined the Comics Experience Creators Workshop and enrolled in the live, online Introduction to Comic Book Art course.

Nathaniel recently posted an intriguing, one page "Workshop Challenge" story, titled "A Lighter & A Knife," shown in full below, which led to this Guest Blog post!


In the summer of 2011, I enrolled in the Comics Experience Creators Workshop to learn how to draw comic books.

A lot of my artwork has been influenced by comic book and advertising art. Suddenly, last summer, the obvious became crystal clear. After years and years of flirting with comic book art, doing paintings mimicking comic book-influenced techniques (in an attempt at a postmodernist critique of America's consumerist culture,...etc.), it hit me to finally do the obvious thing -- learn to draw sequential art; the stuff that got me interested in art in the first place.

I had come across the Comics Experience website at some point before the summer began and thought it looked interesting, but I had just discontinued taking an online class in the classical realist techniques and I was a bit skeptical about getting back into another one.

Then Heroes Con rolled around, and having got permission from my wife and daughter to attend, who do I meet but Rob Anderson? I had just randomly come across some post by him weeks earlier on Facebook about a new comic book he was publishing that had a zombie-fighting team of animals that included a talking dog and a baseball bat-wielding gorilla. I remembered commenting that I thought the art was fantastic and it looked like a really fun book. And there he was, standing right between the banners for his Panda Dog Press and Andy Schmidt's Comics Experience.

Rob told me that just a couple of years ago he would not have thought it possible that he would be creating a comic book, let alone multiple comics, and that his participation in Comics Experience played a very big part in his accomplishments.

Rob suggested I go talk to Robert Aktins, the Comics Experience Art Instructor, who was just a few tables away. I was impressed with their honesty, sincerity, and the fact that they were really involved, practicing what they preached, and I figured I might as well give it a try. I'm glad I did!

I joined the Comics Experience Creators Workshop on June 9, 2011. For me, the true strength of it is in the critique forums and the well thought out guidelines for getting and giving critiques. That interaction from other members has really been enlightening.

Very recently, I decided to participate in one of the monthly "Challenge" assignment in which all workshop members are encouraged to create a story based on a given theme. The theme for August was "Birthdays" and, as is typical with me, my first thought was to do an unusual and horrific take on what is supposed to be a happy occasion.

I went with my first idea: what if some disgruntled child made a particularly deadly birthday wish and it came true? It was an interesting enough premise, but then, thanks to my continued interest in the horror genre, another stylistic set-up came to mind.

I watched a very disturbing French film early in the summer called Irreversible. It had a backward narrative and essentially began with a really horrible murder and then went back in time to show the horrible, almost unwatchable, events that provoked the lead characters to commit such brutal mayhem.

The backwards timeline has been attempted in films a few times. Momento comes to mind from quite a few years back. In that film, it was used in conjunction with a mystery narrative, which complicated things almost to the point of total confusion (it worked better in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and really well in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager that I saw a long time ago). I decided to give it a try with a simple narrative: a horrible event and the moments that led up to it.

In doing my thumbnails and planning out the page, I started out thinking about the recent Chris Bachalo issues of the Avengers (#13 & #15). I am a fan of his drawing style, but in Issue 13 there were tons of these 12 or 16 panel pages -- little boxes and lots of "talking heads."

I remembered reading somewhere that he often inspired great criticism for his little box pages early in his career -- and so, next thing I know, I'm thumbnailing my story out in 12 boxes for 1 page -- just to see what happens.

Then I realized that I needed room across the top for a title...and getting rid of one row would make a box that I could make into a gift-wrapped present, which went with the birthday theme really nicely.

I think the general ideas of the story came through in the first "finished" version that I posted for critique. One gets that things are going backwards, and we see the damage caused by this angry little girl. But there were also some problems with the first version of the story that I was just too close to see. The comments and suggestions from the other workshop members really allowed me to step back and see the story with new eyes, and then to make some small but significant changes that I know really improved the narrative. And making those changes made a world of difference in the final version:

[CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW]


Last weekend, I took my portfolio to Dragon*Con to show it around, and I have to admit, I felt pretty good about showing my most recent page to people. I got some really great comments on it and I know that the success of my storytelling has been greatly enhanced from participation on the Comics Experience Creators Workshop.

I've gone ahead and enrolled in the Introduction to Comic Book Art being taught by Robert Aktins which looks like it will be even more helpful, and right now, I literally have to get back to the drawing board.

Thanks for reading.

-- Nathaniel Allen


If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook

5 comments:



  1. The pair, as well as Pogba, struggled to perform under Mourinho this season but Solskjaer famously signed for a bargain does not believe their fees should inhibit them."When you play for Man United with the badge, there's a certain responsibility, we play in a certain way. I don't think the amount of money that's spent should bother anyone.""Because football nowadays is crazy, isn't it? When I played back in the days you thought this must be the top and it has to go down but it keeps on going upwards."I don't think the amount of money is [the players'] fault. They're players, they're human beings.Ole Gunnar SolskjaerOle Gunnar Solskjaer may have already made an inspired baseball t shirts signing at Man UtdMan Utd have appointed Mark Dempsey as their new first team coach and MEN caught up with one of his former players.Sir Alex FergusonWhat Sir Alex Ferguson did to Lingard feminist t shirts instead of telling him off was brilliantMan Utd player Jesse Lingard never played under Sir Alex Ferguson but he certainly got to know him at Carrington.

    ReplyDelete
  2. But throughout the past week, Premier Doug Ford and health officials have both reported "concerning" trends. As of May 24, Ontario's seven day averages are 407 cases out of 9,506 tests. It's a worrisome Ray Ban Prescription Sunglasses difference compared to May 17, when the seven 2020 Jordan Release Dates day averages stood at 345 cases out of 15,833 tests..

    On the trips our driver Ibrahim was always on time and very nice. He's an excellent New Black Yeezys and safe driver. The car Coach Bags On Sale Online he drove in was also clean with Michael Kors Bags Sale great air conditioning Jordan Shoes For Sale Cheap (which you'll be very thankful for after walking in Petra/Wadi Rum in the Jordan heat).

    ReplyDelete
  3. The process is called cyanoacrylate fuming. That sounds like a grumpy blue cyborg who can't let his resentments go, but it's actually referring to the way fumes from Coach Outlet Clearance superglue adhere to the moisture in fingerprints, Michael Kors Outlet Store making all the whorls and Coach Bags Outlet ridges show up like magic. It's standard operational procedure in crime labs everywhere, because it's both a handy piece of Cheap Ray Ban Glasses chemical engineering and an overwrought metaphor for how your crimes always stick to you..

    Shuttered windows in the State New Jordan Shoes 2020 Dining Room could be opened for dinner guests to look into the conservatories. Some Americans considered the billiard table as either a gambling device or MK Outlet a rich man's Nike Air Force 1 Cheap Outlet toy, and the Hayes were glad to get it out of sight. Day, flowers were brought in from the greenhouses New Yeezys 2020 Coach Bags Clearance to decorate the White House.

    ReplyDelete

Followers