Thursday, July 14, 2011

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: "Gag" Strip

This past week I've been taking an intensive, 5-day version of the Drawing Words and Writing Pictures cartooning course with Jessica Abel. It's been a fantastic opportunity to learn some new skills and dust off some old ones. I thought I would share a few our the exercises that I've done in class. One of the first things we did was to create a simple thumbnail sketch of a "gag" style comic strip, so we could discuss things like pacing, storytelling clarity, etc. Using the feedback I got from our critique, I later went ahead and worked this crude sketch into a final version. Mainly, I did that as an excuse to practice my nib-pen inking techniques. I will post more class exercises on here soon, so stay tuned!  

The original crude thumbnail. The basic idea is there, but Jessica and the other students suggested I flip the clown in panel 3, so that you see his juggling action before he delivers the punchline.  
The final version. Is the punchline funnier this way? Also, I added a framed photo on the wall to give the second clown's space more personality, and I experimented with using both upper and lowercase lettering as opposed to my usual all-caps style. Overall, I think it works (even though it's quite corny).







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