Scribble and Flow
This exercise is an attempt to address how to link compositions and visual flow from panel to panel.
What you need:
Pencil or pen
Paper
Post-It Notes
A secret love of dance
Instructions:
Set out a six panel grid and draw some nice swirly lines that roughly follow your reading order. Aim for a page or two, with fresh scribbles for each. Try to vary the density and energy of your line so there is some change over your panels.
Put Post-It Notes over your panels. You can see through Post-Its a bit, and you’re going to use the scribbled lines to guide your images, to help create visual flow from panel to panel. Allow the scribble to impact your compositions, connect panels visually, create movement and visual momentum, and even impact the narrative a bit.
Try one (or all) of the following approaches:
Use only abstract marks.
Focus on a character’s movement or energy.
Draw the way you usually draw.
As for a narrative, I usually write first, but I found it easier to simply leave space with this one and back-fill, allowing the images to lead.
I find the following topics usually bear fruit:
Things you are worried about
A scary story from childhood
A secret from your childhood
Something you overreact to. Every. Damn. Time.
Scribble example:
Abstract example:
Character example (aka, I love dance):
The usual drawing approach:
Thoughts:
I found this exercise satisfying but difficult. I had to draw my abstract version twice because the first one just looked terrible. I also found using scribbles to inform the compositions of more literal images tricky. However, I found drawing a character moving to a flowing line extremely satisfying and plan to use that for action sequences in the future.
When I start making comics for blockbuster films.
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