Research
Task: Create a 2-page comic about a creative field you’re interested in.
The first part of my research was to reach out to artists to get firsthand information about working in the field I’m interested in. At first, I emailed few comic book artists, but I found it hard to find artists who would actually respond to my emails and messages. I decided to try emailing some artist who create Webtoons and in the end even those who published their own books, but the most I got was basically sorry we can’t help.
Finally, after weeks of struggling one person responded to me. An industry professional who gave us a talk during one of the university lessons, Paul McCaffrey who apparently had trouble with responding through his website that I was originally directed to email him. Perhaps other artists had the same problem with today’s technology.
Getting in touch with any artist was extremely hard, but once I managed to get a response, I have arranged a meeting with Paul the following Monday. I sent him my interview questions prior to the meeting so he had time to think of the answers.
The email I sent:
Hello,
My name is Agata and I’m studying a Cartoon & Comic Arts course at Staffordshire University in the UK. If you wouldn’t mind, I was wondering if you would be able to tell me about your career and perhaps answer a few questions as a part of my third-year project.
Yours sincerely,
Agata Przybyła
Interview questions and answers:
1. How long have you been working within the industry/as a freelance artist?
1989 graduation. Graphic design course because it seemed like a safe option at the time. Always been a comic fan but started drawing them. Started with comic strips. 2007 small oppress work with comic strips and that’s how he been noticed. Still had chase people after that. Small comic projects and reaching dc and time comics.
2. In your opinion, what is the most valuable things artists should be aware of when thinking about starting a career in the art industry?
Heard work, competitive, it may get time to get established, you may not get the work you want. They will give u what they think suit you.
3. What do you consider the most important thing when it comes to creating a portfolio?
Sequential pages, online stuff lot of sequential pages, any comic you did.
4. Is there anything else artists could prepare besides the art portfolio? Or were you ever asked for some other samples after submitting your portfolio?
One of the editors in DC wanted to draw somebody use telephone. Keep social media up to date. The bigger the following the more likely you are to get commissioned. Sometimes contracts don’t allow posting pics of your work.
5. How do you approach finding work?
You used to go to clients with physical portfolio back in the day. Now we send samples by email, going to cons. Once somebody at con did portfolio reviews. That’s good way of meeting potential clients.
6. Do you have any advice on how to leave a good impression so that people or companies you worked with would want to come back to work with you again.
Be nice person, leaving a good impression with what you can do, and social interaction counts. Don’t send them too much work in progress. Mind when sending stuff (time and day).
7. What does a typical day of working on a project look like and how long is it usually?
From 8 till 9.30 sometimes till midnight when deadlines are tights. 7 days a week.
8. When working on a project how often do you send updates on your progress and at what stage?
Refined sketch or lineart.
9. If you find yourself in a tight spot what motivates you to keep going/ finish the project?
Work ethic, don’t let anybody down.
3 things that you need:
-Need to be fast
-Easy to get on with
-Good at drawing
After talking to Paul, I had a rough idea what I want to include in my two page comic, but it felt like there were few gaps that could be filled with an extra content. I wanted to picture an artist working hard on a graphic novel and talking about the process to in the end engage with an audience and talk about how rewarding the work is in the end.
Since I only managed to interview once artist, I looked for more information on social media, online portfolios, and YouTube. I decided to go through portfolio of one of the artist Kinga Spyra that I also follow on YouTube and other platforms. She is a freelance artist specializing more in the covers, but she got quiet big impact on social media. I used to watch her when I was in college for motivation as she gives a lot of motivational speeches targeted at young artists in her YouTube videos about her creative processes. Kinga is an artist from Poland who finished architecture studies as a result of lack of ambitious art courses in Poland. She used that to her advantage by learning how to design characters in her won time and now she is able to create full illustrations. I think her approach to living as an artist is admirable and I think in my two page comic I would like to include creating content such as recording the art process and some words of encouragement for artists.
I also tried to get in touch with her, but unfortunately she was on a break from social media due to be working on big project that she wasn't allowed to post anything until the release.
During one of the lessons Gareth mentioned about his mistake of not looking into who he is working for and what they would expect form the work he is doing for them and made a terrible mistake of giving them a really bad piece of work to a wrong type of audience, I guess. That made me think about what can I expect my audience to be and what the Cartoon Museum could look for. I looked up Stoke on Trent Cartoon Museum and the first thing that came up were pictures that looked like lots of contemporary art and pop art with lots of bold colours.
This gave me idea of including some bold colours in my comic. I decided to use three primary colours around my comic to make it bold and stand out, but also fit into the style of the other pieces in the museum.
Script for 2 page comic
Page 1
Panel 1- Graduation day, students throwing hats high in the air.
Text- Becoming an artist requires a lot of time and patience.
Panel 2- Artist working on building social media audience through streaming their drawing process.
Text- It can be fun to share your work and build audience online. Streaming, posting pictures and videos can help you in the future.
Panel 3- Artist going for an interview, carrying all the artwork, folder, and a laptop.
Text- It also can be difficult at times, especially to find the right people or company that will hire you.
Panel 4- Every bit of work you put towards your goal will pay off in the end.
Panel 5- Artist working on comic pages.
Text- Making a living of working on something you love to do is a dream come true, but it requires a lot of effort. Being passionate about what you are doing is a good first step to achieving your goals.
Page 2
Panel 1- Drawing from reference
You may find that while creating comics you learn something new every time. Also, it is important to practise some of the basic guidelines to avoid bad drawing habits.
Panel 2- Being a comic artist is more than just drawing stories. The process begins with story idea that then needs to be turned into a script.
Panel 3- Calendar pages going down one after another.
You also need enough time to make thumbnails, plan your comic pages and panels and make final sketches.
Remember to keep you audience updated thorough social media so that they know what and when to except!
Once your project is done it is time to publish it and enjoy the success.
Panel 4- Artist selling work at comic con.
Having true fans among your audience is the most rewarding and brings lots of joy as well as motivation to keep creating new pieces. They will always support you and what your work.
Keep going and remember about all the people who appreciate your work!
I designed a character based on myself and how I see myself in the future. An enthusiastic comic book artists always carrying a pencil everywhere. I gave the character yellow outfit to represent the positivity and joy of working on her graphic novels. It will also stand out form the rest of the background as it will be mostly red and blue. I think this is the type of happy character who will appeal to young and old audience as it is a human can doing her job and it’s something we all can relate to.
Character Design
Comic Pages in progress
Inspired by some pop art pieces I decided to add some dotted background in some places to fill up the space. In my final comic you can also see that I applied red colour to highlight important elements like drawing tablet, camera, books to draw the attention of the audience to these parts. I also tried to make the comic interesting by showing some interesting points of view, for example on page one panel three I showed the character form above. I think it was a good way of showing something different while keeping the character working on her tasks throughout the comic.
