~Selkie/Katy's Art Page!~ @sketchyselkie - Tumblr Blog

-CLASSWORK-

Here are the pages from my sketchbook of classwork done in preparation for this module. This included classes on speech bubble placement and types, perspective, panels and SEO etc. I utilised the classwork we did when I came to my comic as I considered using construction lines when it came to perspective, especially for panels which included Francine’s Lab because they were some of the busiest and therefore would’ve looked strange with really botched perspective. Similarly, I practised using different types of lettering so that the comic wasn’t overwhelmed with text. I’m usually a culprit for doing that so I made it a mission to include ‘picture-specific’ panels to allow the art to tell the story. This is seen when Francine is bringing the monster to life.

Here are the script pages I used when creating the comic. I found using a conventional script was tricky for me to follow so I abridged the format of it by colour-coding sections into the various pages and panels I planned to draw out. Then next to each, I drew out the thumbnails for how the pages would look. I found this method extremely useful. It doesn’t mean I would disregard the conventional scripting method because that isn’t practical but I wanted to try out another way of writing out and working with the story so that I may consider doing it in the future if I am struggling with a script.

Group meetings. We carried these out throughout the process of getting ready for MCM. They’ve been a great method of support to make sure everyone is okay with where they were with work and if there were any issues then we could take them out with each other. In our final one before hand in, we worked out how we plan to cost our comic and merch. We’ve chosen to do a unanimous price so that it’s fair as we’ve all got roughly a similar number pages in our comics. We also worked out a table layout (Image above) so that we could ensure we don’t clutter the table. In addition to this, our layout corresponds with our respective bird colours, making a rainbow! So it should be visually appealing and eye-grabbing for potential customers walking by.

The Comic is done! It’s fully coloured, lettered and ready for print. I am choosing to have it published separately from the University so that I can get additional copies printed. The total page count is 24 (which is divisible for 4!) The method I chose to take in order to create this comic was- Sketch, linearts, colouring then lettering. I found it easier to do it this way as it meant I could focus on one thing at a time and pay attention to the detail. I did choose to do the lineart inconsistent on purpose throughout the comic because I felt like it suited the style I was going for better. Some of the backgrounds are significantly more plain than others also, this was to make space for the lettering as I didn’t want panels to look cluttered and hard to follow. I feel like I have achieved a product which works well as a parody of the likes of Disney cartoons. This is because it is bright, even in darker parts of the story, the story itself is funny and weird and works as a parody of princesses and gothic horror. I have included a subtle bit of blood at the end of the comic, but I don’t think it’s enough to make it necessarily graphic, it simply is to be left to the reader’s interpretation what has happened to the princesses. I am tempted to use this for a sequel story where it turns out they’re all not dead, just stood there covered in ketchup or something. I did choose to use the simpler cover design for this reason, it does mean I could start a collection of these Francine Stein stories. I also think it’s just more eye catching too, not having a super cluttered cover. It means people walking past the table can look and their eyes should be drawn to the image of Francine and the Prince and hopefully make them want to know more about it.

In addition to this I have started working on merch that corresponds with my comic. Above is an example of a print I’m working on- a realistic looking Spacebat. It’s silly enough that it will grab peoples attention yet still relevant to the work I’ve been producing. I plan to create one more print which will hopefully work in a similar manner that you don’t necessarily need to have the comic to understand it, yet it would be good if you did!

I’m still toying with which cover idea I like better. I don’t know whether or not I want the stitches on the cover or whether it overcrowds the piece and distracts from the main focus, Francine and her monster. I do like the second option as it is more basic and if I wanted to add more titles under ‘Francine Stein’, then I could create matching covers with alternate colour schemes.

Asking around my friends and family, I got a mixed response on which was better. Some people liked the first because the stitches made sense and were relevant to the story. Others preferred the plain cover because it looks less crowded and more focussed on the central characters. I feel I am leaning towards the plain cover for these reasons and because it could work if I do choose to add to a series of Francine Stein comics.

#Comic Nest #Francine Stein

I’ve finished inking up all my pages! The final total was my predicted 20 pages. I had originally planned to just have 16 done by the end of the Easter Break but I managed to complete all 20 within this space of time. I want to work in stages as I normally would with a comic rather than giving myself too much to do, which is why I chose to sketch and ink up all the pages first so that my next stage is colouring and adding text. I find colouring an easier job to do so I should be alright for this final push!

Doing this I have realised I have had to work around what I wrote down in my script a fair bit. This is because a lot of the comic is dialogue heavy so I needed to work out ways of drawing conversation which is still interesting and engaging to a reader. I feel like I have achieved this by using backgrounds sparingly and where necessary so that panels aren’t clustered and are still easy to follow yet my characters are still animated enough that they don’t look boring. I changed the section where Francine and Spacebat go digging for body parts in order to save on pages and money because I am conscious of the cost of printing. Instead of drawing it all out, I chose to create a page where Francine is reading a list, also available for the reader to look at almost as if they are Francine in that moment and thus gaining insight into her plan! It seemed like a fun way to work around that part of the story whilst maintaining the flow of it.

#Comic Nest #Francine Stein

Here is the Powerpoint presentation I created in order to pitch to Kevin and Becci. I chose to include a plot synopsis to ensure I wouldn’t miss any details of the story out so that I (hopefully) wouldn’t be called out on plot holes. I divided it into sections to ensure that it was clear that I had a beginning, middle and an end to the story, which I’m glad I did because Kevin did pick a few of my group members up on not having a clear structure. From the feedback I received, it seemed both Kevin and Becci were happy with my pitch and supporting research and sketches. Therefore I considered this a Green light to make a start on my pages without needing to worry about altering any part of the story. NOTES PER SLIDE- Slide 1) My story is supposed to be a comedy where I’ve taken elements of the story of Frankenstein and parodied it. I’ve also turned to convention of Princesses being sweet and lovely on its head by having them play up a ‘Mean Girls’ role in this comic. Francine and Space Bat were characters I had originally designed in 1st year in the hopes I’d come up with a good story to use them in. The title of my comic is supposed to be a really bad pun… Slide 3) boards I’ve created which have been really useful in helping me with my designs which I’ve been doing in my sketchbook. So yeah, In my sketchbook, I’ve been scribbling the ideas for how I wanted my characters to look. These ones are for Francine, the Monster, Space Bat and then I did a bit of research on how I can juxtapose the princesses’ part of the kingdom with Francine’s. Slide 4) These were the mood boards I used when creating my princesses. I wanted to do a fair bit of research into how I could make them all look orginial and nothing like Disney’s interpretations of them, yet still making them recognisable at the Princesses they’re meant to be.

#Comic Nest #Francine Stein

Here is some evidence of the creative process I am taking whilst completing the inking stage of this comic. I have carefully considered where I will be placing my speech bubbles and have left enough room within each panel to accommodate for them. Additionally, I’ve been trying my hand at perspective a fair bit with these pages so that my panels don’t look flat. In panels where I have not drawn up a background, my plan is to paint it in in the colouring stage.

Here we can see our logo being cut out with the laser cutter! It was really interesting to watch how it worked. We have decided as a group that we are going the thread lights through the cut out and take pictures of her merch next to it for the social media. This will make for good advertisement and it will look visually appealing too.

#gif

In class we have been assigned to create something to laser cut onto a piece of wood. Our group decided it would be best to use our logo and completely cut it out so that we could use the wood as a potential stencil or a decorative piece where we thread lights through it and use it when we take photos of our work. This image shows the session we had where we learnt how to set up an Illustrator file for the laser cutter and also how to work using vectoring. We were able to set up our logo with relative ease.

I started working on the script for my story (as posted below) however I haven’t written it in script format just yet. I did choose to read through what I’d written and colour code it based on what information can go on which page and this formed the basis of my page layouts. I then reread through the information in each section and numbered it based on what panel it was going to be and using all of that, I created a rough thumbnail of a page layout next to the information. My comic is going to roughly be around 20 pages with wiggle room if I need to do more or less based on how it works out when I’m actually drawing out my pages.

Here is the piecing together of the banner for the Comic Nest social media. I took it upon myself to request everyone created a drawing of themselves that we could compile together so that our audience could get an idea of our art styles and personalities through one image. It also gives of the ‘Nest’ vibe we’re going for, having all five of us together in our headers and banners on our social media.

Here is the ballgown I have had to design for Francine during her meeting up with the princesses. I needed it to fit with her aesthetic whilst also looking pretty ugly... She needs to look uncomfortable and out of place in it because she’s not wearing her usual science getup and when she’s with the princesses she does feel uncomfortable and like an outsider because that’s how they treat her in spite of her being their queen. Also here are the busts of what my princess group look like. I used my moodboards very heavily when coming up with these designs. When doing my research I realised I had to create these princesses and manage to have them not resemble Disney’s renditions so that they were my own interpretations. I chose to do this by looking up alternate versions of the stories, for example I found a Chinese version of Cinderella and used that as my basis. I also looked into Ballets of Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty to Help come up with their designs. I also researched into time periods in which the princesses could potentially be from therefore Snow White adorns a more Celtic/Medieval appearance. And lastly, I used colour palettes as another way of creating their designs. For example, The Little Mermaid’s colour scheme looks like sand and the sea.

Here are some of the initial sketches I had for my main three characters. Both Francine and Spacebat were characters I had designed in First Year therefore needed updating to fit with how I can draw now. I chose to keep their designs pretty similar to the originals. The Prince’s design was created using the research I did for my moodboards. I combined various elements of that research together to create my own original monster. For example, he has a look of Johnny Depp and Kylo Ren to him whilst also maintaining the generic green skin of the Frankenstein’s monster we know in pop culture. However I have given him elements of yellow in his skin because in the original text, which I chose to reread for the purpose of the project, he is described as having yellow skin therefore I wanted to include that too.

STORY OUTLINE-

Pans across the kingdom, explaining for it is a land where all your fairy-tale princes and princesses live in peace and harmony, the land of Ever After. However, it is ruled over by someone you may not expect… someone a little obscure her subjects may say. (black page with text?)

Front door bell dings, signalling post as arrived at the castle and spacebat’s ears prick up. He flies to the door to pick it up, the letter is like twice the size of him. He reads the letter, and it explains Francine is invited as the guest of honour at the Royal Princess Reunion as she is ruler of this land. Space bat puts the letter in his mouth and flies up a grand stair case towards her lab. At the top of the staircase is a big oil painting of Francine which leads into the next panel. She is working away at her table, piecing together the final bits of her experiment when spacebat flies in. ‘Ah... if I just attach this leg then this little guy will be ready for some thunder!’ She exclaims, attaching the leg to a weird mutant corpse of a rabbit ‘Oh, sup Spacebat? What’s that?’ ‘GAH!’ He yells, as it is all he can say, placing the letter down on her desk by the window. The room they’re in is massive, it covers almost the entire floor plan on the castle. At one end is Francine’s lab, where she carries out her obscure experiments and the other is her study, filled with rows of old books. By the grand windows sits her desk, where she scribbles away ideas for new experiments.

‘Oh, a letter? Gimme five and then I’ll look at it. This lil’ guy is pretty much ready. Turn on the lightening catcher will ya?’ She responds, carrying the rabbit corpse over to an operating table. Space bat turns on several buttons on a large machine before readying himself to pull a giant lever.

‘GAH?’ He asks.

Francine is strapping down the rabbit and attaching to crocodile clips to two bolts protruding from its neck, ‘Okay yep, pull the lever SB!’

Green lightening runs from the two rods at the top of the machine spacebat turns on, and down cords leading to the clips at the rabbit’s neck, Francine jumps up and down like an excited schoolgirl ‘It has to work this time! I attached the bolts at an alternate point in the nervous system! We can’t fail!’ she cries out.

The rabbits body begins to twitch as life enters it once more, Francine’s excitement grows.

The machine finally cuts off as a little adorable monster rabbit now sits upright on the table, before poofing into a black pile of ash.

‘DAMMIT! We were so close this time!’ Francine wails before traipsing over to her desk and throwing herself down in the chair. ‘Let’s look at this dumb letter then’ She sighs.

Spacebat is seen brushing away the ash on the table with a tiny broom. Francine reads the letter.

‘Oh God.’ She exclaims, ‘Spacebat, you know what this means… it time to wear…. The gown’ She looks over towards a dusty cobwebbed part of the room where a wardrobe sits, all her lab coats are laid out and pretty much everything else that looks like what she’s wearing. However, shrouded in moonlight seeping in from the window is a really grotesque looking ballgown, saved for her most Royal of duties, none of which she’d had to see to yet.

‘I’m going to CRY, these princesses are going to eat me alive!’ She cries, placing her head into her hands.

‘GAH!’ Spacebat says, now mobbing with a tiny mob and bucket.

‘Hm, that’s true I am their Queen, BUT they’re all just so… so… sickly sweet. Father did say this day had to come and I had to be ready for it but why can’t I just nap forever instead?’ She looks up from her desk. She sighs heavily once more, ‘Looks like we’re gonna have to make you a tux Spacebat, oh and go call us a carriage, we have a ball to attend…’

Exposition shot of Cinderella’s castle. High angle of Francine and spacebat looking up at it from outside their carriage.

‘That’s a… fancy castle’ Francine mumbles. Before they step inside. She’s now wearing a grim-looking ball gown that does kind of resemble her casual dress. But she does look uncomfortable and out of place in it.

As she reaches the doorway leading to the ball room, she hears her name being muttered. She peers through the doorway and finds herself at the top of a grand staircase. The other Princesses are all huddled together drinking, giggling and chatting away. (low angle as if the reader is a part of their crowd, you can just make out Francine at the top of the stairs looking through the open door).

‘I really don’t know’ Snow White smirks ‘I doubt any prince would want her, have you SEEN her beak of a nose?’ They erupt into laughter.

‘And that AWFUL fashion sense she has, like why? Sleeping beauty wakes to question.

‘Not to mention those creepy experiments she’s up to that I’ve heard people whispering about’ The Little Mermaid Shudders.

‘True… And if she does have a guy he MUST be blind!’ Rose adds. Cinderella nods in agreement.

She sighs ‘Nah, she doesn’t have a Prince, be real guys. It won’t be long before I, regrettably, must step in with my Love and rule over this Kingdom’ she adds sarcastically.

‘So wait, how long does she have to need to be married?’ The Little Mermaid asks, a blank expression of her face.

‘Well, she was supposed to be married like a month ago, but did you attend any wedding?’ Snow responds.

Francine grimaces. Having had enough of listening to them, she slams open the door, startling the princesses.

‘Sup ladies’ she greets them, putting on a bold front ‘sorry I’m late, I was busy telephoning my love!’

‘You what?’ Cinderella looks deeply confused.

‘My super handsome and totally real Prince!’ She replies, coming down the staircase now ‘Oh yeah, he’s like super sorry he couldn’t be here to meet you guys and meet your… fellas’ (panel of the princes stood by the buffet, looking dumb and vacant)

‘But he’s off on a quest to destroy 10,000 Vampires who were planning to wipe out our Kingdom, it’s chill now- said it’s sorted! Heart of a Lion, my guy’ (maybe thought bubble appears here?)

‘So… you ARE married?’ Rose asks ‘When? Where were our invites???’ she whines.

‘We eloped, Spacebat officiated, we’re just SO in love we wanted to do it ASAP’ Francine plays up the sickly sweet front.

‘Oh? Is he handsome?’ TLM grins excitedly.

‘So handsome!’ Francine smiles, ‘Gorgeous jet black hair, and super swole’ she acts out flexing her muscles, spacebat does the same. Cinderella’s eyes squint and she folds her arms, not believing what she’s hearing.

‘Well then, I want to meet him as soon as. What’s to say you’re not just making all this up, Francine?’ She says bitterly ‘Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest’

Francine gulps ‘Uh, well um… He’ll be back on Friday I believe… Why don’t you all come over for dinner? She asks nervously, realising she’s digging herself into a hole.

‘Fine, we’ll be there’ Cinderella scoffs.

‘Fine, I hope you’ll be there’ Francine claps back with a false smile.

Francine is pacing back and forth in her lab, panicked, since she’s never really been all that bothered in finding a boyfriend, let alone husband. Her practise is her life, and right now she’s more interested in finally getting her experiment right than planning a poxy wedding…

‘That’s it!’ she exclaims, ‘If I can’t just magic up a Prince out of thin air, then I’ll make one!’ She yells, running over to her library of books and starts frantically searching for books on human anatomy.

‘GAH!’ Spacebat yells, dodging the books she’s tossing aside.

‘No, it’s only like 10% unethical, more practical then anything else! Please Spacebat, I’ll need your help finding body parts! She responds, her head buried in the bookcase.

‘GAH!’ Spacebat yells again.

‘Oh, screw your morals, SB! I’ll build that spaceship you’ve always wanted if you promise to help me our here, kid!’ she bribes.

‘…Gah’ Spacebat thinks longingly about soaring off to the moon in a fancy space rocket… his all-time goal.

‘I knew I’d get’cha to come around!’ Francine chuckles.

A montage scene narrated by Francine of them collecting body parts by grave robbing etc and then working together to stitch together the monster and reading away at anatomy books etc, She’s outlining the plan in the narration-

‘First we’ll sneak off to the biggest graveyard in the Kingdom at the witching hour where no one will catch us in action… then we’ll get stitchin’. Body parts we’re not to sure on, we’ll just keep in the fridge, y’know, for safe keeping! Then we’ll do a bit more research to make sure everything’s in.. proportion… you get what I’m saying! And then Voila! We shock the guy with some electricity and we should have ourselves a super sexy prince!’

Francine clamps the crocodile clips to the two bolts at either side of the monster’s neck before giving the signal to Spacebat to pull the lever. This scene mirrors the rabbit scene; however, Francine succeeds and screams with glee when the monster opens his eyes.

‘HE’S ALIVE!’ she yells excitedly.

The monster stands up and Francine admires her work. (Ben Swolo reference here). Potential full page.

‘Spacebat, grab my sewing kit! We’re gonna have to make him a Tux!’ She says proudly.

The princesses all arrive at the castle and look up.

‘What IS this place?’ Snow white grimaces.

‘I dunno but it’s giving me the creeps’ TLM responds, shivering.

Space bat opens the door and lets the princesses in, they all frown and scowl as they walk through the corridors towards the ballroom.

They enter the door to find an dark empty ballroom, ever so faintly lit be candles. Francine claps her hands and the flames grow large. The princesses are able to make out she is perched on her throne nonchalantly.

‘Welcome ladies!’ She jeers, waving up a glass of wine.

‘Okay, cut the bull, Francine! Where’s this prince?’ Cinderella yells back, hands on hips.

Francine gestures towards another door on the Princesses’ right. The doors swing open, two green hands firmly on each door. The doors have also made huge cracks up the wall with the impact they’ve made. There is an ominous black figure with piercing yellow eyes stood, waiting.

They look terrified as they wait for him to enter the light of the ballroom. He steps into the light and roars violently at the princesses causing them to scream, scatter and run straight out the castle.

‘Told you he was DEAD GORGEOUS!’ Francine chuckles with Spacebat as she then watches him chase after the princesses.

Francine and the monster then skip off ever so happily into the sunset, a trail of bloody footprints behind them, implying her monster did kill the princesses, maybe there’s a tiara or two on the floor. Spacebat is seen flying away in his rocket.

The End.

19 pages?

Francine Stein and the Dead-Gorgeous Prince

My story is supposed to be a comedy where I’ve taken elements of the story of Frankenstein and parodied it. I’ve also turned to convention of Princesses being sweet and lovely on its head by having them play up a ‘Mean Girls’ role in this comic. Francine and Space Bat were characters I had originally designed in 1st year in the hopes I’d come up with a good story to use them in. The title of my comic is supposed to be a really bad pun made apparent in this story plan below.

Queen Francine Stein’s father Victor has passed down his Kingdom to her, and it’s not exactly her cup of tea. She now rules over the Fairy tale kingdom of princes and princesses. Fortunately, her new position means her subjects cannot question the ethics of her scientific practise, so she takes on the role with shrugged shoulders.

One day, she is invited to Cinderella’s castle for the ten-year Royal Princess Reunion, as it is required that the Queen attends such events, and she dreads it… This is where her kingdom’s snootiest princesses gather to talk ballgowns, cute fluffy critters and handsome princes, all which Francine lacks. Although she does have a lovable side-kick, called Space Bat, who assists her in her science experiments and fills the ‘Igor’ role in the story.

Reluctantly she goes, only to find herself the sole topic of conversation as she walks in, they’re all talking about her behind her back. The princesses then hound her about where her prince is given she’s Queen now and it is expected that the reigning monarch be married in order to set an example of ‘happily ever after’ to their subjects. She reassures them her prince does in fact exist and how amazing he is and how, when he gets back from his quest to slay 10,000 vampires, all the princesses are invited to her castle to meet him. After getting back home, she realises the mistake she’s made. There is no one in this entire kingdom that would marry her even if she is the Queen because she’s kind of ugly, she believes. So, she digs out her Dad’s old experiment journals and finds his notes on reanimating the dead. Her plan is, if she can’t get a man, she’ll build one! One made to order exactly as described. Spacebat is completely against the idea of it but agrees to help her scavenge body parts (because imagine how weird it would be to just catch the Queen graverobbing?), only if Francine will build him the rocket ship he’s always wanted.

So, the duo create Francine’s wonderful make-shift prince and bring him to life, only to discover he can’t talk, only roar (A minor flaw- can be overlooked, right?). Francine is immediately enamoured by her monster and super proud of her work. She then sends out her invitations for her own Royal Ball for the rest of the princesses to meet her prince. Upon the arrival to her castle, the other princesses are super creeped out by her décor and aesthetic, they are all guided into the ballroom by a well-dressed Spacebat. Francine then makes her grand entrance followed by her monster. He absolutely terrifies the princesses and they run screaming, Francine stands there smiling. Eventually, Francine and her monster skip off into the sunset together with bloody foot prints trailing behind them, in the sky, Spacebat is seen flying away in his rocket. A true happy ending.

Comic Ideas

I had two ideas I wanted to potentially do for this project.

IDEA 1- Dystopian world were rabbits have taken over the world and enslaved humanity. Piper, a young girl is recruited into an underground organisation of animals who plan to destroy the rabbits and reclaim Earth.

Unfortunately, I got stuck when trying to flesh out this story idea. I was able to work out a beginning and a middle, but not the end. It worried me that the idea was too vague and wouldn’t end up being something I would be happy creating. I also couldn’t figure out how I exactly wanted the organisation to go about trying to reclaim Earth, other than recruiting a human (Piper) because humans know how to make species go extinct. This was a slight attack on how so many species have gone extinct at the hands of humans but I just couldn’t work past this idea.

IDEA 2-

Set in a Fairy tale Kingdom where out-of-place Queen Francine Stein rules over. She is invited to a princess reunion as the Royal guest of honour only to find herself the sole topic of conversation. She reassures the princesses that her prince does exist and they are welcome to meet him when he returns from his quest. Francine then realises she is going to have to make this prince because there’s no way someone will marry her in such a short space of time. This is going to be a strange comedic parody of the story of Frankenstein which I feel I can come up with a clear beginning, middle and end for. In addition to that, I feel the characters in the story will be more fleshed out and there’s more opportunity for research in terms of looking into adaptions of Frankenstein and also different Fairy Tales for inspiration.

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