Update 1 - Change in Style
As you all know from reading my posts, I haven’t really been thrilled with how my designs have been going. So, after a mishap with my short comic (which I will be returning to later). I took a break in order to re-examine what was going wrong without any deviations and then change those problems.
And here is what I found out.
I wasn’t being authentic with my designs.
Sure, after looking at them they were nice. But they were hard to duplicate, and they seemed so stiff! Even though my story’s themes can be a little … “heavy” doesn’t mean that my designs have to be as well. If you’ve seen my older videos on YouTube, you’ll notice that I have a very fun cartoony style. But I kept feeling like the seriousness of the work required a serious portrayal. But I was wrong.
So off screen I started to play for the first time in a while. And pulled from some of my original design inspirations like those found in:
Rubber hose animation (think Fleischer Studios, Adventure time, or cup head for example), Over the Garden Wall, The Amazing Adventures of Gumball, & Unicorn Warriors Eternal. Also, video games like Professor Layton, Legend of Zelda (specifically The Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, & Phantom Hourglass) and Touch Detective.
And once I did those things everything started clicking.
Using my previous designs, I simplified and styled them according to my original tastes and all of a sudden it was working, and I was finally feeling happy with the results. All of the updated images for the six characters are shown below. Everything else will be posted on my website for you to look at. I am sorry for not recording the process but sometimes you just have to work without others watching. Plus, I felt like it would be a needlessly redundant experience for you all.
But in the end, this will be the style that my future character designs will be in so you will see the process for it eventually.
Update 2 - Major Changes Coming
1. Concerning The Mr. Bindle Script
So, my script previously didn’t have any chapters to segment the content. But now it does! I have now broken up the script into 19 chapters which averages to 16.8 pages a chapter! Which I’m super excited about.
2. Concerning Mr. Bindle’s Time lapse Videos
During the time of writing this blog post I was starting to work on the backgrounds for Chapter 1 pages 1-4. But as I was doing these two things came to mind.
I feel like I’m giving too much away.
I feel that I am losing artistic cohesion by jumping around the prescribed production pipeline.
To address the first point. I know that in my very first blog post I mentioned that I wanted to share the entire process with you all, but in the end I couldn’t get myself to do this at least not for my graphic novels. Because of this I will continue to show you all of my character designs for this work. But when it comes down to thumbnailing, storyboarding etc.… I will just show you all carefully selected bits and pieces so as to not spoil any of the book’s content.
To the second point I felt that jumping around my production pipeline just for videos wasn’t working for me. I need to take my time on each phase of the process to provide you all with a quality story that is cohesive in design and scope. And doing it the way that I was planning on doing it felt like the quality and cohesiveness would be damaged, making me work double to fix any mistakes. So, from now on this will be the production pipeline for any and all of my projects to come.
Story > Character Design > Visual Development (Environments) > thumbnails (minimalist) > light and color scripts (minimalist) > storyboarding > lettering > backgrounds > characters > effects > cover & chapter design
3. Concerning What’s to Come
So, with all of that said what’s next for Substack and my YouTube Channel?
Well from Nov. 2, 2024– Jan. 18, 2025, I will be focusing my efforts on completing my 7-page one shot comic “Teacup.”
After this my posting schedule will change drastically. But I will leave this for another post.
In closing, I just wanted to state what my artistic vision for my projects will be going forward before I let you all go.
Characters & Props: Playful Minimalism
Environment Style: Impressionism & Photobashing
Covers: Abstract Minimalism (Bauhaus & Swiss)
Writing Genre Focus: Genre Bending Surrealism
Anyway, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading and bearing with me as I learn my trade.
Images
Next time
In my next post I will be working on the thumbnails / storyboards for Mr. Bindle Chapter 1 pages 1-4
(I already had them done so why not share. Though in the end they might change sorry about that :)
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