Matt Forsythe and Harvey Pekar. Good / Bad

This post features all of the collected elements of an exercise in analysis, emulation and synthesis of varying comic attributes. It's from Ivan Brunetti's Cartooning book.

Firstly a direct copy of a Matt Forsythe page, then an essay that discusses my take on two comic pages from different comics.  Next up is a really interesting and very much recommended way to get to know another style of working. Then, the pages of the comics in question and ending with a dump of false starts and trials for good measure.

You can buy Matt Forsythe' magnificent comic here

...and you can read it online here  (but it's nice to have it in your hands.)

Feedback is always appreciated... 

Dan. 

My Comics Class copy

Matt Forsythe's Comics Class in the background, my prelim inked 

version in the fore and adding halftone in Photoshop.

Essay

Ok, so here is the really interesting/brain-bending task.  Take a panel from the 'bad' one and recreate it in the style of the 'good' one... and vice versa. I thought this was a surprising task. In order to be able to succeed you have got to look and think really closely about many  different things at once. How would the other artist reveal this, what would and wouldn't be shown? How can i get the  character to look both 'in the style of' another artist and like themselves?  What is the easiest way to recreate that slightly off halftone pattern? etc etc...

Here is the first and below that is a quick diagram...

and here is the next one.  The opposite way of approaching this. Similar diagram below.

Below are images of Mattew Forsythe's Comics Class - Cover and pages for exercise.

You can buy this magnificent comic here

...and you can read it online here  (but it's nice to have it in your hands.)

Extra stuff...

Below are two excerpts from American Splendour that collates two or Harvey Pekar's books. The examples are those that I used for the exercise.

A collection of process shots of the exercise. I've included it all, warts 'n' all.  I'm continually surprised by how it takes me a fait few minutes to be able to warm up... but I pretty much always start of bloody awful.  This has never been any different.  By the way, these are not in any order, just cut and pasted and slapped on.

'Of Mice and Men'

Here's a little exercise that was undertaken on a whim...  Whilst undertaking the Brunetti 'Cartooning' book I had to try to sum up a story in a single panel with caption.  Whilst making a start It crossed my mind that it might be a novel/interesting experiment to try to draw a panel for each page of the book, something that would sum up the more important aspects.  All panels were draw whilst reading the actual page, on the hoof and without much reference.  

The end result is a bit of a curio.  It can't be traditionally 'read' by anyone without foreknowledge of the book, but I do think that an impression of the themes, or at least a sense of place can be garnered.  I guess I'm just pleased with the overall look, always a sucker for a grid.

Of the 4 slides, no.1 is a first attempt to arrange and colour in Photoshop. No. 2 is another arrangement and a second colour added - this was in preparation for my partners' birthday. No. 3 is the cover of a small press concertina book idea that has yet to be arranged, whilst No. 4 is a quick low res trial print.

I think i might be enjoying the stark original blue one after all that.

Dan.

'The Five Mile' book

Here is a little book that I made for Kerry.  It's a trip around a well-worn bike ride called the 'Five Mile' that all of the kids strive to do. The process is as follows; take reference pics with iPhone, light pencil at twice the size, permanent ink tech pen (0.1), watercolour, photoshop to tweek colour / resize and print.  

As you can probably tell (or not!!) there is a definite nod to Gipi's watercolour technique. I had just finished reading the wonderful 'Garage Band' and wanted to get into trying a bit of painting.  His work is  incredibly subtle when you look in detail, there is a fantastic balance between looseness and precision, together with a simple but effective use of colour that I have monumentally not managed to copy!

(Unfortunately the usually ace Hipstamatic hasn't rendered the reds very well, they're not that saturated.)

As Graphics Exam - 2011... a few sneak peeks.

Here is a little sneak peek of some of the work from the Graphics exam that took place in rm41 yesterday and today.  There was loads of good stuff being made and i'm pretty proud of the work they put in and the  relaxed atmosphere of the 'exam'.  (This is just a snippet, and i've missed out loads of other good stuff that i just haven't snapped on my phone yet, more to come.)  The first book is about urban legends, the second one deals with a maniac with a whisk (every school has one...) and the last images are posters for the 'Big Gig on the Moon' that the Flaming Lips with no doubt someday play...

Case Study help-book... at last!

(A bit of a funny one this... I can't sell the damn thing but it might make my life a little easier and some students may get to produce good work from it but here goes...)

So, the day finally arrived when i managed to complete the book.  It started life as a desperate attempt to organise a part of my delivery that had always gone wanting… the case study.  This project began last summer (2010) when somebody asked for some help with their investigation and I went about my usual scrabbling around for 'question sheets'.  I was unhappy with kids producing dull word docs when they had so many other creative skills and needed to learn more, quick.  I began to produce one for that day (as is normal for me) in a rough DIY 'zine'  style, but quickly realised the potential of what i could cram in (but sadly not the work that it would entail).  The results of this hilarious first attempt are the last of the images below...

So the answer seemed to be create a short 'book' that explained what you could do when studying others' work, what fun could you have, what skills could be learnt, and how could you get away from writing reams…  This need also tied in (as it so often does) with my need to get away from doing everything using Illustrator and Photoshop and try to learn how to draw again… with a brush… in a comic/zine style.  I must admit looking back throughout the earliest pages I had constructed, that you can se a tentative hand, and that some of the experiments in the middle section (questions) either go horribly wrong or are worthy of further exploration.   

There is no narrative to the book, what I wanted to do for the students was provide a useful, entertaining and stimulating example of what could be achieved with a moderate amount of time and plenty of passion.  The reason there is no narrative is that I just drew whenever I could and didn't filter the subject matter in any way, I just let it happen.   I haven't attempted to try the book on the students as yet and they have done plenty of case studies in the mean time (with me barking what is in the book…) I will post some results when the time comes…

Anyhoo, this post shows in hideous detail most of the steps in the construction of the book, it's pretty dull but helps as a teaching aid.  The most tricky bit so far has been sortin gout collation of the pages... y'see, as usual i didn't start with a plan...

PS.  the book is 64 pages long, is split up into sections such as; intro, contacting artists/designers, context & content, excuses, glossaries, form, Andy Warhol's advice, process, personal response and self-assessment... Jesus, that sounds like a boring book.

PPS. my favourite part features a set of free excuses for Sixth Form students to use when they miss the deadline.... featuring such classics as 'I'm allergic to pencils'  and 'oh God yeah, I fell over'   (Thanx to @scottambrose10 for the brilliant 'Chinese burn' excuse and Pete for walking over.)