Workshop work

I just (literally) attended a SAW workshop on Narrative Voice in Comics, facilitated by Tom Hart and hosted by the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV. It was totally excellent, as Bill and Ted would say. 

Tom walked us through examples of narrative styles in contemporary comics, and we completed two-minute writing/drawing exercises after each variation, using any character we chose. Here are my wiki-wiki texts and comics based on the prompts. (I used Betsy Murgatroyd, my philosophical barfly, not that these quick sketches do her any justice.)

First, objective third-person narrative text:

Next, subjective third-person narrative, from the POV of another character:

First person narrative:

 

 

First person narrative through dialog directed at another (in this case, a letter)

First person narrative, words and pictures juxtaposed in mood:

First person narrative depicted only visually:

Second person narrative, reader is the character:

Second person narrative, reader is interacting with the character from their POV:

Seriously, this was a great creative exercise as well as a formalist observation. Tom is a wonderful instructor and I can't imagine how great taking an entire course with him would be. But I hope to find out!

 

Betsy Murgatroyd Zine

 

All that fiddling around in the prior posts turned into something... check it out here.

Moar Style

So, I have sort of become enamored with my blowsy barfly and have been using her as a model while I try out different pens/line weights/styles and so forth. In that vein, I really appreciated the feedback from my SAW colleagues Syne and Tim at our co-working session yesterday morning.

Since I am putting Betsy Murgatroyd (I have decided that's her name) through her paces as an artist's model, I have also had her spout quotes from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Albert Camus. I love the juxtaposition of image and thought that results. Never judge a book by it cover, or a barfly by her drink.

In any case, here are three studies of Betsy, completed last night at the SAW Starlight Studio.