Requirements
Learning Outcomes for 3.2:
1. Design one or more projects that engage with external partners.
2. Create opportunities with external partners that support your emerging practice.
3. Synthesize contextual studies with personal practice to create a new body of work.
4. Produce material that communicates your new knowledge and understanding.
Research, Trial and Error
At the start of this unit, Illustration 3.2, I was not sure about direction at all. I knew I wanted to: 1. continue using some designs I had come up with previously to make a big project, 2. write a comic-related dissertation, and 3. build on my online presence. This was perhaps too vague and varied, as plans go. Most of the first two parts/chapters were spent researching and analyzing parts of illustration I wanted to explore. Not in terms of artistic approaches, history, or other artists, but in terms of industry. I gained some insight, but I have to confess that I had been hoping for more clarity at the time. It turns out that one can approach “illustration” from a million different directions, and no results are guaranteed for any of them. I was also researching on behalf of the project itself. It turns out that the niche I’m working with is less ubiquitous than I thought. Though I should have known this, because comic books are a bit niche in the first place.
Reading back in my learning log entries, the anxiety is more than palpable. I was in-between places (countries) and like many students coming to confront the end, I realized I had gotten comfortable with the school-work and had no idea what my life would look like after I actually put myself out there in a more professional way and started working “seriously”. Worse still, I realized that I knew even less about the sort of industry I am entering than I thought.
I have done a bit of work for clients in the last few years, here and there, but that experience did not feel like enough of an indicator at all. This is mostly why I wanted to work on the online presence thing (aka point number 3), both in terms of social media, and making improvements to my current portfolio.
Part 6 (Networks and Audiences) is an exercise for my atrophied sharing muscle. Though even before that in Part 1, I was experimenting with social media posts about Verner’s Tale and trying to interact with other people about it. Make it a collaborative effort. Try to tell the story and have other people add their input. This was not met with a lot of success, since I only did it a short time and I don’t have a social media audience who is interested in these sorts of stories. It was still a good exercise, and one that may have more success If I decide to post parts of the comic on social media the way I was conceptualizing in the beginning.
So, I felt some pressure to “put myself out there more”. Especially since the first few sections had to do with “external partners” and “external contexts”. This became a secondary goal to the paper and the actual work I was making, at least at the beginning. Though perhaps I should not have focused my energy on this part quite yet. But since I was unsure whether the exploration with “external contexts” were better relegated to theory at this point or if I was supposed to apply my newfound knowledge, I sat in a strange limbo. Several of the goals I set at the beginning had to do with social media and reaching out to others, some of which I actually did.
One of the breakthroughs was realizing I could post unfinished things and share my work with other people, even if I did not consider it perfect, and even if I did it sporadically. I started posting process videos on YouTube, just short clips with music, and did so for the duration of two or three of the unit chapters. I had a moment when I realized how much broken “streaks” affected the way I relate to my artistic practice. I never realized how much I saw things as either all or nothing when it comes to sharing work: either do it “well” and regularly or not at all. This is not necessarily a good way to approach sharing art, not if one’s goal is simply to share work and not “grow a following”, which is not really my intention at the moment.
It is strange, because my dislike for social media led me to believe that I was immune to its toxic attitudes, and this is clearly not true. This pressure to always be “sharing”, to always be “connected”, or “provide value”, lest one risks being redundant or being forgotten… it seems to have permeated into my thinking in ways which affected the way I approach my canvas. And obviously created a reluctance around showing others my work. Though there are also other factors I won’t be going into.
Still, a strange position to be in for someone who is trying to become a professional illustrator. And even more so for a storyteller.
The challenge helped. The next step for overcoming this will be being more open about the bigger projects I’m tackling and not just random warm up sketches. This is for the Final Project. I want to try out sharing my process more openly and confront this discomfort. Not for the sake of sharing or followers or likes, but simply for the sake of sharing the process and becoming comfortable with the idea that my work is also for the eyes of others, even if it isn’t perfect. I’m still workshopping the method though.
The reason I’m focusing on this first instead of the project itself, is because presentation/method of sharing my work/thinking about audience is what I’ve been learning about most. I also learned about drawing comics, refined some digital painting skills and learned how to draw in a new program, but those were incremental improvements and can be seen in the presentation below. I’ve been learning about what sorts of stories are told to what age groups, about where comics are sold, about who to send a proposal, and that proposals/queries are needed in the first place. Important stuff, and varied. Most of it too scattered to make practical use of yet, though I’m applying as much as I can to this experimental project, Verner’s Tale.
Putting Together a Query
I decided to organize the work in terms of a query letter/project pitch/visual development project portfolio. For graphic novels these things can sort of overlap from what I’ve been able to deduce. One needs to present a synopsis, sample pages, character designs and possibly a bit about the creator(s). Some of the images below were first drafted or even completed in the previous unit, but for the sake of the project’s coherence, I have included them.
Verner’s Tale started out as five distinct character designs for stories by Hans Christian Andersen. As I worked, the characters were slowly intruding in each other’s stories until I had myself a Five Man Band of adventurers. This lead to more questions about how these characters could have possibly come to interact with each other. Which lead to writing a story.
There are many fairy-tale retellings out there which force iconic characters into the same world. Shrek was the one I grew up with. Into the Woods is a classic musical. Once Upon a Time was a very popular TV show for a while there. In comics, Fables is the best known of this genre. And cross-overs are beloved in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is how a lot of myths came about, people around a fire talking about their favorite gods and then debates turning into stories. The key here is that all of them have some sort of twist. Even in fairly faithful adaptation, one needs to make the fairytale fresh but it’s even more important when multiple characters interact. A popular one is pulling fairytale characters in our world, as Fables and Once upon a Time do. Another is satire, which is what Into the Woods and Shrek are.
For Verner’s Tale, I didn’t go for modern and there isn’t a thematic twist/satire beyond the fact that a lot of the characters I used should technically be dead and/or not human, but here they are and they therefore have the potential to find their happy ending. Which is something a lot of Andersen characters don’t get. I would not call the use of happy endings a thoughtful exploration of fairytale themes via satire. Quite the opposite, actually. Contemporary people tend to expect happy endings in their fairytales.
When I was looking for comp titles, I didn’t actually find any which aligned closely enough. This could be a problem or could be an asset. As in, it’s a new possible niche or it’s not something anybody wants to read. When I was writing it, I was not thinking about audiences at all, I was just having fun with the fairy tale elements and building on the characters’ not-so-happily-ever-after’s.
As I said before, people generally like retellings, but in comics specifically fairytales tend to either fall in two categories: Faithful or Dark. The Faithful ones are for smaller children, usually under middle grade, and the Dark ones are, well, dark. If not really horror than horror adjacent. At least Tim Burton levels, aesthetically, but people tend to venture in gory territory because there’s just a lot of material in that direction.
When I wrote the basics of Verner’s Tale, I was going for Sword-and-Sorcery/Adventure. Maybe even YA fantasy, if one uses novel-publishing terms. There are a lot of coming-of-age themes and Verner, the main character, is a teenager so it would fit there. Problem is, I’ve not really found a lot of recent Western examples of comics which fit in this category. There are Manga (Dungeon Meshi, Frieren), but Manga has everything, and it’s not the same industry so it doesn’t count. The closest examples I’ve found are more sci-fi than high fantasy (Saga, Monstress, Coda). There are some webcomics and self-published/kickstarted projects, but same as with Manga, those are different methods/categories of publishing. There are some middle-grade graphic novels with fantasy elements, but nearly all of them are portal fantasies. Modern characters entering a fantasy world. I hesitate to include any examples like that as comps, despite some similar fantasy elements and coming-of-age themes.
It’s entirely possible that I’m just not well-read enough and need to ask around for some recommendations, but so far I have not quite found anything that I would be happy to cite as a previous success in this genre of graphic novel. Which isn’t a good thing, if I were to actually pitch this to someone. It’s also possible that I’m overthinking this. I would need to ask someone who is more knowledgeable in the newest graphic novel trends, or just the industry in general. I’m no good at trends, since I tend to read what I like, whether it’s from last year or fifty years ago.
The story itself follows a fairly typical adventure structure. Hero encounters problem at home, Hero is reluctant to leave, Hero is forced to leave on journey to retrieve item, Hero makes friends along the way, Hero fails, Hero returns whilst reconciling some aspect of himself and/or the world around him, Hero brings back cure and solves problem, if slightly differently than originally planned, most likely with the aid of his new friends. I wasn’t going for anything revolutionary. The full synopsis is in Part 8 at the end. Normally, one would include it with the query, and I would if I were attaching this in a proposal, but I’m just going to link it for now. The summary with the images will be enough to understand the gist.
I debated whether or not to include backstories/original stories for each character as they were in Andersen’s tales. I eventually decided not to and keep those as something like easter eggs or mythological inspiration. The story has to stand on its own anyway, so I’ve elected not to explain which tale each character comes from. At least not as far as short summaries/story hooks go. And some of them are obscure. The Snow Queen is the only one I would consider to be easily recognizable. I’m not sure if that’s enough to make anyone invested in the characters just by virtue of their inspiration source.
Verner’s reasons for hating Cederbjerg are entirely legitimate and logical. Their prejudiced ways led to his sister nearly dying a fiery death and to him being stuck with a swan’s wing for a left arm. Bewilderingly, infuriatingly, said sister doesn’t share this view. When she asks him to go on a dangerous mission to find a cure for the crystalline curse taking over their southern forests, she does so not from a solemn duty, but genuine, heartfelt sincerity. So he goes. Of course he goes. She’s his last sibling, and she refuses to leave the stupid island. Therefore, the stupid island must be saved.
On the voyage over the Strait, he’s aided out of a near-assassination by a strange, inhumanly strong individual named Morten. His story stretches the limits of even Verner’s imagination, but Morten’s manner is so straightforward, and the world is just strange enough that Verner believes him. Verner was a swan just five years before, who is he to say tin soldiers and paper dolls can’t become human? Verner invites Morten to travel with them to Blomsted, where he might find a solution to his own problem. The same wizard who crated Morten still keeps his beloved Salome under his thrall, and he has not yet found a counter-spell.
A sunk ship, several miles, and an unfortunate encounter with a donkey later, the two manage to travel East together up to the Thieving Mountains. There, they pick up Runa, the Raven Robber who rather invites herself along (though they do need a guide).
And in the same manner their company gains members, wins battles, gets lost in magical fields, liberates Thrall Assassins from their bondage, makes friends with the Snow Queen, fights evil step-mothers and yet more sapient former children’s toys until they find themselves back in Cederbjerg. In the beginning, he had hoped the solution to the Curse would be simple. He had hoped it would be nothing more than reciting a poem or dropping a coin in a spring, but things might be slightly more complicated than that…
Cederbjerg’s mysterious curse spreading all over the Southern Woods. Verner and his sister Eliza rarely argue, but when they do it’s always on the subject of leaving the island.
“I know you do not consider this your home, Verner. And I understand. But can’t you find even a small corner of Cerderjerg to be worth saving?”
“Not if we both leave.”
“Do I at least get to bring my husband?”
“No.”
Queen Liselotte married into the Stenbak royal family knowing full well she would have to do something to get rid of the King’s many, many brats.
When the eldest three had shown up at the palace gates a year later, entirely feather-free, she had not been best pleased. One might say she was slightly desperate, what with the king’s deteriorating health. Her little boy might never see the throne. Which explains why she had been interested when a wizard with a bloody reputation knocked on her door and made a fascinating offer…
“Hey, kid, how’d ya’ get the wing?”
“My stepmother cursed me and my ten brothers. Got turned to swans.”
“Ah, classic.”
“What was it then, the thing that turned you back? A dip in a magic pool? A wish on a really lucky star? True love’s kiss?”
“My sister knit us nettle shirts.”
“Oooh, ouch.”
“You have no idea.”
Eliza had forgiven both Cederbjerg and her husband pretty much immediately after she was no longer in danger of burning alive. Perhaps even before then. At least that’s how Verner sees it. “The King was manipulated.” she says “How could he not believe his parent’s advisor?” she says “They were afraid.” and also: “Can you blame them?”
Yes! Yes he can.
“Er, Your Majesty… Sir. Where exactly are you going?”
“Blomsted. Fairy Queen apparently knows all about curses.”
“I thought their thing was being really tiny and riding on butterflies.”
“Well, let’s hope curses aren’t outside their preview, then.”
Blomsted: called the Flower Kingdom because of both its size and because its people are experts in things that grow. Its gate is hidden in a great forest, guarded by its magnificent woodsman, and will not work its shrinking magic on anyone it deems unworthy of the honor. Not many people find it, less get past the guard, and even less survive the gate’s magic. So Blomsted largely remains a mystery, even if its people will occasionally travel and trade outside their shrunken kingdom.
“If I die, it’s going to be under the open sky, you hear me?”
Verner never talks about his time as a swan. But if someone managed to work a miracle and he did talk about it, he would say that it was the best year of his life. He did not have many memories of his siblings all being together and happy before or after that. And now five years later, the world has taken all of his brothers from him. Illness, the sea, war and just plain hubris. And although he has Eliza, it’s impossible not to feel alone, or like he’s next.
“Does it feel like something is watching, or am I paranoid?”
“I would find it stranger if we weren’t watched on these lands, dear.”
The Snow Queen is a nickname, a colloquial appellation. She is technically the Winter Guardian, a position passed down every few thousand years or so. She doesn’t rule over anyone, not like Kings or Queens do. Though wither sprites do generally listen to her. She guards the cold season. Reigns it in, when it’s too greedy. Defends it, when arrogant mortals try to cast eternal summer where it shouldn’t be. She’s very good at untangling curses and blessings of all sorts, by now. Impossible not to be, after so long.
She’s never complained about the loneliness. Though a few years ago, impulsively, shockingly (even to herself) she did bring home an unwanted child. She had thought she had seen some of her soul in him, somehow… though the less said about how that ended the better.
“Stop touching me!”
“Ooohhh, Princey can’t take a little nudge?”
“Runa if you don’t stop, I’ll…!”
“You ought to control your cubs better. I hear a good bite to the nape would do it.”
“They are not my cubs.”
Verner hadn’t anticipated friendship to be as troublesome as it was wonderful. He hadn’t anticipated friendship at all, actually.
“So what if you fail? You lose your pretty allowance or something? Get served three golden apples instead of five? Wear silk from only one sea away instead of seven?”
“The whole island dries up. Or gets overrun by giant crystal formations. We’re not sure yet.”
“Oh.”
Young Prince Verner lives in Cederbjerg with his sister and brother-in-law, who also happen to be the King and Queen. He loves her with all his heart, and for this reason resents everyone else on the island. Or almost everyone. Back when he and his brothers were still under an unfortunate shape-changing spell, the kingdom had been persuaded that she was an evil witch simply because she had a weird hobby. They had nearly burnt her at the stake for it! It was only by pure luck and stubborn determination that she managed to finish the nettle shirts which broke the spell before she was executed. Or at least most of the shirts. His had been missing a sleeve.
The swan wing doesn’t bother him. He lives with it just fine. He’s actually very proud of the way he’s learned to work it into his fencing style. It’s other people who look at him like he’s somehow contagious who bother him. Especially if they had been cheering on his sister’s almost-execution five years ago.
It turns out that children’s play has enough magic in it that some toys come to life. They have souls and will and, with some creative application of a growth spell, they can also have mortal bodies. This is what happened to Morten, who was once a tiny tin soldier and Salome who was once a paper doll. A wizard named Azdar Windkip sensed magic radiating from the ashes of his nephew’s burnt toys and was intrigued.
In a different world, this might have led to a joyous reunion of two lovers who had pined apart and then died together, but Azdar is a power-hungry wizard. He was a former mercenary of low birth who has now found the key to making perfect Thralls. Servants under complete control of their masters. Magical thrall spells are finnicky on sapient beings (and technically illegal in most countries), but beings that were objects just a short while before bend to the spell easily. So Morten and Salome were transformed into humanoid beings, thrust into a strange world with strange rules (so different from the imaginative world of a child), and promptly made into Thralls. Azdar trains them, for both their hardy, inhumanly strong bodies and their status as Thralls makes them the perfect soldiers.
Morten escapes one day, because Azdar had not had enough Thrall Oil for him when he first put Morten under. The stuff is expensive. During one of their training sessions up in the mountains, he escapes and vows to come back to Salome once he has a way to counteract Azdar’s control over her.
Runa, the Raven Robber, has been stuck in the Thieving Mountains too long. It feels as though everyone else is always coming in and then moving on as quickly as they took to settle, but she’s stagnant. Her mother had only settled there out of desperation (as did everyone else who came to the Robber’s Castle) but then they never left. Runa had been very little when her Mum had found her and taken her along, so she barely remembers what living anywhere else had been like. She’s taken lots of trips before, obviously, it was rather part of her profession. Not having to sleep with one eye open? Having real friends who won’t stab her in the back? No. She doesn’t know what that’s like.
And as proud as she is of her accomplishments and skills, she can’t help but imagine what a more… noble pursuit might feel like. Life hasn’t quite managed to beat childish dreams out of her. Heroic dreams. So when a Swan-Winged Prince and a scruffy soldier turn up (are captured) in the Robber’s Castle, with their noble cause and grand story, she can’t help but invite herself along.
Maia is the Queen of the Flowers, who has both the power granted to her by her station and one the most extensive magical libraries in the world, which she has studied obsessively. When the adventuring trio arrive at her doorstep, she is instantly fascinated by the problem they describe and does her best to find a solution. She has a few ideas to experiment with and prepares to depart with them for Verner’s kingdom. They are then forced to travel up north to the Snow Queen’s realm, because Maia requires a specific book she just happens to not have in her possession.
Her Excellency the Queen of Flowers had absolutely not planned a research trip this year, but Verner’s case is too interesting to pass up (much to the consternation of her Royal Council.)
The Snow Queen is the owner of the most complete library on the subject of curses. She has also never been on good terms with humans.
Ida, the Snow Queen, used to live very peacefully as an only slightly more magical polar bear than most polar bears. Then, one day Old Man Winter rests just outside her cave, and she cannot help herself from asking one or two questions about magic, the stars, and the ice and snow. What she did not know was that the Old Man was dying and needed to name a successor as soon as possible, and seeing her curiosity, intelligence and love for her home, he decides there will be no better candidate. He transfers his magic and title then pretty much immediately dissolves in the ether, leaving a very confused, and now much-more-than-human-or-bear Ida behind. The solitary, immortal life of the Snow and Winter Queen did not bother Ida much at first, but loneliness can reach even the most cold hearted of people, so when a little boy attaches himself to her sled, she thinks nothing of taking him with her. And when little Kay leaves, she experiences loneliness like she never had before. So when a group of miscreants barges onto her land a few years later, and one of them (Runa, who else?) taunts her about Kay, she is not best pleased.
“Lady Maia… you do know you cannot live on apples, right?”
“If anyone could, it would be me!”
The Curse, as it affects an ibex-lynx
“Do you think Ida will kill her in the morning?”
“That would be too much to hope for. She’d only maim her at worst.”
The Woodsman Orc, the guardian to the secret entrance at Blomsted. He’s a little too fond of riddles and poems.
Runa’s Mum in her goldsmithing workshop
Runa’s Mum
The Ibex-lynx is an animal native to Cederbjerg. The curse attaches itself to them strongly, probably because they have more magic in them than most other animals in Cederbjerg.
This sample chapter is from the middle of the story, the first time the whole group appears together on the page.
Final Project Plan
For the final project, I intend to use the research and experimentation from this unit to make Chapter 1 of Verner’s Tale.
I will treat it as the first chapter of a long-running comic, first published digitally and to be printed at a later time. This a long project that would take a minimum of one year, even if I worked on it exclusively. The Final Project will be an experiment in terms of process and efficiency. The comic pages presented above are my first attempt at both writing and drawing an original story, and I have learned several things about what works and what doesn’t for me. However, whilst attempting to make the process easier on me and using digital painting techniques I usually use I accidentally made things more complicated. And I also realized that I never use the same approach twice, which is why it’s not very cohesive. The next step will be to simplify and clarify my process, so that I improve cohesion and speed.
I will record and share my process throughout, sometimes in written format and sometimes in video format. I’ve experimented with videos before, but not mid-process as log entries. Actually, all my learning logs so far have been written after I have already finished my work. This time I want to record my thoughts throughout.
Final Project (Verner’s Tale, Chapter I) Big Tasks:
- Write Chapter I in script format
- Thumbnails
- Pencils
- Ink
- Color
- Daily Log Entries
- Cover
- Share
In terms of sharing, I’m still thinking about how I want to do that. It might be useful to make a post or one-pager containing the presentation above to lead people to when I share pages and work-in-progress shots. For context, if nothing else.
I estimate a timeline of about four to six weeks, not including the time between now and the start of the Final Project course itself. I don’t have the best record with deadlines, but I’ve been getting better! Which is exciting in itself. Since I’ve already done design and experimentation work in this unit as well as the last, I will focus less on that now and focus more on improving my process. Can’t wait to get started!
Finalising Your Work
