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1The business of comics: thumbnails
27th January 2012
Areas: comics making of storyboards viewpoint
Over the past 2 years I have found that I’m doing more and more sequential illustration based upon a piece of music or script .
If I were to give myself advice several years ago on how to work in sequential illustration this would be it:
Always work out the story in thumbnails first before you even consider doing a final illustration.
This seems obvious, but for me the urge to get started on a finished illustration (to show the client how good I am) can sometimes overshadow the practicality of making comics.
Thumbnails not only conserve your effort and time for the final illustrations, but especially in the case of sequential illustration they ensure the story works visually before you get started.
For me a thumbnail takes about 2 minutes whereas a final illustration can take anything from 1 – 3hrs. Therefore for the same time frame as 1 final illustration I can have 30 attempts at choosing the right layout, composition and viewpoint for a panel.
So how polished do you do your thumbnails need to be? Will a line drawing do or do I need to spend a ton of time on a thumbnail that the client may not like?
First of all the thumbnails are there to help you work out the best way of presenting the story in the least amount of time. Once you are happy with the story you can spend a bit more time on developed roughs from the thumbnails, which you can then show the client.
If possible, I’ve found that it best to go through the roughs with the client face to face, so they can get an idea of where you are coming from. In addition I’ve found spending some time developing character sketches of the main characters helps the client visualise the characters within the roughs.
Below I’ve included a few thumbnails along with their roughs and final illustrations taken from a project I’m currently working on.
The story of the Tunisian revolution – The Times newspaper
12th February 2011
Areas: comics making of storyboards
I was commissioned by The Times to create a 12-panel comic for the article “An ordinary man on a bad day, he changed the world for ever”. The comic depicts the events of December 17, 2010 that would end in the death of the 26-year-old Tunisian street trader Mohamed Buazizi, sparking protests that would topple his country’s president and unseat Hosni Mubarak, igniting a firestorm of anger across the Arab world from Tunisia to Jordan to Egypt.
Below I’ve included my roughs to the final 12-panel comic printed in The Times. You can view close ups of the comic on the Tunisian Revolution project page.
Tiger beer storyboards
26th January 2011
Areas: storyboards
I have just finished a series of 14 storyboards for a Tiger beer advertising pitch. As is the case with all pitch work I cannot show you all of them but I’ve included one of my favourites below.
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