Text and Word Balloons

The text element of the comic medium must be taken into account when developing a good story. Whether the artist decides to create a story entirely with text or not using any text at all, the decision must be a conscious artistic choice.

In word balloons the type of text used can change the way the words are interpreted. Someone saying, “no you can’t” in a normal font has a very different impact from, “NO YOU CAN’T” or even “no you can’t”. These changes in type face and size impact how readers interpret the words being used. This gives the readers a greater sense of the character’s emotions, their personality, and the theme of the story.



Will Eisner, had an especially good instinct for the combination of textual and visual elements. Whenever he incorporated text it always matched the story he was working on.
In the Spirit, Eisner really introduced the idea of dynamic text and titles. In every issue of the Spirit the title of the comic would be incorporated into the body of the first page. It would become an element of the storytelling rather than a simple description that is observed in most comics.

When I'm working on my own comics, I admit that I have a tendency to take the easy road and use computer text, its generally faster and as most of my work is rendered on a computer with a Wacom tablet its faster than printing it out. However, I always do feel a keen sense of disappointment when I look at the finished product. The text element of a visual story must match up to the images that make up the majority of the storytelling or something becomes lost. It is the goal of comic artists to take into account all aspects of their storytelling craft and ensure that no one element will draw to much attention as to pull the audience out of the fantasy that the artist has created.

Here are some interesting pages on text and word balloons in comics.
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mfram/Pages/3036-sound.html
http://comixtalk.com/comic_theory_101_loopy_framing

Motocycles in Montana

So my dad's in town for the weekend, he drove cross country across Montana on his motorcycle. Its a lot of fun, hanging out, talking, building computers. Right now my dad's showing me some of the photographs he took with his digital camera while he was on the road. Some of them he even took while driving.

I must admit that I am not a fan of Montana, sorry, its nothing personal. But damn, it is still some really beautiful countryside. Those slightly curving hills and way off in the background the points of snow covered mountains. I'm going to see if I can't get a copy of a few of the pictures my father took. They're beautiful. His motorcycle is in the foreground which is, in of itself, a beautiful piece of equipment.

Fox

Here is a character study that I did for my Comic Book Story Telling class.

I really enjoy this character a lot. This really is a very very quick drawing of her but never the less, some of her answers to the questions are really fun.
Fox Character Study
Update: I'm sorry the link seems to be down. I'll try to get it fixed soon.

Drawing for fun

Wow. I had forgotten how much I missed drawing, just for the fun of it.

Last night I had dinner with some friends. It was a wonderful dinner, one of the best I've had in a very long time. The food was good and the company was better. We laughed and joked and as the main course was coming to a close we all pulled out sketch pads and drew each other in a round. Then we switched. It was a great experience.

Not since my early days of high school have I been able to draw with friends in a comfortable environment just for the joy of drawing. It was fascinating to me to see the differences in each piece as well, we all had such different styles.

My favorite was the drawing my boyfriend did of me, but I'm biased.

I feel inspired to draw again today, in a way I haven't been in a while. Inspiration comes and goes but sometimes you have to help it along a little. I'm absolutely going to do this again. I feel great.

sketches

Ozy and Millie

So its been many a week since I've last updated. I've been on a great adventure and a guest to discover new discoveries... I also drove through Montana in a little over a day.
So I've been traversing the mighty US of A in a little car filled to the brim with boxes, a tv, and piles of beautiful, must have junk to put into my new apartment. Sadly, I won't be able to move into my new apartment until August and everything doesn't have a place in the current abode so for now its sitting in a pile in the middle of the living room.

Since I returned I have spent quite a few hours reconnecting with the internet and catching up on my favorite web comics as well as reading a few new ones.

Ozy and Millie by D.C. Simpson, is probably one of my favorite web comics. I just started reading it but its been around for quite some time. I'm still going through the archives.

As far as art goes this one is top notch. The artist really does a great job and knows his style well. Its of the anthro style but the fact that they're all animals doesn't distract and the characters are so loveable I don't care at all.
I absolutely adore the political commentary and discussion about social and cultural stupidity as well.
Its also making me what to refer to all annoying politicians as Poo-heads.
In short, I'm in love. Millie also reminds me of myself at a young age so that could be part of it as well. ^_^

sketch

A sketch I did after watching the last season of Buffy. There is some freaky stuff that goes on with eyes in that season.

Its funny, as I have been traversing Minneapolis from home to work and back again, I have found quite a bit of time to write some really interesting things in a little black notebook, blog worthy things. Yet, when I get home, I can not find the energy to do anything with my computer.

Having spent the entire day staring at a computer screen I am much more inclined to play a game, talk, read a book, or just curl up in a ball and not move for a few hours.

That's not to say that my work is bad. The people I work with are wonderful and the work is actually quite enjoyable, and I'm learning a lot.

Its just that... I feel so drained.

I feel stoppered up. My creativity is there, in my head. Its filling me so much some days that my hands shake with the need to let it out. But I can't seem to. I have been given many opportunities to let my creativity go wild, and yet I do not. I don't know quite what is keeping me this way, maybe its backlash from school, maybe its stress, maybe I'm just more lazy than I'd like to admit.

Every day on the bus when I sit with my little black notebook the world seems to open in front of me. But the second it closes my world narrows back to a small empty cube.