Introducing my Final Year Project.
It is a graphic novel titled "Is Your Sister Coming Home?", and it is inspired by/loosely based on a true story. It is a family drama revolving around the pressure to get married that is experienced by young women. To read the full background and research of this graphic novel, head to my blog!
I made sketches on paper with a brushpen because I thought the graphic novel would be handdrawn, but due to the length and time constraints, I ended up drawing digitally. That's probably the reason why the style kind of changed...
After more or less finalizing the story (I wrote a mock-novel first to get the dialogue and setting right), I began drawing thumbnail sketches. These are basically plans on how each scene will play out: angles, speech bubbles, shots, the pacing—almost like a storyboard for a movie. The thumbnails aren't to be followed too strictly, though, because I might have under- or over-estimated the size of the page as it is not drawn to scale. Nevertheless, it is important to have a basic guide like this for me to follow.
This is the process for drawing the contents. A page can start with a sketch as simple as shown in the leftmost picture, derived from the small on-paper thumbnail sketch. Then I would draw the lineart on another layer, until finally I add in the color blocks. If a page or spread has more weight to it, there might be some extra shading involved—otherwise it's just flat colors. Some spreads might not even have colors at all to emphasize the feeling of emptiness. Other examples of the process below:
The cover art.
The cover art came last, but I made sure to sketch out some small thumbnails to show people. I have several favorites among the kind of random bunch. It always starts with a sketch or two... or more:
Then I picked my favorites and worked on them more. These two were originally my picks from the previous thumbnail sketches (Week 11), but after much contemplation, the top illustration is chosen to be the cover.
The result.
A 130-page graphic novel, printed on bulk paper, perfect bound.
Postcards printed on textured, uncoated paper.
Postcards printed on textured, uncoated paper.
A ready-to-publish website.
Works displayed at graduate exhibition.
Bonus: Inside the graphic novel, there are several occurrences of the gimmick as shown below. Two similar but different artworks are printed, the top one on semi-translucent tracing paper and the bottom one on regular bulk paper. This creates an overlapping effect to support the story.
Thank you!
