The Perfect Gift

Page 1 of The Perfect Gift

Page 2 of The Perfect Gift

Page 3 of The Perfect Gift

The Winter Quarter has ended, and with that comes a plethora of art. Sorry about using such an odd word, but I just wanted to use it at least once. Okay, now that I got that out of my system let me introduce to you my latest story called The Perfect Gift. This is the only story that I will be introducing this week because I want this one and Sooner or Later to bask in the spotlight by themselves.  The Perfect Gift is a three page comic that I turned in to my Environments, Props, and Structures class on the final day of classes - Tuesday, March 13, 2012. I have to admit that I really thought that I wouldn't be able to finish this in time. I had a lot on my plate this past quarter, the most that I've ever undertaken since being at SCAD, and partially it was my own fault for writing a six page story for Visual Storytelling 1 when only a three page story was required. Well, completing a six pager does prepare me for Visual Storytelling 2, which I hear is close to or at least eight pages. I was trying to alternate between the two stories although as I was nearing the end Sooner or Later had to take precedent over this one because there were more pages and more to do...plus it was due first. So the final days of the quarter were very hectic that I had to literally keep telling myself that I was going to finish them time because I have never missed a deadline yet, and I certainly wasn't going to start now. I pretty much went without or with very little sleep for that final week. It was the only way to accomplish everything.

For those of you who did not read the last entry, the first two pages of The Perfect Gift were actually based on true stories. The third page is more based on what my subconscious tells me whenever I am looking for the perfect gift. I know that it cannot be found in an object, but it doesn't keep me trying. I'll get into this more next week, but Sooner or Later is loosely based on a true story, and why I say "loosely" is because it is more in line with the mental aspects of the truth.

My Environments' professor, Nolan Woodard helped me a lot even though he has no idea how much of a help he was. I was under the impression that these three pages were supposed to be colored, and I am not sure how I came to this impression. It really doesn't matter how in the long run. So one day in class I was close to completing the flats for the first page when Nolan came over to see how I was doing, and he thought that I was working on another class' assignment, but when I told him that I wasn't he told me that I didn't have to color these pages. First, I felt like I had just wasted my time with the flatting, but then I saw the bright side to this. I didn't have to color, and if I didn't have to color then I could jump right to lettering as soon as I was done inking. That thought not only cut my work down considerably, but it also made sure that I would be able to sneak in a little bit of sleep on the final week. If I had to color and letter NINE pages in a week there would have been no sleep at all. 

The Perfect Gift was done in a different way than anything that I've done in the past save for...The Defining Moment and The Peter Grayson Pin-Up. All three of those works were done by placing a blank sheet of Bristol over the thumbnails and lightboxing over them, which really speeds things up. Though this was the first time that I had done this method with comic pages, and it was something that I had intended to do for this project because of the six pager that I also had to do, but I wound up doing it for both projects, which I think was very wise. Of course, I would not be me if I didn't have some quarrel with the thumbnails at some point and change them. I stayed true to the thumbnails until it came down to the mall environment, and that's when everything changed.

Another change from the thumbnails to the final was perhaps the greatest change that I could've made, and it was a last minute decision. In the story, it is never said who this mysterious man on the bench is, but in the script, I said that he was an angel. I was just about to ink the third panel in the third page when the idea struck me to give the audience a hint to who he was by adding the sun behind his head to represent his halo. It was something so subtle that no one probably would think much about it, and Nolan figured it out since he had read the script. I had a difficult time with the placement as I had considered placing it right behind his head with only the top part of the sun showing similar to the Holy figures in Renaissance paintings, but I didn't like the looks of it, and so I went with the over the head placement, which I think worked out better.

When this was being critiqued on the final day there weren't very many negative comments, and it might be because we were kind of running out of time and trying to rush through things that the class kept it to themselves. If that's the case I wish that they hadn't because I am always searching for perfection, and any help in achieving that would be greatly appreciated. So if anyone from my Environments class has any constructive criticism about these three pages feel free to get a hold of me by any means necessary, which includes tackling me in the hallways. The comments that were made have already been dealt with, and so the version that you see here is the updated version. My friend, Lisa had mentioned that she had thought that the woman at the mall kiosk was the friend that Eric was buying the gift for, and so Nolan suggested that I fix that in the lettering by moving  the "Hello, Sir" in the fifth panel of the second page to the fourth panel to make it clearer that the woman was a stranger. In the third page, Nolan suggested that I get rid of the black of the trees and the bench because they were conflicting with the mall doors and the city in regards to depth. That was the most time consuming, and I am not too pleased with the benches because they don't look perfectly in perspective any longer. He also suggested flipping the panels on the third page, and that was the easiest although it did force me to move and sometimes reconstruct my word balloons. 

Even though I do like the story and will eventually color it as it was meant to be seen I don't like it as much as I like Sooner or Later, but of course, I am comparing it to a story that is similar to It All Started with a Mouse in regards to how spectacular it is. With a few tweaks here and there Sooner or Later could reach that pinnacle of perfection, but more on that next week.

More From Environments

The First Church of Christ Scientist_3-Pt Perspective

Georgia Power_3-Pt Perspective

Here are more drawings from Environments, Props, and Structures, and I won't go into too much details about them. This is the 3-pt perspective drawings of the First Church of Christ Scientist and the Georgia Power building, both in Downtown Atlanta. These drawings are very memorable to me because I got the living daylights freaked out of me in the class after we critiqued these three point drawings. Anyone from my Environments class or even in the SCAD-Atlanta Sequential department knows exactly what I am talking about.

I made an interesting discovery after I got my grade back for this. I got a B+ for these, and I got an A for my two-point perspective drawings of my kitchen and living room while the grades for the drawings done from imagination weren't that great. That has led me to believe that I am much better at drawing from life/photos than I am from my imagination. I have no idea why. If you have a clue, feel free to tell me.

The Castle of Ferdinand_3-Pt Perspective

Salem

These are the two 3-pt drawings done from my imagination, and they both are connected to the Vampire Mouse mini comic.  The project was called "Gotham and Metropolis"...or was it "Metropolis and Gotham"? It doesn't matter. We had to create one environment that was like Metropolis, clean and law abiding while the other environment, Gotham, was dirty and over run by crime. I decided to introduce the Castle of Ferdinand the Vampire Monkey, and the run down castle is in the middle of a town that is overrun by vampires. Although Ferdinand is a good vampire in the mini comic he doesn't have complete control over his minions. They do what they like unless given the order not to, but Ferdinand didn't give an order not to kill the living since he was hoping that they would just follow his example. Since the drawing shows a vampire monkey sucking the blood from a woman they don't care about his example. The other environment is Salem featuring the giant rabbit that the mice ride on for transportation and Samantha Taylor and Cotton Mouse, characters from the first issue.

Unfortunately you will not be seeing the second project from the class, the one that followed my A, because it was the worst one that I've done. Funny, really because I went into the critique liking the Victorian England sitting room and the Union Workhouse, but I came out of the critique wanting to destroy the drawings. They should be glad that I haven't lit them up yet. It was the worst critique that I've ever had. There was nothing good said about the drawings. It was just one constructive negative comment after another that the list that I wrote down was the length of a typical grocery list. I had considered redoing it for extra credit just to turn the C - a generous C because it would have been worse if I was the grader - into a B, but I was so swamped with finals that I didn't bother. Perhaps someday I will pull it out and redo it, but for myself, not for anybody else or even for a grade.

Vampire Mouse Update

Saturday, April 21, 2012 is the release date for the first Vampire Mouse mini comic, and there is still so much to do beforehand. I am happy to report that I am finished with the penciling and inking of the comic pages although I do need to go back and add some of the ideas that Prof. Schweizer had suggested. However, for the most part, the pages are all in post production, which mainly includes adding color in certain areas of the comic.

Better Late Than Never, I Always Say

I try to correct any mistakes or...mention any discoveries that I've made that make a previous statement of mine invalid as soon as it comes to my attention. Though sometimes time can be my worst enemy that I may forget to do so. It has been close to a year since I wrote the entry, but better late than never,  I always say. Shortly after, I returned to SCAD-Atlanta from taking two quarters off I wrote about my 20th Century Art professor, Keri Watson. It has been my experience that art history professors have all received their doctrine, and the idea that my 20th Century professor would be called Dr. Watson thrilled me to no end. Every professor who I've had who were doctors have always introduced themselves with the doctor title. However, when she didn't introduce herself as Dr. Keri Watson I was thrown for a loop that I thought that my assumption was wrong, and that's what I wrote in that entry. It would turn out that my assumption that I was wrong was wrong because a few weeks later she gave a lecture in the Gallery Space at 4C in SCAD-Atlanta, and finally, she was introduced as Dr. Keri Watson. I was supposed to write a correction in the next blog entry after that lecture, but so much time had passed that I had forgotten. I actually had read that entry not long ago, and I saw what I wrote, but I felt that it has been almost a year that it was kind of a moot point to correct it. However, NOTHING is ever a moot point. If something needs to be corrected, correct it no matter how much time has passed. It only becomes a moot point when you're dead. That's my tip for the day.

Final Thoughts

Next Sunday I will post the six page story Sooner or Later, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I do. This week I will also be getting back to work in writing the script to adapt the story into an animated short, and it will include scenes that were cut from the comic due to length. So at some point I will start posting the storyboards and character animations.

So until next time, this is Billy Wright, wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.