Viv Schwarz character design and comic workshop
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Viviane Schwarz playing with shapes. |
Viviane started the session talking about coming to graphic novels from picture books. In her last book, co-written with Alexis Deacon for Walker Books, A Place to Call Home, Viv used panels and speech bubbles.
As soon as Walker got a graphic novel department, Viv proposed her graphic novel, Sleepwalkers, a wonderful imaginative story in which children can leave a letter under their pillows asking for help in stopping their nightmares.
An unlikely crew with a Yoda type character, Viv's description, a sheep, and a bear and rabbit work together in helping children work out how to stop their own nightmares. As an added bonus, we got to look through a pile of press proofs for Sleepwalkers during the workshop. We also looked through a variety of graphic novel formats and styles represented in the books Viv brought with her such as Neil Gaiman's, Anya's Ghost, Fish and Chocolate by Kate Brown, Rumble Strip by Woodrow Phoenix and Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier.
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Character design made by playing with random shapes. |
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Getting to know your character - walking the line. |
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Everyone working hard creating characters. |
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More playing with shapes while Viv gives encouragement. |
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Another getting to know your character exercise, put your character into random shapes. |
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Viv's character design from random shapes. |
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Another great character in the making from random cut out shapes. |
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Viv putting together a character. |
To wrap up, here are a few of the great suggestions that I managed to write down.
Start by giving yourself limitations; limiting colour and giving yourself a panel grid.
Use Celtex or Scrivener for preparing your script.
Be obvious!
Don't keep going back, work through it and be persistent. That way you get the story out without suffering too much and trying to make something 'awesome' right away.
It's important to get to know your characters first, you need your characters to drive the story.
Write lists of characteristic qualities and history for your characters then do lots of drawings showing how your characters 'express' those qualities through gesture and body language.
Keep a book on personality types that you can feed into your ideas.
Explore themes and ideas in your comfort zone first, then later, jump into areas less comfortable.
And lastly, at least what I wrote down, explore improv theatre! Recommended by Viv; Improv for Storytellers by Keith Johnstone. It's already on my wish list!
Our next Illustrator Masterclass is 10 December with Bridget Strevens-Marzo; The Style Question, exploring voice and style. There are still places available.
Thanks for writing this up - it's inspiring for us writers as well!
ReplyDeleteCould it be that the Walking the Line image needs rotating to the right, IE: Landscape rather than portrait orientation?
ReplyDeleteThe characters seem to be working to sit with the line then.
Fascinating exercises to try out... thanks for sharing for those who couldn't attend.
Thanks so much for writing this up. It was a thoroughly entertaining and inspiring workshop. I still have pics of the little characters I made on my phone :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Anne-Marie. I think I'll try some of these exercises - look really useful
ReplyDeleteYes - a great write up Anne-Marie. Thanks to you for this and to Vivian for a really great creative workshop!
ReplyDeletea great event it seems, and a wonderful write-up Anne-Marie, very inspiring!
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