Evaluation of Sewhat

The head that I made:
Head includes lights(LED) for eyes that can be turned on.Head has been painted a green and brown colour.The mouth was built out of the face and had been painted as well.There's a toungue hanging out of the mouth. The toungue is made out of velvet and has been stuffed.Overall I really liked my design and found the head was fun to make.
I did not actually wear a head or go one the cat walk.

Examples of Anthropomorphism (used in comic work) and Fantsia

Anthropomorphism:Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects.Most that I found were parts of buildings and architecture but these gave me ideas all the same.I loved the way that looking at something with a completely diffrent mind set can reveal so much.

A hat in the disney style.Disney its self is highly known for giving human characteristics to inanimate objects.One of there most poplar films 'Fantasia' includes a magic hat which leads Micky around the castle .Everything in the castle is animated.

Here we see the brooms marching away in a human like fashion. 

I studied this film closer and decided to focus more on the brooms,which in the film,are brought to life by magic.They the go around the castle cleaning up(and also carry buckets around with them.

Mickys hat,for a short while,becomes enchanted as well.

Comic presentation (unit 12)

Story idea :
My story includes a gang called' The Germs' who's names are Feather and Lolly.They travel around trying to write the wrongs of the world(namely cleaning up the mess humans leave behind).As the travel through ha nearby forest they come across a old, wrecked,mushroom.They soon get to work cleaning it up and are thanked by the dealers of the house.

characters(included in story):
Feather 

Lolly

The Gurus
(Dork,Smirk,lork,York,ETC)

Age:
This comic is suitable for all  ages and does not contain any thing that may be seen as imapropriate.

Length(wip)
1-2 pages

Colour:
Full color pages including black boarder.

Example:

Programs i have used include;

Photoshop

Illustrator

Both have helped make characters.

Improvements that i am aiming to make are:

Finishing my comic,

Adding to my Disney research,

speech bubbles.

Notable areas i have already included are: 

Research on different types of comics,

Comic styles,

Different artists,

Boarder idea.

This comic presentation was shown to my class mates and was ment provide a idea of the work I was doing. In this I found out what I would need to do to appeal to my audience when I was doing my comic book.

pictures for comic WIP

These photos were all taken at Bradfield Resivour near Sheffield.As there is a lot of nature and trees I thought it would be perfect for my comic.I will be hopefully transferring these images from blogger over to a computer at colledge. 

wind in the willows final head

This is the result of my final toad head.As you can see I have painted it (with dark brown and green) that colours of a toad.I am really glad I used tape to stick my head together as it has given a really nice wrinkle around the eye effect making it look quite like a really toad.I noticed how angry my toad looks because of the way the eyes were stuck on.This was intentional but still seems to work.

This is the toads eyes once they had been lit up.I think this will be a good effect on the cat walk and gives my head a diffrent look to all the others.

The textile younger that was added last.Through doing it I was shown how to use a knitting machine by a lovely person (this will come in handy in future).The materiel it's self is made out of red velvet and has been stitched around the edges (also stuffed).I'm glad I added this as it looks quite cute personally.

A full body shot of me wearing the Toad head (I have a similar coat at hand to use for toad)

Overall I am very happy with this project and hope others will go this well.

update on mask

This is my first attempt at making a toad mask.As you can see I was way off with making it even slightly familiar.Tape was all over my attempted to try secure a mask that was falling to pieces.I do not like this one at all.

Here is my better updated version which I worked at home on.I am ten times happier with this one and I feel that it actually looks like a toad.The eyes are LED lights that were taken from my cupboard.I am glad that I had them put on my toad as they can light up and look like galaxy eyes.

Below are pictures of it from a diffrent angles;

Next week I will be finishing off the back and then painting the front.

toad drawings

My picture of toad draw in from today.

Didn't get time to finish it today so my task for next time is to complete it.

I'm glad I researched toads outfits as this helped lot.I made sure I had worked on the checkered top.

Toad and study's

For my Wind in the willows costume I thought it would be appropriate to study a Toad and it's movements.This way I could get a better feel of it and become more familiar.Here is a video I found of a Toad jumoong(I belive it's a recreation)but still serves its purpose.

http://youtu.be/FvxEkFymua8

Unfortunately my search for toad movements failed(although it did bring up a lot of petitions which was entertaining) I found this very intresting picture which explained 

The insides and workings of a toad.This could give me a little help later on and is quite intresting in its self.

A generally look at Toads outfit gives off a posh sophisticated air.He wears long trench coats and a hat.He's also quite fat which,in the time of which Wind in the willows was written,would have been a stature of wealth as it showed that you had money for food and so fourth.The toad below seems to have a more happy modified look then others I have seen but still fit a the character. I have bought a trench coat that I will have to slightly edit to look like his.

comic layout ideas

For my comic work I decided to look at the diffrent types of layouts in comics and magazines.This would help me with creating my choice and how dramatic I would like it to be.
Here are some examples I found that inspired me:

The first one that caught my eye was this comic strip that seemed to use semi real people and then using comic effects to make them blend in. The background includes a varsity of colours that draw your attention and seem to fit in with the comic quite well..I like how parts of the comic have been draw (and I assume are made to look like so).

The layout it's self is quite standard but fits well.This makes it so that the comic goes in order and is easy to read.

Text is placed in little boxes that separate it from the picture so ,again,makes it easy to red. 

This comic features a black and white colour effect which gives it a dramatic look.Some pancakes of the comic are darker then other this too me adds drama and gives a nice subtle effect.In my work I would like to achieve something similar to this if possible.Thsi comic,like the first one,is easy to read and understand. Even though there is no actual writing.Detail has been put into this work .The layout itself is very slanted(as if it will fall off the page) And the borders have been outlined.

Last but not least I have picked one if the most simple layouts(this is just standard as you can see and there's no comic in its self).Thsi layout gives me a idea for my own as I want my comic to have a sketchy border to it.

This will be my focus through out. 

My final idea is to make my comic similar to this style (but still keep the Jim Davis simple panel style) :

My favorite part about the idea above is the way the boarders are not at all straight and give the comic a bit more life to me.

While searching for layout ideas I cam across a very useful comic direction guide.This gave me the idea of how I would go about pacing a comic ans how the audience would read one of my comics if I decided to do it in this way.(As seen below)

The red arrows give indication of the pace as stated.

study of toads(small)

For research into my toad mask I decided to look into diffrent feature of a toad to give me a idea of what I will be making.I will be making these out of cardboard and then covering it in paper mache.
Main parts of a toad:
Eyes

Toads mouth:

Back of head:

Jim Davis (comic artist) basic information

James Robert "Jim" Davis (born July 28, 1945) is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic strips Garfield and U.S. Acres (aka Orson's Farm), the former of which has been published since 1978 and has since become the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Davis's other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat and a strip about Mr. Potato Head.
(Taken from Wikapedia)
Examples of art done by Jim Davis :

I really want to use Jim Davis as a artist for inspiration because I feel that both are styles link(such as the way the eyes are drawn ) I also would like to take reference from how his comics are played out.

The example shown above gives me a idea of how his comics are drawn out and the way he adds drama in his pictures without actually using words(this means that even if there wasn't any speech you would still be able to have a idea of what was going on and it would still grab your interest. 

Starting comic designs

So to start my project off I decided to look at diffrent styles of comics and the way characters are protrayed:

First off I looked up one of the most common comic styles I know which would in fact be Manga.Manga characters are known for having big eyes(this is supposedly because they are ment to represent innocence like a baby).Manga has a barbarity of diffrent genres like for example,slice of life,romance ,horror,etc...

Over the years manga has began to increase in popularity to such a extent that some books were animated (this is called anime).

Above we see a example of anime/manga.showing the big eye theme.

As I read Garfield when I was little I feel as if it is very close to my heart.I have always adored Garfields lazy nature.As well as having comic books published Garfield was also shown in The Daily mail here is a example seen below:

I find Garfield strips to be quick and snappy which is what I hope to do with my work in the future.I love Jim Davis comic style and also the way he draws each individual character so the are automatically recognizable. I would like yo use his work as future reference in my comics.

For example with Garfields ginger and black fur and eyes I would recognize him.

The next style is the more realistic one(even though the characters them selves my not be).In the sponge Bob comics we see inanimate objects take on life.This  is a great example for our work with comics.In one page we take in a lot of information.