Project 1: Once Upon a Time...

Art Journal

8/5/2021

As I start the location project, I made a start in the children's book set at the same time.

The idea to create a set of books for little children of superheroes and supervillains' origins from Marvel Comics. I need to work on creating covers and storyboards for each and researching about them. The choices I decided to do for the first five books of superheroes and supervillains are:

Spider-man and The Green Goblin
Wolverine and Sabretooth
Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom
Hulk and The Abomination
Daredevil and Kingpin

This is what I've decided to use to create little books for the children, but to make it clear, there'll be not be too much violence and no swearing in any of them because it would be too much for them. When working on the storyboards, my tutor Dwayne has told me to concentrate more no the illustration then with the words to tell the story of each character. For a 2 to 5 year old child, reading words would be too much on the books, so that was something to rethink. I go over with a little research on the characters of how they became to be superheroes and supervillains and written down some notes to go with the books. With these little notes and information each about the superhero and the supervillain, I will be starting to creating a little illustration of books for little children to read. Each page will have 2 to 5 illustration, to make it comic-like but readable for children and with less words because it's more on the action in the pages than with words. Then I did some quick research about both characters and writing down little notes for little children to read. Looking through these character is not an easy task than I thought, but working on the children's book and making changes on the way should help me get better at them. Researching and watching movie clips of superheroes and supervillain can help me get an idea of what to put in a the storyboard or what to improve what creating set of books for little children to read. I've been told by another tutor Tony that the next time I creating a storyboard make that it's a two-page instead of one-page, when I'm planning and also because I did a lot of work on the book covers, I was advice to save the book covers last while working on the pages, so that's what I'll be doing for the rest of the semester. With that discussed I get to work on the books. I started on the first book of the superhero and the supervillain (Spider-man and The Green Goblin). I made sure that each page is drawn and painted in one book, one-side of the book up-side down and in each page and pictures I've made some changes or improvements from storyboard and composition. And from looking at some images of children illustrations and sentences to help me get some idea of what I need to do when drawing and painting the characters of Spider-man and The Green Goblin, so far over the weekend end I've done about three pages on both characters, soon I'll be working on the next book on Marvel Comics. After the weekend, I finally got the pages of Spider-man and The Green Goblin finished. I left the book covers alone, because I want to make sure to get the first five books of marvel comics are done. So one book is done and now I'm to the second book of Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom. So I made a start with both title and the first three pages, and like I did on the first book I made few changes on both image and text to make the story clear for the little children to see and read. The other week, my tutor Tony had suggested that maybe on the next books go a little further of both the superhero and the supervillains origins, (like when they were kids) I did think about it once or twice from the start of the project but I wasn't sure if it well work. Though I might reconsider this option to try it. And while I was in the process of colouring the second book, I'm beginning to think I might not have enough time to finish all the books when I'm using watercolour paint. So for the next book I'll colouring more in pen, to save some time, before the end of the year. While creating these books, Tony also suggested that when creating the storyboard, rewrite them on a little book for further development before going to straight to the final design. As soon I as finished the second book of Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom, I get started with next books of Marvel Comics, Wolverine and Sabretooth, Hulk and the Abomination and Daredevil and Kingpin. For a week I create some storyboards for the rest of the marvel characters and developments on some smaller books before creating the final design. Presented the ideas to my tutors, they say I got a little carried with ideas, because these ideas are for younger readers, before the actual thing. Before I showed them, me and my classmates met a couple of comic artists who have create their own comic artwork and their advise was create something that wasn't from the origins of the marvel. Tony and Dwayne said the same thing and said to try and have a little fun when creating the ideas of marvel characters for little children to read, so during the weekend I did a little quick rethinking over the next three books and this time I've made it more child friendly through most of them and added some colour, to help me know what I'm doing for the final designs. I'll adding in some spare-time to cover ideas while creating the final outcome and again make or add in words or illustration to make it more better for the children, but this time for the rest of the books I am more planned. My tutors Dwayne and Tony have said that there is not a problem with using drawing and colour pen, when I am drawing and colouring the story, and creating something new for the children to read instead of the origins. But I have been reminded to make more child-like like the hungry hungry caterpillar book. The artwork in that story show no mark-making of any pen or pencil, this was something that Tony and Dwayne were talking about. In other children books the characters are created thin, rounded and simple. This is something I'll be trying to do when I working in the final designs of the rest of the children's book of Marvel comics. I already made a start on the Wolverine and Sabretooth, creating the children story of the Wolverine was easy, I just followed the storyboard (added in few words and sound effects to make it comic-like too). The storyboard on Sabretooth I made me uncertain, so I had a quick look at it before I do any drawing it's simple, new and easy for the children but I felt like I was missing something so I looked back at the storyboard I did of the Wolverine and took part of that story into the story of Sabretooth. When got the book sketched out it was alright, what I did next was colour it all in by colouring pen. It didn't take long to get the drawing and colouring, but looking back at my Pinterest boards of children illustrations and watching The Very Hungry Caterpillar several times I can see what Tony and Dwayne were trying to tell me. When colouring the story of Sabretooth I sketched out the whole in pencil and coloured it all in pen without marking any detail in the character and background. The next book will be in watercolour paint. I used a lot of watercolour paint on both stories of the Hulk, the Abomination and Daredevil, filling in each character and background and put in another colour in one or two places. There were some places where I had to use a bit of black pen or paint over the stories so make that people can see the action and details of what happening in them. When painting and drawing in the story of Daredevil, I was having trouble painting over sketched the pictures in, the watercolour paint has covered most of it, the rest I had to carefully use a rubber to go over. It didn't take much but enough the mark nearly invisible. In the last the stories of the Kingpin, I've drawn and coloured it all in pen to finish the last bit. With that done, I get to work on finishing the book covers of both superheroes and supervillains and adjusted in all the book design on photoshop.

I may not able to publish them to any shop at the moment, but one day I will.

Where I got the Idea of Creating Children's Book

Watching the very hungry Caterpillar, and researching some artists helps out a bit more of how to create child-friendly for children to read the superheroes and supervillains of marvel comics.

Watching a few YouTube clips of the superheroes and supervillain helps me a little to what I could do to create little books for the children.

Book Cover Ideas

Working on book cover ideas, this is to show each of the character of he or she was before what they became to be.

First Ideas:

Idea Developments

Final Ideas

Best Choices

Early Storyboard Ideas

Working on several storyboards of the superheroes and supervillains in each books, is not as easy as I thought. The first storyboards (Book 1 and 2) I've made them very close to the origins like in the movies and comics, my tutor Tony has suggested that maybe on the rest of books go a little further of both the superhero and the supervillains origins, (like when they were kids). So that's I did for the rest.

Book 1- The Spider-man and The Green Goblin

Book 2- The Fantastic Four and The Doctor Doom

Book 3- The Wolverine and The Sabretooth

Book 4- The Hulk and The Abomination

Book 5- The Daredevil and The Kingpin

Storyboard Developments

I've already made a big effort on the first two books (Book 1- The Spider-man and The Green Goblin, and Book 2- The Fantastic Four and The Doctor Doom), I had to work on some new developments (making them more child-friendly) for the children to read and learn something of these super characters. Thinking something child-like is a lot tricky than I thought is was going to be.

Book 3- The Wolverine and The Sabretooth

Book 4- The Hulk and The Abomination

Book 5- The Daredevil and The Kingpin

Final Storyboard Ideas

Book 3- The Wolverine and The Sabretooth

Book 4- The Hulk and The Abomination

Book 5- The Daredevil and The Kingpin

Drawings/Paintings for the Children's Book

I worked on all 5 books of the superheroes and supervillains from marvel comics in a mixture colouring pen and watercolour paint. Sketching all out page after page before colouring them in, it takes a lot of work and a lot of time to it all, but with all that effort it was definitely worth it.