Biography: Development

After the workshop stage of the biography project, I decided to create a graphic novel for my final piece which would explore the relation between Nina Simone's life and the civil rights movement. To do this I began to develop my initial drawings in comic book layouts. I also began to refine my historical elements referencing to my historical research, in order to develop characters and scenes from key events throughout the movement, including the Birmingham Church Bombings, The Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott, Martin Luther Kings arrest, speeches and death, and key progresses made by the US government alongside these events. 

Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott

Exploration of Martin Luther King

I was really happy with these developed drawings as I felt my portraiture was strong and accurately resembled MLK. However I feel the scenic views needed to be worked on to be more dense with the detail in order to make them more visually eye-catching

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I then began to plan how I wanted my comic to be laid out, by noting how key visuals would be presented and the key pieces of text I wanted in each spread. I then began to create these spreads. 

A problem I encountered was that if I created the page directly onto one piece of paper, elements I wasn't happy with meant I needed to start again. i originally tried to overcome this by using tracing paper to trace my most effective designs, however felt the quality of the paper was preventing me from getting the bold effect I wanted from certain imagery.  I therefore decided I would create my pieces by collaging imagery I was most happy with to create the most effective layout possible. this also allowed me to repeatedly draw certain scenes and characters until I was happy with it, without ruining another piece I was already happy with.

After creating these initial designs I received tutor feedback that there was too much white space, which is something I agreed with as I felt the imagery wasn't as bold as I would have wanted. I completed further research on graphic novel artists to lift inspiration of how I could create a background which emphasised my imagery. 

For this design I wanted to include elements of MLKs 'I had a dream' speech without distracting from Nina's point of view of the event, so decided to use the speech in the background and see how the effect of running the ink would look. I decided I liked the effect because the grey emphasised the use of colour and therefore used a similar technique with the rest of the comic.

I like the use of the black however feel it did the opposite effect of what I desired in certain aspects as it duller the colours as oppose to highlighting them. I decided I wanted to print my comic on Adobe InDesign, so thus decided I would edit the colour, saturation and gradient on photoshop before I did this. 

I was really happy with my final piece as I feel as though I pushed myself to use digital work which I am not usually comfortable with. I feel as though the portraiture is strong and I have massively improved since the beginning of term, the images still keep my sense of style within illustration but there is also a clear likeness of the characters I am depicting. I do think I could have had a stronger story within my comic which would have connected the events between each page in a  more effective manner. I also would have liked to stick to primary colours in the designs instead of once again relying on black inkwork. This is something I will push myself to do further in future projects.