Illustration and Visual Narrative: Task 4 - Webcomic

05/12/2024 - 05/01/2025 (Week 11 - Week 15)

Samantha Kristalyn / 0373905

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 4: Webcomic (Final) 

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JUMPLINKS

1. LECTURES

2. INSTRUCTIONS

3. TASK

4. RATIONALE

5. REFLECTIONS

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LECTURES

Week 11

During this week, Mr. Hafiz explained thoroughly on what we will have to do for this task. We were told to create a webcomic (size adjusted to viewing on mobile devices), animate at least 3 panels, and create a cover for the comic. All of the work should be done with surrealism art style.

Week 12

On this week's lecture, Mr. Hafiz introduced us to multiple transition methods that are usually used on comics to help us understand better on what we will need to do. He mainly focused on elaborating Scott McCloud's transition techniques.

1. Moment-to-Moment

- Definition: a very slight change in time, often requiring minimal mental closure from the reader.

- Example: a person blinking across two panels.

- Purpose: creates a slow, detailed pace, emphasizing small, subtle actions or emotions.  

2. Action-to-Action

- Definition: shows a single subject progressing through a specific action.

- Example: a baseball player swinging the bat in one panel and hitting the ball in the next.

- Purpose: highlights action and movement, maintaining a clear and dynamic progression.

3. Subject-to-Subject

- Definition: stays within a scene or idea but shifts between different subjects.

- Example: a conversation where each panel alternates between the speakers.

- Purpose: encourages the reader to infer relationships or connections between subjects.

4. Scene-to-Scene

- Definition: transitions across significant distances in time or space.

- Example: a character in one panel says, "I'm leaving," followed by another panel showing them in a distant city.

- Purpose: advances the plot and shifts the narrative to new settings or timeframes.

5. Aspect-to-Aspect

- Definition: explores different aspects of a place, idea, or mood within the same moment.

- Example: panels showing various parts of a festival (a ferris wheel, food stalls, performers).

- Purpose: builds atmosphere, focusing on the environment or theme instead of advancing time.

6. Non-Sequitur

- Definition: no logical relationship between panels.

- Example: a panel showing a cat followed by a panel of a rocket ship.

- Purpose: creates abstract, surreal, or symbolic connections, often used for artistic or experimental storytelling.

During the lecture, Mr. Hafiz also covered the elements of Webcomics and explained further about surrealism.

Week 13

Mr. Hafiz held an offline consultation for those who wanted to consult their work.

Week 14 (No lectures)

Week 15 (Submission week)

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INSTRUCTIONS

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TASK

Webcomic

1. References

At first, before creating anything, I started off by reading the story and choosing which part I wanted to visualize from the story. I ended up picking this part of the story:

Before starting to sketch, I gathered up ideas on how I want to visualize the scenes in the story. I did a bit of research to try and find an art style that I can reference for my work. Here are a few artworks that I have referenced for the art style:

I have also watched a YouTube video about the story to help me understand the story further.

Below is the YouTube video that I have referenced:

 

I also decided on how I wanted to color the comic beforehand. I came up with a greyscale palette and added a yellow color for the highlight.

2. Sketches

Before putting my work into Adobe Illustrator, I started out by sketching it on another software first. Here's how the sketch for the comic turned out:

After doing so, I quickly exported the artwork and started working on Adobe Illustrator after receiving feedbacks. 

3. Digitalization

I first imported the image (.png) form of my sketch onto Adobe Illustrator. Then, I started tracing my sketch with the Pen tool and I also have utilized the blob brush tool to color in some details. 

At last, to give the comic a more eerie feel, I moved to Adobe Photoshop and adjusted the brightness and contrast to make the colors seem darker.

4. Animation

For the animation, I drew the frames from the panels one by one to create a seamless animation. Below are the panels that I've chosen to animate:

Then, I imported the frames one by one and placed them on separate layers on Adobe Photoshop and clicked on the 'Create Frame Animation' button.

After doing so, I opened the settings and clicked on 'Create Frames from Layers' to instantly insert the frames from the layers I've made.

After I was done with everything, I clicked on the play button to review my animation and I rendered it. After the rendering was done, I exported the file in GIF format.

Comic Cover

1. References

Before creating the cover, I wanted to reference parts of the story. Here's the few parts that I've referenced:

"Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnum Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

'Hark at the wind,' said Mr. White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it. 'I'm listening,' said the latter, grimly surveying the board as he stretched out his hand. 'Check.'"

I used the same color palette as the webcomic to keep the uniformity.

2. Sketch

I started off by sketching my initial idea first:

After I was satisfied with it, I moved onto Adobe Illustrator.

3. Digitalization

I started off by using the pen tool to trace the sketch. After doing so, I started giving the elements solid colors and then I continued with the shading and placed the text for the title and author. 

 

Then, before finishing up, I checked through the elements layer-by-layer and then used the 3D effect tool to edit the text. 

After finishing up the cover, I figured that the brightness and contrast of the cover is not up to my liking and not what I had initially planned. Because of that, I decided to edit the coloring further. I lowered the brightness and heightened the contrast using adjustment layers.   

  

4. Animation

For the animation, I decided to make the king chess piece knock down the pawn. I moved the element on Illustrator by slightly rotating the pieces for each frame. I also edited the shadow on the chess board a bit. After doing so, I imported each frame into Photoshop and also created an animation from the layers.

Here's the compilation of my final work in Google Slides: Click here!

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RATIONALE

Below is my rationale board as a whole for this task:

Webcomic Cover Rationale

The cover design for The Monkey’s Paw draws inspiration from the story’s opening scene, where the family was seen playing chess. I envisioned the monkey’s paw engaging in a chess game, with the king toppling a pawn- a symbolic representation of the father’s unintended role in his son’s tragic fate through his wish on the cursed paw. The house in the background reflects the family’s “forever home”, now enveloped in a cold and somber atmosphere, capturing the suspense, grief, and irrevocable consequences brought about by their desires.

It reflects surrealism through its dreamlike composition, symbolic chess pieces, and fragmented layers. The grayscale palette sets a haunting tone, while the bold yellow text contrasts to create dissonance. The ambiguity invites interpretation, aligning with the eerie themes of The Monkey’s Paw.

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Webcomic Rationale

This visual narrative adapts The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs, capturing themes of grief, desperation, and unintended consequences. The grayscale palette and dramatic contrasts evoke a haunting atmosphere, while the panel composition guides the reader through a tense and emotional storyline. Close-up shots emphasize characters’ expressions, highlighting their sorrow and fear. The sketch-like art style and integration of text enhance the suspense and raw emotion, effectively bringing the classic tale to life for a modern audience.

Initially, I wanted to capture the haunting grief that lingers in the family’s home with the absence of their one and only son. I only used dark to light greyscale tones with one highlight color which is yellow to make it look more alive. 

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REFLECTIONS

Experience

Through this project, I visualized a narrative inspired by the story The Monkey's Paw and brought it to life through digital means. I started by conceptualizing the story and visualizing its key moments. Using Adobe Illustrator, I digitalized my work, focusing on proper coloring and tracing techniques to create polished and cohesive visuals. Afterward, I manually animated the panels and compiled them in Adobe Photoshop to add a sense of movement and storytelling. This process was both challenging and rewarding, as it required balancing creativity with technical skills.

Observation

I noticed that tracing in Adobe Illustrator requires a lot of precision and patience to maintain consistency across the panels. Coloring properly also demanded attention to detail, especially in choosing palettes that conveyed the mood of the story. While animating in Photoshop, I observed how panel transitions play a significant role in storytelling, particularly in maintaining flow and capturing the narrative’s tension. Each transition needed to reflect the pacing and emotional tone of the scenes, which added depth to the visual story.

Findings

Through this process, I learned how to color more effectively and gained a deeper understanding of tracing techniques in Adobe Illustrator. I also discovered how important comic transitions are for storytelling, especially when adapting a written narrative into visual form. This project taught me the value of visualizing stories in a way that engages the audience while staying true to the original narrative. Moreover, combining Illustrator and Photoshop allowed me to explore new ways of bringing my work to life, blending static and dynamic elements seamlessly.