Reconstruction

Similarly to the deconstruction task based on the illustrations from week one, this week we where asked to create an 8-page zine with a present narrative or sequence. My tasks have all been based on my “Trigger the Dog” piece, which has an implicit storyline –I planned on placing Trigger in various scenarios, attempting to show passage of time through his outfits and locations, unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to complete it in class. Before starting the mini magazine, we where asked to create a 4 panel storyline that would later be printed and used to make the zine. The single rule of the zine is that is must be made from these 4 panels, your own and ones made by others in the group.

I stuck with the original idea of having Trigger in various scenes, using other peoples work as backgrounds; the images had to be monochrome but we could add text to narrate the story.

after text:

click here for zine with pages in correct order.

Image vs Object

Having had the chance to look through a range of comics part of the “Ian Horton Collection”, I was instantly reminded of my childhood – I hadn’t touched a comic book in years. More than the content of the comic, the feel of the flimsy paper and the old newspaper-like smell evoked memories of my grandmothers basement, where I used to play with my fathers play-mobile and flick through some of his french comics. In reality, I don’t remember the names because I couldn’t actually read them, what persists in my memory are the bright colours and a vision of them stacked on a high shelf.

From what I have previously said, it’s easy to understand that a comic book in the traditional form is more than something you can simply look at or read. The suggested article; ‘Beyond the Visual – The Roles of the Senses in Contemporary Comics’, shows other possibilities of interaction with comics besides visual and tactile, sensory experiences like hearing, smell and taste. In terms of touch, the defining difference is in the paper: the thickness, weight and texture all have an effect on the turning of the pages and position in which we read the comics.

When reading a slim, cheap, flimsy comic, you certainly wont lie on your back and hold it over your head in the air because the paper is so fine that the book wouldn’t hold it’s shape and the pages would slip from your fingers. If you were reading a sturdier, heavier comic you might have to rest it on a table, otherwise the weight would exhaust your arms. If a comic is printed on textured paper you may feel the urge to brush your fingers over the images and hold on to the pages when reading. For collectors who value these peculiarities, they are quite obvious; casual readers and children are usually unaware of the small details even if they do significantly change the experience.

The quality of the paper also effects the auditory part of the experience, different papers create contrasting noises when you turn the page, grip the paper etc. On a digital platform it is much easier to queue sounds to determined scenes or moments in the story, sound effects are commonly added to digital comics, as well as soundtracks. However, this modern form of comics has disadvantages also, since the entire tactile part is lost and smell and taste is still incommunicable through devices like computers or phones.

The article above also explains the importance of smell, besides the expected smell of “dust, glue and paper.” – which suitably is purposely intensified. Smell is known to be one of the most nostalgic senses, some scents are connected to memories that we hold individually but others are generally related to seasons or places; for example, pumpkin scented candles, that remind everyone of autumn or sandalwood –associated with the beach. There are different methods to add smell to comics, the paper itself can be scented, which due to exposure doesn’t last very long, or scented scratch cards can be attached and used when indicated in the book.

Taste is by far the hardest to include in a comic book experience, small treats do come annexed to some comics but normally they have no connection to the content or story. All food comes with an expiry date, the simplest way for readers to ‘taste’ the comic would be to follow recipes included in the book for the dishes mentioned – this would also allow the reader to smell the food and feel the different textures. I am not a comic book collector but as a child I would collect Rainbow Magic books, which were easily bought at any bookstore but have some limited editions. The most exciting part of the collection was the discovery of puzzles at the end of the books, usually you would have to go back and find unique bold letters that together would spell-out a special word. The books didn’t include smell, taste or sound, but the limited editions had sparkly paper and a harder cover that added to the tactile quality of the book.

Printmaking

During week two we were introduced to Printmaking through induction on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday we printed with pre-made screens, we had the choice of picking between 4 different designs, each with two colours. The printing is fairly simple when the screen is set up and paints mixed, but the preparation is long and detailed. Proper screen prep relies on a series of chemical reactions; degreasing, application of the emulsion, developing and hardening –the quality of the printing doesn’t depend solely on the quality of the positives you design but also on the way you clean your equipment and the attention to detail when applying mediums.

After Tuesday, I was quite confident in my printmaking capabilities but on Wednesday I realised that I didn’t know half of what printmaking was. The second lesson was more technical and informative, ultimately what we had done the previous day was only 10% of the full process. The following Friday I decided to use my independent study time to attempt screenprinting my own design. Using the transparent paper provided, I sketched a basic design based on one of my week one illustrations (“Brief Encounters”), dividing the design in two layers, one as the block color and the other as the outline. I had various color combinations in mind, various colours, navy outline with a gradient and teal with blood orange.

I played around with 3 pre-mixed colours and the outcome was sad. Initially I forgot to dry my screen and printed with a damp screen so the colour bled; in another test I misaligned the paper, which mad it look very messy and confusing because of the double image. The only test I was fairly happy with was the last one, that is in no way similar to any of my original ideas but has a nice gradient outline and is clear! I need to dedicate more time to printmaking so that I can produce something I am actually proud of. It requires a lot of effort and patience, for that reason I thought I’d never be inclined to do it because we can achieve similar results digitally using programs like Photoshop. However, It’s very hard to mimic the texture and vibrance of the colours through regular printing and I believe that is what will keep me coming back to screenprinting.

This would nice on a card or something, maybe even a notebook cover, happy fall!

Deconstruction

Last Monday we were asked to deconstruct the illustrations created during week one for the “Brief Encounters” task. Out of the four, I chose the following illustration:

Trigger the Dog – inspired by my encounter with a lost dog poster found at a park near elephant and castle; 0.25 gel ink ballpoint pen on regular printing paper, colour added digitally on Photoshop.

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Deconstructing my work was new to me, it was difficult to create something that represented the creative process the work above. Initially, I planned on sketching the ideas I had and creating a mood-board, a collection of possible “Trigger the Dog” scenes. However, the outcome wasn’t meant to be a mood-board, it had to be a new and balanced piece, so I decided to approach the task differently. Trigger’s face is the main focus of the illustration, it’s in the posters too, so repetition was something I wanted to include if I were to create a poster, something like this:

The text would either be over the image or visible between the gaps. I preferred the second option and proceeded to add colour matching the original, keeping the text in red.

Ultimately, the deconstruction could have turned out very differently and I’m still unsure about what was expected. For me, deconstructing can be associated with simplification, finding the origin of the piece. I believe I kept the key elements: the face, the colours, the message.

speed doesn’t matter, forward is forward.