My personal project of semester two
Specific
What do I want to accomplish?
To refresh your memory a little bit I shall give a short explanation of what my project is about. I had the idea to make up a story based on my experiences from my adventure in Newcastle but then with a twist. A story what takes place in a phantasy world instead of the real world we all know of. Friends and family play a big part in the story as they all take another form as species. I hope to spread a message from what I’ve learned during my stay in England.
By completing this assignment there has to be a lot of things done before the deadline.
My goals are is to have at least:
– three pages of my comic book done, fully coloured in
– three pages of risograph of the comic pages
– a front cover, I am considering to include maybe a back cover
– design four art prints to sell as merchandise
I hope to achieve the entire list by the end of April or at least by the beginning of May.
Why is this goal important?
Without having any examples on how the story could have been developed in the form of a comic, I cannot show or receive potential feedback from my audience. I would like to share a preview with everyone and get a reaction from each and every single one of them. Do they like seeing what I have designed so far. Would they like to see more of the graphic novel? Are they willing to pay to support my work? If I know my answer than I can start asking myself some questions like do I want to proceed with the graphic novel or do I need to make small adjustments to the storyline to make it more interesting?
Who is involved?
Most likely it is me who takes control over the entire project but sometimes I ask during my work my classmates for any feedback on what I can do better at and where I need to lay my focus on. Of course, my project consists of friends so I do need to ask sometimes for extra footage to make the design more legit or I use the photos I made during travels like school trips.
Which resources or limits are involved?
It requires a lot of patience especially when it comes to traditional art. I have to bear in mind that I don’t have at the moment a light table to trace the lines over from all my sketch pages. I need to be careful while doing the line art and avoid mistakes. I cannot afford to do it all over again. I use the smooth, heavyweight A4 white paper to draw the comic on and I’ll be using my comic marker paper to make rough concept art. Besides art supplies, I do need my photos which I took whilst I was in Newcastle or any other sorts of place. If it were to happen I did make a mistake I can edit these in Adobe Photoshop, this will also be the place where I’ll be colouring the comic in once the line art has been done and scanned in.
Measurable:
How will I know when it is accomplished?
Once I have gathered all my resources, products and written documents into one PDF file. I have to make sure in the last month every chapter is supported by a brief description of what I have exactly done and how I was able to achieve those goals. I always use the program Adobe InDesign and Word document to form my assignments and when the time has come to hand them officially in to my teachers than I know for sure I am done.
Achievable:
How can I accomplish this goal?
By first looking at examples online to get a better understanding of how a possible comic could work out and how artists approach their goals. Learning from people and self-exploration is the key to success. I even bought for my personal project three books what all has to do with illustration. They all assist me to get to my goal.
The first book is Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez, a comic I found on No Brow, references like these give me that last bit of support of seeing more possibilities in several points of views.
The second book is The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse intrigues me how he tells his story in limited words. He also only did traditional art to visualise his illustration.
The third book in The Sketchbook of Loish, tells you how she been through her life as an artist and I think with the help of each page my realisation can be fully accomplished!
Relevant:
Is this the right time? Does this match our other efforts/needs?
Yes and no, I have my doubts. You think during a pandemic you got all the time of the world to finalise your school projects all day. This may be true, you can spend more time than ever to work on them but in one hand it’s not the best moment I’ll say. I had plans to produce some finalised artworks at school such as the risograph. Now that school is closed I have to take other actions to make this into realisation. Luckily you can still order online for supplies which makes it easier to think of a solution.
If we look at it from another perspective it does can have a good effect on my comic, it does. Hear me out why. People are stuck at home and are limited to their choices, they cannot simply go out anymore to go see friends or shop at a mall. Boredom strikes from all directions and everyone tries to find a way to enjoy themselves. They go on the internet for a search against boredom, nothing else can counteract on boredom with a good webcomic. I see it as a sort of solution to satisfy some people to spend their time more enjoyable.
Time bound:
When?
The deadline is 15th of May.
What can I do from now on?
By creating at least everyday progress on my work and continue this for over the month until I reach my deadline. I suspect to be done sooner. The time I have left I shall give a last finish touch. I do have to keep in account I have an entrance exam open for a new school so I need to manage my time right. Not to forget to have breaks and go outside during the day to get some well-deserved fresh air.
My day schedule will look like this:
9 AM – 12 PM: Homework
12 PM – 1 PM: Break
1 PM – 3 PM: Homework
3 PM – 4 PM: Break
4 PM – 7 PM: Entrance Exam
7 PM – 8 PM: Have dinner
8 PM – 10 PM: Homework
Reference list:
Mind Tools Content Team. (N.D.) SMART Goals. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm (Accessed: 02/04/20)
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