Comic book workshop an eye-opening experience

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Alliel explains how the use or non-use of frames can affect the layout.

FRENCH-BORN comic book artist Christophe Alliel has been telling stories through his drawings in the comic book industry for 10 years.

One of his more recent endeavours published last year is ‘Le Ventre de la Hyene’ (as Belly of the Hyena) — a 120-page graphic novel which pulls no punches as it takes a hard look at the brutality surrounding the lives of child soldiers.

“All I do is storytelling and drawing of pages to tell a story,” he said.

While simple enough at face value, to tell a story well through comics requires a lot of thought and planning, as participants at a recent workshop conducted by Alliel here discovered.

The two-hour event was organised by Urban Sketchers Kuching (USK) for its members and close associates.

The universal appeal of comics was reflected by the wide diversity of participants attending the short workshop, including architects, graphic and multimedia designers, executives, writers, tertiary and secondary school students and even a wedding and lifestyle photographer.

The first part of the informal workshop introduced basic facial and body anatomy. The second part was about storytelling — how to organise a layout and do a good composition on the page.

To demonstrate certain points, Alliel used whatever (and whoever) was at hand, making for a highly interactive and entertaining workshop.

Alliel sketches a volunteer during a 30-second fast-sketch exercise.

All about basics

Alliel stressed that when drawing faces, it is important to start with a good base by following a few basic rules of thumb.

“Once the base is built, adding details which bring the characters to life becomes much more fluid,” he explained.

“It is very important to respect the proportions — if not your character will not seem to work or look correct. Once you have this, you can play around with features and details, like eyebrows, ears and chin, hairlines and hairstyles.

“I feel there is actually not so much difference between male and female faces — mostly the difference is in the details, such as thinner eyebrows and thicker lips for women, and jawlines and facial hair for men. All the proportions stay the same — it’s just the details,” he told participants.

However, he pointed out, there are also exceptions to the rule, such as in Japanese manga or anime where certain details were exaggerated, like small chins and big eyes for characters as it reflects their cultural concept of beauty.

“In general, maybe hairlines are lower for women and bigger eyes because of make-up but bear in mind some women have very masculine faces and some men have feminine features like many Korean male pop idols.”

When it comes to maintaining perspective for off-to-the-side positions, such as when a character turns his or her face, it helps to think in terms of volume.

Alliel shared a tip where he used a 3-D cube as a grid to help him keep track of facial features to ensure angles and proportion match.

He also showed how the same method of building a good base and using volume could be used for drawing a character’s body.

“Build a base using key features like the shoulders, hips, then arms and legs, and add points for articulation such as at the elbows and knees. This type of drawing will always help you place the articulation which is very, very important because it will also help you to draw movement,” he said, stressing again how important it was to start with the basics to build a good base.

A folder, containing some of Alliel’s sketches, offers glimpses of his process of drafting and drawing comic book pages.
At left is the storyboard sketch while the finalised drawing is on the right.

Letting go

While following a structured drawing process can be fruitful in terms of developing as an artist, at times, it can be just as enlightening to leave those guidelines aside.

Alliel pointed out that more often than not, an artist’s biggest challenge was the fear of making mistakes, adding that people tended to get bogged down by details of whether a certain detail looked right or wrong.

In one exercise to help participants overcome this fear, he asked a few volunteers to pose one at a time in front of the workshop while the rest tried to complete their drawings within 30 seconds.

He explained this exercise could help teach people to suspend judgement, put aside their artistic inhibitions, rely more on instinct and step outside their creative comfort zones to finish the task within the time limit.

According to him, this also helps them identify and develop short-cuts in their drawings to capture the essence of a scene which can lead to a more engaging sketch overall, even though it may have fewer lines and be light on details.

“It is also a simple exercise one can practise anywhere and anytime and not be too concerned about making mistakes,” he added.

Constructing stories

For people who want to start drawing their own comic pages or book, it is important to know that like in movies, comics have a visual language all their own. What is unsaid can be just as important as what is not said.

For Alliel, everything should begin with the storyboard, where the artist plans the page layout and positions of characters, speech bubbles, backgrounds, key details and so on.

A good storyboard would help ensure smooth visual development of the plot and characters in a way that would not overwhelm the reader, he said, adding that it also helped the artist to place the details to guide the reader’s eyes where to go so that the reading process felt natural and engaging.

“Style is really the last thing you need to focus on. If you have a good storyboard, your page will be good. Some artists don’t do storyboards — they go straight into the drawing but I feel it’s a mistake. You need this to build the scene — it’s the most important. I always draft the storyboard before I begin drawing the page,” he shared.

And it can take him days before he feels satisfied with the storyboard for a page.

Alliel took about one and a half years to complete the storyboard for ‘Le Ventre de la Hyene’. While some artists choose to complete the storyboard for a whole book before starting to draw the pages, he prefers drafting the storyboard page by page as it leaves him room to make the necessary changes as the story progresses.

For Alliel, a simple layout is better than a complicated one. If something in the layout does not contribute to the story, it should be left out unless there is a good reason for it.

He also emphasised the importance of understanding and using tacit storytelling techniques and devices when constructing a page, such as how to draw certain objects or people as to highlight them.

“When you draw comics, you are basically the director of your own movie. You need to simplify things for readers. Small details (such as the use of frames, flow of panels) can push them out of the story. If they feel the story is too difficult to follow, they will not continue to read.

“I think this (adding too many details) is a common problem unless there is a specific meaning for it. For example, when a character looks from the right to the left, it means he or she is looking at the past. All comic book artists use this (storytelling device). This is deep but it is important to know.”

In addition to this, Alliel stressed it is important for artists to thoroughly research their topics to understand the context their characters existed in so that their renderings could be as realistic as possible.

In some cases, he has travelled to certain locations to see first-hand what it was like to actually live there. Where he cannot visit in person, he relies on the Internet and personal research to ensure that details such as types and makes of cars, people, clothing, and landscape are as true to life and history as possible.

To view more of Christophe Alliel’s artwork and projects, visit his blog (in French) at http://chrisalliel.blogspot.com.

To find out more about USK and their activities, visit their Facebook page.

Alliel leads the workshop.