Comic Books

I had a look at some of my favorite comic books to compare different types of illustration, layout and style.

Catwoman

I've always preferred the older style images of Catwoman (1940s/1950s) I think the colour and style is really appealing and has become iconic. After looking at some of the newer versions, I felt they just looked too polished and lacked in character. I love the rough sketchy style of the image above and combined with the bold use of primary colours it really stands out and looks effective.

Ghost World- Daniel Clowes

 I am a massive fan of Daniel Clowe's work. My favorite is Ghost World which the images above are from. I like his simple style of illustration and especially the way he captures facial expressions. I think the use of one single colour in the book was very effective and gave it a permanent mood throughout the story. It would definitely be something I would consider doing when planning my final project.
Below is a sketch I did of one of the images from Ghost World. I did it to try drawing in a different style from how I usually do and I think it would be a good style to try and change and adapt into an animation as its a quick and simple style but gets the message across clearly.

The Moomins- Tove Jansson

I think the Moomin drawings by Tove Jansson are fantastic. I love the simplicity of her characters and the way shes gives them such expressive eyes to compensate for a lack of other facial features. I think she really succeeds in portraying their mood and emotion by doing this and it would be something else I would consider doing in my final project as it may possibly be a challenge to animate a character's mood and expression using only one part of the face but if done well it would look effective.

Promethea- Alan Moore

Although I always admire the simplicity of the other comics' styles above, When it comes to Promethea and Alan Moore's other works, I love the huge amount of detail and colour he adds to his work. His illustrations are almost photograph-like in some pieces and the way he lays out the separate cells or scenes are really unique. I think the first two images are really eye catching and the use of colour is the key reason for this. As much as I would like to do something in a similar style to Moore, I think in terms of making an animation, this style of illustration would be to too complex and time consuming for my first attempt.