Visual design – panels

The objective of this experiment was to try out as many visual variations as possible over a week in order to discover the best approach(es) that I could develop in the comic.

The experiment explored two different things:

Inking – covering line weight, materials, tools
Colouring

As well as assessing the visual impact of a particular approach, an important factor to consider was the effort required to do the work.

Visual design experiment

The problem

I could approach visual design in a number of different ways. The problem was that didn’t know which one(s) would work best for this project

Hypothesis

Creating visual mock-ups of the same page layout and content using different visual approaches will allow me to test and learn the best option(s) to apply to the project.

Expected results

Creating a mock-ups using a variety of different styles will allow me to test and learn the best option(s) to take forward and develop.

What happened

I used the pencil reference created during the page layout experiment as the basis for creating a number of visual variations:

Variation 1 – Fine liner linking
Variation 2 – Dip pen inking
Variation 3 – Liquid watercolour and colour overlay
Variation 4 – Flats
Variation 5 – Half tone
Variation 6 – Pencil with overlay
Variation 7 – Digital

Variation 1 – Fine liner inking

This variation was created with a variety of permanent fine liner pens, using a lightbox to trace through the line art. The pencil reference was approx. A3 sized and the paper was fairly light weight (120gsm cartridge paper).

I tried printing out the reference in non-photo blue and tried working directly onto that, but found it distracting.

The resulting image has no tonal value and was used as the basis of Variation 3 – Liquid watercolour and overlay and Variation 5 – Half tones.

Fine liners are quicker to use that dip pens and not so messy, but the uniform line weights lacks the expressive quality of pen and ink.

Variation 2 – Dip pen inking

This variation was inked using a combination of the dip pens and brushes with Indian Ink on A3 Bristol Board.

Fig 2 – Dip pen work in progress using Bristol Board on a lightbox (2022)

To create texture in the dark backgrounds I experimented masking out the foreground using frisket masking film and applying Indian ink using a printmaking brayer.

Fig 3 – Backgrounds added using drawing ink applied using a brayer through masking film (2022)

I like how expressive dip pens and brushwork can be.

The downside is that the process requires a lot of care and is relatively time consuming.

Variation 3 – Liquid watercolour and overlay

I applied Ecoline liquid watercolour tone onto the fine liner line art.

Fig 5 – Liquid watercolour adding tone to fine liner pen line art (2022)

This is a relatively quick process.

Fig 6 – Liquid watercolour overlay variation (2022)

Colour is added using the overlay feature in Photoshop. This gives a lot of control to the artist and the result looks like watercolour paint.

Fig 7 – Colour overlay added digitally on top of the liquid watercolour to give a watercolour effect (2022)

Variation 4 – Flats

Combining inked line art and colour flats is a classic comic technique that is pushed to it’s creative limits by Dave McKean in his graphic novel ‘Cages’

Fig 8 – Dave McKean’s Cages interior page

I tried to emulate this approach using the dip pen inking variation as the base artwork.

Fig 9 – Colour flats added digitally on top of dip pen line art (2022)

Adding the single colour flats layer was relatively quick.

Variation 5 – Half tone

The halftone variations used the fine liner artwork as a basis. CMYK halftones were added as separate layers using True Grit brushes for Photoshop.

It was the first time I’d used the brushes, and once I understood how they worked I found them quite easy to use.

Fig 10 – Black half tone variation on top of fine liner line art (2022)

Applying colour was more time consuming but this was probably due to having to learn how to do it at the same time.

Fig 11 – CMYK half tone layers on top of fine liner line art (2022)

The results have a definite comic retro feel that works well with the sci fi aesthetic.

Variation 6 – Pencil with overlay

This variation simply applied a blue colour overlay to the pencil reference artwork produced in the Page layout experiment.

The pencil artwork didn’t really have much tone because it didn’t need to, and the effect of the overlay could be improved quickly by adding more tonal cross hatching to the drawing.

Fig 12 – Colour overlay on top of pencil reference artwork (2022)

This approach is the quickest to create by far because it doesn’t involve any additional inking.

Variation 7 – Digital

The final variation was completely digital using Photoshop. Rather than use the page 2 pencil reference I decided to create a new page to provide me with some variation.

The approach cuts out at least one analogue step in the process flow so is relatively quick.

What I learned

A decision on which visual style(s) to use needed to balance the speed of doing the work with its suitability for the project.

The following table is a prioritisation matrix that uses simple scoring to identify the best solution.

Variation	Speed 1 > 3 with 3 = fastest	Suitability 1 > 3 with 3 = high	Score
Liquid watercolour and colour overlay	1	2	3
Flats	1	2	3
Half tone	1	3	4
Pencil with overlay	3	1	4
Digital	3	2	5

Fig 14 – Prioritisation matrix (2022)

The completely digital approach scored the highest, although in line with my objective of using the project to showcase a range of different drawing styles, it is likely that a variety of approaches will be used.

What I’ll do next

Use the findings from this experiment to create a mock-up of the complete mezcal sequence.

References

List of illustrations

Figure 1 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Fine liner variation [Fine liner] In possession of: The author

Figure 2 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Dip pen work in progress using Bristol Board on a lightbox [Photograph] In possession of: The author

Figure 3 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Backgrounds added using drawing ink applied using a brayer through masking film [Photograph] In possession of: The author

Figure 4 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Dip pen variation [Pen and ink] In possession of: The author

Figure 5 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Liquid watercolour adding tone to fine liner pen line art [Photograph] In possession of: The author

Figure 6 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Liquid watercolour overlay variation [Ecoline liquid watercolour] In possession of: The author

Figure 7 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Colour overlay added digitally on top of the liquid watercolour to give a watercolour effect [Ecoline liquid watercolour] In possession of: The author

Figure 8 – Carroll, Tobias Dave McKean’s Cages 25th Anniversary Edition Pushes Words & Pictures to Their Limit At: https://www.pastemagazine.com/comics/dave-mckean/dave-mckeans-cages-pushes-words-pictures-to-their/ (Accessed: 08/09/22)

Figure 9 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Colour flats added digitally on top of dip pen line art [Pen and ink] In possession of: The author

Figure 10 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Black half tone variation on top of fine liner line art [Fine liner] In possession of: The author

Figure 11 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) CMYK half tone layers on top of fine liner line art [Fine liner] In possession of: The author

Figure 12 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Colour overlay on top of pencil reference artwork [Pencil drawing] In possession of: The author

Figure 13 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Digital variation [Digital] In possession of: The author

Figure 14 – Hadfield, Hugh (2022) Prioritisation matrix [Digital] In possession of: The author