Dreaming of Composition

A small peek into layout insight

This week I had some interesting times with critiques in graphic design. Currently working on a poster that conveys several meanings of one word has given me some challenges. I've always thought composition is every intuitive, and it is, until you have to think about a specific message you want to convey and then you get into the very technical aspect of composition, where the very placement of a visual element means something, or can be used to drive forward an idea you are trying to get across. In Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice, I saw a narrative of dream-like proportions which was greatly aided by compositional elements. It tells a story of a boy in a land of dreams and adventure, quite literally the adventures of his dreams. 

Maybe composition is not as obvious a component in comic books as it is in graphic design, but the simple size, placement and shape of the comic strip squares, play a big role in moving the story forward, and the direction of the narrative. Instead of panning and zooming, like what would happen in a movie, and using size, and placement, much like in graphic design, the panels of the comic strip serve to accentuate certain scenes and points in the narrative.

Within each panel itself, the style of drawing is very dream-like. The foreground and background seem to blend together in a harmonious fashion as it would in the haze of a dream, yet the line-work sets apart the action from the setting. In this same way, when working on my current design project I had to think about every single definition of that word and make sure it stood out on its own, as well as make everything look like one coherent and complete image.

Surprise!

A confounded look into Jim Woodring's Frank in the River

How can comics instill emotions and cause emotional reactions in readers without using words to describe how they should feel or what should make them feel that way? Jim Woodring does a marvelous job with his comic Frank in the River. The drawing style is simple and colorful, there is no particular quirky appearance to the drawings until it is necessary for an emotion to be conveyed.

It starts off with a calm story of Frank the squirrel walking a round a colorful scene doing mundane tasks until he meets his employer, a swine-goblin of sorts that is difficult to look at. Surely the intention of this appearance is to cause some kind of distaste in the reader for this particular character the same way protagonist squirrel must have some negative feelings toward his new employer.

The next day Frank discovers some critters climbing the fence of his employers home and his expression is disturbingly surprised. In contrast with is calm demeanor in the rest of the comic, this face not only describes what he is feeling, but makes the reader feel the same way, not toward the critters perhaps, but toward him.

More of these stunned looks are shown throughout the comic but every time is it a shock to see in comparison to the rest of the comic. The emotions are reflected off the character and projected into the readers mind flawlessly instilling a strong emotional connection between the reader and the work without using a single word. Showing something to instill emotions is clearly better than describing it, yet we are used to reading in depth descriptions that draw us into the emotional atmosphere of the story, however in comics we are looking at cartoons with very simple features.

So how does the author convey a complicated feeling with very few lines of a drawing? By placing these lines in a masterful and thoroughly expressive arrangement setting it apart from its surroundings and stun the reader.

The Next Act

 Inspired by: Uderstanding Comics The Invisible Art By Scott McCloud

Understanding Comics The Invisible Art By Scott McCloud has some interesting yet familiar insight about the instinct of humans to see themselves in just about anything. I recall several former professors of mine speaking about how as beginner artists we tend to draw our own face into every portrait. I personally made a sculpture of a man who by the end ended up slightly looking like my kin.

The point McCloud makes is that the comic is so relatable because the character don't look so specifically like "other" people therefore it is easier for anyone, especially with our aforementioned tendencies, to place ourselves into the character. My comic strip is inspired by the page where the author encourages the reader to follow along with gestures saying our face is a mask enslaved by our brains and does its will.

Zooming In: Diving Into the Mind of the Protagonist 

A reflection on The Arrival by Shawn Tan

Shawn Tan's The Arrival is a relatable story about immigration and immersion into new personally uncharted territory. The lack of words in the narrative prevent the author from describing what his protagonist is feeling in high detail, as is favored by authors, to go into paragraph after paragraph of rich detailed description in order to pull the reader into the mind of the protagonist. Tan alternatively uses panel size and layout to effectively draw the reader (or spectator as we are looking at images) into the mind of this traveler. Full bleed images are used to place us in a setting and general feeling of the place in the story and then smaller panels are used to slow down time and draw our minds into the protagonists. Seeing every movement drawn on the page, gives particular details a place to be displayed and noticed serving as the detailed descriptions we would normally read on an in-depth
paragraph.


When we see these panels of the protagonists hands carefully packing up a framed image of his family we can feel his sadness and might even delve into a nostalgia of our own; everyone at some point has packed to move away and there are always some items we pack hold much significance to us. These panels pull us into the mind of the protagonist and they are drawn to make us see through his very eyes, see what he is seeing and feel what he is feeling.

This strategy is used throughout the story as shown by the following panels:

These zoom into the moment, slow down the story and allow the viewer to focus on the details of the story, the details of how the protagonist is feeling and this helps drive the story forward.  A specially detailed image is the largest panel of the third page in the above series where the protagonist opens up his luggage and "sees" his family back home dining without him. This image is simple yet it tells us so much about how the protagonist is feeling and helps put us in his shoes and dive deeper into the story.

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