The Hero’s Journey
I have always been a digital cartoonist, rarely drawing anything on paper ever since my polytechnic days after I got my wacom tablet so I wanted to challenge myself and push myself to do more and to go back to my roots.
Have always been a big fan of comic book drawing styles, especially the vintage ones drawn traditionally with pencil and ink. Most of my work today are inspired by fellow Singaporean artists that joined Marvel; Benjamin Ang and Sonny Liew.
ARTIST REFERENCE | DEVELOPMENT | FINAL
Sonny Liew
Quirky, light ink inspired some of pieces and gave a lighter tone in some of my pieces.
The soft color board also influenced my choice of color to tell a story. A newer age of comics but still brings a subtle vintage tone to it.
Jack Kirby
And of course the legend himself, Jack Kirby, the really nice uncle that everyone likes of comics, next to Stan Lee of course. His style single handedly changed the way people viewed visual novels everywhere. Thick black strokes coupled with vibrant colors and the use of pen techniques like hatching to bring out shades was truly a MARVEL of the era.
Benjamin Ang
Benjamin is a new aged artists and this brings a whole new dynamic to the style of comics he draws. It was important for me to study how digitally drawn art differed from modern style to the more traditional vintage style.
Initial stages were very tough as I had too many ideas and was trying too hard to utilize different mediums to stand out from the rest.
I finalized on a single narrative about the coming of age of a super hero that would reflect my life.
ACT I: A fat boy decides to slim down. Becomes more confident and gains leadership and charisma. Learns skills from a mentor(the internet).
ACT II: Defeats foes on the internet and calls it his own.
ACT III: Gets destoryed by the one thing he calls his home. He realizes maybe this is not the Hero’s Journey he expected afterall.
For a compiling narrative, I needed compiling and complicated visuals.
Had wanted to do pancake art but after trying out, I realized I wasn’t much of a pancake contemporary artist.
(pardon the stock image)
I also explored mediums of color gels, lights, shadows and an installation style but was told it would sway from 2D to become a 3D project.
Upon browsing through shadow images, I thought of something I’ve seen before on pinterest and wanted to execute the concept.
(again, pardon the stock image)
The concept seemed cool and it went along well with my narrative, most of which started with (Me) at a certain age in my life and the reflections would lead their way to the 3rd box of each series.
But as I googled for more images, it seems someone has already used the concept. I was devastated. 🙁 I even did a mock up of a low poly of my face to test out the artistic style if it was suitable.
I had to change my idea completely. The images below would be all the versions thus far I’ve changed in AI and a journey into my thought process.
(v1-ish: Tried poly and my style of cartooning)
(v2: tried to digitally recreate traditional art works only to realize the reason why comic book artists spend hours on paper, pencil and ink)
Hand drawn and inked.
(v3: before the final touch ups and the last panel)
(v3.5 aka final: fully colored and ready for print)
Triadic colors of the primary colors were chosen as they not only represent the metaphor of the hero, but also the state of mind I was in during at age.
Blue: Young & Innocent
Red: Hot & Passionate
Yellow: Powerful & Dominant
White: Lost & Empty
Me(Young) + Hero’s Training = Strong & Bold
Always had a strong desire to protect and to be brave. When I was young, I was quite fat and as a result, was bullied very often. I decided to never become like one of those bullies. I’ve read comics my entire life and decided I wanted to a super hero. When I was 16, I was determined to lose as much weight and to be the person I always wanted to be; a strong, bold and courageous person.
Me(Teens) + Too Much Time On The Web = Develops Skills
During my teens, I was the odd kid in class because I was deeply in love with the internet and photoshop and photography and film. The internet came out of no where, took me by surprise and I made it my own. I learnt many things and developed skills that no 14 year old would know.
Me(Not So Young) + Meets Technology = Finds True Calling
In polytechnic, I was truly exposed to technology. Thousands upon thousands of dollars of equipment was mine and thus it enhanced my skills and turned me into something that I never would have imagined. I have found happiness, bliss in technology.
Me(Now) + Life = Not So Much Of A Hero
I am now in university. The passion, overused from work and assignments, not doing what I truly love but what others deem to be necessary. I feel restricted. Unable to run. Is this what I truly wanted to be?