DESIGN. LINES AND SHAPES IN COMICS DESIGN

DESIGN

LINES AND SHAPES  IN COMICS DESIGN

I Lead in.

A) Take 1 minute to write down your associations with the word ‘comics’. Compare your lists with the words other students wrote. Do you have the same or similar associations? What are the biggest differences?

B) Do you like to read comics? What comics do you know? Who is your favourite character in comics?

C) As a designer would you like to draw comics? What will be difficult to draw in comics?

D) How do artists show words and sounds in comics? How do they represent dialogues and noises?

II Vocabulary focus. Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold italics. Then match the words with their definitions (a-p).

to whisper; to interact;  rough; spiky;  blow someone out of the water; to perceive;  lightning bolt; wobbly; uneven;  to emphasize; to cram; angular; to scallop; raggedy; motion; to hop

           A.   to communicate with

B.   to have an opinion about something

C.   the process of movement

D.   having angles or sharp corners

E.    not regular or smooth

F.    to speak very quietly, using the breath but not the voice

G.   having uneven ‘torn’ outline

H.   unsteady and not stable

I.      having sharp points

J.     to give special importance to something

K.   to defeat someone easily

L.    having irregular or uneven surface

M.  to move by jumping

N.   a flash of light in the sky

O.   to completely fill the place

P.    to cut and shape something making it look more round

III Design vocabulary in focus. Types of lines.

A)  Look at the images below. Find the examples of:

a)               spiky line

b)              dotted line

c)               thin line

d)              bold  line

e)               rough line

f)                smooth line

  

B)  What are your associations with the different line types? What lines would you use in your comics to show that a character:

a)       is nervous?

b)      is angry?

c)       is talking quietly?

d)      is whispering?

e)       is scared?

f)       is shouting?

IV Watch the video. Check your answers to task IV and answer the questions.

1. Did you name all line types correctly?

2. What functions of different lines did the artist describe?

3. What are word balloons in comics? What do they show the readers?

4. What do bold lines in word balloons show?

5. How can words balloons show the reader that the character is sick? How can an artist choose to show that that the character is speaking very quickly?

6. What word balloons can artists use to show that a character is dreaming?

7. What word balloons can be useful for robotic characters or words from TV and radio?

8. Look at the word balloons below. Which would you use to show that a character is:

a) yelling?

b) speaking?

c) thinking?

d) whispering?

V Watch the video. Choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1.    The interesting thing about stand/sounded/sound effects is the quality of your line/vine/feline can determine what kind of sound it is.  

2.    For cloud/loud/load sounds you might want to use bold thick lines, very create/straight/strangers, dark.

3.    For softer sounds you might want to use a lighter, thinker/thing/thinner lines.

4.    You see that this is very loud and this is very puffed/soft/off when you look at the two with the loud tones, boulder/bold/gold thick lines, raggedy musical banknotes/notes/noted versus small thin lines, tiny musical notes.

5.    For example, using very thick lines for the text and ladylike/jaggedy/yelling lines for the balloon really makes it clear that this person is telling you/yelling/yellow.

6.    You'll see sound affected/effects/effective all the time in comic books; the classic one is a ‘phew’/‘pow’/’dow’.

7.    You can use lines to show motivate/motion/notions.

8.    Another way to do it is speed/seed/reed lines.

9.    So, for example, just this car alone looks like it's landing/stand/standing still.

10.The next time you pick up a comic book, look at the different ways that comic artists use sound effects and word balloons to tell the story.

VI OVER TO YOU.

A)Find two examples in of sound effects in English language comic books (in the video the example was ‘pow’, another example can be ‘zzz’ to show that a character is sleeping and snoring). If possible compare how the sound effects in English language comic books are different from the sound effects in the comic books in your native language. For example, what letter do artists use in comic books in your native language to show that a character is sleeping and snoring?

B)Look at the comics below. Choose one of them to add the character’s words and/or sound effect. Imagine what people can be discussing. Use the ideas from the video to modify lines, text, and shapes in your word balloons.

C)                Go to the comic artist’s website and compare your version of the comics to the original idea.

D)                Draw your own comics character (or find an example online) and add the character’s words and/or sound effect.