I’m ready to start generating ideas for my book, so i’ll document my process here on this blog post, as one does.

i want to create a comic book, as my research shows. I want to do this mainly for two reasons; firstly, i want to challenge myself to communicate with the reader/viewer of my book more through image than language, as i have a tendency to write a lot, and secondly because i personally prefer reading comics and manga to books, and since the book is meant to be somewhat personal, i think this will make it reflect my interests well. As Julie chen does, i want the actual build of my book to be relevant to the meaning and contents, so i figured i should make it like a comic since that’s one of my interests.

I couldn’t figure out whether to make my book more like a manga or a comic, so i decided to find a middle ground; it will more or less be like a comic, but it will be backwards like a manga. it’s like a hybrid of the two things i like to read.

Aesthetically i want to use my own art style, while taking influence from both anime and cartoons from the early to current 2000s. These are the cartoons that have had the most influence on me, and i want to reflect that through my work.

I’m going to use my own handwriting for my book rather than printing out a typed font or working digitally, as i think this will help to give the book some of my personality, while also giving it a nice hand-made look.

The theme of the book is ‘you are here’; i was puzzled by this theme at first, and i want to reflect that in my book. where is ‘here’? when you truly think of it, what does ‘here’ even mean? rather than writing a coherent story, in each panel i want to explore how the meaning of ‘here’ can change, using my own personal experiences, opinions and viewpoints as examples. For example, ‘here’ in my dreams is a lot different than ‘here’ in real life; i’ll try to look into what makes these two ‘here’s so different from each other, while linking them to either something about me or something that i think/feel. In the end, i want the book to seem like a bunch of brightly coloured panels, all different in theme, coming together to somewhat communicate who i am and how i think to the reader.

As stated before, i’ll work traditionally for this book. I’d like to use pro markers (a cheaper alternative to copic markers, bold alcohol based markers) to colour my book; i used these for my animatic, so along with saving time and money, i’m familiar with these pens and i like how they make my work look. They look bold and bright, similarly to digital colouring, which would’ve been my chosen method of creation if i didn’t want the book to give off more of a hand made look. To put the book together i’ll do something simple, like stapling it or hole punching it.

For generating page ideas, i want to work kind of loosely and spontaneously. I won’t plan how each page looks, or even what content will be on all of them; i’ll come up with rough ideas of things i might want to talk about in relation to the theme, and i’ll just draw whatever pops into my mind. I want the panels to represent my mindset, thoughts and feelings at the exact moment i’m creating them, and i think this way of working is the best way to achieve that.

Lastly, we have to capture our books in 30 second videos. My concept for this video is to put the book on a washing line; the book will contain some personal information that i’ll have to share with others, whether i like it or not. One of my first thoughts was that it’s a bit like having your clothes on a washing line for all to see; a normal thing, but it’s a bit embarrassing to have everyone be able to see something somewhat personal like your underwear or fashion choices, and to have them make judgments on you solely based on that. I think it would be a cool little add on to the book, and hopefully people will understand why i chose to do it.

With a process in mind and a head full of ideas, i think i’m ready to start drawing out the pages of my book. In the next blog i’ll document how my book is going, and my methods of working without falling behind.