coldhandsfinalproject

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InDesign editing first tests

Test with the default book font

Bold PT sans test, bigger text

More or less final versions

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Some progress on the final pencil spreads plus starting on the watercolour!

The watercolour works well, I don’t add too many details at all, for the sake of everything being fluid and a bit loose.

There are some unfortunate patches of dried paint, mostly because it dries unevenly or there was too much water in that spot. Easy to fix post editing. I also recently found a cool tool to add a bit of interesting colour to the image: gradient maps! Just saving which one I use here.

So, the final couple of pages are:

Tomorrow I will try out the formatting on these, just to test different fonts & text placements. Due to the final tutorial I want to at least get some feedback on that from Irina, she always has some valuable advice for text and formatting.

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Progress Update: continuing work on the illustration in pencil

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In continuation to the previous post: text for the dummy book and some technical info.

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Here's some of the quick colour tests for the first several pages. I decided to first do all the pencil for every illustration in a bulk for the sake of making everything consistent. The final colour of the pages would also be more consistent if I apply it to many illustrations at once (I can mix a lot of paint straight away). So far the pencil stage is going pretty quick.

Here's some of the quick colour tests for the first several pages. I don't intend on using too many colours. Indigo tones for the "cold" parts in the narrative and then warm tones for the parts of happiness. Also signifies memories.

I have thought about a cover too. At first I intended to just use an illustration from inside the book (which I can still do) but then I sketched this and I like this first version. Also I think it might be interesting visually because the main character's design is all warm yellows which would go along with the "Cold" part of the title.

Been looking though potential sizes for the book too. I made a small dummy book just to see the size I was considering and I like it. I will have to see what sizes are available at different typographies and if something the final dimensions can change a bit but I don't think it would be a huge problem.

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Update: Final storyboard.

I have finished the storyboard for the entire story. It turned out much longer than I anticipated but I don't think it's too bad. I may reconsider some of the spreads and the pacing. It also depends on what the feedback for my writing will be. Speaking of, I almost finished that too, just one scene left for the very last couple of spreads. I have to say, I really like some of the sketches.

Here is the entire storyboard put together:

And the writing I did today. It was somewhat hard because I think visually it works better. So I tried to add something that the visuals lacked.

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Progress update: Tutorial with Laetitia (March 16th) and further development.

My tutorial with Laetitia went really well! What pleasantly surprised me was her suggestion to proofread the text I had so far. Usually tutors don't do that so I was pretty excited. But I still haven't gotten a response from when I sent her the text document, so I guess that's that. I just will have to do with my friend as a proofreader as I planned to do. Other than that, Laetitia was super helpful and encouraging, I asked her for references on various interesting French or European picturebooks. I was just curious about them, because I have already collected books from China and Japan. She suggested me a couple of interesting authors. Such as Piotr Socha or Clotilde Perrin, which are amazing illustrators. Overall what was great after this tutorial, was the motivation and excitement I've felt. I wrote quite a lot after it!

Speaking of, I'm almost done with writing. It's been quite a good experience, I remembered why I love writing so much. I am trying to be concise and efficient but it is truly somewhat difficult, so I expect to go thought everything with a more critical eye and to trim it down. Because unexpectedly now I'm estimating more than the planned 40 pages of illustrations:)

Along with writing I am also making the storyboard. It's easier for me to first write and then do a sketch of the visuals, but sometimes I also have something visual in mind that I cannot really write in the main text. It's sort of a symbiotic process. Making the storyboard is pretty difficult because I keep thinking of things like "what if the composition is too boring?" and things like that. It takes a lot of effort out of me but I'm almost done. This includes the 32 pages or 16 spreads. I also try to create a visual pacing where there are spreads fully covered in illustration and there are ones with just small details.

Something other very exciting is my final design sheets for the main characters. I realised that after I'm done with the storyboard I will need to have a sure reference for all the primary characters and my previous sketches were not enough. I love character design and I am very happy with how it turned out! I especially love Esha's final design.

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I have been thinking about the colour palette as well. Limited colour can help in uniting the whole book, so I'm considering using two main palettes depending on the tone of the scene or how the story progresses. Such as, first scenes that have an unnerving undertone to them would be completely in blues, then the moments with novels as well as happy memories: in yellows and oranges. The darkness of the blues gets more and more intense until the breaking point of the act 2, after which everything is in warm colours to signify the change in the main character.

I have been trying out various colour combinations.

Regarding the style of the illustrations, these are some of the latest illustrations I've made. They are pretty loose when it comes to colour and I think that would be good for big scale illustrations, as well as the addition of pencil to show even more texture and material.

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Over the past week I have been working on the writing primarily. I have been afraid that I won't be good enough to actually write the story and the theoretical scenes and events seemed way safer staying theoretical, full of potential. But sooner or later I would still have to begin to actually write. I am trying to keep in mind the size of the whole story, it doesn't need too much text. But I always can get rid of things later, trim them down and whatnot. Also starting on the storyboard for the actual spreads has been pretty hard but very important to actually see the pacing. I will probably need to work out the clear amount of text on each spread too, whether to leave spreads with minimum visuals but more text and so on.

I also have messaged Ksenia to ask for picturebook references. Chris is not really into them so I keep remembering the lectures that Ksenia curated on picturebooks in level 4. I was also very interested in the Japanese ones! I have already explored some Chinese books so it seemed only fitting. Ksenia had shared with me quite a lot of resources, her own collections of photos included. She asked me not to share those publicly tho, so I won't be posting them here, only in the project log. But other things were also very cool, such as:

Sunny Boy Books store

Oyanagi Kae

Taiyo Matsumoto's picturebooks, also the book covers by Ayumi Nakaue (https://6cca.jp/tagged/works)

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Record: Day 12.

Today was the tutorial with Chris during which we have discussed the story and the picturebook elements of the project. The discussion went really well! We talked about how details can work visually, Chris suggested to include some minimalistic illustrations with an emphasis on the details. It was a great suggestion bevause it can break up the visual pace of the story as well as making some objects look really meaningful and intentional. We have talked about some movies that do that.

Also we discussed the writing, the very beginning in particular. It is important to just throw the reader in the struggle of the main character, what's the story is about and maybe even how it's going to end. The film 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' got brought up, because of the very first scene: a monologue that starts with the same line as the title of the movie. I have not seen the film but I discussed it with a friend and I think it's worth checking out. I have many ideas about the writing now and it's very exciting.

I asked Chris for some picturebook recommendations that are in our library. He is more knowledgeable about comics tho and said that it was difficult to recommend something without seeing what I'm going for visually. I showed him some sketches of the spreads and was able to recall one great artist: Sergio Toppi. I am interested in the dynamics of negative space on a page and Sergio Toppi is brilliant with that!

It was such an awesome tutorial!

Juts now sketched some stuff, trying to be mindful of the compositions and negative spaces and the like. Just something small. Thinking of including some memorable objects, took the Museum of Broken Relationships for a reference.

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Record: Day 11.

[Note: I have not posted things over this reading week 21.02.22 - 25.02.22, but here is the summary of what I was working on]

During last week I mostly was going though some research that I already collected here. Have watched Little Women, only the 1994 version. It was interesting, unlike the newer movie, the man character did end up in a marriage for real. Overall, very heartfelt watch I'd say, it was nice to glimpse how the complicated view of marriage for women was portrayed in the 90s cinema.

I was working on figuring out the story mostly. The final outline was somewhat of a challenge for me to write because I hesitated over the details of the story. I kept thinking about "oh what if I will come up with something better than I already have? Are those ideas even good enough?". It helped to think of the story as a simple one. In the end, I do not intend on big amounts of text anyway, so it has to be concise yet not too literal and direct about the meaning. Turns out, coming up with something short yet thoughtful enough is a tough endeavour! I have finished the outline though, so that is something at least. I like some parts, mostly the ones all about visuals. Will need to sketch them right away actually. Text can be always worked on more and changed but the illustrations are the real star of the show here.

I have also found some wonderful picture books by Chinese artists! They have often more of a mythological flare and style but I still think they are a valuable reference for layouts, colour, composition and so on.

https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZNTQ0MzY3MjQ=.html Mulan by 叶露盈 (illustrations do not include text)

https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZNTM5NzQ0ODA=.html And this book by 建哥不贱 is probably my favourite. Also includes sketches for the spreads, as well as a bit of concept art & research. The compositions are just so well done! The swirling shapes complement the fairytale that the book is about quite well, depicting gods and demons and higher powers. This artist has a Behance page.

And the last couple are these

https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZNDkyMDY5ODA=.html

https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZNTQ0MjQ3NTI=.html this is for animation, still stunning, has some storyboards

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Record: Day 10.

I have done some scene sketching today, just a bit. Also fleshed out mc's partner, I think he would be called Jamie just because it suits him. I do want to show the happy times they had for sure, before the end of the relationship. That way, the story would be more emotionally complex I think as well as giving ore insight into Esha's experience. They bonded over similar interests after meeting in a book club. They are very enthusiastic about stories. (I also had an idea of maybe connecting Jamie's love for fiction with the parts where Esha retreats into the imaginary world. Need to think about that more).

It's Friday, so short post for today.

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Record: Day 9.

Some notes after the tutorial with Irina. It went well, we have discussed some crucial aspects of the story. I could see she was a bit confused about the topic of asexuality but I tried to explain it as best I could. But some notes she mentioned are important to keep in mind.

1. How much the story is removed from reality & how much space the imaginary takes compared to the real world in the narrative? I think I could alternate them starting from the second act, I feel like it's important to start off /and end off/ with the real world imagery.

2. How to show this incredible disconnect between the fictional love and what the main character is experiencing? How relatable and specific can I make it, in order to make the reader feel like they could right away sympathise with the story? I already have some scenes in mind about how I could show this reality of being constantly overwhelmed by the romantic fiction (media, ads, real life couples, etc). Using real stories by real people may be crucial (as I had planned).

3. I have to start deciding on the specifics: specific scene sketches, plot points and so on. That is a great point and I will have to do that during the next week, along with writing the outline.

Some neat references that Irina suggested:

The museum of broken relationships. A collection of objects that get left behind when a couple breaks up. There are some neat short notes along with a photo.

PostSecret. An archive of secrets that people mail physically and anonymously. There are a lot of various topics here but, of course, a big chunk is dedicated to the world of romance. Very interesting visually too. A page specifically for the Valentine's Day

Oh, this love...

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Record: Day 8.

I have discovered an amazing video essay by Tara Mooknee on the topic of Amatonormativity, which is a term I have not been familiar with previously. It basically describes the societal expectations around romantic partnerships and marriage. How society, government and law prioritise those relationships over many others. It also reflects on how we view 'love' as 'romantic love'.

Amatonormativity is a term coined by Arizona State University professor of philosophy Elizabeth Brake to capture societal assumptions about romance.[1][2] Brake wanted a word to describe the pressure she received by many to prioritize marriage in her own life when she did not want to. The term does not necessarily only involve social pressures for marriage but general pressures involving romance.[2][3]

Some quotes used in the video from mentioned texts:

"[Romantic relationship] means ownership".

This exclusive view of romantic relationship can be quite damaging. It also means that there is pressure that partners put on each other. One's romantic partner "should" be the literal most closest person in one's life, their best friend, lover, spouse and so on. It diminishes the role that friendships play in life, family or a community. It also means that once a person is outside of such relationship for one reason or another, they feel even more alone and isolated.

Later in the video the movie Little Women is examined through an aro ace lens and it is very fascinating, I will have to watch it myself later and examine the narrative closely. I am still considering how to properly show this topic in the story. Also it is just very inetersting to me as an ace person.

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Research & a bit of a reflection (?)

Record: Day 7.

Today is mostly the day of research. I have looked more into the materials that Chris mentioned during the previous tutorial, like Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules For Writing Fiction which I heard about but never actually looked into. Those are some great and concise writing rules for sure. I have also found this short video by Neil Gaiman for his MasterClass course on fiction writing. Neil Gaiman is someone I have been looking up to for years now in terms of writing, which is not really surprising. This trailer actually touched on the biggest struggle of mine I guess. "If you were going to be a writer [...], you had to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down the street naked." It's all about honesty and really putting your inner most feelings out there, to be judged by others. It's not like I have not faced that earlier in my practice it's just with this story in particular I have to be even more open than usual. I have been a bit reluctant, I can certainly feel that.

Tomorrow is the tutorial with another tutor who does not yet know about my subject matter. It feels like I am going to do a coming out of sorts, which yeah, that is going to a part of it. So I am a bit apprehensive. Scared, even, I guess. But oh well, it's probably going to be fine.

More importantly, I have done one of my favourite things: I went to Academia dot edu to search for papers on asexuality. Some of them I have already been familiar with but I found even more interesting ones! I do love some research papers and articles that really go deep into a subject. It helps to see the bigger picture, the social environments and analysis of asexuality. Here is the initial compilation of articles for me to refer to and keep for further research.

Introducing Asexuality, Unthinking Sex

"Introductory chapter to asexuality, asexuality studies, and an intersectional approach to compulsory sexuality."

Asexuality: From pathology to identity and beyond

"This article draws attention to the constitutive mechanisms of asexual identity. It identifies a shift in expert discourse: a move away from pathology towards recognition of asexual identity. While this discursive shift, propelled by recent research in psychology and sexology, could pave the way for the inclusion of asexuals in public culture, it also reaffirms dominant terms and formations pertaining to sexuality and intimacy."

Review: Asexuality and Sexual Normativity: an Anthology

"Discussion about asexuality has been on the rise since 2010 and there are quite a few collections of articles that have attempted to define asexuality as a movement within and out of the margins of sexual normativity. Compiled by academics and smartly divided into chapters, the present collection of research articles endeavors to penetrate the obscure issue of asexuality as a social construct, an alternative (non) expression of desire, and, interestingly enough, a parallel political path."

Towards a Historical Materialist Concept of Asexuality and Compulsory Sexuality

"This major research paper seeks to expand upon the work of Marxist-feminist scholars Rosemary Hennessy and Nancy Fraser by placing it into conversation with the emerging work of scholars of asexuality and asexual identity. In resisting the tendency to reify the identity category of “asexual” as a newly emerging and dialogically structured identity which stands in opposition to the “allosexual”, this paper with rather attempt to determine its nature as a historically structured and contingent emergence of a particular moment in neoliberal capitalism. From this, it will argue that there need not be a tension between the notions of “compulsory sexuality” and “sexusociety” developed by scholars such as Elizabeth Emens and Ela Przybylo and social reproduction analysis."

Asexual Affects: What Abjection, Anxiety and Shame Have to Do with Asexuality

"Narratives about asexuality and celibacy often focus on three affects: anxiety, shame, and abjection, which are both experienced by celibate and asexually-identified people and projected onto them by others. This article uses Stephen Fry's 1985 column on his self-imposed celibacy to explore the way these affects intersect with celibacy and asexuality understood as a sexual identity. Despite the fact that Western liberal culture perceives abjection, anxiety, and shame as problems to be solved, I argue for a queer revalorization of these affects as potential basis of identity. Following Cvetkovich's writings on trauma and Kosofsky Sedgwick's on shame, I argue that negative affects can serve as a basis of asexual self-identification."

UNDOING THE BODY: ASEXUALITY AS A SUBVERSIVE MEANS TO RETHINK SEXUALITY

"This study examines asexuality with its linguistic, philosophical, and social aspects. If one takes into consideration that sexual freedom movements have come a long way until now, one could easily notice that the acknowledgement and the social, academic consideration of asexuality is recent and has therefore occurred quite late in time. This study focuses on this delayed acceptance, and aims to provide a discussion about the construction of the sexual body through the asexual body. In my view, asexuality, with regard to Aristotle’s concept of negative potentiality, could set up a new viewpoint on the freedom of not-doing. In this regard, asexuality offers to linguistic, philosophy and social movements a chance to rethink negativity."

Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality

"Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality draws on Audre Lorde’s work on erotics and the burgeoning scholarship in asexuality studies to propose an alternative language for discussing forms of intimacy that are not reducible to sex or sexuality and that challenge compulsory sexuality."

And additionally, one of the channels on youtube has in-depth writing videos where the creator examines various works of fiction and proposes some writing advice.

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Record: Day 6.

This Monday I have finished some more things. I'm overall still trying to define the particular personality of this story, the vibe it could have. Finally made an initial mood board which helped quite a bit! It was hard to find the romantic pictures I had in mind, most of the things that showed up were awful. So I might be on the lookout for more references later. Does it feel like a disgusting romance story at first glance from this collection? I really don't know.

I have also sketched more of the mc. I'm still defining them as a person as well. The one question that I thought about after the last tutorial was: what do they want? It is important for a character to want something in the story. And I think Esh wants understanding beyond everything else, understanding of themselves primarily. To find what is wrong with them (and nothing is actually wrong). I was thinking of acceptance but I think that eventually comes with understanding.

In the sketches below I wrote down some of Esha's personality. I also quite like this colour for them so I think of using it in the final design.

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Record: Day 5.

Today I have found a great comic titled There is a Tiger In My House by the artist Yon on twitter, who is a concept and comic artist from Malaysia. They have shared a short original comic about generational trauma. What grabbed my attention was the visual metaphor they used: a tiger. They have portrayed it beautifully, with black stripes working to create patterns that weave around the composition and the characters, just like real trauma can. It made me think of the way I would like to visually portray the leopard in my story.

The idea of the snowy leopard has come from my research into the most solitary animals in the world. Snowy leopards rank upon them. I have immediately remembered how obsessed with big cats I was a child, they have always fascinated me. So I have decided to portray the huge leopard as a visual metaphor for loneliness, something that the main character of the story is afraid of at first but later comes to accept as apart of life.

I am still figuring out the possible best way to portray this dynamic visually in the story.