Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

From Graphic Novel “Yossel” by  Joe Kubert

Reading the chapter “Points, Lines and Planes” in Graphic Design: The New Basics by Jennifer Cole Phillips, I was able to understand the importance of point, line and plane in the field of design and how the interaction with one another can represent anything from emotion, texture or even spatial distance. The book describes point rather simply, as a single position in space but when manipulated in its size, and positioning towards other things around, it can have many different meanings. Line was described as a series of connected points or the path between two points. Similar to a single point the way that a line is rendered can influence the perception of things like space and texture, however lines don’t always have to be physically seen as they can also be implied by the space around them. A plane is a flat surface from a closed line. Shapes are an example of planes and with the help of points and lines can create the perception of space or volume. The graphic novel that I read Yossel by Joe Kubert is about a Jewish person who enjoys drawing during WW2 at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is implied that the illustrations in the book are done by him given from the fact they all look like pencil sketches of events that happen in his life. The way he creates images as seen in the first frame above, really capture the emotion of sadness that is present in many of the Jewish people affected by this time.  In the second frame although less detailed still reminds you that this is a sketch done presumably by Yossel of the Warsaw ghetto in flames. The last frame is arguably the most detailed, in my opinion this was done intentionally to show how “clean” and “organized” the Nazis are compared to the Warsaw Ghetto Jews who are fighting back. These three frames show that without reading the story or being their firsthand you can sense the atmosphere of the situation just simple design choices like lines, shading and framing.

I had the opportunity to view New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld. This graphic novel is a historical imagining of the lives of 5 (?) individuals just before and after hurricane Katrina in 2005. Neufeld uses large, sweeping shots and large, neatly aligned panels to tell personal stories in a very matter-of-fact tone. The first chapter shows us a repetition of scenery, separated by time and the tragic events which unfolded. Neufeld also gives us a very distinct rhythm and progression of time — we are clearly given dates when the scenes transition, and each individual’s story utilizes a unique color scheme. While pages contain, at most, 4-6 panels, Neufeld establishes a hierarchy by choosing to give more important scenes larger panels or even their own page (for example, page 11). Chapter 1 of New Orleans After the Deluge feels very much like Google maps snapshots of Katrina, in that Neufeld uses a birds-eye view almost exclusively. We are able to see the totality of the devastation before going into individual people’s experiences. Neufeld’s gutters are always clear, clean and even and tend to demark the passage of time and space. In chapter 2, the gutters are still crisp, but Neufeld uses people’s silhouettes to form organic borders which remove the character from their grounding in time and space.

I was emotionally affected by Neufeld’s use of the actual civil emergency message.  This added a sense of reality to the character’s situations – making the story difficult for me to read. We see this message woven into each of the character’s lives as they make their own personal choices: if they should leave, and then when, and then, horrifyingly, how…

Page 21 from Lynda Barry’s graphic novel “What It Is”

Reading through the first fifty pages of Lynda Barry’s What It Is, you will notice a trend that Lynda asks several questions like, “What is an image?” and “Where do they come from?” She asks these questions many different times and in many different ways. By this, I mean that she uses different phrasing for asking the questions or she uses the same phrasing but with a different style of text. Throughout the book, she uses her creativity to find her imagination and the images and words used on each page resemble something called formstorming. Formstorming as explained in Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips’ Graphic Design: The New Basics, is a way that designers and artists can use one certain theme throughout a page or several pages, and they can stylize that theme and make several different variations to text or images in a creative and very unique way. There are examples of formstorming on practically every page of Lynda’s graphic novel. Shown in the picture is an example of formstorming from page 21. There are birds of different shapes, styles, and textures, as well as several questions about images and dreams and where they come from. Lynda uses a collage style of different cutouts of words and drawings that are layered over the top of each other. The lighter cutouts and the areas of the picture that are larger are what noticeably stand out when looking at the page as a whole. All of the pages are similar in collage form and the graphic novel is visually appealing from front to back.

In Lynda Barry’s graphic novel, “What It Is” Lynda discusses how formstorming is basically brainstorming but in a visual and design-oriented way. The practice is more garnered towards producing variety over quality, at first, and then after a concept is picked from the wide array of variations, then the selected product can be polished in to the best possible finished product.

A good example of this would be the eggs shown in “Graphic Design, the New Basics” where the word, “egg” was showcased and put in to many different examples. Some more ways this could relate to real life is when an artist (I’ve definitely used this technique for digital art) will draw a sketch, and have several different pictures of the same sketch but with variations of colors to figure out which color scheme looks the best. I actually had to do this for a Fine Art class, and here is one of my drawings below.

I utilized the formstorming technique in more of a controlled way to find my desired result, and then the students were instructed to pick their favorite color scheme.

Pg 46 from Lynda Barry’s graphic novel, “What it is.”

In the first section of the graphic novel “What it is.” by Lynda Barry containing 50 pages of drawing of tons of different things from people to animals and such along with writing. During the 50 pages Lynda shows images and talks about imagination and her past as a child but doing it in a creative kind of way and a bit unorganized on each page. Each page has a bit of a grim looking with dark colors being used along with the different styles of writing but have the same inky style of drawings using repetition on each page as well.

The process Lynda shows in graphic novel would be the one stated in the book “Graphic Design the New Basics” by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, which is Formstorming. Formstorming is when trying to come up with new ways to draw and present the viewer from a basic design to bring back creativity people had troubles with. When people have, trouble thinking on what to draw that’s original they formstorm using basic shapes they know and draw it different ways to come up with new ideas and bring their imagination back. Lynda shows that in her graphic novel in her writing and pictures and Formstorming has several techniques but Lynda uses dailies. Dailies are when artists must draw a design every day for a least two weeks to help develop time management, disciplined, create a portfolio focusing on a topic aspect.

What Lynda uses in her graphic novel that shows that she uses Formstorming would be like page 46 for example where she has a bunch of things going on. The page questions “What are toys in big words and repeats the word toys in different context and different styles of text that has different meaning to the word. She has also repeated the drawings of the octopus, the bird, and the cat on the page and on other page having them be in different styles and forms whether it’s an inky drawing or a cut out of a picture and placed in the page of the book. She did those so they have different meaning for the viewer and did that as dailies.