Feedback

After speaking to ben and Teresa they both agree that I should add some spot colour to my illustrations and I agree. I have been looking around for artists that have done this successfully and I found a previous Jungle Book illustrator who did this. His name is Sergey Artyushenko and illustrated the novel in the 70s

I would like to do this with mine in ink. I really enjoy using ink and pen together. 

 

Thumbnails- Rikki Tikki Tavi/Kotick the Seal 

I am nearing the end f The Jungle Book. it has been a great read! Its a lot more mature than I thought. lots of violence.

Anyway, there are short stories at the end which I didn't even know existed.
Rikki Tikki is the short story of a mongoose that befriends some humans and lives in their house, but then he discovers there is a snake couple that pose a threat to the people, they want to kills the humans. The two cobras named Nag and Nagaina, are spectacled cobras. Rikki Tikki defends his humans and wins their favour.

Kotick the Seal is a short story about a rare white northern fur seal who witnesses the clubbing of all his friends as a young pup and makes it his life's mission to find a place on earth where man has not set foot and therefore poses no danger to his population. He eventually succeeds and brings the news to his tribe that he has found sanctuary. No one believes him so he goes on a mad rampage where he brutally attacks all the other male seals who disagree with him. They eventually agree to go with him. Crazy right? this is a children's book


I think that these stories are great to include because they are not very well known and would be good to promote. Also, they reflect really well the sense that I have been getting abut this book that nowadays, it is more mature than a children's book, and should be geared toward teens and adults.
I want to make illustrations that reflect that, so I think by drawing these I can show this darker side to the Jungle Book. Below are some examples.

Ive drawn mainly the fighting scenes, which to be honest, constitute most of the short stories.

Thumbnails- Villagers Under the Fig Tree

Mowgli ends up having to flee the jungle because Shere Khans influence has turned the wolf pack against him. Mowgli ends up in a rural village a few miles away and is living with the locals. They accept him, with some reservations, and he often goes to hear the village elders, along with the other children, who sit under a huge fig tree, smoking hookah and telling stories of the spirits of the jungle. Monkeys sit in the tree eating figs, and a little snake lives under the platform on which the elders sit. 

I thought the visual of this particular scene in the book was very beautiful and lively so I started drawing thumbnails for it. Considering I am doing the temple scene already I may have to skip it. There are many elements to this scene that I would like to include, which you can see in the thumbnails. It would be a very time consuming scene so we will see if I go through with it, 

Comic Book Dimensions

I have been researching what I want my dimensions to be for when my comic hopefully goes to print, in the faraway future. The format I usually read comics in is 13 x 18 cm, which is roughly the standard comic size of manga, Japanese comics. They are my favorite to read. They have lots of background art, which I admire because I am terrible at it. Loads of active and fluid panels. If it is an action manga normally the characters are really dynamic and have very cool designs. 

The American comics normally are printed at 18 x 25 cm so they are slightly larger. I don't really read western comics very much. I am generally more interested in Japanese manga but I have read a few western classics like Maus and Persepolis. And of course cult classics like Preacher and The Walking Dead.

For my comic I think the European format would work very well. 

I found this website which is very useful in understanding dimensions for different types of print. It also offers page templates which are important to work with if you plan on going to print. They offer a wide variety of free templates.

Templates have what is considered the safe or 'live' area, which you do not want any text outside of, The margin area, and the bleed or 'trim' line. 

Development of the Boss 

Below are the images of the development of the Boss character. I started out with a mafioso looking character, but he was too old and not intimidating enough. 

Here he is starting to look more like how I was picturing him. Really hench and and bald.

Collaborative

The Screenprints are all done!!! We have our final three illustrations, and Kieran has made one print for each person. Each print is a little different so we all get a unique one. We are all super happy with the outcome and happy that we pulled together so well and got things done in time and all were on the same page. 

We have made our submission and now we wait. Even if we don't win I'm really happy with the experience I had and entering a competition was something that always really scared me but something I'm glad I've done in the end.

Collaborative

I've completed the line drawings and they are below. Going to show them to my group today. Hopefully everythings to their liking. Im really happy with them, they're no Quentin Blake, but they are expressive and fun, and its all because we worked well together and came up with drafts everyonewas happy with. Really pleased. 

Collaborative

The line drawings have been handed to my group, we got the general ok, and now the illustrations are in Kierans' hands. 

He will get the colouring done tonight and then has two days to finish the screenprints. He is a master screenprinter so we got all the faith. Really excited to see the outcomes!!! Cant wait to hand it in as well. Its been fun working together and sharing ideas.

Thumbnails- Shere Khan Death


In this scene, Mowgli directs a heard of Indian water buffalo, riding the king of the water buffalo, Rama. He learns that Shere Khan is resting, unawares next to a river in a ravine. Mowgli leads the buffalo and traps him, rushing down all sides of the ravine. He then runs him over with the stampede.

I think the one hat works best is the image of all the buffalo running vertically from all sides and Shere Khan fleeing. It gives a sense of motion, danger and claustrophobia, just like the scene described in the book.

Im not sure about Shere Khan running straight, facing head on, he might make the scene look too stiff running head on like that. Will try different poses.

Initial Thumbnails- Temple Scene

For this scene I designed a few thumbnails. The scene is right after Mowgli gets rescued by Bageera and Baloo. Contrary to the movie, Bageera and Baloo actually get the assistance of Kaa, a 30 foot long rock python. They are at an abandoned temple where the troop of monkeys have kept Mowgli captive. 

I want to capture all these elements in my illustration. The exerpt from the book that I want to illustrate is below, after he has been saved, with bageera, Baloo and all the monkeys around them in the temple 

'Mowgli turned and saw the great Python's head swaying a foot above his own.

"So this is the manling," said Kaa. "Very soft is his skin, and he is not unlike the Bandar-log. Have a care, manling, that I do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my coat."

"We be one blood, thou and I," Mowgli answered. "I take my life from thee tonight. My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O Kaa."'

Thumbnails- Wolf Den Scene

This is the scene in the very beginning of the book. It is a really important scene and is often illustrated by other artists in previous publications.
Shere Khan has attacked the 'man village' and tried to eat Mowgli, but he somehow escapes, 2 years old at the time, and stumbles into the wolf den. He comes out of the tall grass and runs into father wolf. A massive wolf thats very intimidating, or should be, to a 2 year old. But Mowgli just laughs.

"Directly infront of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby, who could just walk- as soft and as dimpled a little atom as ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up at father's wolf cave and laughed."

I want to make the composition of this page reflect that quote. So, the readers eye can start at the top left corner and flow down, see the wolf, and then the baby. The wold is going to be massive and intimidating. the baby soft, as described, and the brach is going t oserve as an obstruction, hiding the entrance of the cave. I want to show the view from behind the wolf, it shows Mowgli intruding into their world, It also shows where Mowglis come from, and it seems like Mowgli emerges from the jungle, when in the book this is when Mowgli is introduced, so there is a parallel between the imagery and context. The tree, or low branch will serve to show a perspective of size of the wolf and the baby.

Mastering Comics

 Drawing Words and Writing Pictures

By Jessica Abel and Matt Madden

Drawing Words and Writing Comics is a book that really has helped me get into the frame of mind of writing comics and what ts all about. It teaches you abut comics terminology, the relationship between word and image, panel transitions. How to pencil, how to letter. Beyond all that, it teaches you how to write, what to write, how to structure and where t put the narrative arc. 

I only recently got this book and have not had the chance to read it properly. After every chapter there is homework and activities and I would really like to sit down over the summer and do all the tasks and do them with this comic in mind.. 

Mastering Comics is the second book and it is for the more seasoned comic artist. It talks about more complex issues with making a comic and has many activities to help you through artists' block or figuring out how to turn your one off edition into a serialization. Highly recommend both these books for anyone wanting to learn the real basics of comic art. 

Robert Ingpen

Robert Ingpen is anAustralian artist born in 1936. He is an illustrator as well as a graphic designer and writer. He illustrated the Jungle Book in 2006. His work is painted. It is very colourful and I like the way Mowgli was illustrated, he is very wild looking, which is not something I have come across very often in my research. His work has the feel of a distant time, except that it in colour. His choice of colour is earthy and has every illustration has a different hue. 

I am not particularly a big fan of the style and I think the illustrations can look a bit muddy. 

M & E Detmold

The Detmold brothers were twins that were very famous in Victorian times for their works. They illustrated books and were much sought after as artists. Their career started at an early age, and the brothers always worked together professionally. They were Edward and Maurice Detmold. Maurice tragically committed suicide at an early age and Edward continued to illustrate after his death, notably, he illustrated Aesop's Fables. They were a beautiful series of colourful and vibrant illustrations. 

The brothers worked together on the Jungle Bok and produced a total of 16 images. They are really beautiful. They are painted watercolours and look classically Victorian but there's also something very progressive in their aesthetic.

I like the composition in their images and it is something I need to work on in my own art. I have been looking at their compositional elements and flow and will try to apply it to my own work. 

I also like how the images are framed within the page. One thing though is that I'm not sure baboons or mandrils or whatever they are live in that region of India, not from what I can tell anyway, I may be wrong but the monkey species that I know is native to the Seoni region is the Langur monkey- image below, that is the species I will be illustrating

Baloo 

Baloo has possibly been missrepresented in both Disney films. First, depicted as a nondescript grey bear, and then as a brown bear. 

Even though Baloo is described by Kipling as being a brown bear, it is possible that he only meant so in colour. Brown bears are only indigenous to high altitude regions and in this case, the Himalayan mountain range. While sloth bears are native to the areas in and around the setting of this story. While in the move he is depicted as lazy and has a hakkuna matata attitude about life, in the book he is actually very strict and hard handed with Mowgli, and he also teaches all the other youngsters in the pack and others, the ways of the jungle and their laws.

Below is a quote of the description given by Wiki

"He is described in Kipling's work as "the sleepy brown bear". Robert Armitage Sterndale, from whom Kipling derived most of his knowledge of Indian fauna, used the Hindi word "Bhalu" for several bear species, though Daniel Karlin, who edited the Penguin reissue of The Jungle Book in 1989, states that, with the exception of colour, 

Kipling's descriptions of Baloo are consistent with the sloth bear, as brown bears and Asian black bears do not occur in the Seoni area where the novel takes place. Also, the name sloth can be used in the context of sleepiness. Karlin states, however, that Baloo's diet of "only roots and nuts and honey" is a trait more common to the Asian black bear than to the sloth bear.[1] Nevertheless, this may be single observation only; according to the dietary habits of sloth bears, while sloth bears prefer termites and ants (which is also described as Baloo's special treat in The Jungle Book), their main sources of food are honey and fruits most of the year.

In the 2016 adaptation, Baloo is stated to be a sloth bear by Bagheera, though his appearance is similar to that of a Himalayan brown bear. Though this subspecies of the brown bear is absent from historical records on Seoni, it might have ranged across most of northern India"

Stuart Tresilian 

Is a British illustrator who worked on many children's books including Rudyard Kipling's Animal Stories and All the Mowgli Stories.  He lived from 1891 to 1974 and later on in life became an art teacher. He was very well known for his work in book illustration. His work for Kipling's books are black and white. They are very textured, made up of many lines, normally vertical. His work reminds me of the work of Sergio Toppi. I really like this style and his use of composition. He normally breaks up his illustrations within the book pages and the artwork doesn't look as stagnant, it almost interacts with the text. His drawings are very atmospheric and moody and they set the tone for a more adult oriented novel, not one of a children's book. Of course, these drawings were made a long time ago and having illustrations in the first place made it constitute as more of a children book, less geared towards adults. 

Below are some examples, also an illustration next to Sergio Toppi's 

Comic Speech Bubbles 

I have a big issue with page lay out, but beyond that, in particular with speech bubbles and text within the page itself. There is meant to be a clear flow as to where the bubble lie within a panel and how those panels guide the viewers' eyes through the page. Additionally where you put these speech bubbles and how much text they have can ruin the whole flow of the page if done incorrectly. 

I have looked through a few websites and looked at a lot of youtube videos that give you guidelines on how the page should flow and the science behind the text itself. 

A good website I found that has a lot of information on speech bubbles is Creative Comic Art. They recommended a book, which I got called Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. It is a great book and essentially is a college level crash course into comic art and even has homework sections and activities you can do to develop useful skills.

Blambot also had a great direct set of rules for me to follow and with these basically answered all my questions upfront. It tells you about balloon tails, burst balloons, captions, lettering and more. A real straightforward guide that I really needed. Although, knowing all this I'm sure I'm still going to struggle, especially because I am doing it all by hand.

John Lockwood Kipling

Here is John Kipling with his son Rudyard Kipling

John Lockwood Kipling was the father of Rudyard Kipling. He was also an artist, art teacher and a museum curator. He was the original illustrator of the Jungle Book. He lived and worked in India many years, and helped his son with the context of his novel. 

He was born in 1837 and died 1911

His works include 

"Beast and Man in India: A Popular of Indian Animals in their Relations to the People"

"Inezilla: A Romance in Two Chapters"

"Tales of the Punjab Told by the People"

Below are some examples of his illustrations for the Jungle Book

His work is in black and white because that was the only option for publishing back then, 

Comic Development 

I wrote out the basic premise of the comic in my sketchbook to delineate the important aspects of the overall story. I want to know if there are any ques, or 'easter eggs' I could include for when my story goes further and people can read back to the first chapters and see that there were hidden clues and hints to what was going to happen. Some literal and some metaphorical.

Including lonely guy at bar, and bouncer. Every character in this chapter was included for a purpose and will have more story development in the future.

Flora

Flora of India is very diverse and I have been studying what plants I can find with the help of wikipedia and this website   it is called ecoindia and has lots and lots of information about plants, flowers, and their regions and habitats. 

Because my illustrations are gong to include a lot of foliage I need to consider this research and see what plants I am going to include in these illustrations. One very interesting plat that I have come across is the Kulu tree, also known as the Ghost Tree. It has white trunk and leafy bark. It goes dormant in the summer, sheds its leafy bark and you can see its white trunk, keeping a minimal number of leaves in bunches that end up looking like flowers. Its a really beautiful tree and I think it might look quite nice in the scene where Mowgli encounters the wolves in front of their den. 

below is an iimage of the Kulu aka Ghost Tree

Sergey Artyushenko

Sergey Artyunshenko illustrated the Jungle Book in the 1970s. There is not much information about this artist online. I do like aspects of his illustration however. He uses spot colours within his black and white drawings to highlight elements of the illustration, He drew on what I imagine is canvas, or heavily textured watercolor paper, which give his drawings a really nice aesthetic. I would like to draw on these observation. I am considering drawing on textured paper and applying the use of spot colour to highlight elements in my own drawings. 

 

Location

I have been reading the Jungle Book and in my research I found out that the jungle which they inhabit is based on a real place in India. It is in the Pench area in the Seoni, India- part of the Madhya Pradesh district. The jungle is now a tiger reserve and national park and hosts much of the widlife described in the book.