models for drawing project

Models for Drawing


Significance of the Project
I draw comics that can be seen online. A comic is a series of drawings in panels that can convey a story. Unlike the comic strips seen in the newspaper the comic I am making is a story driven comic like in comic books or Japanese comics called manga.
I have been working on my comic for over a year now. I started it because I thought through drawing I could bring to life a story that people would enjoy and can illustrate people.  The comic is set up on a website for anyone who is interested. The age-group of the audience is older teens to early twenties; most of them are artists themselves. The critiques I get are to further study my drawing of human anatomy and details of the clothing. In order to advance my skills in drawing the figure I feel the need for hiring models to draw from.
Can drawing from real people improve my skills in drawing the human figure? The other methods I use for drawing references are pictures and mirrors. Pictures are a two dimensional surfaces and using them for a reference makes the drawing look flat. Also, finding the right pose is difficult from searching on the Internet, magazines, and photos. A 3-D modal can pose in the way the artist wants and the artist can experiment looking at different angles to decide what perspective to draw.
Proposed Methodology for Attaining Project Goals
My website of my comic is www.drunkduck.com/The_Planet_C…
Basically I wish to continue the comic drawing the additional pages that continue the story.  First one must write what is going to happen before hand.  Then one must convert the dialogue, and scenarios of the writing into panels seen in comics.  Each panel of the comic must be planned to show how each scenario.  Next the scenario is drawn in pencil, inked and toned.  Last are the finishing touches: scanning the image to the computer, doing the touch ups and adding dialogue to the word bubbles. A short summary of the story scenarios I will be converting into a comic is:
Through uncontrollable circumstances a brother and sister lost their home to fire and must leave their broken town for good.  They begin on a journey to find their lost relatives and a new home. Accompanying them is a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing that might know why these unfortunate events happened to them.

Many more than one comic page is needed to convey a few pages of written word, so the comic will not be a finished story when it is shown.  Since working on this comic for about a year I have over nine chapters and over 200 pages. I also want to use the grant money to print out these older works combined with the newer model session work pages in a book form.  In a book form one can compare and see my progress in drawing the figure from my beginnings in February 2004 to the model drawn works.
Anticipated Outcomes
At the Undergraduate Research Conference I will have a poster session displaying some of my older works to compare with my model reference works.  I will also have a few printed books of my comic to show the complete progress. I’d also like to present my work at the Anime Detour Artist Alley at the Thunderbird Convention Center, at Bloomington MN, on March 24-26th , 2006.
Proposed Timeline
Want to finish the model hiring process before Dec. 5th.  I estimate from January 17th until the March 15th I will get 2 chapters done with about 20 pages in each chapter for this project. There will be 3 pages updated to the website per week. Sometime in March start and finish the printing for the project. On March 24-26th I will show my project in Artist Alley at the AD Convention. Lastly on April 24th and 25th project will be showed at URC Conference.
Supply Budget
Model Sessions: $350 (With the sessions using models I will hire people around campus. The pay will be $10 per hour per model. I want to hire both a man and a woman. I probably will have a session once every week or two weeks. It was estimated that the time working would be 8 weeks. Since drawing takes time the session times might take up to two to three hours.)
3 Bottles of Ink: $10 (For inking the pencil lines like professional comics.)
Inking Pens: $10 (For inking. Used with the ink bottles.)
Artist Alley reservation: $25 (Cost to have a table exhibit at the AD convention.)
Printing Costs: $105 All includes: Paper, 64 MB USB Flash Drive (used for storing high definition images that will be needed for printing) $15, Scanning costs, Printing Ink, Service Fees for printing into book form (Probably going to have someone else do the printing at www.lulu.com or through a friend that works at Kinkos.)
Total Supply Budget: $500

References and Influences:
1) I went to tutorial presentations on how to make a webcomic done by two brothers
Christopher and Joseph Brudlos. Their website is www.alpha-shade.com/
2) At a convention I talked with a comic artist John Fortman who looked through some of
my art and suggested I draw from life more. His website is www.faubcomic.com/.