Final Comic and Printing

 After a lot of InDesign and colour printing troubles, I was able to print a nice copy of the final product. I will need to print more to sell as the grad show, and I also need to professionally photograph them. 

I am very happy with the final outcome and I am very glad I took the time to get the cover and coloured pages printed correctly because it really makes a world of a difference. I was able to find the paper that I wanted in the art shop in Eldon, which were a glossy paper for the coloured pages and then a thin, floppy pages for the comic pages. This was because I wanted to create an authentic comic feel (printed on cheap paper that is really floppy). 

I might end up changing the inside cover and empty pages because I feel that they would benefit from a texture going across the two pages to make them more cohesive. 

Perfect thin paper. I LOVE IT!!!!

Putting together comic in InDesign

 I had many challenges with InDesign but I was able to problem solve my way out of most of them. I had to make sure that I had enough bleed on the images, so I ended up reformatting some of them. I also had to tweak the coloured pages because they were printing out too dull for my liking. 

I had MANY problems with the printing, mainly because the printers can be very temperamental and finicky. So I had to do many test prints in order to get it right. 

I'll still need to workout some errors from the printing side before I can sell them at the grad show, but that's alright. 

Evidence of my failures:

Badges IPP

 I decided to make some badges using the scans of my stamps. They were perfect simple designs that would look good inverted onto black as well as on there own. So I used a template to print the right size and then used my own badge machine to create the badges. 

I know that badges sell well in small shops (because of our illustration shop) and people of all ages like something that is wearable and lasts a long time. 

Making the Front Covers

 I was inspired by the film poster project we are doing, to make my front cover a layered paper tunnel(esque) thing. I wanted my cover to be in a completely different style to match most comics that have way different art on there front covers. I also thought that it would be incredible eye catching if I pulled it off well.

I started by using the sketches I had done to map out the layers digitally (on my iPad) and then I printed them out onto separate pieces of paper so that I could use them as stencils on the different coloured papers. I then did the painstaking task of cutting them all out (which made my fingers and hands very sore). I then layered them and added cardboard and sticky foam pads to add a gap between the layers and enhance the shadow that would cast downward. 

Once I had it all ready me and Helena booked in to use the photography studio. And I photographed them using a camera stand that hung flat above my work. This allowed me to take a clean flat (high res) photo of my work for the cover. 

When I was editing the image and figuring out the title. I decided on a copyright free gothic font, but I didn't like the perfectness of a digital font. So I printed it out and cut out the letter on a cream paper and scanned that in.