Moonface

Dujuan has been listening carefully in class and has been making lots of progress. Above is an illustration from his continuing manga series "moonface" which he keeps under wraps in his notebook.

DuJuan is using the entire page in this illustration. As proof I have divided the page into a grid. While the picture quality is bad and the fact this is only in pencil does not help, if one looks closely at the original sketch, each panel of the gird is filled with a type of drawing.


I have numbered each panel and will now articulate the types of drawing which is occurring in each panel.



Panel 1 is depicting the motion of Moonface's crazy sickle/sword. Using motion lines, which are abstract in nature the lines make the viewer's eyes go down to panel 5 which is the base of Moonface's weaponry.

Panel 2 is a head portrait of Moonface. Moonface is in profile view, not looking straight ahead. While this may seem rudimentary to some students, DuJuan's sense of the figure has increased dramatically since the beginning of this class. On week one he could only do straight on figures, now his figures are beginning to bend, contort and become "figurative".

Panel 3 utilizes iconic drawing that ALSO directs the viewers eyes toward panel 5. The drawing is iconic because the artist is not attempting to realistically draw a scarf. Rather, the icon of a scarf, communicates more. My point is - don't go nuts attempting to draw a realistic looking scarf when simply making black and white stripes will do.

Panel 4 is another unnamed character.

Panel 5 is arguably the most significant panel on the page. It is the collision point of the battle and the very center of the page. It is where the eye goes first.


If one looks at all the contour lines on the page, the abstract lines from panel 1 and 2, the iconic scarf from panel 3, you will notice that all lines are converging at the center, at the point of impact. This adds DRAMA.

While many could make the critic that DuJuan needs to work on his figure, I am less concerned with this. Getting better at drawing the figure will come in time with practice and patience. What Dujuan has done here has DESIGNED a highly complicated illustration using different drawing techniques (abstract, iconic and figurative - designed and composed upon a grid). As a result, 4 different types of drawing are being utilized.

This illustration is a knock out piece of work and should be inked for clarity's sake. Unfortunately, it is not a page of manga but can be used as a character sketch. It is only missing text.