Inspiration and developing ideas

After struggling with the noise at South Bank last year, these sessions were our first in Westminster Reference Library. A quiet space where we could talk about comics and participate in creative exercises using the library’s resources.

The activities for these sessions were adapted from Lynda Barry’s Making Comics.

Session one - New Ideas and Inspiration

Our first activity was designed to wake up our imaginations. We all folded a piece of paper into four and scribbled into each section. The piece of paper was then passed to the next person, who drew four monsters using the scribbles on the page.

This activity encourages our creative sides in a low stress, light-hearted way. In her book, Making Comics, Lynda Barry states that people become self-conscious of their drawing skills as they get older. Doodling is a great way to get comfortable with drawing and kick-start your creative process!

After the exercise, we discussed where we found inspiration for our comics.

Some key points made where:

- Analysing media we love and hate (e.g. comics, film, tv series, music)

- Observing people and everyday life,

- Going to museums, art galleries, exhibitions,

- Learning about new topics (e.g. watching a documentary)

- Choosing a theme for you comic,

- Using random word generators to help create a brief for your comics,

- Going to social events/talking to peers,

- Breaking down your previous work and figuring out your process.

For the second activity, we created comics with observations from daily life. We wrote down several things we saw, several things we did, one thing we overheard, and one question we had from the previous day. These observations were then used to create a one-page comic. It was great seeing everyone’s comic, with some staying true to real life and others creating comics more surreal in nature.

Session Two - Developing Ideas

For some, creating new ideas is the easy part, but what happens after you have those ideas? This session focused on how we develop ideas for ur comics into the beginnings of a story.

First, we wrote down as many ideas we could think of in five minutes and selected two of those ideas. We then spent another five minutes writing down as many single words associations we could about those two ideas. These words could be about any part of their idea, for example, characters, emotions, settings, speech, and actions.

This part of the session was about getting people writing about their ideas. When trying to develop an idea, we can get bogged down by the finer details. Writing down words associations in a short space of time can break down our ideas into easier chunks.

Next, we took a break from the activity and discussed different ways to develop ideas.

Some key points made were:

- Giving your idea set criteria (e.g. a set number of panels on each page).

- Creating playlists from your ideas, around characters, setting, or key plot points.

- Mind mapping areas from your idea you are stuck on.

- Just start! Start drawing or writing your idea from a part of the story you see very clearly and develop around it.

- Looking up drawing references, looking up potential settings on Google Maps.

- Reading fiction and non-fiction books about the creative process. Some mentioned were Stephen King’s Misery, and The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

Imagining scenarios in your head. You don’t have to write stuff down if you don’t want to!

It became apparent that developing ideas is a very personal activity. A strategy could work for one person, but be terrible for another!

We moved onto the second part of the activity. People chose one of the two ideas they used previously and expanded on the single words that they had written down.

Then, we split a piece of paper into four parts and wrote down several things that happened in our idea, several things we visualised in our idea, a quote from our idea, and a question from our idea (sound similar?)

Finally, it was time to draw! Using everything that we had done in the session, we created a one page comic for our idea. This could be based on a character, the quote we had written down, anything that had come to mind during the session.

Next session - 21st March 2020 - 11am-1pm - Westminster Reference Library

We will be looking at characterisation and how this relates to comics.

You can sign up for the event, and other WIP Comics events, here.