My final graduate research paper from NCSU serves to document and support the art direction for a three-part interactive comic titled, Drawing Stories. The piece tells a singular fiction story from three different points of view, each in a visual style that represents the personality of its protagonist. Using representational style as a metaphor for the subjectivity of perception, the work attempts to reveal the impacts of drawing style on communication in an artistic way.
By demonstrating style’s effects, the project defends the design approach toward illustration, in which an illustrator must work in a style most suitable for a given prompt and not rely solely on a single identifying manner of drawing. Additionally, the project puts forth a model for understanding illustration style and suggestions for developing a set of well-rounded drawing abilities to change one’s style based on the needs of a project.
The supporting research includes an analysis of drawing for visual storytelling, focusing on the development of stylistic trends within comics. Theories behind cartoon imagery are discussed, including levels of representation, visual stereotypes, visual metaphors, caricature, expressionism, and the formal element of line. Pulling ideas from drawing for animation, industrial, graphic, and entertainment design, the paper argues that when illustration style and content align, a more effective piece of communication is produced.