Comic Strips and Faces

You can use InkScape to draw a comic-strip.  That's a cartoon with a sequence of pictures.  In each frame, there will be some text as one of the characters is speaking.  

Facial expressions are important in comic strips, as they display emotions like anger, happiness, confusion, etc.  These emotions are achieved with small changes in the face - for example, a frown and lowered eye-brows for anger, or a smile and raised eye-brows for happiness.  The following chart shows a psychological study of facial facial expressions for various emotions.  Notice that these are artificial composite faces, created by combining the eyes from one emotion with the mouth from a different emotion.  The faces that look "strange" are the result of combining contradictory emotions, like sorrow and joy.  By using these simple ideas, you can make minor changes in a face and achieve the correct expression for the emotion you need.

~~ Drawing Your Comic Strip(s) ~~

You should make comic strips this week - they are due Friday 29 Feb 2008.  To get a top grade, you should:

• use Inkscape to do all the drawing
• make at least two faces for two characters
• make at least six frames - this could be a single strip with 6 frames, or two strips with 3 frames each - make more if you wish
• each frame should contain text for at least one of the characters talking
• the expressions in the various frames should be different, consistent with the dialogue
• the dialogue should be meaningful and, if possible, humorous
• if you are a good artist, add some extra stuff like a background, furniture, etc
• your comics need a title, reflecting a "theme"

The following example would get a grade 6.  Try to make something with more artwork, and maybe you can make a funnier story.  But do keep it reasonably simple so that you can finish this week.

iSchool  by Dave Mulkey, (c) 2008

The following would get a grade 7 - but these were done by a professional.