Book micro project - Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels

Book Micro project

For this project we had to chose a book from the library, unrelated to the Contextual Practices subject and chose either a paragraph to talk about, or go through the whole book in a general way.

I have chosen Drawing Crime Noir for Comics and Graphic Novels.

I haven't looked into crime noir until now, as I have always considered myself as being a cartoon character artist, and I think I might have limited myself to drawing cute things, when there is such a big world to explore. So, this book was chosen in order to open myself to a new territory, a new way of drawing, and new way of setting the mood. I really like Film Noir movies, and exploring this style of drawing, will hopefully, help me develop as an artist. 

A really interesting thing this book has taught me, is that " Any book about the art of crime noir would be incomplete if it were only about the principles of drawing. Mood. Atmosphere. Style. they're what crime noir is all about...

... This genre focuses on the slick, rainswept streets of the city, shadowy figures, heartless women, men without conscience, reluctant heroes and boulevards of fear."  ( Introduction - Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels / Christopher Hart) 

In crime noir, characters have got certain aspect specific only to them.

Rugged cheekbones, deeply set eyes, a tight mouth and a square chin give this character a dramatic look.
(pg 10, Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels / Christopher Hart)

As I have already mentioned, in crime noir, the characters need to look strong, tough, serious. There is a big difference between comics characters and crime noir, and simple shading done the right way, the addition of small features, make a great difference and make this particular genre stand out. 

Here's a n example of how the same character from a normal comic book can be imported and transformed to achieve a crime noir one.

It is very obvious how in the first image, with very few additions ( sunglasses and cigarette), the transformation was done through mainly giving the character attitude. The stance was changed, to make her look in control, sunglasses add to the mysterious air surrounding her and by simply adding the dramatic shading, the artist has achieved a new, completely different, much stronger character.

The same simple transformation was done in the last image (bottom right image). The only props added were the sunglasses and the motorcycle helmet, but again, like in the first image, the attitude is entirely different. Instead of the easy going pose the character had, initially, he was given a strong, in control, stance, he was half covered in dark shading, making him this tough, mysterious, can-get-any-job-done kind of guy. 

All in all, I found this book really interesting and I have already used it for reference in one of my drawing projects. I find Christopher Hart, the author, really easy to understand, as the way he explains the different techniques  used, is very clear and he goes into enough detail, to make everyone understand why he has used certain features. 

I would definitely recommend this book to any character artist.