In a Masterclass with author and illustrator Andrew Hammond, Art&Design Club members from the University of Lincoln created their own comic characters and stories.
Using free-association, Club members were able to remove the fear of expectation and create candidly. Guided by Andrew, Club members started their stories by drawing the face of a character and adding a word of speech. Forming a connection between the two, Club members were able to imagine their character and consider their reaction to the word or why they’re saying it.
After further development of their designs, considering shapes and other finer details, the Club members established deeper characterisation by listing positive and negative character traits, asking their characters questions, and creating storylines that gave their characters challenges to overcome.
During a break, Andrew talked to Club members about his graphic novel series Spacekid iLK, which is about a young alien put in charge of Earth by his dad. The group learned about Andrew’s journey turning Spacekid iLK from an idea and concept to a finished graphic novel, and about careers within the industry, including Andrew’s own journey in his role as a Creative Director at Maverick Media. Maverick Media have worked with some of the world’s biggest international gaming brands, such as The Pokémon Company, Bandai Namco and EA.
To conclude the Masterclass, Club members recapped on what was learned about methods for storytelling and the things they thought were the least and most successful about their character designs.