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Student guide chapter 11: Setting the Stage


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Chapter 11 explores panel composition and also includes a tutorial on designing titles.

Prep guide

Questions to ask yourself

  1. 1. What are some of the things that go into deciding how to draw a given panel? Pick a panel in your homework to focus on in order to work this out.
  2. 2. What kind of effect can "camera angle" have on a panel?
  3. 3. How do you decide which characters should be in a given panel?
  4. 4. What do you know about the idea of composition?
  5. 5. What effect can the visual design of a title have on a comic?

Supplies you will need

  • office or sketchbook paper
  • pencils and erasers

Optional but recommended

Nothing extra this time

Activities

Rethinking composition

This is a great opportunity to get a fresh set of eyes on your comic. Take advantage, and see if there are any lessons that come out of this that you might apply more generally. Click below to see examples of the activity by students with some comments from Matt and Jessica.

Revise your six-page story thumbs and start penciling

In addition to rechecking your revisions, make sure you use this opportunity to troubleshoot your lettering and have your colleagues spell- and grammar-check you.

Draw a folk tale

There is no further reading for this chapter

Curious about Wally Wood’s "22 Panels that Always Work," which we discussed in 11.1: Panel design? Joel Johnson has posted good scans of the piece here.