My First Comic - “Brandy at the Market” by Ayelet Ben Dor
Looking at your old work serves well as a time-machine into how you used to see the world, especially in work that may be relevant to your comics today. If you can see where you came from and how your comic art form, style, techniques, and even story topics have developed over time, this will aid in paving a path to where you’re going next with your art and help you feel more comfortable in the uniqueness of your own personal work.
“My First Comic” is a post shared in SAW’s Six-Month Graphic Novel Intensive by student and member, Ayelet Ben Dor. It was shared in one of SAW's exclusive Mighty Network groups used for communication and virtual community-building.
Experience an exchange of sharing artwork and wisdom between a student, Ayelet Ben Dor, and SAW volunteer/Host of our Virtual Draw Jam (accessed in SAW's Mighty Network), Barry Sawicki, below.
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Ayelet Ben Dor shared:
“Recently I've scanned these short comics, the beginning of Brandy's adventures.
Brandy at the Market was drawn at the end of 2016 for a zine-comics fest. It's the first and only comic I made before starting Brandy and the Psychedelic Mold.
I used text in drawings before, even speech bubbles, but never thought of these drawings as "comics" and they were usually made as presents for specific people.
Drawing Brandy at the Market was great fun, so I decided that this medium requires further experimenting with. I started being aware of white gutters and other comics norms only later on, at this point I haven't even read much comics. This also affects the decisions in Brandy and the Psychedelic Mold.
[…] the following pages are read from right to left.”
Page 1, Read from Right to Left by Ayelet Ben Dor.
Page 2, Read from Right to Left by Ayelet Ben Dor.
Page 3, Read from Right to Left by Ayelet Ben Dor.
Page 4, Read from Right to Left by Ayelet Ben Dor.
Page 5, Read from Right to Left by Ayelet Ben Dor
-Ayelet Ben Dor
Barry Sawicki, SAW Volunteer and Host of the Virtual Draw Jam, replied:
“It’s not too often somebody comes forward with such a unique approach to drawing. It’s as if every element of your style has it’s own origin and developed along its own trajectory without any regard to ‘how it should be done.’
I think I’m trying to say it’s like how every kid has their own way of drawing, but then over time they see how other people do it and try to be more like them. They gain technical skill, but lose the ability to express something about how they experience the world ... before they even realize they have a unique experience of the world.
Your experience strikes me as very saturated, very high noise/low signal, most of the sensory input you receive is, at best, mildly abrasive.
And yet the dog somehow is like a lantern in that, you know your experience of the dog and have come to filter (or maybe buffer) your experience through the dog, you know like it’s some kinda 6th sense that all your other senses pass through first on the way to your perception.”
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Cheers,
Karlo (Karr)