Joshua Talbot and Professor Robert Barrett, Illustration

In the fall of 2011, my fellow classmates and I decided to create a graphic novel anthology of classic literature as an encouragement for young children to read great, time-tested writing (I decided on Treasure Island). The following is my continued experience on this project, the project’s outcomes and how this project has affected me as an artist, group member and visual communicator.

The Project

After making the decision to make this graphic novel compellation each student got to work. A lot of coordinating was done to ensure we would meet our deadline by assigning individual tasks such as researching different publishers, etc. Each student was made individually responsible for his/her portion and was made well aware of the deadlines. I made some progress deciding on what portion of Treasure Island to tell, sketched out some scenes that came to my mind and made some initial character designs, but unfortunately, the graphic novel took a back seat to that fall semester’s art classes.

Starting in 2012, I asked for permission to theme my Concept Design 2 assignments class around the graphic novel. I neared finalization with character designs, designed the Admiral Benbow Inn from multiple angles as well as in 3D software, made color swatches to establish mood and did several sketches of horses in motion. Along with this, my research of Tudor architecture, period clothing and ships continued. I ended the semester with a wealth of knowledge and documentation, ready to put it together.

In Spring semester, amid a hard freelance job, I made progress by storyboarding each spread, polishing panel sketches and editing 5 chapters of Treasure Island to under a page of text. After I finished the challenging freelance job, I had more time to finish the spread sketches and meet with Bro. Barrett and team members. We helped each other with various challenges and provided a good “outsider perspective”.

Fall semester 2012 hit hard with classes, but I was able to substitute one on my class assignments to work my first page to a finish. The project snowballed after that and I was able to finish 4 more pages relatively quickly. Towards the end of fall semester we curated an exhibit in the Harold B. Library documenting our progress. We each displayed two fully completed spreads along with prints of our concept work. The show was a huge success and a lot of people became excited about the project. Winter semester has proven to be busy as well, but the progress moves forward with the project scheduled for completion later this year.

Project Outcomes

Making graphic novels is a lot of work! I did not realize the time and effort that must be paid to complete a serial story! Not only do you have design each panel, but how the panels fit on the page, the pacing from page to page, the text for the story, character design, environment design, hand lettering, figure drawing, color theory – the list goes on! One of the biggest outcomes from this project has been gaining more experience in all these areas. Much of the outcome is yet to be seen when the book is complete. We were able to get a sense of the public’s excitement at our library exhibit and look forward to the day the book is complete.

My Experience

This brief report is not big enough to contain all that I have learned from this project! I have learned the importance of keeping to a schedule and not overbooking myself. When I missed self-imposed deadlines I began to feel overwhelmed. I found I did better if I kept promises to myself. I also learned the importance of cutting a large project into small, manageable chunks and not too get too worried about the finishing steps and just focus on “the task at hand”. I often got worried about how it would all turn out instead of taking it one step at a time. I also learned the importance of “striking when the metal’s hot”. When I get a creative idea, one so great I think I’m going to bust, I need to get it out! It seems that a creative idea, if left out to sit too long without being used, begins to mold. I found that, because this project took so long, I often “lost steam” and had to remember what made me excited in the first place. I am happy with what I have accomplished thus far and have attached a few images here. THANK YOU for this opportunity.