Cartoon Strip Layout for my Urban Sketch day in Olhao

PART OF MY COMIC STRIP PAGE LAYOUT SERIES

Experimenting with a Cartoon Strip Layout

The other week I went on an urban sketch day out to Olhao, and sketched a lot of individual sketches of the journey and people I encountered in Olhao. I thought I’d take inspiration from urban sketcher Santi Sallés and try depicting a sequence of events in comic book style layout. His cartoon strip layouts included collections of landscapes and cityscapes, so I wanted to experiment with a similar page layout format, but with people as the subject matter. I wondered if the concept would lend itself to sketching people.

I didn’t spend a lot of time with sketch accuracy or painting the images in this experiment. I just did quick and simple ink sketches, and added a limited set of watercolours, to see if I liked this approach. But I’m not sure that it works.

No Common Thread

I think the problem with the way I’ve taken the entire day’s activities and put it into this one page is too diverse and disjointed. It feels like a comic strip with no cohesive story. Other than it’s all related to my trip to Olhao, there’s no thread linking these individual cells together. For this concept to work I think the common thread needs to be narrower, and having the page just focus on the Olhao Market, would have worked better.

Subject Matter Diversity

People were featured in every cell I sketched, and because the sketch areas are quite small there’s not enough room for a lot of detail. It would have been better to add some subject matter diversity, so that some cells have people sketches and some feature zoomed-in details from the market. Or even an exterior view of the market to give a sense of place.

Focal Point

As far as creating an area of focus within each cell, that’s something that wouldn’t take too much effort, and could be done simply by varying the line weight, or using a spot colour within a tonal sketch to create it. However you approach it, it has to be clear and simple when dealing with such a small sketch area.

When it comes to having a focal point on the page overall – maybe the best approach would be to have one large sketched cell that’s the featured sketch, so there’s an obvious place for your eye to land. From that sketch, there could be an organic path continuing through the rest of the page. I think this would take a bit of practice to create something cohesive and not overwhelming.

Use of Colour

I painted these cells quickly, but I did think about the backgrounds, and how I could use them to convey a sense of place.

The blues skies scream outside – although I wish I hadn’t coloured them in as tidily. The first cell on the middle row is the best approach. It’s painted more loosely, and there’s some white area to give the cell some breathing room. I think they could all benefit from this loose approach to colouring the background.

The market interior sketches all have the tan background, and the bus interior is pink.

This variety in background colours helps to differentiate the sketches, and adds a much-needed sense of diversity and interest.

Text and Narrative

I added some text under the sketches, but this could have been more active. For example, using verbs rather than just job titles and locations. Or doing something more creative.

I remember loving Rupert the Bear annuals when I was a kid. They told the story in two different ways. There was 2-line rhyme under each cartoon cell, and there was also a long-form version of the story. As I’m a fan of adding short quirky poems to some of my urban sketches, I wonder how much effort it would be to create short rhymes under each sketch?

I think establishing a common thread, varying the subject matter, having a strong focal point, and being mindful about how I use colour and text, are all necessary elements for creating engaging comic strip layouts for and urban sketching day out.

This experiment was a great way to dip my toe in the water to explore using a comic strip style layout to capture a day’s activities. I know I don’t want to replace my whole approach to sketching with these comic strip layouts, but when the subject matter lends itself to this type of composition, I think it’s good knowledge to have in my urban sketching toolkit.