When I started storyboarding, I realised very quickly that life drawing was an essential
part of it.
There was no point in trying to look for the perfect reference every time, so I went back
to life drawing classes and I also started filling in sketchbooks at bus stops, dart
stations, restaurants, wherever, just sketching people in positions and shoulders, arms, hands,
to hold works.
I'm an illustrator, I do storyboards, most of that work would come from advertising agencies
and I work freelance from an office in Fitzwilliam Square.
The storyboard is a step-by-step guide for the client to show them how the story is going
to pan out in the final ad and it's basically a frame-by-frame reference and if you have
a 30 second ad, you can basically see what the characters are going to be doing in the
ad.
You start off with the script and working from the script to do what's called a scamp,
which is a thumbnail rough of the various frames in the storyboard.
Then they're worked up into color, black and white depending on how finished the storyboard
has to be and then they're presented to the client either as single boards or as a complete
storyboard.
One of the most obvious problems about doing storyboards is that you don't have access
to models, everything that you do has to be done from memory, which is why life drawing
classes and drawing at bus stops and parks is quite important, so that you understand
how clothes fall on the body or how limbs move.
So when I'm doing a storyboard, I've got to be able to remember most of that, obviously
you can't remember everything and for what I can't remember, especially in terms of hand
movements, I have a mirror here and I'll look in the mirror and see how the hand forms certain
shapes to draw them on the storyboard.
I've also did that for facial expressions sometimes.
The face and the hands are probably the two most emotive parts of the body, if you look
at a person sitting at a table speaking, you'll see how much they use their hands, they use
their hands almost as much as they do their face to get across whatever point it is they're
trying to make.
So in terms of doing a realistic storyboard, I find that the hands and the face are probably
two of the most important parts and the two parts you have to try and capture what is
much realism as possible.
When I was in school I used to always be doodling in books and on the desk and I was dragged
back into school one Saturday by the headmaster to sand the desk down to get rid of all the
doodles.
A couple of years ago I happened to be in touch with my English teacher, I was looking for
a source of home and I just mentioned to him that I had actually managed to make a career
out of my doodling.
The perception of the people who illustrate for commercial reasons are compromising their
creativity, it's not particularly true, they do that because they can make a living out
of it.
Aside from that they often do their own work which they exhibit separately, but the fact
is by being commissioned means that you can actually make a living by working in the creative
environment.
In an ideal world I think you make a living by mixture of both, sometimes it's actually
nice to be given a direction in terms of commissioning, if you think of it Michelangelo was commissioned
to do the Sisterline Chapel and he was given a direction and he had to follow it, it doesn't
mean that it's not a satisfying process.
But for a couple of potential buyers at least I reckon.
When you're doing a storyboard you tend to stereotype characters and simplify situations,
the woman is often blonde, the guy is generally dark, you've got to keep continuity going
through the storyboards, so you tend to simplify that too, you know one person is wearing red
and the other person is wearing blue so they're easily recognizable to the client as you get
in a storyboard.
In real life everybody seems to wear black storyboards, they never do.
Horror can be quite important again in terms of getting across the type of product you're
trying to advertise, a lot of domestic products like cleaning products and stuff like that
would tend to be very bright and primary color and the car is obviously a more monochrome.
The hallmarks of a good storyboard is not necessarily that the drawing is fantastic because it basically
ends up as coffee coasters anyway, it's more that it tells the story clearly and concisely
so that both the director, the client and the advertising agency can see what's going
on and the other thing is it should add something that the script doesn't contain.
You see Nadzi's storyboard on TV, it's kind of interesting because you can see a certain
amount of the sequence of the storyboard but often it's changed so much, the characters
have been developed, the whole look of the thing can be quite different.
But it's kind of nice to see them appear anyway because often you do a storyboard and the
ad never appears.
It's nice to see people doing this so often because it should be quite accurate also
If he's alive on the back of an extra minute shot, then a comp is there!
There!
There!
There!
There!
