Case Study of Luke Pearson's 'Hildafolk'

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Evaluation

For my case study, I chose Luke Pearson's comic book, 'Hildafolk', and decided to present the case study in the style of a couple of pages from the comic book itself, but with a small twist - where Hilda would be in each panel I instead drew my own character in her place, with large speech bubbles coming from the character as if she were speaking what I had written for the case study aloud.

Because I already knew about 'Hildafolk' sometime before and have read it a number of times, I was already very familiar with it, and being interested in it I had done previous research on it and the processes that Pearson used for my own benefit, so the actual writing of the case study was very easy for me.  Although Pearson's style and technique had already somewhat influenced my work in general, emulating his style taught me a lot about the processes he uses, especially in Photoshop.  For example, only after this study did I notice that he colours in his lineart a dark burgundy rather than black, which subtly compliments the colour schemes he uses.  I also gained techniques on how to create snow in Photoshop, both when it falls - which I recreated using a round white brush with the 'scatter' option on high - and the way clumps of it are flung off running feet and remain scattered around remaining footsteps.  I have found that such methods are simple but extremely effective. 

The first page of my case study was based on a page where Hilda camps out in the rain.  This page I structured quite differently from the original pages from 'Hildafolk' in order to fit in so much text, although I made sure to try and keep the same colour scheme and atmosphere.  What I found must difficult to recreate was how to draw the pouring rain with an India ink pen; if I were to attempt it again, I would try to draw my strokes thinner, both to make it closer to Pearson's original work, and to make it look more like rain.

The second page is based on a couple of pages further in to 'Hildafolk', when Hilda wakes up during a snowstorm, panicked due to the impending danger of a troll.  This page I followed much more closely to the original work, from the structure of the page and the angles used, to the poses the character takes.  This helped me follow Pearson's processes more closely and helped me learn even more.

Overall I gained very much from studying Luke Pearson's 'Hildafolk', and I was able to apply what I learnt in my future work, including my final piece itself.