Hello World. Thank you for reading my blog post, today I will show you my journey of creating historical accurate, WWI graphic novel, Photographers of the front lines .

The Launch 🚀 

Starting this project, I knew there would be a huge amount of work to successfully complete this task within the time frame I had. To begin with I went on a journey of discovery, learning how to research various topics on ww1, which included finding and determining if sources contained authentic, trustworthy content. 

Discovering Something New 🧐 

Focusing in on WWI, I watched a movie called  “1917” directed by Sam Mendes. This activity, and the novel, engaged me in the topic, the battles, and also graphic novels. Learning and studying about the WW1 topics really opened my mind to how brutal the battle truly was. I then learned about the important vocabulary of a graphic novel such as  text containers, layout and design, angles, and grammar. I moved on to reading a WWI graphic novel exemplar, “The War to End All Wars: World War One, 1914-1918” by Alan Cowsill and illustrated by Lalit Kumar, Sharma. 

New Skills ✍️ 

After reviewing a these examples, of story and visuals, I wanted to create and in-depth story. But I also wanted it to be about something I wanted to learn more about, as then I would produce a better end product. 

Crunching Time 🫠

Beginning with the research, the topic I chose to study was photographers on the front lines. Learning about what photographers went through and how they where treated. I found this very interesting as I’m an inspiring photographer myself. The photographers on the front lines were a key player in the introduction to propaganda. Many photographer were not aloud to take photos on the front lines, due to sensitive military information, and the photos they took were mostly from training camps, but on new papers it was told that it was the front lines. 

With the research done I moved on to the script writing and story boarding. With the story written and draft done, with lots and lots of time put into it, I began to draw out my comic. The writing, drawing, and research took an immense amount of time and effort. Over 250hr within 2 weeks was put into this project 33 of the hours went into the drawing of the novel. I was spending so much time on the project I forgot to take breaks. Next time I need to lower my own standards for my self and get in a good product.

The Overall Gist 🤔

Over all this project has been rough but rewarding. With many hours put into this project,I learned many skills, and I have a lot of lessons I can take away from it. In the end I now know not to underestimate the amount of time it takes to do things, pacing myself, and taking breaks. When presenting my work at the Spring Exhibition 24 I was thrilled with all the wonderful comments I got. I feel like the student and teachers didn’t have the best communication at time, because some of us were just standing around, when setting up. But with some quick thinking I was able to go into the forest and collect some leaves, vines, logs, and rock. Thank you for reading my blog.