applied illustration. research in horror.

i started by stooding horror comic books. my research informed me that 30 days of nights is a classic. becuase our libiary had them and it was easy and quick access i decided to read them. if im honest i wasnt impressed. i wasnt impressed by the composition of the panels i felt that it let it down for the horror of it. also the drawings in this was crap i couldnt make out what was going on half of the time. the pages was too busy with texture and 80% of the time there was no surrounding. a chapter would start with one scene in a kitchen and then the next was just people stood in texture...as if to say you know there in a kitchen now stay there. but this ruined the feel. 

this is what i mean. this dosnt say were they are at all just full of textures. 

i read the first book with disappointment. i was going to shoot it down and move on but i read an extra 3 comic to see if it would progress and become good but it ended up been  just as bad. 

i then studied what i thought would be the go to comic for horror with in 2016. the walking dead. 

i read the first two issues. this time i was pleased with the art work and framing the frames in some of the shots was almost like frames from a horror movie. snippits of images that suggested things. when you turned the page to a full spread of a zombie bursting out of a door as the same way as a jump scare is used in films today verry well done. but as much as i love the walking dead by the second issue the drawings went down hill and it was hard to identifie who is who. and a lot of far away shots was used just seemed very lazy from the artists. 

i want my to express in my pitch how i want to use the comic panels the same way as a directer uses the camara i want to use suggestion in the images. i want to do what no other comic has and use the imagination and remove all limits and create horrific imagery in my comics. i want people to look at these comics and say... fuck that! i want people to read this comic and say this is scary. 

i went on a movie marathon taking mental notes of directress used there jump scares and there power of suggestion. i learned a lot from watching these. these films influenced the direction i want to go with this horror comic. i want this book to be seen as one that people remember by the shocking images and things they wouldn't expect to see in comics. 

out of all the films i watched i was most pleased with gullermo del toro direction. his use of colour and atmosphere with detail realy nailed horror for me. his creature creation was fantastic. 

i rented his book out from the library. in it he states how illustrators and film directors are one and the same. and that fascinated me because hes right..they both direct whats going on in the frame so that it can be translated well for the viewer. his sketch books was most impressive full of notes and dodles of what he wanted to be concepted. high detailed notes of the characters personality...every inch of the character was in them sketch book