Youth Volunteerism Project
"A compelling story of a boy who wanted nothing to do with school and only wanted to draw, is sent to an old folks home to be a volunteer. The life-changing experience of interacting with an elderly with dementia made him appreciate his life more."
Here is the journey of how I transform this volunteerism story into a digital webcomic.
Introduction to Main Character
Melvin is illustrated as a delinquent boy with a pair of piercings. He has an angular face structure with a slightly undone uniform to fit the look of an untidy student. My inspiration comes from this character, Hsu Taiyu in the movie 'Our Times'.
Mood Board
The blue and yellow hues depict the cold and warmth tone of the story. Some of the images are based off on the emotions that will be shown in the comic, such as feeling bored, angry and lonely. As the title, 'Draw with You' suggests, I wanted my comic to be in display fonts to achieve that hand-written style.
Sketches
These are hand drawn on a sketchbook. I made sure to have variations of angles, such as wide angle, close-up and middle close-up. Some of the angles have a strong reasoning. A low angle on a character would mean that they are being superior and a top angle on a character would represent timidness or fear. I also included sequencing to ensure that the next frame moves smoothly and do
Some progresses and references
Draw with You, written and illustrated by Niesya
Full comic with GIFs included.
The first page introduces the rowdy character of Melvin and the conflict he had with his form teacher, Mr Soon. I made use of slightly muted color tones to slowly bring viewers into the story. I inserted words like 'slides' and add in a movement arrow to show action.
The story transitions from day to night and the plot climaxes with a heated argument with his parents. Adobe Illustrator made it convenient such that I can blur out the background easily and add shadows.
This page is full of yellow to show the warmness at the volunteering centre and it is where Melvin meets the Grandma.
The story ends with Melvin becoming a Youth Corps volunteer. Through this webcomic, my objective and purpose was to encourage and promote youths to volunteer after showing them the true act of volunteerism.
Thank You
