The Beauty Within
October 2020 - October 2021
A collaborative project, writing by Aaraf Adam
This comic was a collaboration between myself and another student from The George Washington University, her name is Aaraf Adam. Initially she required the services of an artist to develop a cover for her spoken word as part of her campaign to advocate for black women and artists of color. After speaking with me personally about my background and interests in storytelling we worked together in producing a short comic where she would find support amongst women of color.
Noor
The main character Noor, which means light in Arabic, is modeled after Aaraf herself. What was important was retaining her features, which still making her look like a comic drawing, and not a realistic portrait. To match the dreamscape environment I translated it into the clothing as majestic and fashionable, while retaining her identity as an Afro-Muslim woman with her hijab. I wanted to make sure each shot had her looking toward the viewer or into a mirror to show that she is not afraid of her identity and presents herself as she is the world.
Process
The process in creating these illustrations was collaborative. I was working with Aaraf via FaceTime due to the pandemic and being on separate continents at the time. We discussed a lot about the story and the character designs specifically since she wanted them to be in square format. By doing so, I knew that the characters had to be the main focus of the comic.
The Sister
The sister, modeled after Aaraf’s sister Abraw, is her guide through this dreamscape. I needed to make sure that they looked similar enough without having to make them the same person just in different clothing. To make that apparent I kept their skin tone the same, then modeling their drawings off of their body types so that the sister looks more mature and motherly, while Noor is coming into her own as the story progresses.
One of the challenges was that because of the pandemic. I had initially lacked the resources and tools in order to produce a professional and clean comic. We did keep in touch about specific details that I wanted to adjust once I had access to what I needed.
The Fairies
Another extension of this campaign that Aaraf was working on was a filmed dance sequence. I used that as inspired so the fairies would have the grace and motion of a ballet dancer. When I was initially designing them I was refraining from using butterfly wings because I thought that was derivative of what has been portrayed in the past. I tried making them look more otherworldly, but working with Aaraf I learned that was not her vision. I tried to give the idea of wings with the sleeves and she liked that as well. Eventually I realized that the only way I can communicate to the viewers that they are magical fairies, they needed wings. But I also wanted to make them look like goddess creatures with this flowing dresses that are adorned with beautiful flowers.
The other challenge was the backgrounds. Even when the characters are the central focus, they need to exist somewhere. I tried a painterly approach to the background and making it a garden like landscape. It was not working when I was presenting them to Aaraf herself. After discussing this with her, we came to the conclusion of having a more galaxy-like setting and having the characters be surrounded by stars and beautiful gossamer skies added enough detail to the scenery without taking away from the figures themselves. What made this project successful in the completion came from the collaboration between the two of us, and she is currently working on getting this comic published for it to be seen.
The Queen
The figure of the queen appears later in the story. Initially around the time she appears, Noor is surrounded by many black women showing support in her journey. However, this proved to be a challenge in balancing the composition with that many characters. We had to limit it to five: Noor, the Sister, the Fairies, and the woman in the green dress. Over time we turned her into a queen to represent the beauty and respect that black women deserve to be recognized for. From the color of her skin to her curly hair. I also gave her a modern dress to fit with the futuristic movement that we experience today, along with a pointed crown to represent power and confidence in oneself.
