And Some More...

Facial expressions: A difficult one, but essential to get right. Vague terms like ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ might work occasionally, but pay particular attention to the position of the eyebrows, the shape of the eyes and lips, the openness of the mouth, the tightness of the muscles in the face etc. The appearance of a character’s face is essential to the deliver of the words coming out of their mouth.

Hand position: Fingers raised, palm’s up- or down- turned, thumbs up, fists, raised, lowered, resting on an object or character in the scene? Communication specialists tell us only 7% of communication is verbal – the other 93 is body language, facial expressions, hand gestures and intonation. Grammar, punctuation and type-setting can take care of the latter, but the other 3 components must be paid particular attention to if you want to convince your reader of what’s being said.

Body position: As before, the way someone carries themselves is essential to their character. Are they hunched? Do they have any odd recurring tics, such as over-friendliness or standoffishness? I advise coming up with a set of stock descriptions for your artist – even sketching out exactly what you mean by ‘ slightly bent forwards at the back, hands by his side as if ready to spring into action’, on a separate style sheet so there is no misinterpretation. Some body positions and angles are hard to describe. Learn the filmic terms for the camera angles so you have a mutual point of reference with your artist.

Camera Angles and Panel Descriptions: As mentioned above, it essential to accurately describe the angle of the shot, and the framing of the image. Bird’s eye view (from above looking down), worm’s eye view (from below, looking up), tight shot (character or characters occupying the majority of the panel), close-up (zoomed in on a character or object), wide angle (view from middle distance, encompassing a greater area), POV (character point of view), panorama (a wider panel, often stretching the width of a page or double page), amongst others. Other terms for page descriptions, such as ‘Splash’ (a full page spread) should be learned or agreed beforehand to refer to a certain type of standardised shot.


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