Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers

Framed Ink – The ultimate guide to visual storytelling! How to make the audience “feel” the story while they are “reading” the story. Using his experiences from working in the comic book industry, movie studios and teaching, Marcos introduces the reader to a step‑by‑step system that will create the most successful storyboards and graphics for the best visual communication. After a brief discussion on narrative art, Marcos introduces us to drawing and composing a single image, to composing steady shots to drawing to compose for continuity between all the shots. These lessons are then applied to three diverse storylines ‑ a train accident, a cowboy tale and bikers approaching a mysterious house. In addition to setting up the shots, he also explains and illustrates visual character development, emotive stances and expressions along with development of the environmental setting to fully develop the visual narrative.

About the Author:

Born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Marcos Mateu-Mestre is a lead animation designer and graphic novel artist with three decades of experience in feature animation. Some of his film credits include Balto, The Prince of Egypt, Asterix and The Vikings, Surf's Up, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. His work in film, primarily for DreamWorks Animation, Netflix Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, has focused on the design and cinematic aspects of frame composition, lighting, and visual continuity, experience he shared in his international best-sellers, Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers, Framed Ink Vol 2: Frame Format, Energy, and Composition for Visual Storytellers, Framed Perspective Vol.1, Framed Perspective Vol. 2, and Framed Drawing Techniques. In addition to his work in film, he has taught drawing, illustration, and visual storytelling techniques for more than a decade. Mateu-Mestre currently lives in Los Angeles and is a production designer at Netflix.