How I made a graphic novel despite the fact I can’t draw
I’ve always been an avid reader of graphic novels (or comic books, as you prefer), in particular those that are grounded in reality, relating a true story or an epic journey.
Until recently though, because I simply can’t seem to draw anything good, I never thought I could actually make one. I’ve therefore always stuck to writing and photography to tell my own travel stories.
But during my last trip to India with my fiancee Anna, I started using the smart filters from Prisma on my pictures before sharing them to my friends and family.
Prisma’s deep learning algorithms take you pictures and turn them into artworks based on a specific graphical style you select from their gallery. The artificial intelligence behind Prisma’s filter can be applied to any picture and render an artwork that follow consistently the logic of the selected style, in the same way an artist would paint different landscapes or settings with the same underlying style.
I really liked that by using the same filter on all the pictures I was shooting in Delhi, whether it was a colorful street, an imposing government building or an old architectural landmark, I was able to create a very cohesive and aesthetically pleasant account of our city explorations.
While reviewing all the artworks I had generated during our first few days of tourism in the Indian capital, it stroke me that by adding a few bubbles of text to my “Prisma album”, I could actually easily turn it into a graphic novel.
It turned out it took quite a bit more work than I had expected to achieve the above result, but my intuition was right.
Exploring a new style
I immediately started taking pictures with a different mindset, already thinking about the way it would look like when transformed into artwork.
I also needed to take into account how each picture could serve my story, acting more like a reporter of our own travel, documenting events that would have their place in a graphic novel but not in a holiday photo…
