EP: Group Crit 17/11/15

Today I had group crit. The people that viewed my work commented on the large amount I had produced in preparation for Thought Bubble, with my Tory Chums and La La Land work garnering the most praise.

I feel that these two projects are definitely worth pushing forward with post CoP. However I am reluctant to make too much work concerning them for two reasons; firstly my Tory Chums at this moment is CoP based work and I don't want to include it in this module just yet. Secondly due to my dissertation work needing so much attention, I just don't have to time at the moment to progress with La La Land.

(Inc Scans of Crit Sheets)

EP: Studio Brief 1 - Thought Bubble Reflection

Thought Bubble is now over and it was a mixed experience. On the positive side, my Star-Lord piece sold well, as did my Tory Chums zine, stickers and notebooks. Surprisingly my Doctor Who print didn't sell as well as I thought it would, despite constant praise from people who saw it.


I also found that my Clone Idle and Beyond La La Land zines didn't sell. I discussed this with Matt and Adam at Thought Bubble and they both suggested this is due to the fast paced nature of the event. People don't feel as though they have the time to stand and read a good portion of the zine like they would in a comic book store for example, where as prints are a quick visual fix that instantly grabs you attention. With this in mind I'm going to take my zines to Travelling Man over the next week, where I will hopefully be able to find an audience there.



Overall I am happy with the body of work I produced and the experience of creating work for an event, but will be happy to begin work on things beyond this now.

EP: Doctor Who Print

Recently I have been collaborating with Joe to create a Doctor Who print for Thought Bubble later in the month. Our collaboration was based on a simple premise - he draws the main feature (the Doctor) and I do the colours/ background design.

I chose to place the doctor in the time vortex as this would be a great visual to create. Doing this however meant that logically the Doctor's Tardis would need to be included in the image so I asked Joe add this also.

Once I had received the completed line work I created the time vortex using ink textures that have so far been well received. Following this I coloured the piece. When it was finished I consulted with Joe who was happy with the outcome suggesting that a bit of additional shading was needed. We showed the piece to several of our peers who liked it and surprisingly had little or no critical comments about the work.

I feel that the collaboration has worked well and would be interested in working with Joe again in the future.

Here is the finished product;

EP: Victo Ngai - Visiting Professional

Today we had an inspiring talk from Victo Ngai an Illustrator who I previously knew little about, but judging by the tutors enthusiasm, was a big deal. After a quick look at her work this morning I have to say, I can see why people like her work, but it isn't my cup of tea. However what stood out to me was her professional demeanour.

When asked whether she had ever handed a brief in late she lately replied, "no". This struck a chord with me due to my recent slip up with the Guardian Brief submission, that I feel terrible about.

Victo's energy and enthusiasm for work was another highlight and it got me rather pumped for Thought Bubble tomorrow!

EP: Evan 'Doc' Shaner

Today I came across the comic book artist Evan 'Doc' Shaner whilst reading DC Comic's Green Lantern. His work has a quality that is reminiscent to that of 1960's cartoons made by Hanna Barbara, so I was not surprised to find out after a bit of research that he is soon to be drawing a comic book series called Future Quest starring an array of Hanna Barbara characters.

Shaner works digitally and incorporates Kyle Webster brushes into his work. I added touches of texture to La La Land issue #2 using these brushes and felt they worked quite well, so may return to them in the future. Shane's work makes me feel that whilst my efforts into using analogue processes more are needed, a digital only illustrative route is in fact possible.

EP: Stickers and Notebooks

To fill out my table at Thought Bubble I created three quick illustrations relating to the new Star Wars film, being that of Rey, Captain Phasma and BB8 (a sure fire fan favourite). I then thought about an achievable range of products that can be created using these images before Though Bubble next week. The easiest to create I my opinion were stickers and notebooks.

So after a short time in Digital Print and hour in front of the guillotine I now have these;



Whilst they were quick to produce they have a strong audience and predict they will be well received at Thought Bubble.

EP: Beyond La La Land Print

Today I printed off copies of my Beyond La La Land zine. I pulled both issues together to make a zine of 64 pages (excluding cover page) to sell at Thought Bubble. The down side to this is that due to the size of the zine, printing in colour would have cost me a large amount of money. So I printed the pages on typical A4 paper stock in black and white. However I felt that some colour was needed so printed the cover pages in colour on a thicker matte stock of 200gsm.

The outcome has a strong visual quality, despite the interiors being in shades of grey. Whilst it is disappointing not to have the whole zine in colour, it will suffice enough to help build my audience at Thought Bubble.

EP: Clone Idle Zine

Recently we were tasked with creating a zine for Leeds College of Art's illustration stand at Thought Bubble. I've held off doing so for some time as I chose to challenge myself and needed a full day of availability. I'm taking on the challenge of a 12 pages in 12 Hours, similar - but with a shorter time/page count to the 24 Hour comic challenge by Scott McCloud which can be read about here.

The rules were as follows, I had 12 hours to create a comic/zine from scratch. I had to think of a script, plan it out, draw the pages and add dialogue within that time frame. If I had a break that didn't mean the timer was frozen, it meant it ate into my work time.

Here is the outcome;



I must admit, I did fail - the work ended up taking 14 hours, however despite this - there is much to be proud of here. I created a story from scratch, illustrated it and formatted it in less than a day. If I could do this every day for a week for a week I'd become an illustrative machine. There are admittedly flaws with the work, such as having to use a digital font for dialogue, however I am very happy with the end product.

EP: Beyond La La Land #2 Complete

I have now completed the 2nd issue of Beyond La La Land. I found that as I went on with this issue my characters still looked quite static. To resolve this issue I began tracing over images of myself in poses that I needed the characters to be in specifically, rather than working the panels to suit images from the internet. I also gave some thought to how my panels sit against opposite pages. Doing so allowed for my later pages, where there was a fight scene, to look more energetic and exciting.

Despite the positives I still feel there is room for improvement with body language. This could possibly happen if I draw the pages in pencil first rather than relying on the restrictive digital drawing process that I currently use.

Here is an Issuu document of the 2nd issue;