EP: I Will Finish What You Started...

Following a tough week for David Cameron involving many public political defeats Adam and I came up with this idea influenced by the new Star Wars film.





I felt the strongest aspects of this work are the colour and the line work. I'm becoming more confidant in these areas and hope to develop them throughout this brief. However I feel that something is still missing from these pieces, what that is will hopefully become apparent as I continue on with this work.

EP: Studio Brief 3 - Brief Sheet

After some thought about my practice in recent weeks, I have decided that an significant aspect of my practice will be fan art based. I feel that the tutors wouldn't be too keen on pushing this area of work, but I feel it is important. I intend to visit many festivals over the next few years and unfortunately Fan Art makes money, whilst my true passion, narrative, can be a harder sell. SO to help me earn money whilst I build up my narrative based practice, Fan Art is going to have to exist within my work.

Many illustrators do this to create money; such as Matt Taylor, Tomar Hanuka, Olly Moss, Francisco Francavilla, Adrian Tomine and Jock. In many cases they are even commissioned to create these pieces.



If I intend to push forward with this , I'm going to have to look closely at my skills in this area. I feel that one of my biggest issues is my line work. Whilst not bad, it isn't amazing. So I intend that to be the focal point of this brief which can bee seen below.

EP: Narrative Research

There is a need for a deeper understanding of narrative if I am to create an exceptional comic book story. To do this I have withdrawn three books from the library;

Will Eisner: Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist

Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Scott McCloud: Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

I've browsed Understanding Comics previously and found it very informative, however feel there is much more to learn from it and the other two books.

EP: A Bunch of...

Following David Cameron's reference to refugees as a 'bunch of migrants' at this weeks PMQ's I quickly came up with this short strip in response to the incident. I was initially working on a different Tory Chums Strip but had to put it on hold for this more topical piece.



I feel the colour work within this piece works quite well, with a focus on red, yellow and blue within each panel. Furthermore, my character skills are improving as my confidence with analogue drawing grows. I hope to capitalise on this skill in both this and studio brief 5. Finally the weighting of my line work is well executed in these panels, this needs to be developed further to create a truly engaging visual experience.

EP: Doctor Who Poster

A few weeks ago, to give myself a short break from my CoP work I decided to draw a picture of the Twelfth Doctor played by Peter Capaldi. For the Thought Bubble event I collaborated with Joe to create a Twelfth Doctor poster, but feel that I can't claim true ownership of the piece as he did the ground work, i.e. the main drawing/ line work.

With that in mind I created my own drawing using the collage technique I have been accustomed to. I printed the piece out on A4 to ink but found that the line work looked too tight and unflattering.

To resolve this issue I printed it at A3 and inked the piece again. This time the lines had space to breathe and the work looked much better for it.

Fastforward to today and I decided to colour the piece and add my unique textures. Initially after applying colour I chose to add a star like texture to the piece but it resulted in making the work look far too busy. I then removed this texture which benefited the piece much more in my opinion.

I am quite happy with the piece so far, but feel that there is much to be improved upon. My line work specifically needs some attention. While it is in no way bad, there is nothing that makes it stand out either.

EP: Lost Momentum

Since the CoP module deadline I have lost a lot of momentum and my work has suffered because of it. I find I'm tired all of the time with no desire or passion in the briefs I am currently working on.

I'm finding that my lack of desire to work has hampered my Macmillan Prize work so far. The brief itself has failed to grab me which is a shame as it is something really wanted to do, but I feel that it is perhaps best to search for another brief to take on instead.

Additionally, none of the YCN or D&AD have caught my eye and I don't want a repeat of last year where I entered into a competition I didn't care for.

Ultimately I feel as though I am in a bit of a rut at the moment and may take some time out to create a bit of self directed work until this passes.

EP: Jock

Recently I read a graphic novel illustrated by comic book artist Jock. Jock, despite being referred to as a comic book artist has all of the qualities of a well rounded illustrator. His work reaches beyond comic books into poster design and film production.

Here are a few examples of his work




The pieces of his work that stand out to me most as the ones where he fully embraces loose line quality and half tone. These are both aspects that I feel I could play around with more.

EP: CoP Tory Chums Work

With CoP now complete I can now continue working on my Tory Chums work in OUIL603. Here is a my development throughout that project that will form the foundations of it's continuation in Studio Brief 4;


And here is the final outcome for my CoP work;



I look forward to continuing my Tory Chums strips. Their development was one of the highlights of CoP.

EP: Cliff Chiang

I first discovered Cliff Chiang's work a few years ago when he was the artist on DC Comics Wonder Woman one of DC's flagship strong female characters. He has such a fantastic understanding of one weighting that I feel my work lacks at the moment. I hope to investigate my own understanding in this area in the future, until then, here is some of Chiang's work to feast your eyes on.

EP: Revised Statement of Intent

Here is my revised Statement of Intent, including briefs that I am now potentially going to take on;

EP: George's Legacy

I've finally decided to continue work on my Tory Chums strips beyond Context of Practice, which entails responding to current political news stories. My goal is to produce enough to make a book to send to publishers, or create as a small press project.

Recently there has been a news story about China's construction of a golden Chairman Mao statue in an impoverished part of the country. This was met with strong criticism globally and the statue was eventually taken down. I imagine that wouldn't be the case should George Osborne build a statue of himself, regardless of criticism, he would continue building.

Initially I coloured the piece by filling it with flat colours first and shading over, which can be seen here;



However I felt this didn't really work well as it came across as amateurish, so reverted to the colouring technique I adopted for the final outcome of my CoP3 work. This gave a less digital feel to the piece, improving the visual quality greatly.