Downpour 2015

Pieces from a zine made shortly after Download Festival 2015 to document my time working backstage. It was a fantastic and perfect week.

Highlights included the pre-parties in the festival village, finally seeing slipknot for the first time ever (they cancelled their gig when I was 15), remembering that I absolutely love Muse to death and meeting Every Time I Die on my bar.

I also learnt some nifty rock n' roll hand shakes from the guests.

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B & W Zine

SO, These illustrations are from a little zine I made in about 4 days. (I was going for 3 but my housemates had a buffy marathon) I need to test myself, train myself back up and mostly regain some of the fun that stress has been stealing.
I've combined inks and pencil here for my lines but I still need to find a process to show their personalities better in their digital state. I'm thinking layers and multiply. I haven't had a night out with them in a long while.

The b&w element just allowed me to focus on the lines and process more as well as getting closer to the ink feel. I am a big fan of crazy contrast b&w fun.

I had a bit of a 'face ban' in my illustrations for a while as my face styles are influenced by anything and everything and differed drastically but I feel like the mask kind of bypasses it by not letting you see the eyes. 

Below are a bunch of initial sketches and the inspirations involved. 

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We Can Be Heroes

It's time for a super depressing but optimistic superhero comic! 

yeah.

Its kinda about tackling depression and alcoholism in a loved one and totally sucking at it. Or in this case solving everything with tea. Cos that'd be great. 

Click to ENLARGE.

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Swimventures!

I recently got back into swimming having been plagued for a good few years by silly body image insecurities and all the stuff that does no one any good. 

Still, getting in is always a bit of an event. I swear I don't know how people can look so good whilst I'm trying not to drown or blind anyone else. But now I've got over it all I'm kinda enjoying the swimming part too much to care.

Its super lovely and everyone should go! You get to smell like chlorine for what I'm assuming is the rest of all time. Totally worth it. 

20/04/14

This easter weekend instead of being a normal person and spending all day everyday relaxing I've been sweating over getting a new comic done. So heres a sneak!

I'm sure I'll like it more when I stop seeing solely in yellow and blue but I'm quite proud. I'll upload the whole thing as soon as I can.  

The comic explores the rather difficult subject of depression but definitely from a hopeful standpoint. Its a story and substance over style kind of affair. 

In other news....

I managed to get to the beach this week and I've scavenged a real cool bunch of stuff!

LOADS OF DRIFTWOOD! Which is exciting since we don't really get a lot of flotsam like that in the bay. Naturally I crawled around the shoreline in my wetsuit like a toddler on holiday (literally, I looked a state) but I'm going to make THINGS!!!  and hopefully make some munny while I'm at it. Cos that'd be nice.

See it pays to keep all your accumulated craft junk. (I keep saying)

I also had a brilliant low tide sunny costal adventure with the dog!

And as ever my best friend responded by helping out and eating half of the driftwood and depositing it around the house.

<3

Bagatelle Comic book Cover.

So it turns out my comicbook piece for the anthology is going to be printed in black and white... sooo it was suggested that I design a possible cover for the anthology as well using the same style and colours. And here it is. Super cuffed (:

 

Luckily the comic book colours do convert to black and white well and the contrast means that everything is still visible and identifiable.

Peek!

All finished on the far eastern front! 

Go to print on monday. The laws of Repro-graphics decree that I should cry at least once and print something the wrong way up with dodgy registration marks and then cry a bit more.

Can not wait. 

Three pages to be printed into a tiny, tiny zine!

A Thousand Nights

I'm currently working on a short 'comic' commissioned by my tutor who worked with me on my dissertation to be published in an anthology. As my dissertation was all about the illustrated map within literature novels he suggested I explore the maps effect of taking the reader on a journey, acting as a contents page for the novel to follow.  Here I am looking at presenting a story via a non-linear narrative told solely through pictures. 

At the moment it is based loosely on Arabian Nights or A Thousand and One Nights, suggesting the inspiration or origin of each fresh nightly tale.

I'm still trying to refine my technique of combining my chunky infant school pencil drawings with digital colour. I want lovely textures of the final image but without loosing he freedom of the colour tests from the middle two images. It's difficult to find the middle ground. But so, so much fun!

Deciding on colour is hard too. I love the back and white roughs but I'm too much of a sucker for brash rub your face all over colour! Perhaps I'll go back and greyscale the finals?