Ghosts

Early sketchbook images for comic ideas. For a long time I've wanted to make a comic about a story my friends and I made up about the ghost of Edvard munch that haunts a teapot in an old lady's house. I was considering doing this for my fmp but knew I wouldn't be able to keep interest for that long.










Another comic idea I had is about the ghost of a Russian exchange student who was murdered and is buried in the basement of a house. Despite that introduction, it's actually a comedy, in which the ghost makes the current homeowner's life hell by haunting the house out of boredom, wandering the halls; sighing and moaning. It's essentially based on autobiographical events, in which I am the homeowner, and a certain someone I know is the ghost.

A Long overdue update of the last few weeks

I guess I could argue I've been too busy working to update, and it's pretty much true, so let's go with that.

When I started this project I was in a bad place, and therefore everything I was creating reflected this. Going home for a few days really helped me get over whatever was eating me up inside, and so my work isn't being quite so"emo"tional anymore, thank god.

Below are some of the pages I made in a small book. They were spontaneous and without pre thought, it was essentially my feelings being released on paper via pen.

At first I had hoped to make a series of books (and perhaps an all encompassing final book) that would include small autobiographical comics like these, and other things such as illustrating funny/ridiculous/attention seeking facebook statuses and observational and honest (read: harsh) comics. At first I was also obsessed with the idea that somewhere along the line I would want to draw monsters, as I usually do, and utterly feared that I'd go crazy if I were denied that for 3 months.

And so, for your reading pleasure and amusement, here is my original FMP proposal:

My goal for this project is to make a book that deals with the mundane. Sounds boring right? Well, by the mundane, I pretty much just mean life, and the stuff that goes on in it. Let's face it, unless you're an astronaut or the guy who owns Jurassic Park, pretty much everything that goes on in your life is kinda mundane. But because it's your life, the mundane becomes the norm, it becomes interesting, dramatic and something maybe even fun. And who's to say not even the super cool people don't go through the mundane. I bet after cool space missions the astronaut has to think about what he wants for dinner that night. Or sometimes the world's highest paid actor shrinks their favourite million billion $ sweater in the wash. And I bet even monsters have some mundane moments; they get a bit lonely or bored. When you think about it, the mundane, every day, day to day things, are actually pretty exciting if you look at them the right way. I guess that's why shows like Eastenders are so popular.
Perhaps mundane isn't the right word to use. Let's face it, whenever you read mundane it sounds pretty boring, and that's pretty much what the word means. For some reason it just feels right in this context. I guess the word I'm looking for is something like everyday.
Hollywood has long since been drawing out the story where regular Jo Bloggs goes on a crazy, fantastical adventure; battles bad girls, saves the princess and all that jazz. But unless your name is Skywalker it's unlikely you'll be blowing up a Deathstar anythime soon. And sooner or later, Jo Bloggs is gonna have to wash his socks that he was wearing the whole entire jouney, as people don't tend to change costume much in films, or probably end up having an argument with the princess, who might turn out to be a total bitch anyway.
This train of thought began in my options project, in which I had ghosts, imps and other creatures face rather mundane, but hopefully humourous problems, such as being thirsty. It doesn't sound exciting, does it; a comic about being thirsty. But it happened to a ghost, and ghosts are cool so that's okay. Even if the story hadn't happened to a ghost, it probably would have been okay too, except I would have had to change it, because the humour stems from the fact he is a ghost. The point I'm trying to make, is I could have made a story about a ghost haunting people and poltergeisting things up, but instead he was just thirsty. We can relate to the character, not necessarily the actual being a ghost ghost aspect, though we know what it's like to feel ignored sometimes, but because despite the simplicity of the challenge faced, it becomes a very big deal. I guess you could say I've always been a big fan of the everyday. I'm an avid fan of blogs and autobiographical comics, you don't need to go to a fantasy land full of crazy fauna and flora to tell a good story, you just need interesting characters.
However, despite what I've just written. I do love monsters. And I really enjoyed contrasting fantastical beasts in rather everyday situations in my Options project, and so it is something I hope to carry on.
I've roughly thought out some ideas I'd like to try for this project. One is to continue the cutesy monster comics, but to try and make longer, more thought out ones, perhaps ones that aren't so cutesy too. As a contrast I'd like to do one-off illustrations that tell a story within itself. Something I'd particularly like to do for the one off illustrations is to take facebook statuses I find particularly funny/pathetic/attention seeking (which are usually all of the above) statuses and illustrate them to make them even more funny/pathetic/attention seeking. I would like to create some autobiographical comics, possibly to deal with emotions/situations I have been feeling/experiencing recently. Below I have listed a small number of influences, many of which are autobiographical or observational comics.
For years I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett, who has turned the stereotypical fantasy world on it's head; he manages to take the most typical characters and stories of fantasy, and breath totally new life into them. Even Death is capable of facing the most mortal of problems within a Pratchett book, which is what I believe makes them such a fantastic read. This is something I wish to explore with my monster comics, to go beyond the conceptions of what we know about mythical creatures and try to understand them for their perspective a little better.
Illustrational influences include:
Tom Gauld
Ray Fenwick, (rayfenwick.ca)
Yuko Ota (johnnywander.com)
Kate Beaton (harkavagrant.com)
Jess Fink (jessfink.com)
Matt Boyd and Ian McConville (threepanelsoul.com)
natazilla.tumblr.com
hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com
Nedroid.com
Nemi
Margaux Motin (margauxmotin.typepad.fr)
Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes
Kent Osbourne (http://kentosborne.tumblr.com)
Jeff Smith: Bone.
I plan to produce this project in an ongoing webcomic form, posting comics and illustrations online as I create them. I will probably use Tumblr for this as I like the simplicity of it's layouts and browsing. I also believe this means it will be easier for me to set myself goals, as I'll have to uphold to updating the blog. I aim to make a minimum of 4 illustrations/comics a week.. This should yield a minimum of around 48 images (but most likely more as many comics will span several pages and some weeks I'll make more than the minimum amount needed), which should be more than enough for the final book, which will be edited to included the best pieces. I also plan to create merchandise for the book/blog, which will possibly include; badges, postcards, laser-cut brooches, posters

Tangled

I recently saw Tangled at the cinema. It's Disney's 50th film, and personally, I don't think it disappoints. I think I was more excited about the film than most as I've been waiting for it a ling time. I think I first knew about this film when I was in college, and that was ages ago.



The original idea was conceived by Glen Keane. Keane has been one of Disney's best animators for a long long time.

He was the key designer and animator for some of Disney's best characters: Aladdin, Ariel, the Beast, Tarzan.

Keane's work was essentially the reason I wanted to do animation back in the day. I would watch movies he had worked in and watch the animation of the characters intensely.


Keane conveys perfect emotion and body language, he doesn't forget the little nuances that make us human.

I have a rule, that when I love a creative movie, I buy the concept art book. And so I did for Tangled. I had to order it from America as I couldn't find it -anywhere- in the uk. The illustrations within are gorgeous, and it was a brilliant buy.







From the art book I discovered that although Keane worked in the concept art stage, he was unable to work throughout the movie. I don't know if that's polite Disney speak that he got ill or was pushed from the film (Chris Sanders (of lilo and stitch) got pushed from Bolt, causing him to leave Disney to work for dreamworks and help create How to Train your Dragon)

Either way, I loved the film, it was beautiful, funny and in my opinion, fantastic.

8th Feb

Paris:
I'm not gonna lie, Paris was good, how could it not be, it's full of ridiculously gorgeous architecture and art. (which as Josef stated, is what happens when you just surrender in war) But ultimately I don't know if I can say I really enjoyed myself. I felt very alone for much of it, very stressed, with myself, with others. One night I took a 40 minute shower and went to bed at 9.30pm just so I could be alone. I've been feeling like this a lot recently, but Paris really took me to a new level. I'm constantly skipping from one emotion to another and don't seem capable of having much control over them anymore. I feel like I've forgotten how to relax, how to be happy, and especially how to let out negative emotions so they don't come back.
I'm planning to go home for a little break this Saturday to see if seeing family and friends will help sort me out a bit.


On 7th Feb in my one to one discussion with Pete Lloyd, I mentioned my worry over more than one style. Pete said it was one of the things the illustration staff don't see eye to eye with Fig. He pointed out that Louise Weir has an "alter ego" for her other style, which goes under the pseudonym "Bish". Having looked online I can see the great differences in Louise's styles.

The day before I had emailed Pete requesting to step down from being a fundraising rep for the final show. I feel I'm going through a lot of things right now that are playing hell with my emotions, and putting extra time and effort in to organise a final show whilst others do fuck all isn't helping the situation. We discussed it in the meeting and I admitted to Pete that I've been feeling something of a wreck lately. I can't quite figure out why, but I'm all over the place. Naturally I'm stressed about my final project, but I don't think that's the cause of it. And other things like whiny little housemates whose default setting is set to “Moan: all the time about anything and everything” aren't really helping at all.

I feel like I don't know who I am anymore. As previously mentioned in my Paris entry, I didn't really enjoy myself, and I think that's the sign of a problem. On Sunday I made the decision to book some train tickets home, in the hope that seeing family and friends would help sort me out.

I have a backlog of posts I've been storing in Word cause I wanted my first post to be my proposal. Now that's posted I can post the backlog, then finally get up to date.

28th Jan 2011.

Quite possibly my best day at university so far.
In the morning we had a lecture from a rather wonderful lady Fig Taylor. Fig is the portfolio consultant at AOI (Association of Illustrators) and it's damn easy to see why she's been doing this job 25 years. Incredibly informative, and witty to boot, Fig gave a lecture that has put my post-university future in more perspective (though I won't deny, as an artist with more than one distinct style, it has also made me slightly worried)

Overall, Fig's talk was fantastic, and it's highly tempting to buy her book (as well as some others I spied on Amazon)

Fig's book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Create-Portfolio-Get-Hired/dp/1856696723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297273149&sr=8-1 If Fig's book is anything like her talk I know it will be a useful asset to have.

Illustration 101: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustration-101-Streetwise-Surviving-Illustrator/dp/product-description/0953730719/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books

I liked the look of Illustration 101 cause it seemed to give true insider tips, like tactics on how to call art directors (or get their names so you could call later and know who to get to)

In the afternoon a small group of us were lucky enough to have a raptor (bird of prey) drawing masterclass with John Norris Wood. John is a ridiculously talented natural history illustrator who taught at the Royal College of art. The day was everything you could have hoped for and more, and we were allowed to get very close to the birds.

Proposal

My goal for this project is to make a book that deals with the mundane. Sounds boring right? Well, by the mundane, I pretty much just mean life, and the stuff that goes on in it. Let's face it, unless you're an astronaut or the guy who owns Jurassic Park, pretty much everything that goes on in your life is kinda mundane. But because it's your life, the mundane becomes the norm, it becomes interesting, dramatic and something maybe even fun. And who's to say not even the super cool people don't go through the mundane. I bet after cool space missions the astronaut has to think about what he wants for dinner that night. Or sometimes the world's highest paid actor shrinks their favourite million billion $ sweater in the wash. And I bet even monsters have some mundane moments; they get a bit lonely or bored. When you think about it, the mundane, every day, day to day things, are actually pretty exciting if you look at them the right way. I guess that's why shows like Eastenders are so popular.

Perhaps mundane isn't the right word to use. Let's face it, whenever you read mundane it sounds pretty boring, and that's pretty much what the word means. For some reason it just feels right in this context. I guess the word I'm looking for is something like everyday.
Hollywood has long since been drawing out the story where regular Jo Bloggs goes on a crazy, fantastical adventure; battles bad girls, saves the princess and all that jazz. But unless your name is Skywalker it's unlikely you'll be blowing up a Deathstar anythime soon. And sooner or later, Jo Bloggs is gonna have to wash his socks that he was wearing the whole entire jouney, as people don't tend to change costume much in films, or probably end up having an argument with the princess, who might turn out to be a total bitch anyway.

This train of thought began in my options project, in which I had ghosts, imps and other creatures face rather mundane, but hopefully humourous problems, such as being thirsty. It doesn't sound exciting, does it; a comic about being thirsty. But it happened to a ghost, and ghosts are cool so that's okay. Even if the story hadn't happened to a ghost, it probably would have been okay too, except I would have had to change it, because the humour stems from the fact he is a ghost. The point I'm trying to make, is I could have made a story about a ghost haunting people and poltergeisting things up, but instead he was just thirsty. We can relate to the character, not necessarily the actual being a ghost ghost aspect, though we know what it's like to feel ignored sometimes, but because despite the simplicity of the challenge faced, it becomes a very big deal. I guess you could say I've always been a big fan of the everyday. I'm an avid fan of blogs and autobiographical comics, you don't need to go to a fantasy land full of crazy fauna and flora to tell a good story, you just need interesting characters.

However, despite what I've just written. I do love monsters. And I really enjoyed contrasting fantastical beasts in rather everyday situations in my Options project, and so it is something I hope to carry on.

I've roughly thought out some ideas I'd like to try for this project. One is to continue the cutesy monster comics, but to try and make longer, more thought out ones, perhaps ones that aren't so cutesy too. As a contrast I'd like to do one-off illustrations that tell a story within itself. Something I'd particularly like to do for the one off illustrations is to take facebook statuses I find particularly funny/pathetic/attention seeking (which are usually all of the above) statuses and illustrate them to make them even more funny/pathetic/attention seeking. I'll probably do some autobiographical comics, possibly to deal with emotions/situations I have been feeling/experiencing recently.

For years I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett, who has turned the stereotypical fantasy world on it's head; he manages to take the most typical characters and stories of fantasy, and breath totally new life into them. Even Death is capable of facing the most mortal of problems within a Pratchett book, which is what I believe makes them such a fantastic read.

Illustrational influences include:
Tom Gauld
Ray Fenwick, (rayfenwick.ca)
Yuko Ota (johnnywander.com)
Kate Beaton (harkavagrant.com)
Jess Fink (jessfink.com)
Matt Boyd and Ian McConville (threepanelsoul.com)
hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com
Nedroid.com

Artist spotlight: Tom Gauld

I first came across Tom Gauld's work during my national diploma, so about 4 or 5 years ago. I was flicking through the Guardian As it was a good source to find good illustration (and sometimes just good photos)

I started collecting his weekly comics whenever I could find them (I wasn't quite prepared to buy the guardian then, I wasn't as in to newspapers as I am now)

In the second year of my national diploma, the visual communication group (illustration and graphic design) went on a trip to London and especially Magma bookshop. There they had some of Gauld's mini comics and I DIDN'T BUY THEM. AND NOW THEY'RE SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE AND YOU SIMPLY CAN'T BUY THEM NOW.
Artistically, it's been a pretty big regret for me, but it made me decide if there was ever an art book I wanted, I should buy it. Oh life lessons, you are so cruel.