Oh boy, do I like this app. I like that it makes my regular notebook into a magic moving and singing notebook.
Here are three things I threw together so fast.
So, luckily, I had this video ready to go and the three iterations were perfect for layering fun.
Tomorrow after LoFi printing I am going to sit down and brainstorm ideas to respond to the brief. I wanted to just make more OC art, but I am learning lately that there is always a way to hit that petit pan de mur jaune no matter what.
What frustrates me is that students go so far off brief it can’t possibly be justified, but I still watch the tutors falling over themselves trying to find reasons it’s connected to the brief, and why the work is valid. I feel like this is mixed messages: surely illustrators should be taught to hit the brief before anything else, and be told so frankly. I saw a student in my crit show a collaborative zine about bunny rabbits for something that (I think) was originally about the text A Short Stay In Hell, and for a brief that was not to create collaborative work but to art direct a partner’s. It was a really good zine, but … what? And the tutors had nothing but good things to say about it!
Anyway, rant over. Gonna try to stick with the text and see where it takes me.
Made a reel for Instagram last night inspired by one I saw.
Not much to say about this one but I did push some boundaries – namely – I created a false handheld camera shake by making more art than necessary and screen recording a short two frame animation of me zooming in on it as if I was holding a camera.
I did this with both shots to mimic the original and I’m pretty happy with it! It really gives the impression that Mitzi is holding the phone and the camera is changing from back view to front view.
The shots changing expression while keeping the camera shake was a stroke of genius and problem solving on my part. By exporting the frames, creating a new animation, looping it and THEN screen recording, I kept the action smooth in one shot. Anyhoo.
I translated an image I’ve had in my head to ink and paper, and as someone who is absolutely anal about expression, I found it VERY unforgiving but VERY fun. I like the sketches as much as the final.
I’ve vividly had Antonia’s legs in my head for a day now, imagining the shape of them as above. A strange thought to articulate.
This is a difficult one. I have a lot of thoughts about it and am pulled in my different ways. One of the BIG things I like about working digitally is the fact that I really will die on the hill of my expressions being perfect, and this means either quickly moving things around digitally or redrawing the entire. Thing. If I’m not happy with the nuance of it.
But of course, the quality of line and life in the images is more tangible when you can see it’s traditional media. There’s love in the page.
I know Quentin Blake works with a sketch and a light box, so he can figure out how the characters are all holding themselves and then just make a few copies until he’s happy he’s got it right. There’s a ridiculous and counterintuitive element to the idea of working quickly, with life and bounce in your lines, and also to making it be right and good (one normally associates spending time on a piece with – not quality but – you know.)
So I’m sitting there thinking, my god, Quentin Blake… I do not give you enough credit.
Just in terms of what was successful, really chuffed with the colours I threw on there. I think it really establishes Antonia as a Willy-wonka adjacent character, keeping the colours the same on top and bottom keeping it clean.
In-universe, I’ve recently let myself think about the big Christmas Talent Show that the university is holding.
Mitzi is in the University Campus cafe/canteen when a group of seven or eight people sit down at a big table next to her. She eavesdrops and it becomes apparent that they’re this year’s Talent Show committee. She doesn’t recognise any of them – they are all theatre kids, and it shows.
She becomes quite endeared with the idea of a talent show. When she overhears them lamenting that they don’t have a poster and they need one quick sharp, she saunters over and offers to make one for them. They’re very grateful and she sits in on the rest of the meeting, getting details for the poster and checking specifications.
For the sake of keeping costs low, this poster has to be black-and-white, to be printed onto coloured paper. Below are the posters she makes – one mocked up with colour underneath, and one colour channel layer, so to speak, that she can throw under the photocopier and feed in the coloured paper.
Now, I’ll tell you a secret: I made this poster, not Mitzi. Since it’s what I’ve been thinking about, I thought making up one of the in-world posters would be a fun challenge, and keep me close to the characters.
My process was really fun for this little brief. I went in with no real ideas for what to do, but started traditional. I looked through magazines and found a cool full colour page of a blurred tennis court, which I kept, and a small stack of bricks from gardeners’ world that I thought could work really well for a structural base. Here’s what I mean.
Over the top of the tennis court image, I physically cut white paper into the blocks copying this pattern.
I took a photo of this and manipulated the rest of the image digitally, but my process was quite similar to traditional work: I used choppy selections to “cut out” the word DECEMBER to make it look hand made. I love eternally the Jonny Hana-esque handwritten type, especially Victorian woodcut lettering styles. The whitest blocks are edited in, and the darker blocks are the photographic paper texture showing underneath, giving the poster a sticky-note feel.
Finding a random image of a hand and mic, keeping the outline sharp but converting it to halftone, changing the curves and then putting it on a darken layer was fun. I put a “white” layer underneath that and offset it a little too, to emphasise the shape and keep it clean-looking. I drew on top of the darkest parts too, to get some clean black and simplify the image.
The music is Doodlin’, one of the songs on Mitzi’s playlist.
I was inspired to create a two-tone poster after looking at the nieves.ch yellow-and-black zine.
ORIGINALLY I was going to talk about the work and then show it, but I have talked for a long time, so watch it now and then read.
After the crit yesterday I was inspired to go and markmake. Read on, because this is probably the most interesting work I’ve made in a while.
I’ve been working on the scene with my characters where Drake comes out first to Techo in the Big Tesco car park, and later that night, to Ludwig on the docks. One specific image rose out above the rest as I made notes and wrote for it, and that was of Drake speaking into the wind – not meeting Ludwig’s eye – and saying that he was gay out loud to someone else for the first time ever. This is on Courtington’s old Dock, but I vividly see the Charleston Dock (Cornwall) that we visited on holiday last month when I see it, so I’ve supplanted most of the details from that memory into the story.
I see this shot (thinking cinematically) from Ludwig’s point of view – stood to the right of Drake, looking left at him, a few metres along from the last street lamp before the sea. Dark blues and blacks. Maybe a little orange from the street lamp. At the bottom of this article, I’ll paste in a short excerpt from the writing in case you want to immerse yourself – which is important, because I literally operate inside this world.
Anyway. Markmade a bunch. Made a huge mess, scribbled on sheets of paper. Just made iterations on iterations of Drakes, thinking about atmosphere, angles, tension in the arms, in the eyes, expression, overall feeling. I tried to keep it loose and playful.
I then took all my iterations and overlaid them together in the same position – even though they’re physically different sizes. Made them into a video. I then dragged out the piano and took a two-chord progression from Berkley Square that always gets me misty eyed. Drake is a pianist, and I recorded myself for a few minutes while I just played around with a few other notes, and then played the chords a few times – just play. I took all that audio and chopped up my favourite little bits of it and overlaid it onto the video. I also synched up the final chord with the final image, as well as making the shots get slower throughout the video so you can take a better look at each image.
Drake totally plays Berkley Square, and later on in the timeline, he will sing it with Antonia. It’s also one of the big anthems for his relationship with Ludwig. It isn’t recognisable in the outcome but I need people to know how much meaning it has. I also see the slightly hesitant note-playing as Drake’s hands, not mine, during one of his practice sessions. It makes me feel closer to Drake and to the characters.
This more expressive work is new to me – really focusing on the feeling of the moment, less figurative, freer. I like it. I also used it to go back to my regular creative practice and incorporate it into a digital illustration, which – surprise! – you now get to see as a reward.
You can see that I went back and used textures I liked the most to place Drake in an atmosphere. The coat is also traditional markmaking on a clip layer.
This way of making work is really successful, and I’ll tell it how it is: it’s using my one big compulsion to create – my characters – in new and creative ways so that my practice matures but I’m still this connected to, and passionate about, the work. If I can keep exploring and making character work like this, I think I’m about to have a really good time.
I close out with an extract from my writing. Read if you’re interested!
“So, the piece I’m actually learning, I have to play first – or I’ll never play it.”
Drake and Ludwig walked down towards the sea, coats pulled up to their necks. Now they had eaten, it was completely dark.
“There’s this one bit in Blue Moonlight, right after the second time you play the first bit, where it changes key and time signature. So I have to remember about five sharps all of a sudden, and play all these – jabby little – quick notes,” Drake mimed playing them, clearly unsatisfied with how he’d articulated the part.
Ludwig nodded, watching Drake’s hands and then his face. He moved in and out of the orange streetlamps – into darkness, and back again. Ludwig’s heart had leapt when Drake had suggested a walk with him alone: he didn’t expect anything, but he had a terrible crush on him. Each time they had met in the past month, Ludwig had grown more flustered. Drake’s eyes looked pretty when the street lamps hit them right.
Drake looked at Ludwig, and Ludwig looked away.
“What I should do,” Drake said, “is just play that middle part, over and over. But I never want to. It sounds so good when I play from the start, but I won’t get better doing it like that. I’ve been playing for years, and I still have no self-control when I practise.”
“You’re going to have to play me this piece,” Ludwig said. “When you’ve got the hang of it. Do you ever write your own music?”
Drake smiled, and Ludwig blushed.
“…Sometimes.”
“You’re definitely going to have to play me some of that!”
Drake laughed, shaking his head. “I knew you were going to say that. No.”
“Why not?”
The conversation ended as the boys found themselves at the sea, and could go no further. They were stood up on the fishing dock, a towering concrete wall that curved around some of Courtington’s largest bay. Stairs led down to other platforms, and then the sea – but the last streetlamp was behind them, barely lighting the platform they stood on.
Drake and Ludwig stood right at the top of the platform, drawing their coats in closer. The wind was coming from behind them as they faced the open water: only the endless hushing of waves suggested that the sea really was below them in the blackness.
Ludwig took a deep breath in.
“Coming out on a walk was a good idea. I was feeling bad today, but I think the fresh air is making me feel better.”
“Yeah.”
The wind took their voices straight out to sea. There wasn’t a soul around and Drake’s mind raced: if there was ever a time to tell Ludwig, then this was it. His mouth felt like it was seizing up as he watched Ludwig, preparing words he had sworn he had never let himself say out loud.
Drake looked out to the sea.
“Ludwig.”
Ludwig sensed how tense Drake had suddenly become beside him.
“I just thought I’d let you know that I’m, uh…” Drake’s throat caught, and he took a breath before finishing.
“I’m gay.”
Drake felt Ludwig’s eyes burning into the side of his face. He felt sick. He wished Ludwig would say something.
“But – ” Ludwig said – “You said you had a crush on Jennifer Aniston!”
“I was trying not to say George Michael!” Drake smiled and finally met Ludwig’s eye. He was surprised Ludwig had even remembered their conversation.
“Why didn’t you just say George Michael? He’s way more interesting than Jennifer Aniston!”
Drake’s voice softened.
“Ludwig… you’re the first person I’ve ever told that I’m gay.”
Ludwig was speechless.
“Earlier today, in the car,” Drake continued, “Techo did guess, and she asked me about it, and I didn’t argue with her. I don’t know how she guessed, mind you.”
Even in the weak light of the street lamp, Drake could tell that Ludwig was looking at him, and he flushed slightly.
“Drake… thanks for telling me.”
Ludwig hugged Drake. He had been told he gave good hugs, and at his height, Drake was almost on tiptoe. As he felt Drake’s arms around him, his heart skipped a beat.
Drake was gay? This was terrible news.
Because now, Ludwig realised, no matter how small the odds – he had a chance.
I thought it lacked criticism and discussion somewhat, and could really have done with more structure and thought given to how much time each student was allocated. Because just like each crit in first year, the first few students get to talk for about twenty minutes each with in depth discussion, and by the end you’ve run so far over the last few students can barely present.
So it was mostly just a presentation of work, but even that was hugely interesting and inspiring. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I find crits exhausting because I’m just overloaded with inspiration.
Regarding my own zine, one student really liked the photographic, physical element – where I’d made the paper flames and edited those photos. I like that – I was glad I took it back to physical collage and play for a bit.
Jim noted that I could have made better decisions when choosing what content to keep, and that some spreads could be lost entirely. I think it would be more constructive to sit down with him and find out which spreads specifically, maybe, because I can’t improve my own eye with pure guesswork and I’m really interested in what the tutors think works and what doesn’t! Perhaps they’re loathe to sound mean and put students off crits, but I need to hear it.
In the whole project, I was probably happiest and most passionate when I was creating a narrative and writing for it in response to the text and my own work. I’ve emailed Jim the writing since. Maybe I’m supposed to be a writer!
I have to mention in passing that my Wednesday afternoons are currently pottery classes. I’m learning at Gagliano pottery and the classes were a 21st birthday present.
I’ve always loved the physicality and functionality of mugs, and making 3D things out of clay.
The physical skill and process is pleasant, although I still want to throw a hissy fit when my clay collapses during throwing. I wouldn’t be surprised if pottery informed my work during this year.
Below, in no particular order, are the drawing exercises we completed (blind drawing and partial peek drawing) and the monoprints that were inspired by the lines and shapes within them.
Done with pencil. I love the way the diagonal lines sing together. This one has a lot of vivacity to me.
I really enjoy the playfulness that comes out of writing back-to-front.
This one was really successful. Good clean blocks of space based on the neotan (?) single-tone charcoal exercise.
I isolated selections of lines that I thought were particularly lively, and blew them up for the monoprints. This one really reminds me of a cat playing.
This one’s terribly dramatic. I really like the noise and pressur ethat’s apparent that gives the face interesting tone.
I remember being quite annoyed with how heavily this one came out, but looking back at it, I love its atmosphere. It feels like big billowing stormclouds.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 