Critique - Digital Process

At this stage in my work I wanted to come back and review my digital illustration process, as it it something that is relatively new to me, it feel important to keep track of my outputs, and weigh up the pros and cons of this decision.

Firstly, I have no doubt that working digitally is the best way for me to (currently) create comic work. The process is much quicker, I'm able to be consistent in my pages that I don't feel I am quite able to achieve with pen and pencil yet.

I can feel my digital work becoming more authentic and second nature to me, though I know there is much to improve, my original sticking-point with moving to digital was losing the textures and movement and I feel like I am slowly overcoming that the more I practise. 

However, I don't feel like thumb-nailing or dummy books will ever be anything other than hand drawn, the looseness and freedom to be messy with pencil on paper, and the inability to overcorrect work (Erasing and redrawing line after line, digitally) has led to some really great discoveries in movement that I have transferred over to the final digital pieces.

I find it difficult to see my work as professional in a digital sense, not something that people will hand on their call or take seriously as an "artist",  whilst I am enjoying my work, and see many benefits to it.

I am also really aware that I am not using my sketchbooks anywhere near as often, and I want to get back into the habit of that. I want to improve my traditional practise, and so I am going to set time aside to fill my sketchbook pages, attend life drawing classes and generally draw more.

A Walk to a Waterfall - Process Update

I have been slowly working on the behind the scenes parts of A Walk to a Waterfall ready for 705, making small adjustments as I have researched narrative structure and picture code, to improve the script and visuals. For example, I have adapted the script to fit the "Circular Narrative" technique; the story starts in a train station platform, and will end on one.

I'm working with a skewed drawing style as a visual metaphor for my mental health at the time, I will also be building in more colour as the arc comes to a more positive end.

I am really aware that I don't want to go 'over the top' with the amount of techniques that I am choosing to put into this piece, as I do not want the story and message to become muddy. However, as a short book, I want to ensure there is enough depth for people to pick up on something new on the second or third reading.

I finished two pages to use in the pitch pack and add to my website. 

Web-Comics - Continuing to Share my work

A big part of my dissemination method is to implant myself into the auto-biographical scene online, to do this I want to keep sharing small pieces on social media. I may one day put these pieces into a collection, but at this stage I am using it as a way to, firstly, share quick comics online, and secondly explore my ideas in a less permanent and "perfect" way. 

Here is a selection of a few I have shared:

Tips for Anxiety:

 

A Crying Shame - Progress

I've been getting through pages of A Crying Shame at a reasonable rate, I'm doing the link work and colouring at the same time, keeping the backgrounds fairly simple with an intention to go back and add more detail if I want to/have time. I plan to letter it at the end, however I wanted to experiment with this a little and so have added it to the below two images.

I wanted to see if hand-lettering would work, because this is such a personal story, hand-lettering it really fits and I love the way it looks. I'm blessed with being able to take the extra time to hand-letter as this book is fairly short, it may not be something I can do longterm, but whilst I have the chance I am taking advantage of it. The comic will be a mixture of speech bubbles and narration boxes, which you can see below.

These two pages feel like a really good introduction to the concept of the comic too, so I've added them to my website, and will add them to a faux-pitch pack for this project too.

 

A Walk to a Waterfall - Brief and Hook

A Walk to a Waterfall
 
12 pages - Self Published
​
A Walk to a Waterfall explores the hidden battles we fight and the elation felt when the fight is won... And also, how cool waterfalls are.
​
Chloe is taking a solo trip to the beautiful country side in North Yorkshire, England. It's only the second trip she has ever taken alone and she has one activity planned; a walk to a waterfall. With themes of anxiety and sadness A Walk to a Waterfall explores the hidden battles we fight, and the elation felt when the fight is won.

Online Presense - Comics Section

 I wanted to add a 'Comics' tab onto my website, to give more context to my practise, and to make the pieces that I am working on feel more real. I used pages from the books, along with hook and blurb for both books.

This feels like a really simple way to establish it firmly that I am a comic creator.

A Crying Shame - Blurb

A comic about learning to have a cry, and it being okay.

 

A short autobiographical comic that explores the shame that can come with outwardly showing emotions, and how pushing them down for so long is probably not a great solution... but with some work and time, you can open yourself up to all the good feelings too.

 

Autobiographical Creators - Further Research - Interviews

I wanted to do a deep dive into other autobiographical comic creators, to hear what was behind their work. I found a number of really great youtube videos, which I have watched and made notes from.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6JdRwpLABg - Kate Beaton

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYf_pwGXusw- Kate Beaton 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQLX1DMjd1w - Rachael Smith

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vZZXL6hdA - Tillie Walden

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkIWKhYorOs - Tillie Walden (specifically Spinning)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFET6XqaqU - Thi Bui

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DumdJBAHRs&t=2s - Katriona Chapman

A Crying Shame - Dummy Book

I've put together a physical dummy book to map out A Crying Shame; I love this stage of creating a comic as it's a really great way to see how the narrative and images interact. It allows me to make small changes to improve the flow of the book.

The book comes in at 12 pages; the interior will be drawn digitally using minimal colours, and finished reasonably quickly. My intention here is to print the books at home so I can re-produce it quickly and cheaply. 

 

Autobiographic Comic - Research - Further Research

Mention modern and old comparisons

Ducks - Kate Beaton

Ducks is hefty at 436 pages, its published by Drawn and Quarterly. The story spans two years in the life of Kate as she works away from home in various oil mines in Canada. It details the difficulties Beaton (and the few other women on the site) deal with daily; from misogynistic comments to sexual abuse and rape. 

It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth - Zoe Thorogood

This book is 196 pages and published by Image, it feels like quite a different book to what they usually put put, which is interesting. It's a very gritty portrayal of Thorogood's experiences with depression and anxiety. Portrayed in an abstract way which is very effective. It sometimes dips back into childhood memories, but mostly is real time counting down to an event.

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel 

Fun Home comes in at 240 pages, and is published by Jonathan Cape; it feels very in keeping with their other work. Fun Home spans a long timeline, from Alisons childhood through her college years sand beyond. Its a very personal look into family life, and doesn't always focus on one topic, rather a general look at Bechdel's life, which really helps you feel like you know her.

Riso Workshop - Research

As I am focusing more on getting my work into a physical space, I took advantage of a local print workshop, Shipley Print Studio, and signed up for a Riso Class.

I have been preparing digital work for riso print, but really wanted to see the process and be more hands on with it before sending to print.  The prints will be something I sell at markets and conventions, so ensuring they look the way I expect is important.

In the class I made a three layer image from collage/mark making. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of riso, and being able to ask questions directly to a really experienced print maker helped incredibly too.

I went in with no idea what my print would be, so it was a lot of run just to play, and see what happened. I'm now going to make some alterations to the digital print I have made on the back of what I learnt, and will be sending them to print via a Leeds studio which I have been in touch with recently to get quotes from. 

 

Dissemination Methods - End of Year Show Branding LAU

The End of Year Show Branding was opened up to Undergraduates for the first time this year, I read the brief and had a look at past branding and at first I wasn't sure that my work quite fit what they were looking for.

However,  a fun idea popped into my head and I decided to explore it a little anyway, it involved a Yorkshire based pun "Get 'Art of Here", playing on it being the end of year show, which I then fit to a illustration of a dog running away with some art materials. I wanted to keep it sketchy and a little messy, which seemed very different to the past branding; but I wanted to use that to my advantage! 

I wanted it to be a clear nod to the illustration arm of the university, as well as the comics side (which is why I choose to use a speech bubble). I added more shadows of the dog figure into the back to represent collaborative working, as well as making the overall piece more interesting and textured.  I used a colour pallet that was based on LAU branding and its complimenting colours, in soft tones. I think the overall concept works on many levels, and I had a lot of fun creating it.

I put together a slide presentation showing my thoughts and examples of posters, social posts and email inserts, which you can see below:

This is the first time I have worked to a brief, and have really enjoyed combining my own styles into parameters dictated by the 'client'. Although this isn't quite the area I see my illustration work going, it's always a good idea to be open minded and to practise in new areas. It's made me more open to the idea of working freelance, especially when it's something that fits my interests and style! I'll keep my eyes open for more opportunities like this.

Dissemination Methods - Pitch Pack Research

I did some further research into putting together a Pitch Pack, or something to send to a potential publisher that covers everything they might nee dot make a decision on whether my work is something they want to pursue. Whilst currently my ultimate goal isn't to be published (rather self-publish) I think this will be a really important exercise I learning how to sell my own work in a concise manner.

Pitch Perfect - How to make the most of pitching to a publisher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT4f1lwawDE

The key points from the above video were to be concise, understand what it is you are pitching and be sure of it; whilst working on a basic idea is fun for publishers, they often don't have the time so knowing your story outline is important! Try and stand out, embed images into the email itself and keep the clicks a publisher needs to do to a minimum. Its worth chasing up after a week or so, but leave it at that if you don't hear back. It's important to research the publisher and the kind of work they publish first too, if the work is irrelevant it's going to look worse on you in the long run, as its wasting publishers time. Check out their website to see if they accept pitches, especially if you don't have an agent. 

Dissemination Methods - Zine Libraries - Research

As zines are traditionally a DIY medium the creators are completely in charge of what they put in, there is no real commercial need to please and for that reason a large number of zines cover topics relating to subcultures, the lesser represented and niche topics. They cover subjects you might not see often in mainstream publishing such as Queer stories, disability representation and discussions on mental and physical health

Zine Libraries are a great resource to explore, discover and enjoy zines, and for the above mentioned reason I think it would be a great place for me to submit my work. So as part of my dissemination I've begun to research zine libraries; I want to find those that are local, and further afield and learn more about what they do, why they do it, and, if submissions are open, send in my own work to be part of the collection. 

Here is a selection of a few of the libraries I researched: 

Salford Zine Library

About: Salford Zine Library is a unique archive of self published materials. There are currently around 4500 zines in the collection, all of which have been donated by zine makers and collectors

Website: salfordzinelibrary.co.uk 

Where: Clifford Whitworth Library, Salford University.

Accepting submissions: Yes!

If yes, submission process: All info here - salfordzinelibrary.co.uk/submissions/

Would my work make sense here: Yes! 

 

Glasgow Zine Library 

About: Glasgow Zine Library is a community archive and zine library based in Govanhill, Glasgow, established in 2018. It has a growing international collection of over 1000 zines

Website: www.glasgowzinelibrary.com

Where: 636 Cathcart Rd, Glasgow

Accepting submissions: Yes! 

If yes, submission process: Info here - glasgowzinelibrary.com/zine-collection

Would my work make sense here: YES!

 

My intention is to send in my Birthday Flowers zine, and create something new which is more auto-biographical and longer.

Dissemination Methods - Riso Print Research

I wanted to explore making prints of some of my work, to sell alongside my eventual comics work; at fairs, conventions and maybe online.

I want to do this via some traditional printing methods, firstly riso, which is a technique I have not used before but love the look of. Before starting, I wanted to do some research into the riso method to make the most of the process! 

Footprint, a local Leeds Riso printing co-op, says: 

"Riso printing works along the same basic principles as screen printing, although digitized and automated.  The computer (or scanner unit on top) describes the image to the risograph in binary code, telling it to create millions of tiny holes into a thin filmy sheet, called a ‘master’.  The master is then wrapped around the drum.  When the drum spins, the ink is forced out through these little holes, transferring the image onto the paper as it passes by. Different coloured inks are printed in layers.  The paper is fed through the one-colour machine (pictured) once for each colour and for each side"

 

Out of the Blueprint says:

"The darkness of your greyscale artwork will roughly correspond to the intensity of the ink in print. Any artwork that’s black on screen will print using the full saturation of the ink, and any pale grey artwork will come out as a pale tone. Prints often come out lighter than you’d expect, so if in doubt, go darker! "

Below is an example they give of the various colours and opacities:

Fig from https://outoftheblueprint.org/files/

Tips I've picked up:

• The inks are semi transparent, so can be layered! using the multiply cool on photoshop/procreate is a good way to see how the work will look printed
• Full pages of ink are a bad idea, and can cause printing problems
• If printing text, don't overlay it, as the misregistered way riso printers work will make it hard to read.

Hourly Comics Day - Comics, Experience and Critique

 

On the day of Hourly Comic Day my dog was sick meaning I didn't have much sleep the night before, and as a result didn't finish the day on the day itself. I did make a start (the above two pieces), which I shared online as they were completed. For the rest of the day I made notes so I could revisit and complete the day later on.

My new technique for digital drawing really lent its hand to this challenge; it allowed me to draw quickly and with minimal colours, but still keeping the texture and style that I like in my traditional work. 

The fun thing about Hourly Comic Day, and seeing other peoples contributions is how different people interpret it, I wanted to be as authentic as possible, including a stream of consciousness, but still think about composition and interest in the frame.

I'll work on the rest of the panels in the coming days and will post online in one batch.

Dissemination Methods - Attending Comic and Zine Events

Through my work at Thought Bubble, the Yorkshire Comic Art Festival, I've been lucky enough to see most sides of events; from planning a large event with 450+ exhibitors, attended small and medium events as a visitor, and worked behind the table for a comic retailer at various conventions too.  A big part of instilling myself within the independent comics scene will be by exhibiting at one of those events.

South London Comic and Zine Fair (SLCZF) has just opened its applications for its 2023 event, which will be held on July 16, and I'm going to use this opportunity to apply.

To apply you need to send in:

•  3 images representing my work - I am going to put together some mock ups of the kind of things that I will have to see, including 'A Walk to a Waterfall', some zines and prints. 
• A Website link - Perfect timing as I've created one already.
• Short Description of my work - A good opportunity to summarise my work, which will work well for when I start to put together a pitch pack.

I'll work on the above to ensure I hit the March 3 deadline.

Visual Identity - Postcards and Business Cards

I want to get a few small things printed with details of my name and website; for handing out at convention, to publishers, retailers and other creatives. I want the back to be very simple, with my logo and website.

Below are some play arounds with logo, colours etc. I really want the front image to be something that is recognisable and fun that people will pin to their desk or keep close by, so the below is just a place holder.

Postcard play around:

 

Business card size play around:

A Walk to a Waterfall - Page 1 - Traditional Vs Digital - Critique

After working through various digital backgrounds and pencil as previously mentioned, I re-drew Page 1 of A Walk to a Waterfall. Below is the digital alongside the original traditional one:

Adding Self - Working digitally has allowed me to add myself into the pieces in a more detailed and meaningful way, being able to play around with expressions in an easier way.

Colour Scheme - I've gone for a more muted pallet digitally, whilst I love the coloured look of the traditional, I felt adding myself back into the work meant I could play with the emotive visuals in a different way. It will also work better for printing, keeping the colours minimal. I still want to ensure there is a lot of texture in the work, which I'll achieve using previously explored digital pencils and paper backgrounds.

Overall Feel - Overall, I digital version feels perfect for what I'm aiming for. It feels like I've learned a lot through my digital experimentation and captured a final piece that works for me. The time taken compared to the traditional piece is a huge bonus too.

Hourly Comics - Research Casestudy

Hourly Comics Day is a yearly community event held on social media on Feb 1st, originally coined by John Campbel in 2006. Although I have taken part in previous years but want to go into this years with some pre-planning and research behind me to ensure completion of the full day.

Below are some case-studies showcasing the kind of format that I'd like to aim for:

Eve Greenwood -  https://evegwood.com/hourlies19

Really simple style, no colour just grey which will definitely save time. Drawn digitally. Four cells per hour in a simple box style, which is easy to share on social media, and collate. Eve archives all their past hourly comics on their website, and also prints them to sell as a combined book.

Renee Nault - https://twitter.com/reneenault 

Much more detailed, simple cells again but hand inked and water coloured. Minimal written narrative but beautiful images. 

Rachael Smith - https://www.facebook.com/flimsykitten/posts/10166338455445615

Rachaels comics are pre-set out in a traditional comic book page dimensions, her work is digital but a lot less sketchy than others, she clearly puts in a lot of work! She also plays around with this shadow character, and has a few bits where her cat is doing the walking! A lot of fun all around.

Lizz Lunney - https://www.facebook.com/lizzlunney/posts/353063490152105

Lizz has, again, a really simple square layout for her hourly comics, she uses a mix of 4 per hour, or whatever is required! They're drawn digitally, and very simple! Full of dry humour.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/hourly-comic-day-24-hour-comic-day