Professional Casestudy - Lizzy Stewart

 Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator and author, she also teaches illustration! The reason I am drawn to Lizzy and her practise is that she has a really great portfolio with a mixture of interesting projects within it. She doesn't seem to be bound to one type of output, but has a really distinct style in her illustration. 

Her online shop is full of illustrations, zines and graphic novels and her online presents feels really natural. She has been published by small press, and large press, and self published too. Lizzy was the artist in resident at Edinburgh Book Festival 2022, she made a zine as part of her trip which I absolutely love. You can read it here.

Its really interesting to see someone have to much range in their work (in terms of projects) but still feel extremely true to her style and visual language. The exact thing I want for my own practise.

Accessed May 4

Creating my own Font - Research & Creation

I followed this tutorial to create my own font: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WV9IL528tM

Below is my first attempt at the outputs. I wanted the font to be my own handwriting and overall I am pretty happy with, there are a few issues that I will go back in to fix to make it all a little more consistent, specifically focusing on the capitals as most comics seem to be lettered solely in capitals.

The process was really simple, and will make it a lot easier (and quicker!) to letter my comics.

A Crying Shame - Adding to the page

I want to keep the artwork simple for A Crying Shame minimal colour and line, but I also do want to ensure the pages feel full, with depth and emotion. 

I decided to experiment with adding heavy black to the pages, with details in white/negative space. Below is a side by side comparison of Page 2 with and without the black, and below Page 3 with the black. When the lettering is added I feel the heavy black will add to the tone and overall feel of the page. The comparison between the light and dark will also aid with the stories sense of hope.

I will now go through and sketch, then fully ink every page based on the dummy book I have just finalised, once the pages are inked I'll go back and add in the black as above. 

 

SLCZF Successful Application - Dissemination

In February I put in an application to be part of South London Comic & Zine Fair, a one day event held in Norwood Junction, previous events have always been London (specifically South London) creators and publishers and this year is the first they've opened it up to anyone.

SLCZF describes itself as "focusing on self & micro publishing", which feels like the perfect fit for where I see my practise laying. The one day event is on July 16, and with Mac-Pow, the Macclesfield Comic Art Fair, on July 1st, I now have some hard deadlines to get my comics to print. 

 

Readying Artwork for Print - Research

Before I got two far in both of my current projects I researched to ensure that when it is time to, my artwork is already print ready. I sometimes find that I botch my work together, and I want this process to by much smoother.

The printer I requested a quote from previously is a specialist comic printer in the UK, and has some really helpful resources on his website which covers everything you need to get ready for print, including discussions on bleeds and templates to work towards: https://comicprintinguk.com/process-getting-your-comic-printed/ 

Below is the template applied to my work showing bleed (black area) and safe area for my artwork (outside of the blue area).

A Crying Shame - New Dummybook

 I have been drawing my pages for A Crying Shame and it felt like there is scope for me to add more narrative detail, my whole driving force currently is to be more vulnerable in my work. I'm also consciously writing in my own house, to convey my experiences in a more authentic way.

With this i mind, I have gone back into my script and reworked a few areas, and added in more pages briefly touching on my therapy journey, as well as some personal revelations.

The whole thing now comes in at 18 pages of narratives and illustration, which feels more substation.

Below is example dummy page scans. I used the new script to roughly map out panels.

Tillie Walden - Page Study

Alone In Space is a collection of Tillie Waldens work through out her career, including some work from when she was around 16, through college and into her first webcomic and printed comics. It's really interesting to see her style progress and grow, and the consistencies that remain within her work. She has always had quite a minimal approach towards colour, with heavy use of black ink. The heavy black really brings depth to her work, which often has a emotionally heavy narrative. This is something I'd really like to built into my work.