Hot off the press (and after much hand-folding) I’ve got the first batch of my new Lucy the Octopus Tasty Taster Comic all ready for sale at upcoming comic shows. Just in time for MKomix in Milton Keynes, this Thursday 19 July 2012, 6-9pm. Hoping the print comic will get further folk to check out lucytheoctopus.net.
Lucy the Octopus Tasty Taster Comic
I’m very pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting and selling my work at the MKomix event in the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes on Thursday 19 July 2012, 6-9pm.
The event has been pulled together by the very talented Paul Rainey and features many greats of the Small Press scene including David Ballie, Jay Eales & Selina Lock, Sean Azzopardi, Karen Rubins, Jon Scrivens and Dan Lester, plus Jade Sarson who I could tell drew the excellent flyer below even before spotting her credit!
MKomix Flyer Drawn by Jade Sarson
From yesterday until 19 July, anyone passing through London Town can stop off at Orbital Comics and check out their gallery to see some amazing experminetal comic work from the fantastic Karrie Fransman. We’re talking comics made from jewelery boxes, puppets, dollhouses, sewn comics and my favourite, the piece below featuring a 2D character moving between various 3D frames.
Karrie Fransman Experimenting with Comics exhibition
I was lucky enough to be at the launch evening which included a range of discussions and talks with Karrie, Paul Gravett and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey.
Karrie introduced us to her work before opening up a brain challenging conversation on the definition of what a comic is. I won’t begin to go into the detailed debate that ensued (and is still going online) but it certainly raised awareness that comics can be all sorts of things beside strips and books.
I got a chance to discuss the nature of some of my own ceramic comics. Nice to be a small part of a great evening.
Karrie asked the audience to decide if this is a comic…
Paul went on to talk through a history of experimental comics including comic installations in various galleries and spaces. One of the ones that made the biggest impression on me was this 1903 strip by Gustave Verbeek called The Upside Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo. The title is no more crazy than the idea. Each episode read the right way up, then the reader would flip the story upside down and read the rest upside down and it made perfect sense!
As a comic creator I can’t begin to imagine the headaches that would give you trying to make it work once, let alone week in week out.
The Upside Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo
Finally Daniel talked about Hyper-Comics, comics which involve a larger than usual amount of interaction with the reader. It was a fascinating look into the possibilities of what can be achieved in the medium, with technology and imagination. Daniel’s site e-merl.com is bursting with different ways of creating comic work – a fine collection of inspirations for any creator. A Duck has an Adventure looks particularly fun and exciting so I can’t wait for an iPhone version.
Paul Gravett, Karrie Fransman and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
One of the reasons I love comics is because anyone can make them with something as simple as a piece of paper and a pen, but considering possibilities way beyond that is certainly something I need to look into…
You can hear the discussion and see the slides on Orbital’s website here or just check it out below!
In City of Mouse, I worked in 2D images painted in enamel on various 3D pieces of ceramics. The objects could be buildings or obelisks or just platforms to display the ghosts of captured moments of the solitary mouse caught in various points in time.
The mouse with the star on his belly gets up to all sorts of things; sometimes mundane, sometimes ritualistic, sometimes divine.
A few weeks back I got into a conversation with Paul Gravett and Karrie Fransman about 3D comics, and the ways they can take on different forms. Karrie is in fact having an exhibition on the subject called Experimenting with Comics at the great Orbital Comics shop in London, starting Thursday 21 June.
It got me thinking that while I’ve experimented with different forms of paper comics, particularly with my Mini Comics box set, I hadn’t tried to make any others in 3D. Then it hit me… way back when I was studying Ceramics at Camberwell College of Arts, (back while they still had a Ceramics degree) I did make something along those lines. A fair few actually…
This piece with 4 ceramic shapes linked by string and wire, tells the story of a boy’s journey where he meets a Messianic cat.
4 Piece Comic Story, Ceramic, Wire and String
At my graduate show I placed all my work in a space extending the imagery of the ceramics themselves. The relationship of an object and it’s environment is really interesting.
Exhibition, Camberwell College of Arts
Two sides of the same object. Fun mixing ceramics with contrasting materials like yellow fluff…
Fluffy Yellow Thing, Ceramic, Fluff and Wire
This is my fave. It’s a poem, ceramic sculpture and story all in one. There’s me playing a keytar while my parents ride in a spaceship near the mountain top.
Mountain Piece
This one was called Mouse Between Heaven & Earth. ‘Nuff said.
Mouse Between Heaven & Earth, Ceramic and String
This little guy was kind of like a puppet. I liked making toy type things from a completely inappropriate material.
Pode Me Ajudar, Ceramics and String
Sometimes the comic imagery would exist in flat pictures, giving new purpose to my 3D shapes…
Phoenix, Monkey and Baby with powers, Ceramics and String
Ceramic is great for making very naturalistic shapes as well as clearly man made forms. I like the contrast of this organic looking shell with the cartoony looking god on the inside.
Shell god, Ceramic
This was stupidly huge and heavy. Having this flat image on a big ceramic wall does affect the way you look at it though…
The Eye of the Needle, Ceramic
Ceramic Tiles. Spot the Buffy one.
Tiles, Ceramic, Fluff
The cool thing about making each tile a panel is you can rearrange their order to make different stories.
Freeing the Magic Goose, Ceramic
For more ceramic comic ideas see my post on City of Mouse.
I’ve also added a Ceramics section to my online portfolio here!
Okay – heading off for a week in China with my family I had lofty plans to get out the old sketch books and capture the locals sites and atmosphere. Traveling with a 4-year old son (my 4-year old son, for the record) made this pretty impossible, so I humbly offer up some photos I took on my travels instead.
Don’t worry – not going to bore you with pix of me posing in front of various touristy sites (especially as I was wearing shorts for much of the trip). Instead, I’m focusing on the sites of around Beijing, ancient and modern, that I found photo-worthy.
For a really well drawn Beijing travel guide I’d check out this offering from Sarah McIntyre.
So there you have it. I didn’t manage to capture some of our experiences in photograph, like the storm we were caught in on our first day. Seriously torrential downpour! Wondered if it was normal for the Chinese but as it made it on to the local news that night we figured it had to be pretty exceptional. We had almost made it on foot to Tiananmen Square when the heavens opened and we joined crowds of people sheltering under an large archway, before escaping on a taxi/motorbike/gardenshed-on-wheels type thing.
Or… the fact that locals ask to have their photos taken with you or your kid, like you’re George Clooney or someone. Happened lots, even half way up the Great Wall!
Or… having our bags and ourselves x-rayed before entering Tiananmen Square (imagine that at Leicester Square!) and even the tube stations.
Or… the over-enthusiastic masseuse. “Is here okay?” “That’s fine, thanks.” “What about here?” “Erm….. no thank you!” “Why not?” “Erm… I have a wife.” “Oh, alright then.” Probably good there’s no photographs of that!
lucytheoctopus.net will kick off with a week of daily strips before settling into regular weekly installments every Wednesday.
In the mean time have a look at some of the characters in Lucy’s world!
Being an illustrator rather than a fine artist, using watercolour with an ink line seems to come a lot more naturally to me than watercolour alone. Not that I’ve come close to mastering the technique of course.
Watercolour and Ink Painting 24.1.12
Watercolour and Ink Life Painting 24.1.12
Sometimes it’s nice to pick one area of a painting (such as the figure) and add colour only there. This creates a nice contrast between two different textures.
Watercolour and Ink Life Painting 7.2.12
After doing the below image in just watercolour in class, I felt it needed a touch more definition, so I added outlines in Photoshop at home. Hmm… would be interesting to try a life drawing straight into Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.
Hoorah – my new Tempo Lush business cards have arrived, and look pretty slick! Let’s do business!
Tempo Lush Business Cards
Suki Kabuki finds the business card with another cat on it
Took an afternoon off yesterday (with no work or child in tow) and went to the Tate Modern to soak up some inspiration. It’s been a couple of years since I’d walked those floors – I should do it more often coz it rocked monkeys!
I’d thought there was at least one Rothko at the Tate Modern but was disappointed to see there had just been a temporary exhibit a few years back. On looking it up when I got home I saw I’d missed the one Rothko painting there was there. I guess I hadn’t taken it in as it wasn’t one of his more famous oblong type paintings – shows I should have paid more attention at Art college.
Still there were lots more treasures to get excited about. Highlights included a Chirico painting (been a fan since one of my best buds turned me on to his work in an exhibition in Tokyo), seeing some David Shrigley work after recently missing his Haywood Gallery show and discovering the magical images of Marcel Dzarma.
Obviously I’m not super cultured as I found just as much inspiration in the gift shop (and coz I use phrases like “super cultured”). I came home with two wonderful picture books: the pop-up In the forest (Anouck Boisrobert & Louis Rigaud) and the beautifully flappy Aoki (Annelore Parot).
I had intended to do some sketching while I was there but felt self-conscious with the surprising number of visitors there on a weekday afternoon! At least I’d managed to get one drawing done earlier in the day when I made a birthday card for my talented friend and singer and songwriter and musician, Piney Gir. Meeting for lunch with Piney provided further inspiration hearing how hard she’s working juggling all sorts of creative projects!
All in all an good day finished off with Domino’s Pizza and the Incredible Hulk on TV! Ready for creative work again!
