Tonight I was inspired to write a haiku. I’ve been enjoying the beautiful gift that is this weather this past few days, and in doing so I think I’ve unlocked a new potential for new forms of creativity. I’ve attempted to capture those familiar associations we all have of the summer. Let me know what you think.
“To the insect that
Found sustenance in my blood:
I hope you are dead.”
Now bear with me, I’m new to this poetry business. But I think I may be onto something here.
Happy Summertime.
B
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Quick note to say that the Wish magazine that I did a little work for is well and truly launched. If you’re into all that fashion stuff (and fancy seeing some of my work, alongside many others, in a lovely glossy print) hit up the shop here and grab yourself a copy.
Here’s a picture of the finished article. The front illustration isn’t mine but gives you a great insight into the World of Wish. Mine are hidden among the pages. Along with a lot of pink.
To read all about the trials and tribulations the girls went through in the creation of this beauty, see their blogs here and here.
B
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In light of the exciting developments that have been taking place outside of the university environment (things like Comiket, my review and MY NEW SHOP WHICH I JUST DON’T THINK I’VE GONE ON ABOUT ENOUGH), I’ve done an excellent job at neglecting the work I’ve been doing within the big, ol’, yellow institution.
This post will be an attempt to correct these wrong-doing by bringing you a little snippet of creativity from the life of University.
You know, that place I spend 80% of my time. The reason I live here. That one.
Doesn’t even involve photocopiers.
So, we’ve been working on two, comparatively short projects that, although required separate outcomes, held a common theme and were (presumably) designed to feed off of each other to an extent. In short, we started with an object that we were then to expand on and extend into an environment of our chosing. (There were many more restrictions than that, but we won’t get into that just now.)
Naturally, me being me, I chose a COMPLETELY terrifying wooden mask of a human face and, naturally, me being me, decided to create a completely terrifying wooden creature to wear it.
In a nutshell. Give or take a bit of research.
Our outcomes were to be a sequential narrative, for which we had to convey this sense of movement in 9 panels (something I think my all night comic-making-athon may have put me in good stead for), and a soundless animation of 15 seconds or more. Simples.
It’s been, for the most part, good fun. The Animation comes first in the saga of the weird Tree Creature. It’s jerky, it’s rushed, it’s wibbly and just generally a bit crap and so, totally not worth the amount of time sunk into it’s creation. But the more I watch those meager little 24 seconds, the more I love it. Like a really ugly kitten. Or a child who just can’t get his head around potty training.It’s my first ever start stop animation and so I feel I’m entitled to a bit of forgiving in terms of the craft. It’s made by my own fair hands and therefore, by default, I’ll love it always. If only as a milestone in my creative journey.
And even if it does leave a little poo on the proverbial carpet every time I watch it.
My static image sequence, while still rushed and far from perfect, had the advantage of being a practice I was familiar with. In an attempt to communicate this driving theme of the mask’s wooden texture, I made the (pretty foolish to be honest) decision to linocut my sequence in three colours which, due to the restrictions of the process and size of my lino, added a simple bleakness to the images and lost a lot of potential detail. As I’ve said, just a little too often about my work before, they’re not the greatest feat of printmaking known to man, but time played a restricting factor that forced the simplification of imagery down to the point to see here.
While I loathe to consider them a direct sequel to the animation (due to my own personal gripes regarding the film industry), they could be considered to continue the narrative previously explored, and therefore should really be seen second. You know, seeing as they were offered as a joint brief and all.
I might consider them a spin-off. Maybe.
Originally I’d planned to bind them into a concertina book, sandwiched between a hard front and back cover. I have two prints of each image, so it’s something I could still well do, but actually, in terms of the movement between image to image as a sequence, the simple grid of 9 works rather well. They break up well into columns of 3 and I think that adds a nice pace to the movement that could easily be lost in the transition into a bound document. There’s a certain stillness to the images that I’d worry would be compromised to an extent if they were to be viewed in one, continuous line. As much as I love books and book binding.
And I do.
So there’s a little taste of what a Bath Spa student has to offer. Wooden Creeps and wibbly frames. Top-Notch talent only in that school doncha know.
Bugger, I was hoping to keep this post short so my flatmate doesn’t laugh at the cyber-typing-diarohea from which I suffer, but I seem to have had another attack.
Sorry about that fellas.
Over and Out.
B
Do you know what you should do today?
I think you should go and spend all your money on the internet.
“But that’s what I do every week!” I hear you cry.
Well yes, the internet is one big beautiful black hole in the wallet. But Now it’s even more excellenter-er!
Now you can give ME your money! And then, I’ll send you a present. What do you say?
Visit my brand-spankin’-new-totally-awesome online shop and make your life better. (Fact.)
Also, I’ve been in the print rooms again. Be warned. Pictures and whatnot coming soon.
B
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Okay so, at time of writing it’s 12:38 on Wednesday.
I’ve now been up since 8.30am Tuesday morning and I’m starting to feel the effects.
Basically, it’s all my tutors fault. Being the good student I am, I was sifting through the pages of university related crap that tend to accumulate in my inbox, when I found something of interest hiding in between the incessant barrage of SU updates (the beauty of this being that we don’t even have an SU office at my campus.)
It was the details for this competition. The prize is a bit tasty (because who doesn’t like holidays and comics?) but that’s not really why I wanted to enter. It sounds like a cop-out, but genuinely the winning wasn’t what I wanted out of it. I just really liked the idea of being set a comic book brief to respond to, that wasn’t simply self-initiated fun times. Plus second and third prize are free tickets to the festival, and I reckon any comics festival seems like a good thing to get involved in, given the success of the last one.
So here’s the catch. The email was sent yesterday. The deadline is tomorrow. And it’s mail only entry. So, I have spent the past…well god knows how many hours scripting, illustrating, photoshopping and indesigning a two page comic that I have now, I’m delighted to say, popped in the post.
So long as it arrives by tomorrow, the website says they’ll exhibit all of the entrants (so either they have a hench exhibition space, or they’re not expecting a whole lot of entries…) so regardless of if they like it or not, it won’t have been wasted. And yeah, okay so I have now missed a lecture and a seminar as a result, and won’t be able to spend the afternoon in the print rooms as planned due to an excessive amount of sleeping that needs to be done, BUT, while it may be a thumbs down on the school front, I reckon I deserve a fricking gold star for dedication to the craft! Or one for stupidity, haven’t decided which yet.
Here’s the original artwork for it, created by my own fair hands at a horrible time in the morning.
It’s a bit of a mental one, but that is what you get from trying to script a whole project in ten hours. It’s actually not my original idea, I jumped ship halfway through so this one didn’t really get started until about 9pm.
I stuck with a standard layout: double page spread. Yeah okay, I’m sure I could have really explored the brief and done something clever with the two pages, but when time’s against you, I like to focus more on the artwork and text than faffing about with potential novelties, as nice as they can be.
And of course, it goes without saying that there’s A LOT wrong with it. For a start due to my excessive tiredness at time of conception, it’s a bit too batshit mad to really be as directly communicative as I’d usually like (and the text doesn’t actually help much with that either, funnily enough.)
It’s a shame in a way. I think had I had more time to perfect it all, it could have been quite nice. The text needs an overhaul (both the script and I’m not overly happy with the font or placing of it in the final copy) and there’s a lot of work needed on the arrangement of cells. But hey, for a 10 hour comic I guess it could be worse.
Great practice as well. I’d like to get into the habit of knocking out short work on a regular basis, and while this wasn’t really finished to a standard I’d usually expect it to be at, I think i’s acceptable given the MAJOR handicap I was working with.
NOT that I really want to turn this all nighter business into a regular occurence. But it has been quite fun.
Fingers crossed eh?
Perhaps I’ll turn it into a mini zine or something. Thanks to the time, effort and cunning knowledge of a very Special person named Matt, the bagleybooks store is well underway, so all books and zines will soon be available over the magic of the web.
Needless to say, everything I am now producing, I’m seeing dollar signs all over, and this is absolutely no exception.
Keep an eye on the website for more information!
Okay, I’m pretty definite it’s bedtime now. Over and OUT.
B
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I’ve been a very naughty blogger. Not only did I fail MISERABLY at bringing you lovely lot the buildup to Comiket (ironically because I was a bit too busy actually doing it) but THEN I also waited a whole week before even bringing the tales to the internet. BAD FORM!
Well, if you pop along to the NEWS section of my website, you’ll see a few little bits, but there are a few more photos so I thought they could live here.
In short, it was an awesome event. Unfortunately I can’t actually bring you the goods in terms of new names to watch out for, as I was pretty much stationary for the whole thing so was very limited in terms of the work I saw. There was no doubt though, that the range of work on offer was unbelievable! It’s the reason I regard Comiket with quite such high esteem; absolutely everybody is welcome. Yeah it’s about comics, but there is so much more to the notion of comic books and graphic novels then just men in tights and capes. Comiket is one of those events that really allows you to explore what graphics mean to you, and what attributes all kinds of illustration can really supply in the arts market. I think that’s such an important realisation when we’re so highly exposed to trends and labels, in every regard, under ordinary circumstances. 
And this year was no exception, you just have to look at the mixed bag that is the contributors list. Literally, from the small pressers like me, through to professionals, right along to big business like Walker Books. All with different kinds of work to sell, and all of it worth looking at.
It’s probably a good thing I couldn’t get a gander round actually. I only would have spent any money I made on yet more books and zines to add to my already groaning book shelf. For a start, I know that NoBrow, Tom Gould, Phillipa Rice, Louis Roskosch, Accent UK, Orangutancomics, Twisted Dark and Markosia all had tables there, all of which are very cool people of whom I am a fan or have proved to have done cool stuff in the past. So I KNOW for a FACT that there was definitely a lot of gooood shit there. So unless the possibility of being exposed to just a little bit too much awesome is too much for you, you’ve really no excuse not to go check some more contributors out. And I highly recommend that you do.
And while I was a bit of a Sad Winston and chained to my table for those most part, I was certainly kept busy with the sheer number of people that turned up! It was pretty much manic, and I’m pleased to say a very decent success for a li’l small press guy like me. Yeah okay, giving away free stuff might have helped a little bit, but what can I say, I’m a giver. And besides, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, why not make the most of the *ahem* free photocopiers at Uni?…you know, the ones I pay for with studio fee . Those free photocopiers.
But I’m just kidding, the free zines went down okay, but the real attention seemed to be mainly on Tick and my BRAND NEW ZINE, Bears: Don’t like ’em. I was getting rid of those by the bucket load! Strangely enough, to a lot of people wearing bear t-shirts. I think they may have missed the point a bit but hey, I have their money now! HA!
I also did get rid of a few of the prints I’d been doing in the building weeks which is fantastic. It’s so nice when your time is rewarded, and obviously I don’t for a second just mean with money. There is no greater feeling than knowing something you have created has brought someone joy. And especially at an event like this, where people can, and do, chat to you about what you’ve done that they do like and what they don’t like and it’s all such honest feedback because they don’t for a second have to give it to you.
I met so many different kinds of people last Saturday and I had some incredible conversations with them about such a magnitude of topics. It was just yet more proof to me that the real meaning of the word comic is far broader than the stereotypes could ever allow you to imagine. Old, young, teenage, middle age, fat, thin, male, female, camp and alternative; I swear the entire spectrum of human variation was walking through those doors and browsing the length and breadth of the isles.
Having been to a few small press deals in the past, I knew this was often the case though. It’s one of the reason’s I’m so keen to take part in them over the big, overwhelming cons, and I tried really hard to make sure my table reflected as such.
I think I succeeded, judging by the number of times people asked astonished “did you do ALL of this? It’s all so different!” which is one of those lines that makes you grin like a maniac on the inside when you hear it. And I guess it’s true, my table was some what schizophrenic. All four of my publications were pretty different in a number of ways: from the very artsy, painterly styles of Tick, through to heavily line based Bears, screen printed The Day I Met a Fatty right on over to the very graphic Rumble; I’ve tried to give each of them an identity of their own that was suitable to their purpose. And then of course there were the wild-card, batshit sandwich that was the sock creatures. But they were really just there for fun :P.
I have a few of those left actually, I’ll be sure to get them up on here at some point soon so you can have a giggle at the things I spend my life doing. Most people go out with mates. I stuff Socks. It takes all sorts.
Anyway, for fear of getting even more self-indulgent, I’ll wrap this post up. I would just like to put out a huge, huge thank you to Paul Gravett and everyone who helped to set up the event and make it as enjoyable as it was. I would like to say a MASSIVE thanks to this woman, who literally saved my bacon on Saturday by being my skivvy for the first few hours and keeping me well caffeinated. FYI, she’s also a creative type and has done some truly phenomenal bits of ART (you know, as in fine art. That real life, gallery stuff. Not just robots and ting) and often writes about very interesting thingies and bits here, so definitely have a look if you’re feeling especially cultured.
And also would just like to say how much I appreciated the appearance of the very lovely Patricia, Hugh and Tegwen. All of whom popped over to show their support which was truly lovely of them all. I hope all three of you enjoyed the event and found something exciting buried in those isles of illustrative magic.
Okay, do you know what? I think I’ll stop going on like I’ve just won some kind of Academy Award now. Unless maybe it was the award for going on like a gushing tosser, feel free to get in touch to hear the full speech for that one.
To summarise, Comiket was awesome, people are talented, I like robots and we can all go home happy.
Peace OUT.
B
x
Ah Easter.
That brilliant time of year where you either get a potential 4 days off work, or you all get confused about what day does and doesn’t count as some form of bank holiday. Or which ones hold some kind of Religious significance or not. Like, Which day did Jesus die again? Or is it about now he was coming back? And what does the egg mean again?
…and where do rabbits come into all this?
This is the problem with basing your life around archaic texts that keep contradicting themselves, it’s very hard to keep track of things (BOOM).
But, in all seriousness, Easter is a very confusing time for me. I don’t hold a great deal of significance around it, given that I’m quite happily atheist and I don’t really eat chocolate and I just find cream eggs that little bit too sickly. I guess, for me, it’s all a bit of a non event.
This year is no (egg)ception to this. While my flatmates have all gone to their respective families, I’ve been a bit of a Sad Winston here and have instead spent the weekend hand washing my clothes, with Indesign as my only friend.
The Joy of being a student.
So, last night, in an attempt to get into the mood and out of my cynical rut, I sat down and did a good old fashioned drawing for Easter.
Ah. Hmm, well okay, on second viewing it’s not QUITE as successful at celebrating the holiday as I perhaps would have hoped. Still, there’s always Christmas right?
Hopefully you’ve all had chirpier weekends than I. Go eat an egg or something.
B
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I promise not to ramble on for this one. I’ll just deliver the goods and set you on your way. But CHECK OUT how many prints I have!!
Okay, enough of this print making mania now. I’ve gone on about it long enough. Time to get obsessed with something new. Hhmmm…typography next?
B
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So I thought I’d log the concluding stage of our printmaking workshops, seeing as I documented the other two so thoroughly. It’s a shame in a way to end on this one as, out of the three of them, it was the one I connected with the least. This is partly due to the fact I didn’t really allow myself enough time to think about my outcome as in-depth as I had for etch and lino, and partly just due to the fact that I find Letter Press just a smidgen too fiddly.
I know, I know. I’m being a bit of a hypocrite and general spoil-sport, but I just can’t really get behind the reasons to engage with letter-press. The outcomes can be truly beautiful, I admit that, but I’m just so aware how easy it would be to create such pieces in a fraction of the time via digital means. And with so much more freedom. I feel so bound by letter-press, firstly by the fact you’re so limited to what font you happen to have available in your inventory, in what specific sizes and that’s supposing that some cheeky arse hasn’t nicked one or two letters (as is usually the case when you’re using a shared press, such as that at uni). And that’s even before we factor in the other variables such as all the right leading sticks being left in the right place, there being enough clamps etc etc etc
THEN, SUPPOSING all that is, indeed in order, you have to painstakingly put the bloody thing together. Letter by letter, line by line. I truly take my hat off to all those poor folk to whom this was a career back in the days of pre digital print. They truly must have had the patience of saints.
But I digress, I don’t think it helped matters any that I’m not overly fond of my outcome. It was rushed, unplanned and generally a little dull, but it is the conclusion to my Henri de Toulouse Lautrec collection, so deserves a mention.
As my lino had gone down so well, I decided to theme the letter-press along a similar bent. For my lino, I’d focused on Lautrec’s alcoholism and fondness for absinthe, and it was through the research for this that I’d stumbled upon the recipe for his famed cocktail. Well, I say cocktail. I think what I actually mean is lethal concoction. One part Absinthe to one part Cognac. That’s it. A 50/50 blend of undiluted spirit, shaken together into a glorious, liver-failure inducing solution that Lautrec refered to as Le Tremblement De Terre: Earthquake to you and me. So called as it was (understandably) assured to shake you up and make you fall over.
So, with this new information to hand, I decided to describe Lautrec, via the press, as Monsieur Tremblement De Terre. See, see what I did there. I put “mister” in front of it. In French. Like a clever person.
It’s hard being this cultured, it really is.
But this is where I met my downfall. Drunk on my own genius, I decided to attempt to echo the effect of the beverage within the type. This started with the typeface itself, where I set ‘Monsieur’ in one font, all one size (I can’t even remember which font that was now, sorry that’s awful) but then jiggled the rest of it about a bit with different letter sizes. The concept here was to create a contrast within the sentence that alluded to Lautrec’s lifestyle change of aristocratic upbringing, to the bohemian life he led within the Moulin Rouge. (Something I then reinforced with the colours: black fading to absinthe green.)
As if this wasn’t a pain in the arse enough (because where’s the fun in making things easy for yourself?) I then decided the piece just didn’t say “off your tits on potentially lethal levels of alcohol” enough, so sought to reconstruct this by setting the letters at different levels and generally making a mess.
So really, it’s my own fault I had such a nightmare with letter-press. This kind of mindless artistic-ness is easy enough on photoshop, but let’s stop to consider what letter-press was actually invented for, for a minute. Had I done that at the time, I probably would have realised how difficult I was about to make things for myself. Letter press once served a very legitimate purpose. To print multiple copies of multiple straight lines of legible text.
Everything about my print is fighting that purpose, and as a result it just doesn’t work. I’ll admit that, I learnt a very valuable lesson. I guess that’s what I find frustrating to an extend. I do not like being restricted, to any degree on any topic. If I want to make something messy and complex, I want the freedom to be able to fulfil that purpose, not be restricted by the natural boundaries of a process.
I mean, true, I did actually get around it. But I know the piece would have been stronger had I conceded and worked with the limitations of the press, not against it.
But I guess though that is part of the charm to old print processes. They could be considered, by and large, redundant, but it’s the level of skill and patience required to master them that has kept them alive. People are desperate to prove their worth in a world where everyone has the potential to be an “artist”, and for many that is done simply by showing that their ability would have been acknowledged to just the same extent in a time where creativity was just that little bit pickier.
Had I paused for a minute to think, I hope I would have come to a conclusion that lead to a different outcome. But my stubborn nature coupled with a shortage of time has led to my discovering something quite different. I don’t enjoy letter-press particularly, but I feel that I’ve learned the secret to any form of print making is an element of forward planning. Concept can get you far under ordinary circumstances, but when relying on processes of the past you must use your head and prepare. Mistakes and accidents can be beautiful, but they are not talent nor skill. If you are to become a craftsman at printmaking, then you must respect the process for the process and work with it.
And at a time when artists like Tracey Emin are being officially titled “Professor of Drawing”, I feel like any process that makes you use a bit of the old brain capacity can’t really be a bad thing.
B
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Rebecca Bagley Illustration