Well…it’s only fair…

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Okay so those of you that remember this one, will remember my sister went and got old in August. What you may not know, is that I also have a big brother who decided to be awkward and go and level up too, just afterwards in September. You think they’d have spread it out a bit more right? Some of us have the decency to have birthdays in January. Sheesh.

Anyway, he’s something of a creative bugger too and is currently heading into the world of indie video games following a masters in Games Design and Development. So I decided to be a good sister and put him together a package of goodies, one of which was, of course a little drawing I thought I’d share with the world. ‘Cause that’s what I do.

We grew up with Nintendo characters. And when I say that, I don’t mean it lightly. I mean we GREW UP WITH NINTENDO CHARACTERS. Seriously. How none of us have ended up following a career in becoming a plumber and/or italian is beyond me. I had my own ocarina.

Anyway I thought I’d do him a wee drawing to inspire him in the last leg of his education and the first step into his career. Take him (and myself) back to the old days of sitting on cushions on the floor to get so close to the screen you could see the colours separate into RGB and the only sound under our held breaths was the relentless tapping of desperate thumbs. The days when money meant nothing more than the chime of disappointment, because really you were desperately hoping for a mushroom. The days when clouds were solid, vines were opportunities and barrels were terrifying. The days when bananas meant so much more than a good source of potassium and even the chesnuts were against you…Actually now that I think about it, that’s all pretty batshit mental.

Anyway I drew him this:

DK-brotherAnd if you don’t know what it is, that’s probably a good thing, for all the reasons discussed.

B

 

The shortest comic yet! I promise they’ll stop shrinking now…

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Okay, so I entered the world of comics a few years ago with the creation of Tick. It was a 40 page illustrated tale that I, then, referred to as a “short story about a robot” (I said a bit more than that actually, but that was the gist of it.)

Since then, here have been a few more additions to the comic repertoire, all of which have fallen somewhat shorter of Tick’s initial short-story-that-have-since-turned-out-to-be-quite-colossal page number credentials, mainly brought about by various competition restrictions. There have been some four page comics like this and this, a two page comic like this and now, as of yesterday, we’re really getting silly.

I’m pretty sure this is the pinnacle now of my short story shortness, at least without full on committing to the world of comic strips; a place I just don’t think I have an affinity for, given my perpetual subscription to the religion of Overkill.

Yes, yesterdays project and entry to the Thought Bubble Short Story Competition, was a one page comic. A short narrative begun, middled and ended on one single sheet of lansdcape A4, and subsequently probably my trickiest one yet.

OxTale

It went against everything I know and every natural instinct I have when creating sequential pieces but I did my best and, if nothing else, feel like I learned a lot in the process.

I hope you enjoy it anyway, I’m now off to invest in some “story-grow” to help bring my poor, withering page-count back to life.

Another short comic…for another speedy dealine…

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It’s that time of year again when the comic competitions start building as we all start getting excited for the convention season! And with my table for Comiket well and truly booked, I’m certainly no exception. In the name of getting in the graphic mood, I’ve just finished and submitted this years entry for the Jonathan Cape/Observer graphic short story prize. This year’s tale in four pages wanders a little further into romantic territory than I’d usually care to, but I was inevitably going to have to accept the existence my estrogen levels at some point so here we are.

Page1 Page2 Page3 Page4 And before anyone asks, yes. Of course I had to stay up all night to finish it. When have I ever, EVER not had to push a project right up to the wire?

I mean, this whole illustration business just wouldn’t be fun if it didn’t result in regular stints of self abusingly painful sleep deprivation now would it?

Interview Number Two! This time at Design Juices

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If you’re not fed up of my wordpress witterings,

And have still yet to tire of my twitterings,

Read more about me in this interview

I did for Design Juices who, just like you,

Seemed interested in me and the work I do.

I’ve tried to be interesting and not to bore you!

Horray for poetry!

No seriously though, the good, kind folk at Design Juices have been working hard, as always to bring you the news from the mouths of folk like me…and this time IS me. It’s my second online interview published in a few weeks (The first can be found here at Broken Frontier)

What’s EVOLVING into quite a nice little Project…ha

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I thought I’d mix things up a bit for today’s post, and take a break from little drawings and odds and ends I’ve been doing (and no that’s not because I’ve run out of things to show. I’ve ACTUALLY just started another drawing now okay?  Don’t be such a bloody Doubting marvin.

…

No I don’t know what that is either.)

So instead I thought I’d do a bit of this whole social networking bit I hear so much about, and spread the word about a little project I was invited to do a wee bit of work for.

I was sent a rather neat little script for a short sci-fi film to be made this year. It was intriguing to me as a film, and had an engaging tone, good pace and nice, dark edge to it, but I started to really take notice when the writer  mentioned he’d like to release a short comic book alongside it. Unfortunately it came at a bad time for me, (it was during that very busy, recent period in which I  dropped off of the face of the internet. You know, the past seven months. That time. I like to call it “the mysterious phase.”) so I reluctantly declined the project.

I was then offered the compromise of doing the cover art for it, if I was too busy to commit to the inners, which pretty much seemed like a dream. It’s like being told “hey, you! You know that project you like but don’t have time to get involved in? Okay how about you don’t do any of the really hard graft but still get to work on it? Oh yeah, and it’s like, the first thing people will look at too. You in? Okay cool.”

I was, so in.

So I entered into chats with the film maker and here it is, the cover for the, soon to be released comic for the, soon to be released short Evolutionary: a sci-fi, action short with dark undertones and an ambiguity complex.

evolutionary

I’ve no doubt it’s going to be stunning. For more information and to view it’s progress, check out the Youtube channel here, and read alllabauddit here.

And, incidentally, I’ve since seen some of the work from the inners. They’ve been taken on by a truly incredible artist and most certainly will not disappoint. Seriously, I’m almost glad I didn’t have the time they’re so good.

…

Almost.

Anyway It’s going to be slamming and I can’t wait to see the fruits of everyone’s labour. Keep your eyes peeled for it and start getting excited.

Over and out.

Present Giving, the LazyMan Way!

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For those of you who were sharing this little square of the interwebs with me this time last year, you may well recall it was my little sisters Birthday in August.

It’s now August again.

Which means she’s only gone and had another one. Greedy little sod.

Unfortunately I was not in her vicinity for this one, so wasn’t able to put on a show to quite the extent as then (thank Christ. How the eff I was ever going to beat that one in terms of effort, short of performing some kind of machinist-esque sleep and/or life boycott, is well and truly beyond me.) So her gift had to be somewhat smaller and more portable-er than…you know…a whole days worth of baking and decorating.

And so I did my usual trick and defaulted to a drawing!

Rhianna

She’s an ace little toy-maker and pretty nifty with a needle and thread so I guess I wanted this to say “I think you are okay. Love from your sister.” In pictures.

Honestly, I’m starting to worry here. There’s only so many times people can be impressed that I “took the time and effort to craft something personal just for them”, which is sort of the emotional response I rely on to mask the fact that, really, I’m just poor, lazy and hate shopping.

(I should start writing greetings cards.)

Happy Birthday Sis!

Weddings, Woofs and a Whole Lotta Love

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wedding-cardThis weekend two people got married.

Actually, there was probably a lot more people than that getting married, it’s just that I only saw the two. And therefore they were the only two I really care about, certainly enough to mention.

Anyway, this weekend a beautiful friend of mine from school married her childhood sweetheart, and all round very nice chap, in a church and I had the pleasure of throwing paper at them, signing hymns I don’t know the words to, then drinking a lot of wine.

Weddings are fun.

Anyway, in the years between school and here, while they were busy being grown ups and building a stable life together, I’ve been busy jumping from place to place, ignoring useful adult things like owning vehicles and making investments and starting ISAs, instead burying the adult part of my head in the proverbial sand of education until a later date when I’ll be forced to dig it out again.

This is fine. It’s nice actually, on the rare occasions when I and my school friends do all return home, it means we all have a lot to talk about and is a good tool in preserving the strength of our relationships enough to know we will all be invited to each others weddings and other such life milestones.

But for the first time, this wedding presented me with a pressure. I love this girl. She deserves every bit of happiness with her loving chappy and long may it continue in the life they’ve now formed together, and I wanted to give them something that would represent this. Something that could represent my happiness for them and my graciousness in being chosen to share it with them on that day. Unfortunately presents of this magnitude often involve money and, as a student and avoider of life things, this is something I do not posses.

So I did the only thing I know how to do these days, and offered the only thing I have to offer and drew for them an aspect of their lives that I know they love. Their bloody dogs. bennyalphie

I worried for a while that something like this might be a bit self indulgent, after all a wedding should be all about them, not me and what I do. But it’s not that I think they SHOULD own my work, it’s literally that, right now in my life, it’s all I have to give them. And it was born from love for them and made with the best of intentions.

And they really do love those little mutts.

So let us, once again, raise our glasses to Jo and David, preserving friendships and the beauty of sharing the differences within our lives.

And of course, those two little dogs.

Broken Frontier Interview!

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Okay, let’s all play the head inflation game.

It goes like this, I shout about me a lot, and you read my interview on Broken Frontier in which we explore the ins and outs of my creative processes to be found here, and then I feel special and my head explodes.

Deal?

No? Okay well, if you like art and you’re interested in comics check it out anyway.

And if nothing else, the questions are really interesting!!

Illustrating Science: The joy of pseudo diagrams (fig. 2)

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This is Lucy.

Lucy's feedback

And this is Carl.

Carl's Brain

They like to do things. Things like moving. They’re especially good at intentional moving, unconsciously.

This was Lucy, once.

Lucy's egg legThen I got my hands on her.

And This is Proprioception.

(A project from last Christmas.)

This is Proprioception

propbook5

Inspired by the ingenuity of the pseudo-educational comedy, Look Around You, Proprioception was a mock 70’s educational manual in which I took a real life bit of, really damn interesting, biology and explained it using entirely non scientific methods. Because I am an illustrator, so cutting things up makes more sense to me than the deeply fascinating intricacies of real life biology.

FeedbackThe pseudo diagrams were designed to portray the importance of this fascinatingly vital sixth sense, so inherent in our bodies most people have never even considered a life without it (and in fact there are only 6 known cases of people having a complete lack. This is a really cool video about one man’s battle.)

The “text book” had fold out elements to reveal new tasks that got people thinking about the impact of Proprioception in their own life.

Opening page 1Opening page 2I wanted to draw people’s attention to it’s vitality to our functioning everyday and used tasks and design choices to create a style reminiscent of an 70’s school textbook/instruction manual with a playful, modern twist.

Carl dancingProprioception allows us to understand our own body’s position in relation to itself without consciously considering where each limb is. It’s why when you close your eyes, you know where both your hands are. It’s super neat and super vital and I wanted people to understand that fact using simple collage techniques and fun imagery to demonstrate the incomprehensible struggle that would be living without it.

Plus it gave me an excuse to cut up my friends faces for a few months.

Seriously, I was picking Carls head out of my carpet for weeks.