DoodlePlanet Christmas Special

DoodlePlanet has become a regular haunt for me now, and I certainly didn’t want to miss the Christmas Special. Nine local artists contributed some fantastic works of art and raised over £200 for charity. The idea of using art to raise awareness and money for worthy causes is so inspiring and I hope to be asked to contribute someday.

For the first time I was lucky enough to arrive at DoodlePlanet with my lovely boyfriend, Dan, who had already planned his drawing for the evening.

I myself had decided on either “a sexy Christmas pin-up girl” or “some Christmas chibis”. My first DoodlePlanet event saw me bombing as I tried to draw a Halloween themed scene, and ended up cramming as many stupid little drawings onto the canvas as possible. My second outing, and I came home with a relatively satisfying Little Mermaid watercolour.

This time I drew four pictures and came home with two.

At first I made an attempt to create my chibi Christmas scene, but lack of interest and a nasty ink spill caused me to abandon it. However, it turned out to be popular with a lot of female students.

My second drawing was worse than the first, a charcoal scribble that I later used as a palette for my marker pens. I deliberately avoided taking a photograph of it.

For the third drawing I took inspiration from my twin sketchbook and tried to replicate/improve on a design for Taste the Blood’s EP cover. However, I became frustrated and angry when things didn’t go to plan; I lowered the girl’s arms too much and so ended up having to draw her breasts, which I had been intent on covering up. Also her face looked ridiculous. I grabbed a pile of charcoal and smeared the drawing with it, added some handprints and wrote the word “SEX” as the title.

At the time this had all been a big joke, and Dan and I had a laugh about it. But as it turns out it was quite a popular drawing that night. During the auction a group of men stated that they wanted to bid for it. Whether they were intoxicated or not didn’t matter to me, I was pleased as punch. Unfortunately, my work wasn’t in the auction.

So perhaps I had drawn this out of annoyance, or perhaps I had drawn it in order to provoke or offend. Either way people seemed interested by it. What irritates me the most about it though is how out-of-proportion the girl looks. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Finally, I found a seat on the floor, a small blank canvas and just relaxed, and came up with my best piece. Both an excuse to practice drawing girls and an excuse to practice tattoo placement, I wound up with this image of one of my original characters, who I like to refer to as Bluey, due to her blue dreadlocks. She’s sitting, being her usual cheeky self, showing off her body art, piercings, funky hair and tie-dyed t-shirt, and telling the world to flaunt it if you’ve got it, whatever “it” may be.

I’m pretty proud of this drawing (not the colouring however), and I’m confident that I will improve with each DoodlePlanet. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As for Dan he produced this amazing replica of the Afro Samurai. He really put every effort into it and it came out great considering the image was tiny on his iPhone! I’m so proud of him, and we both know he will get better and better the more he draws!

Until next time, Happy Holidays!

Formative Assessment Feedback

My formative assessment didn't go as bad as I thought/hoped it would. Well it was bad, but not awful. They pretty much told me everything I already knew; I work too slow, need to speed up. My problem is I waste too much time thinking about what I want to do and trying to organise how to get there in a particular order, but my assessors told me I need to loosen up and just go with it really. Stop thinking, start doing. I've been telling myself that for months, it's harder than it sounds.

Now I have until tuesday to get the layout pages for my Narrative comic drawn up. It's not impossible, but it's going to take a lot of time and effort. Unfortunately this weekend I had planned to work myself ill on the Mabinogion project, because that, to me, seems the most essential (it's a paid commission after all, and God knows I need the money and recognition).

So I've decided to dodge between both projects for the next three days, going from one to the other whenever I get bored of them, taking suitable time out for the necessities: food, sleep and video games.

At least they agreed with me when I told them I'm coping better than last year, when I was a mental wreck, but I still get panic attacks and an all-over-body rash just thinking about deadlines.

Still I got a B+ for my Journal Article on The Body, which is good, considering I lost interest in writing it near the end (which is perhaps why one of the comments about it was "the conclusion felt a bit lacking". Fair enough). I will need to find an exceptionally intriguing subject for my dissertation next year in order to keep myself interested.

I have two ideas already:

1. The comparison between traditional animation, compared to the era of CGI. This would be a re-writing and lengthening of an essay I wrote in college (that didn't do very well), because I am still so passionate about this subject and really want to do it justice. Also, since college we have had 3D films coming out, a lot more stop-motion animated films (Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox) and also Disney's The Princess and the Frog is set to be released soon, in a gorgeous return to traditional hand-drawn animation.

2. My second idea is a cliched one that has probably been done over and over, but one that I could definitely get my claws into: the idea of Contemporary Art (also known as really bad, skill-less tripe) as a selling point. I'm not a huge fan of the post-modern idea of art, where people can take a rotting animal carcass and sell it as "an expression of life". It's intolerable. But I will also explore the idea that artists like myself, and many people working in comics, illustration, games design (etc.) today could also be considered post-modern artists. After all, we're all living in the same age. Some of us just have better ideas and more talent than some.

Those are my two current ideas anyway. We've been advised to start thinking about our dissertation in advance, so it plagues my mind daily, as do ideas for my final major project.

Next week I will be conducting "research" at Manchester's Odeon cinema, in the form of movie-going. Wednesday is Where The Wild Things Are day, and friday is reserved solely for the intense ride that is going to be Avatar in mind-imploding IMAX 3D. If I survive you will be able to catch some reviews on my other blog in the weeks to come.

Until next time!

“Dad” Comics, DoodlePlanet and Christmas Cards

I thought it would be fitting at this time to upload some of the personal things I am currently working on, as so far I’ve just been talking about work that I am doing for other people.

First of all, something I started over a month ago were plans for a mini-series, or online comic, simply called “Dad”. The strips have no real storyline, but instead represent moments or conversations that I have had with my dad over the last (nearly) twenty-one years. My father and I have always had a very strange relationship, in that we are alike in so many ways, and can sometimes have these great bonding sessions, whilst at the same time criticising and resenting each other; myself for the lack of attention he showed me as a child, my dad because of the lack of interest I show in having a normal life.

In many ways I admire and look up to him, but at the same time I often wish he were a different person. As I said, it’s a very odd relationship. The aim of these comics is not to show either of us in a bad light, but just to express the odd and infrequent moments we share together. And these are real moments the way I remember them.

The first comic I drew is a total mess, but only for the sake of it being the thumbnails for a much more detailed comic. Hopefully, if I see my dad enough, I will have enough material to turn this idea into a daily or weekly online comic.

"Dad - 20 years of Outfits" can be read here:

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Twice in the last two months I have attended a local event known as DoodlePlanet, set up by Compulsive Scribbler. The premise of the event is just to let people come in, have some drinks and doodle on large boards of canvas left lying around the place. It happens maybe once or twice a month at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester, and once at the Glyndwr Student’s Guild.

It’s such great fun and a good way to get non-artists drawing, as I found when I took my boyfriend, Dan, along and he really enjoyed it.

Poor Dan didn’t have time to finish his psychedelic illustration because he arrived late…

... whilst I spent the night trying to paint something decent with watercolours. I came up with my own version of Ariel and Flounder from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

The next DoodlePlanet in on December 17th, again at Telford’s Warehouse, and everyone is welcome to come along. After all, it’s a Christmas party too!

And speaking of Christmas, I have been working on a design for a Christmas card that I would like to produce this year for my friends and family. At the moment the line-art still needs a clean up, then I need to shrink it down and apply several copies to a sheet of A3 or A2 acetate so that I can screen-print more than one card at a time. Only trouble is I’m not sure how to do that. I’m not so good with photocopiers.

The design features two characters from a holiday card series I am inventing called Minky Pinky (don’t even ask where the name came from, as I’m not too sure myself). I’ll hopefully have more cards designed for birthdays, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and so on.

So there’s a chance now I wont have much to say until after the holidays. If that be the case, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year from me!

A very busy Christmas, and a hectic New Year!

Perhaps you can tell from my long absence that I have been hard at work, struggling through piles of sketchbooks and notepads. Well, the latter is accurate, but I certainly don’t think I’ve been hard at it. No more so than the rest of my brethren.

Yesterday we presented what (little) work we had to the rest of the group, and I was relieved to see that I was not as behind on my projects as I initially thought. In fact, I was even further ahead than some people. And yet I’m still panicking because the deadline for four of my projects is fast approaching, and I’m not making a vast amount of headway.

I guess I should really stop taking on so many things at once. That or I should learn to be more organised. But when you’re a lethargic young woman, trying to juggle a boyfriend, an education, a social life, afterhours clubs, commissions and personal time, it can get extremely overwhelming, and I find that trying to plan things out is much harder than just diving into things and getting on with it. I’m no different from anyone else my age (well, a little different).

So here’s a brief update of where I am at the moment:

1. My first paid commission, aka: The Mabinogion. Well the deadline is just over a month away (ironically the same day as most of my other projects – nightmare) and I haven’t gotten as much done as I’d hoped by this point. But I’m not too worried, as I always do my best, fastest work when I’m under pressure. I was hoping my first real piece of outside-work would be handled a lot more professionally, but I’m still getting used to the idea of doing this stuff for a living.

I’ve pretty much gone through each and every story in The Mabinogion, and applied one or two ideas to each one. There’s a total of about thirty for me to mess around with, and I only need twenty. I’ve also drawn up some thumbnails to represent what my final illustrations may look like. All that needs doing now is the full-sized images, which I think is the part that will take the longest. Then after that, a quick clean-up and I’ll send them off to the client, who should hopefully approve of them pretty quickly. What I like about this brief is that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. What I don’t like about this brief is that that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. It’s a double-edged sword.

Finally, the colouring should be done over Christmas, which shouldn’t take too long, as I’ve been asked to keep it simple.

2. Work is underway on two short comics I mentioned before: a Horror-story, which isn’t horrific at all, and also an autobiographical piece that references the plight of the Collyer brothers. The basic stories for both comics is pretty much sorted, I’m just now working on character and location designs, along with some thumbnails, then the final comics will be finished over Christmas.

The horror story is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz of sorts, except it’s aimed at very young children. Dorothy is replaced by a baby girl, whilst the scarecrow, tin-man and lion have been changed to a spider, a broken tin-soldier toy and a one-piece baby suit. I am avoiding the use of greys and blacks in the story to appeal to a young child’s sense of wonderment for colour and brightness, and there is absolutely no dialogue in the work, because I wanted to represent how a baby cannot speak and will have to communicate with body language and expressions.

The second comic on the Collyer Brothers has developed into an autobiography, whereby I refer back to the famous pair as a means of getting over my own struggles with OCD and paranoia. So far I have some character designs for my boyfriend Dan as he will look in the comic:

Dan Designs

I was inspired by not only my own experiences, but by two books that I was lent by Dan Berry; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Unlikely by Jeffrey Brown. Both books depict a semi-life story told by the authors in a very honest and touching way. The art styles differ, as do the storylines, but both have enormous heart and left me experiencing a weird emotion that I’ve never quite been able to put in to words; like happy and sad at the same time.

Watch out for my reviews of Fun Home and Unlikely, as well as my finished comics.

3. Also in the works now, and this I’m very excited about, is my documentary on body modification. It’s called “Pins and Needles,” and is being filmed, as I write this, in high definition. It involves the participation of many of my friends, colleagues and some strangers, who I have asked very graciously to give me their views and opinions on body modification or, to be more specific, tattoos and piercings. I am looking forward to posting it online when it’s finished, as I’m hoping it will spark some good discussion, so keep your eyes peeled. For this I also have to write a 1200 word journal, so hopefully that should be up soon too.

4. One of my more abstract projects is an album cover design for my partner’s local Metal band, Taste the Blood. They’ve recently started recording their material after only a year of gigging and playing some great venues.

They’ve pretty much let me take over the cover, so I’m free to do what I please with it. So far I’ve come up with three basic ideas, the first being very basic: a beautiful, gothic woman, sitting drinking from a glass of blood.

The two other ideas I have are based on their main song on the EP, “Medusa’s Serpent”. One image is split in two and shows Medusa looking like an innocent young woman on one side, whilst her evil side takes over most of the album cover. The other idea is slightly more raunchy and features a topless woman holding a snake whilst blood pours from her eyes, nose and mouth. All very Metal.

All the ideas are based around the bands love of B-Movie’s and Hammer Horror films, hence the band name Taste the Blood (of Dracula). So as well as, I hope, giving the band a brilliant cover for their first EP, I will also be getting my work out to the general masses in the music industry, which suits me fine.

And so, that’s basically all of my professional work put into context. As always, comments and input are very welcome.

Film review: Antichrist - Not for the faint of heart

Without a doubt, Antichrist is as controversial as it claims to be, and is certainly not a film to watch when you are feeling let down by life, lest it cause mass-suicide.

As a fan of Lars Von Trier I am familiar with his other works of a similar nature; Dancer in the Dark, although displaying a message of hope and childlike imagination throughout, ends with an unhappy conclusion, whilst Dogville dedicates itself to showing how rotten human beings can become when threatened by beauty, innocence and youth. Both films deal with the vulnerability of women against men.

Antichrist deals with quite the opposite and has even been accused of being misogynistic, due to the theme of Witchcraft. I myself study Witchcraft and feminism, and found this to be just a paranoid comment by politically correct moron, whether male or female. Just because a film has a female villain, does not mean it is sexist.

I wont go into great detail, because trying to describe this movie in a few paragraphs is remarkably difficult, and I want to leave some surprises for you to find yourself. But if you do decide to watch it, be warned that it requires something of a strong will and gut. It also requires one to be open-minded, as the film is very “art-school”, with outdoor shots of nothingness to convey a sense of loneliness, and close-ups body parts to emphasize the effects of stress on the person.

It is filmed in four parts, or chapters, “Grief”, “Pain”, “Despair” and “The Three Beggars”, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. Although it isn’t that long (about an hour and forty) it feels much longer because of the airiness of the beginning and middle, and the action doesn’t really happen until the last twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately, this makes for a film that can only be watched every now and again.

The first five minutes or so is filmed in lustrous HD and scored beautifully, using the aria “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” (click here for Sarah Brightman’s version). The tragedy of the whole scene mixed with the operatic tones makes for a hear-wrenching opening scene.

It tells the story of a couple (known only as He and She) who lose their child in a freak accident. The mother blames herself and is unable to cope with his loss. She only finds comfort in quick bursts of passionate sex with her husband (which, would you believe, he is dead against!) and this serves to explain the amount of sex and nudity in the film.

In order to cure her, the psychiatrist husband takes her on a remote healing vacation to a cabin in the middle of some vast woods, ironically known as Eden, where she once stayed alone with her young son, and where the rest of the film is set. It is the place she fears most.

The trailer and the name of the film seem to hint at some supernatural tale, but that is far from the case. Everything is very real, and deals with the impact of grief, sexuality and insanity rather than ghosts or back-from-the-dead murderers. There is also an eerie twist, where you discover why their child died.

It’s a shocking movie, in more ways than one. Whether it’s the death of a child in the first few minutes, the graphic masturbation or constant scenes of sex, or the twisted abuse that She inflicts upon He in the final half hour, there is something that will disturb you when you watch Antichrist. And I do recommend it to the over-18s and the film-people out there. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are excellent as the tortured couple, and it is fair to say that you really pity them for what they go through…

You can watch the Trailer here.