The Mabinogi: BBC Wales Project

Well this blog has been a long time in the making; for those of you who don’t know, about this time last year I was approached by Gareth (wont mention any last names) from BBC Wales. Apparently an old college tutor had recommended me to him for something in the pipeline called “The Manga Mabinogi.”

The Mabinogi (or Mabinogion depending on who you’re hearing it from) are a collection of Welsh Legends and Fantasy stories written hundreds of years ago in the style of The Legend of King Arthur (he actually features in the tales). There is much written about them online, and many translations, and the BBC had decided to do their own version to post onto the BBC Wales website.

Gareth was looking for an artist to do some illustrations to accompany the tales. They wanted them to be in a very bold, almost Manga-style, to appeal to young people. After a few “audition” pieces, where I used watercolours, and then moved onto Photoshop and Manga Studio, Gareth miraculously loved my work (you will notice that I put myself down a lot in this post).

In August last year he presented me with the brief, and asked me to deliver by January.

I toyed with some designs for a few months but I ultimately ended up leaving everything till last minute. In the last few weeks I attempted to learn how to use Photoshop to the best of my abilities, having to use the pen tool to draw entirely because I did not have access to a working scanner. In the end I wound up with RSI: repetitive strain injury, in which my back and neck were severely crippled, my eyes ached from gazing at the computer screen and I developed a habit of shaking whenever I had to draw.

Interesting titbit: During the making of Toy Story 2, which was done from scratch in nine months, a number of Pixar employees developed RSI, one of which was never able to work at a computer again. Thus Pixar now have an employee protection system where they allow their workers to relax regularly with Yoga, Basketball and other activities. How’s that for employee benefits?!

Anyway, my RSI stunted me greatly and I felt like I had really let Gareth down. But, and I must point this out as important, Gareth was so, so incredibly kind about the situation, so generous and unlike anything I had thought a client was supposed to be like! He offered me an extension and asked me to take my time, even going so far as to offer to send me a printer/scanner or software to help me!

However, I declined and just took the new deadline. The second time around I was not going to mess up. I organised myself and worked my butt off. And by March this year I delivered to the BBC eleven illustrations and a title page, via Dropbox (seriously, this is the best file-transferring site around, I highly recommend it!). The guys at the BBC were very pleased and praised me highly, which really gave me a confidence boost. They asked me to draw two more images over Easter to go with some games that Cube Interactive had produced to go with the website.

It was the most nerve-wracking, exhausting project I’ve ever undertaken, but also the most rewarding. I learned so much about working in Photoshop, about my own style and how I can develop my skills. I learned so much about colour theory and combinations, and composition, which this time last year I had no clue about. I also learned how textures could be used as overlays in Photoshop to give warmth and a dreamy wash to images, and I used a lot of different textures in this project, such as parchment and stone, to give each illustration an otherworldly, book-like feel.

The style I went for is inspired by Manga, but I didn’t want it to be completely Japanese, as they are Welsh tales, so I added a pinch of realism to the character’s figures, as well as my own personal style (which frankly needs re-working so that it is more recognisable). My colour palette consisted of clichéd pastel colours, as I didn’t want anything to be too bright or colourful. The illustrations needed to retain the ancient book look, and I found that this worked well with darker colours.

As you’ll probably notice I also went very minimal on the backgrounds. I did this for two reasons: Firstly, the background, unless stated in the story, presented no extreme importance, as the stories centred mainly on the characters and their emotions/reactions. So I focused on them for more impact, and I feel that it works well, as I was able to give each illustration a “mood” by using certain colours/textures/lighting.

Secondly, I am not at all adept at drawing backgrounds. That’s rather an understatement really, as I have very little grasp of perspective and am still learning (doesn’t help that my depth perception in everyday life is slightly off). While I would have loved to do some amazing scenery, I felt it was in the best interests of my client that I not attempt something that I am extremely bad at, to save ruining the whole image.

Overall I’m pleased with the outcome, and the subsequent popularity it has afforded me among fellow artists, as it was a huge learning curve for me. Sure, it may be the only commission I ever get, but it’s still something to add to my CV!

Here are a few of my favourites from the bunch, and you can find the rest, as well as the fascinating stories, here. It is all in
Welsh, but if you don’t speak it you can still play the games and look through the gallery.


These are the two duelling dragons from Lludd and Llefelys. I based the red and the green on the Welsh flag, but also used those colours because they contrast so brilliantly. I think I’m most proud of this illustration because of its impact, and also the fact that it was the first time I’d ever designed dragons from scratch.


Not a very interesting image, but I love this one for the idea behind it. Gareth wanted a title page of sorts for the website, and I juggled between the idea of having the title look like it had been carved into stone, or having the title look like an old wax seal. Ultimately the seal looked far more cool. I went through various tutorials online about how to make one in Photoshop, but in the end I wound up making it on my own by playing about with Photoshop (it’s amazing what you learn when you’re not trying to!), and I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.


Finally, this image is the first one I completed, and what a feeling it was! Blodeuwedd is the character I “auditioned” in the beginning when I was trying to get the job, and I bonded with her so well that I had to use her in the final image. This is where she is born into the world by broom, meadowsweet and oak. One of the main reasons I like this image so much is that I got to explore the brush tool by making my own. Each flower, leaf or blade of grass is a brush mark that I was able to create in Photoshop. I also used this “make your own” brush tool in a couple of other pictures. See if you can guess which ones.

The Mabinogi are truly fascinating tales and it would be interesting to see this develop into a comic series, or books, or even a television show. They’re full of fantasy, magic, darkness – everything you want in a good story!

I hope you’ll check out the Mabinogi website, not just for my benefit, but also for those others that have put so much effort into making it a reality.

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!

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.