Johnny Learns the Hard Way

The upcoming Comica Comiket Festival, in London, got my tutor raring to go and he suggested ways we could put forward some work for our stall. We concluded that a new copy of our student comic anthology (DAWNS) would be a good idea.

Having missed out on contributing to the first two issues, I was eager to submit something. I was soon inspired by this article about children and teenagers playing on railway lines.

It struck a chord with me; don’t ask me how but I have seen the results of trains hitting people and it’s very disturbing. I recalled a rhyme I was taught as a child to keep me off the tracks. There are variations to the rhyme, but I decided to use this one, and put it into comic form.





The comic-style was largely inspired by Russian Communist Propaganda posters; bold with high contrast, minimal colour. But I was also influenced by Charles Burns’ Black Hole comic, which I've mentioned in a previous post, but have only just gotten round to reading.

The most astounding thing about this comic is that I managed to finish it at all, and first in the group wouldn’t you know. Sadly, a lack of extra contributors means that DAWNS 3 probably wont be at Comica.

No matter, the comic has given me further ideas for future work…

Lost In Liverpool Tweets

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but now it's officially the British Summer Holidays, it's time for me to get off my anatomy and work hard.

Last week I ran away to Liverpool. I'm quite fortunate that my Dad works and has a house there, so I can pretty much escape whenever I want. Saying that though, a single from Liverpool Central to Chester Station only cost me £4.35.

Anyway, on the Wednesday morning I visited the Tate Liverpool, which I've never been to before. I was expecting the usual pompous "art", and there was some, but I did find quite a lot of work that I really liked. I also tried something new to me and "Tweeted" my discoveries via my iPhone, which kept my friends and family up-to-date with what I was getting up to, and helped me keep track for my blogs.

Here you can see what I "Tweeted!"

Wednesday 7th July 2010

9am
"A warm breeze blows over the stank of the river Mersey. The Albert Dock is silent and still, but for a few early morning stragglers on their way to work. I am on my way to inspiration, a foreboding sense of failure filling me nonetheless. But first, I need a cup of tea."

9.37am
"The Tate Liverpool offers an exhibit on Pablo Picasso. I wouldn't say I'm his biggest fan, but I am in the mindset for looking at things from a "different perspective" today. And so I will give him the chance to teach me something. Everything is closed until 10, so I will spend a good half hour in Costa, listening to jazz. Already I'm feeling sleepy..."

10.25am
"So the Picasso "peace and freedom" exhibit is off limits. I cannot afford the £8 ticket. It's a shame that one must pay to SEE art, but I suppose one has to make money some way. I was tempted by the young lad on the door to take a job here myself. Imagine: working in a museum or gallery; constant change and diversity. I would be inspired 24/7. Either the tedious artwork would make me want to show off my own, or the fantastic pieces would encourage me to prove myself..."

10.35am
"I'm sat in an exhibit by one Rineke Dijkstra, called "I see a woman crying". The videos record several school children's reaction to Picasso's "weeping woman" piece. I'm sitting alone in this big dark room watching an 8ft screen on which a young girl - slightly overweight, brunette bundles in a ponytail, not quite unlike myself at her age - scribbles away at a sketchbook with a look of earnest concentration on her face. I'm reminded of how I used to be: determined to produce a good drawing, but ultimately not caring what anybody else thought of it. Sadly I do not get to see her finished work."


10.47am
"In the next room, a video is filmed from three angles, featuring a group of children commenting on the "weeping woman". I'm surprised by how attentive and genuine the little Scousers are, coming out with comments such as she's "lonely", "abandoned", "upset that she's the only one that looks that way" or a "ghost". Others make interesting note of the colour scheme, saying "there's lots of blue and purple" and "maybe Picasso just wanted to paint something colourful". But my personal favourite was that she "owes money". Gives you a good idea perhaps of how these city children were brought up. Incidentally, I have never seen this painting, but I will be seeking it out to see how their comments compare to mine."



10.54am
"As much as I've enjoyed the "I can see a woman crying" exhibit, to call it ART is a bit of an overstatement. It is more along the lines of an intriguing documentary. I think what singed me the most is how much this filmmaker has probably been paid to do something that the average film student could do in college. It seems almost effortless, and for that reason I am evermore irked by the Tate Museums. By all means display works like this, but don't put them up on a pedestal against work that has been painstakingly created through real talent."

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.

Bookjacket Brief Part Two – Final Blog

Finally, I have completed an entire brief from start to finish. As I said in Part One, this has probably been my most successful brief, I hope. It was relatively straightforward and full of experimenting and workshops, which I found enjoyable.

After the 3D workshop I was in the hub with Dave Kelly, getting ready to do the digital workshop, only to find out I already knew everything I needed to do to get on with it.

Using the very basics of Photoshop we were to create a 2-colour and black-line overlay print of the book cover.

I can’t stress how easy this part of the project was, I literally finished it in a matter of hours. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know.

I’d learned a lot about drawing in Photoshop from my Mabinogi project, and so I drew up a very bold black-line image of the front cover of my Bookjacket, using the pen tool. Then it was simply a matter of filling it in with different colours to see what worked.

The great thing about Photoshop is the hue/saturation option, which allows me to change any colour at will, allowing me to see what colours look nice where. This is the tool that made my job so easy, as I was able to mock up some designs in about an hour. Here are some, but not all, of the designs and colour combinations I came up with.




I was very partial to the neon pink/orange/yellow/black combination I came up with, and decided that those were the final colours I would use in the finished piece.

The fortnight afterwards I was doing on the Traditional Media workshop with Sue Thornton. After looking through some of the watercolour and acrylics work I’d brought in she gave me some tips and advised me that working in acrylics would be rewarding, but challenging. I heeded this advice, but decided I wanted to try and work with that medium nevertheless (see Tie Die post).

Finally, the Printmaking workshop with John Archer. I have been doing printmaking for over a year now, and although I enjoy doing it, I’m nowhere near perfect. After a disastrous start and a few mishaps I was sorry to only come out with three prints of any real tidiness. However, I managed to stick to my colour combination as you can see. It appears to work in most mediums!




And a few experiments and painful hours later, here is the finished piece in acrylics (and a watercolour pink).

Bookjacket Brief Part One – 3D Model

Beware if you don’t like spiders – this blog is completely centered around them.

Well, I have to say, this has possibly been the most enjoyable brief I've attempted this year, and (hopefully) the one that will save my hide during the assessments, as I feel I've produced my best work here.

As mentioned in previous posts, the Bookjacket brief required us to create a book cover for a nature-themed book. From all the subjects I decided to go for The World of Spiders, because Spiders are brilliant, intricate and so beautiful (a million women are screaming right now).

I started with the basic research, drawing diagrams such as the spider anatomy, facial close-ups, different species and the various types of spider’s webs, but when it came to the thumbnail designs it only took me about three or four drafts until I was happy with one design. See my Tie Dye post to spot the design.

I set my heart of the close-up of the spider face with their big pearly black eyes, making a few changes here and there throughout each draft. It was then that we were given our workshops.

For the first fortnight I had a blast working in the 3D buildings, which, annoyingly, I was not aware that I have been allowed access to for the last year and a half. At first I was clueless about what I wanted to do with the project, but after some inspiring demonstrations from Dave Jones, which included showing us how to carve into polystyrene and vacuum-form objects, I asked to have my arm cast in mod-rok; my idea was to adapt my ambition as a tattooist and “perform” the tattooing onto the cast arm, using only spider-themed images.

Here's me looking ecstatic:


Dave handed me a book to flick through called 500 Figures in Clay, an absolutely gorgeous collection of inspiring 3D art. I picked out a few of my favourites and photographed them to give myself an idea of what I wanted.







Once the arm cast had dried out I painted it a pale skin colour similar to my own, then set about designing some “tattoos” for it.



I’ll be the first to admit they are not precisely what I had in mind. This 3D work was to be my piece de resistance, but I rushed the tattoos and did not put much thought into them, and so I ended up with these.





When it came to transferring the designs to the arm-cast, I had visions of doing it the way tattooists do, using carbon paper. Alas, I could not get hold of any, so I transferred them by hand. It was probably the easiest part of the project, as painting them turned out extremely difficult. As the cast had been made quite rough and thick I had a hard time sanding it down and there were a lot of cracks and grooves that would disturb the paint. Watered-down acrylics would not take to it very well, and so I had to take my time, painting it with undiluted acrylics very slowly. Suffice to say my neck is still aching from the concentration.






And yet I am not particularly happy with the final outcome. I know this is because I rushed it near the end. In an attempt to polish up the rest of my projects I left this one until last minute and jeopardized it’s success. However, as my boyfriend stated, I sure did learn to plan ahead and take care next time around.

My plan was to do a series of arm casts painted to look interesting, for example: a tattooed arm, a zombie arm, a bionic arm, etc. It’s something I would perhaps like to look into doing next year.

As well as the arm cast I had a go at vacuum-forming a rubber spider, making a cast of it and creating my own little red latex spider. It was for no particular reason other than experimentation. However, in the end I decided to use it in the final 3D model as an arm adornment. Since glue didn’t hold it on, I actually had to sit there and stitch it to the cast!






I guess what they say must be true: “Prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance”. And don’t I know it!

Finally, in a very sad and ironic twist of fate, my tarantula Mandy died during the project. I brought her in after being told I could preserve her in resin to use as an ornament, paperweight, fancy decoration, whatever.

Here she is, lovely as ever!



Bookjacket Brief Part Two – Final Blog

The Pearl of Lulworth Cove

I feel compelled to share this with you all.

When I was in Dorset during Easter, I made it a mission of mine to seek out The Shell Painter, an artist I remember from my youth.

He would sit on the steps near Lulworth Cove beach and dazzle me with his beautiful paintings on shells, stones and bits of glass, some of them very tiny.

I was happy to find him still sitting there, painting his lovely little souvenirs, so I had to buy one.

I even spoke to him, told him I remembered him from my childhood. He told me he’s been doing it for twenty-odd years now, and that occasionally people would come up with their children, and insult him with comments like “you could do better than that.”

What they don’t see is the love and care that goes into his tiny works of art, and his steady hand. I purchased a small stone off him with a painting of a mermaid on it along with a poem:

"How often and often I wish
I lived in green depths like a fish!
No noise, not a thing,
But the mermaids who sing
Whilst their tales give a silvery swish.

Frances Cornford"

Take a look for yourself, it’s beautiful.


So I must insist that if you’re ever down in Dorset, head to Lulworth Cove beach and you’ll spot him a mile off. I took a photo of him myself, but you can find a much clearer one here.


Purchase one of his little treasures and encourage more artists to live the dream!

Blog 3: In which I am at peace with my ambitions

It’s been a while since my last post, but my exploration of the tattoo world is increasing each day!

I’m so excited. Soon I will be free for the summer to pursue an ambition that is fast becoming real to me. Of course, I’ve read enough to know that getting into the tattoo world takes time, patience, dedication and unbelievable talent (for those who actually appreciate fantastic art) but for the first time in my life I feel positive that I have found a place that I may belong in the art world.

However, everywhere I look I end up selling myself short; because I feel I am nowhere near up to scratch. I haven’t had the benefit of tattooing since I was 14 like some artists, but I have had the benefit of learning to draw throughout my entire life. I feel that the precious stone of my artwork is there, but that it really needs polishing and refining, which could take a while.

I have been reading up non-stop on tattooing, watching documentaries, investigating for over a year now, but I am still missing hands-on experience. In the tattooing world, it seems, there are literally millions of people gunning to be tattooists nowadays, and apprenticeships are harder to come by, because artists are reluctant to hire just anybody.

Which is why I need to create art that is worth its weight in gold.

I get that people don’t want shoddy artwork besmirching their skin, and many’s the time I have drawn something, only to hate it minutes later. I would feel awful if I were not a really good artist by the time I approached a tattoo studio, if not a great one.

And so, to prove to myself and to prove to others that I am not just in this for the so-called fame and glory of tattooing, that shows like LA and Miami Ink glamorise (although I love those shows, they are unrealistic), I asked myself why I want to become a tattoo artist:

1. To create artwork that fascinates people.

2. To gain further insight into a historic practice that intrigues me.

3. To become a better artist and a role model for my brothers.

4. To see the World.

5. To help people, most notably a close friend who suffers from Vitiligo (a skin condition that causes the pigments in the skin to fade).

6. It will allow me to learn a vast array of art styles: no limits.

7. It embodies a lot of styles that I am already familiar with.

8. It requires no phony degree, only raw talent.

9. I want to be an approachable woman in a predominantly male profession, and one other women and girls can look up to.

10. I wish to find my own “Mr Miyagi”: my sensei who will guide me on my path to artistic enlightenment!

11. I want my dad to want me to tattoo him.

12. At the end of the day, it feels right.

So I hope you can see that any passion I have for art is exclusively injected into this ultimate form right now!

On a final note, I can now be found on the forums of Big Tattoo Planet, under the name JemimaLee. This promises to be a very insightful website and a great way to communicate with fellow artists and skin-art fans, so if you happen to be on there don’t be afraid to add me as a friend!