Thursday, 9 August 2012
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
May 2012 Laydeez do comics
I am David Jesus Vignolli, I was the guest blogger for May. I am a comics artist and you can see more of my work HERE
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| Aneurin Wright |
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| Nancy K. Miller |
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| Nick Abadzis |
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| Isobel Williams |
Sunday, 29 April 2012
April 2012 Laydeez do Comics
With thanks to our guest blogger this April, who is Ottilie Hainsworth. Her work is at ottilie-hainsworth.blogspot.co.uk Click on the images below to enlarge them.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
March 2012 Laydeez do Comics
My Name is Robin Barnard. Have a look at my own blog here. I am this month's guest blogger for Laydeez Do Comics
This month we were treated to a group of new and very promising creative talents in the form of the London Print Studio Comics Collective Karrie Fransman writer and artist of The House That Groaned introduced the Collective in her role as Youth Arts Co-ordinator. The London Print Studio is a charitable organisation and funded this project, selecting six 20 - 21 year old creative talents from hundreds of applicants to offer them a six month internship. During this time, the successful applicants were encouraged to develop their work and as part of the experience each member hosted workshops with children aged 16-18. This Project is one I think we all at the Laydeez would say is both inspirational and very much a necessity and it is great to see people being given a chance to let their creativity grow and shine in such a positive way.
The collective have produced between them a fantastic anthology called Parallel Lives, published by Knockabout Pre-order here
The first member of the collective to present was
Abraham does comics which by his own admission seem to feature himself naked - one wonders if this a metaphor for how exposed a creator may feel when sharing something personal to them. Abraham also does semi autobiographic comic strips with an avatar of himself wearing a cape (masking himself safely underneath a veil), in normally mundane or normal situations - He has even has done a strip about his visit to the Laydeez
Abraham’s Contribution to Parallel Lives is a sample chapter from his big graphic novel project - which depicts the last day on earth an earth with super heroes, but with these heroes powerless to do anything to avert the impending disaster - what will these do - the sample chapter depicts a man trying to make up for lost time and some broken promises to his girlfriend (possibly wife) but ends up missing her entirely. What appealed to me most about Abraham’s work was its honesty, a true and raw edged graphic depiction of Abrahams' own sensibilities. Abrham has already found his voice, stays true to this and has a interesting way of looking at things which will make his work stand out.
The next member of the collective to present was
Jade drew a Laydeez blog entry for the December 2011 meeting which was both beautiful and inspiring in its design. Jade does a popular web comic http://cafesuada.smackjeeves.com, which she currently updates around once a month.
Jade did a self published graphic novel adaptation of The Tragedy of Antony & Cleopatra, completed for her final year of university. The project was heavily inspired by the Manga Shakespeare series, and re-sets the story in the 1920’s. Her contribution to Parallel Lives is a sample of Siddown, Jade's work in progress graphic novel, set on a train that can travel through time. The story features an unlikely couple who come from completely different time periods but are very much in love. By happenstance the lady who comes from the 1920s ends up coming off the train the same time as her boyfriend - now she is stuck in the future but they are now truly united and look like they will go on to be happy.
Jade has an eye for detail and design which is staggering. She admits to spending a lot of time considering the elements of the page, researching the look and feel, including textures and layouts but all based around strong central characters. All the elements combine together to elevate and to take the emotions and depiction of the story into many interesting places and Jade is also able to diversify with her styles bringing something different and unique to each project.
The next member of the collective to present was
Lily combines the use of a wide range of materials and methods to make her creations, from the traditional ink and paper, collage and even hand sewn or stitched images. Lily made a “rather silly comic”for the anthology Science Fiction Octuple Feature and made an adaptation of Gormenghast.
Lily is now working on Born Secular Which she says comes from a song from the album Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins. It also refers to the condition of the majority of young people living in the UK today. Lily’s contribution to Parallel Lives is Ham Sandwiches, a story set in a school about an alienated young woman who discovers a friend in the most unlikely of places and in the most unlikely person, it is warmly written with well defined and rich characters.
Lily is a complete innovator when it comes to choosing what to make a comic with and how and has a fantastic attraction to material textures colours and paints all lending themselves towards depicting the story in a very unique and rich way, Lily's work is literally tactile.
During the every popular mid session break, I took the opportunity to try and speak to these creators in person.
I was also treated to a display of original art by another contributor to Parallel Lives, Taymah Anderson, one of the younger workshop attendees who has great sensibilities in both storytelling and line work providing a unique and fresh perspective.
After the break the next member of the collective to present was
Shamisa is Belgian, a country that embraces the graphic medium and treats its as a serious art form she started with illustrations but wanted to make a sequential narrative. She describes her style as “clear line but with a lot of colour.” Shamisa is in the process of making a graphic novel based on her life and family called The Wanderer which she describes as “Two generations that collide in their search for the ‘other one'. A poetic atmosphere and personal words bind the two stories together.”
Shamisa’s contribution to Parallel Lives is Casual Conversations, a chance meeting between a woman and the man she has a casual fling with (not that he realises it). The depiction of the woman featured has to be one of the most real and honest characters I have seen.
Shamisa has a unique and personal fine line style which is combined with a very interesting use of colours, abstracted to the images almost like separate shapes / shadows suggesting layers of story.
The next member of the collective to present was
Merlin made 26 cars each showing a different art style (For example, Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism) after teaching herself how to draw each style. She has done some superbly detailed etched book illustration work for children's publishers and also made a massive baby sperm whale made of 100s of drawn squid for the Cork Street Open Exhibition as well as drawing myths such as the MINOTAUR. Merlin admitted she can be very demanding of herself in making beautiful creations yet really enjoyed an experiment of doing a complete drawing in just one sitting.
Merlin’s current project and also her contribution to Parallel Lives is taking famous love letters and adapting them into a graphic narrative - Parallel Lives features the love letter Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to Josephine, days before he went into battle. This piece of work is simply stunningly beautiful, taking the text into places far beyond the mere words themselves and deep into the feelings that are hidden in-between the lines and words of every sentence transposing emotion into heartfelt reality on the page in texture and form.
The final member of the collective to present was
Susan Yan Mach
Susan also contributed to a beautifully made Laydeez blog entry for last month's meeting in February. She sees the graphic medium as a conduit for universal communication in illustration without language and has a very great sense of graphic depiction. Susan is British Chinese and interested in sharing some her cultural heritage. She creates and writes comics exploring Chinese mythology and folklore.
Susan also contributed to a beautifully made Laydeez blog entry for last month's meeting in February. She sees the graphic medium as a conduit for universal communication in illustration without language and has a very great sense of graphic depiction. Susan is British Chinese and interested in sharing some her cultural heritage. She creates and writes comics exploring Chinese mythology and folklore.
Susan shared her contribution to Parallel Lives which is called Hungry Ghost Festival a ritual which is similar to Halloween but lasts an entire month. In the story she depicts a Chinese man born and bred in the West who is completely unfamiliar with any of his heritage or ancestral customs and puts him right in the middle of the Hungry Ghost Festival where his cultural ignorance makes him wonder what kind of mad place he has gone to (Comparing the experience to The Blair Witch Project)
The style and technique used are equally a unique fusion of styles both magna and westernised methods of storytelling, all beautifully depicted. I love that although the lead character is a surly and uneducated teenager, his heart is still very much in the right place and despite the crazy goings on, he still tries to make an (admittedly misguided) attempt to save someone.
In conclusion the collective learnt from each other as a group, severing as inspiration, help and a sounding board for each other, each pushing the others on with their beautifully creative output. All of the collective I would imagine feel both very lucky and proud to have shared such an experience and have possibly even surprised themselves with the things they have managed to do and the experiences that they shared.
One hopes to hear or see from this talented group in the future in ways that we here at the Laydeez could only begin to guess at - one thing's for certain it will certainly be a very interesting future indeed.
Monday, 27 February 2012
February Laydeez Do Comics
Meet Emma Mould:
(Please open all images in new tab by right clicking.)
Emma Mould opened up to us sharing her personal experiences, it was a moving moment and I couldn't help but admire her for it. This comic is just to sum up her talk with us, if you'll like to know more about her projects follow the links below:
Blogger: Emma Mould (Writer)
Blogger: Andrew Godfrey (Comics artist)
*On the first page, there are 2 images created by Andrew Godfrey and their projects!
Meet Karrie Fransman:
Karrie Fransman's explained admirably how she initially submitted her comic strips to 35 different newspapers, The Guardian were the "first and only" paper to respond. It portrays the reality of getting published and effort you have to go through for recognition. Never give up!
Moving with the flow of digitalisation in the media, Karrie has explored various comic forms, from an tilting iPad app to an interactive comic website for her graphic novel, "The house that groaned". Her debut graphic novel as already won the approval of many critics and the title of Foyles number 1 book. It delves into the themes of society's portrayal and expectation of the human body. Referring to academic psychologists, she pays homage to Norbert's Elias' term of "Homo Aperti", the open man who behaves according to his own natural desires, not embarrassed about his own bodily functions. Society develops creating restrictions to allow us to fit the norm, one of which is how we look physically. Karrie compares the idea of Nigella Lawson VS Gillian McKeith and how we obsess about what we should eat constantly to avoid diseases, obesity etc.
A quote that Karrie refers to is:
"The individual body can be studied as a canvas on which the anxieties and discourses of the larger, social body are reproduced." -RW Connell: 2002
Meet Dr Ann Miller:
Dr Ann Miller analysed the work of Bagieu, depicting it as an autobiographical piece that features multiple selfs. The voice over/narration is ironic and portrays feminism as puritanism. Similarly to Karrie Fransman work, Bagieu's work also compares body images, but in a negative light. The idea of a "Grotesque body VS the Classic Body" is compared to the working class VS the middle class, depicting the fear of ageing. Miller explains how "Gender" is about "performance", thus the image of "feminity is a mask". This could also be seen in Cindy Sherman's photography. Through self sexualisation and masqurading, women empower themselves, boosting their confidence. Some examples would be Madonna, the "Virgin Whore".
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
January Laydeez do Comics
Hey all, faybird33 here, guest blogger for the first Laydeez do Comics of 2012. I write one page comic art mostly about sex, society, relationships. You can check me out at www.faybird33.com. I also run an online resource for creatives at www.wildanduntamedthings.co.uk.
So, to the speakers. First up was Karen Rubins who told us about her symbolic, fantasy comic book Blood Magic. Inspired by her residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Blood Magic is set in 16th century Medieval England, and focuses on a village where the women use their menstrual blood for magic and rituals. Karen showed us several concept drawings, describing the mood of the piece as dark and dramatic. She spoke about how objects at the V&A – like a gold German goblet – gave her the setting and influence for Blood Magic. Other V&A objects that influenced the design and characters included stained glass windows, sculptures, woodcuts and early printed texts. She showed us some artwork from Blood Magic. The illustrations were in black and white, except for the blood which was red to show the significance of the magic. Karen explained that she used certain materials to give an air of authenticity, such as rough, off white paper. She discussed some of the symbolism behind the images, such as the blood, rabbits – meaning fertility, sheep – representing farming and village life and also a symbol of sacrifice. She also mentioned the Book of Signs as a reference for the magic symbols. It was all very interesting, and rather intriguing.
Next on was Dan Locke, a writer and illustrator based in Brighton, who spoke about his passion for making comics. He showed us his first comic, a piece inspired by his work as a dish washer at a local cafe, where he focused on people watching, imagining their lives. Then he showed a comic about a strongman’s son in the circus and said how this strip lead to a series of strips that set the precedent for everything he has made since. He explained why he started to create autobiographical comic strips, and showed some examples of these earlier pieces. These strips lead to Dan getting a three month residency at an Islington housing association for people with serious mental illnesses and violent crime, where he ran drawing workshops. His project was to retell some of the residents' stories, and these stories were made into a pamphlet and given out at Islington Exhibits in 2010. He showed us a couple of strips he made for various anthologies and comic book reviews. He then talked about his current project, a book about his early life and the house he grew up in. The book is titled 311 District Road. Dan was a charming speaker, giving us an honest and often amusing glimpse into his world, mind and creations.
The break gave us Sarah's fantastic homemade lemon cake, chocolate brownies and peach cake. After stretching our legs and chatting we were back to the final speaker,
Jacqueline Nicholls
Jacqueline Nicholls
Jacqueline is an artist and Jewish educator. Her art combines the two – her learning and her drawing. She spoke of her interest in mixing text and drawings. She showed us various works: two multi-layered silk screen prints, an intricate paper cut – a rather amazing piece of work created from a single sheet of paper; and fifteen small squares of white cotton embroidered with the words ‘maybe this month,’ representing the hope of fertility treatments. Jacqueline told us about her time in New York, where for forty-nine days she walked the city, marking each day with a drawing of objects she found in the street. These New York drawings were beautifully illustrated and emotive. She started this project to give herself a daily drawing exercise, and she spoke candidly about the fear which went alongside putting the work on her blog. Jacqueline‘s talk was very personal, moving and honest. Her work is striking, emotive and unique – rather like her.
And there you are, another interesting evening with the Laydeez (and some men), in London. Happy New Year and stay gold, faybird33.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
December Laydeez do Comics
Hi there Laydeez.
I’m Jade Sarson, an illustrator and comic creator based in Milton Keynes. I recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a first class honours degree in Illustration, and am currently one of six comic interns at the londonprintstudio (if you went to last months meeting you may have met Shamisa, one of the other interns). I am currently working on developing my first graphic novel alongside the internship, and also frequently update my webcomic Cafe Suada, both of which you can find out more about on my website: http://teahermit.co.uk/
So yup, I’ll be your guide to what happened at this month’s festive meeting.
The evening began with the usual game of introducing yourself and answering a question, this months being “What was your best/worst Christmas present?” There were a lot of interesting answers, including Sarah Lightman’s hilarious cop out of “I’m Jewish, we don’t DO Christmas”, but I think my favourite was the person who declared socks the best gift ever to give or receive. I have to agree, socks are awesome!
Then Rachel Abrams was up. Rachel told us a bit about her illustration work for Turnstone, projects for big mega corporations which have influenced the way she approaches her personal projects. She also explained who her artistic influences are, from Asterix comics to Spiegelmann, as well as cartoons by Matt Groening and projects by RSA Animate. Rachel was humble about her work for large corporations and said that they were nothing in comparison to pitching about her personal projects, which is far scarier because they are just that: they’re PERSONAL.
Her current project is very engaging… she used the phrase “I’ve got this friend who…” to sum up the premise. This new comic of hers aims to take all the tales Rachel has heard about a certain subject and tackle them in an ambivalent way. And the subject?
Female fertility.
Rachel has observed that women everywhere feel a natural unhappiness regarding their own fertility. Society pressures them to have children and lots of women are turning to modern science to solve their problems. IVF treatment and egg freezing procedures are becoming far more commonplace these days, and this is a subject that Rachel is determined to try to explain and question in her new comic project.
However, what was interesting about her talk was that she was very keen to ask the Laydeez about her target market… she was keen to identify who the comic was for, very specifically, so that she could have them in mind when creating the comic. “Is it for young women? Will boyfriends read it? Should I pitch it to drug companies?” she asked us.
The Laydeez piped up at this point. Several attendees were very adamant that this project, though on the fence about the delicate subject matter, is something personal to Rachel, and therefore SHE is the audience. She should write and draw it for herself. Personal projects are done for that exact reason. And the conclusive point made was that by isolating her feelings in this comic, Rachel will in fact draw in MORE readers. I am certainly looking forward to seeing where she takes the project from here, especially after seeing a sample panel which compared female fertility to the fearsome power of a nuclear bomb.
Sarah finished by talking a little bit about her experience with curating exhibitions such as currently touring Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women. She feels that it is very important that the history of comics should cover women too, and not just the leading male creators, so her exhibitions aim at exposing the world to female creators’ work and influencing academia – Sarah has spoken at several universities as part of the exhibition. Hopefully the message is being heard. That is, after all, what Laydeez Do Comics is all about.
There was a little break after Sarah’s talk to eat baked goodies and chat… I met Mike Medaglia (everyone had been congratulating him on his wedding that evening, there was a lot of clapping, haha!) and we talked a lot about webcomics and the Gosh!p meets, which I must go to in the future, they sound like a lot of fun. I also managed to grab Paul Gravett for a second (he moves fast!) to mention that myself and the comics interns will be attending Strip Turnhout on the 10th, an event Paul had mentioned that evening in the announcements.
After that quick break it was time for the third speaker of the evening to step up: Marcia Mihotich. Marcia is obsessed with grids! Hahaha. I think you had to be there, but suffice to say, Marcia really does like grids. She is a graphic designer and illustrator, and has designed for architects, animations, magazines, book covers and book illustrations (I believe she has either completed or is in the process of illustrating a book called “How to Stay Sane”), and also draws her own comics. Marcia showed us lots of great examples of her design work, and explained how she is very accustomed to using simple but effective techniques and framing. She uses grids to compose her comic page layouts, and uses techniques such as image layering for colour application and ‘the changing speechbubble’ to tell some very clever narratives. (To explain the changing speechbubble: Only the content of the speechbubble changes, the contents of each panel do not.)
Marcia then told us about how the birth of her son affected her life. “I spent so much time in the park” she remarked dryly. She used this to her advantage, however, creating beautiful graphic artwork of the park from many different perspectives, in different seasons and colours, using a layering technique to separate each aspect. She also made use of the time that her son was playing in the park to observe other people – the mums and their children. Whilst doing a lot of observational sketching she overheard plenty of hilarious life stories, and has made use of them in her comics. She explained a concept known as toxic chatter, which I found particularly fascinating: toxic chatter occurs when you are speaking about something mundane to someone and are putting on a polite façade – inside your head, you say mean, frustrated, irritated things until they go away, and this is what’s known as toxic chatter. I loved being able to finally call it something. I’m afraid this blogger is an avid toxic chatterer! Can’t help these things I suppose.
Aaaanyway. It was very entertaining to listen to Marcia, she is a naturally dark humoured, witty storyteller. She finished her talk with a sneak peak at her in-progress “SPY” comic, which everyone at Laydeez agreed made beautiful use of huge, black shadows and large areas of black inking, for dramatic effect. Cannot wait to see more of this comic, I hope she keeps it going alongside her design work! “I do it when I can, when I can find the time” she said. Well let’s hope she does.
Finally it was time for the other founder of Laydeez to step forward, Nicola Streeten! Nicola has been all over the media recently promoting her new graphic novel, Billy, Me & You, which she talked a lot about in the last speech of the evening. Nicola started drawing again after her son Billy died, starting from the bottom (illustrating greeting cards) and working her way up through the years to illustrating clever map advertisements for local businesses. She eventually moved to Lincolnshire, began printing a zine called Liquorice with help from her young daughter (which is still going) and signed up for a Masters course at the University of Lincoln. (Somehow Nicola navigated the labyrinthine illustration department there and found my degree show, which is how we met a few months back. Small world!)
Nicola then focused a lot on the development of Billy, Me & You over the course of several years, and gave us a privileged look at her notes and sketches she made while developing the story and illustrations. It was also during this time that she met Sarah Lightman. As both Nicola and Sarah have ties to the fine art community – they realised that they knew plenty of people from that community, and decided they wanted to meet more people from the comics community – and that, readers of this here blog, is how Laydeez Do Comics first began!
Nicola followed on from this very chronological talk with lots of design work for B,M&Y. She explained how her literature review (a stage in the creation of a new project where you pretty much look for every other work that is similar to yours, and is often an offputting stage for new creators!) was a great aid to her artistic development. She used techniques inspired by a lot of comics she had read, such as the emotional rendering of Barefoot Gen, in B,M&Y to great effect. Nicola also explained that the passage of time was an important aspect of the graphic novel, and she used photography sparingly to emphasise this. Toxic chatter rears its head again this evening, oddly enough, as Nicola then goes on to analyse the misinterpretations of her own comic. The moments of awkward socialising depicted in the graphic novel, Nicola explains, are interpreted differently by different readers. For example, a panel where a friend moves Billy’s t-shirt out of the way and then metaphorically stabs Nicola and her husband, has also been interpreted as Nicola metaphorically stabbing the friend, which Nicola found odd, and the Laydeez attendees certainly found interesting.
To conclude the evening, Nicola mentioned some helpful information for other comics creators, which I took careful note of.
She mentioned Myriad Editions, publisher of Billy, Me & You, and how though they call themselves a small publisher, but it is not about size. It is important when you secure a publisher for your work that they have the right contacts for promoting your book, as Myriad have for Nicola. She has already been reviewed by several noted comics shops and newspapers, and was featured on Channel 4 news too. Lots of great press for the launch of the book, then, and something to bare in mind when looking for a publisher for your own project in the future.
And lastly, Nicola mentioned the key things to do when creating your own graphic novel (I was paying a lot of attention at this point, as it is rare that creators will flat out tell you what works and what doesn’t, so this was very good of Nicola for the Laydeez. I’ll elaborate a little on the points she made).
When creating your own graphic novel:
DO A LITERATURE REVIEW
Its important to look at what’s already out there, and identify where your work will fit into the market
READ WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE
Yup, it sounds silly but really. It’s important. The more informed you are, the better your comics will be. Once you've identified your genre within the field, try to work out why there are some works that you don't find quite so great.
WRITE PROCESS NOTES
WRITE PROCESS NOTES
Nicola showed us messy scrawlings which laid out her story, and I myself take up pages and pages to scribble out my narratives. It’s good practise to separate your narrative into the sections or chapters, and then work on the design from there.
DON’T WORK ON YOUR GRAPHIC NOVEL IN ISOLATION
Sure, at the end of the day lots of us prefer shutting ourselves away to get final work done, but when you’re developing your comics it is important to get feedback! How can you know it’s any good if you are the only one judging your work? And to reinforce my point earlier, getting out and away from your usual workspace will inform and educate you, and the more informed you are, the more interesting and fun your comics will be to read.
And that’s pretty much it! How educational.
I had a great time at this month's meeting, and learnt a lot. I hope you enjoyed reading about it all! Good luck to Nicola and Sarah with the next Laydeez Do Comics meeting, which will be on Monday 16 Jan - the first one in 2012! And thanks again to Nicola for giving me the role of guest blogger this month, it was fun.
~Jade Sarson
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