12. Colin McHenry....

Hello again. This week started with a tutorial with Jonny, which was really positive. We talked about what I’d been working on and he advised that I take some more time to research and draw things related to the era I have chosen to set my book in (1950’s). Jonny being very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about things from the ‘50’s was really helpful and exciting, not only did he make a list of things to watch and research but he lent me some DVD’s- 'Suddenly' which is a Lewis Allen film from the 1950's with Fran Sinatra in (Allen, 1954). He also lent me 'Jazz on a summers day' (Avakian, 1959) which is footage from Newport Jazz festival in 1958. I've already watched it and it was really good to see some real fottage of what people looked like and the clothes they wore in that era. He also made me a CD of obscure 50’s tunes! Brilliant. Since then I’ve also taken a 50’s and 60’s source book out from the library to draw inspiration from too (Lindenberger, 1993).

                                       

Unfortunately my week went downhill after that! Thursday was our lecture and crit for the self-promo project with Colin Mchenry, and after the lecture we all gathered around the main table in the studio. We sat facing Colin and ALL of the tutors who had our envelopes in front of them, along with two bins; one shaped like a scary child’s face that was apparently the ‘good’ bin… and next to that just a regular ‘rubbish’ bin.

                                            

With clammy hands I watched in dismay as Colin McHenry selected my envelope and instantly looked not only unimpressed but completely baffled. It was then scrutinized by pretty much all of the tutors and stuck in the rubbish bin! Colin Mchenry expressed his opinion that it looked like college student work or something from sixth form? Although I am aware that my subject matter is rather immature and I also agree that the format I presented my work in had lacked enough thought and creativity, I did think that was a bit harsh! Although I suppose he is the expert. Also saying that though, I do believe that personal taste does have a level of involvement and I wouldn’t really expect somebody who likes Spitfire aeroplanes and the Beatles to enjoy my pictures of people being sick and drug-addict dinosaurs, so never mind! I did see some really impressive work from other students though and I certainly appreciate now how much thought has to be put in to promoting yourself, and I would definitely make some little comics next time. Ryan also had some awesome fridge magnets, I joked with him that anything I put on a fridge magnet would put people off their food so I am now considering brining out a line of ‘Quim’s weight loss assisting fridge magnets for the obese’, and taking it on to Dragons den. Watch this space.

I visited London again this weekend and on Saturday I met a friend and headed to Goodge Street area to look at the potential gallery for our show. I was pretty disappointed with it as I think the location is really important in terms of exposure and while it’s not completely out of the way it is fairly quiet around there, and the space itself didn’t exactly make up for its shortcomings in that department. It doubles as, and I think is predominantly, a framing shop. There was a wall at the front covered in frames to buy and two desks taking up another couple of walls, which are used for the business. In the back room one whole wall would have been unfit for use as it was some sort of mirrored walldrobe… Even though things like the price and things that came included within that were good, I even felt that even the young lady staffing the gallery thought we would benefit from somewhere elsewhere with better exposure. She also implored me to find out if anybody would support us and perhaps help us with costs, for example maybe some bars could supply us with drink, etc. for our private view. I’ll look in to things like this when we’ve arranged a venue. We went round the corner to the Conninsbry Gallery where last years degree show was held but they were closed, and hadn’t replied to my E-Mail prior to then. It looked nice inside though. We walked from Goodge street area to Soho and popped every gallery we passed with little luck, and while I was in Soho I stopped in Cowling and Wilcox to pick up a portfolio. I went for A3, and brown instead of black. It has 20 removable sheets so I can display up to 40 pieces.

Also above in some horribly innapropriate presentation thanks to my apparent inability to use blogspot efficiently, are some images I will definitely be displaying in my portfolio. I’ve been thinking about my portfolio a lot as I have my next tutorial next week. So far I have decided that I will have front and end pages with ten double page spreads in between, perhaps starting with some colour work, moving on through some of my narrative projects with some of my line drawings in the middle sandwiched between some more comic book work and go out with some more vibrant colour images. I’m currently undecided on the rest of my imagesand am eager for some more advice so I can start printing stuff! Anyway, back to the gallery business, we then headed to Brick lane to have a wander there. I passed a reasonably priced open gallery space and enquired about hire, I was told to E-Mail so I’m eagerly awaiting a reply because it was a great space and the location couldn’t be better!

Okay so FMP time, this week is meant to be page layouts and despite having made a lot of progress I’m still a week behind as I’m still just finalising my chosen media! Rekindling my unrequited love for the problematic and expensive Copic ciao markers, I spent a rather long time in Perry’s testing them all out on a page to see what colours would work with the tone of my book (and then left without buying anything). Whatever I use though I will be investing in some all purpose paper, as things bleed and don’t look as good on average paper.

 I then decided I’d draw my characters all on one page and colour some with my remaining Copic markers, some colouring pencils and even with my arch nemesis watercolour paint. I also scanned some and coloured them in digitally, one by simply filling and another using the half-tone method, which Jonny showed me. It was really good to see them all next to each other and I came to the conclusion that I actually didn’t want to use Copic markers again! I will probably exhibit my last comic with this one and I’d just like to work in a different way this time, plus it does look quite polished in Copics which perhaps isn’t very fitting. Although some parts of the watercolour work did look good, again it just has the wrong feel and I don’t enjoy working with it. Finally I ruled out just filling digitally as it might make it look too sterile and it’s set in the past so I think it could be the wrong way to go. I did like the use of half-tone though as despite being digital it does give an old-fashioned effect and it’s quite interesting to me as I’ve not worked that way before.

Next week I will do a mock page and scan it in, the original I will colour with pencils and the scanned one I will fill using half tone. When I’ve done that I’ll print the digital copy and place them next to one another to decide which way to go with it. If I chose half tone I will go straight on to my page layouts but if I chose pencil I might experiment with making some swatches using my colouring pencils, to enable me to produce it digitally without loosing the effect. I’m not sure if it will prove easier or more long-winded, but there’s only one way to find out! Also next week (along with my second portfolio tutorial which I’ve already mentioned) we have CV workshops, which should be interesting and useful. I’ll also be meeting Ines about the web comic to show her the penned pages and discuss colouring, drawing from my 50’s sourcebook and hopefully promoting the upcoming show! I’ll also find out if the London show is going ahead on Thursday, fingers crossed!

Ta for readin’ chuck,
Quim out