27. Bibliography.

ALLEN, Lewis. Suddenly. Libra Productions Inc. 1954.

AVAKIAN, Aram & STERN, Bert. Jazz on a Summer’s day. Galaxy Productions, 1959.

BUKOWSKI, Charles. Bukowski on Bukowski. Little Lagoon Press.

CATON-JONES, Michael. This Boy’s Life. Knickerbocker Films. 1993.

DAYGLO, Rufus & MARTIN, Alan. We Hate Tank Girl. Image comics, 2011.

DE NIRO, Robert. A Bronx Tale. Price Entertainment. 1993

GIRLS, The Guerilla. The Guerilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 1998

GROGAN, Geoff (Chief Editor- Various artists). POOD. Cutting edge comics for mature readers 2. Big If Comics, USA, 2010.

KANE, Shaky & HINE, David. The Bulletproof Coffin, The Dotted Line. Image comics, 2010.

LEWIS, Jerry Lee. Great balls of fire. Sun Records. 1957.

LINDENBERGER, Jan. Collecting the 50’s and 60’s -  A handbook and price guide,1993.

MARTIN, Alan & HEWLETT, Jamie. Tank Girl. Penguin Books, 1990.

McCLOUD, Scott. Understanding comics, the invisible art. HarperPerennial, 1994.

MESSERSCHMIDT, Franz Xaver. The heads. 1871.

RAWLE, Graham. www.grahamrawle.com. 2011

RYAN, Johnny. Erotic Art Collecting Squirrel. Vice Magazine. 2010

SCORCESE, Martin. Mean Streets. Warner Bros. Pictures. 1973.

SCORCESE, Martin. Raging Bull. United Artists. 1980.

SHRIGLEY, David. What the Hell are you Doing? Canongate Books Ltd. 2010

STEIN, Gertrude. Ada. NOBROW LTD. 2010

TARABISCOUILLE. Poisson Gelatine. The Hoochie Coochie, 2010.

UNSWORTH, James. Ninja Turtles Sex Museum. NOBROW LTD, 2010.

VAN LANTE, BLANCO, BRUNNER, STAPLES. Marvel Zombies 5. Marvel, 2011.

WIGAN, Mark. www.markwigan.co.uk, 2011.

WOOD Ashley & MARTIN, Alan. Tank Girl, The Gifting. IDW Publishing, 2007.

WOOD Ashely & MARTIN, Alan. Tank Girl, Visions of Booga. IDW Publishing, 2008.

26. Conclusion.

ENCORE, ENCORE!!!! Oh, well… If you insist!! I’m back for one last post, to talk briefly about how I feel my project -including this blog, has gone. I’ll also talk a little about the future! (Arrrrgh!!)

Generally, I think my final product as turned out really well (Judging from the sample at least!) However, I’d be a big fat liar if I said it’d gone completely smoothly! I have a slight concern that with bookmaking, I’m never left with a very impressive amount of support work! The final images take so long to produce that I often find it lacking, I have a big pile of original images, which went in to making my book that is probably the equivalent of another sketchbook, but alas it is not. I can only hope that people understand that this is often just the case when it comes to making a book. Despite that, I think my biggest problems are indecision and poor time management, and I think it is very easy to underestimate the amount of work (and expense!) that has to go in to actually self-producing a whole book. In a more positive light though, I managed to not encounter the barrage of problems I did with my last book, so it’s a good feeling to be able to say that I’ve learn a lot from my mistakes (apart from the indecisiveness and time managing issues which I’ve mentioned, but I think those things are more like elements of my personality which need broaching). I’ve also discovered that I’d like to get out of my comfort zone more and get better at Photoshop. After having taken time to think about our CV’s, I’ve realized what a good skill it is to possess, especially as an aspiring illustrator, and at the moment I’m not really confident enough to boast experience in it. I’ve learnt how to use half tone fairly well though, and I’ve also learnt to never leave a page blank! Most importantly I’ve learnt how much I can actually achieve in a day when I put my mind to it, and how important it is to leave enough time so that I don’t HAVE to do that much in a single day, ‘cause it gives you a headache!!

 As for the blog- I’ve resented it at times when I’ve got so much else to do in regards to my book, (and at times it’s been VERY annoying as a website) but generally I’ve quite enjoyed keeping it! I like to write, and it’s a good way to vent and get things clear in your own head; it allows you to see what you’ve achieved and what’s left to tackle. I also think that regularly updating my blog is the first sign of improvement when it comes to my time management, god knows how I’d have pulled this off if I’d left it to the last minute!! I also have to thank the presentation document for the fact that I now have a half decent CV, weeks before uni ends. It’s something (blogging) that I could even see myself keeping up with (work based, obviously, I wouldn’t be banging on about my day or anything uninteresting and self-indulgent like that) but I think it’s a good incentive to keep working too, and it’s always a good idea to gather a bit of web presence.

Before I leave you in peace, I’ll take a little time (I won’t bore you, I don’t even have any nice pictures to break it up a little this time) to discuss what’s next for the Quimster. In the immediate future, it’s the degree show, which I’m really excited about! I can’t wait to get my instillation set up, to finish my portfolio and to print my other book. After that we’ll be taking it up to London – and that’s not the only thing going to London! I’m moving up at the start of July, obviously I’ll need a job... but for now, and in true Kim style- that’s where my plan ends. But watch this space!! ‘cause it’s not over yet!

Once again, what a pleasure it’s been…
Quim – Over and out??

25. My Final Post!

Awite all. You may notice that my layout has changed, and most of my formatting problems with it!! 'bout bleedin' time, ay! But anyway, before I go, I shall let you know whats been occuring over this past week. This week has basically been the final week for me as my deadline for printing is tomorrow, so I've been VERY busy and as you know the last time I posted I still had an awful lot left to do!

I'll start from the beginning. On Monday I saw Alexandra about the blog, and she told me how I could make it a bit better, for example I should talk about things that influence me more, and why I like them. She suggested I have images of other artists work next to mine, demonstrating the similarities, etc. The problem is, I will use references when I need to but I'm more inspired by things in my own head and I try not to emulate the style of others, cause I think originality is the best thing an artist can posess. I also tend to commence blindly and stubbornly with what I want to do, I don't know if it's a good thing or bad, but perhaps this is a reason for why maybe my posts are slightly lacking in that sense. Either way I'd been making sure that was all done ready for the deadline Friday, which is now also tomorrow due to Blogspot being a poo head on Thursday!!! After that I saw Jonny, whom I confidently told I'd have no problem completing my book digitally in the new few days. That was obviously rubbish and the next day I went to Perry's and spent £40 on none other than a selection of Copic Ciao paint markers! I'll tell ya why... Firstly I just wouldn't have had the time to colour it all digitally, but most importantly and rather than seeing it as a defeat I see it like this: I had always wanted to seperate the flashback (which is the bulk of the story) from the prsent day. After experimenting with the half tone effect and seeing how it looked, I realized it looked very polished and laboured. Although I think it looks really good, this didn't really suit the format of the flashback, as I'd wanted it to look a lot more low-fi. When I tried dumbing the use of half tone down a bit, I found that it looked very poor and lazy, or I'd end up using more block colour than I'd have liked to and that completely destroyed the point of using the half-tone, as it was meant to give it a vintage feel as opposed to a modern one. I took it back to the drawing board, so to speak, and remebered that the tutors had told me that coloring pencil was pretty much going too far the other way. It's a very primal medium, which they thought may detract from my work. There seemed to be nothing else for it, but my beloved Copic Ciao's! The hand-done element was exactly what it needed and I think they just offer a really beautiful effect. I also greatly enjoy using them, whereas I find working digitally a lot less fun.

So I cracked on with all that, scanned in my pages (Including the remaining pages of Keth for printing), finished the digital work, tidied it all up and slapped it all in a PDF! For the back cover (and the title spread), and much to my housemates dismay, I started burning paper in the kitchen and covering it in teabags (Just like making a treasure map!! Arrr). It turned out really well and I kept the back really simple by simply overlaying some torn bits of white paper with a very brief blurb on them. The title page just dons the logo. It was initially on plain white paper, but I saw Jonny just before taking it to reprographics and the said that it was a waste of paper, which is totally true, and I really like the look of it now with the drop shadow (and ya gotta get yer moneys worth, eh!!) So basically, the bulk is in pen, and the inroduction and follow on are both in half tone. This includes the poster at the end which will be featured on my wall of the exhibition.

So! I think I've built you up enough- Here's my bloody book!!

When I took it down to reprographics I had a sample printed and after changing he layout a few times, we decided on some paper and we were done. I made one or two minor changes over the weekend and I'm going back to the the lovely chap from repro monday at 4, and then it's officialy on it's merry way to becoming a bona fide book!! How exciting.

You may (or may not) be wondering what's going on with the production of 'Keth the Manosaur', but alas... I had not the time to prepare both! However, I plan to get it all together one evening this week and take it to repro later on in the week, that way even if it's not ready by the deadline for setting up the show, it'll definitely be ready before pivate view, and I figure I can slope in and add it to my display. Saying that, it might not even fit in now I've gone for the full on instillation, but I'd like it printed anyway, and I'd like to try and sell some in the shop too.

Talking of the show, I'm really excited about it! Bring it on I say! So for me, the next two weeks are all about that. I also need to do a lot of printing with regards to my portfolio! it doesn't end there either, I've confirmed some bands for my third and final fundraiser and organizing things for the London show never stops!

Anyway, that's enough from me, it's sincerely been a bloody plesure-
Quim- Over and Out!!

24. Lost entires!!!

Soooo Blogspot went down on Thursday night for 20 hours and all my new entires got lost, including changes I'd made to existing ones! How frustrating. Luckily the new entries have come back, but I've still lost all the changes I made! Grrr. Good thing the deadlines been extended to Monday! Either way, I'd better get writing!
Quim out.

23. So We're 'Drawing' to a Close

allo! Well this week, as you can see below, I received my business and post cards! Plus a free, shiny, metal holder… Which was all very exciting! Here’s a picture without my stoopid face in it of those:

I’ll need to get holders for them. We also had the deadline for our degree show requirements early this week so I got mine sent off. Pete got back to me to let me know that I’d been allotted a glass display case for my work. This was really nice, but not the way which I’d envisioned displaying my work, so we had a little chat about it and I showed both him and Jonny this terrific little illustration:

…It was really positive, and I’ve now been moved in to what used to be a changing room in the empty shop outlet where we’re having our degree show this year. Perfect for a little instillation! We have also discussed having a concertina partition wall down the centre of our London degree show, so we even talked about having the back wall of my instillation on a moveable board, which could then be attached to said partition, making it easier to re-create for the London exhibition. You may notice (but probably not) there are a couple of changes from the doodle I put up in my last post- I’ve changed my mind about the plinths for a start, I’m going to go to the tip and get my hands on a grubby old cabinet instead so it looks more authentic. I’ve also got some brown carpet tiles and on Wednesday I took my lovely granddad down to a DIY shop to help me pick some 1950’s-esque wallpaper to go on the walls of my instillation. I found a really great one that is orange and brown with vertical geometric patterns on it:

Pretty cool, huh? I scanned this in on Thursday because I thought it might look good to use it as the background for the images of Firm Turd’s house. I also picked up a few other samples while I was in the shop, and although I decided they weren’t fitting for ‘Turd’s bachelor pad, that I could use them as swatches for his and his wife’s old house. I also burnt the one from his house to represent the effect I will convey in the show. Here they are:

I’m also on the hunt for a suitable Jerry Lee Lewis record to go in a Viynl frame, however at this rate I may be printing an image from the Internet and sticking it to card, as they’re fairly rare and expensive! Here’s a couple of possibilities for that…  Well, actually just one- as the other one is on E-Bay and I can't save the picture. This is the more modern looking of the two so perhaps less suitable:

Anyway back to Wednesday evening… It was Jen and Jens fundraiser at Lennons. DJ Derek was in his rightful place on the decks and it was a fab night. I even made some little fluffy, pink cakes with Tom and Jerry effergies on them! They raised £215! (The whole night, not my childrens cakes...) Which brings our total up to around £1400 and with another 3 fundraisers (including art stalls) and another 3 separate art stalls to go, we should be able to make it!! We discussed all this in a London show meeting on Friday, after a meeting during which we were given some timetables detailing the new few vital weeks. We figured that we’ll need another £840 for the rest of the gallery hire, all that we need for the Southampton show is really the bar, which could be around £300. We will also need that again for the London show, plus more on top for everything else London show related, which is basically all that’s left to cover!

Putting the FUN in FUNDraising! Ho ho (...is that joke old yet???)

I think out main problem is really knowing what to do next! We made a chart of things that needed doing, upon which people could volunteer themselves. We now have people assigned to sorting out transport, posters, etc, etc. Some questions that need answering were highlighted and I’ve been in touch with the gallery owners today addressing those. I will also be making a rota for staffing the gallery, and speaking to Ben about making the partition wall. Also, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but the organizers of the awesome Ejector Seat Arts Festival (<check the website out. It's swell. Especially if you enjoy dinosaurs like I do.) offered me a stall there when I asked if my third and final fundraiser could also act as their after party (they’re already having one…) but I passed on the names of those interested in that today too as I’ll be busy sound-checking bands for my event. Anyway… bit of a tangent there- after that, we had a meeting about Red Hot Press and also studios for hire in Southampton called ‘A Space.’ Although I’m moving to London in July, it was really great and inspiring to see what a up and coming artistic community Southampton now has to offer. I’ll certainly miss it when I leave! Finally, and as always most importantly… My progress with the F.M.P! As you know, all that’s left for me is colouring in! However, not to be underestimated, as it’s proving a very long job... This is what I’ve done this week:

Endpapers

I’m pleased with them, but I just don’t think this method is a realistic way to continue, especially since reprographics did get back to me to tell me that the latest I can give them my images is Monday the 16^th to get them back for the deadline on Monday 30^th. I also wanted a chance to get a sample run off before I give them in for good in case there are any major issues. I plan to do this Friday, which will allow me the weekend to rectify any mistakes. Even so, I don’t even really have until Friday to complete them, as I need at least a day to finish scanning and rectifying my images from the last book and also prepping both for printing. Luckily, I have the opportunity to change my working style slightly as from the next page onwards, most of the book is a flashback- which gives me the freedom to change the format in any way I like. I think this is not only just a lot more feasible, but will add some diversity to the book. At the moment, I am planning to have all my images completely ready for printing by Friday morning, and probably aim to have them all coloured in by Thursday morning. Basically, I need to be banging 5 of these out a day… So wish me luck! Also, (I guess I lied when I said finally up there) our blogs are due at the end of this week. I have a tutorial with both Jonny and Alexandra tomorrow to find out what needs to accompany it so I’ll also be finding the time this week to tidy all this up. See yah soon, Quim out.

22. CHICKAPOWWW!!!

21. Colouring in....

A-haaaaaaaaa. ‘ello. Sooooo since I posted last I’ve finished all of the pen work for my images by the Tuesday as planned. Tuesday I went to the Photography suite early and stayed there all day scanning my final images in at 600DPI. Once I’d finished scanning my black & white images for ‘Firm Turd – The Burning.’ I started to re-scan my originals from my last project (‘The Rise and Fall of Keth the Manosaur’) as they need to also be scanned at 600DPI rather than 300 if it is to be printed at the same time as my current project. Pete said I could have both books on display at the degree show so I’d really like to have them both ready for it. I didn’t get all of them scanned before the end of the day as scanning at such a high resolution in full colour takes a long time, plus I ended up scanning about ten images before I realized they didn’t look right because I didn’t have colour restoration turned on. Idiot. Here’s an example of each to show how they’re lookin’:

      Anyway, I’ll finish that up another day and while I was waiting for each image to scan I was looking in to how to best colour my images. I was hoping that I could find an easier way to colour in a mixture of block colour and half tone without having to use the laborious cutting and pasting into method. I tired downloading some half-tone brushes but didn’t have much luck on the university network. I did try one out that existed in Photoshop already but unfortunately when I dragged it across a space it just made a bit of a mess, however despite it not being what I’d originally intended I think a messier approach could work in places. I had a bit more luck with the ‘colour halftone’ filter, which I’ve previously been unable to get to grips with. While I was experimenting, Louise and Jonny came over and gave me some advice. They both said to be looser with it and tried a couple of things out which I found helpful, and I have some examples of here:

      I also went down to reprographics on Tuesday to see Clair again about getting my books printed, but when I went down I was informed that she had left suddenly a few days ago and although helpful, the guy working down there seemed like maybe he’d been thrown in the deep end which concerned me a little. He told me to E-Mail for a quote and so later on I sent him all the specs, which he then forwarded to the London office and then sent back to me. I now know it can be done and I have a price (about £300 for 25 copies of each!!!) but there were also a lot of questions he didn’t answer. Although he told me he thinks it’s a week turnaround for it (which does give me longer than I had thought if that’s correct) he didn’t confirm it, or if I could have a sample run off, etc, etc. Sooo… I’m gonna crack on and pop back down this week to get things straightened out and crystal clear like because I can’t afford to have ANYTHING go wrong with the production this time!

     On Thursday I had a group work in progress meeting with all the tutors, which was really good. It was nice to see everybody else’s work and to get some feedback about where I am at the moment, the main focus of my feedback was that I now just have to bite the bullet and get on with this daunting colouring process! It was again pressed that it could look better if I worked more freely so I’ll try to bear that in mind ad I can get a bit obsessive over things, and where it’s not really my style it’s usually best I keep it loose.  The main focus was our plans for the degree show (which Pete needs to know by tomorrow so I’m going to be thinking more about that today!)  So far my vague idea has been that I might sort of re-create a wall of Firm Turds charred dwelling for my space. For example my board could be covered with 1950’s style wallpaper, but filthy and burnt with exposed bricks (painted on) showing through. On the wall I would hang (wonkily) in a (broken) frame my ‘ad page’ image, blown up. Also, perhaps a vinyl frame holding the Jerry Lee Lewis record which is a recurring theme in the book.  I need two plinths (One taller than the other) in front of the wall. The taller holding the Firm Turd book and the smaller hosting my last book. I also need a holder for business cards and post cards on the wall. I could have some chipolatas strewn about the place too for good measure. Here’s some scribbly little drawings of what my space could look like:

    On the other hand, this could be a complete gimmicky disaster in which the artwork is at risk of getting lost. It could also attract unwanted wildlife.  There’s also the case of how exactly I’d execute all of the above. My other option is to simply choose a couple of images to blow up and frame on the wall above my plinths. This seemed to be the favoured option from the tutors, and it was even suggested that I re-create some of my preferred images from the book as screen prints and frame them. Either way, its occurred to me that actually, I have a LOT of thinking and prepping to do for the show so I can’t afford to spend as long colouring as I’d thought.

     Since then, I’ve downloaded a number of half-tone brushes for Photoshop and completed my cover image. I did it with a combination of block colour, halftone brushes and halftone filters. I did get a bit obsessive over this image and consequently it took quite a long time. I’m very happy with it though and I feel a lot more comfortable with the execution now I’ve completed one. However, not only is it impractical to colour the entire book in this way given my timescale, but I believe that given the content it will look a lot better if I work more loosely on the inside of the book.  I also like that the cover will be slightly more polished than the inside. So here it is:

     Also this week I’ve finally sent off for some business cards and post cards to put in my space at the show! I spent a really long time deciding on that to have on them but eventually chose this for the business cards:

It’s a short excerpt from my last book, I chose it because it’s not too alienating like a lot of my images can be. It’s also very bright and attractive. I decided to juxtapose the image by making the back of the card black as it’s a bit different from the usual white, and to follow it through I added a black border on the front. I then inverted my stamp and some text I wrote with a brush pen and put it on the back. For the postcards I decided the best thing to do would be to use a solitary image rather than narrative. I wanted one that summed me up well, which was bright and eye-catching. In the end I went for the same image that I used for my second catalogue image:

I used the same text and stamp on the back for continuity, but this time in black.

FINALLY, this week it was the deadline for the D&AD Images to get sent off. It also provided me with a great opportunity to touch up my chosen images on Photoshop and to re-size them to be printed and put in my portfolio. Here are the ones I picked:

Well, as you may have gathered I’ve got plenty to be getting on with- So I’ll see ya in about a week for what could be one of my final posts!
Thanks for reading,
Quim out!

Also, this comic strip by Johnny Ryan (Ryan, 2010) I was shown this week is tottally brilliant. Love the satire, humour, disgustingness, violence and absurdity. Plus the bright and silly little drawings are wicked: