aqwatic

Ruskin Explains Manga

2011-03-24T13:18:00.009Z

I'm reading John Ruskin's "The Nature of gothic" at the moment.
I noticed he describes exactly what Manga is, (or any artistic label, that's the point) better than almost anyone. I've edited his text here, replacing various words and examples- and repeatedly the word "Gothic" with "Manga". Take a look.
(also cross-posted at the Mango Art Jam blog, for those who don't like reading white on black...)

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We know already what the early Disney art style is from which the transition to Manga was made, but we ought to know something of the modern Manga style into which it led. I shall endeavour therefore to give the reader in this chapter an idea, at once broad and definite, of the true nature of Manga style, properly so called; not of that of Japan only, but of universal Manga.

The principal difficulty in doing this arises from the fact that every book in the Manga style differs in some important respect from every other; and many include features which, if they occurred in other books, would not be considered Manga at all; so that all we have to reason upon is merely, if I may be allowed so to express it, a greater or less degree of Manganess in each image we examine. And it is this Manganess the character which according as it is found more or less in a book makes it more or less Manga--of which I want to define the nature; and I feel the same kind of difficulty in doing so which would be encountered by anyone who undertook to explain for instance, the Nature of Redness, without any actually red thing to point to, but only orange and purple things. Suppose he had only a piece of heather and a dead oak-leaf to do it with. He might say "the colour which is mixed with the yellow in this oak-leaf, and with the blue in this heather, would be red, if you had it separate; but it would be difficult, nevertheless, to make the abstraction perfectly intelligible; and it is so in a far greatest degree to make the abstraction of the Manga Style intelligible because that character itself is made up of many mingled ideas and can consist only in their union. That is to say, giant eyes do not constitute Manga--nor tiny mouths--nor speedlines, nor screen-tones; but all or some of these things--amid many other things with them--when they come together so as to have life.

Observe also that in the definition proposed I shall only endeavor to analyze the idea which I suppose already to exist in the readers mind. We all have some notion, most of us a very determined one, of the meaning of the term Manga; but I know that many persons have this idea in their minds without being able to define it: that is to say understanding generally that Naruto is Manga and Spiderman is not, that Love Hina is Manga, and Watchmen is not, they are nevertheless, no clear notion of what It IS that they recognize In the one or miss in the other such as would enable them to say how far the work by Kodansha or Marvel is good and pure of its kind; still less to say of any nondescript art, like Adam Warren or Jiro Taniguchi how much right Manga element there is in and how much wanting. And I believe this inquiry to be a pleasant and profitable one; and that there will be found something more than usually interesting in tracing out this grey shadow many-pinnacled image of the Manga spirit in us; and discerning what fellowship there is between it and our Western hearts. And if, at any point of the inquiry, I should interfere with any of the reader's previously formed conceptions, and use the term Manga in any sense which he would not willingly attach to it, I do not ask to accept, but only to examine and understand, my interpretation, as necessary to the intelligibility of what follows in the rest of the work.

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Now go and read The Nature of Gothic, by John Ruskin (From The Stones of Venice, Vol.II)

~John~

Die 2010 DIE.

2011-01-01T04:58:00.001Z

I have this tradition, see, of posting random text message drunkeness while under the influence on New Years Eve on this blog. The message is as follows: gbashkp9'nkm,sqag

Congratulations. And a good one to you.

Left to Right: Worried Earnie, Red Dave, Homie, Sam.

Fight Dinosaurs with lightsabers.

2010-12-29T16:37:00.003Z

One of my clients asked me to do a poster for his six year old son as a Christmas present. The specific brief was to include dinosaurs, lightsabers, his electric guitar, his Kung-Fu pyjamas, explosions and ninja cats.
Rarely in my profession do we get paid for this much awesome.
I don't know if the "client" liked it- but I really hope so.
~John~

Silver Silhouette.

2010-07-23T17:48:00.005+01:00

So my new webcomic is up on giant model fansite Modelinia.com It's about supermodels. Being superheroines. It's pretty silly. I was collaborating with Francesca Hammerstein who fed me high-life fashion info. Also thanks to O who gave me some typically snide insights into the seedy underbelly of the fashion world, unfortunately mostly unprintable!

I had a lot of fun drawing different models, and especially other characters that inhabit the fashion world. Just wait till you get to the episode with Anna Wintour and the Giant Japanese Robot invasion.

Sometimes I find it hard to belive I get paid for this stuff.
~John~

Bruce.

2010-06-30T15:52:00.003+01:00

Y'all probably seen this already. I really need to get back to working in colour. I've got this sneaking feeling i'm forgetting how.
~John~

Stop Presses.

2010-06-08T23:42:00.003+01:00

Artist actually uploads art to blog. WORLD ENDS.
--some liquid City doodles.
~John~

MCM 17.

2010-05-31T16:28:00.012+01:00

Another May, another MCM.
This time I was selling at the DFC table, trying to shift some of the gorgeous new DFC Library books. Bob Etherington, turned up to pimp Monkey Nuts, Baggage and all their related crazyness. Nobody sells like the Etheringtons. It's like they're a magnet for doe-eyed teenage girls.Adam Brockbank and Ben Haggarty were there on behalf of Mezolith, looking a little bemused, Dave Shelton signing Good Dog bad Dog and Niel Cameron to remind everyone the Mobot High graphic novel will hit the stands anytime soon! Gary Northfield and the impossibly energetic Sarah McIntyre had their own tables to man, but the popped in and out as the weekend rolled by.Highlights for me were Seeing Svetlana Chmakova again, who has an anthology book out with Sweatdrop Studios. She made good on her debt of two drawings, from the last time she was in the Uk. So now I can say I have two Svet originals and you don't. Nya Nya Nya!I bought some great small press too, Particularly Ross Burt's Astrofunk #2 and some gorgeous postcards by Celine Choo. She's one to keep your eye on for sure! Special mentions also go to Pud and Emma Vieceli for all the mind-bendingly hard work they put into the Expo twice a year.

Housemate Ronnie made a video. Warning- lots of flirting and piss-takery.

Then I went home and got stuck in a lift. I had to stare at this graffiti for at least half an hour while I tried to escape. Look, it has a diagram!Later.
~John~

Blog? What blog?

2010-04-18T18:37:00.015+01:00

If there's one thing I truly suck at, it's blogging.
When I do remember my camera, I forget to put the post online for...oooh, about a month or two. So here's some photos from stuff I've been up to in the big smoke.

Webcomix Thing! I especially enjoyed picking up books
from Lando, Nichangell and David O, Connell.

Schmurgencon 4, where I was lucky enough to be
awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Schmurgen
himself. Now I have to retire. Or die.

Private view of the fantastic Louise Thomas' exhibition,
"Everybody Is a Lake" Which is still on, Check it out!
That's StudioCanoe there, looking thoroughly mongol.

Death Trip, my housemate Ronnie's Punk night in E3.
Wetdog really smashed it. Me and R4ggs were danc'in.

The Fleece Station Party, where far too much
cake was consumed.

Also, and probably most importantly, The DFC Library kicked off with the beautiful Mezolith. But some people are actually good at this blogging thing, so I'll leave that to them.

Till next time!
~John~

Liquid Dev 1.

2010-03-18T20:36:00.007Z

So I'm trying again with Liquid City. I was really unhappy with it as it stood after the "promo" I made for MCM, so I went back and redesigned the bastard from the ground up. What I was worried about in the first instance was the total failure to get across the feel of the city. Liquid was supposed to be slutty, slimy, vapid and stupid. What the promo was pushing was just a generic cyberpunky mess. This redesign, I feel, is much more on the nose.
I'm still arguing with the way I want to draw it, and these pinups i'm currently pretty unhappy with. They're missing a couple of things i've figured out as "probably important in comics" lately, but are still much more in the vein of what I wanted for the book. I'm going to stop faffing around with style choices soon, mind you. I have a couple more characters to design, a couple more locations and then it's straight into test pages.
I feel like i'm getting there. Albeit bloody slowly...
~John~

Frills.

2010-02-28T15:37:00.011Z

So This Saturday I headed over to the Japanese Art Festival in Richmond. It was my first visit to this con and it's a cute little one if I do say so myself. I didn't stay that long, however, as I had a meeting with one of my elusive and mysterious scriptwriters who happens to live in the area. Previously, at the Japanese embassy a couple of weeks ago, Sonia had cruelly and drunkenly tricked me into agreeing to accompany her to the Lolita in Wonderland event in Bethnal Green. Feeling I needed backup to avoid being torn apart for my lack of wildy-expensive imported frills, I cruelly tricked Kaz into tagging along. Bethnal Green's not the best place in the world to get a drink if you're dressed in full evening wear and studded rhinestone boots, but I managed to remember the existence of Bistrotheque, a very (very) groovy artists-cum-indie rockers hangout in a warehouse down a dark alleyway. So we all went for cocktails and discussed the artistic merits of Ero manga while Sonia regaled us with the stories of her sexual exploits that I really didn't need to know.

The Lolita show was actually much less terrifying than I had imagined. Annoyingly, Blondedebates had already skipped town by the time I staggered in, so I had to lean on Sonia and Kaz for moral support. We got into healthy debates on corsets, dungeon photography and the joys of nurses outfits with various people, defaced nearby walls with soon-to-be-priceless artwork and admired solid gold bespoke knee-high boots that I can't afford.

At that point my companions were forced to take their leave, so I walked to Brick Lane to indulge my bagel fetish. I thought i'd phone up Temujin and try and drag the evening out. Temujin had been drinking since eleven in the morning and could now barely talk, let alone come out to play, so I returned! And was very glad I did. I was able to witness Boykitten demonstrating the art of Japanese self-suspension bondage and had the finer points of the Lolita lifestyle expertly explained to me by Wing and her friend in wonderful tartan print Metamorphose (whose name escapes me). Finally I was utterly terrified by Wing's Ball Jointed Dolls. But then they always terrify me.

All in all, a magnificently weird night.
~John~

Of Late.

2010-02-22T01:37:00.008Z

Okay so, first of all, Public security notice - R4ggs lost her phone on a bus. Again. No, I don't know where she is. Stop asking. Madrid, I think.

Lately I've been terrible at keeping up my new years resolution to be dull, stay in and draw comics. I noticed the Ambassador's Secretary taking photos in the Japanese Embassy Jiman reception, but I guess that comes with the diplomatic immunity. Suffice to say, I didn't take any- but the free wine was flowing and I was wearing the worlds worst skintight leather pants. So that was probably for the best.

I then headed out to the Phonogram Wake, which rolled on in tremendous style. I believe several people had to be carried home by their significant others. A quick recovery and i'm off to the Drop in and Draw event at the Notting Hill Arts Club with PhoenixBlue, again forgetting my camera. How JabberWorks does this stuff, I'll never know. I met her and Emma Vieceli (whose name I can now spell correctly on the first try) for way-too-much-sushi too, but more on that later.

I met up with Nana Li in Cambridge the other day to see the Sargent, Sickert & Spencer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum. It's a good show, if a little on the small side- and with a somewhat tenuous link between the artists.
We also went Life Drawing, but I was wildly distracted by the Cambridge architecture dept's ceiling. That's going in a comic, for sure.

And Finally, Nick Abadzis is, as of Sat, a resident of Brooklyn NY! I dragged myself (all the way) over to Richmond to wave the good ship Abadzis on it's way. I met some of the old and new owners of TWAU and some very groovy Italian animators.

Right, I'm out. This week I will get some work done.
~John~

Mile End.

2010-02-20T09:44:00.011Z

I recently moved into a house supplied by the Bow Arts Trust. They take old council flats where the tenants are moving out, and fill the empty spaces with artists. This keeps the squatters at bay, and also provides cheap housing in London for those crazy enough to make art for a living. (like me!)

Most of the flats are boarded up, there's great 70's graffiti all over the place and the whole thing looks like it's been made out of a single block of gray concrete. Seriously, It's like living in the Barbican.

Anyway, when I took the property on, the cleaners hadn't been in to clear out the stuff left by the previous tenants. As I entered I heard one of them shouting down to his colleagues; "Don't worry guys, doesn't look like there's any needles!"

I was planning to post up some before and after pics, to show the amount of work we've done on the place to make it our own, but it's not quite done yet, so you just get the "before". I'll put some after pics up soon, or none of you will want to come around for tea! It's not fantastic now, but at least if any of you ever see it when it's done, you'll at least know what we were working with at the start!

Since we're only in the house for a year, and we can do whatever we want with it, I want to get all my cartoonist friends to come over and paint one of their characters on the walls. (that means you, by the way) then it'll really be a home.

Also, When I first saw the house it was full of boxes and boxes of strange African on VHS drama shows , and porn. O_o
~John~

Play Catch up.

2010-02-16T23:13:00.017Z

I haven't blogged in a while.

This is because lots of cool stuff has been happening, I've been working on some heavy projects, my mac exploded, and I've moved house (twice). Anyway!

First things first, it's Angouleme baby!

Yes, it's that time of year when me ( and mum) run off to france to spend more money than we make in four months on beautiful comic books, drink our body-weight in bad lager and have slurred and pointless arguments with someone we later find out was the editor of Dargaud, or something. As usual, it's impossible to really explain Angouleme, so i'll stick with the highlights.

Cent Pour Cent:

In the new(ish) museum space the Cent pour Cent exhibition pitted 100 current masters against 100 greats, in continuing or accompanying a single page of comic artwork. I didn't really take it all in, as they had originals by Vaughn Bode, Posy Simmonds, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Chick Young, Moebius, Hérge

, Uderzo, Frank Frazetta, Winsor McCay (winsor McCay!

!) and loads more i've forgotten. Seriously, Winsor McCay! Outside was the statue of Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese. I didn't even know this existed, but apparently it was there last time. He stands on the bridge connecting the old and new BD museums, defiant face to the wind. Awesome.

Also, me and mum got papped outside for a street style mag in Paris called "The Glam Attitude". Win.

One Piece /Makoto Yukimura:

I'm sure there are other places to see original manga artwork in Europe, but Angouleme is mine. It's always great to see real manga artwork up close as, unlike originals from US or Uk publications, I imagine they're pretty hard to come by. I missed seeing Makoto Yukimura talk by about five minutes. On the other hand I then wandered up the hill to one of the main areas and bumped into...

Barbara (goddamn) Canepa!:

When you're actually in Angouleme, you have to pretend you don't like things like SkyDoll. Otherwise the Art-comics aficionados peer over their reading glasses at you with barely concealed scorn. "Soleil!? A Quoi?" Don't really have much to add to this other than it was awesome, and that I saw her painting and you didn't. Ha Ha Ha.

Brits abroad:

Of course, the chatting to your friends and a million inspirational artists is really what the convention is all about, and it was fantastict to see the B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S represent'in. Angouleme is like a yearly shot in the arm as you're surrounded by great people who.... nope, can't keep this up, it's all about the Canepa.

Tomorrow I shall be talking about my scary new house.

~John~

All Change.

2009-12-08T03:22:00.013Z

So I did a blog reshuffle.
This is in anticipation of an impending site reshuffle, as the current one is out of date and... well, broken, actually. I have lots of stuff to show you guys! But more importantly, Just as I'd updated this blog, my mom went and stole my splat! Plagiarized by my own mother, I dunno, what's the world coming to.

Also, R4ggs was in a photo shoot yesterday with Nick Knight. She'll be in I-D magazine next year, and probably invited to a star-studded exhibition. Bitch.

~John~

Boomer.

2009-09-14T00:23:00.005+01:00

I just got in touch with an old uni friend- now a bigshot marketing man- who showed me some of an old music video that he directed, which I did all the concepts and the storyboards for. This was back in Uni, mind you, so please excuse the crappy drawings. I tend to shy away from storyboards nowadays, but It's fun when people take your artwork and run with it though!

~John~

Who are these people...

2009-07-12T16:06:00.007+01:00

and why are they in my house.
So we threw another house party. About 60-70 people turned up, but given the natural flow of houseparties there were thankfully only about 50 people in the place at any one time. We bought a barbeque and then realised nobody knew how to work it- so we enlisted the help of a nearby scotsman. They know how to do these things. Also got invaded at one point by some of the Cable Street Studios massive, since it's just around the corner, and the E1 Asian boys- who insisted on playing bangra. I also spent half the night explaining to gatecrashers and the various circles of friends that didn't quite overlap that, yes, that girl you're after is gay. So's that one, and all them over there.

Fun facts:
-At least two gatecrashers mistook us for a nightclub (win)
-The mirrored dancefloor didn't work. I told them it was a waste of time!
-One guest's girlfriend gave him a stern lecture warning not to partake in any of the debauchery that my parties are (apparently) infamous for. She had a list.
-A man appeared selling lauging gas, but had forgotten all of his laughing gas.
-It took us 4 days to clean up.
-Nobody was sick (on the premises)

So Just when we'd cleaned up e v e r y t h i n g some guy decided to have the screening of his new film in our front room. "There won't be any more than 10 people here" he said "honest!" Filthy liar. I swiftly escaped the event itself and whent to Fabric. Which is another horrible story alltogether.

So at the moment, construction is underway for the start of my sister and Housemate Ben's film set, which will most likely be constructed and erected all in our front room. I shall post some more photos when it comes along a little.

But really, you've got to wonder- who are these people and why are they in my house?
~John~

On MJ.

2009-06-27T19:38:00.006+01:00

1958 – 2009
Total Legend.

On Jeeves and on Wooster.

2009-06-15T17:07:00.003+01:00

As I've worked this week I've been listening to far too much P.G Wodehouse. Most notably, the Jeeves stories. I find the two characters especially interesting. Here are two people who, in an almost Buddhist way, have found their path; their calling in life.

As Jeeves repeatedly exercises his intellect and supreme cunning we are forced to wonder, as does Bertie, why he spends his time pressing the young master's trousers. Similarly, we find ourselves with mixed feelings about Bertie. He is, without a doubt, a "good egg", but the lazy, foppish upper class twit he is jarrs with our modern ideals.

I find it interesting that the modern capitalist in me frowns upon Jeeves, for possessing such potential- and ignoring it in favour of Bertie's trifling problems. Nowadays we are judged on our position, achievements or wealth- and those who do not choose to climb the ladder, despite obvious skill, rub us the wrong way. As Master Wooster himself remarks; Jeeves should be prime minister by now.
In the same vein we (as modern Wodehouse readers) frown on Bertie Wooster for "not doing anything" with his vast wealth. Despite his admirable, yet stupid, character we resent all those who have not earned their money - and especially those not spending it on something appropriate.

I find both these characters very comforting. Jeeves does not "know his place" in the world- he is not forced to be a valet, he simply enjoys it. Despite intellect that could have him heading multinationals, he spends his time serving tea and mending socks. This is because he likes mending socks. He likes tea, and he enjoys serving. Similarly, Bertie likes lunching at the Drones Club, smoking cigars and having the odd whiskey and soda brought to him after dinner.

For various reasons this pair should be distasteful to our eyes- but Wodehouse forces us to see them differently. Who are we to complain if Jeeves wants to waste his talents on Bertie, and who are we to complain if Bertie wants to waste his money on Cigars? Who were we to complain that a valet should not get above his station, and who were we to moan that a young master should be a captain of industry, or a regiment.
Our modern, or dated ideals of how the world should work are all totally lost on Jeeves and Wooster, and so much the better.

Carry on gentlemen!

~John~

Ps: I had a dream last night that the cast of Harry Potter met up again when they were 35- now being divorced, bankrupt and/or addicted to crystal meth. It totally rocked.

Viva!

2009-06-06T21:40:00.004+01:00

I've been messing with screen print-esque images lately, for a graphic novel pitch I'm (slowly) preparing at the moment. I had all the layers and textures already prepared, so I made fun of poor Garen Ewing while I was at it. Everyone else is doing it, I blame peer pressure.
~John~

Ink.

2009-06-05T17:33:00.006+01:00

Now, see, why don't the rest of my comics look like this? Probably because I can't draw for spit when i'm not working from life or a photo? Discuss.
Anyway, ink. I recently had what the cool kids call an "epic facepalm" moment when I realised that I should probably be using my world-weary crowquill (try saying that ten times when you're drunk) like a feather duster rather than a sledgehammer & chisel. Not to say that carving isn't useful when drawing, but somewhere along the way I seem to have skipped the subtlety that should come with ink. While I was inking this I was reminded of old Punch pen and ink illustrations. I don't know if you can find any collections of these wonderful etchings and drawings but they're well worth hunting for. I found four volumes of the Punch Picture library in an antique bookshop in Cornwall. Cost me a bloody fortune. Worth every penny. Also, while we're on the subject of ink and tone- all you manga people should do yourselves a favour and look at the etchings of Francisco Goya who, using copperpoint etching and aquatint (one of the most satisfying and deliciously poisonous art methods ever) in my opinion made better use of "screentone" ( and quite possibly ink) than anyone since.

Shouldn't have posted that etching up. Now my drawing looks totally crap. How big is that ear! Ugh!
~John~

Logos.

2009-06-01T21:50:00.002+01:00

I've been designing logos lately. I hate designing logos. Like, with a fiery passion. Logos for other people is even worse.
On the left you'll see the fun process I went through to carve out a Logo for the "John Blake" comic. Each one of these revisions had to be run past the publisher and further "tweaks" had to be made.
On the right you can see some of the logos i've made for myself over the years. I like big, iconic logos generally. The stronger the silhouette the stronger the logo, in my opinion, but that's a pretty uninformed opinion.
I wonder what it is that makes a good logo in the end? Obviously memorability, but how do you achieve that nowadays when we're bombarded with branding at all times? Also, the idea of riding alongside established branding has always confused me. "Apple white" is probably a good example of this. Slap enough translucency and reflections on your site icons and you can conjure up an image of crisp minimalism which is already established in the viewers mind thanks to other products.
It's all very psychological. I'm torn between wishing i'd studied graphic design, and being very glad I didn't.

So close yet so far.

2009-05-31T00:41:00.002+01:00

Next time, I will get someone cavity searched.
~John~

On Liquid.

2009-05-28T18:09:00.009+01:00

Last week I exhibited at the MCM expo in London, selling my excuse for a comic, Liquid City. It was only 15 pages long, but I still managed to shift a good 50-something; which was nice. It was also fun to catch up with the myriad of comics and manga reprobates that the expo attracts. You all rock. Especially Emma V, Anna and Pud- who worked their arses of for the glory of the "comics village". The highlight of the weekend for me had to be receiving a piece of on- the-spot fanart from the amazing Rachel Saunders. I'm a big fan of her work and her heavy Masamune Shirow influences. Take a good look people, that's how you draw a hand.
~John~

Or you'll go blind.

2009-03-16T20:42:00.011Z

This is the kind of drawing that's like eating a big bar of chocolate or posting to deviantart. It's good for making you feel better and...well that's about it really.
But you get to wave it around and shout "look! I'm a real artist! Look at my rendering!"
How to do this:

get a photo. (Yay)
put down a midtone grey
smudge all over with a rag
draw photo
use fingers to "blend" (eww)
erase with putty rubber.
do the arty-arty dance.

It's artistic masturbation but sometimes you just gotta. XD

~John~

Lifedrawing.avi

2009-03-12T21:02:00.004Z

I spent a long time drawing from Yoga videos and exercise videos as warmup sketches every day. Then for some inexplicable reason I stopped- probably just when it was getting interesting.

Lately i've just got back into it again- and have been on the hunt for boxing and wrestling clips online to draw from. One interesting exercise I found while doing these, was to pause the video and do a gesture study. Then you advance the video a couple of frames and do a constructed drawing ( block and shapes- etc.) on top. You really get a better feeling for the movement and form of the figures. Much better than using them almost as interesting photo-stills.

I've found kickboxing and wrestling to be the best motion videos to use- not much clothing getting in the way, and plenty of muscles to get your pencils around. Also, if you search for "Naked Gymnastics" there's a whole softcore porn fetish for girls stretching and leaping about etc. Which is pretty cool if you can put up with porno-jazz in the background.

Click here to see a small collection of my Yoga drawings from a couple of years ago. Yeek, old drawings are painful to look at!
~John~

Layoffs.

2009-03-10T21:17:00.003Z

Well, the DFC went kaput recently, which was a drag. I don't doubt things like The Spider Moon, Mezolith etc. will eventually be made into Graphic Novels, but it's the "eventually" which is ticking everyone off. I have my fingertips in other pies at the moment, so i'm not panicking- but I do have a lot more time now to draw Tanks.
Y'know... as you do... when you're male.
~John~

War people.

2009-02-24T02:22:00.002Z

Bla bla bla, distance colours I am now unhappy with. The stone is slowly starting to bleed, however.
~John~

War backgrounds

2009-02-18T18:43:00.002Z

I'm fiddling with colour palettes at the moment. I'm very disappointed with my current colours and I'm searching for one that will be really distinctive and get across the feelings I want for my war comic. Alas, this one is too dark for print. The question is: How to get across a dark, muddy and filthy environment without ending up with dark, muddy and filthy artwork? One painting with a muddy, desaturated palette would be easy, but in every panel of a comic and you'd just be put off.
Any suggestions or examples I should look at would be much appreciated, as I've been battling with this problem for some time.
~John~

Angoulême 2.

2009-02-02T00:29:00.010Z

Phew. I'm back from Angoulême 2009 in France. I promised myself i'd actually put something on paper about what I did this year, so I'm going to focus on some specific moments that I enjoyed.First of all was "la gréve". The entirety of the french train staff went on strike in protest of Sarkozy and...well I lost track. (more on him later) But anyway, I ended up making a mad dash to Paris in order to make a connection. I missed this- and spent most of Thursday killing time on the Canal Saint-Martin near Gare d'lest. It was lovely. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and the sky was blue. I felt all my feelings of rage at the french rail system just melt away as soon as I arrived. Paris truly is wonderful.

So I made it to Angoulême. Or rather, I made it to the bar in Angoulême, in enough time to be able to catch up with the rest of the English speakers. Almost.
I'm quite concerned about the number of times I mention alcohol in my daily speech, actually. I really don't drink that much. Except at Angouleme.The convention itself is comprised of a number of tents, each holding more stalls than you'd see at any UK con, and all of them selling comics. I keep having to check myself when I call it a con. It's not- it's a book fair, closer to Bologna than San Diego.

I spent a great deal of time in the "Manga Building". (Note; not "tent", not "area", building.)
I got a chance to see Range Murata do an entire coloured drawing on a Cintiq, and Junko Kawakami- who didn't know how to use photoshop. Hilarious. Also the legendary Hiroshi Hirata was signing books in full traditional dress, with a caligraphy brush. This was a performance in itself!

Finally, there was the afterparty. I didn't realise, but there's a party thrown in the chandelier-lit town hall, with a dj and a free bar. The best bit of all was that the only people allowed in had to be carrying "auteur" badges. So artists and writers only. It was all going swimmingly until someone jumped up the wall, tore down a glass framed photo of Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, smashed the glass, tore the print into shreds and threw them all into the air. All this was to riotous applause. I thought a revolution was about to break out. I wished I had a phrygian cap or a tricoloure. Ellen Lindner and Sara Varon looked like they were about to start burning things.

Then Security arrived and we all got thrown out.
Best way to end a party ever. XD

Shoutouts to:

Nick Abadzis
Edmund Bagwell
Joelle
Charlie Orr
Stephen Betts
Simon Fraser
Rian Hughes
Tim Pilcher
Charlie Adlard
Sean Phillips
Yishan Li
Ellen Lindner
Sara Varon

~John~

Also, According to various sources, it is the largest comic book convention in the western world. O_o

Fun for all.

2009-01-28T19:51:00.007Z

I like to project the image that i'm a party person, but actually i'm a comic book artist. Alas, the two a diametrically opposed.

However lately I've found i'm finally starting to get the "work hard, play hard" ratio in balance. If i'm not working, i'm out walking along the Thames or visiting galleries or meeting new people somewhere in London. I even managed to throw a house party last weekend, which was magical and full of a great deal of clashing east-London outfits. I don't know whose the wigs were, and I couldn't resist fiddling with the photos to make it look like a post-punk nightmare. It was very civilised, honest! We lit the house with tea-lights, made sure everyone had a glowband from Camden and lit a fire in an incinerator bin outside, for when the party spilled out into our courtyard.
A gatecrasher nobody knew exclaimed that this was the strangest house party she had ever been to, which I took to be a good thing.

I'm off to Angouleme BD festival tomorrow, which is always a great party. I tend to come back buzzing with new comic ideas to try, which is just what I need right now as i've been pretty miserable about my artwork lately.
I'm going to try and buy lots of people presents this year, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. :D

Oh! and a very happy Chinese New Year to everyone. I ate enough dumplings to kill a man, which they nearly did. Yum!

~John~

Death and Taxes

2009-01-21T01:24:00.002Z

I recorded a Sweatdrop podcast last week on good professional practice as a self employed illustrator. To hammer home my message of strict professional conduct, I thought i'd post a picture of my Self assessment tax system in action. :p

My sister went out for a packet of crisps and came back with a free can of strongbow and a violin. The shop owners around us are crazy!
~John~

Kill Yourself.

2009-01-17T15:08:00.006Z

If you're ever in a bad mood, or upset about something, i'd really like to recommend killing yourself in a comic. Sooner or later every artist has to draw a corpse, or a random soldier who's shot in the background etc. Next time you do- why not make it you? It's very therapeutic!
~John~

2009-01-01T01:47:00.003Z

wow, a full year at least i've had this blog, and in a true traditional spirit, here are your drunken text-characters for the new year: "bnjvkdf;xzdhniuo'fv" with a side order of "I love you man!" I hope you all have a fantastic new years, and may you find the courage to follow your dreams, whether they come to fruition or not. Remember, you only get one spin on this silly earth, make sure you get the most out of it! Have fun! and carpe diem, as they used to say.

~John~

Update.

2008-12-30T15:16:00.002Z

Internet arguments continue. BT can't find our house. East London is fantastic. New found proximity to Indian spices making cooking highly experimental. Currently Looking forward to annual Jan pilgrimage to comics mecca. Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and a very happy New Year.
~John~

Bye Bye.

2008-12-04T18:04:00.002Z

Trying to start a daily blog timetable right before I was set to move house was probably a bad idea. Suffice to say- i'm off tomorrow for pastures greyer, and will be out of contact with the digital world until I'm able to rustle up a broadband connection. The last time I had to do this it took weeks, but times may have changed since then.
I'm sure you'll miss me terribly.
~John~

Inheritance.

2008-11-29T21:50:00.009Z

I had to talk to my parents about inheritance tax today. If you want to avoid giving everything you own to the taxman you have to hand it all over to your children something like seven years before you die. Well, that's kinda difficult to estimate, isn't it? It's designed to be a tax on the mega rich (and I support that) but it bugs me all the same because I don't want to think about it.
My family owns some of the land once belonging to William Penn and although the manor house doesn't exist any more the stable buildings and cottages have mostly been converted. The estate is around 350 acres, comprising of five houses two woods and a number of arable and parkland fields.
I don't know the tenants, I don't know the letting agencies, I barely know the gamekeeper or any of the contract farmers.
The "one day all of this will be yours" speech scares the shit out of me. I'm going to go hide under a blanket, or something.

Your reward for listening to me moan is a link to Artquest, which is a UK site to help out artists legally and professionally. It looks pretty good, but I'm still deciding how useful it is in relation to comics.
~John~

Kids Stuff.

2008-11-28T18:48:00.014Z

I love this show! It's called Pocoyo and it's a Japanese influenced 3d cartoon for pre-schoolers. Originally from Spain; It's simple, well animated, utterly charming and voiced in the UK by Stephen Fry. It's easy for us grown-ups to grumble through our rose-tinted glasses about how the kids cartoons we grew up with were far superior to this modern rubbish, but I wish I'd had Pocoyo as a kid. Watch some.
Click here to see Pocoyo rock out!
Click here to see Pocoyo race!
Sorry, I have sudden childish moments. Icecream!

Update:
Well, it's real late and I'm waiting for something to scan, but watching kids TV has got me thinking about children's stories in general.

There seem to be two conflicting schools of thought on "what makes a good kids story". On the one hand, escapism has always been the long standing axiom. If you can make a kid think "wow, I wish I was there" or "wow, I wish I was him/her" you're onto a winner. Magical worlds and fairy tales and magnificent adventures are always what a kid is going to connect to. Take something that they can't do, remove the parents, and then let them do it.

On the other hand there's the more down to earth story, where you manufacture a situation in which a group of children have adventures in a very real world setting. The railway children is a good example of this. The idea here is that the reader is thinking more along the lines of "I could be him/her" and the charm lies in finding characters and adventures that you could actually replicate, rather than magical impossibilities. Here the limitations of the real world are almost what makes the story.

Obviously the very best children's books (Harry Potter, His Dark Materials) tick all of the above. Harry Potter is a good example, as he is both in a down-to-earth situation (school) and a magical fantasy world. (wizard school!)
However after thinking on this for a while I arrived at the conclusion that really both points of view are the same. The railway children (even for kids of the actual time period it was written) is really conjuring up the same sentiment as The Phoenix and the Carpet or Five Children and It. (to stick with the Nesbits)
That sentiment being: "I wish I was that kid".

Whether it's the wish to fly and use magic, the wish that mysterious crimes happened in your town with more regularity, or the wish that your friends would stop tormenting the neighbour's cat long enough to all go in search of adventure, that longing is really what keeps you reading. Whether the writer provokes this using the character, the world they inhabit or the journeys they have is up to them.

It's pretty obvious, I know, but I like to write these things down. Actually, I guess it's probably a good rule of thumb for all writing, even for adults and especially for comics.
~John~

War noodling.

2008-11-27T00:00:00.005Z

I've been trying to work out some palettes for my proposed war story (read as: avoiding real work like it's going out of style.) so I decided to slap some colour on some doodles I did for possible characters. I rather like these two. One looks really idealistic, and the other looks like he might grow up to be some heroic manga bish. I'm looking forward to killing them both.
What?

At the moment i'm still slightly concerned that the colour will turn to a wonderful shade of "bleugh" on the recyclable paper that the DFC uses, however. Damn trees. Next I plan to go through a full horizontal and vertical head rotation sheet for each and every character. This is a totally excessive measure which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. I've just spent the last year progressively designing characters straight onto the page, forgetting what they look like and then cocking them up over and over again. So help me, my next comic will be different.

(I'm aware that these character's faces are wonky, and the irony that that involves!)
~John~

On Nietzsche.

2008-11-26T02:07:00.000Z

I found I couldn't really concentrate yesterday evening, so I did a drawing of Friedrich Nietzsche, which I've been wanting to do for a while. He was a great character; the sort of philosopher who seemed to go from great leaps of inspiration to total despair in a heartbeat. His writings really reflect that. Synonymous nowadays with misery, I find most things he wrote strangely uplifting, and magnificently visual. That's not just schadenfreude either, although it is nice to know in arty-angsty moments that Nietzsche was, at any given time, twice as miserable as you are! XD

A lot of people have been recommending me Sartre lately, but having read "Existentialism and Humanism", I found him to be a little...well, existential...unsurprisingly. I'm not in any position or possessing of enough brainpower to compare philosophers here, I'm just talking about my preference on writing. And wow, does Nietzsche write like a madman! Every other sentence seems to be a grandiose statement of sudden truth or some instant commandment, bookended by exclamation points. Perhaps i've just been reading some very over-the-top translations, but it makes my tiny mind jump up and go shit! Yes! Whatever you say mr.philosopher, sir!
He's also highly visual, or conjures some fantastic images in my mind at least. I want to do a Nietzsche manga..

"The ice is near, the solitude tremendous—but how calmly all things lie in the light! How freely one breathes! How much one feels beneath oneself!— Philosophy, as I have so far understood and lived it, means living voluntarily among ice and high mountains—seeking out everything strange and questionable in existence, everything so far placed under a ban by morality."

~John~
(also, I've decided that i'm a terrible digital painter and shall not be trying it again for a while.)

On Teaching.

2008-11-24T21:02:00.000Z

I had to do a bit of teaching last week, which threw up some really interesting points for me. One kid in the group (12/13 years, don't ask me what yeargroup that is...) was, according to his teachers, talented but refusing to draw anything for fear of looking "uncool". I thought this was a little odd, but upon actually talking to the kid I found him drawing an exact, and quite good, copy of the DFC cover in front of him.
Well, I started laying into him for that, trying to shame him into doing something of his own. "Fine!" he replied, now in a sulk, "I'll draw you then!" So I decided to draw him while he was grumpily drawing me. It turned into a bit of a competition, and half the class gathered around to watch. The teachers told me after the class that they'd never seen him so involved in an art lesson. His drawing wasn't bad either.
This really struck me as interesting. Clearly his teachers had just been too soft on him, quietly trying to coax out the "art", whereas when I came along and took much more of a "you're not that hot" attitude he really rose to the challenge. I guess the more teaching you do the better you're able to judge how a certain kid is going to respond to a certain type of teaching; which ones need soothing encouragements and which ones will be fired into action by a need to prove you wrong.
I can definitely relate to teachers who talk of the feeling of satisfaction when you really bring out that spark of excitement in a kid, but I couldn't do it every day. I was talking teaching to "Dave" of Two Sides Wide Studios (and recent Manga Jiman fame) this weekend, who works with a similar age-group. His job sounds ridiculously difficult. Much respect there.

Also in the realm of DFC promotion, I did a talk at the ICA for Comica on Sunday. I had a horrible headcold all day. I can't remember what I said, but it probably consisted of a lot of sniffles and grunts. So apologies to anyone who was there.
Here is a picture of the ridiculously talented Adam Brockbank, My sister Rachel and me looking queasy.

Edit: Just realised Adam did the storyboards for the Dinotopia film. I'm glad I didn't know that, or I might've done a whole lot more fanboy squealing.

Organised Chaos.

2008-11-21T17:05:00.000Z

Having to move house is painful. The most painful part is the thought that I may soon have to demolish my desk. (I'd love to say "studio" but it has a bed in it too, so it doesn't count.) I generally like to keep my living space tidy and minimalist, but this always falls to pieces when it comes to my working space. I've always wanted the kind of ridiculously cluttered studio you associate with "real" artists and my desk is an amazing amalgamation of ikea tables, computer desks, a parallel motion drawing board, about nine million pens, brushes, pencils and tiny little bottles, stereos and more books than you could shake a....book at. looking at it now i'm amazed it's still upright. I'll be sad to see it go, but with any luck I'll get to build a new one soon. :)

Note: These two pictures were taken when my uni buddies had a polaroid fetish, not in 1975.
~John~

On sepia.

2008-10-31T00:42:00.000Z

In a wild attempt to distract myself from some recent turmoil, i'm going to ramble about sepia. I love sepia, I really do. I watched "A very Long Engagement" again recently, which always gets me by the jugular. "The Illusionist" too- because it has the sheer audacity to blur the corners of the camera. Beautiful.
The problem with Sepia, however, is that it's actually horrible, far too warm, muddy, desaturated brown filth. Fine for a single photo, terrible for a cover and disastrous for an entire book. What I really love is "mock sepia" a kind of cross between yellowing paper, brown ink and bleached golden sunlight. (see above) It's something I could easily replicate, if I were prepared to crack out the painty photoshop, but it's hardly practical for use in comics. I've tried many different methods for mocking this up in a time economic way, but with little success. Mostly, the problem seems to be that it's such a dangerously volatile colour palette to use for mass production. My Tokyopop Rising Stars cover, for example, was supposed to glow golden orange, but ended up as a flat and rather uninteresting brown. My comic "Cairo", which was only ever supposed to be a portfolio piece, went from brown to greeny- grey with each printout. My latest attempt is in an episode of "John Blake" which should air sometime around Christmas. I am expecting it to be a cross between chocolate and mud.
I'd love to give up on sepia; but that parchment and wax seal, battered leather journal, spidery ink hand, faded photograph look just sucks me in every time. I want to make comics that look like a love letter between a long dead couple, an adventurers notebook found in a casket on the banks of the Nile or the scrapbook of a young soldier slipped between two forgotten shelves at the back of the Bodleian library.

Expolicious.

2008-10-27T12:35:00.000Z

Expo was a lot of fun, as per usual. I sufficiently filled my fanboy-squee quota for at least another month or so. The biggest revelation of the weekend was that the infamous phrase; "Glomp" is actually an acronym, standing for: Grab, Latch On, Maintain Pressure. A brief poll of the UK manga industry found that nobody had ever heard of this either. We must assume that that girly who relayed this information had, in fact, made it all up. The only alternative being to admit that we're all out of touch with the free-hugs demographic. Which is obviously untrue.
~John~

Just a little more.

2008-10-23T22:57:00.000+01:00

Hang in there man, we're all behind you.
Just a couple more days, okay?
Because If we mess this one up we're
all in trouble.

Random note: my sister got her hair cut in Chicago by the same person who does Michelle's. I'd find a picture but it might embarrass her. I'm not sure she likes being the best looking dyke in London :)

Resolution No #187.

2008-10-17T12:51:00.000+01:00

I made a new resolution today. This happens about once every couple of months, or whenever i'm in a bad mood. This time I thought i'd share. It comes in a form of a checklist. Any comic I write (drawing other peoples doesn't count) Must contain:

A Story that reflects my concerns
A story that has merit; either personal or external.
A story that is defined and complete both in its purpose and construction
Rounded characters that reflect some form of my personality, or those around me.
An art style that is vibrant and mobile.
An art style that is flexible enough to portray my characters and the story to the best of its/my ability.
A visual storytelling style which is flexible enough to allow for the very best representation of any given emotion or scene.

To explain:

Is because I spend far too much time telling stories that do not reflect upon me. These are rarely good stories. More going through the motions of creating an "epic tale" or squeezing emotion out of something- which is always going to be hollow and constructed. Also, I think if I analysed my concerns more closely, i'd end up with a stories that were really important to me. This would, in theory, make them much better and much more enjoyable to create.
I don't mean "worthy" merit here. Nothing is worse than stories with heavy handed messages. What I mean is that the story must have a reason for being. Not the idea, which might be "Post apocalyptic city with jetbikes" but rather the story. Jetbikes, although awesome, are not an appropriate raison d'être for any story.
And even if the story is about jetbikes, far too often I start comics with only a cloud of emotions, scenes and character traits which involve jetbikes, rather than an actual story. ( I don't know how we got onto the jetbikes, sorry.)
I'm sure the really great storytellers can pluck characters out of thin air. I'm not one of them. This doesn't mean I can't exaggerate, or place myself or my friends in outlandish situations, but to have truly three dimensional characters, I should really stick to what I know. The only thing that's stopping me from using my own extensive list of insecurities, shamefull machiavellian streaks and pretentious delusions of eloquence (duuh, I used big words!) is my abject terror of laying myself bare for my art, which obviously holds it back. ooh, that's going on the list of insecurities too.
This is because I get caught up in the details. Or rather, I get caught up in the set pieces- scenes, locations, whatever. This always seems to damage the "character" of both my figures and my precious backgrounds. Just because the building doesn't bend like that, doesn't mean I shouldn't bend it.
This is to reign in my style. A comic should not rest on style, and one that is very interesting and striking, can clash with the way I may want a story to be told. I feel style should be slave to the story- rather than the other way around.
This is to make sure that I make the fullest use of the comics format. A friend of mine is currently stuck drawing a comic in a rigid 4 panel-per-page layout. Conversely, I see many manga artists using layouts that seem worryingly like manga for manga's sake. No layout precedent or artwork style should restrict me from drawing the best panel, or page, possible.

I hereby resolve not to write myself another comic unless it adheres to all of the above.
(resolution may be subject to change and revision without notice. ahehehe ^-^)
This probably all seems like common sense, but I need to be reminded of these things, plus I feel like putting it in writing might just make me somehow less likely to trundle on with mediocrity. (hey! another one for the list of insecurities!)
Finally, and in case you were concerned that i've become all contemplative and morose: I really really need to stop buying so many moleskines.
~John~

War wip.

2008-10-11T03:22:00.001+01:00

I want to do a war comic for the DFC. The big bowtied-bossman is very keen, but it's not an idea that comes without risks. The thought of toeing the razor fine line between war glorification and "too harrowing for the kiddies" is probably what's turning me towards the idea in the first place. One slip to the left or right, and it's head-first into a deluge of cancelled subscriptions and angry letters to You and Yours. One day i'll kick this masochistic streak and write a nice story about a magical-girl or something.
(oh, this is a wip, by the way.)
~John~

Bi-weekly Akira fetish.

2008-10-02T12:44:00.000+01:00

My problem, or rather the principal problem in my vast catalogue of problems, is that I have too many "styles". They all boil down to a similar way of drawing- but when it comes to the rendering, panel composition, "comics narrative style" and even the way characters are drawn, I'm all over the place. The problem is really that when I see a marvel pinup, or a page of manga, or a pencil-inked BD spread, I think to myself- "I could do that!" and most of the time- I could. (or rather- a barely passable knock off.) To be a Jack of all trades is definitely a plus in this industry , but I often feel the "master of none" part of that phrase tickling the back of my mind. At least once every two weeks, however, I decide that Otomo is amazing and I must replicate everything he does. I reckon this is because Akira was one of the comics that strongly influenced me as a kid, but I still think it's strange that I return to it all the time. I don't want to make perfect Akira copies, but there's something in the way he draws that's clearly very appealing to me. If I can just figure out what that is, I might just end up a better cartoonist one day.
Anyway, here's a girl doing some abseiling. This was from an idea for a competition that I never entered- because I decided to turn it into a comic that I never finished. Typical.

No more Wendling for me thanks.

2008-10-01T01:02:00.000+01:00

Urgle. After spending some considerable time replicating a very Franco-Belgian "clear line" artwork style (hey, I do what i'm told) I had a mental spazm and gorged myself on some of the best comics to come from Italy. Massimiliano Frezzato, Barbucchi & Canepa, Liberatore and the slightly disturbing Fernado Caretta. Claire Wendling too, but she's French so she doesn't count. Okay, so they're all produced in BD form in French first, but then SkyDoll is now a marvel book, I hear (So that's what that guy was doing with Soleil at Angouleme. I'm glad I was drunk when major comics deals were going down- it's very reassuring.) Anyways, here are the scribbled results. I wanted to do a fantasy story with a young female heroine for the DFC. I wrote the whole damn thing before I realised Kate Brown beat me to it.
Oh, and nothing happened in the last six months. no really, I'm seeing schooners when I close my eyes. I'm going to try and update this more frequently, honest.

~John~

The top five.

2008-02-10T16:10:00.000Z

I got a whole torrent of abuse shouted at me from a passing car the other day. None of it was particularly imaginative, however it did get me thinking about the very best racial insults I've ever been handed. Sure, I get decent amount of Niggers and Paki's thrown my way (obviously not at the same time, that would be one slightly confused racist) and with the imminent doom of the return of the sus laws on the horizon, I also get stopped and searched a whole freaking lot. To be fair, being a 20-something male with dreadlocks and a headscarf doesn't do me any favours. Amazingly, I manage to tick the knife wielding black youth, drug dealing Rasta and Islamic terrorist boxes all at the same time. Win.
The following list, however, is the more amusing ones. Most of them are pretty subtle, by the middle class, art school softies I tend to end up around. And so I present to you:

John's top 5 all-time favourite amusing racial slurs:
5)"Do you know where I could get some weed, mate"
God, I get that a lot. Nobody ever offers to sell me any weed; they just assume my pockets are bulging with the stuff already. Not really funny on its own- but I like to imagine the thought train of the people who ask me this. "Dude, I really need some weed...Hey, look! Brown person! Dreadlocks! We're saved!"

4)"Where are you from originally?" - this is a great one. It takes the form of a whole conversation & happens a lot. I answer, "Brighton" and then they reply, "No, I mean, where are you from?" and I answer...."Brighton." "No, no, where were you from originally?" "Brighton!" "But where were you born?"... It goes on in that vein for some time.

3) "Oh, you must introduce me! I get on really well with black people!" - spoken about me to my friend Molly, by her roommate at college. Followed by Molly's long incredulous silence. Subtle and completely unintentional by a true art school toff. Love it. Molly never introduced me.

2)"Gollywog!" Shouted at me from a passing car. Genius. Who says that any more? That's like saying "Radical!" or "Cowabunga dude!" get with the times, man.

and number one on the list.....

1) "Filthy Jap" Shouted at me on the street. Wonderful. The poor individual didn't even bother to differentiate between those various "ethnic" types. Perhaps he didn't know the difference? Perhaps he was pressed for time and selected the first one to hand? I look like many things, but Japanese is not one of them. Deliciously surreal, not to mention sounding like something last shouted at Iwo Jima. I want a "Filthy Jap" T-shirt. In giant letters.
( this also pushed "Ching Chong Chang" off the list. Unbelievable, I know. Are these people blind?)

Also another related fave- "Go home cripple" written across the front of Al Davison's house. Probably wasn't funny at the time, but Al seemed to find some humour in the re-telling. To were exactly? Cripple-land?

~John~

Angouleme.

2008-02-02T18:50:00.000Z

I can't be bothered to blog about how amazing the biggest comics con in Europe is. If you haven't been it's not really worth describing. Instead I'l just make a list of some of the stuff I enjoyed.
-Munoz Exhibition
-Clamp Exhibition
-Seeing Olivier Vatine
-Comics classes with Savoia (my idol)
-Meeting a Marvel editor hungover in the street at 7 in the morning
-Bumping into Yishan Li at 4 in the morning
-Going to the pub with Gene Luen Yang.
-Going to the pub with Ed Bagwell
-Going to the pub with Nick Abadzis
(there's a theme emerging here...)
-Going to the pub with Bart Beaty & Stephen Betts
-and randomly being given two tickets to the award ceremony!
All good fun. The photos here are just to give you an idea of the scale. This isn't the convention area, just trying to walk down the hill.
~John~

Ink roughs2.

2008-01-16T19:39:00.000Z

Well, here's the final (ish) page. Hrm. Still not pleased with that spot black balance, but I think it's probably better than I would've come up with if i'd just launched straight into it. In other news, my mom phoned me up just to say that the online trailers for the Death Note movie look awesome. Seriously, whose mother does that??
~John~

Ink roughs.

2008-01-10T16:17:00.001Z

I've started doing really overblown ink roughs for my comic pages recently. I've been very unahappy with my black ad white balance, and hopefuly this will help. I'll post up the final page when it's done, and i'd be real interested for some feedback at that point. I'd currently recommend everyone to do some serious ink roughs before they start their artwork- But I guess we shall see if it actually has any impact on my work, at least.
~John~

Oh Dear.

2008-01-03T22:41:00.000Z

One of my sister's friends, Amy, is on Big Brother. This is so typical of my sister's friends I can't tell you. For once i'm slightly looking forward to reality TV bilge. My sister is unable to watch it. She has her head in her hands at every stupid comment!
~John~

Ow.

2008-01-01T04:21:00.000Z

Four in the morning. Currently plastered, to the point that I can barely type. Met a wonderful Malaysian girl on the bus back home. No more super-clubs for me. I'm going to be feeling this one in a couple of hours time, ow, and a happy sozzled new year to you all. In the spirit of drunken messages, here's some random characters that could possibly be english: tgyduqwek7g6jv!!!!!
~john~

Sometimes.

2007-12-31T12:43:00.000Z

Sometimes when i'm in a bad mood about the world Michael Franti comes along and cheers me up. Do a dance, sing a song- and if you're really lucky, you might get someone else to sing it with you. Peace!

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
~John~

A Present.

2007-12-24T15:10:00.000Z

Since it's Christmas and all, I thought I'd share a little present for my fellow artists; a list of the most useful reference sites I have for making comics. Most of them are for backgrounds... because I like backgrounds. You may also notice a slight penchant for urban decay, but again- that's just me. I have many more, but most are project specific. Remember! So long as you significantly change the image, it's not quite stealing. :)

iStockphoto
Fotosearch
Urban Decay Livejournal group
Abandoned but not forgotten (check out the B52 Bomber!)
Fine Art for men
The Fugitive (Fotosearch)
Colour Palette Generator
TravelBlog
Derelict London
Dixcot Locations
Photo-Locations.com
Location Partnership
Cover Browser (for pinup ideas)

~John~

Spread the Love.

2007-12-18T00:54:00.000Z

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 &1/2 oz melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup water (or milk)

1. Shove the dry ingredients into a pan (9 x 12) and mix together well.
2. Make two small "wells" and one large one in the mixture. Pour in the vanilla into one, the vinegar into the other and the butter into the large one.
3. Pour the water or milk over the lot and smish together with a fork, until it turns into a nice cake-mixture looking mess.
4. Shove in oven for 35 to 40 minutes (preheat to 375°) or just leave until it looks like the top is springy.
5: Stuff cake in face! with icecream!

"Crazy Mixed-up Cake" is probably really a brownie recipe.
I like it because it uses one pan, takes 10 minutes out of your day to prepare, and can be made in vast quantities for when people arrive who simply must have something chocolatey.
So now you have no excuse not to make cake every day.
~John~

MAN power.

2007-12-16T12:29:00.000Z

I spent yesterday being quite miraculously male. First of all, my day involved a lot of heavy lifting- and I also managed to erect something using a power drill. (Notice how I got the word erect in there, that's how manly I am.) It wasn't a particularly complicated bit of construction, but it was to re-establish my old chin-up bar, so that compensates nicely on the testosterone scale. Okay, so i'm sure more manly days could probably have been had. Did I mention I was watching the football, playing paintball and eating raw meat at the same time?
Here's an elderly doodle of a man for you. Grrr.
~John~

Reject.

2007-12-12T21:04:00.000Z

God, I have so many rejects lying around on my computer. For those of you who don't know, in this wonderful career of mine you have to do something called samples. This basically means that you do some designs, some character studies and some full artwork (exactly to the standard you would charge for) just for the publishers to say "mmmmmmmmmm, nah". This specific example is from a Tokyopop pitch that fell through some time last year. I spent a good two months working on this and many, many, may alterations on the cast. Unsurprisingly, I didn't get paid squat. I've no problem with Tokyopop- that's just the Biz!
~John~

Hey, Blondie.

2007-12-10T22:13:00.001Z

I was cleaning out my cesspool of a studio today when I found an old digital camera. Y'know, one of the ones from back in the day before every single cell phone on the market had a shutter attached, and a little mini-camera was a cool toy to have. Anyway, among five year old pictures of artist buddies and ref. pics - I found this. Who the hell is this? I have absolutely no memory of this person whatsoever. This camera didn't have a two second delay, like most of these newfangled things- so the poor woman intentionally took a photo up her nose. Either that, or I did.

Nope, still don't remember who she is.

Like finding a single lost glove, it made my day in an Amélie Poulain, kind of way.
~John~

My new blog.

2007-12-06T22:40:00.000Z

I got a myspace account the other day.

Then I realised myspace was uglier than a virulent strain of herpes, So here I am. This blog is designed to hold, display and hopefully get some feedback on my adult artwork. By that I don't necessarily mean bare-arsed smut, but there's likely to be some of that too.
To get the ball rolling, I'm very glad to have finally found a use for this unfinished djin, which has been sitting on my mac for years without seeing the light of the internet, poor dear.
~John~