Work in Progress

Just a couple of quick shots of what I have worked on on my Bank Holiday Monday:

These sketches are in prep for a poster I'm making for The Souvenir Collective's 'Be Hospitable' exhibition which will be running as part of the Liverpool Biennial; and which one of my good friends, Marie (the lovely lady behind Kochi Kochi) is curating at The Camp and Furnace! The exhibition launches on Thursday 20th September, so save the date! Woo!

Sarah Maycock

I meant to have a little chat about this illustrator many many months ago! So while I am waiting to hear back from the editors at 'Off Life' magazine (to hear if my submission got through!); I thought it was an apt time to bring this lady up!

I discovered Miss Maycock whilst reading an issue of Creative Review, probably near a YEAR ago now, as an up and coming new illustrator! I really love her fluid and distinctive use of watercolour, and so couldn't resist posting some of her work up here!

You can see tons more of Sarah's work at her website: Sarah Maycock Website.
Go check it out and drool at all of her amazing piccy wics!

Off Life - Inking and Painting

Just tried out a couple of techniques to apply the ink to my Off Life comic. In the left hand one of the first picture I used acrylic paint to make my lines, attempting the style of Simone Lia. I found it pretty tough and kept getting rough edges - while Lia is so much smoooother with her painting skills! I felt the style didn't quite work with my comic (wanted the lines to be a lot thinner!), but I quite liked experimenting with it, so I will be having a tinker with it more in the future. Simone Lia is a pretty famous and coolio illustrator, she made the adorable graphic novel called 'Fluffy', which is how I stumbled upon her (and Tom Gauld's) work!

Anyhoos, here is the inking style I ended up with...(just a thinner fine liner really...)

I then painted all the watercolour parts of the comic on seperate sheets of paper (in fear of spoiling the original inked one) and am now hoping to merge the two together through my magic computer box!

The watercolours don't make much sense now, but hopefully once merged it'll all be ok!
I enjoyed my little stint of watercolours, it was very therapeutic!

So thar we go! Hopefully in the next few days I will posting up a completed comic! My first (proper) one ever! Woo!

Off Life Comic - Sketches

Hey ho, just a little glimpse at what I worked on over the weekend!

I'm submitting a story to a new comic magazine called 'Off Life'. It seems like a pretty cool magazine so I thought I'd give a shot at making a panelled story!

Whether the subject matter of my story will fit the criteria of 'Off Life' is another question...we shall see!

But yes, their first issue is out in September, and deadlines for submissions for this issue is the 24th August! If you're interested in being featured in this hip new mag then you can check out their website: Off Life Website.

Will hopefully have more to show this week!

The Red Door Gallery

Hey ho hey ho! I'm finally getting round to talking about this place!
Whilst on my jaunts in Edinburgh, I do a lot of walking around and frequently stumble upon these amazing little shops, and The Red Door Gallery is one of such shops!

The Red Door Gallery describes themselves as an art boutique, and I found so many things that I wanted to buy for my imaginary artsy friends that I nearly wet myself when I walked in there:

This cute tea towel showed what season to plant certain flowers in, in a very pleasing manner! I really like it when a piece of graphics has to deal with a lot of information and still manages to present it in a simple and appealing way! They were designed by the studio 'Stuart Gardiner Design', and you can check out all his drool-worthy products (as well as other stuff hes worked on) at his website here: Stuart Gardiner Design.

But yes, the shop sells a whole bunch of other stuff too, heres what happened when I went snap happy:

So as you can tell, I really like this place, its awesome. I also got a bit excited by a tiny magazine they stocked in there called 'Ammo'.

Its a magazine dedicated to showcasing all the best illustration talent out there - it shows you work which you may not stumble upon otherwise and it personally makes me squeal like a little sissy girl in excitement.

I've only managed to buy one issue, but that will change! If you pop on over to 'Ammo's' website, you can get yourself a copy too! Ammo Magazine
They even stock previous issues, and pride themselves on being able to re-print these older issues, so they are never out of stock!

The Red Door Gallery has its own website (which at time of writing is being spruced up a bit, but should be on show again soon!), which you can find here: The Red Door Gallery Website.
They also have a blog which is updated regularly: The Red Door Gallery Blog.

So there ya go, a rather disjointed and mildly vague blog post, but thats how it rolls at the Nafftastic! Whoop! Hope everyone has a nice weekend!