Twelve Easy Pieces

When I'm not doing comics, I'm often found doing code. Here's an experiment that combines the two. I've cut out 42 roughly equal-sized panels from drawings that I've done, and randomly recombined them on top of a six panel script. Look at how the words and pictures dance together, and modify each other's meanings!

The drawings are rather rough. The script is hardly epic (yet!). But I'm already quite excited by the possibilities of this. So excited, in fact, that I'm breaking the usual schedule to post this right now!!

The internal repetition on the first one was a lucky accident. Both silent panels (I think these are important in comics storytelling in general) came out the same. Or the weeping muscular figure in variant #5, reprised in the ending of variant #11.

Figures

Experiments at inking on top of printed photos, having figured out a workflow in Gimp for extracting only the inked line after I scan them back in. Looking for a balance between realism and minimalism (and not quite finding it yet, but after a lot of digital-only stuff, the exercise is good.)

The model is F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who's got a wonderfully expressive way about him.

Dog Walk Mushroom (a kata)

Nothing but a record of a moment, walking the dog early one morning, finding the first mushroom of the impending autumn, the dog photobombing my attempts at a perfect shot.

The moral of this story is that when you try to do something according to a plan, and it all goes wrong, you're often left with the start of something better.

Inasmuch as this is a story, and not just (the relic of) a moment in time. That someone decided to try to capture on their camera phone, before it ran away.

Stars (a kata)

 Kata: "By practicing in a repetitive manner the learner develops the ability to execute those techniques and movements in a natural, reflex-like manner. Systematic practice does not mean permanently rigid. The goal is to internalize the movements and techniques of a kata so they can be executed and adapted under different circumstances, without thought or hesitation. A novice’s actions will look uneven and difficult, while a master’s appear simple and smooth." 

- definition from wikipedia of course

My kata tonight:

- take ten photos (in this case from my own collection)

- assemble without much selection beyond an instinctive notion of what "goes together"

- add words in a way that ties them together and brings out double meanings in the imagery

The aim is to practise the form and mechanics of comics rather than to say anything really deep

What worked?
- repetition of colour and layout to top & tail it
- "prepared" has a double meaning
- silent panel on p3
- repeated horses, nests, circles

What worked for you?

Sports, illustrated

I don't really follow any sport, but there are a lot of good sport photographers out there, and as a subject for some anatomy/composition exercises, they turn out some excellent source material. The efforts we go to to overcome gravity!

Homage to Beatrix Potter

The first image from a photo of a man involved in a public protest in Manchester, dressed up as a policeman wearing a pig mask. He was arrested on grounds of impersonating a police officer, and later released without charge. Sketched using Pocket Brush.

Sketch done of a hedgehog while watching the old BBC Beatrix Pottter animations with my children (from a still while paused during the "live action" opening sequences). Sketch done with coloured Lyra brush pens.

Potter was a radical, and an agitator at times. Somehow, these two belong together.

Abstractions 2

A nail house is a Chinese neologism for homes belonging to people (sometimes called "stubborn nails") who refuse to make room for real estate development. The term, a pun coined by developers, refers to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be pounded down with a hammer.

  - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(architecture)#Nail_house)

I've been thinking about the ideas of nail houses for a while now. A recent news article that initially struck me as similar was about the "Tower of David" in Caracas, a 61-story luxury skyscraper that had turned into a squat (i.e. illegally occupied, or at least without the property owner' express permission). In some ways, the two are similar - little/unimportant people trying to find their way amidst the working of large, powerful worldly influences, but in another sense, they're opposites. the Nail House resident is refusing to change, whereas the occupants of The Tower of David are showing a high degree of adaptability. Both of these characteristics are laudable, in the right context, and both can have their negative side too.