Rochdale project

6 page story produced with 3 Year 10 lads at Balderstone Technology College Rochdale. Similar to the 3 page comic strip made with the Sugar Group (see previous post), I transcribed the recording of an hour's conversation, which the group then edited, selecting which parts to use. I then drew out the panels and speech bubbles, then participants added drawings of themselves in the appropriate panels. Prior to this we did a practice by drawing self portraits in 5 mins then 2 mins, 1 min and 30 seconds (great way to reduce your drawings down to the essentials and speed things up). Finally I inked the figures and backgrounds.

Click to enlarge-

Season's Greetings

It was my busiest week ever last week, delivering comics sessions in Leeds, Rochdale and Manchester to 7 different groups, 2 of them twice. One of the sessions was with a new graphic novels reading group from a Moss Side library - we went comics shopping with £500 to spend - lots of fun!
anyway because I've been working so much, I can justify having 3 weeks off over Christmas. I can also justify not getting round to doing a Christmas card this year, so I'm posting this instead - which I was asked to draw for the Gallery's festive mailout. I'll make up for it by doing an Easter special in the new year.

Garden Funnies update - I'll be using this time off to get everything finished off and to print, so DEFINITELY out by the end of Jan.

New Years Resolution - Get some comics made and stop teaching so much. I do enjoy the teaching, and it has it's rewards both financial and creative, but recently it has swallowed me up and consumed so much time and energy that I'd lost sight of why I was doing it in the first place - to buy me time to do my own work. While it's nice being in demand for running sessions, if I'm not being an artist, then I'm really just a teacher.

Also, meet my new owls - a late birthday present to myself -

Hurrah for eBay - just search for 'fairground ride' or in this case 'kiddies ride'. I've seen some amazing dodgem cars and suchlike - need a van though really. And time. And money.

Yorkshire kittens

Group portrait of a really nice bunch I'm working with through Leeds City Art Gallery. I'll be giving them a print of this each this evening when I'm over there doing our second comics session. Note their copies of TeenWitch!

Stuart Kolakovic exhibition

Finally got round to meeting the brilliant illustrator and comic artist Stuart Kolakovic at the opening of his exhibition in Projekts MCR skateshop last night. A runner-up in the recent Observer/Jonathan Cape short comic competition, Stuart's style and subject matter is closely linked to his Serbian ancestry, and seems to effectively capture the mood and tone of what little I know about Eastern European folk art and storytelling. Partly this is achieved by use of his muted colour choices, which make the images seem as if they have been lining a draw full of vests for 60 years. Combining bold soviet graphic styles and patterns with delicate and detailed brushwork, Stuart creates a world of magic realism akin to Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar stories, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I'm also reminded of Emil Kusturica's brilliant film Black Cat White Cat, in which every scene seems to have geese or chickens running through it (not unlike a Muppets musical number descending into chaos).


This exhibition's richness in detail ( the patterns on the fabrics of the shawls and aprons, the somehow 50's Latvian firework display) seems to both contrast and enliven the poverty of the rural village life depicted, creating an epic diorama far more busy and exciting than any city.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Stuart goes on to do with this impressive talent - a modern-day Josef Lada perhaps?-

Lada's Soldier Svejk

Never Been by Stuart Kolakovic is on until 3rd Feb.

Two Cats

I was stuck for ideas of what to draw, and then it struck me - some cats!