Alexis Deacon's Blog, page 14
June 3, 2013
grease is the word
From time to time I paint my drawing paper with oil. It is a very sympathetic surface to draw onto and there is much fun to be had with the translucent quality it gives.
It does change a great deal over time though... here's what a piece of oil soaked paper looks like after nine years:
It's not translucent at all any more but there's some real nice texture to make up for it. Maybe I could make drawings like whiskey - lock them up for a decade before showing them to anyone...
It does change a great deal over time though... here's what a piece of oil soaked paper looks like after nine years:
It's not translucent at all any more but there's some real nice texture to make up for it. Maybe I could make drawings like whiskey - lock them up for a decade before showing them to anyone...
V&A Illustration Awards
Soonchild was shortlisted for best book cover this year... didn't win sadly. Very high standard of work on show. Illustration in this country seems to be in good health! Also amazing canapes. Bodes well for the Memory Palace private view.
It is a shame that Soonchild hasn't won anything. I owe Russell Hoban such a lot. It would have been nice to get some silverware for him!
Will try again with Jim's Lion...
It is a shame that Soonchild hasn't won anything. I owe Russell Hoban such a lot. It would have been nice to get some silverware for him!
Will try again with Jim's Lion...
June 1, 2013
Loaf process - part two
So... the Loaf deadline was yesterday and here is the second part of my process for it.
After doing the thumbnail roughs and preparing the script alongside, I made a second rough for each page. This time my main concern was to establish the shape and scale of images within the panels. I also needed to make sure there was space for the text and check the horizon lines and vanishing points. As far as possible I tried to avoid doing any drawing that would be repeated in the last version. My test is usually, am I looking forward to drawing this? If the answer is yes then I will move onto the next one... If no (and time and patience allow!) then I will have another look. The focus on the very first rough is all on the narrative and pacing, on this second one it is more about making sure things are expressed clearly and with potency.
When those were done I began to work on the artwork itself. Because time was a factor on this project I used tracing paper to work directly on top of my second roughs. I would put a couple of sheets inbetween to ensure that the line in the rough didn't get confused with the line in the artwork itself. I usually work in wax pencil or ink which cannot be erased but for this project I wanted to have the artwork for each page on a single sheet. For that reason I used a regular HB pencil. That way if I made a mistake it was very easy to rub it out and try again!
Here is an example of what these traced drawings look like
When I had made a drawing for each of the four pages I got to work on the last elements, the text, the speech bubbles and the flat tone.
Lastly I assembled them all in the computer... Here's how they came out:
After doing the thumbnail roughs and preparing the script alongside, I made a second rough for each page. This time my main concern was to establish the shape and scale of images within the panels. I also needed to make sure there was space for the text and check the horizon lines and vanishing points. As far as possible I tried to avoid doing any drawing that would be repeated in the last version. My test is usually, am I looking forward to drawing this? If the answer is yes then I will move onto the next one... If no (and time and patience allow!) then I will have another look. The focus on the very first rough is all on the narrative and pacing, on this second one it is more about making sure things are expressed clearly and with potency.
When those were done I began to work on the artwork itself. Because time was a factor on this project I used tracing paper to work directly on top of my second roughs. I would put a couple of sheets inbetween to ensure that the line in the rough didn't get confused with the line in the artwork itself. I usually work in wax pencil or ink which cannot be erased but for this project I wanted to have the artwork for each page on a single sheet. For that reason I used a regular HB pencil. That way if I made a mistake it was very easy to rub it out and try again!
Here is an example of what these traced drawings look like
When I had made a drawing for each of the four pages I got to work on the last elements, the text, the speech bubbles and the flat tone.
Lastly I assembled them all in the computer... Here's how they came out:
May 30, 2013
installed!
I was installing my work at the V&A today. How amazing it is to have a team of highly qualified professionals to help you with stuff! I can't thank them enough. Hanging shows is usually a question of me with a couple of bits of string and some masking tape.
Memory Palace opens on the 18th of June. Come and see it! I want it to become normal for there to be illustration shows at major museums!
Memory Palace opens on the 18th of June. Come and see it! I want it to become normal for there to be illustration shows at major museums!
May 28, 2013
hay
Just been to the the Hay Festival to promote Memory Palace. On the train back I played comic book consequences with Isabel Greenberg... Here's the story we made up (also did one about an evil newt but she got to keep that one):
I love that game! I could play it for hours ^-^
I love that game! I could play it for hours ^-^
May 23, 2013
May 22, 2013
wearing your heart on your sleeve
There are stories that I tell a lot. I am getting like your old geography teacher who would tell the same five stories over and over and laugh at them himself just in case no one else did. Here is one of them:
Several years ago I was at the opening of an exhibition. I was feeling rather low and somewhat lost in an adult world that seemed to have so few interests in common with me. I was at the point of thinking that it was really time to turn away from all the things that I loved and get interested in house prices and mortgage rates when I saw a really nice looking lady standing a few feet in front of me. In her bag was a Bandai robot. Suddenly I realised the folly of being dishonest about what I really liked. How many people here were also secret robot lovers? Perhaps we were all just too shy to admit it and talked about mortgages because we were afraid of being thought odd. How sad would that be? We could have been having a build-a-robot party instead! I began walking towards the lady to tell her how impressed I was with her... when her small son appeared from behind her and took his robot out of her bag.
Now I feel like the moral of this story could be: There, you are an idiot. It has been proven. But being an idiot I chose to take the thought and not the fact as the real truth. I wanted to be that robot carrying standard bearer for anyone out there who might be thinking of giving up on what they love just for forms sake.
On the train yesterday, this happened:
I was sitting in my Captain Kirk top reading Game of Thrones when I heard someone clapping from the other side of the carriage. When I looked up I saw that it was a young man and he was clapping me! It turns out he was from the very new nation of South Sudan in Africa. He said that he had found growing up there very difficult (he originally grew up in Sudan before the separation). That there were about one hundred and fifty different tribes in South Sudan and that each one had an entirely different culture and tradition. When he first discovered Star Trek it struck him how much the different races reminded him of the different tribes at home. For example his father's tribe, he said, were like the Klingons, respecting strength and personal honour and settling disputes with violence. He said that he had tried to follow several faiths but actually, he found Star Trek more useful in teaching him a morality that fit his day to day experience! I wonder what Gene Roddenberry would make of that!
Anyway, we chatted for the rest of the journey and he took a picture of my home made Thrones cover. Turns out we live in the same neighbourhood. Now I have a friend I can't think I would have met any other way ^-^
Several years ago I was at the opening of an exhibition. I was feeling rather low and somewhat lost in an adult world that seemed to have so few interests in common with me. I was at the point of thinking that it was really time to turn away from all the things that I loved and get interested in house prices and mortgage rates when I saw a really nice looking lady standing a few feet in front of me. In her bag was a Bandai robot. Suddenly I realised the folly of being dishonest about what I really liked. How many people here were also secret robot lovers? Perhaps we were all just too shy to admit it and talked about mortgages because we were afraid of being thought odd. How sad would that be? We could have been having a build-a-robot party instead! I began walking towards the lady to tell her how impressed I was with her... when her small son appeared from behind her and took his robot out of her bag.
Now I feel like the moral of this story could be: There, you are an idiot. It has been proven. But being an idiot I chose to take the thought and not the fact as the real truth. I wanted to be that robot carrying standard bearer for anyone out there who might be thinking of giving up on what they love just for forms sake.
On the train yesterday, this happened:
I was sitting in my Captain Kirk top reading Game of Thrones when I heard someone clapping from the other side of the carriage. When I looked up I saw that it was a young man and he was clapping me! It turns out he was from the very new nation of South Sudan in Africa. He said that he had found growing up there very difficult (he originally grew up in Sudan before the separation). That there were about one hundred and fifty different tribes in South Sudan and that each one had an entirely different culture and tradition. When he first discovered Star Trek it struck him how much the different races reminded him of the different tribes at home. For example his father's tribe, he said, were like the Klingons, respecting strength and personal honour and settling disputes with violence. He said that he had tried to follow several faiths but actually, he found Star Trek more useful in teaching him a morality that fit his day to day experience! I wonder what Gene Roddenberry would make of that!
Anyway, we chatted for the rest of the journey and he took a picture of my home made Thrones cover. Turns out we live in the same neighbourhood. Now I have a friend I can't think I would have met any other way ^-^
May 20, 2013
there's always one... or two or three or four
There always seems to be one picture in every project that just will not come right. I really try to avoid doing things over and over but it always happens anyway.
Making the pieces for the V&A was particularly difficult because they couldn't be fixed by swapping in elements digitally or physically sticking patches over stuff. I got into the habit of identifying what was going to be the most difficult bit of a picture and drawing that first. That way if it went wrong there was less lost labour.
Thank goodness I did that in the case of the first picture. As it was I had to draw the main character fourteen times before I was happy. Seems odd now. They all look fine!
Then there was the seventh picture. Ended up doing this four times. First it looked rubbish... fair enough... and the text looked weird - then the charcoal i used didn't fit with anything else - then I measured it wrong...
sigh...
Making the pieces for the V&A was particularly difficult because they couldn't be fixed by swapping in elements digitally or physically sticking patches over stuff. I got into the habit of identifying what was going to be the most difficult bit of a picture and drawing that first. That way if it went wrong there was less lost labour.
Thank goodness I did that in the case of the first picture. As it was I had to draw the main character fourteen times before I was happy. Seems odd now. They all look fine!
Then there was the seventh picture. Ended up doing this four times. First it looked rubbish... fair enough... and the text looked weird - then the charcoal i used didn't fit with anything else - then I measured it wrong...
sigh...
May 19, 2013
dogs in blankets
... I'll get back to posting pictures soon... but this is my personal favourite impro story. It's about dogs... or cats?
May 18, 2013
tusks
recorded this one today... it's about teeth...
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