Alexis Deacon's Blog, page 4

the circle is broken

My Tiny Pencil comic is beginning to take shape and the clowns, that began as bits of crab and otter and such from the Horniman, are becoming proper individuals in my mind.  It is a sad tale... and also funny.  It's about clowns, what else could it be?  Here is the opening sequence as individual drawings:




 







More soon!

clowning

I have been back to the Horniman again. This time I was looking for bits and pieces to use in the design of six clowns that will feature in my Tiny Pencil comic...












As I did with Loaf magazine I will post pictures of the comic whilst it develops.  Script and layouts next!

calling all Beegus

I spotted this homemade Beegu online today

Got to be one of the best ever.  If anyone has any homemade Beegus that they would like to show off please do send me pictures.  You can post a link in the comments on this blog.  Might give Beegu-related prizes to the best ones...

plants... what can I call them but plants?

I am having a great time playing with the sound recording stuff on this phone.  It occurs to me that with a bit of planning I could actually make a real story this way...  One with exciting installments and a plot - instead of me just saying the first thing that comes into my head into the microphone.

This isn't that story, I'm afraid I just made it up as I went along as usual, but I did make a sort of first installment of that science fiction diary I proposed in the last post.  I used to love the BBC show Journey Into Space when I was small and I would love to do a series of my own in that vein. 

Have a listen...  It has much higher production values than previous efforts ^-^

a world of sounds... in Spanish

One thing I have discovered about my sister's second hand smart phone is that it makes it super easy for me to post things on Soundcloud again as it has a really great microphone and a sound-editing app.

I am thinking I might do some sort of science fiction diary thing...

In the mean time here are two ladies talking about language study.

Making children

I have been drawing in the Horniman Museum working on designs for The Children of Babooda.  It is early days but I am having fun so far.  

my precious

So I just inherited my sister's old phone and have been dragged into the 21st century as a result.  And what can people do in the 21st century?? They can post pictures of stuff they like on Instagram!

WARNING! Do not click that link if you want to see anything other than toys from the eighties!

...On the other hand if you like toys from the eighties then we have something in common.  Click away!



In case you are wondering, Spud and Fox were the two names my parents were thinking of giving me before my Gran stepped in and vetoed them.  Probably for the best.

Soonchild sketchbook

I did a lot of development work for Soonchild as it was one of the first projects I was involved in after a four year lay off and I needed a lot of practise to get back in the swing of drawing stuff...   It just occurred to me that I should post some of that here!

The Children of Babooda

This is my next picturebook.  I have been working on different versions of the text for ages and finally finished the first dummy this week.  Now I have one hundred children to design... will post some here!

irreverence

For the last couple of years I have been trying to make the transition from being primarily an illustrator with an interest in story making to being a story maker first and foremost.  How well this is working I don't know.  One effect it is definitely having is that I am trying to look for useful patterns and principles in story structure much more.  This is all very subjective of course but it would be odd if I didn't try and make the kinds of stories that I myself find engaging.

Here's an example of something I noticed as it applied to drawing, which lately I have found can be very useful in storytelling too...

When I was at art college I was for the most part having a lovely time making up comics that never went anywhere and drawing characters for them.  Often we would be set briefs that had nothing to do with the stories I was working on.  At such times I would usually find a way to shoe horn my own stuff in somehow... Then came the ‘Tea' project.  The brief was to design an advertising campaign that would make tea appealing to young people.  This project managed to touch three sore points at once.  Firstly, I didn't drink tea then and seemed to spend half my life declining offers of it; secondly, I had decided that advertising was something I most definitely was not interested in getting into; thirdly, I had no conception of myself as a young person because I didn't seem to like any of the things I was supposed to as one.  This is similar to the feeling I get when I read the Guardian newspaper today.  I can tell that it is meant to be for my demographic and yet I don't understand most of the stuff in it.  This makes me feel odd.  Try as I might I could not find a way to use the story I was making about a giant bald woman who kidnaps a thumb sized baby.  So I got cross.  I thought, aaargh! You want something that appeals to young people, that's exactly what I'll give you!  (obscenities blacked out for decency's sake!):



 

And can you guess what?  They were the most popular thing I did in college.  All those precious stories that I'd slaved over for months and everyone wanted the naked lady straddling the letter ‘T' instead.  It's like I was saying in my post ‘when it's right it's right', sometimes the hardest work is the dullest to look at.  I think if you work with a free spirit it can be very infectious.  I have been driven to this mental state by despair several times in my career and it has always been very helpful.   For my first picture book, Slow Loris,  I tried again and again to get the artwork right - it was my first book and I wanted it to look spectacular - in the end I gave up and painted over photocopies of the dummy instead (might post more on that later).  Before I came up with my second book, Beegu, I tried character after character and was repeatedly told they weren't appealing enough.  In a fit of rage I drew the most saccharine being I could imagine and voila, they were thrilled.  It never occurred to me to think that my finding the original design for Beegu excessively cute might be a good thing!  I love Beegu like my own child now!  
Since these experiences I try and remember not to make things a grand labour if at all possible.  
Here is one application of this idea that I have noticed recurring in stories that I like.  It seems to me that if every character in your story is entirely on message and engaged with the world you have created it can be very off-putting for the reader.  I find that I am drawn to stories where not every character follows the grain:  Reluctant characters, perverse characters, selfish characters, irreverent characters.  They are often the catalysts for action too.  Think of it in these terms, which is more interesting, I pull on a rope and it yields or I pull on a rope and it resists, it resists, it resists...  Engaging narrative is almost always about challenge, conflict and difficulty, to my mind at least.  As a story maker and the creator of every character in any given narrative I think it is all too easy to omit voices that dissent, that are unimpressed or disinterested but these can often be the most fascinating.