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Mini Comic: Heat Wave

So... the UK Heatwave this year was not for the faint of heart. At all. Pretty sure I died. More than once. Physically and Spiritually.

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Mini Comic: Recommended Reading List

This was right at the beginning of my first term at University. The length of the reading list I was provided was for the whole year, not just for one module. It was significantly daunting to say the least.

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Heatwave

I did this the other day in my summer art journal when the weather got a bit intense 🫠.

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Mini Comic: Grimace Shake

Comic I did earlier this year. That one time my dad got me a certain shake from McDonalds. They had run out of my preferred flavour, so my Dad improvised. At that point, the infamous Grimace Shake had left quite an impression on me... I survived the encounter.

I'm pretty sure it was just blueberry flavour.

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Mini Comic: Choking

Food has a habit of trying to assassinate me. It hasn't won yet...

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Mini Comic: The Starscream Figure

One of my mini comics drawn a few months ago. This one features my love of Transformers, the battle to stay awake during lectures, and a happy gift.

The rest can be viewed on my Portfolio.

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☆ Happy new year! ☆

Here's hoping for a better and kinder 2025. Peace and love.

♡ ♡ ♡

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UAL Level ¾ Foundation Dip Art & Design Unit 2: Narrative Pathway - Vampire Zine

This is my last post related to Unit 2. I know there is a bit of a gap between the last post and this, but I have been working solidly on my FMP since the end of February, and I will probably/maybe post about that in a couple of weeks, or when the asessement stage is over. For the last four weeks of our Narrative Pathway, as part of Unit 2 of my Foundation Dip, we had to create a small zine in any format/medium we chose. However, it had to be ‘replicable’. I decided on the theme of Vampires. I know Vampire themed art is pretty well done to death, but I tried to create something a bit different and cover some different ideas and themes. I enjoyed this part of the unit the most. All of the finished images were created in Procreate. If you want to see some of the process work, then it's included in my PORTOLIO:VAMPIREZINE.

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UAL Level 3/4 Foundation Dip Art & Design Unit 2: Narrative Pathway

This is the other half of the work from the Spring Term, the Narrative Pathway. Each workshop had a different theme/focus, and we had to create an illustration based on the set narrative. Above are some of my best pieces of work from this Pathway. My favorites were the Tarot card, the music poster and the Silent Narrative short comic. I honestly enjoyed doing this pathway more than the Printmaking one, as this is a lot more up my alley. It was a challenge though, as I had to work quickly to fulfill the objectives by the end of the session. I have never been good at working quickly, so this pushed me to improve. The results likely would have looked better if I had more time, of course, but not the point. This pathway helped me overcome a hurdle that has been tripping me up for years.

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UAL Level 3/4 Foundation Dip in Art & Design Unit 2: Print Pathway - Lino Printing

As it's been a long time since I did a post, I thought I best do a catch up one now, as I am now midway through my Level 4 unit, which is my FMP. The work here is from the Spring term and is a selection of some of the work I did for my Unit 2: Print Pathway, which was a 10 week project running from Nov 2023 to Feb 2024. This post is just about the lino printing. The screen printing I will save for another post. The tetrapack printing, well...I may just give that one a miss altogether, it doesn't look as impressive and I didn't enjoy it as much. I enjoyed the lino printing the most out of everything we did, as it was more familiar as I had done some in a previous project. The rest of it however, had its highs and lows. This was one of the highs. I didn't enjoy it because I found it easy mind you, in fact my classmates were terrified I would accidentally take a chunk out of my finger with the carving tool! But despite my classmates lack of faith in me, I had a lot of fun doing this. The fish lino print (Mr Fishie) was a challenge, as that process involved carving some of the lino away, printing, washing off the ink, carving again, printing again, you get the picture. I think the print of the fish on the Khadi paper was the most successful.

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Happy New Year!! 🥳 it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I missed it. Did get eye strain doing it though, so that’s a wonderful start to the year 😂 Hope everyone has a great (peaceful and uneventful, in a good way) year.

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UAL Level 3/4 Foundation Dip in Art & Design Unit 1

This is a small collection of work from Unit 1, which took place over the first half of the term up to the end of October. This was very different from my previous course, which was pretty structured. I decided I wanted to do a course that was more experimental, using different media, and get used to being more messy and try and get out of my comfort zone.

From the start we were working in groups, collaborating and using different mediums. We went on couple of field trips and encouraged to go beyond the studio. I made some good friends, which helped my social anxiety a lot. I enjoyed all of the workshops, though some were more challenging than others. The installation stuff, 3D work and puppet making was tricky, but enjoyable. I really liked how my puppet turned out. My first attempt was a disaster and had to learn how to sew in a week, it was rapid learning curve. Making the Julian Robers dress was interesting, and I really liked working with my friends on this.

Overall, Unit 1 for me was pretty much almost everything I had hoped for. I've explored, I've experimented, I’ve gotten messy and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Unit 2 is the Pathway stage, and I have chosen Narrative and Printmaking. Will try and post about that more frequently.

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Insidious Villain UAL Level 3 FMP

Above is the finished comic that should was the end result of my FMP. Below are the finished pages including text. Sadly, I was not able to include the printed comic for the hand in as I couldn't get it printed in time. I was very proud of the work, and it also realised an ambition, which was to have a comic in print from an original idea and story by me. As for my FMP and my course? Well, to be honest, I have not much to say. The beginning of my Ext. Dip started well. My first two projects got good marks and I had high expectations. However, at the beginning of the last term and at the start of the FMP one of our tutors (the best one to be honest) went on sick leave. After that the course just lost focus. Key information came in too late and there was a lack of direction. In the end, moral was pretty low. I think we were all just glad it was all over. But, onwards and upwards, in September I start the Foundation Dip. Art & Design. Fingers crossed it goes well.

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Interview with Bowen McCurdy aka @bonesblubs

As part of my Unit 6: Final Major Project, I contacted @bonesblubs and asked if she would be prepared to do a short interview to be included in my project. Bones came back to me immediately and said she would be happy to. She wrote a great interview, and it was a big help, so huge thanks and gratitude.

Background: Bowen McCurdy aka Bonesblubs is an illustrator born and raised in New York. Bones as she likes to be known trained at the School of Visual Arts in NY, majoring in Cartooning in 2018. Bones is a self published illustrator of small comics and zines, but has also a recently published graphic novel for Boom Comics called Spectre Inspectors which has a paranormal theme and includes an LGBTQ story arc. Bones has also published stories for IDW and Marvel.

I first came across Bones on Tumblr through the popular fandom based on the novel 'Heavens Official Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. At this time she was ithe planning stages of creating a small comic zine based on the novel. Bones published the zine herself and sold it on her Etsy stories and promoted it on Tumblr. I bought the zine last year.

Can you talk a bit about your influences and inspirations?

I try to be the kind of person who is inspired by almost everything- I absorb as much visual information as I can at a time, whether from other visual artists, musicians, media, or the way the light hits the trashcan outside my apartment. In comics, you have to know frivolous things like how to draw a chair or lamp, so every bit is important. I consider myself, like many from my generation, highly influenced by international media, such as European and Asian comics. I especially was drawn to horror and romance, two genres that were domestically often overlooked in graphic novels when I was growing up. Specifically, the French cartoonist Kerascoet is one of my biggest inspirations, but I have to give Becky Cloonan the credit for being the push that got me interested in making comics in general. At that time, it was rare to see women working in this field in the US, so she was the one to 'break the glass ceiling' for me! What media do you like to work in best?

I tend to like instant gratification- speed and efficiency are highly valued in themcomics industry, and though I’d one day like to experiment around with traditional mediums again, I love the ease of working digitally. Comics are very hard to do, and they take a long time to make, so having the tools that programs such as Clip Studio Paint have to offer are priceless resources. Everything you need to tell a complete story can fit in a tote bag. It's the most cost-efficient medium when working on comics that I’ve found as well, which makes sustaining it a lot easier!

What made you want to create your own comics?

Although comics are hard to produce, they can be entirely self-reliant. This removes any impediments- I’m completely free to tell whatever story I like within the confines of my skill level. It’s a blessing and a curse; I’m now responsible for anything that comes after; if I’m unable to finish a project and see my vision through, that’s entirely on me. But having the ability to choose to take on that responsibility and use my voice is very important to me. I love collaborating, and I seek it out often, but I want to do so on my terms. This freedom is rarely found in other storytelling mediums, and it's something that ultimately makes each indie comic feel like one specific voice told it, for better or for worse. There’s a lot to be said about that! I also just think it’s neat that I can hold it in my hands when I’m done.

Could you describe your process or stages in how you create your comics, how you get there?

First, I script my story, often doodling in the margins if specific imagery is important to a scene. Then, I use that script to sketch out my thumbnails, which has the name suggests, are tiny sketches of the pages, each the size of a thumbnail. This stage is only to capture the flow of each panel into the next, and the character’s expressions. Much of the storytelling happens in this stage - everything else makes it look nice! Next is where many comic artists deviate - most will continue on to the layout stage, which is when you enlarge and articulate the thumbnails to be more legible, and then move on to pencils, a much more refined version. Because I use digital tools, I can combine these two steps and instead have one pass of layout/pencils. These are messy sketches that keep me loose when I go to ink, helping me to be more expressive and less precious with the final result. I also add my word balloons in this stage, since I want to make sure that I have enough room for them before I start on the final art. Inks are just cleaning up the pencils with a clean black line. Once I’vegotten rid of the sketch layers, I color, and I’m done!

You have based one of your independent comics around a popular Danmei novel, did you do any other research other than reading the content of the novel?

Definitely! I do a lot of research before each project I start like gathering reference photos, double-checking that information in my script is accurate,that the language used is respectful, etc. I don’t always catch everything, but doing my best to do so is essential to me, especially for stories that take place in locations I'm personally unfamiliar with.

What is your production process for creating  your zines and comics?

I have experimented around with many online printer services, and ultimately have been using one that’s reliable, quick, easy to manage, and high quality! Although I loved producing my comics back in college by hand (printing, assembling, cutting, folding), I don’t have access to the resources my school provided anymore, and the quantities that I’m producing are much higher now than they had been back then. When printing online, I can simply send the printer a PDF of the comic I want, and tell them what type of paper for the cover and interior pages they’ll use, the quantity, and finishing (matte, glossy, UV, etc). Once I’ve approved their proof, I order in bulk and wait for them to arrive! I don’t have much room for storage, so many of the excess comics live under my bed.

Bowen McCurdy Links www.bonesbunns.com https://bonesblubs.tumblr.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bonesbunns/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/bonesbunns https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/bonesbunns/

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UNIT 5: Publicity: Workbook Moodboards + Research + Merch + Finshed Work

A selection of work from my Unit 5 Workbook, includes some of the research, moodboards, some merchandise designs and the final illustrations. I’ve left out all the draft illustrations etc.

For this project I had to create multiple illustrations that could be used for publicity for a Muscal my college was hypothetically going to put on. I chose ‘Beetlejuice the Musical’, as it had more opportunities for me to create more interesting graphics. The other option was to create an ad for a charity of my own invention (which would have been interesting to create, but boring to illustrate). I decided to create three different illustrations in three different mediums; one I hadn’t tried before, one I wanted to expand on after the last project, and one I wanted to improve on. Personally I think the digital ones turned out the best out of all three.

The first two finished illustrations (the snake curled around the B and the black and white one) were done tradtionally: the left piece is mixed media (Posca, pencil, marker and metallic Washi Tape). The snake featured in the one on the right was filled in with marker outlined in fineliner, cut out, and stuck onto textured black paper.

The digital illustration was created in Procreate; the background of the version on the left was also done in procreate, while the background of the one on the right was created in Affinity Photo.

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UNIT 4: Workbook Finished Layout Design for Tithe Graphic Novel Project

FINISHED IT! And I managed to get it handed in early as well! I had decided to use crosshatching as it fit the Fae theme quite well. Additionally, when I have read older story books, including ones about the Fair Folk, if there is any illustration included it’s often black and white crosshatching, as I’ve used.

The reason I managed to snag some extra time and get it in early is because as I was midway through finishing the final draft, I realised it was too good not to use, so it became the final product (I also feared jinxing it if I tried to recreate it). I added the dialogue on procreate, which became a minor hassle, so I don’t reccommend it, and probably wont do that again. I had originally had planned to do more pages, in the end just completed the one, it was a case over being over ambitious. Still happy with how it turned out.

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UNIT 4: Workbook Kaye: Head/Body Studies + Final Draft Studies

Afer completing the design for Roiben, the next logical step was to work on Kaye (the other principle character in Tithe). Unlike with Roiben, the image of Kaye in my head was a lot fuzzier, so had to do some more serious thinking about how I was going to portray her. I’m pleased with the result I came up with in the end, as the design not only suits her and looks fashionable, but was also not too complicated to draw. That will save plenty of time in the final production.