Ba-Ba-Baby Steps

Here's a little attempt at a comic. It's a rough for the first four frames of the Redcap thing I talked about previously. It's not great, but it's a start.

I definitely have some kind of 'comic block' that I'd like to overcome. I'm rarely happy with my attempts and I find the whole process quite stressful. Not that I have any particular ambition to be a comic dude, but there's a few ideas in my pockets that it might be nice to get down on paper without wanting to blow my brains out.

Redcaps and Comics

Recently I've been toying with the idea of drawing some comics. I've found myself doodling little characters, trying to find something that might work. Man, it's tricky!

Getting my head around even a simple strip completely blows my mind. There are so many things to consider regarding composition, detail and consistency that it can start feeling like a chore before you've even started. How should characters and backgrounds overlap? Does it matter if a chair looks different from one frame to the next? How do you handle different 'camera' angles? - look at Shultz; he kept Peanuts side-on for 50 years, he barely even zoomed in. Visually, there are so many decisions to make, without even considering little things like stories, titles, names and dialogue.

Of course, that's getting ahead of things considering I've only doodled a few wee men on some scrap paper. The guys above are inspired by the mythical 'Red Cap', a dangerous spirit creature that haunts the Scottish borders and dyes his hat in the blood of his victims. Not quite Garfield, but fun to draw.

Gregor Louden Book Launch at Recoat

Old Gopherhead has been busy. If you can, head to Glasgow tomorrow night for the launch of his new book, Lost and Found at Recoat near Kelvinbridge. For a while now, Gregor has been posting little sneak peeks from the project on his blog and, now he's done, I'm totally hyped about seeing the finished article. Alongside shiny new copies of the book, there will be a little exhibition of selected drawings and prints as well as a raffle to win yourself a signed copy.

The show runs until November 15th but I'd really recommend stopping by the party on Friday night. Amy and Ali at Recoat always put on a good shindig and afterwards, once the launch has launched, I'm sure everyone will head round to the Lansdowne for a drink. Here are the details:

Lost and Found
A book of illustrations by Gregor Louden

Show runs: October 24th - November 15th 2009
Opening party: Friday, 23rd October 7-10pm

Recoat
323 North Woodside Road,
Glasgow
G20 6RY

Make sure to say hello to Gregor too, he's a good dude. Being one of the OG Telltale Collaborative, we've been involved in many a thing together over the past few years and I always try to catch whatever he's up to.

Pied Piper

Pied Piper
ink and acrylic on card
from "Skinny Malinky" at Che Camille, 2009


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Twig

Twig
ink on paper
from "Skinny Malinky" at Che Camille, 2009
show on now


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Pattern

A late little doodle in my sketchbook for the Illustration Friday theme 'pattern'.

I tried drawing the pattern from my shirt for this one. Instead of the more straightforward criss-crossing lines method, I treated each little box separately and drew them one at a time. As you can see, it went all wonky pretty quickly. I think I'm going to have another go at this, perhaps with a different shirt.

On a related note, I just checked wikipedia and discovered something I didn't know. Technically 'tartan' is just a name for a pattern made up of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands. Wow. I always thought it was something more specific related to the fabric. I guess this means with the current boom in checked shirts (plaid to our American friends) you can legitimately say things like 'I'm going to Topman for a tartan shirt' and be correct. You'll sound insane, but you'll be correct.