Back in March last year I was asked to show some of my digitally painted comics art and concept art style artwork at a local gallery (Salt, in Beverley) alongside the work of local illustrator and designer (and one of the founders of Form on Humber Street). Joseph Cox.
It was great to show my large format prints for the first time, plus I’d recently created a set of music related prints which I also had in the show.
As different as Joseph’s and my work might be, it was great showing the work together, and strangely both of us seemed to have centred on two themes, i.e. architecture and music, which made the pairing even more relevant.
If you’ve not found it yet, go check out Salt, it’s a great little space with a wide variety of work on show.
The last few months has seen me produce a couple of stretch goal prints for some indie comicskickstarters, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this. I love making fan art*, and really that’s what this feels like. Being able to dive into the creative world someone else has already brought to life and give it your own spin.
I’d done some of these for the guys at Madius Comics previously which is always great. But being asked by people outside my regular creative collaborative circle was also really cool.
One of these was for Lad, a great new project from Umma Ditta, a strange and really well received folklore meets urban crime drama, about to enter its second Kickstarter push.
*Anyone who has asked me to do fan art commissions at shows, will no doubt think this is odd, as it’s something I usually turn down. I’ve no problem with others doing it, I’m just not that comfortable myself selling stuff based on IPs I don’t have any licences or permissions for. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is I guess.
So the fan art I do mostly tends to stay in my sketchbooks or appear as process sketches in my Twitter feed or Facebook, or be the theme of my Inktober etc, but last year there was an opportunity to donate some art to a charity raffle event for Little Heroes. A great charity that donates create your own comic book starter kits for kids in hospital. The event took place at The Two Chairmen in London, and I met up with Andrew Segal and made a day of it, checking out the usual comic stores beforehand (it was coincidentally Free Comic Book Day).
The event itself was also to be the live audience recording of episode 200 of The Awesome Comics Podcast. All of which resulted in a fun comics themed day out. I got to show Vince Hunt the progress on Coldwater Cove (i.e. all the pencilled pages), and we got to chat to a few of the UK indie creators that had come along to donate as well. Top day out.
Anyway, if you are interested, I created a Fan Art Section on here where you can see a bunch of stuff I’ve done over the last few years. Enjoy.
In November 2018 through to February 2019 I had the good fortune (thanks Sarah) to be offered a space in Hull city centre, on the quayside in old town. Basically to create a small gallery pop-up, in which I not only got to showcase some of my new large format giclee print work,
…but also got to use the space as an active comics production workspace, producing comics at a drawing board positioned in the window of the gallery under the gaze of mostly bemused passers by.
I felt like I produced a fair amount of work in the time I was there, from portfolio pieces, sample art for jobs, a one off comics commission, production art for an animation some friends were working on as part of the 48hr SF film challenge, through to all the actual pencils for both Coldwater Cove (for Vince Hunt) and Ymir’s Heart (with Rob Jones).
I’d also bought my iPad that same month and had a little fun getting to grips with that, in particular Procreate, which has, in hindsight, radically affected my output. For better or worse? I guess we’ll see.
But in the months that followed, I went on to produce the entirety of a freelance comic project, from thumbnails, working “pencils” through to final Inks, all in Procreate. So that was something.
After mostly working at home for the previous couple of months, having somewhere specific to go to to do work, as opposed to just working at my desk at home, was an interesting prospect. It had also been a relief to break what seemed like a fairly lengthy hiatus in social interaction, and chat to people about comics, the prints, drawing and art and making art in general.
There were a fair few students (from other towns and schools) that dropped in, and so it was fun to chat about processes and techniques (something I miss after leaving my teaching role), whether for practical production, or just for generating ideas and getting past that glare of a clean white page.
I made a few sales too, with one of my really large pieces getting picked up in the last week of having the space, as well as two other medium sized semi-original pieces (half giclee, half original Inks) going out the door just as I closed shop for the Christmas break purchased as gifts for someone.
It got me thinking about the relevance of a permanent public space to show work in. And what shape that might take and why. A space where the public can come to ask specific questions about the creation of work often overlooked in conventional art spaces. But this is something I’ll come back to at a later date.
But I have to say, I enjoyed running that pop-up while it lasted. And would gladly do something like it again given the chance.
Just a quick half update… I should be able to announce a forthcoming exhibition of my “Hero Noir” work very soon, it’s a series of experimental pieces (for me at least) that play with comics, film noir and early SF imagery, mostly trying to achieve something nostalgic and cinematic.
It should include another copy of this,
…and some new images in the series which will look a little like this I guess.
…and this.
The two week event is a shared exhibition with another local artist, looking forward to seeing our work in the same space.
Like I said, more info when I get it.
I’ll replace this post with the promotional material for the show as soon as it is released.
…and this.
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