Final Presentation

Lifes A Pitch...

Leg Character

• I wanted to revisit a character design from my cop visual journal (bellow) - I liked the look of the long black parallel legs - I wanted to have a go at how this could be re created on a larger scale.
• I had some off cuts of wood from the big commission boards I did, I used the same colour pallet and media combination of spray paint and an ink markers. I experimented leaving a wooden background which I quite like the look of.
• I have really enjoyed working with all the primary colours - I love how they work together and create the vibrant and characterful aesthetic.

• Approaching sketchbooks in a similar way to my cop journal is something I want to do in future - as well as doing lots of roughing sketching and idea generation in pencil - I want to practice how I can experiment with paint medias and colour on a small scale at early stages of projects.

• This is a small board in response to the process I learnt within my cop visual journal - looking at other ways I can apply the experimental aesthetic - I enjoy creating them and think there is a lot that can be done with it - I will definitely consider how more briefs can be approached like this. 

Leon Bault

• I really like this guys character designs, they fun and abstract, I like how creative he is with his body formations.
• They have an other worldly sense to them that I can relate to within a lot of my own character designs. His characters a really diverse and experimental some look almost sinister and others much more comical - but yet are still all tied together by the unique and erie aesthetic.
• He is another artist that translates his work into different scales, he works mainly with smaller scale paintings and digital images but also does loads of large scale murals and other paintings on found wood and other surfaces.

Duncan Fegredo Interview

I luckily managed to get in touch with Duncan!! He agreed to answer a few of my question via email. Because he was so busy with current projects, he asked if I would be able to summarise the interview into 4 questions. So I needed to think of good questions that would gain me the most information, avoid anything I already knew the answer too or would have a good do at guessing. I wanted to have specific question that could be expanded on. I wanted to avoid questions that had to much to do with the narrative and story telling itself because it is less relevant to my practice - comic books arn't something that I want to take my skills into but its still beneficial to hear about his creative practice as a whole and see what I can learn from it.

I started by brainstorming some of the questions I could ask him...

• - What lead your drawing skills into the comic book industry?
• - What has been the biggest struggle working in the comic book industry?
• - How does digital work come into play with your practice?
• - Do your produce any illustration work outside of comic books?
• - What has been your favourite project to work on? and why?
• - How did you come about working on Hellboy? How has this influenced your career?
• - Is there an illustrator/artist that you are particularly inspired by? and why?
• - What advise would you give to a young illustrator being introduced to the creative world?
• - How did you come about working on the new star wars storyboarding? And did this require different skills to your usual comic book work?

These are the final 4 questions:

• - What has been your favourite project to work on? and why?

I wanted to hear the thing that he most enjoyed within his career, I kno that the comic world comes with a lot of hard work and long hours, so what has the been his favourite thing to drive his passions as a comic book artist.

• -  Is there an illustrator/artist that you are particularly inspired by? and why?

I thought it would be beneficial to hear who his key inspirations are, weather these are comic book artists or other practitioners, it would be good to hear about how these people inspire his work.

• - What advise would you give to a young illustrator being introduced to the creative world?

With him being far into a successful career, I would like to hear what advise he has for somebody just going into the industry, if theres tips or advise about how to approach it or even things he has realised about it.

• - How did you come about working on the new star wars storyboarding? And did this require different skills to your usual comic book work?

With star wars being such a massive production I thought it could be interesting to hear about the specifics behind that work, what are the different skills required?

Duncans Answers...
(sorry about the really small text it wont let me change it)

- What has been your favourite project to work on? and why? That’s a hard question to answer simply. I’m proud of all the work I did with Peter milligan, he’s a fantastic writer and I think that increased my desire to do better work, to rise to the standard of his writing if you like.  I’m equally proud to have worked on Hellboy, I was a huge fan of Mike Mignola's work and I was fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to work with him. I was even more aware of having to push my art to feel part of the world that Mike created, to overcome the prejudices that many fans felt about anybody other than Mike drawing his signature creation.  Storyboarding Noah was amazing simply because I got the opportunity to work on a film. But storyboarding Rogue One satisfied my 13 year old self,  and that’s hard to beat! -  Is there an illustrator/artist that you are particularly inspired by? and why? This changes all the time. During Hellboy it was obviously Mike Mignola, I spent a lot of time stying Mikes art to work out how best to mould my art into a good fit for the work at hand whilst still retaining my own identity. Mike has both an incredible design sense and excellent storytelling skills, theres always something you can learn from his work.  But there are many more, Alex Toth, Ralph McQuarrie and a host of comic artists and concept artists. At the root of all of it is good, solid draftsmanship and story telling. - How did you come about working on the new Star Wars storyboarding? And did this require different skills to your usual comic book work? I was contacted by a visual effects producer through my online store, they liked what they saw, asked if I had done storyboards before. There are other artists who have worked in comics also working on the Star Wars films, it’s possible one of them mentioned me. Costume designer Gynn Dillon was aware I’d boarded Noah, that may have helped. The skills are similar though I also had to learn how to paint quick images in photoshop. I went in expecting to do rough line drawings but they wanted greyscale paintings instead, that was a bit of a leap. The main skill was the ability to take instructions verbally, from a variety of sometimes conflicting viewpoints. It was quite unsettling as I had to take in a lot of information very quickly and make some sort of sense of it. So, wing it all the way! - What advise would you give to a young illustrator who is trying to make a career in the creative world? If you aren’t prepared to put a lot of effort in and work long hours on things you don’t always like, don’t bother. It can be very lonely work, it can be badly paid, you don’t always get the credit you deserve… but if you read all that and still want to do it I wish you luck. If you are driven to do the work it can be very rewarding.

Im really pleased with the response it has some really useful information. Hearing about how the different influences that the stories and writers have on his illustration style - particularly Mike Mignola. Its interesting hearing about working on rough one, and tackling the information - it shows how you need to be able to adapt your skills well when working on a massive project, when a good opportunity comes about you need to be willing to adapt your skills and trust your initiative. Hearing about how he comes about the projects through previous work and people mentioning his name - this same idea applies to any industry - the more work you do and put out into the world will lead to new opportunities when people realise what you can do. His response to the last questions really shows how committed you need to be your work to keep going, you need to be really interested in what your doing to stay engaged with it - and be prepared to not always get the recognition you expected, and be motivated within yourself. Thats why its so important to find the right place for yourself within the industry.

Duncan Fegredo

• Duncan Fegredo is an british comic book artist, he is best known for working with Mike Mignola on a large number of his comics - and has recently worked on the new star wars 'Rough One' storyboarding.
• I am familiar with a lot of his hell boy comics - I really enjoy his line qualities and character designs.
• I discovered who he was through the hell boy stories, The last half of the hell boy stories are dawn by Duncan - his work reflects mignola's style a lot.

• I went to 'The Lakes International Comic Art Festival' again this year I watched him a do a live drawing session.
• It was really interesting watching how he draw his images after studying his comic pages for so many years.
• I think he could be a good person to interview for my project - I heard lots about his current projects and how he works in his studio within the live drawing session, but I have a lot more I could ask him about the comic book industry/opportunities and how he deals with it and relate it more to my own practice.

The Brick Gallery - Sheffield

• I new graffiti shop opened in sheffield really recently - It sells all kinds of graffiti supplies and spray paint - It also has a gallery space that features loads of local artists - I still need to go and have a proper look.
• I knew the owner and gave him a selection of my prints to put in the gallery and to sell in the print rack.

• Somebody bought one of my deck design prints!! I think it was the first print to sell since opening. I ranged my prints from £20 - £30, and the shop gets %20 cut.
• I didn't really expect to sell anything in the shop - especially with it just opening.
• I only gave him one of each print so I want take him another load over, this has made me aware of how important it is to get y work in as many different places as possible - you never know when someone will stumble across your work.
• I need to do some research into graffiti stores/galleries across the uk and see about getting my prints over to them.
• I will also contacting other local galleries like Colours May Vary - and see about getting some work on display/for sale.
• I had put canvases up in store before - but I think prints are much better - people are much more likely top buy a print on the spot that a canvas. I am more likely to get commissioned for a specific canvas - than to sell one I have already created.
• Paper based prints are a much more efficient form of artwork too give out to different places - and send around - its much more practical.

Large Scale Spray Painting...

Above are my 2 favourites - I really like the use of black fill in the bottom one - I want to explore this more.

• Across the year I tried to experiment with large scale painting as much as possible in my own time - using up any spray paint and emulsion I could find - I would go and paint in abandoned places and derelict building.
• I find its really important for my personal practice to keep painting in this way whenever possible - it gives me a change from the paper based illustration, its more of a physical activity and a day out - its not just about the final outcome i just enjoy the whole process, it keeps me in touch with my large scale skills and keeps me engaged with my personal art, it feels rewarding, and above all else is something I love to do and stops me from going insane - it is the best thing I have found to deal with stress - I just lets my head turn off for a sec and focus on something disconnected from everything else.
• Across the space of this year I have started to realise more and more how large scale works is becoming a key part of practice - so going out and painting is the thing that will keep me moving my spray painting skills forward and keep discovering things - I cant just rely on the commissions as the space to experiment and progress - my spray painting skills need testing outside of professional work.

Sketch Ideas

These are just some sketch ideas from across the year - they have contributed to some of the ideas for my personal work like the libertine and the commission boards...

• Drawing abstract hands and arms is something I have developed across the year - I have enjoyed looking at how I can make weird figures and mix up the different features.
• I sketch in a continuos line way - its a good way that I can translate my ideas onto paper.

• Mr. ARMS - I really liked this sketch, it inspired a lot of my work across the year - well any that involved arms.
• I liked how the arms fill the composition - nothing overlapping just a simple layout - this can be applied in so many ways - which I have started to demonstrate in a few designs for different projects (roald dahl, commission boards ect..)

• Working in square formats is something I enjoy - these sketches gave me ideas to experiment with a type face - could I make me characters into latter formations?? using the limbs and bodies as parts of the letters.

Composition Layouts:

• I really like how these composition sheets look - and I really enjoyed the process.
• I made them by drawing a simple character of part off, and then carried on drawing shapes and characters around it making sure I left space all around the edges - and did this until the pages where full. I like the randomness and not really knowing how the pages would pan out.
• I think a lot could be done with theses ideas... they could work really well as large scale spray paintings, they could work really nice as screen prints with bold colours behind the shapes. It could also be interesting to see how you could respond to a specific theme/subject using this exact same process - finding shapes and characters to draw relating to a theme.

Lino Printing

Lino cutting has been a really useful discovery across the year in terms of my professional practice.

• I found it was a really good way of translating my ideas into neat, graphic and clean designs that are much more suitable for products - and sellable prints.
• Its a completely different visual quality to my other work - so i'm glad I have engaged with it as as it gives me another route to take my aesthetics.
• Id say this was my key discovery this year within the course and my skills in relation to contemporary illustration - i really enjoy working with lino and have gained a lot of confidence within the print process across the space of the year. 
• After using lino for several briefs I can say the key thing is to try and use it only when its definitely the most appropriate media - it can be hard to apply to everything.

Big Commission Boards

• After getting the work at the libertine bar I got approached by the owner of an air bnb who wanted some huge boards to fill some of the rooms.
• He had been looking for abstract tribal art - he really liked my work from the bar and wanted a similar colour pallet.
• He wanted a huge landscape boards wider than 2m and then two 1m x 1m square boards.
• Finding and transporting boards that size was difficult.
• I suggest doing him massive canvases but he had planned on getting them framed - finding canvas that size was also difficult anyway.
• Drawing on fabric that could be rolled up could have been an idea but I had never worked with that material before and I didn't want to risk it on a payed commission.
• I ended up getting a lift with my mate to a wood merchants place where I got a massive 2.5m x something boards and then got 2 meter squares cut - the best wood for the job was ply wood because it was very light, thin but also sturdy and not to flexible - a lot of the board this size where way too heavy. There was no way the huge board would fit in the car so I had to walk it all the way back to my house.

After I had all the boards sorted and had them painted with a coat of white emulsion I made some character designs for the different boards. I experimented with faces, arms and other body shapes in different compositions, I then sent them over two him to chose his favourites... 

The sketches he chose...

• I like the ones he chose - they where definitely some of the better ones from the set, I like the symmetry in the one to the left.
• I was really excited by this project - and was looking forward too further exploring an aesthetic similar to the libertine bar design.
• I was really pleased to have another opportunity to explore my large scale painting in a more professional way - and also based around some kind of brief (requirements), I could feel how my personal and professional practice where combining into one thing.  

I sketched out the rough outlines onto the boards using some random paint I could find - this ment I could start laying the spray paint straight down and didn't need to waste a spray can to sketch out the initial outlines - plus I find sketching with a brush easier sometimes - you can be a bit looser and take more time thinking about the shapes - you have to really commit to the lines you create with a spray can.

Finished Boards...

• Im really pleased with the finished boards, I tried out some slightly new medias within them because I thought it was good chance to experiment - rather than using just spray paint for all the colour and line work - I used a really thick 20mm ink marker to outline and add in extra details, I really like how it looks with against the spray qualities, it gives the black outlines a mixture of line qualities which makes the pieces look much more complex and layered. The marker was mat black and the black spray I used was gloss so it creates an interesting differentiation. I also allowed the pen to drip a lot which I like and adds to the hand painted qualities. 
• I also used white acrylic paint rather than white spray paint - when I first starting painting the acrylic on I was vey unsure how it would work with the bold flat spray paint. But I am really pleased I decided to change it up a bit - I really like the slight texture that the white gives, its hard to tell in photographs but in the real boards it was applied thick and stuck out and was a really nice combination with the solid flat spray paint - I will definitely continue to work with thick acrylic, spray and markers for my large scale work.

Thick marker...

Im not sure which board I like best - I like how the two squares work as a set - and how I included some pink in them. This project has gained me a lot more confidence in making big commission boards - and also discovered a lot about media application.

I also gained more confidence with communicating with the client and talking through ideas and also pricing my work - I got payed more for these than the Libertine and it took less time so that is a result. Organising the transportation of the boards was tricky but he managed to get somebody with a van to pick them up from my house. Overall I think its good to note that when working on commissions - the painting is not the only work - a lot of skills in organisation, time management and communication are also required.

The client was really happy with the boards - I have asked him to send me a picture of them when they are framed and up on the walls - I thought it would be a good pic to have for my portfolio.

Another thing to note from this project was that I got the money first before I started the boards - I much preferred working in this way because I have had trouble getting money off clients in the past, after I had already made the work - which is not a good feeling - I felt much more confident working knowing I already had the money - with any future commissions I will always look at getting some of the money up front - especially now I have worked few.