Group Tutorial 26/2/26

 

Drawing the First Page

 I decided that to make the pages of my comic I would use A4 paper so that I could size the drawing up or down (probably down to A5 as that would make the lines look more detailed). I used a gel pen and pentel brush pen (which I love!) and once I had done the line work I decided to experiment with adding colour, the border colour and adding more shadow. If I'm honest I don't particularly like any of them but I do really like the black border instead of the white because it make the comic feel more like a horror comic. 

When it comes to the final drawings I will definitely have to do some minimal editing in photoshop to make them print ready. But I don't think I'll be adding any colour. 

Drawing using the lightbox.

Talk Infront of the First Years IPP

 I got surprise attacked with an offer to do another segment for one of Simons lectures. I say surprise attack because really there was only one days notice but I was determined to do it. 

His lecture was about rebellious practice which I touched on in my visual culture project with my essay and zine about the representation of women in horror. And, is also a big part of what me and Helena talk about in our collaborative projects. So we were both just going to do a quick talk about our work, inspiration behind the work and why we do what we do, but something came up for Helena so it had to just be me. 

I prepared the 5 slides the night before by using procreate and power point on my ipad (its very handy for creating work while you watch movies with your friends). I'm quite proud of how that came out and when I showed Simon he thought they looked great too. 

I was quite nervous for the talk because I had so little time to prepare and I was missing Helena, but it turned out alright because it was basically me and Simon having a discussion and the first year know me well by now so they are not that intimidating. (I also know them well because they come to the Illustration Society).

GivethemHEL - Hellfire Zine IPP

Helena came back from visiting the Vagina Museum in London and showed me lots of pictures from the exhibitions. this started a lot of conversation about being a woman and our experiences, and then I think it took me saying that I wanted to bring more meaning into my work through feminism, and before I knew it we were having ideas for a feminist zine about periods.

We came up with a list of things that most women might go through while they are on there period, and then decided we would draw each of them together on Magma. Magma is a website where you and your friends can draw on the same digital canvas at the same time. It was fun and interesting to use because where I am quite proficient with digital draw, Helena had never done it before. We spent about an hour per drawing and added a little phrase to each of them, we also planned to have the colours be the colours of the blood during a period cycle. We also added black out poetry to the beginning and ends because we had some in reserve that were very feminist.

When making the book, I wanted to bind them by hand and then somehow we came up with the idea of having the excess thread on the outside of the book, so that it would look like tampon string. We also went a step further and used red acrylic mixed in water to dye the ends of the string, just so that it was even easier to tell what it was.

I think the zine is quite graphic but we weren't afraid of that and you can't really talk about periods without being graphic about it. Also we want people to not tread around the subject. 

I really like the outcome of the zine and we have got a lot of positive feedback on it. Some women being like "yeah that's so real!". And that's really all we could ask for to be honest.