Experimental Lockdown Remote Project

Unlocking Christmas 2017 (Partially)

Got asked who was who in the 2017 Christmas card, and took a booking 2019! Here's part of the image. I lost the list that identified many, but here are the people I work with section identified.

1. Lou R
2. Jo S
3. Tom G
4. Nick B
5. Tobie L
6. Jon D
7. Ed P
8. Jo D
9. Scarlett, Sofie and Arran.

Fonts, important, but brain ache..

Have spent the last two hours trying find a suitable comic book font. I have decided that I don't want to actually do the lettering myself as it will almost certainly require changes.
In the process of looking I found this little chart at https://jasonthibault.com/comic-book-fonts/
It shows how to letter a balloon correctly, and notes the difference between the use of a capital "I" as in myself and where it appears in the middle of a word.

Actually, for my students who are interested in comic book publishing, the whole article is worth reading and full of good advice.
The links to the fonts will also be of interest as they are all useful.

My main gripe is that most of them only come in three weights, Regular, Italic and Bold italic. I'm not sure if I will need a Bold. But it would be nice to know it's there to be used.

Some fonts

In addition to the free for small press commercial use, I've also been looking at Paid fonts. Overall I looked at about 20, narrowed that down, drew up a chart to help narrow it down further and ended up the ones below. Prices are 25-30 Dollars, so that's not going to be a factor. I guess I should look at Adobe's typeset, but I don't recall having seen anything.

Now I'm going to sleep on it. Try out what I've already got (See last picture and take it from there.



Probably Sequentialist is the winner, as it has Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic. The other two have lowercase letters through, so there's a choice to give the type 'colour' and to differentiate between the parts of speech and thought.

Any opinions welcome.







Demo page I set up for myself. Too many choices...

Scripting and Sketchbook

 These scans show the scripting process. This is quite early on and the page with the blur has been considerably shortened and reworked.
The blurred photo was taken out, and a number of identifiable components redacted.
I use cat and paste because for me it is faster and I put a value on speed of operation.
Often the pages in the script will have many layers of stuff stuck on them. Scribbles, quotes pages and sentences from the research that I have done. I started off with nearly 300 pages of research - 300 literally as I printed the bulk of them out.

Why print them out?

For me, once again this is quicker, also I can annotate them, draw on them, cut bits out and then re-assumble them.
All of which is slower and less intuitive than on a screen.
Also, I can lay out all the pages and shuffle them to get a good overview. On a screen you (well at least I do.) tend to just focus on one thing, which is why I try to get my students to use their sketchbooks. Incidentally, your handwriting will improve and secondly, no-one's going to be judging you on that in a sketchbook. Unless you're a Calligrapher.

This image, which was in the original show will probably go in as it is. Although I am wondering if I should massage it for a square format.
I've also noticed that several of the pictures are similar. So some new drawing/editing will be required.

Never finished first time around...

Here's the picture I'd never finished. Before and after, although 'after' isn't strictly true as it's still in progress. Need to add some lighting. Paint is still wet, so that's the reason for the reflection in the later version.

Originally drawn, but not finished in 2011

Some weeks later...

It's gone through a lot of drafts. Too many. Trouble was finding the glue to hold it all together and I don't think I'm really there yet. This week I started what I wanted to start a month ago, namely Illustration.
Dug out the old pictures - if all else fails, I have an exhibition here. Found one picture that I had forgot that I had, and another that was never finished. That last one is now on the production line for finishing.
Today Ruth is out for the day, so I'm hoping that I will start at least five pictures.
Tonight's effort takes shape. #grayanddismalgreen#greenbelt Gb17

Grey and Dismal Green - real first day.

Wrote, and I use the term lightly, the first draft of the Grey and Dismal Green script today. Cobbled together from some of Ruth's recollections and some of my copy and images; I believe there's enough to make a start.
Ruth is finding this hard as it's digging out memories. But there's a story that needs to be told in some form, and the deadline of 1st August isn't so far away.
Gulp!

Using tea to antique paper.

My mantra for design students is "Never start with a clean sheet of paper".

That works on two levels - firstly it's a reminder to always do the research, finding out, seeing what's gone before, at the beginning of a new endeavour. In other words learn from others.

The other level is literal. Actually start with a messed up page and draw into it. Last week I gave each student a messed up stained, antiqued, sheet of paper and asked them to draw on it. Incidentally, I also made them do a drawing on a napkin. Fuzzy drawing.

This post is how to produce that stained effect. Obvious once you know how, but anyway:

Here's the sheet of Canson watercolour paper and a Daler-Rowney sketchbook. To be honest the paper isn't that important - although the Canson paper is twice the weight of the sketchbook.

I have prepared two cups of tea. The one on the right I shall drink in due course - it's PG tips. The onion the left in my brand new mug is Redbush  Redbush gives a warmer tone than PG. I've tried lots of different teas, they all give different effects. Posh Earl Grey with big leaves gives a sensational texture and the smell lives on.

Here's the paper on a board. Ideally this would be glass, but this will work almost as well. Incidentally, the colours are all a bit weird because it's just gone 6.00am.

I've used hot water from the kettle to soak both side of the sheet of paper. I won't be doing that with the sketchbook, because it will ruin it. This process will remove any sizing in the paper.

Here it is, soaked.

Now I've poured the Redbush on it from the mug.  That's the teabag at the top. I'll use that in a moment. I've coated both sides. The tea will probably not soak all the way through unless I leave it soaking for hours.

The teabag is torn open and the leaves scattered all over the paper. This will give little hotspots. You could also try sprinkling salt in places - works well if you try this with watercolour paint.

Now it's the sketchbook's turn. I'm not going to soak the pages this time as it will ruin the book. This time I have used the teabag like a brush, squeezing the cold tea out and then using the bag to spread it evenly. But not that evenly.

Once agin, the teabag is split open and the leaves spread over.

The book is closed and I have used a two litre drink bottle to apply some weight. Otherwise the vicious curl in the paper will stop the tea leaves from making their mark.

Three hours later - here's the result. Paper is really curly. You can try ironing it, works a bit. I usually just let it relax over time. It will never be 100% flat - but that's part of the charm!

The Canson paper isn't dry yet, although it's shaping up nicely.

Will probably take some time. It's important to check it through, otherwise it may end up sticking to wood.  I'll add picture when it's dry.

Final results

Sketchbook, scanned, no colour correction. Although I will use the scanned image somewhere I will probably warm it up a little - sometimes it looks like weak chocolate or flesh. I may add some grain.

Almost certainly I will crop it again to to remove the dark strip on left hand side, which is a shadow from scanning. Incidentally both scans are 600dpi and 48bit.

Carson paper, scanned, no colour correction. Fairly pleased with results. Canson paper has strange mark on middle left. (Click to enlarge) Think this is fine dust from the tea pay that has floated to the top and then dried out. I quite like it, but might use Photoshop to remove it when I use the scan for something.

Colouring nearly done.

Four hours gone and I have painted the rocks and 245 carrot noses. There's still some pencil shading to be done and a look by the cool light of day for bits I've missed. The major elements to be done are a sky; which I'll paint separately and drop in, and I will hue shift the brown mountains to an indigo blue colour.

Right now I could go on all night, but common sense says "Quit while you're ahead"