It was commissioned as part of the Occupy Sketchbook that Cartoon Movement have been running for a few weeks now and happily coincided with my own plans to go and do some drawing down at St. Pauls. I’m hoping to make my visits there a little more regular and do a bit more of this sort of thing – if I draw anything worth showing, I’ll post it here. In the meantime, check out my Cartoon Movement piece (along with two other European Occupation pieces) here.

I drew in the van, in pubs and cafes along the way, and during the gig with very little lighting – so the images aren’t the best I’ve ever drawn. I cut these drawing out of my sketchbook and annotated them before adding a dash of colour on the computer. It’s a little haphazard but I’m happy with the results and it feels in keeping with the spirit of the tour.

Wanted to have this up and online sooner but I’ve been working hard on Solipsistic Pop 4 (launch party details announced here!) and illustration commissions – so have only just got around to it…

Dan Hancox also wrote about Day 8 for The Guardian here.

Don’t know if this is definite, but I think the plan is to do one or two days a month of the Alternative Reality Tour in the future – so be sure to keep an eye out in case they’re near you! Can’t recommend it enough.

Hoping to get along to OccupyLSX sometime this weekend and do a bit of drawing there if I can but, again, work may get in the way…

It’ll take me a while to properly process what’s happened this week here in the UK. It feel like so much has already been said elsewhere that I’m not sure I have much to add right now. So here’s an illustration instead.

The one thing I do want to say is that the people who are using terms like “as simple as that” or “pure and simple” as a postfix to whatever ill-considered, reactionary, and pernicious comment they’ve just made – those people – they should be treated with extreme suspicion and/or ignored.

Simple... The riots this week were – and are – anything but.

Can we please not throw around ridiculous notions about how owning a blackberry and being poor are mutually exclusive? Maybe refrain from talking about water cannons as if they are acceptable? Or at the very least stop suggesting that anyone attempting to discuss or understand the reasons for the riots are somehow tacitly condoning them?

Simple...

If ever there was a time for the need to appreciate complexity and nuance it’s now.

So that was TCAF 2011. My third TCAF now and, again, a wonderful experience. I’ve only just got back and I’m still a little jetlagged but I wanted to throw some thoughts up here while they’re still fresh in my memory.

It all kicked off with a dream panel on Friday night which saw Chester Brown, Seth, Chris Ware and Adrian Tomine talk about their work, the state of comics and generally be charming and funny panelists who are clearly very comfortable with each other. I think someone should make a reality TV series in which Chester Brown and Seth have to live together in a tiny bedsit. I’d watch.

I spent the weekend sharing a table with the talented and wonderful Becky Cloonan who is one of the best tablemates anyone can have the pleasure of sharing with. We both sold well, and Becky spent a lot of the weekend excitedly telling me about the new Thor film with infectious enthusiasm. Here we both are (I look extremely scared for some reason):

It was the busiest I’ve seen TCAF (which is saying something) and everyone I spoke to did very well there. The parties were a whole bunch of fun and I got to pick up some fantastic new comics while speaking to people like Helen Jo, Nate Powell, Lucy Kniseley, Dustin Harbin and Sarah Glidden – all of whom are huge inspirations right now and they are, of course, lovely in person.

Now, so much has been said about why TCAF is so much fun for exhibitors and attendees alike – I’m not sure I have much else to offer at this stage. The key thing is having a downtown, public library as your venue. And free entry. It seems to me that if you’re going to put on a comic event that is going to encourage new readers to take a chance on comics and to see what the medium is all about – then a free festival with an easily accessible and prominent venue is the way to do it.

The rest of it – the excellent organisation (I was getting useful information about customs, panels, table layouts etc. every day in the week leading up to the event – that’s just a tiny example of how well run this show was), the inspiring volunteers who ran around offering table cover, coffee, water, change – anything that would make our weekend easier, the amazing panels, the wide-reaching publicising of the event, the fantastic parties and side-events… All of it is a bonus but all adds to the many reasons that every artist had a great time and will do everything they can to come back next year.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We need something like this in the UK. Thought Bubble is the closest we have to it but we need a free comic festival. It just needs to happen.

I was on a panel with the delightful Sam Arthur (of NoBrow Press), Philippa Rice, Adam Cadwell, Kayla Hillier, Joe Decie and Kenny Penman (of BlankSlate) about UK comics. It was titled Her Majesty’s Comics, moderated by American artist Brian Brown and was apparently filmed. It can be watched here if you’re curious. I haven’t seen it and can’t bring myself to watch it but I remember the panel being fun and it may well be worth your time.

Here’s a quick photo I took when people were setting up on the Sunday morning:

I then had a few days to kick around Toronto and enjoy a bit of time off. I spent Monday mooching around bookshops and then enjoyed the sun in High Park. Here’s a quick sketch of a tree I did while there:

As a quick aside, I noticed a poster campaign for a paint company at Bloor station which involved lots of full colour swatches of the various paint colours they offered with minimal text at the bottom detailing the colour code. Such a nice, simple way to advertise your product and also make the train station look designed and pretty rather than cluttered and oppressive. More advertising like this please!

The next day we drove to Angonquin national park and went for a refreshing hike. A world away from the madness of TCAF and much needed. Here’s a photo from our adventures which looks a little like a cover to some prog-rock album from the seventies:

For my final night, there was a special Pen Club (the first one I attended in 2007 was the inspiration for doing a similar thing in London) and I had a chance to speak to Anne Koyama properly after only crossing paths briefly at TCAF. We met back in 2007 and since then Koyama Press has gone on to be an amazing publishing house that continues to delight. It was lovely to hang out and see everyone. Was also the busiest I’ve ever seen it:

I drew a bunch in other people’s sketchbooks but here’s what I managed to do in mine:

And then, before I knew it, it was time to come home.

As always, spending this time at TCAF and in Toronto has left me with a huge amount of hope and enthusiasm for comics. I’m inspired and ready to throw myself straight back into work. Speaking of which… There’s a studio calling my name right now…

Ellipsis is a collection of six short, standalone but interweaving stories. I’ll refrain from revealing much else for now, but I’m really enjoying the writing process and looking forward to showing bits and pieces of it on the blog as it all comes together.

I was hoping to get it ready for TCAF in May (did I mention I’ll be appearing at TCAF this year?) but the stories continue to grow and evolve and the book is looking like it’ll be around 100 pages or so now – so it’s unlikely to be ready before the end of summer. I may take a free preview along with me but it’s unlikely as I feel revealing one story without the context of the others wouldn’t be wise.

For now, here’s a couple of quick character studies/warm up sketches and colour/process tests I did while taking a break from scripting – doubt they’ll appear in the book so thought I could throw them up here:

Sadly, my camera and the lighting don’t really do justice to the extremely vivid colours of the paint and t-shirts.

Additionally, I watched this wonderful UKUncut video the other day (in lieu of not making the protest itself on Saturday) – the Barclays Comedy Club was such a great idea that had lots of potential to go wrong (read BCC compere Chris Coltrane’s blog about it here) but the fact it came together as well as it did is a testament to everyone involved. There’s a line that Josie passionately proclaims during her set – so elegant in it’s simplicity – that made me want to make another t-shirt… So… Um… I did…

Here are the t-shirts hanging up to dry:

I’m trying to improve my skills with this modest little screenprinting set – slowly working my way up to doing something more complicated than some negative cut-out prints (although it’s pretty theraputic sitting on the floor, scalpel in hand, cutting out letters). I learned a few things today. Useful things. And I’m getting better – more confident and comfortable with the process. Perhaps next week I’ll try some two colour prints and actually bother with registration marks.

That paint colour I bought is glorious:

If anyone wants these t-shirts – drop me an email. A bit of money for the materials and postage and they’re yours!

UPDATE: All the t-shirts have now been spoken for. Thanks for all the interest and kind emails – really appreciate it. I may make a new batch at some point…

But on Saturday, I took a brief break and joined Darren Hayman’s January Songs project. If you’re unaware of it, Darren Hayman has been writing and recording a song a day for the entire month of January. Various musicians and collaborators have been involved during the project and on Saturday Helen Arney, Kat Arney and Richard Fabulous were to help with Song 22. Helen kindly asked me to come along and illustrate what turned out to be a lovely afternoon. It was a real pleasure and privilege to be present as the song came together. And, trying my best to be a useful contributor, I did my best to sketch as much as I could.

Rather than try and interpret the song itself I decided to try and capture the studio environment as everyone worked together on the song. I don’t know how successful I was at this as it’s been a while since I’ve drawn publicly in such a manner – it’s a very different skill to sitting in a stuffy studio and drawing on your own with no-one watching.

Regardless, at the end of the session, I went to sit and ink one of my sketches as Helen filmed me for the daily video. It’s not the greatest sketch I’ve produced – I must admit to having a bit of “stage fright” while being filmed and there are quite a few unforced errors – but I’m happy with the end product and feel it captures something about the day and the song. The result can be seen and heard here. Try not to let the constant appearance of yours truly disrupt an altogether lovely song. It’s a pleasing lullaby that reminds me of one of my favourite Burt Bacharach songs: Don’t Make Me Over. Go have a listen.

While you’re there – be sure to check out the rest of the project. For the record, I’ve found myself hitting repeat on Day 10 – I Know I Fucked Up (sung by Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’) far, far, far too much.

Here are a couple of other sketches I did on the day (I may try and scan some more in the week and post them here if I have time):

Here’s my first attempts at testing out the kit:

Pretty simple stuff for now – but I’m just familiarising myself with the process.

My plan is – when I get a little more confident with it all – to start producing limited runs of prints and t-shirts in the new year and offer them up for sale on a semi-regular basis. I’m also hoping to maybe construct my own large-scale screenprinting set-up at some point but… well… best learn how to walk first.

My final illustration based on the DayX3 tuition fee protests. Photo reference found through Reuters.

Enjoyed producing these – they’ve been great warm-up exercises before starting other work and I’ve been pleased with the results too. At some point I might try and make screenprints of the four images as I was given a modest screenprinting kit for Christmas and want to try a few two-colour prints. Will post the -undoubtedly patchy – experiments up here soon.

I’m currently working on a 6-10 page comic about the protests with Anne Holiday which should be online mid-January (fingers crossed).

Photo reference from this Flickr image by Richard Rowland.