Sunday night’s review of LUC@176

LUC@176 was fun! I had a great time catching up with friends, drank loads of tea and melted in the heat of the 176 Art Gallery >_<

I must mention Richy K Chandler (who had some fabulous teddy bear box set comics – really nifty), Juan Carlos Cambon of Nipponaisuki who I shared a table with – I brought one of his beautiful A3 prints on a rich velvet-type-of-paper (now I just need to frame it!), Van Nim from Capes and Drapes (she is the master of book binding, might get some lessons from her). Cartoon Kid, who pinged me over a year ago on myspace and finally… found me! Wow! Terry Martin from Murky Depths (Dead Girls by Richard Calder, a new comic series adaptation running from the next issue looks amazing!), Josceline Fenton from Mild Tarantula (I FINALLY brought the whole compilation of Circle, her debut novel), “Lando” from Decadance (he brought The Art of Sleep II for his girlfriend and he’s an amazing animator and graphic artist himself). Daniel Fish (finally got the print of his comic Gary the Blu Tac dog!) Sooo many people I caught up with!

I also must thank Oli Smith and the LUC team for organising such a great event, there was an animation screen going on, a DJ set, tea and coffee on tap and generally, a fun event, so tanks! >_<

The next must-see event will be the Alternative Press Fair at the end of July, it’s going to be BIG, trust me! I’ll also be teaching manga at the Japanese Art Festival in a couple of weeks, so catch me then!

 

LUC@176 is this weekend!

Hooray! The summer comic festivals have started at last! The first of these exciting events is the London Underground Comics festival at the 176 Art Gallery in Chalk Farm, London – this Saturday 27^th!

I’ll be opening shop as usual right in the middle of the venue space and will be selling some new! new! new! comics including “The Art of Sleep II”, “Snacks of Meh II” and more limited edition posters >_<

It’s an all day event and starts around midday, lasting, as usual until the last of the comics people saunter home with some empty bier glasses.

Visit the LUC page here for full details of exhibitors.

Visit the 176 Art Gallery here for directons of how to get there.

Alternatively, email me here for any questions about the event.

Hope to see you there! >_<

 

The Great Cake Escape

What a lovely afternoon for sunbathing eh? Unfortunately I’m stuck in the studio (as usual). Thought it would be great to have a tea break though and a friend just sent me this! Just a bit of caking around with The Great Cake Escape girls – I worked with them over my Hunter exhibition last year at the Shuffle Festival in Shoreditch.

This is a 5 minute documentary by film maker Michael Travis on their work and has loads of close ups of sugary cakes! Notice me in the background stuffing my face (in one of the clips). Love it!

Check it out here. Spread the sugar! >_< x

 

For the love of oops! fashion

I love clothes, I love wearing them (although admittedly most of the time I’m in my pajamas or painting overalls), and most of all, I love drawing clothes. So for all you fashion enthusiasts out there, here are three special-edition illustrations of some of the pieces on offer by oops! fashion:

Neon Butterfly

Visit oops! fashion here to view their collection of reversible capes and jackets.

Making Shapes

Visit oops! fashion here to view their collection of hoody body-cons, including the one in the illo above!

Oops!

Visit oops! fashion here to view their collection of crazy jumpsuits.

If you like the look of these I’m currently putting together print orders (oh yes!) of A3 sized prints at £15 each including p&p. As these are special edition there will only be 10 prints of each illustration, and that is it! >_<  So email me here if you’re interested!

Visit the oops! fashion site here for details of where to buy these fantastic outfits near you.

Loving the brights!! >_<

 

Panda Diary: The perfect Panda… Lady

So what is this mural I’m painting at the Panda Studio about, and what does it look like? To you and me, it’s my personal depiction of the “perfect panda lady”; ever creative, passionate but demure, and always reaching for her artistic goals. If you’re wondering, it’s =koff= =koff= not me, I mean I strive to be creative and I’m always working towards developing my art, but I’m not “demure” or “model-esque”. As a snap shot of my mural below will reveal! >_<

It’s by the studio entrance and is roughly 4ft x 8ft in size. It’s painted in acrylic with extra strong acrylic silver washes. I have about one more session to go until it’s completed – I’m currently adding the small details and lacing parts of it with silver sequins. Yes… I can’t get away from sequins I love them.

It’s a real breath of fresh air to work on a larger scale, everything is approached in parts and seeing it all come together is definitely exciting. When James and I take a breaks we often walk up and down the studio to see what it looks like under different light, from different parts of the room (whilst eating panda-bah snacks of course!).

I’ll leave you with some more images of the piece in progress, and my next Panda Diary entry will be about… themes.

 

Summer Comic Festivals to put in your Diary >_<

So summer has come, finally, and we can all mooch about in the heat as well as enjoy a barbequey while we’re at it! I just loooove the sun and this year my summer resolution is to learn how to rollerblade and look like I’m enjoying it! Actually I had my first taster session yesterday with my sister-in-law who was an excellent coach – time to invest in those blades huh? >_<

Anyways… summer loving aside I’d like to announce two hotly anticipated (love it eh) comic events in the coming months…

The first is LUC 176 on Saturday 27th June which is hosted by London Underground Comics. It will be a whole day and evening of comic selling of the small press kind, animation viewings and drinks and snacks of all varieties to be had! Come along and see for yourself, I guarantee that you’ll love it – it’ll be a relaxed event with moments of laughter and lots of biers going round!
27th June – 176 Art Gallery, Chalk Farm, London – visit LUC 176

The second, and I’m very excited about this one, is the amazing Alternative Press Festival 2009 which spans over 5 days from Wednesday June 29th to Sunday July 2nd. This is hosted by the Alternative Press Fair and covers all manner of self published and fun loving individuals from small-press, zines to music and poetry. Every day is a highlight and I will be at every event! Here are the details from the site:

Anthology Book Launch – Wednesday 29th July
7pm – 9pm, Housmans radical booksellers, 5 Caledonian road, London

Are you zine friendly? Thursday 30th July
7pm – late, The Foundry, 86 Great Eastern Street, London

Spoken Word night out! Friday 31st July
7pm – Late, Venue TBC

Collaborama! Saturday 1st August
11am – Late, The Miller, 96 Snowsfields Road, London Bridge

Alternative Press Fair, Sunday 2nd August
11am- 7pm, St Aloysius Social Centre, Euston, London

The third (wow we are really spoilt now) is the second Japanese Art Festival for the Manga lovers, held at the Richmond Community Centre on Saturday and Sunday 11th- 12th July. I won’t be selling this time round but I will be hosting workshops as well as other things. Visit the event site here for more info.

Watch this space! More news and new artwork from me to come, including updates for my Panda Diary!

>_<

 

Panda Diary: Introducing… Panda Studio!

If you’ve been spying on my website lately you’ll have noticed a new section devoted to long-term projects – the first one of this year involves an exciting and aesthetically pleasing collaboration with the photographers of Panda Studio.

At the start of the year I was asked to design a unique logo to represent their love of photography, creativity and passion for beauty. Following this I’m currently painting a medium sized black and white mural at their studio and soon will be releasing a limited edition of black and white Panda prints – an illustrative bonanza to you and me!

So, who are Panda Studio and what do they do? Panda Studio consist of tag-team duo James and Andrei, a combination of funny-cool and sexy-professional – they’re fun, exciting and most of all very inspiring to work with! They snap around the clock and take lots of lovely portrait photos for fashion, commercial and personal projects.

I’ll leave you with a photo taken at their studio, James on the left and Andrei on the right – the lovely model is Amanda, her look inspired by my “Panda Lady”.

More about our collaboration will follow – of course I’m just giving you snack-sized information to digest! For more information visit their site here or contact me.

 

Quiet times ahead…

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve disappeared to lately, don’t worry! I am still here, I am still creating and art-sing about. Just in a quiet manner that’s all.

To name a few of my current projects, I am working on some character designs for an exciting 20-page comic as well as painting a mural for a beautiful fashion photography studio. It doesn’t stop there though as I’ll soon be selling my homegrown press on Etsy.com, and attending LUC 176 and the London Zine Symposium 2009.

But for the now, if you’ve been missing my creations, here’s an illustration of the day for you… For all you fruity fairytale lovers, it’s my version of Snow White >_<

 

Monday afternoon’s Japanese Art Festival review…

The weekend’s events were absolutely fantastic! I watched taiko drumming, ate snacks, saw waves of beautiful kimono’s, ate snacks, learned about manga style, and ate more snacks.  One of the lovely Umi-Yama’s, Chi-tan, drew a manga portrait of me:

And I spent a lot of time ordering other manga artists to draw various things for me, to decorate the house with! Special mention must go to the following:

Umisen-Yamasen’s: Although I met them a few months ago at the ICA I feel the need to stress how amazing and talented these girls are. There is actually nothing these artists can’t do, manga-style. So check out their website here, and Chi-tan’s personal site, here.

Sonia Leong: I attended one of her talks on manga-style and was thoroughly impressed with her presentation and explanation of facial structure, comic panelling and gutter handling as well as her in-depth knowledge of all things manga! If you’re a budding manga artist and you’re wondering how to approach the whole she-bang, I recommend you buy one of her guide books. Otherwise, check out her website here.

Carlos of Nipponaisuki: Stretching the stereotype of the manga style to a more commercial, graphic design feel, Carlos’s work has a real slick and crisp feel to it. What really stood out for me was his creative use of different textures, layers and paper for his prints.  The quality of the paper you use for your prints is sometimes more important that the piece itself. Check out his website here.

Hassan of Gashu-Group: His disciplined, traditional methods are really a joy to look at. Working on an impressive scale of A2 hot-pressed paper he lovingly inks without the use of zipatone  or digital aid – each detail is meticulously cross-hatched, shaded and painted with black ink. Check out his group website and forum for general manga related things here.

I had a great time teaching at the manga workshops and was very impressed with the budding artists who attended my kimono drawing class! Those teaching with me included Carly Adams of Unwinged Angel. Check out her 1920s inspired illustrations, you know there’s nothing I love more than 1920s fashion and art deco…

For anyone wanting to view and print my tutorials on fashion and kimono illustration, feel free to download the PDF’s here.

Over and out >_<

 

In search of the new moon…

So are you hoisting your girdles for this weekend’s Japanese Art Festival held in Richmond? If not, why not? Well you don’t have to answer, but if you are planning to come it’s going to be really exciting and culture-filled.

As well as my Cobalt Café shop and fashion workshops (with a special session on illustrating Kimonos), there will be a fashion show, a crazy “cosplay*” competition, talks hosted by some famous-types as well as a Japanese Café full of booty such as obento snacks and Pocari-sweat (or something like that).

I will also be selling limited edition A3 prints of my themed painting “In Search of the New Moon”. For the curios out there, here is a snap-shot:

If you’re planning on coming do pop by to say hello, or contact me beforehand for more details. I will be hosting a workshop on the Saturday and Sunday, around 3pm. The official site is here.

Hope to catch you Pocky-style! >_<

*”Cosplay” – it’s a mystery to me as I have heard of it, but never experienced it! I found this website of interest though… it’s not really my idea of a good time, but bring it on!