Brtish Illustrators

There really needs to be a book on great living British illustrators. Why hasn't anyone done one yet? When these guys are gone, their knowledge and experience will vanish forever. Someone needs to produce one. I believe it NEEDS to be done. And soon.

Neglectied Illustrators

It's a criminal shame that there are no books in print that celebrate the works of Berine Fuchs, Andrew Loomis or Robert Peak.

Sick as a parrot just when you've got a shit load to do!

I shouldn't be typing this.  My computer shouldn't even be on.  I should be in bed, doped up to the eyeballs with various industrial strength cold medicines fighting this bloody Martian cold which has seen fit to rob me of two work days.  I've got so much to do yet, I've been sat in my room all day with my halogen heater turned on full blast which will probably mean my house will incur a electricity bill this quarter that will be larger than the GNP of several third world countries.  All this while wearing enough clothing that one would think that I'm mounting a expedition to mount Everest whiles sweating like long distance runner.

In short, I feel like poo:(  And i don't have time to feel like poo.

I've got plots for three short stories that I have to have nailed down before the end of the week.  Then I have to re-read "The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" so that I can re assess which passages I wish to make illustrations out of for the second time.  Then I have to comb through my second year work to decide which of my projects I have time to redo for the sake of my portfolio and my end of year show. And at some point I have make a trip to the Netherlands for the sake of my final major project (Sketchbook and camera in tow).  Then I have to start producing the illustrations for the final major project so that i can have it done, scanned, printed for my portfolio, laid out in book format, uploaded to lulu printed and bound and sent back to me in time for my end of year show which, this year will be held in held in a gallery in central London.  So not too much pressure on that front!

Shit.  I really can't afford to be sick.  I'm going to go to bed now and pray that I'll be well enough to make my way into uni tomorrow. The studio opens a 8.30am normally and closes at 7.30. Thankfully the library is open until 1145pm so I'll try to reclaim some of the time lost.

I'm not complaining mind you.  This post, more that anything is an opportunity for me to empty my head for various niggly things so that I can concentrate on more important matters.  I find that If I don't articulate things i end up worrying and stressing myself out.  Which I really don't need.  Not now anyway.

I've finally come to accept that my biggest failing is that I always give myself more work that i can possible accomplish. And that I rarely live up to my own expectations.  Ambition is good thing.  But I've consistently bitten off more than I can every possiblily chew. 

No, that analogy isn't correct.  Let me think for a moment.  Ah yes!

I've consistently cooked a HUGE meals for myself that found I've been completely unable to eat when cooked.  There.  That's better.  That fits.  The name of the game is to do something small, which is within your capability to complete WELL and in  the time you have available. Aim for earth orbit before you even think about aiming for the moon.

Anyway.  I've said enough.  I'm away to bed.  See you later.  Hopefully my copy of The Stonecutter will turn up at some point tomorrow. We'll see.

GOODNIGHT.

Special delivery!

Special delivery
Originally uploaded by J.E.Cole

Guess what turned up this morning?

Ah fuck, Bernie Fuchs is dead:(

Bernard (Bernie) Fuchs
1932-2009

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2009/03/bernie-fuchs.html
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2009/08/bernie-fuchs-more-admired-and-more.html
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2009/08/bernie-fuchs-revolutionized-all-old.html

A statement of intent

I'll never use a ballpoint to draw again. From now on its strictly pen and ink, brush pens and pencils.

That is all.

Miles Davis

Miles Davis
Originally uploaded by J.E.Cole

A present for my Dad's birthday. He's a huge fan!

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson
Originally uploaded by J.E.Cole

The finished image. An illustration for a group publication for graduating year 2009.

Happy Birthday to me:-)

Well I'm 29 now. One year until i'm 30. Wow. 30.
I'm not fond of new years resolutions. I'm more interested in making promises to myself.

So here it goes: By the time I'm 30 I'll have 2 maybe 3 (mystery project) books out and well as my Jekyll and Hyde book in print all via lulu. I also would have made substantial ground on the FWN book. I'm not a fan of leaving ideas out in the cold.

I'll also be almost completely out of debt and have nearly saved up for my MA in illustration. And I'll have finally passed my driving test.

The next 356 days are going to be hard, fast but rewarding.

Good luck to us all.

Worldbuilding: A primer

For the past few days I've been reading up about worldbuilding.

Which means I've been reading up extensively about Joanne Rowling, John Tolkien, Jeff Smith, Hideo Kojima, Stephen King and Whilce Portacio.

Whilce Portacio you say?

Ahhhh!

How my clever little mind works!!

Ask yourself, what do these five, six have in common?

The winning answer will get a king sized twix.

The difficulty of being original

This thing that I've working on. The project that's been floating round in the head in one shape or form since the mid nineties.

For the longest of times in was called Zaibatsu. But that really didn't click for me. Then it was Gods and Monsters. But there is a film with the same name. Recently I decided to call it The Shadow Of The Beast Chronicles. But after a looooong conversation last night with an wise artist friend of mine I decided it not worth my time incurring the wrath of Psygnosis/Reflections/Sonys legal department who could quite happily afford to buy my dead body 10 times whiles i'm still alive! So, I've actually had to sit back and think of something that speaks about the tale I'll be spinning. About the themes I'll playing with. It's almost as hard as writing the bloody story! It's so easy to lapse into cliché and avoid the pain of being original. Still. Originality has something going for it. A sense of danger and empowerment.

The search and the work, as always continues.

Edited to include: Sometimes its best to go with name of your protagonist. Which was the name I dismissed very early on as being "not iconic enough". Dumb.

Apparently.......

Roderick Mills thinks i'm quirky!

Fair enough!! In his defence, I am the only student in the whole faculty who turns up to uni in wearing suit and tie:)



ANYWAY!! The prolific British illustrator, Roderick Mills presented a guest lecture at uni today. And gave us an insight into this work practices and his career since finishing his degrees at Kingston University and MA at the Royal Collage of Art. The major crux of his lecture was the we as illustrators have to be proactive. We have to be hungry and be highly motivated. We have to have respect for our craft and our ability and not allow ourselves to be abused by shrude clients who will quite happy fuck the working artist over. We have to aggressively look for work and always have our minds to updating our portfolios.

Around half way through the lecture, he dropped a bomb shell by telling us of the cold hard truth of the illustration world:There are too many course and too many students and the medium is over saturated. Some of us will never become illustrators. Some of us will use our talents for other creative purposes, some of us will fail completely and work in another field unrelated to creative art. Our success depends on how badly we want to succeed and what we're prepared to do to achieve our goals. I greatly admired his no bullshit/no sugar coated manner. I wish we had had more guest lecturers of his calibre in the past. But, whatever. I had the opportunity to talk with him briefly after the lecture. I told him about my goals and about what I wanted to achieve with my work. I told him thus: I had never considered myself and illustrator or an artist. Nor a writer. I had considered myself first and foremost, a storyteller. Art and words are just tools that I use to articulate my narrative. I showed him the Jekyll and Hyde project that was working on and the photo reference that I had taken to inform my work. "Do more" He said. "Draw more. Take more photographs. Get a video camera. Make movies." He invited me to bring my portfolio to his offices when he I graduate and asked me to keep in touch with him via email. All in all a very productive and motivating day. I am so glad I got out of bed this morning.

Right. Back to work.

Mental note: Listen to Ceri Amphlett and Jonny Hannah more often.

Just because you like something, doesn't mean it's good for you.+Other realisations

his is going to be slightly long winded so bare with me!

In my end of year review I stated that I had come to accept that it was okay to draw like yourself and not be a slave to a particular art style. Or movement. Over the last few days I've been sitting alone in my room working on my project and I've come to realise certain things.

Here where things become long winded and slightly stream of conciousness-ish as I'm going to be jumping for point to point.

1. Although you like a particular artists work and find their work inspiring, the style of art may not be compatible with your natural drawing style: For years I attempted to bend my work in encompass the styles of James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, Ashley Wood, Jock and various others before I realised that although I enjoyed their work and found it inspiring, their work was so stylised and unique to them that it was 100 mile away from what my brain was tell my hand to try to do. There was no way "in" for me. Meaning that there was no way for me to look at their and learn how they constructed their imagery. They have effectively develop their own visual language and thus their work was impenetrable. Over the past 3 years I've actively been looking at the work of artists who work is closer to my naturally ability. Sean Phillips, Posy Simmonds, John Paul Leon, Disraeli, Alison Bechdel, Milton Caniff, Nihei Tsutomu, Jordi Bernet, Tim Sale to name a few. And sometimes Jae Lee. And learnt significantly more, to the extent that I've been able to fold what they do into what I go. I'm far, far closer to being me than I was 3 years ago. I can't even look at my old sketchbooks anymore. It's just too painful!!
2. You can only ever do the best you can do at that moment in time. The more you do, the better you become. I was getting hung up about the images I was producing for my final minor project until I realised that I'll never be judged by what other people are producing. I'll only ever be just on the articulation of my ideas. In essence, I'll be judged again what I'm capable of and not some imaginary high water mark that doesn't exist. Perfectionism kill creativity. Do it. Finish it. Learn, Move on. Do better next time.
3. Now this one I've always know, but sometimes it's important to articulate things that run around in your head. The grade I receive at the end of this course will be entirely worthless. Indeed, the very paper that my grade is written on will be worth more than the actual grade. You're dong this course to gain skills not for a fucking grade. How many uni graduates are working for Mc Donalds and Mark and Spencer at the moment? A 100 miles away from the subject matter that they sacrificed 3+ years of their life for. A grade asurses nothing in illustration and even less than nothing in fine art. The portfolio you produce how ever is worth more than bars of solid gold. Rather you fail and have a portfolio that shows your best work and that you're happy with and play lip service to the biases of your lecturers who sometimes get it wrong. Everyone comes with their own personal/artistic biases.
4. Some of your lecturers will be major assholes with egos the size of the heliopause. They will be snobs who will look down their nose at your work and your influences. But sometimes they'll drops a peal of wisdom that will help you see the woods thorough the trees. And sometime the advice they give you though will be spot-on even though they're king-sized arseholes. The trick is separating the gold from the bullshit.

And that's it. More later.

Edited to add: This post was prompted by laying eyes on Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein this evening and knowing that it took Bernie SEVEN YEARS to complete those illustrations. Good art takes time.

End of year review: 2008 was the year that....

2008 was the year that I finally got over my hang ups and committed myself mind, body and soul to creating that which has given so much joy and inspiration throughout my life: a comic. Though it was ropey and badly drawing in places, it was a firm start.

A thing that existed in my head now existed on paper. A physical thing that other people could see and hold in their hands and criticise. This was the single most empowering thing that I've ever done in my life.

Much more next year.


2008 was the year that I could actually see improvement in my work. I could see who far I had come from that day waaaaaay back in summer 2002 at Warren Ellis signing at Forbidden Planet when I decided to start drawing again. It been a long long road., there are still miles to go.

2008 was the year that I accepted that it okay to draw completely differently to everyone else. That you don't have to conform to a certain art style. That as long as you have a firm understanding of the foundations. you can as unique and iconoclastic as you wish.

2008 was the year the Ashley Wood, Sean Phillips, Jae Lee, D'israeli, Alison Bechdel and Nihei Tsutomu had their hands firmly in my pocket. I think I've got more manga by Nihei Tsutomu than anyone else in the UK!!

2008 was the year I discovered Milton Caniff, Sergio Toppi amongst many, many others.

2008 was the year that I read my first Stephen King book and cursed myself for not have read any of his work before.

2008 was the year I realised that good art takes time. That something the process of discarding a finished drawing that doesn't work, although it looks nice and you like it get you closer to something that does work.

2008 was the year that I took my writing as seriously as my art.

2008 was the year I finally came out of the closet as a trekkie:)

2008 was the year that I was more strapped for cash than any other year previously: I REALLY, REALLY didn't like that.

2008 was the year that I saw the would change and history happen before my very eyes.

2008 was the year that I stopped attending comic conventions. No more conventions until I've got shit to show.

And that's that.

Good luck to us all in 2009. We're all going to need it.

Veil

Hello. I'm J.E. Cole and this my art blog, Stay tuned. The goods are coming.

Bless.