drawing life, drawing inspiration.

Pictures from the first comic convention in Britain 1968.

A meeting of like minded individuals.

I really should go to sleep, especially after the last few months, redecorating, running around helping parents, dissertation and a few other things that would be very impolite of me to mention. I guess this is somewhat an update of things. Without sounding like too much of an idiot, I hope, I’ve realised a few things that would make it fair to say that this is somewhat of a turning point for me. When one develops a certain awareness of things, I think its safe that some kind of penny or copper of sorts has well and truly dropped. A few of these things would include, admitting fault in something I found no flaw in for 19 years, realising that I have changed but without waiting a decade to make that observation, finally finding a necessity in punctuation and spelling words the way they were intended, as proven by this post.

The few things that I am trying to change would be my reluctance to actively try to take some vague control of what I want from my time, rather than bobbing up and down on the waves like some seagull floating oblivious to their surroundings. I’m trying actively initiate this little spark that fades out every now and then for my work. I can’t really pin down what ‘my work’ is exactly. I’ve developed an interest in talking about comics, almost more so than creating them for the time being. I’d very much like to be a journalist that focuses on comics. I guess Roger Sabin’s talks, Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics, my dissertation and a selection of comics (mainly alternative and autobiographic) have really sparked my interest in something. I’m trying to stay in closer contact with a few friends I almost forgot about during the second year. A bad year is no excuse for forgetting the people I really value.

I’ve been going to some talks about comics, the Women in comics talk at Cambridge and a few of the ICA comica events. The feelings I get from attending really reinforce a few points I mentioned in my dissertation: 1- comics are a community. I love how we can get together to talk about what we love. Dare I make the comparison. I dare. Even with people of the same religion, there is no guarantee that you will hit it off. With comics, the overwhelming love and appreciation and admiration the fans hold for the artist who has poured hours into their work is such a strong connection. It is almost another level of celebrity, where the person in question is excessively loved and respected yet at the same time much more approachable. Sure it is a kind of self love that comes with art but it is also a sacrifice too… 2- comics are as much of a movement as they are a format. Admittedly a lot of art genres are movements also, but comics are also a medium. Comics has faced so much resistance, and the subject matter of comics is so heavily influenced by time and history and the events surrounding its production. So much of comics is a reaction to what is happening. Indie comics, zines and underground, Joe Sacco’s Palestine… What can I say I’m in love. Also attended the talk with Eddie Campbell. I’ve heard a lot of speakers, artists and they are not only fantastic speakers they’re amazing people in terms of their views and what they have to say, actually perhaps that’s what makes them great speakers. Melinda Gebbie, Dominique Goblet, Woodrow Phoenix and Eddie Campbell are a few of my favourites so far. Maybe we’re all as equally nutty and extreme as each other that’s why we relate and find these amazing artists fascinating, I don’t care. I hear them speak and I can’t describe any other feeling other than I feel so at home. Not in the sense that you understand my problems you relate to me kind of way; it’s far more positive than that. It’s the feeling, we love the same thing, we are united by the same set of beliefs. I am home. I’m sure it sounds like a ball of fluff, but once you get that feeling you’ll understand also. I’m just very glad to have this to contrast my university experiences. On a vaguely similar note, Eddie Campbell did foundation at Central school of art. Anyways. Night all.

setbacks and brain fodder

hmm.. this years been a bit of an odd one so far.. haven’t get created, or come up with any ideas that i feel happy about. there seems to be a lot of emphasis on how this year is supposed to drain us.. it starting to become extremely annoying how i judge everything to such a severe level and ive sort of become really stuck up about pretty much everything.. im really no fun to be around atm.

ive sort of really struggled with the last two projects… and whined about the whole thing.. but i guess im somewhat glad actually… glad that im not really moving forward.. its sort of nice to have one or two set backs once in a while just to put you back in your place… and know where you stand in the grand scale of things.

ive been reading lately.. (a huge step forward… i know..) unfortunately i haven’t really progressed on the html learning.. its great our graphic novels, comics and manga section in the library has increased.. and is looking very respectable now.. hurrah!

ive almost finished reading V for vendetta. i really wanted to see the movie.. but of course the original should come first! its has a few ideas from 1984.. the monitoring of people.. but the narrative plays out very much like a movie.. its as if it was written to be a movie.. this change of scenes.. the flash backs and forwards.. the way the story unravels like a detective story. ive never read alan moore.. but i assume this is what most older comics are like.. its wonderful… sophisticated narration that loses me here and there unlike the comics of today.

also read two other some what auto biographical books.. American Born Chinese by Gene Yang is a pretty awesome graphic novel. I first heard of it when jen told me about it during foundation.. it was probably one of the first books of its kind talking about asians living in a western society. there was a news paper article about it.. it won a few awards. you’ll be able to plough through it in less than 2 hours, but its wonderful.. 3 narratives to join together to one ending (although not the most satisfying of endings). reading it really made me finally see the wonders of graphic novels over comics. with graphic novels, youre not bound to a particular format or story development per issue.. theres a lot more room to experiment with things like pacing. (now im just reciting things ive learnt from my elective: comics and visual narrative) anyway its a wonderfully funny graphic novel.. with that little element of truth in certain situations which i can relate to..

also read through guy delisle’s Shenzhen a travelogue from china. guy delise is works as in animation but its interesting to see his narration. He gets sent over to china to over see some work.. and i guess its exposed a bit of the dark side of animation as well as china. so here’s a few things to take with your tea and biccies:

- if its a tv series.. animation quality is less important..

- work is forwarded to china since labour is cheaper

- quality takes a lower priority to the turnover..

- work often failed.. delisle’s standards… there was one situation where little details like the eyes that people kept getting wrong.. (they weren’t aligned so it looked like the charecter wasn’t paying attention) after the third attempt.. and he decided to do it himself..

the art style is fantastic.. the charecters are so minimalistic.. but unmistakeabily chinese.. and he makes us look so diverse rather than just black hair and slanted eyes.. another interesting thing to pick up is the use of repetition in his narrative.. good stuff.. this is also perfect for the commuting.. since its hard to lose your place.. its a compilation of many little stories..

as a continuation ive also gone crazy on amazon.. ive spent over 100 pounds on art books.. maybe i’ll post and review them when they’ve arrived.. there are about 14 books on the list.. on top of that.. ive brought a new monitor partially to accomodate photoshop and partially to sort out this problem of blurry pixels.. two columns of blurry pixels.. roughly one inch wide each.. it’ll be good for comparing colours i guess… also after reading through a pile of reviews.. and mulling over it extensively.. ive decided not to buy the nikon coolpix p6000.. i can’t justify the amount it costs for the gps system that i dont really need.. decided not to buy the p5100 either since the canon G9 had better reviews.. which is what i eventually and slightly reluctantly brought. (it also had a few decent night shots with no flash which seems to be something noone does reviews on.)

also i read Harrison Bergernon which is a very short story.. with a very interesting concept. http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

a feast for eyes and ears.. the music is by kronos quartet… they made me fall in love with the sound of a cello even more..

i guess the idea made me feel somewhat special.. it would be an exceptionally dull world if there wasn’t the natural variety of human abilities, talents and limitations and i guess i feel fortunate that i do have one thing that im half decent at. having said that i think i offended one of my friends a few days ago. recently i met up with 3 friends i haven’t seen in over a year.. probably a year and a half.. . all three are very good artsy visual people. we all did art together in our class of 7 and it was tight knit group.. we’d go down in lunch breaks or if we were bored.. or we’d skip games to paint and chat. the work they did was brilliant.. much better than anything i achieved. well.. now only me and one other from our original class are actually pursuing art art.. and i was thinking.. its odd that most of us have gone into something more serious. ‘ yeah El. its not those days anymore, i miss that feeling, but ive moved on to something else. we’re not all as lucky as you.’ yep.. i sort of understood what she was saying.. she came from a chinese family.. that pretty much comes hand in hand with undertaking a ‘proper’ degree to get a decent job in the world to support your family. its her choice .. and i guess i respect her for taking it so far and really working hard.. ive always had the naive belief that.. if you like something enough.. you’ll inevitability work hard for it.. thus growing in scale.. and with luck people will come to you and pay you because you are good at what you do.

on a final note as i tuck into my takeaway.. the overly people folk down there always mistake me for someone.. thinking they’ve seen me at certain places .. or thinking that i had some kind of sister… hmm. i wonder.. since it apparently happens so often.. i wonder.. what these people who look like me are like.. but i bet they don’t have a vocabulary like mine.