For this week’s guest post/interview, I spoke to Norwich-based illustrator and animal lover Gemma Correll about commissions, artist’s block, and being famous on the internet…
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Page two of my revenge story. Took roughly as long to do as the combined running time of Nevermind the Buzzcocks, Still Game, an Outnumbered Christmas Special from two years ago and a repeat of Friday’s Graham Norton Show. Is that relevant information? Probably not. Mine is not the face of concern, however. It’s 12.41 last night* and I should go to bed. Enjoy.
*This is me trying to schedule posts in advance for the week. Not a particularly auspicious start…
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I haven’t drawn for a few days because life has gotten in the way. Things like catching up with friends and family, Chrismas shopping, and a whole lot of cleaning. On which subject, here is my list of fun things I found in or under the couch today:
- a pencil sharpener
- a door wedge
- a measuring tape
- a handkerchief
- a sock
- a copy of The Skinny from August
- a ticket from First Minister’s Questions
- 6 pence
- two party hats
- a button badge bearing the slogan ‘ordinary man in the street’.
Hopefully you can tell from that it was less deliberate procrastination and more in desperate need of being done…
Continue reading “Nice Weather For Ducks”
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Kohl Publishing is a new independent Scottish publisher set up by Lesley Dickson and Leila Cruikshank earlier this year. I chatted to them about chick lit, why they decided to go it alone, and the inescapable topic of the digital revolution…
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On Tuesday there was a story in The Scotsman that I thought was definitely worthy of a noir comic. So I started drawing it. This is page one.
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This being graphic novel month, I have organised a few interviews with proper artists who do this sort of thing for a living. Alexander Matthews is a freelance cartoonist who draws comics for loads of people, including Private Eye, The Spectator, The Week and The Dandy (which I’d recommend buying solely for his strip, Nuke Noodle – read the first episode on his blog here). He currently lives between Russia (where he teaches art) and the UK. He very kindly agreed to chat about what it’s like to be a proper comicker, rather than a charlatan like me.
You trained in illustration and graphic design and you’ve also been a teacher – which came first and how did you get to the point where you are now?
Illustration came first; the teaching thing was really a way to make money. It’s extraordinarily difficult to make ends meet as a freelance illustrator straight out of college. Teaching very much took over my life for a number of years, however. It’s a tough job but one I love.
You draw in a few different styles (strips and panels, colour and monochrome) – which is your favourite to draw and do you have different processes for coming up with them?
I don’t really have a favourite style. The demands of the publication tend to dictate how I draw. With gag cartooning I might sell one out of every 10 I draw, so I tend not to spend so much time on the images. The strips sort of write themselves-I start at picture one and end up at picture 12. Then I go back and stuff a few more jokes in there! Writing gags is much more difficult-a lot of staring out of the window, drinking coffee and going for walks. I draw all my cartoons directly onto the computer because I’m lazy and paper is a fire hazard.
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12 Books in 12 Months 