Tuesday 3 November 2015

The 24 hour comic marathon at The Lakes festival


It was the Lakes International Comic Art Festival last month and along with it the 24 hour comics marathon. I watched from the sidelines last year and wondered if it was something I could ever do. Last year's marathon produced some fantastic comics but it was seeing how enthused every was after the event that made me think I wanted to take part. It's organised every year by Dan Berry who also takes part (because, y'know, he hasn't got enough stuff to do!). The rules aren't quite as strict as the Angouleme/Scott McCloud model so you are allowed to prepare in advance. I came up with a story (in the spirit of the marathon) as quickly as I could. I'd taken a photo in Japan back in March of a suburban street and I knew I wanted to do something using that as the springboard. I wanted to draw a street with crisscrossing electricity cables and knew that was an image I could have fun with and thought if I got a strong opening page at least I'd have achieved something! I'd have one page I could look back on fondly. My aim going into this was to finish and not to disgrace myself too much!

My story was a mixture of The Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Cat in the Hat with a Japanese setting. I looked at a lot of Tokyo homes on AirBnb to make sure the interior of the house looked convincing and wandered up and down Tokyo suburbs on Google street view to find just the right kind of street I had in mind. We've spent a lot of time in Japan and I wanted to make it look convincing. Getting the details wrong would really irritate me. Once I had a story I broke it down into 20 pages and made A6 thumbnails of each page. I then blew these A6 thumbnails up to A3 so I could lightbox them on the day. See examples below.



I didn't want the thumbnails to be too detailed. If I was just tracing lines it wouldn't be fun on the day. I left out just enough so I could improvise a bit (you can compare the thumbnails with the finished page above). I also made sure I wasn't drawing 9 panel grids or lots of talking heads. As I said before I had to keep it FUN. I used a light box to trace each page lightly in pencil. First I added the lettering (from my prepared script) using a Kuretake Fudegokochi brush pen and then I added the pink ink that I'd mixed at home with a brush. I wanted a slightly dirty pink colour (described perfectly as "Minnie the Minx pink" by Craig Conlan!). I then added the grey tones and the black lines using the Pentel Colour Brush pens (my favourites). I decided to go through the comic chronologically using the same process - pencil lines, lettering, pink tones, grey tones, black lines - rather than lettering every page first or alternating a page from the front with a page from the back and meeting in the middle. I was enjoying drawing each page one by one so decided that if it remained enjoyable then just keep doing it (for 24 hours).



I then repeated this process roughly once an hour from 3 o'clock on Thursday for the following 24 hours. We were in a function room at the Castle Green Hotel so occasionally we'd get visitors from the bar. When you've been sat at the same table for over 14 hours it's an odd experience to look up and find Darwyn Cooke, Seth and Kate Beaton watching you draw. As well as an endurance test it's a great exercise in keeping focus and also letting things go. I'd decided in advance I was not going to redraw anything unless it was absolutely necessary. I've done a few allnighters in the past with editorial illustrations but that's always been in a room on my own with just iTunes and the dawn chorus to keep me going. This was a whole other ballgame. We went out to see the sun go down and then later on to see the sun come up, we laughed (a lot), I had a 4:30am call from Woodrow Phoenix, there was a conga line, we ate rice krispie cakes and cold pizza in the middle of the night. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Mostly it was the best of times.




It was quite an experience. I was in a room alongside some extremely talented people - Dan Berry, John Allison, Emma Vieceli, Richard Short and Jade Sarson - and our Lakes volunteers Katy and Phil (who also blogged throughout the entire event HERE). Louise also stayed up with me for the entire duration and even made a felt version of the main character of my comic. Louise was also there to take photos for me and also to sing an impromptu duet with Emma (I Know Him So Well in case you were curious) during the 7am power ballad hour.

We all finished within the 24 hours and then we stayed up a little longer to make sure it all went off to the printers on time (thanks again to Dan) and by midday Saturday we had 50 printed copies each ready for the official launch on Sunday morning. We even got a trophy! Here's a photo of the presentation with our host, Stephen Holland from Page45.



At certain points in the middle of the night I did wonder what the hell I was doing - I just wanted to go to bed! - but in the end I was really, really glad I did it. I don't do enough comics as it always seems too daunting a prospect and now I've produced a 24 page comic in 24 hours. There's no excuse! I sold out of my comic, The Helper, on the Sunday but a bigger A4 reprint is available in my shop now. Thanks to Julie Tait and LICAF for making this happen!

Wednesday 30 September 2015

Railhead concept artwork


To celebrate the release of Philip Reeve's new novel, Railhead, OUP asked a few illustrators to come up with their own interpretations of scenes and characters from the book. It's hard to sum up the book in a few lines (it's filled to the brim with incredible concepts and ideas).Here's a quote from the back of the book -

"Come with me, Zen Starling, she had said. The girl in the red coat. But how did she know his name?
The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, maintenance spiders and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains criss-cross the galaxy in a heartbeat.
Zen Starling is a petty thief, a street urchin from Thunder City.
So when mysterious stranger Raven sends Zen and his new friend Nova on a mission to infiltrate the Emperor's train, he jumps at the chance to traverse the Great Network, to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat, to meet interesting people - and to steal their stuff.
But the Great Network is a dangerous place, and Zen has no idea where his journey will take him"

I chose to draw an escape across the rooftops and Uncle Bugs, a Hive Monk ("a creature made up of thousands and thousands of insects, which come together to form a being with consciousness. Hive Monks choose to form themselves into a human shape, including making themselves a kind of paper mask for a face."). So much to choose from in the book. I'm sure it's going to be another massive success for Philip.

Also be sure to check out Ian McQue and Robert Ball's interpretations of the Railhead world. Amazing. I'm not worthy!


Friday 11 September 2015

Guillermo Del Toro tribute show


Here's my piece for the Guillermo Del Toro tribute show "In Service of Monsters" at Gallery 1988. Despite there being plenty to choose from I couldn't resist painting Hellboy. My piece is based on the Troll Market scene from Hellboy 2. It's watercolour and 297 x 420mm (approx). Available to buy online (or in person) from the gallery from this evening (September 11th). The show runs until October 3rd at Gallery 1988 (West), 7308 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.

Thursday 27 August 2015

Welles & Murakami



Two recent portrait experiments. Both in pencil (the trusty Palomino Blackwing!) and watercolour. I've been trying to experiment with crossing my usual stylised approach to portraits with more realistic shadowing. I saw an incredible Janniot sculpture in Lisbon last year and it got me thinking. It was beautifully stylised but with it being a real 3D object reacted to light and shade in an interesting way. The same goes for the stone heads created by Modigliani (a long time influence). This is what I've tried to achieve with both of these drawings. I think I may have lost track with the Murakami drawing and veered a bit too close to realism for my tastes but sometimes it's fun to interpret rather than reinterpret.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Tove Jansson


A sketchbook portrait of Tove Jansson to celebrate her 101st birthday. She was an incredible artist from an early age and her career was far more diverse than I'd original thought (watch this superb BBC documentary to find out more about her life and career). I think she's more influential now than ever.

Monday 27 July 2015

LICAF "Wish You Were Here" postcard project.


Here's my contribution to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival's "Wish You Were Here" project. It was an honour to be featured alongside such a stellar group of artists - Bill Morrison, Sean Phillips, Dave Gibbons, Bryan Talbot,Steven Appleby and Sarah McIntyre & Philip Reeve.

You can read more about the project and see all the postcards HERE.

I was determined that I wouldn't draw Castlerigg until I'd visited. What a place! Here's some preliminary sketches.


Monday 13 July 2015

Aira Force Timelapse

Jonathan Edwards - Aira Force Watercolour Time Lapse from Jonathan Edwards on Vimeo.


The Lakes International Comic Art Festival commissioned a short film which follows the process of my Aira Force watercolour painting from initial location sketches to final painting. I spent 7 hours in a dark room in Kendal while a camera took a photo every 5 seconds (I was completely unaware of it after the first 6 hours!). Thanks to Julie Tait, Leigh Beavis and Matt Burke. Thanks too to the brilliant Sion Glyn (Santiago) for allowing me to use 2 of his tracks on the video. Diolch yn fawr, Sion! You can buy Sion's album HERE.

My Aira Force painting is available as a print HERE.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Toronto Watercolours


Two paintings from a recent trip to Toronto (both Kensington Market).

Prints available HERE.

Friday 22 May 2015

Monday 20 April 2015

Japan watercolours

A series of watercolours based on the sketchbook work I produced in Japan (see previous posts).

All available to buy as prints HERE.

Friday 3 April 2015

Japan sketches part 1

If you follow me on any social media then you'll know I've been in Tokyo recently. It was inspiring as ever. Here's a selection of drawings and paintings I did while I was there.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Swallow Falls and Llanberis Pass watercolours



Two recent watercolour paintings based on the Welsh landscape. Swallow Falls, Betws-y-Coed and the Llanberis Pass. Both available as prints HERE. Some process pics for your perusal below.



Monday 26 January 2015

A small house in the woods


Finished illustration and the original sketchbook page.

Now available as a fancy pearlescent print HERE.

Wednesday 21 January 2015

David Lynch (again!)



I seem to draw David Lynch every couple of months. It was Mr Lynch's birthday yesterday so it felt like a good opportunity to have another go. This is the closest I've got so far. It was originally a sketchbook page but I've scanned it in today and added a watercolour wash (a real watercolour wash pieced together in Photoshop).

Monday 19 January 2015

Californian House painting


Another recent painting. This time it's a case study-style/California Modern house loosely based on the Eames House. I've included the original sketch along with some process shots. I tried to keep the pencil drawing as faint and as simple as possible so I could make most of the decisions while painting. Sometimes this works other times it doesn't!

It's available as a print HERE.