First page and business cards...

My book has now been sent to Macmillan! Hooray! So we'll see how that goes. As mentioned previously though, I'm working on a new story already. In fact, the writing is almost finished and today I completed the first finished page. I've also uploaded a test drawing of the main character enjoying the rain, just because. Oh and he's also managed to get his face on my business cards, although he is still orange and without his little cheek blushy stuff because that was an earlier incarnation. My cards will be picked up tomorrow!

Verses and concepts...

I've already written some verses to my story now. Also, here's the breakdown of it: The boy (or whatever) meets various animals who are doing what they do best (bird - flying etc) and he tells them that he can do better, then going on to tell an anecdote about a time in which he did something amazing. The animals don't act impressed because there is no logic to the stories and they are so ridiculous that they cannot possibly be true. He eventually realises that the last animal he talks to has walked off during his story, at which point he walks home. Then *SPOILER ALERT* we see his trophy collection, showing that he was actually telling the truth. So here are the verses I'm happy with so far and a page of sketches for the protagonist. As per, we're rhyming.

You call that swimming, fishy fish? That’s nothing, don’t you see?

One time I swam as deep as whales who all applauded me.

I met some mermaids, yes I did. I found Atlantis too.

And then the mayor proclaimed me king of all the deepest blue.

You call that running, furry feet? That’s nothing, what a bore.

One time I ran a race with cheetahs, antelope and more.

I ran around the Earth, I did, I even stopped for tea.

And for my speed I did receive not one medal, but three.

You call that flying, feathered friend? That’s nothing, not to me.

One time I flew out into space for aliens to see.

I flew beside an asteroid, and all cheered with delight.

And then I got a trophy for my brilliant skills of flight.

Now, why a fox? Well, foxes are often portraid in fiction as cunning, sneaky and sinister characters. This adds weight to the story. The reader will (hopefully) already have this in mind when they begin to read. This will make them believe that he is lying all the more, thus making the reveal at the end more poignant. Also the fox is native to the UK which I think is an added benefit for the child reader.
Also, here's a sketch showing the character in context a little.

New projects...

So with my book awaiting being sent off to Macmillan and my PP under way (kind of, must work on that actually), I've decided to undertake new projects. First of all I'll mention Advice from Mice. This is going to be a straight up silly fanzine based on some silly comics I did a few weeks back. Here's an example of how these images will appear.

Second, I'm writing a new kids book. This one is about arrogance and the folly of bravado. Since I know how stimulating it is to read ALL of my notes (ha) I've decided to just copy and past them from the word document I was working in. Also a page of horrible sketches while I tried to figure out the main character.

Version 1

Eq – Boy (whatever animal) is lacking in friends and he can’t understand why because he thinks he’s brilliant [character note: He is confident and arrogant, not unhappy]

Dis – Boy talks to people (animals) who are doing various activities. We will see the whole cast from the off and each time they say what they can do the boy says “that’s nothing.” And makes up an elaborate story to better them. He does this several times (to be determined) and eventually they ask him to prove it at which point he says he must go to bed.

Rec – At the end he reflects on how amazing they must all think he is because of his great triumphs, though the next day when he goes to find them, they aren’t around. At this point he recognises his error and the story ends.

Version 2

Rec – during his last exaggerated story the other people all walk away. He doesn’t notice until they’ve already gone, at which point he exclaims that they must be jealous. He then reflects on how brilliant he is. The illustration then conveys how alone he is, and we see a look on his face that indicates how sad he is. In this version we can see the characters as they begin to walk away because he will have his eyes shut as he starts to talk.

Version 3

Dis – they all get sick of his bravado and ask him to prove it. Eventually he is *forced* to take part in these activities which proves he was lying. They all laugh at him and he feels humiliated.
Rec – He feels sad and realises he was stupid to lie in the first place. He runs off and cries alone.

Rep – The other people (or animals) return to him and tell him that it’s okay not to be the best at EVERYTHING, and that he’s the best at telling stories (maybe).
Note: This message feels shallow. It implies that there’s always something you can be the best at, but this isn’t true. Maybe the message should be that we’re all the best at being ourselves and that it doesn’t really matter whether we possess traditional talents. Maybe not though. Maybe they say as long as they have fun and are good to each other then it doesn’t matter? I’m not sure. I don’t think it even needs to have this happy ending. I like it ending with the boy NOT learning a lesson. The reader can learn the lesson but the boy doesn’t have to.

Notes: It’s probably best to tell it from the perspective of the boy, with no narration. Although in order to set up the Eq we may need a line of narration. *once there was a rabbit who…* etc. Or maybe we don’t need to start on the Eq at all. It’s possible to start on the disruption.

Possible titles: Bunny bravado. Bear bravado. Bravado. (something to do with conceit).  

Note: All those titles use words that kids won’t know.  Braggin’ Bunny is better, although still entirely shit. The bunny who bragged? The bear who bragged? What the hell animal is this going to be?!

Printed book etc...

So I got my book printed! Hooray! I will say this though - It's not as good as I'd hoped and not as bad as I'd feared. Basically the colours are somewhat desaturated and they apparently *had trouble with the binding* which resulted in quite a deep crease which cuts off about half an inch of my double page spreads and leaves some images that should sync up across pages looking disjointed. I put this down to incompetence on their part, but this will suffice for my Macmillan submission so no big deal for now. I guess. I'm going to wait and see if anything happens with Macmillan, then I'm going to contact *vegan publishers* which is a relatively small, but you guessed it, vegan publishers. I think they're US based though so that may be problematic but we'll see. I'll also do some research into self publishing costs and effectively plan a kickstarter to raise funds for that. I know that I can get donations from vegan groups if I get a nice video put together. I might be able to wrangle a student to do that for me too, thus cutting my costs down.

Also I did this He-Man image partly for fun and partly for my portfolio. I love 1950's poster art, something I didn't know until I played the first Bioshock game many years back, so I thought it would be fun to do something funny in that style and also in my way of working. Et voila!

It's quite exciting applying this way of working to new stuff. I also want to pursue my advice from mice fanzine just so that I can get something else before the end of the unit to boost my marks (hopefully). I've got a few narrative ideas in my head but I don't want to half-bake them due to time restrictions. I was still editing The Takers right up until the last minute, meaning it took me over half a year of back and forth editing to get it right, now I only have five weeks to do a new narrative - not gonna happen.

Competitions I've entered...

So this year is probably the first time I've felt like I'm good enough to enter competitions *tiny violin plays*. First off I submitted a skateboard design to Crowd. I was selected as one of the five winners with this design. Can't say that I've noticed any additional traffic head over to my facebook page or twitter as a result but it was still cool. Plus, £100 prize money.

Total goonish smile

Next I submitted the animation that I did in my second year at university to the creative conscience awards... Or something. I'm not really sure what it's called, I did it on a whim. My animation focused on depression and took the form of a narrative surrounding a little blue monster. Blue. I know right? Subtle. I haven't heard anything about that but I don't even know when the deadline is, it may still be going on. Here's that animation.

Finally, thus far I've submitted two designs to a competition run by Ohh Deer. It's one of those social media competitions and I don't really like them because it can essentially be a popularity contest, with social butterflies getting the most points (that's right, we get points). Aside from that, it's kind of a useful way to gauge the market. You can see what people want on t-shirts and what they don't want. So whether I win anything or not, at least I can see that if you want to work in *that* industry, a certain degree of pandering needs to occur. Here are the banners I downloaded from Ohh Deer showcasing my work.

So what can I do with this new way of working?

Test number 1 - BUILDINGS.
Well, landmarks. Well, the fucking Eiffel Tower.
I'm actually quite happy with how this came out for a sketch. Also you'll notice that I've got hand written text that isn't my usual signature scrawl. That's because today I was in the library just nerding out over art deco and art nouveau fonts and posters so I took a few books home with me in case I wanted to try my hand at drawing the any of these fancy fonts myself at some point. Turns out, I did want to do just that. Success! This is going to go in my *sketchbook* section of my website. That's 3 images in there now. Hooray!

High Noon promotional sketches...

Flo decided it would be a good idea for us to do a sketch every Sunday in order to promote our grad show.  The topic was "guilty pleasure", so I did a sketch of myself licking the dinner plate. This was also a good opportunity to explore drawing more realistic characters in my current way of working. My book concerns itself with insane creatures so I'm looking forward to exploring more realistic scenarios in the same style.

Cover design...

This has been tricky. On the one hand the cover needs to look awesome, but it also needs to reflect the inside of the book AND not give away too much of the content. I mean, part of the hook of my story is the reveal of each individual Taker, so I can't have them on the front. Below are my thumbnails and a couple of varied takes on the cover design.

Eventually I settled on the below image.

Writing the blurb is often done by somebody that a publisher hires apparently, but I obviously had to take a stab at it. I had to offer some questions that needed answering and a brief summary of the story without revealing too much of what happens within. It's kind of tricky to do! I'm not sure about the use of the word appease, but then again, I think a parent is going to be the main person looking at the blurb of a book, don't you?

ALL OF THE PAGES!

I realise it looks like I haven't done any work since the last time I posted on March 24th, but that is oh so wrong. I've been working shit hard on my book so I'm going to use this post to share all of the pages I've done (and redone) so far. All I need now is my cover and the end page and we're there! I'll do some more posts about my website progress and the images that haven't made the cut soon too. But for now, enjoy.