Thought bubble

I quite like mike medaglias work. I like the textures on the paper and the muted tones. I think this is something i would quite like to explore. I find this kind of style calming. I like the one year wiser things where theres lovely illustrations with nice quotes. His style is like more of a detailed cartoon and i like that. Looks like he's used water colours for his technique, possibly neatened up on photoshop. I like how its not all perfect but its still lovely. I think i can learn a lot from that.

I also liked lisa cummings, I'm pretty sure i saw her work last year too. Its lovely and vibrant and i like the use of shadow and shading on her lovely fantasy work.

I Think the marquee is always my favourite place to find things i love. For example Anadapta. Some beautiful imagery in there.I think this cover from her comic is lovely. I love the use of colour and the fact that it almost looks sparkley with the lighting choices!

Then of course theres Des Taylor who i found last year and bought his comic. I still really like him and we follow each other on instagram. I do like how he draws women and his whole style. I also really like how he does his photographic style back grounds i think it gives his images so much depth! I also like that in Katie Rogers although she's really pretty and girly he's not afraid to make her pull funny faces and do embarrassing things. It makes her feel more real! But still in a beautiful pin up style.

I quite like Emma Viacelis work. The best way i can describe it is like westernised manga/ anime. Maybe mixed with a bit of fashion art? Either way this is something I really like. I think this is a style I would like to explore. The line work seems nice and free but still with purpose. You can feel the movement and it feels more like a moment captured by a camera than a thought out drawing. 

Thought bubble

Yesterday I went to thought bubble. I attended the writers round table where Marguerite Bennett, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lenox, Charles Soule and Kurtis Wiebe spoke about their experiences writing comics. I liked that they all said that they loved their jobs and they're not in it for the money. They also mentioned how they got into writing and who was they're mentor. Marguerite was interesting as her mentor was her professor that had read one of her stories and liked it. Some time later he called her up saying he still thinks about her stories and said if she really wanted to go for it he thinks it would do well so she did and how she writes for DC!! I also found Emi quite funny and interesting. She writes an auto biography blog kind of thing called Emi town and is quite successful. She is a visual thinker so she writes her stories in pictures and writes a few words to go with them. I have recently read some of these and i actually really like them. I like her drawing style too. Its very cartoony but i like how she uses just two colours usually one colour with white for like the highlights and things. It works really well and looks nice and simple and clean. I feal like i can relate to a lot of things she writes about too which is nice. After reading quite a lot on the blog i feel i would quite like to read the book. 
They were saying they would like to see more horror comics but I think Emi disagreed as when she tried to read____ with the spirals she couldn't finish the book and literally put it across the other side of the room! I also like how when asked the question like do you change what you write to please your audience, Im pretty sure they all said no. They write for themselves. Emil said no because its supposed to be about her life so why would she lie.
I really wanted to attend sketching spotlight but unfortunately i had to work at this time. I have seen photos though and thought it was awesome. I think i will ask to see videos and things that my friends have done as i did really want to see it.

I really enjoyed seeing all the cosplay at the event. My favourite was a girl that was dressed as someone from Harry Potter and she had a REAL OWL with her! it was so cool and she let it fly around the room a few times too. Unfortunately it kept pooping on the floor though... 

Ainimation awards- leeds film festival

Today I went to the animation awards held in the everyman cinema (with lovely sofa seats) It was an interesting experience thats for sure. Although there was lots of lovely animation..there seemed to be an overwhelming theme of death :S
The Master was the first one we saw. I thought the animation was just lovely, if I'm correct it was stop motion. The textures on the puppets were lovely and the dog seemed so real in its movements. It was about a dog and a monkey who were living in a house and waiting for their owner to return...the owner never came. The monkey escaped the cage and started acing a little bit human. Then he hit the dog with a fire poker thing which i thought was cruel but they made up. Then it took a graphic turn. The monkey got drunk, found a gun and shot them both!!...Whaaaaa? Then right at the end it said "dedicated to my mum" I was like....mummy issues? was that a hint that his mum left or was it him trying to be nice...?

Next up was Emila and Duarte. This was pretty cool. It was pixillation and it was about a couple who broke up and there was this entire room full of boxes and inside the boxes was all the stuff from couple that had broken up. Strange but nice. At least they didn't kill each other...

Next was Haircut. Just...what...? I didn't really like the drawing style but i did like the way they moved the hands i thought that looked good. So It was about a girl with short hair who cuts off the plait of a girl with long hair. The plait appears to be alive. Then they take the hair bobble out and all the strands of hair run away. Then we see another girl with the same plait and she just walks off...I'm guessing there was some kind of underlying message but i can't for the life of me figure it out!

ManOMan was quite funny. Use of puppets again but more obviously puppets which was funny when one of the characters used someones hand sticks to slap himself in the face. It was about lots of angry people then a guy sicked up another littler version of himself who was angrier than the original who was not. The little guy thought the big guy how to live a little and be a bit angry. Then he pushed a guy in front of a train. Then he jumped off a building. Yep. More death.

Paradox was about a man who starting sprouting grass. he tried to get it off but it came back then he grew a tree and it hurt then there was stuff growing all over him until he became a mound of nature and it died. I think theres a message in there too...I think.

I really like Air-Mail. It was in like a cut out kind of style and a cat kept trying to eat a fish but the owner wouldn't let him. And then he tried to eat the bird who was made out of an envelope. Then the owner of the cat fell in love with the owner of the fish. It doesn't seem like much story when i try to tell it back but it was cute and funny and seemed more constructed when you actually watch it.

Wellington Jr. Well that was an animation and a half....Creepy faces but lovely scenery. bit of stop motion and claymation in there. The story was about a boy who came of age and in this place when someone comes of age they go hunting and wear their preys head as a hat. So these boys went with their dads and the main boy wasn't doing very well. all of the other boys were wearing their hats. They were out all night hunting when the boy finally killed what looked like a moose. So his hat was going to be the best one ever. They took the moose back and just before they entered the cave the dad put the head on his head instead. The boy was mortified and shot his dad. You guessed it. More death. I actually quite liked the story up until that point.

In the distance Was nice. A little simple 2d animation with no change in camera angle or anything which worked really well in this. It was a man and his chicken living in a house many miles up in the air. It was during the war so planes were coming over a lot. I think it was funny when a man climbed a ladder to his house, was out of puff and the ladder didn't reach. He came back another day with a longer ladder and the house owner just kicked the ladder down once the army man got to the top. He didn't seem to care. Then bombs came on his house and cause minor damage. His chicken died. And then all of a sudden he unrolled a ladder and walked down it. The end. Another one i didn't understand its ending.

Autumn was next. Not really my style of animation it was a bit wishy washy in the drawings. I think this was about mental illness possibly? like the lady got letter and she was like that person isn't here anymore. Then things went a bit sad and she drown in a pool of water but that wasn't real. Then she was collecting red leaves cause her friend said ill come when the leaves turn red. Then there was a knock at the door but she didn't answer. So i think the letter was addressed to her. 

So all in all quite a confusing murderous evening. It was good to see what people have been up to all over the world but i just came away with a sense of....whaaaaa?