I'm going to make a pilot

A pilot episode of Eddy Greggy the Heady Leggy
It will be heavily musical beacause I figure he sings while he walks like tootleydoodahdayyyy and about what he's doing
Each episode will document his discoveries of life on earth
I will make an animated storyboard
My friend Alice did a degree in theatre, thus she will be his voice, she can do it I can hear it now
She sings too
Then I will take the pilot and accompanying work to all of the major studios and pitch the hell out of it
And thus my empire will begin
Toys badges stationary you name it
Also he could be an app game, he's at the bottom and his silly arms are waggling around and you click at the right time to make him reach and grab like an apple or something
I drank some strong coffee today.

new 603 brief

i am removing the film poster brief,
there aren't many and they can go in ppp and thoughtbubble

instead i am going to finally combine by love of comics and musicals

im going to make like a comic story board booklet that reads along in time to a song and acts it out,
because a lot of musicals can only be seen on stage,
which is expensive
so this will provide a way of consuming the content for much less money, repeatedly

then i'll send it to elaine to talk about on her show

and contextually it would be sold with musical soundtracks
and a video of each frame along with the song will accompany it

i did this (below) a while ago,
which is basically my intention,
but better

Counting down the days till I see book of Mormon again @kirstyalan #bookofmormon

A video posted by Hollie Smith (@everythingscomingupmillhouse) on Dec 31, 2014 at 4:23am PST

Thoughtbubble

Part of this brief was to present and sell my work in the context of the convention.
This provided a regimented deadline for the work to be completed by, and the last minute receipt of our table meant the project duration ended up being just four weeks.
Presenting the work at the event made it different to my other briefs as there was an immediate audience and result (physical sales). It is clear which products are more popular as they sell more, and the feedback comes conversationally from customers who are not all deeply integrated in the illustration world. 
Live events are a valuable and intensive learning exercise.

It was jolly good fun and I learnt a lot.

This year we were initially rejected which really bummed me out but then a month before the deadline we got a table because someone cancelled, so then we had a mad rush of making work in that month to make it a feasible studio brief and therefor not a waste of time. Though I suppose a months preparation is better than the week I gave it last year, when I knew about it way in advance. I am growing as a human, slowly but surely.

The Thursday night there was an event on at LS6 that Adam Becky and Tom were part of where they drew people live in the bar and there was a little comics exhibition. I initially declined to attend because I had a billion things to finish before Saturday but in the end they were still there after we left college at nine so I went and joined in. It was a real test to the drawing skills having people right in front of you and sketching them live, in pen, next to five other illustrators. People seemed to enjoy it though and the drawings were free so it's fine. Nearer the end the management gave us a donation pot and we got about £16 in the last half an hour. Imagine how much we'd have made if that had been there all along.

Here is my dashing table and an even more dashing me.

I finished everything in the end and was not printing zines out on Saturday morning like I was last year.

When it came to the actual event I was very grumpy because the night before at work I'd been given a flu jab and thus had a mild but quite debilitating case of fake flu.

I soldiered on though because I am very hardcore. After a litre bottle of pink lucozade I was back in the game.

Once I felt better I took advice from Kristyna, when she said at the zine fair, that she stands up at the table to get her more actively into talking to people and look more approachable. It did work it forced me to talk to people and them to talk to me, and I had a lot of nice chats.

-There was a girl who was also an illustrator who said I was way undervaluing my work and bought some things but paid me double. After this I upped some prices by a pound.

-Then a guy came who bought Giant Tess last year and came back to see if I had something new, there was a heartening longevity to that, I remember him too because I was pleased that someone had finally bought Giant Tess after I'd spent Saturday morning printing it out. 

-Then Mark Ellerby bought my Giant Tess and I told him I have his book and he's great.

-Eat sleep sniff bought some stuff too, then later he messaged me on tumblr to say how much he enjoyed Giant Tess and was looking forward to part two.

-Adams grandparents bought my cabaret poster, which they have framed and hung in the study.

-I had a chat with a guy who claimed to hate digital work then I told him mine was significanlty digital and he hadnt realised and it blew his mind.

It was also pretty good going up to other peoples tables and chattin' vendor chat with them

Made me feel very spiffy.

The best sellers were the posters, at £5 each, and I sold all 18. I think part of the reason for this is that other people were selling posters for a lotttt more, but they've cheaper to print at college so I guess I could afford to lower the sales cost. That and it was the most recognisable thing on my table, the closest thing to fan art, and we know how people love to buy stuff they recognise. I still refuse to draw someone elses characters though. People are fine thats still a visual interpretation of information.

Aside from that I sold out of Tinder and cat zines, people have predictable tastes.

A lot of people picked up the cat zine thinking 'Ahwh cats cute I like cats' and then flicked to the end and saw it died, put it down and walked away, which is real nice. Lots of people would read most of the Tinder zine with their friends and laugh, like last year, and then put it back down. C'mon guys it's only a pound. Cheap bastards. 

 

Giant tess did a lot better this year, I only sold two last year, one to the guy who came back this year and one to a girl called Tess, but this year I sold way more just by redesigning the cover, so that paid off. That really showed me how important the first visual impression is. I literally didn't change a thing about the interior, which I thought was overly scrappy and needed redrawing, but the sales increased just my changing the front. I think I will spruce up the inside at some point though, my drawing has improved since then so now it lets the cover down when you look inside.

The heady leggy comic only sold a few copies which was a bit disappointing but it sold more than my other old ones, so there's that. Maybe it's just not clear what he is, and it isn't the best place for him either. I will not accept that he isnt great.

In the end I made just short of £200, which when you put it down to earnings per hour is quite poor and doesnt match up to my dentists job BUT it was £200 earnt doing something I enjoyed, both making and selling the work. It was more of a social experience than a job, so despite the low hourly rate I'll be applying again next year.

In the brief time I had to look around I bought made some pretty rad purchases.

I accidentally spent £40 just at Drawn and Quarterly's table where I got the 25 years of D&Q book with all the special convention ephemera they add for events. It's so nice, and Adult Contemperary which Bendik Kaltenborn signed and its really nice and we talked for a while. He was just sat there alone while huge queues were snaking around rubbish DC tracers. Criminal.

Broco and friends, by Sajan Rai or Childish Butt Vomit are the most hilarious comics I've read in a long time, if not ever.

The World is by the swedish risograph guys and they seem to have expanded significantly since last year.

Theres a lot of great stuff going on when you get past all the back issues of batman.

Rock Horror

We screened rocky horror picture show for the 40th anniversary.
Since I insisted on the screening i had to make the poster
i couldnt even go in the end cos I had to go to work
which was really annoying
but heres some roughs

and heres the poster

There was little to now preparatory work involved

I went with the 'view through the legs' movie poster trope

With a touch of Patrick sexy legs

And then scared pathetic brad and janet in between

and voila

This was pretty fun to do

It's not the best result 

but it was good fun

and sometimes that is necessary

make some decision changes about my briefs

i wasnt quite happy, had lots of bits of confused work dotted around but now thoughtbubbles done ive bottomed them out.
also are there five or six? i dont knowww.....

1. Thoughtbubble and other comic convention or table top based fairs
Creating a versatile but personal and saleable body of work to present at comic conventions and craft fairs, or any table based sale.

2. Macmillan Prize
Origin story or Eddy Greggy the Heady Leggy.
What's he doing here and how's he getting on

3. Recovering old albums/secret 7"
Re Design album covers for old homemade CDs to make them look more professional and pheasable as album covers. Contact musicians afterwards with the new artwork. Also fitting into this will be at least one entry to secret 7" because I'll be shit hot at album covers by then.

4. Film Posters. I'll make regular film posters for the film society, for fun and for competitions. The boundaries are loose, it just has to be a film poster.

5. Animated Editorial. Every week, or fortnight, depending on how taxing this is, I will respond to an article of my choice with a moving image. This way I can combine editorial and animation in one brief and keep up with the increasing demand for animated illustrations. Within this I will enter any live and competition briefs relating to editorial that seem appropriate

colouring book finals

Done all my colouring book pages!
They turned out fine
I ended up doing them on the cintiq cos digital is quick but also its so hard to do good linework on a tablet
it was definitely the ideal tool
I dont usually draw in just black line
It's an interesting process, especially since most of my practice relies on colour
They turned out alright though
I used one of Kyle's brush pens, they're really swooshy and nice
Also when drawing a colouring book you have to consider what it'll be like to colour in, so I tried not to leave too big an area of blank anywhere cos thats boring, and there isn't really much use for line texture, which is what I would usually rely on if doing a line drawing.
It was quite a different thought process over all

Anyway here they are, just in time

Travelling Man Exhibition Opening

We went down to travelling man for the opening of the show.
There was actually quite a few people there, who hadn't made the work, I was impressed, and it's only a small shop it was pretty rammed.

Here's my work hanging in the back of Rosie's picture, my phone died :(

 

They all looked very spiffy hung up
The colour scheme was a good decision as it unified all the different themes and subject matters

We did pretty well I reckon

Eddy Greggy the heady Leggy and his Unfortunate Encounters with the People of Earth

My completed Heady Leggy comic
Happy with how it turned out but theres miles of room for improvement.

Heady Leggy Final

I finished!
Had to do all the cleaning and editing at Adam's parents house cos no time left.
I got it done though. I watched rocky horror twice. It helped
Pretty pleased with the outcome, i mean obviously had i had more time it oculd've been better but as an inital getting this out of the system kind of thing it really did the trick
i got to play with the character and form him more and understand what he's about and how he moves and acts and looks in situations, which was important because until now he's just been doodles in briefing notes.  I want to go further with it, maybe for my big brief, like macmillan or something I could do a heady leggy thing. There's something in it.

adult colouring book

Rowena and I are joining forces to make an adult colouring book, which is not a naughty colouring book, it is scenes from the mundanity of adult life

here are some rough roughs



heres the title, im doing the cover
ive been just playing around with writing words a lot so ive made use of that here, drawing the words in pencil, scanning and adjusting

and heres the first page ive done.

i chose to do the sketches in pencil, scan them in and draw on them on the cintiq to get cleaner crisper lines

this is where i messed up by drawinig the kettles straight onto the sketch layer

finished drawing

its pretty fun

i like thinking about what parts will be fun to colour and adding shapes and details applicably 

Heady Leggy cover

I was messin abart trying to draw out a new cover then Adam was like stop being stupid and reuse the imagery you've made.
So I did
And it looks alright
And saved time

 This is the front
I took part of the comic for travelling man and cut a circle out of it and put it on this gradient background.
I just recently discovered gradients and the aresooocoool
And he looks like hes gesturing up at the title banner
It's not perfect but its not bad

Did the same for the back cover but with a different part of the comic
I'll print them in colour on my printer to minimize costs but keep it pretty

Mean Girls

I saw Threadless we running a Mean Girls competition
I, like most females of my age, consider Mean Girls to be the defining movie of my adolesence, so I felt obliged to enter

It didn't allow character drawings and seemed to be after quotes in type, which is pretty easy.
I spent about an hour on this, on Photoshop using pastel palooza and chums

It's alright, pretty basic but it does the job
It's got that burn book vibe, that's what I was going for really

Eddgy Greggy the heady-leggy and his unfortunate encounters with the humans of Earth.

Here are the raw scans of the drawings in a probably confused order looking quite rubbish.
Refined images and more sketches to follow.
I went for a simple option of fixed with fine black felt pen and black coloured pencil for shade.
I used monochrome like the cat zine because it will be printed in black and white
Also all my other work is digital, and with the tight deadline there needed to be at least one project I can work on when there's no access to computers
I like the aesthetic but it definitely requires some cleaning
It's very easy and quick to work with though which is the most important thing for this brief

Colouring book sketches

Here's my sketches for the colouring book
After brainstorming I have these pages:
Traffic Jam
Doctors office, chiropracter
Shopping for homewares
Adult online browsing

Colouring book

This recent influx in adult colouring books has led Rowena and I to decide to make our own

They're always really boring, like intricate mandala patterns and pictures of owls and stuff
like this

So we're taking the angle of banal adult existance
Stuff like paying bills and traffic jams and shopping for toasters
Just really nice line drawings of boring stuff like that
It's gonna be sweeeeet

Heady Leggy plans

Heres the plans for the heady leggy book
He goes on a nice walk through the park and things happen
It should be good

Completed Cat zine

Here is the completed cat zine based on my screen printed cat comic from Foundation.
I'm happy with how it turned out because I retained what I liked about the old image whilst updating all of the imagery so that I'm happy with it.
As well as changing the compositions and style of the imagery I had to change the text to past tense (which was very depressing) and change the appearence of the boyfriend.

I think it will be well suited to Thoughtbubble because people like cats and will pay attention to things they recognise, like cats.

I particularly like the cover, it's bold and decorative with slight tombstone-esque morbidity.

grand budapest

dont think i ever actually posted this
anyway heres the poster i made for the film societys first event, we started with grand budapest hotel, i couldnt really remember what happened so i just spliced two images together from the movie that seemed memorable, kinda lazy but i just wanted to get something done, and i did, and i think it went okay

statement of intent and briefs

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	06
OUIL603 Extended Practice	Credits	60
STUDIO PRACTICE Statement of Intent

Name	Hollie Smith	http://h-smith1316sp.blogspot.co.uk
Date	19/10/15
Rationale
I want to make silly funny pictures to make me happy and make other people happy. This will make people more inclined to buy my work, or hire me, as people like to be happy. As a result I will get the money they buy my work or employ me with and can use it to enrich my life with the joy of pets and an elaborate home library with a rolling ladder.
Themes / Subjects
Silliness, humour, irreverence, narrative based mostly on the banality of existence, character, observation, whatever subject is interesting me most at the time
Products / Methods of Distribution
Zines, comics, printed media, posters, postcards, ephemera, crafts, badges, stickers all selling at table top fairs and conventions Also online distribution via social media
Practical Skills / Media / Formats
Mixture of traditional and digital, some all of either, some mixed, Photoshop for creation or titivation, watercolour, gouache, other paints, pencil, pens, ink and brush linework, collage, Whatever seems most appropriate and/or enjoyable for the brief Occaisional straying into video/gif format with animated work, would much like to further this

Brief 1: Thoughtbubble	Deadline	14/11/15
Rationale: I want to make zines, prints and ephemera to sell on my table at Thoughtbubble. This will aid me in networking and building a presence in the community as well as allow me to sell my work to the right audience, and as a result I may become more known in the field over time as well as making money from sales to recoup my costs and enjoy some tasty profit.
Brief 2: Album Re-Covers	Deadline	19/05/16
Rationale: I want to re-design the covers of the homemade CDs I found in Poverty Aid because some of the music is quite good but the badly handmade covers make them look dated and unappealing. This will make them appealing to a wider modern audience and as a result the CDs will become more marketable and I can send the new covers to the people who made the albums, which might be a nice surprise, and if they so choose the album could be re-distributed with my new cover.
Brief 3: YCN	Deadline	tbc
Rationale: I want to enter an applicable YCN competition because the deadline is after January so it will be less horrendously stressful than others, and because winning would potentially provide further opportunities and a widened audience. This will make it easier for me to get a job as I will have that on my CV.
Brief 4: Macmillan Prize	Deadline	Tbc, May
Rationale: I want to make and propose pages of a children’s book because I think it would suit my work and I haven’t done anything specifically for children yet. Also I would like to further explore the heady-leggy character I’ve been working with but in the form of a full narrative. This will give me a product I can add to my portfolio and as a result I can pitch the book to publishers, or even win.
Brief 5: Board Game	Deadline	19/05/15
Rationale: I want to collaborate in making an illustrated board game because I have an interest in this but feel often the imagery is unappealing. Also I think it would be very enjoyable to make and there will be few if any opportunities to do this in future. This will give us a complete functioning product that can be played and pitched to shops and companies, and as a result the game may be manufactured or sold, and failing that we will have something fun to play with and to attempt to sell ourselves.
Additional Project Proposals Film society posters – regularly Illustration Friday – regularly Threadless competitions – when applicable Art cat café business proposal – dependent on input of others Fumetto Comix – dependent on free time before deadline, 4/1/16 Working Toy Theatre – potential board game substitute Musical comics -  perhaps in conjunction with toy theatre, or smaller scale if needed/if time

recoverin zines

so to minimize my work load im recovering lots of my old zines cos theyre not bad but the covers suck
heres some sketches for bad trends

i went with this one, which was one of the plans i had way back in first year, so it made sense i guess

here is where im at so far

working from this image

also i was looking up bad trensds again to try and incorporate some that happened since a wrote it (what a weird thought, time has passed) and i found this esquire article

http://www.esquire.co.uk/style/article/6087/worst-mens-fashion-trends-in-history/

which i thought was funny, as it encompassed all of history, which made me think about a sequal
somehting like
Bad Trends 2: The Revenge of the Ruff
or whatever

i dont have time now though
but it would be funnnnnn

maybe if i find time somewhere

nah theres no way i have three weeks

bleh

later

cat zine progressin

Making some headway with the cat zine.
I guess it helps that its already written for me by past me
Thanks past me
anyway I'm about halfway through.
I'm using grayscale because it'll be printed in black and white.
Drawing with textured brushes straight into photoshop.
It's much quicker this way

finally finished travelling man

it is done
eeeee
ugh

pastel palooza is my new tool of choice, thanks kyle webster

we had the palette of travelling mans branding to stick to, which are basically my favourite colours anyway

my planning was minimal because i wanted to get it done soon but that kinda backfired cos i got really into it

also since its in keeping with the context of the heady leggy comic im making for thoughtbubble I'm going to give out postcard prints of this with purchases of the comic, hense it is part of my 603 brief

I'm really happy with how it turned out
The pinks work well, even if they do look more like blossom than autumn
I think the extra time I spent on it paid off
as did the decision to use a lot of reference imagery for the backgrounds
Not sure why i don't usually do that but i think i will

I really like the posture in the third panel, i got it exactly how I imagined it

I am annoyed however that I didn't realise I'd written glorious twice until after printing
It was meant to be fabulous
oh well