Round #12 ol’ Scotto is the drawing of the week!!
He’s back from injury and in Perth to play the West Coast Eagles – who we’re going to take APART!!!!!
Tag Archives: Australian comics
Next pages 92-95.
Just as an aside, I aim to finish all the inking of these pages in a the next couple of months (maybe by July 2012) and then in the second half of the year look at ways to turn this into a book with my lovely and talented graphic designer wife Nadine Kessler who’s done some top work in print over the years.
2012 BLUES – Heath Scotland
14 Jun2012 Premiers – Jeffrey Garlett
6 JunSo – there’s been a few setbacks so far this year on our road to the Premiership cup … but of course – that all serves to make the success all the sweeter … this Friday we’ll be doing away with the reigning premiers – the Geelong CATS.
Actually – I should ‘fess up – I did a few drawings recently of about three players … who all then got injured … I’m starting to feel this project of mine has some strange voodoo curse on it … let’s see if Garlett kicks 5 sneaky goals this week – then I am thankfully wrong about this idea: GO JEFFY!!!!
This little quick-dude is from WA … apparently he used to live in a car before being drafted by the Blues … and now he’s a superstar!! so … damn … quick! 
Round #10 Ed Curnow the clearance Dude with the hair
31 MayPort Adelaide got it coming this Saturday!!!!!!
Pages 92-95
28 MayPrevious pages – 89-91
This is the last chapter of the Long Weekend, a graphic rendering of an essay of a friend of mine.
The third page here is from a great film that my wife did whilst she was working for the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) in Alice Springs. She was on a trip with Sonia, who also worked there and three ladies who were from out East of the Plenty Highway (google-map it) towards the Queensland border … I think they went somewhere out past Bonya or something, not sure. But in the video they went lizard hunting. From the car Nadine filmed the ladies when they told them to stop the car, one of them had an iconically large bottom and watching the video I immediately thought of how great it might look as a comic when she bent down to pick up a stick and whacked the side of a tree, and magically this large Perentie lizard just flops off the tree … and fahnee!!!
The Tingari lines I used in this last page here flow onto the next few pages, Craig suggested that I look into them early on. The Geoffrey Bardon book from Papunya Tula is full of Tingari paintings from the Western Desert that I delved into, and have grown very fond of, despite feeling completely lost in their meanings. Back in the second chapter – Saturday – I have a page where I explain what each of the symbols represents and how they are functional elements in storytelling.
Rachel Napaltjarri Jurra is a real Walpiri woman, though I have drawn her differently to real life … but then I’ve done that for all the characters … including Craig (I forgot what he looked like for a while).
The Sleuth Exhibition – process diary #2 – late May
24 MaySee process diary #1
So things appear to be cracking along … well slowly.
I have two major projects on the go with lots of other things slowly coming to boil that I have to check on every now and then.
Sleuth is starting to take shape in sort of the manner that I had anticipated – each of the stories that I had plotted out I strategically left as vague as possible so that when I came to each one I could take it and mould it to the space that I had available on the wall. Of course this is sort of much the same as making a story that fits 28 pages or so and then plotting it out etc. I have already made one story that is far too long and my only solution is to reduce the size of the images so that it fits into something across the wall that works amongst the others. The risk with having some stories that take too long to read is that the viewers won’t want to read too many before they move on … this may be an unrealistic fear, it is difficult to capture people’s attention for too long in galleries … but of course comics may be somewhat different in this respect, I don’t know what other comicers’ experience is with respect to this. Perhaps people do hang around for longer.
I have managed about 6 comics so far. As I have been completing each of the comics I have been sticking them up on the walls of my study so that I get a sense of the way they might be read across the walls. There are already a few different sizes of panels and some without panels at all. I have also decided to have what I call a BANG panel – that is a very large panel at the beginning which sets the scene by way of introduction or by having a huge image to start with then having the following panels much smaller attached to the image, hopefully drawing the viewers into each of the stories. I haven’t got digital versions of these examples yet to give you a sense but perhaps later.
I told you about my intention to write really quick comics and to draw them in such a way that they don’t take too long so as to produce more comics. So far I’ve managed to stick to that concept, I have found it to be a very interesting way to write comics. I have insisted on keeping the process very improvised, even the scripts are somewhat dictated by the images, characters’ body language have changed the script in numerous places (because I wrote the words after having drawn the images, in one example I have drawn the entire comic before I knew what words would accompany it). There’s something extraordinarily satisfying in drawing comics quickly, especially after doing such a long-winded and hand-chiselled comic like the Long Weekend. It feels more organic, more exciting and more in-keeping with the way in which I make music.
Enjoying it so far, November here I come.
Early drafts of the Long Weekend
18 MayHere’s a pic of what is now page 7
… this was to plan out the wordier sections of the essay and see what works and what could be chopped by virtue of the fact that the images contain in the important part of the information. Page 7 is still one that I think needs to have some words chopped out … before the final draft I shall take an axe to some of the words there.
This was another page from the very beginning of the process, it is now pages 1 and 2, two of most powerful pages in the comic (my best efforts to date … 100 pages later and I haven’t topped them yet). This page was made well before I had decided on the 9panel format that came later … it was one of the first things that I showed Craig also. He said that he knew it must be good because his wife Jude was interested in reading it … which normally doesn’t happen with his writings.
2012 Premiership cup – here we come!!! Chris Yarran! Round #8
17 MayI was going to put Chris Yarran here in Round#5 for his 50th game then … but he buggered his toe on his 49th game and didn’t play against Freo.
It is Jarrad Waite’s 150th possibly … but he might not actually play so I put Yazz here because he was a certainty (as far as Ratts was saying)
So here he is in all his glory!!
Other pics in this series – go here
Pages 89-91 – Sunday, the 3rd Chapter
13 MaySo this is chapter 3 of The Long Weekend in Alice Springs. It was initially written in 2003 by Craig San Roque for a book published in the US by Routledge … and, although the themes are universal, I thought it a great shame that it wasn’t more read in Australia where the story was owned. Craig is a beautiful writer, very visual, and it struck a chord that rings in my thoughts continually, even after working on this rendition of his work four the last four years or so. I believe that this is a good beginning for the psychological meditation that we must do together in this country.
I suggest that you go back to the beginning if you’re interested in the comic … and have a damn good read (hopefully).
Incidentally – here is the link to the facebook group for the comic. Since I am nearing the completion of the artwork for this book – I have started to think about printing it physically and making a (*shudder*) ebook version out of it … I never envisaged that when I started making it … but e-books were still in their infancy when I started this project. Share the link with anyone who might be interested in such topics.
Next pages 92-95.Just as an aside, I aim to finish all the inking of these pages in a the next couple of months (maybe by July 2012) and then in the second half of the year look at ways to turn this into a book with my lovely and talented graphic designer wife Nadine Kessler who’s done some top work in print over the years.
Carlton Blues 2012 Premiers Round #7 Marc Murphy
10 MayFor other pictures in the series – go here
I’ve had a headache these last few weeks with my own little dream-team competition. Drawing one a week has turned problematic with injuries … Yarran was supposed to have reached 50 games last week so I drew him, but he turned out injured and Waite was supposed to reach 150 games this week but he was rested so he should reach that next week … and if Yarran comes in next week they will BOTH reach that milestone on the same week and only one of them gets their picture – yes that Carlton team is pretty tight for spots in the weekly picture!! I feel like Brett Ratten trying to choose the team here. Injuries cause selection headaches …
Same headache last week with Eddie Betts reaching 150 and Shaun Hampson reaching 50 games I had to select Eddie … but Shaun will have his day in the light – he’s having a scorcher of a season so far and will only get better by the looks of him.
SO – here’s ol’ faithful – 2011’s best and fairest at the club – the midfield general !!!!!
No longer Judd’s right-hand man … he’s become a great unto himself – but completely team oriented!
Moonah Arts Centre
4 MayLooking forward to playing some more of the Acousmatic Series of music at this event tomorrow night.
Thanks to Andrew Harper for organising this one in my home suburb!!
SEE YOU FROM 6pm!
Joshua Santospirito Art 