Macro Micro Diary

This was the primer task for the "Sell Yourself" project. To be frank it was a banal project, it seemed overly simple and ther was a lot more insightful things we could have done to explore our niche as artists- not least because your day to day life often has nothing do do with your art. The way I present myself as an artist and the way I feel going to Tesco in my pyjamas for cheap bread really have nothing to do with each other. One is a brand, one is my personality, and I don't get the push for students to search for some kind of personality cult thing as illustrators, given how unrealistic that is. A lot of the time, unless the blog/event is specifically personal (like this one), mixing personality with work can easily become unprofessional.

I therefore used the opportunity to do autobio comics for catharsis, as well as to work on a tip Jay gave me during assessment to do more sequential work if I was going to draw comic style. 

It was a pain having to dedicate myself to these every day, not least because not every day something interesting happened (hence some days have multiple entries and some have no entries), but I guess it was an interesting exercise in self-discipline. I felt quit good about doing these while I was making them. I'm not normally good at writing scripts when doing comics, which is most of the reason why I avoid them, so having a reason, deadline and topic made things so much easier. I did worry how i come across, an learnt a lot about narrative voice in autobio comics: I often found the work of Lucie Ebrey and others to be quite repetitive and narcissistic, but if you stick with diary comics as much as Ebrey has, that makes sense. You're the only narrator, and the comics become as much about how you see yourself as how you want others to see you. Also, for comic effect in the short three or four panel form, you use hyperbole a lot (as well as literally framing a very boring part of you day in its own comic is in itself a hyperbole) which can make things seem more of a big deal than they actually are, and the truth and your personality can be misconstrued or stretched in a different direction.

The quality of these is a bit changable which is annoying I guess, and i wish I'd picked a media that allowed for more varaible contrast etc to add more mood and maybe movement to these, like webcomics. I've only recently begun to get to grips with actually drawing (as opposed to colouring, which I've been doing a while) digitally though.

Not included here are a few comics I don't want on the internet for a number of reasons, the notes I left on the oppsite pages re: how my day was going and other things that happened during the time. 

Also included in this project is some personal work, because, I guess, it's a diary, so why not? Plus I gather I'm supposed to show more personal work anyway. Most of it is Danny Phantom fanwork, since that's what I was watching at the time.

These are said commissions I mentioned, a revision to an old logo I did and a quick couple thing, which was kind of a pain to draw since I dislike drawing likenesses from photos (they're hard to stylise, in this case I feel like it's not cute enough for my work because I held too true to likeness).

I got really into drawing over pencil?? My friend got me a new mechnical pencl where I'd been using a crappy HB and my pencil drawings were suddenly satisfyingly sharp and neat, so I guess that was part of it?

I did this because I wanted a DP print, and because I wanted to get stuck into a piece of work, now I had both motivation and, in the week off, time. It's far from perfect for the amount of time I put into it but I enjoyed making it and it felt good when I was finished. Also here's some process!

(I did mention my comic ideas were always crap ahah)