Meet Al Davison.

(Please click to enlarge.)

Meeting the admirable, Al Davison in londonprintstudio was an eye opening experience! Not only a knowledgable and a passionate comics artist, he also is crammed packed with touching personal stories. His client list includes, DC/Vertigo comics, Dark Horse Entertainment and Penguin Books.

To read more about his life experiences and see his drawings of the unconscious, please support his project, "The Alchemist's Easel".

To summarise here are a few tips he taught us:

6 Elements to a plot: (This comic follows the plot format)

1] Introduce the character

2] Introduce the location

3] Reveal the character in the location

4] Conflict or Question

5] Explore the conflict/question

6] Resolve! 

► People read BLACK faster than white. 

► Larger images/open frames are slower to read, they can act as a full stop. 

► Remember GUTTERS! The larger the gutter, the more time has passed. The thinner the gutter, the less time has passed.

► Due to the book format of reading right to left, splash pages should be on the left for impact.

(As it increases the suspense as the reader turns the page).

► Use speech bubbles to guide the reader through the flow of the page. If there are two characters speaking in a frame, the character positioned on the left should speak first.

- Susan. 

(Happy holidays! ♥) 

Brussels: PART 1

Okay, here's how we see it: we're going to break down our visit to Brussels into four parts, so that we can tell you all how much fun we had and how much we learnt in digestible chunks; Part 1 will cover Saturday, Part 2 will cover Sunday, Part 3 will cover Monday (these will all be photo posts) and Part 4 will present some entertaining blog comics from each of us. Y'got all that? Good! Let's get started with
Part 1: SATURDAY.

So after a very early start for most of us, we arrived in Brussels via the Eurostar. It was a fun journey, a lot of us had never been through the tunnel before. It was so cold when we got there! SHIVER SHIVER.

We quickly nipped to the hostel to drop off our bags and then our first day in Brussels actually began.

Simply walking through the capital we were amazed at the Grand Place and all of the wonderful architecture. It is a beautiful city, don't let Abe's strip fool you, it's not all dodgy red light districts!

 

The city was so well decorated for the festive period, especially at night (which you will see in Part 2).
Around midday we sampled Belgian waffles! THEY WERE SO TASTYYY. But the trip was not, of course, just about the delicious food (we'll come to the chocolates eventually) - in the background of us chewing away, you can see...

                                                                     Yup, it's Tintin!
This was one of many comics walls (yes, you read that correctly!) around the city, and we'll show you them all in Part 3.

 

So we now come to the main event of Saturday: Heading for Strip Turnhout. Antwerp Station stunned us with its multiple levels of trains and lovely architecture. This was also the first of many trains over the course of the weekend that we ran for; we seemed to do a lot of running!



















We got to Strip Turnhout for the afternoon, and got to hear some really interesting talks about the international creation of comics and how the comics scenes differ around the world, featuring speakers such as Paul Gravett and Rashid Alik. While we promoted our collective at one of the sales tables, we also got to see the comics exhibition about the Keikeboes comic strips; and a British exhibition featuring our very own Karrie Fransman, last years intern Rachel Emily Taylor, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and others. All of their comics were really interesting in terms of breaking and reconstructing the rules of comics.
After the event was a live music and interview event on stage, which featured Posy Simmonds. It was lovely to hear a little bit about how she feels about her work.

The event was over quickly as we had arrived quite late in the day, but we all really enjoyed it. We got to meet so many other great people from the comics community including Kevin O'Neill, Woodrow Pheonix, Peter Stanbury, and many many more, during the after event dinner.

Alas, that was Saturday over! After drinking some crazy strong hot chocolates and waving goodbye to Turnhout, We ran for yet another train, almost missed it, and then made our way back to Brussels to get some needed rest for our next jam-packed day in the city. In Part 2 we'll cover what happened on Sunday, including the Belgian Comics Museum and the Herge Museum! LE GASP!
In the meantime, here's us looking longingly at some comics in one of the many bookshops we passed over the weekend:

Look forward to Part 2 of our Brussels report!
-Jade

BRUSSELS WINDOW SHOPPERS

Howdy folks!

Heres a doodle Abe made of our time in Belgium... All the way from the red light district o' Brussels... We comicy 'terns were mearly window shopping (honest!)

screen print & etching workshop

A catch-up comic on the Screen Print and Etching workshops the interns received from londonprintstudio's print maestro Paul, with help from Marco! Merlin is now working on etching her comic pages for her anthology submission! Thanks very much to Paul and Marco...we are looking forward to making more screen print & etching work in the studio with them soon in the new year.

Here's how my screenprints and etchings came out...the other interns may add their prints later...:

The interns are back from Brussels, and working hard once again today on getting ready for exciting workshops and, of course, preparing our Parallel Lives anthology. A blog entry on our trip will be coming soon!

In the meantime, check it out, Jade's guest blog on the Laydeez Do Comics site is now online for your viewing pleasure. This here is the short version, you can read the extended version on the LDC blog.

Strip Turnhout

Just a quick post to let everyone know that the interns are nipping out of the country this weekend to attend Strip Turnhout! Karrie Fransman is a guest of the event, and the interns will be at a table with an activity you can take part in if you come along: The never ending comic!
Want to know more? You better come to Strip Turnhout then! (Or if you can't make it, don't worry, we'll be doing a writeup after the weekend.)
We'll be in Brussels for the weekend to visit various places (TINTIN MUSEUM GAH I'M RATHER EXCITED) thanks to the project funders, so we hope to get a lot of great inspiration there and come back to make some awesome comics for the anthology!

Look forward to our report next week!

Also I recently attended December's Laydeez Do Comics meeting and, like Shamisa last month, was asked to do the blog report on that, so I'll upload that here once the lovely ladies over at the LDC blog have posted it there. Look forward to that too!

-Jade

Laydees Do Comics

Another post about the awesome Shamisa!!! 

This time round she did a sweet comic about her visit to Laydees Do Comics meeting...! Here's her sincere comment from her blog entry:

"Laydees Do Comics, has helped me a lot since I have been here in London. Yes, it has to be said, the Brits are kind and lovely people. Many thanks to Nicola and Sarah, Karrie Fransman, Paul Gravett and Ellen Lindner, for welcoming me to the UK comic world in this way."

To read more about Shamisa's Adventures in London, be sure to visit her tumblr!

Casual Conversation

"Casual Conversation" is a heart warming comic that will definitely beat the winter cold.  The talented, Shamisa (MA in Comics!!) is currently working really hard to tug on our heart strings~ A short, self contained excerpt will be featured in our lovely anthology.

These are her striking preview images for her comic...!! Check out her tumblr for more of her amazing illustrations...!      

- londonprintstudio comics interns.

ANTHOLOGY BRIEF

Hereby we got the honor to present our glimmering, glittering, splendid cover! Yes, we are publishing an anthology next year. (Keep your eye on this blog - the date: March 2012.) Featuring comics made by us, the comic interns, and the youngsters we're teaching at our comic workshops. 


So! Don't hesitate! Are you between 16 and 20? And you want to be published as well? Joining our majestic comic collective, enter your comic now!  


Anthology brief:
Click to download. 


Requirements: One page comic about "Parallel Lives", Full colour. (Optional).
Deadline: 16th January.


- Shamisa

COMICA COMIKET!

The londonprintstudio comics collective shared a table together at COMIKET, organised by Paul Gravett. We featured all of our wonderful and diverse work, ranging from comics books, zines, prints, badges and so much more. Unfortunately, Merlin was feeling unwell and couldn't make it, but we really hope to attend another convention/event with her next time, the whole entourage! 

We also got to meet the previous interns, William Goldsmith who was supporting the Jonathan Cape table, Joe Kelly with his eye catching screen prints and the "Graphic short story" winner, Isabel Greenberg! 

The event was more intimate/comics focused than other cons that I have attended. I definitely recommend any comic lovers to attend the next COMIKET! It's a wonderful atmosphere to network or just to meet your favourite comics artists, with signings occurring all over the venue.

The highlight was most definitely seeing all the amazing comics artists draw LIVE in the parade~ such as Luke Pearson, Warren Pleece, Posy Simmonds and our loveable Karrie Fransman.  

Our table were still in awe over Frederik Peeters. He was so hardcore, drawing an intricate perspective piece with ink brush pens, with absolutely no penciling...! Brecht Evens amazed us all by drawing the venue in colourful inks...! 

Another vulnerable comics strip by our Abe~! Lily and Jade journeyed to Thought Bubble over the weekend, another great comic convention, held in Leeds...! To read about Jade's adventures, hop over to her blog.

- Susan. 

Meeting Self Made Hero + Frederik Peeters

 

The comics interns at londonprintstudio, had the privilege of stepping into the Self Made Hero head quarters, a place where dreams come true...! We were warmly welcomed with tea and cakes, surrounded by shelving of comics...! To top things off, we also got to meet the legendary comics artist, Frederik Peeters in person.

For a man who creates such extraordinary work and won so many awards, he is still extremely modest and you can genuinely tell he loves creating comics…! He even kindly allowed us to touch his original drawings, of which we literally hovered them in our hands, as we were afraid of damaging them.

A great motivational figure… and someone to work towards…! I think all the interns felt the same way, as soon as the meeting ended, I had the urge to scramble home and grab a pencil to start drawing…

Frederik's newest English translated book is: Sand castle.
He also did a great Zombie drawing exercise... take a look here!

- Susan.

Abe was hugely inspired by the meeting that he drew an awesome comic about Frederik...! 

Don't forget, you can read Abe's daily strips on "Doodle Daydream".

COMICA COMIKET!

*

In the words of our lovely Abe, "HURRAH!" 

londonprintstudio comics interns will be attending COMIKET. Best of all, we'll have our own table to display our portfolios, sell our wonderful creations and we are planning special activities for you all~!

If you're free this Saturday, be sure to attend! For the reasons that: 

1) It is completely FREE! 

2) Many comic professionals will be attending... the possibility of meeting your favourite comics idol? 

***

In other news, a HUGE congratulations to Isabel Greenberg, (a previous intern at londonprintstudio) for winning First place in The Observer/ Graphic short story competition! 

There is currently an inspirational exhibition featuring the 5 finalists and Isabel's winning comic piece, in Foyles Bookshop, Charring Cross. The exhibition is running till the 4th December, so there is plenty of time to visit...! 

- londonprintstudio

*Poster by Isaac Lenkiewicz

Holy Comic Workshop!

Holy first comic workshop of the season!!!

The londonprintstudio interns travelled to Ealing Hammersmith & West London College to teach.... Comics! Surprise surprise! 

The folks over at the college made this short film of Merlin, Shamisa & Abe's session... Hurrahh!

 "A Comic in a Day"

Hey, look, another blog comic! Make sure to read it at full size! This time it's about the workshop we had on screenwriting with Ben Davies, which was amazingly informative and fun.

Ben has taught on the MA Scriptwriting course at Leeds Metropolitan University and has worked for Disney, Sesame Street, and many other companies. He also taught us one more thing that I forgot to write on the comic:

"WRITING IS REWRITING!" 


-Jade

London MCM Expo Reportback

Hi guys, Jade here. The expo on the 29th and 30th was so much fun! Susan and I both really enjoyed the weekend, and we also had quite a lot of interest at both our tables! I must say, Susan's illustrations made for a beautiful stall. Unfortunately she didn't get any pictures but I took home some of her lovely prints, which you can check out on her website: www.susanyanmach.com

My stall was so broooown in comparison to Susans, but still managed to gather some interest hahaha - perhaps because I was sharing with the wonderful Amanda Elanor Tribble, or perhaps it was due to the confusion regarding my cosplay. (A lot of people weren't sure if I was Velma or not - all I shall say is: JINKIES!) I had a lot of great supportive people come and buy comics from me on the Saturday, and to my surprise a lot came back on the Sunday to congratulate me on a job well done. My thanks to everyone who stopped by either my or Susan's stalls - we really enjoyed talking to each and every one of you! And many more thanks for buying any of our prints and comics!

I'll be writing a further report on my personal blog for anyone who is interested to check out at www.teahermit.co.uk

Don't forget to look us up at future events in November too~ Our comics collective will be around to chat to at London Comiket on the 12th, and Lily and I will also be attending Leeds ThoughtBubble on the 19th and 20th. Don't hesitate to come over and say hello!

Ellen Lindner and the Anthology!

Dear fellow comic lovers,

Recently we had a lovely workshop by Ellen Lindner, an American/British comic artist and

illustrator. She taught us all about anthologies as she had become an expert in it over the years. Showing her collection we were all amazed. How many anthologies must have filled the world already? She brought only a small sample, but still there was no more space on the table. I was shocked. I've never been in one, how was this possible?

Before I discarded anthologies as I thought that nobody ever read them. But then she pulled up a 'little' anthology called 'Raw'. 'Raw' should be an historical artifact (if it isn't already). The most established authors of our time are displayed, one by one, some even before they ever made it big.

Anthologies can start careers and create bonds between artists all over the world. You won't see me discarding anthologies any time soon: keep 'm coming! First up is our own anthology, 'Parallel lives'!

Lynn Weddle's Art Education Workshop

On Tuesday 18th October http://www.lynnweddle.com/ Lynn Weddle came to londonprintstudio to run a workshop on 'Running an Art Workshop'! Lynn is a photographic artist based in Brighton, with a huge amount of arts education experience - we had a fantastic day and learnt so much from her.

The morning started with some ice breakers - drawing our expectations for the day in less than five minutes (not easy), and all of us then knuckled down and thought about what makes art workshops/outreach projects different to learning in a school-based environment. The key elements that we all felt should run through a good workshop were an informal tone, practical, hands-on, supportive, flexible, engaging and just a bit of good old fun.

Lynn shared with us several of her experiences of running art workshops with a diverse range of young adults, including one project that saw her participants exhibiting their work on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square! Lynn encouraged us to spend the afternoon planning and then running our own workshops which we presented to each other and received feedback on, pooling together everything we had learnt so far in the day. It was an intense afternoon, but fantastic to gain such insight from an industry professional on how to develop and implement engaging and memorable workshops for audiences of all ages.

Thank you so much Lynn! Here is a little comic recording the day:

Comic by http://merlinevans.com/

London MCM Expo

Hi everyone!

If you're free this weekend and in serious need to feed your comics hunger, then drop by at the London MCM Expo. They will be showcasing SCI-FI goodness, the latest films previews, game demos and a cosplay masquerade! But of course, the Comic Village is where all the excitement is happening~!

Both the lovely Jade and Susan will have stalls there, to sell their creative works. Jade will be selling her freshly printed, short comic called, "Click Click, BANG BANG!" (image above) as well as many other goodies. Susan will be selling her four page entry for the Observer competition, "Eviction" (image below). Both comics artists will be drawing portraits/commissions all day~!

Above is the layout plan of the Comics Village, so you all know where to find us! (Please click image to enlarge) We'll also be there to answer any questions regarding the workshops or the anthology that the londonprintstudio are organising.

On another positive note, our very own Merlin travelled far to the glamorous Cheltenham Awards yesterday, to collect her Runner Up Prize. Needless to say, everyone at londonprintstudio proudly held back tears of joy...!

- Susan.

First blog post by the newest interns: Here we go!
Last week we had a chance to get out of the studio and explore London a little, which was great for inspiration (and for Shamisa, our Flemish intern, who has never been to London before!).

We started off with a visit to the people at House of Illustration, who are very supportive of our project. They’re currently running their second illustration competition in conjunction with the Folio Society, which you can find details of here.

We then visited the Sir John Soane Museum – a wonderfully eccentric collection of artefacts hidden away in the beautiful home of Sir John Soane. We were all in awe of the brilliant design of the house too, what with the original owner being an architect. It was fantastic inspiration for us to see such eccentricities in what should be simply an elaborate home – gave us all great ideas for settings and backgrounds in our comics!

After that we nipped across to the Hunterian Museum. This is a fantastic place for studying anatomy in many ways – from the outside and in! There are so many great specimens to look at and most of us took the opportunity to get some sketches in. A recommended visit for any artist.

Following a bit of a grossing-out at the Hunterian, we had lunch together – and it was a chance for Jade to snap a couple of pictures of the new interns. Unfortunately, Susan was at home with flu that day, and Jade was bordering on it so she stayed behind the camera – but you’ll get to see them in snaps of workshops at a later date no doubt.

Lily and Merlin~

Shamisa and Abe!

After lunch we headed for the British Museum – we visited the print rooms which had some beautiful, unbelievably detailed ink drawings, and the new Manga exhibition on the adventures of Professor Munakata. Seeing the original sketched, inked and screentoned pages of this manga by Hoshino Yukinobu was amazing for us as comic artists; it’s always a good experience to see how other comic artists go through their process of making a page.

Finally, we went on a hunt for comic book shops! We visited Forbidden Planet, which has an
amazingly well stocked basement, and Orbital Comics, which had an exhibition featuring some brilliant British comic artists’ self portraits. Our day of exploring ended there but there are plenty of other great places in London (and out of it) that you can visit if you want inspiration for your comics. So explore! Get out there! Informing yourself informs your comics and makes them much more interesting to read, so do it~!