Season’s Greetings

18 December 2014 | rozihath

Good evening folks!

Well, well, well. It’s that time of year again. The university deadlines are down from a long list to just one more presentation, and I’ve been gradually wrapping the stockpile of gifts I’d been hiding in my wardrobe for months. Having a Christmas with no immediate project work to attend to means I’ll be happily filling myself with mulled wine and turkey for about three weeks, before it all starts up again of course. Time flies when you’re having fun! Or stressed.

So, I have been a busy bee working on several things at once, but last week saw the completion of my graphic short story that I submitted for the V&A’s Illustration Awards 2015 in the student submission category. Although, I won’t lie, the V&A was just a formality and university requirement for this brief. I couldn’t wait to write and draw my own story with so much time allocated! The story itself is hard to summarise, though my best attempt would be this; Influenced by the text ‘To Walk The Red Road’, a Native American poem by an unknown author, I developed a story based on a young woman and her spirit animals – Bear, Coyote and Lark. The story is about a physically and mentally arduous journey, ascending up the Rocky Mountains; exploring themes of violence and sexual abuse, alongside companionship, bravery and areas of Native American beliefs. Here is an obligatory snapshot:

“What’s going on there?” – I hear you cry!

This project was my baby from start to finish, I absolutely loved it. Never before have I had the chance to really cultivate my own story for such a length of time, and with all the practise I made myself do over the summer with Lost and Found, and then the Christmas Tale, I finally had a chance within university to put it all to good use. I started with the poem, and then came up with some ideas that I wanted to include in the story, and then slowly but surely put the story together. From there I wrote it out into a graphic novel script, and after some sketchbook work and a mock-up book with my thumb-nailing I went straight to paper. The story is a total of 24-pages, not including the covers and somehow I managed to write and create the whole thing in 8 weeks. Nifty, eh? There are some logistical kinks that need working out, and I need some willing un-biased readers to give me their opinion on the content, but all going well after editing I’m looking into getting this story printed to sell. How exciting! It’s a new kind of nervous for me – I’m used to having my drawings thrown in peoples faces for judgement.. But writing? Well, apart from waffling on here and there, crafting stories is only something I’ve been practising in the last year or so. Let’s hope people like it!

Aside from this project I’d been working on a few other things but nothing I really felt as passionate for as this. Most of my university assessments are well under way and I’ll be looking forward to some nice, positive (hopefully) feedback from tutors over the winter break. Going into term two of second year, I believe the evil ‘D’ work is going to start being thrown around.. Dissertation. Eurgh. But on the positive, hopefully there will be lots more projects I can sink my teeth into and really make into something I love. Anyway, I will be around and updating things a bit more over the holidays so keep an eye out for more updates! Over and out x

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines..

18 November 2014 | rozihath

Good evening ladies and gents,

So, I’ve managed to temporarily peel myself away from the looming pile of degree work I have next to me to remind you all that I’m still alive and kicking. I have decided that whichever smug bastard said that art courses at University are easy, clearly never did one. You can kind of swing copying notes and blasting out essays a few days before, but making a whole book? Writing and drawing? That takes some next level commitment and organisation skills (if I may say so myself..).

The good news is that I have a good feeling about this book. Essentially, it’s a 24-page graphic short-story based in the land of the Rocky Mountains fuelled by my desire to be back in Colorado drinking a Mountain Dew the size of my head whilst looking at those glorious mountains. I have written a short story based around myths and legends of the various Native American tribes who lived around Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Otherwise known as the four corners. Or, my other much missed home-from-home. Then from myths I made a plot, then that I developed into a graphic novel script, and from there thumbnail sketches, a mock-up book, and now I’m working my way through each final page tweaking as I go along, plus digital editing to finish it all off. It’s not a cheery book in any sense, but then none of my favourite books are, so I guess that’s just how I roll. Over the summer I spent so long practising writing comics and short stories, it finally feels like something has paid off and I’m well on my way to making this book hopefully the best thing I’ve ever written. The downside of having such a tight schedule and so much to tell, is that the level of detail is far less complex than what I put into, say, a one-off piece illustration. However I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, if I had 6 months to work on this and make it into a beautifully crafted standalone book to sell then it would be different, but for now I’m doing what I can with the limitations put in place. And I’m still determined it will be a success! In fact, I re-did 6 pages today, so I’m dedicated to making this awesome.

On completion of the book I will be looking into getting copies made and put up for sale in the new year which will be exciting! But for now, I can only show you all a sneak preview of some of the progress so far..

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Other than that, not much to report. I still need to design my Christmas cards this year, as well as my parents Christmas cards, making presents and a few other exciting things up my nifty sleeves! That’s as well as completing the book, writing an essay, completing another practical project consisting of four final pieces, constructing a seminar debate, making and presenting a 45-minute presentation and submitting to the V&A competitions. Phew! For now, that is all. Best get back to the grind; Over and out! x

Hello, darker nights.

3 November 20143 November 2014 | rozihath

Good evening ladies and gents,

Well well well, what a busy six weeks its been since Brussels, it only feels like yesterday that I was dragging myself merrily back to University for the start of the term. The second year of University lives up to its busy hype, and so far it’s taken me so long to get back to posting on this here website I’d almost forgotten what I was doing. Oh yes! Drawing. That’s what I’ve been doing. Instead of waffling on about every single project I’ve done so far I’ve decided to give an efficient, brief overview of any vaguely good stuff I’ve made so far, so I don’t bore you all into a coma.

1. Gifs! I made a gif based on a Chinese poem about a leaf floating and lots of moody things (‘Seeking a Mooring’ by Wang Wei, it’s actually quite nice if you’re into that sort of thing). It’s fairly simple but I quite like staring at it longingly when my brain is overspilling with ideas and I want to cry into a large plate of cake. It’s soothing, try it! (With cake, ideally.)

An illustrated .gif based on the poem 'Seeking a Mooring' by Wang Wei — An illustrated .gif based on the poem ‘Seeking a Mooring’ by Wang Wei. Ooooh, spinney.

2. I made an angry scene of people for an editorial piece, that I liked, but my lecturers didn’t. Ironically, this is also what my fellow students and I look like when they casually give us extra work to do with no forewarning or briefing. Also, what I imagine Manchester looks like after the football yesterday.

3. I’m making an 7″ vinyl cover for a University cover band who will be preforming The Cure’s ‘Friday I’m in Love’ live at the end of the month whilst I stand in the back and point at my artwork jumping up and down shouting “Look mum, I’m famous!” to no one in particular. It will look something like this.

Friday I'm in Loooove! Doo-de-doo, la la laa! — Friday I’m in Loooove! Doo-de-doo, la la laa!

4. Aaaand finally I’m currently writing and illustrating a 26 page comic which is due in 5 weeks time. So, I have rather a lot of work do for that, as we’re only 3 weeks in. If anyone here’s some sort of maniacal, delirious ranting coming from my apartment or the studios at University – it’s okay. It’s just me giving myself quite a lot to do. Just send coffee my way and give me a gentle hug, I’ll be fine. Even just a gentle pat on the head will be appreciated. Anywho, I don’t want to give away too much, so here’s just a sneak peek of some initial sketches I produced for last Tuesday, though all steam ahead for the rest of the project to be done in time. Cooffeeeeeeeeee!!

Well, I think that’s it for now. I’ve been drawing and scripting all day for this aforementioned comic, and I feel worn out something chronic. So, time to power on through before dinner and put my concentration to the test. Woo! I shall endeavour to be back with updates sooner than every six weeks so do keep an eye out. I’ve had to make a Tumblr blog as a part of my course, so I’ve added a link to the menu bar at the top, and that’s updated a bit more regularly (only because it’s graded, my allegiance still holds with this marvellous place!) with general waffle and my inspiration rather than my work. So feel free to have a look around on there too. For now, over and out x

Ahh, another one done.

8 September 2014 | rozihath

So, it’s Monday. I’ve been forcibly held up by coffee all day and I am very pleased to announce that I have finished my Christmas Story book! Phew! The book is for a young lady named Emilia, who is the main character of the story and though the physical copy still needs printing nearer Christmas the bulk of the work is done. However, the digital version is complete and ready to be worked on for the YouTube part of the project. Success! Originally I was going to hand letter the story, but after starting it I decided due to time constraints and workload, using a ready made font made more sense. For now, it’s sorted, done, finished and put to one side to make way for the next big thing.

Magical-music-note suspicion. I think I can safely say we’ve all been there. No?

Next on the agenda is the Jonathan Cape Graphic Short Story Prize competition which concludes on the 26th September. I’ve had my story on hold for a while, so after some mental tweaking and making scripting notes over the weekend, I’m ready to dive straight in (I think!). It’s another case of giving myself a short amount of time, which is unfortunate as this competition is an important one; but I can only do my best, and each challenge is a new learning curve. I received a nice email today from the folks at the Comic Arts Festival to let me know that my mutant bunnies comic Lost and Found was unsuccessful, which I was expecting given the pressure I put myself under and amount of time I had to re-do panels and pages. I did learn a lot from that, and hopefully it’s something I can use going forward for this 4-page story competition. Wish me luck!

On a somewhat less cheerful note, yesterday my partner-in-crime and I visited the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. We’d been meaning to go for a while now, and it was an incredible place. We spent about 3 and a half hours looking at the exhibitions and feeling some strange mix of awe, horror and disbelief at re-reading the history of the world wars and conflict up to the present day. Anyone who enjoys comics and graphic novels will have read Maus, and then with other graphic memoirs like Persepolis and Joe Sacco’s Palestine, we’ve all seen the conflict and stories through other people’s eyes. Some aspects I’d not seen before were the use of drawings in soliders and prisoners to keep their sanity. Incredibly moving drawings from Violette Lecoq illustrate the conditions at the Ravensbrück concentration camp she was taken to in 1943, and were definitely hard to see yet fascinating at the same time. More recently was Linda Kitson‘s drawings of the Falklands War from her three months of drawings whilst commissioned as the official war artist in 1982. Below are a few photos I took during our visit, I definitely recommend anyone who can get to Imperial War Museum North, or the main one in London, to go whilst they are honouring the Centenary of the First World War.

The Crusader (2010) by Gerry Judah - a personal reflection on an urban society shaped by conflict. — The Crusader (2010) by Gerry Judah – a personal reflection on an urban society shaped by conflict.

Linocut Prints by Helmuth Weissenborn showing scenes of London during The Blitz of WWII

Violette Lecoq's drawings of Ravensbrück concentration camp. — Violette Lecoq’s drawings of Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Linda Kitson's Falkland's drawings. — Linda Kitson’s Falkland’s drawings.

I think that wraps it up for this vastly disappearing Monday. I hope everyone has a good week and I shall be back with another update soon. Over and out! x

Christmas Wonderland

3 September 20143 September 2014 | rozihath

Well! What a week it’s been.

In my endless wisdom I decided it would be a great idea to work non-stop on my Christmas Tale, because who needs a decent nights sleep, right? Since my last blog post I’ve been drawing gingerbread ladies, reindeer, snowmen, penguins, polar bears and a rather young female lead character from morning until the depths of night, and having a pretty fun time seeing how much coffee I can intake whilst still maintaining hand stability. If there’s anything I’ve learnt from Dan Berry’s Make it Then Tell Everybody podcast, it’s that this is the illustrator life. It’s tiring, but hot damn I love it.

So, moving forward. As of yesterday morning I have managed to complete the main bulk of my book; the majority of my story is told in a magical Christmas wonderland with friendly creatures each doing their bit to support Father Christmas in the hours leading up to the magical day itself. My process with this project has been pretty consistent. Pencils > Inking > Colouring using gouache paint. Then half the job is done, and I digitally place each page over a separate backdrop which completes the page. So far I’ve done 16 pages with another 6-ish to do this week, then the creating stage will be complete! Here are three previews, have a gander;

Aside from the originally intended hard-copy, I am very excited to be working with my musically talented pal Adam Satur in the hopes of turning the book into a ‘narrated animatic’. In simple terms, we’re looking at turning my pages into a digital book via YouTube video with soundscapes, music, a narrator, plus voices/noises for the creatures. Bringing this second level to this project is really exciting, hopefully by the time I update you all next I’ll have more news on this secondary project. For more information on Adam and his teachings you can also visit Playing Musically on Facebook.

With the hard graft of this project wrapping up this week, I shall be working next on my script for the next major competition – which truth be told, I intended to start a lot earlier before the Offlife submission and my mutant bunnies got in the way. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to complete two pending projects before university starts up again in a months time – oh how the summer has flown.. Is it time for a holiday yet? Anyway, I shall be hauled up at my desk until Friday afternoon completing the rest of this book, so wish me the best of luck! Over and out x

New Website, New Comic!

14 August 201414 August 2014 | rozihath

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

So, I made another comic. Things have been fairly busy once again since I completed my sci-fi themed comic Lost & Found. I will admit that I took a couple of days to wind down and do silly adult things like clean the apartment and tidy the mounds of drawings and paperwork that had taken over my desk. Anywho, I decided to try another test-run comic in a limit of only one page format this time. The aim was to submit my one-pager to Off Life, which is the UK’s only street press comic. You can read all the issues here. And, this is how they describe themselves;

“We publish a magazine that’s full of short comics from today’s best artists, and distribute free-to-read in bars, galleries, coffee shops and online. Our aim is to provide a platform for up-and-coming talent while opening comics to a whole new audience. Over our past nine issues we’ve featured comics from some of today’s best creators, including: Jack Teagle, Kristyna Baczynski, Kyle Platts, Ana Galvan, Warrick Johnson-Cadwell, Robert Ball, Dan Berry and Joe List.“

Off Life accept submissions between 1-4 pages, but I’ve been trying to push myself into shorter stories recently and I figured one sole page is definitely a challenge. So, after being somewhat inspired not only by my own thoughts of seeing my friends glued to their phones, and also seeing slightly more diluted qualities in myself, AND from reading the cold-turkey-social-media-quitting-experiment of my friend James (which is a witty and interesting read, I definitely recommend it) I made this comic.

One-page entry for Off Life! — One-page entry for Off Life’s bi-monthly publication

As I was in Manchester this past weekend and I forgot to pack my paints, I had to digitally colour the comic – which is not my favourite way of doing things. I can never quite seem to make it work for comics.. Boba Fett and the snowboard design seemed to work great, but my style of drawing for narrative doesn’t seem to suit digital colouring. Oh well, learning curve strikes again! At some point I will probably colour it in my usual style, but for now, and for the deadline I had it was submitted like so. Feel free to drop me a comment and let me know what you think! In other news, I had an absolutely lovely afternoon on Saturday at MancsterCon! Held in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, MancsterCon is a voluntarily run event bringing together the best of the independant sequential art scene in the North West. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to all the events for the weekend, but I did get to see Pauline Sometime give a presentation of the portrayal of mental health in comics over the past few decades. Although she stated that it was a brief snapshot over the ages, it was still an incredibly interesting talk and has given me comics and names to look at for future reference. I also had a perusal around the stalls of various creatives, the highlights being picking up Girl & Boy by the fiercly talented Andrew Tunney, and Merrick the Sensational Elephantman by the creative team that is writer Tom Ward, artist Luke Parker and letterer Nic J Shaw.

I really enjoyed both of these. Girl & Boy definitely appealed to my love of black and white comics, though I haven’t draw anything purely black and white for a while now it definitely still has a place in my heart. I also really love the way Andrew Tunney made the rain in his images, really beautiful. Nice guy, also! Definitely looking forward to whatever he has coming out next, I had to peel myself away from the stunning prints he was selling. Merrick, The Sensational Elephant Man appealed to me with great colour palette used, and from reading it thoroughly tonight I was cracking up in some parts of it, and feeling empathy for the characters in other places. Some of the hidden gems in the panels are absolutely brilliant, there’s a particular panel on the first page which isn’t obvious to begin with, but I couldn’t stop laughing at. My hamster must think I’m crazy! I shall be eagerly awaiting issue #2, it’s great work and I definitely recommend it.

You may have also noticed that I now have my own website. Yippee! The website I had previously set up through webs.com two months ago was just an epic waste of time. To begin with, their free package is incredibly limited in comparison to what I was used to with Blogspot, and also their blogging set up is absolutely terrible. I came home on Sunday to a message telling me that I’d almost reached my maximum storage, and that was the last straw, so thanks to my computer-whizz partner I’ve set up this site which is MUCH better. Ahh, I can tag blogs again! So, after getting this all set up and the Webs.com blogs transferred across, I’ve celebrated by ordering new business cards as my previous ones were horrendously out of date. Exciting! I also have a few new projects next on the agenda, so keep an eye out for progress from those.

Oh, and before I forget! If you would like to subscribe to my blogs and have them arrive in a nice shiny package directly to your inbox, you can do so at the bottom of any of the pages on this site, and you can find it on the left hand side. There are also other nifty things there to have a look at, so mooch around and let me know what you think. For now, over and out. x

Lost and Found

31 July 201412 August 2014 | rozihath

Well, what a week it’s been. About a month ago, when I was looking at the schedule of events at the Comics Art Festival in Kendal later this year, I discovered they were running a competition alongside Titan Comics for a 4-6 page comic with the theme of Lost in Space. Now, the deadline was yesterday and 4-weeks-ago-me thought the challenge to write the script and draw, colour and letter the comic in a month would be a marvellous idea! And, well, I finished it on time so clearly 4-weeks-ago-me had faith in current-me, though it was definitely a challenge and a half.
This is the first time I’ve properly written a script for a comic and I felt immensly out of my comfort zone. I made a story for a children’s picture book at University last year, but I didn’t really need to think about the scripting as much as it was a simple story for a very young audience. In terms of writing, we all know I like the go on, and on, and on in my blog, so what’s the difference? I tell you what, I have a new found respect for those who write and draw their own work successfully. Personally, as someone who likes pretty pictures, it was tricky to have to concentrate on words as well as images. But, it’s what I eventually want to do, so all the practise I can get will be beneficial in the future. My difficulty initially was that 6 pages is such a small amount. My section in HOAX: Psychosis Blues was 6 pages, and it took me 6 months, and I didn’t even have to write anything! For a a visual narrative of this length, I knew that unless I drew everything at a tiny size my comic wasn’t going to tell much of a story. With this in mind, and after much confusion, I researched previous short stories in graphic-form and found that more often than not they were a snippet from a story; A brief look into someone elses life, no backstory, no explanations. The story had to be PG-rated, so I decided to utilise this to make a comic that hopefully both kids and adults could enjoy, and after much deliberation I came up with the mutant platybunny idea and started sketching away. The days when I love my chosen path are the days I get to look at cute bunnies on the internet and draw them. Best. Job. Ever. Without any more delay, I present.. Lost and Found! Below is a couple of the pages, and the link to the PDF:

Link to the PDF comic, woo! Read it all here!

I’m not entirely sure if I’m content with the outcome. In the end I had to rush, but that was always going to be the case unfortunately as I came across the competition so late. Anywho, it’s complete and submitted, I doubt it’s a winning entry but it was a pretty good challenge! Plus, now I know how to work for the next competition to make sure I utilise my time in the best possible way. I mainly just want to make people smile with this one, and I hope I’ve been successful. For now that’s all folks! I have the next project to look forward to, and I’ll be back with another update next week. Over and out! x

Kamino and Make Yourself Comfortable

10 July 201412 August 2014 | rozihath

Good evening ladies and gentlemen!

So, since September I’ve been trying to find a happy medium between traditional and digital illustration. I love drawing, by hand, on paper. And painting on paper, because it’s fun! However I’d been finding that trying to scan in traditionally done paintings and make it look decent on screen was a hard task. So, with some tutorials and lots of trials and errors I have finally made my first fully combined piece which I’m happy with. There are examples on my front page of these sort of techniques I’ve been trying, for example Being Human and the girl in the triangle, however I didn’t feel like these were up to my usual standard. So, I decided it was time to put what I’d learnt to good use and do something nice for my partner-in-crime, Chris.

The story behind this revolves around my better-half being an absolutely giant Star Wars fan (nerd), especially with the original trilogy. A few weeks ago we went to a convention over at the National Space Centre in Leicester run by the UK Garrison, one of the foremost non-profit Star Wars costuming groups in the UK. Their movie-standard costumes were absolutely fantastic, and I was blown away by the professionalism and dedication everyone involved puts into being their character. I’ve since learnt that they attend countless events around the country and have helped raise money for a number of charities; it really was such an amazing atmosphere I was completely outstanded. I hadn’t had so much fun in a long while, and I felt like a giant kid at the best toy store known to man. I even got to meet R2-D2!

ANYWAY! One of my better-half’s favourite characters is Boba Fett, and he actually got to meet the actor Jeremy Bulloch, shake his hand and get this ridiculously cool art print signed. Which got me thinking how much I really wanted to do something for him which, although it’s not as cool as a signed print, is something that he’d be proud to hang on his wall. So, long story short this meant I had to delve deep into the Star Wars Wookieepedia and find out all I could about Boba Fett, the infamous bounty hunter and primary clone of Jango Fett. Low and behold, I came up with this idea that with all Boba Fett goes through in the extended stories, andas a child seeing his Dad’s head come off, sometimes he must just want to go home. Home, being the watery planet of Kamino where all the clones were created. I drew up Boba, his home planet, and his EE-3 Carbine, and over the space of a week I managed to piece it all together and Boba’s your uncle, we have…. this:

The hard work paid off in the end! It was a surprise, and I think he likes it! I did submit this as a design to Threadless! so that I could get it on a t-shirt for him, but unfortunately they emailed me to say that any sort of cult-icon can be a bit awkward in terms of legal restrictions, so it can’t be done. But, at least I have a new phone background! Anyway, that’s it for now. I have a busy week ahead and I’m off to Art in Action on Thursday for a day of quality auntie-niece time and spending far too much money on more art supplies I have run out of space for. Until next time! x

There’s just snow pleasing some people…

4 July 201412 August 2014 | rozihath

So, I’ve been working on a few different projects over the past month, and now I can finally reveal one I’ve been sitting on for a while (not literally, though, I don’t think my laptop could take my weight).

Nitro Snowboards UK recently ran a competition to design a snowboard top graphic to be made into a Limited Edition production run and sold in TSA stores throughout the UK. There was no theme restrictions either, it just had to include the logo. Naturally, as a budding snowboarder I leapt at the opportunity! Snowboard and skateboard graphics are notoriously vast and quirky. Some are very plain, some are just strange, and some are so intricate you need a magnifying glass to admire every detail.On researching previous Nitro boards, a lot of the board designs seemed very neat and graphics orientated, or very intricate. It’s always a gamble trying to design something like this, as the wow factor and images of semi-naked ladies tend to be part of the appeal. At the same time, you do just get some down right beautiful designs, so it really, really does vary tremendously.

I wanted to look at the relaxing, peaceful side of snowboarding; standing on a mountain looking out at the world, it’s a pretty powerful and awe-inspiring place to be as I discovered earlier this year. Plus, I have a soft-spot for anything Native American so I drew up a dude to put in there too, on either end of the board. The quote is from John Muir, which just sums up the snowboarding mentality! My poor 4-year-old laptop struggled immensely to work with a template so large, but slowly and surely I managed to piece it all together in Photoshop. Remember me talking of scanning in textures to use digitally? Well that’s what you can see! All the colouring of the board had to be digitally done due to the size, so the textures were scanned in and played with to give the different effects I was looking for. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the design; The competition winner will be announced on the 15th July, so I have my fingers and toes crossed for that day.. I’ll be piste if I don’t win.. Get it? Ha! Ahh.. Not really, it was mega fun just making my design. May the best boarder win!

As it definitely isn’t able to cope with this sort of work-load anymore, I have exictedly poured my mediocre savings into upgrading my laptop in a ‘shut up and take my money’ moment of desperation. With lots of storage the best processor I could get, I’m pretty excited for it to be built and sent out mid-July! Finally I’ll be able to reference Chrome and use Photoshop simutaniously without having to twiddle my thumbs for 15 minutes whilst I’m waiting for Photoshop to catch up. How exciting.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m finishing up another project today which I will be releasing to the world next week, so keep an eye out for that. Over and out! x

Rozi Hathaway

Comics & Illustration

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