16th Dec

I've made a mock up of the A3 zine i was thinking about to sort the page layout (where the double spreads lie etc. I don't have much time left and considering the amount of paper involved in making a single copy (20 A3 sheets of good cardridge paper + a couple of quid in photocopies) I think i'd rather keep the mock up and a few blown up images and make publication properly when i've got the time, each image will need a bit of tweaking tonally, and positioning/layout can be a bit fiddly when photocopying. In addition i'd still like maybe add some text etc, so for the sake of saving time, money and a not significant materials I'm going to work on this later and print when it's perfect.

15th Dec

Today finished the watercolour photocopies, they look good if a little less coherent than I’d hoped. When I mentioned how I wanted to make a publication to paul he said he’d like to see the images bigger and suggested a full size book of the images, while the originals are too tatty to bind I’m going to enlarge the photocopies I already have to make an A3 zine with a frame a page (double sided). The images will be degraded blow ups of the smaller photocopies rather than re shooting the paintings. I think the book will work well in leading an audience through the narrative and the first slightly fiddly strip will look better full size. Heres a beautifully coloured spread from Norakuro a Japanese strip from the 30's, found in Kramers Ergot

14th Dec

Having had a bit more time to look at the prints I think they actually look pretty flat compared to the originals. Today I tried to trace them and render them in pencil as was my original plan before I started painting. This looked ok but seemed like a step down in terms of visual impact. The pained work well because the are simple and bold, the compositions are good but don’t really have enough detail to render in delicate shade. Also I thing designing something in one medium with that medium in mind then converting it usually fails. Looking at the photocopies I had made to trace from I thought they added some of the grit and noise that had been lost in the digital prints. I made some more copies onto cardridge paper and started adding watercolour. If I can make it work with just red and blue (sepia looked naff) I think it could make a small scale version alternative to the paintings. I still really want to paste p the paintings but am unwilling to have them removed after a day or so, as such I’ll wait till I get back to London and find a good home for them.

I don’t normally like photocopies but looking some on nice paper really bring home how achievable self publishing at a pretty high standard could be. I’d love to make and a3 publication on cardrige paper with a solid theme and stucture, not just a loose collection of images. Looking at my current pictures I’m thinking murder ballads...

13th Dec

Went to the photography studios shoot the finished pieces with my friend Roman from commercial photography. We pinned up each of the three sets one at a time and lit them so as to eliminate any shadow, then took a seemingly disproportionately large amount of photos with a really nice digital SLR before Roman helped me correct the colours properly and print the images with a calibrated printer. I’m pleased with the final prints although the first of the three now looks a little fiddly compared to the strong simple compostion of the other two. I’m still extremely pleased with the individual frames but it goes to show how useful the storyboarding I used to construct the second and third sets was. I will try reworking this piece but without another chance to shoot it isn’t urgent.

10th Dec

Went too see the Ed Ruscha exhibition at the Hayward gallery, I’d seen his mountain pictures in a magazine ad loved them and to find that there was an exhibition on at the moment was unusually smooth process. I liked the way the that words were used as something to evoke a whole range of signifieds, or as physical objects or like snippets of poetry. The way that the words related too the imagery associated with them but not in any direct way. Sort of like lyrics and music.

8th Dec

in the last week I’ve been plotting out the other two grids and getting them painted, it’s amazing how once you story board something there are instantly loads of new image combinations and plot directions available.


Especially when your narrative has no fixed destination it becomes very easy to allow the design to influnce the narrative, which s a really interesting process and one which really emphasizes the differences between visual meaning and written meaning. What makes sense conceptually often doesn’t really hold together visually in the same way.
Now I have the final two “chapters more or less finished I’m going to get my friend Roman who des commercial photography to help me shoot and print them to professional standard slightly smaller than A3.
Inbetween chapters if I had more time I would like to have an intermediary/concluding image drawn using a more labour intensive and highly detailed crosshatching style. As a counterpoint to the more blunt ink paint and newsprint.

28th Nov

Went to a really good exhibition in Brighton called Head. Proclaiming itself as “visions of the future” referencing 70’s psychadelia, and graff culture it consisted mainly murals and site specific work, I really admired the artists for working directly onto the walls and floor as in showed a real respect for practice and demonstrated the necessity of using a space to it’s full advantage. Using the walls as canvasses for well planned and skilfully executed work, felt much more involving than seeing an image designed without the space in mind being plonked in an anonymous space. I think perhaps a compromise could be making prints and fly posting a space.