Tag: collage

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.37

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania November 3, 2014

This is the first in a series of regular reports documenting the production of the fourth issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. It continues on from those posted on the first chapter/issue The Ingurgitator, the second chapter/issue A Blot On His Escutcheon and the third chapter/issue The Chthonian Turn: The Cats’ Revenge (see links to posts #1-36 below). The new chapter Beer, Chocolate and Comics deals with the cats’ recovery from the demise of their patron, Doctor Comics, their travels in Europe and their contact with the world of European comics. Printmaking is again involved in the design and production of this issue with woodblock, linocut and the use of rubber, bakelite and wooden stamps along with drawing and handwriting plus a bit more of a move into cartooning. The intention is to produce a comic in an artist’s book type format. I hope to have it more or less ready for self-publication in the early months of next year. Mmmh, well we’ll have to see about that!

Brush tips dipped in ink and at the ready.

Cartooning the cat character Cohl from Blotting Paper comic-© 2014 Michael Hill

More cat cartooning for the Blotting Paper comic-© 2014 Michael Hill

There will also be the introduction of a new character in this chapter, a dog.

Funny animal character from Blotting Paper comic-© 2014 Michael Hill

UPDATE: 17th SEPTEMBER 2015 (See comments below.)

Here is how this character finished up looking in Issue #4-© 2015 Michael Hill

This issue has a marked European flavour with much careful research into Belgian and German chocolates, comics and beer having been undertaken by the artist and author.

For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project that includes development of all three issues you can read the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts:

Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.30

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics February 3, 2014

This is the first in a series of regular reports documenting the production of the third issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. It continues on from those posted on the first chapter/issue The Ingurgitator (see posts #1-13 below) and the second chapter/issue A Blot On His Escutcheon (see posts #14-29 below). The new chapter, The Chthonian Turn: The Cats’ Revenge, deals with the cats’ reaction to the demise of Doctor Comics and that gentleman’s adventures in another dimension to which he has travelled. I hope to self-publish it before the end of the year.

Title page for Chapter 3 The Chthonian Turn–© 2013 Michael Hill

As with the two previous issues printmaking is involved in the generation of images via woodblock, linocut, Japanese sosaku hanga technique, rubber stamps and wooden seals. In addition other visual communication techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, cartooning and photography with the intention of producing a limited edition artist’s book kind of comic.

One of the spirits in the underground sky–© 2013 Michael Hill

I also intend producing more colour pages in this issue following the use of sporadic spot colour in Issue #1 and the 8 full colour pages in Issue #2. The colour will assist in the graphic representation of both the real and imaginary worlds featured in the comic.

Another of the spirits in the underground sky–© 2013 Michael Hill

For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project, see all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports. Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.26

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics August 25, 2013

With publication of the second issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 2: A Blot On His Escutcheon just a matter of weeks away (September is looking increasingly likely and Saturday September 21 is being scheduled subject to completion of the binding and delivery of the books). What has been fixed though is that the book will form part of an exhibition of works on paper at a new gallery in Glebe called GAUGE. Here is an image of the title page. The image has been constructed from elements of photography, printmaking, typography and collage and shows Doctor Comics returning from a shopping expedition for fish and books. UPDATE: Exhibition dates have now been firmed to 18-29 September 2013 but still no firm launch date for the comic.

Title page of Issue #2 of Blotting Paper (Design-© 2013 Michael Hill).

Press Release for Blotting paper exhibition.

Press Release for the Blotting Paper exhibition.

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.20

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, Japanning January 29, 2013

Continuing the series of regular reports documenting the production process of the first and second issues of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 1: The Ingurgitator and Chapter 2: A Blot On His Escutcheon, this post mentions some of the tools and the workspace utilised in the production of two-dimensional print images. In terms of image-making techniques, printmaking is suitable for generating both single and sequential images.

A bowl of sumi ink, a brush and a bamboo baren. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Following the Japanese creative print approach sumi ink enabled the getting of solid blacks in some of the images. The ink was brushed onto the block or substrate surface carrying the ink. The paper was placed onto this and rubbed down on the reverse side with a bamboo baren.

Bench hook, roller, rag and bucket on studio bench. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Materials used included water based ink and paint, rags and cloths for smearing, cleaning and wiping the ink, and a plentiful supply of running water for washing the blocks and brushes as well as my hands.

Water, cloths, sink and lino block. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Despite the implied reference to woodblocks in Japanese print techniquess, it need not always involve woodblock printmaking. The wood may be replaced by other materials such as vegetables, fruit, leaves, string, rubber or other found objects that are sufficiently flat or pliable that they may be inked and pressed onto paper. The creative print (sosaku hanga) approach places the emphasis on the act of making the print. Oh joy!

Printmaking attire. (Photo by Michael Hill)

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.16

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics August 21, 2012

Work continues on the production of the second chapter/issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. In this report we look back at two of the characters from the first chapter and ahead to some of the images in the next, made by means of printmaking and drawing. First the feline characters Cohl and Busch, the funny animal characters and the cats of Doctor Comics.

Cohl and Busch are named after famous cartoonists Émile Cohl and Wilhelm Busch. They live in the apartment with Doctor Comics as his companions. They l-o-v-e fish! They also know about comics, as much and possibly more about them than the doctor. In lecturing mode Doctor Comics has been known to channel Cohl who is incredibly well read but with a distinct bias toward bandes dessinées.

I am continuing to experiment with monotype prints of a sequential nature, a hangover from my animation days in which I made heavy use of the technique to generate the large volume of artwork needed in that medium.

And I have been drawing more bones.

For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project, see all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports. Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 There is also my Cats In Comics series in which I profile cats from other people’s comics: Doraemon, Krazy Kat, The Rabbi’s Cat

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.15

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, Japanning July 29, 2012

I mentioned last time that I have been doing some drawings of bones. In Chapter 1 of the artist book/comic I used fish bones as an image and as a printmaking substrate for the sosaku hanga technique on the AFTER DINNER PRINT pages. In Chapter 2 there will be drawings of human bones of the hand and foot. I have had the opportunity to study some broken bones incurred in falls from bicycles. Perhaps there will be more about this in the next report but speaking of cyclists I also make reference to the Bookseller of Glee character who was scheduled to appear in the first issue but ended up being edited out (see production report No. 6).

This bookseller rides a penny farthing type of bicycle and will play a part in this issue. I had my portrait of this gentleman in the Glebe Sesquicentenary Art Exhibition(see below) and then it was a finalist in the 2010 Bald Archy Prize: The Bookseller of Glee (mixed media-drawing, painting and collage on paper): A postmodern portrait of Roger Mackell, co-owner of Gleebooks (4 time Australian Bookseller of the Year), as a generous character gleefully disseminating books and promoting the joy of reading. The portrait caricatures the proprietor and his store’s contribution to the intellectual life of Glee Village, its nearby universities and the community by virtue of its main street constructed from the writings of French literary critics and philosophers whose work the store made available in the 1980s and the populace is collaged from pages of Shakespeare, Dickens and Australian fiction.

The artist and his bookseller subject on display. (Photo by Louise Graber)

More bones (pen and ink drawing-© 2012 Michael Hill)

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.14

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, Japanning June 28, 2012

This is the first in a series of regular reports documenting the production process and progress of the second issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. In this blog the new series of reports continues on from the those posted during the construction and launch of the first chapter/issue The Ingurgitator (see linked blogged posts #1-14 below). The new chapter, A Blot on His Escutcheon, goes deeper into the establishment of the character of Doctor Comics, the environment in which he lives and some reflected moments from his life in comics. I am making progress with this and hope to have self-published it sometime next year. The book is based on my memories of a career in education in Sydney at an art college and design school, working within the disciplines of art and design in the specific areas of film, video, animation and visual communication. Comics came up quite a bit, as a method of teaching storyboarding, as a word and image project and as a medium in its own right that included the study and research of it, presentation of lectures and conference papers, the staging of conferences, symposiums and exhibitions and the writing of a thesis. It has fictive passages as well as the auto-biographical elements. Printmaking is being employed again as an image-making medium including the Japanese sosaku hanga method, along with pen and ink drawing, collage and found materials.

I’m currently learning to draw bones by reading the osteology chapters in anatomy books and studying the illustrations really carefully, but more of that in the next report. For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project, see all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports. Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.13

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, Japanning April 21, 2012

Composed from elements of drawing, handwriting, collage, photography, typography and printmaking Issue #1 of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics involved a range of graphic tools. These were displayed at the launch with a description of my work methodology.

Searching for inspiration with sketching and sake. (Photo by Michael Hill)

The first stage of the process is finding inspiration. This may involve reading and research, travel, visits to galleries to look at art and objects and make sketches. One sketch book in the photo below shows a collaged image of a fictitious Japanese monster Shitake Man. Some sake also proved useful at this preliminary stage.

Sketch book collage and sake cup. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Concepts and images come to mind in the second stage, design. Sketching determines the shapes that will be obtained through image-making techniques.

Printmaking tools: chisel, carved blocks, rubber type and sharpening stone. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Bamboo baren, seals, string, sumi ink, brushes and printed postcard. (Photo by Michael Hill)

Where printmaking is involved the third stage brings out brushes, ink and paper for the printing part of the project. A baren which is piece of dried bamboo that has been stretched over a board is used to ensure that the paper makes good contact with the inked block. The pressure applied can be varied to produce the degree of intensity of the ink. The autumn postcard print in the photo above has been constructed from 5 layers of print.

Bench hook, brushes, bamboo jar. (Photo by Michael Hill)

On completion of the work the sake may re-appear to accompany a session of reflection on the creative outcome.

For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project, see all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports relating to Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.9

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, Japanning January 21, 2012

Climbing onto the launching pad with three weeks and counting to lift-off, I’m happy to say I have a launch date and venue for the publication of my artist book/comic/ehon Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Issue #1 The Ingurgitator. The date is 11 February 2012 at Hondarake bookstore, Level 1, 465 Kent Street SYDNEY. Around 3pm. Posters and flyers are on the way.

Above and below are two versions of a collage of four pen and ink/felt-tipped pen drawings: Sydney Harbour Bridge, rear view of walking figure, figure carrying a bag, and hand putting key in a lock-that will be included in the first issue of the book. These occur on different pages in the comic but have also been brought together in this collage when I was attempting to form a visual sign or motif as a shorthand image for promotion of the comic. A possible poster perhaps…? Sydney is the setting. There is a shopping expedition. Walking on the street takes place. And there is the act of unlocking with a key or electronic card of a container and a door. There is also linear drawing and sketching in pen and ink and felt tipped pen and there is the use of collage. Follow the vertical line of the leg of the figure carrying the bag and the position of the door handle to see the compositional differences between the two collages.

Art Book Launch: BLOTTING PAPER by Doctor Comics + exhibition of creative prints (using sosaku hanga method) by Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics, 3-5pm Saturday 11 February at HONDARAKE Level 1, 465 Kent Street SYDNEY http://fullofbooks.com.au RSVP: 02 9261 5225 hondarake@gmail.com

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.8

Art, Blotting Paper, Comics January 12, 2012

I’m getting closer to completion of the first issue Chapter 1: The Ingurgitator. Drum roll! What I had hoped to have out by the end of 2011 is now looking certain for early 2012 so some celebratory banging on my own drum is in order.

Testing out type. (Photo by Louise Graber)

There have been changes to the script. This has resulted in compressions, extensions and deletions. I found that I needed more space to convey some sequences. The consequence of this meant shortening some parts in order to keep to the 40 page total that has progressively crept up from the planned 20. Some sequences weren’t working so they had to be cut although they may appear in a subsequent chapter if I can get them sorted out, and some parts, whilst working in script form, were just too difficult for me to draw.

My box of type. (Photo by Louise Graber)

The type in print.

The other interesting development has been the photographic part of the project. Initially employed as a reference device for locations, objects, figures and gesture positions that would in turn be converted into drawings, the lens art has now become more of a feature. Some pages are even starting to look a little like sequences from a Mexican foto-novela or picto grafia comic. This was not my intention. There is still the anticipated drawn, collaged and printmade elements along with the traditional rubber stamped text (see the photos above). Anyhow, I expect that the next report will confirm my suspicions of the forthcoming completion of the first issue of the comic and contain the announcement of details of publication place and date.