Michi Mathias. illustration & comics.
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Six favourite tools of 2017

29/11/2017

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There are other things -- including dip pens, special erasers, and google maps -- that have been very useful this year, but below are six indispensible items which have been invaluable to my work. 

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I know how ridiculous this sounds, but when I lost my favourite pencil in the middle of a big project, I really felt like I couldn't draw. It's the only pencil I've used for at least a couple of years and I couldn't just go buy another as it came from Muji in London, sixty miles away. 

So what's the big deal about it? Well, propelling pencils are great for drawing, what with the consistent line width and no sharpening, but this one also has the special quality of feeling like a real wooden pencil, nice and light unlike the clunky plastic types. I've gotten entirely used to it, and love how it feels in my hand every time I pick it up. Fortunately I remembered I'd probably bought an extra one (they're cheap as well) and managed to find it on a shelf, to my great joy (then a few hours later my old one was found on the sofa).

​This is a line spacer for making consistent lettering heights when writing text into speech bubbles. A more complex one called the Ames guide, which seems to be the industry standard for hand letterers, offers far more options, but this is plenty for me (and was more available and affordable). I just put a pencil tip into a hole, pull it sideways along the blue triangle guide to give me a baseline for a line of text, and then skip one hole vertically in the same column to make a 6mm space to write within.  

Undoubtedly there's a lot more I could be doing with it, but this is enough. For now. It's made a big difference to the consistency of the lettering in my comics. I only wish I'd known about it earlier!
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I usually ink with a flexible fountain pen, the red Noodler's Creaper, and finally found a waterproof ink that doesn't a) take so long to dry that you smudge it constantly, or conversely b) start flowing so slowly from the nib that it takes all the spontaneity out of your linework. This is De Atramentis Archive Ink, and I'm very happy with it. 

Also, I succumbed to a second fountain pen with a very fine nib, the TWSBI Eco (for 'economy' - about  twentynine quid). 
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Plain old post-it notes have been absolutely ideal for working out page layouts for comics, moving panels, changing panels, adding panels. This is like an analogue form of what digital artists do easily, but before I thought of it I was having to start whole pages over every time I wanted to change something even in an early draft. And that was making me hesitant to even start things. Of course, panels are not all this exact size and shape, so it's a simple matter of taping together or trimming post-its. 
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I saw this watercolour set with 24 colours on sale and had to have it as my existing one had only twelve. I once did a watercolour course in which we made all our colours from the three primaries in tubes, and I admire those with that skill and patience and interest but it's not for me. I'm not a proper watercolourist and just don't enjoy mixing up my own colours; plus, if I'm trying to match colours across a multi-page comic, there's the added difficulty of re-doing the same blend, or having made up a massive quantity. 

And now I've found a new set with 45 colours! And a lot more space for thinning with water. That might feature in next year's list... 



​My lightbox (or light table? though it's neither a box or a table) continues to be a great time-saver, and allower of experimental layouts which can then be changed without losing everything and starting over. I can place a new sheet of paper over a draft I've sketched and draw it a little better -- hoping to avoid, however, perfecting all the life out of the original, which is liable to happen. Sometimes I'll scan my draft of some element of a scene, print it bigger or smaller as needed, and use the lightbox to easily put it into the frame at a different size. 
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​So, those are mine at the moment. What are your favourite tools?
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Learning through cutting out snowmen and playing with paper

27/10/2017

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One week ago, at the House of Illustration in London, I was attending a masterclass in character and composition with the very fabulous Alexis Deacon. To my surprise, it was all done using collage: cutting out shapes, arranging and re-arranging them. Playing with paper was my most fun thing as a little kid, yet I've never tried collage before, and here we found that simply pushing the pieces of a snowman shape a little off balance can suggest a surprising degree of emotion and intent. 
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I think my comic characters tend to stand around in fairly static positions too much of the time so it was a revelation to try out these effects from small changes. Using collage saved drawing and re-drawing and erasing, and also allowed for looser experimenting, letting accidental effects happen. 
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Things of course got a little more complicated as we then had to use random cut-out shapes to form new, imagined characters (which I never do, by any sort of method, and found terribly difficult). When I got stuck and admitted I was clueless, Alexis sat down and showed by example; he was kind and helpful and constantly moving round the room to check on everyone's progress with real enthusiasm.   

Finally we had to place these characters against a background scene in a way to express something about the newly created character. Alexis showed us some elements of background composition which included:

- leaving empty space for certain effects
- directing characters' gaze toward other characters or something of note, guiding the viewer's eye
- separation or overlapping unification of silhouettes indicating relationships between characters 
- visual links by echoing colour or shape, grouping elements through use of shared colour pallette
- reader's viewpoint - from character's eyes, or cinematic overhead distance shot near ending... 

These notes are pretty sketchy and some of the concepts probably too subtle for what I do but it was fascinating to learn about how much is going on, probably at a subconscious level, when looking at a beautifully made graphic novel. Alexis was very clear in his explanations, truly an excellent teacher. 

And I think I might even try a bit of collage in planning some panels for my graphic novel Two Shillings per Day. Anything that can help add variety to the look of four people cycling along country roads has got to be good!

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How to beat procrastination

4/10/2016

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Well, this is a funny thing.  After having a couple of projects on the go for sooo long it seemed doubtful I'd ever really do them, they both got done this summer. (Those two being Up, Down, or Stay the Same? and Just a Normal Day?)

On the right is me talking to Jessica Abel over skype, showing her my work schedule which resulted, however loosely, from the planning techniques I learnt from her Creative Focus Workshop earlier in the summer. And with this plan, the projects actually got done.

Having been such a Class A procrastinator previously, the difference was amazing enough that I got interviewed and featured on Jessica's blog as a case study! 

I've got a lot to live up to now! And I'll need all these tools to make headway with my next project, which is much bigger than anything I've done before.  More about that one soon. 

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A new toy

5/6/2016

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For a couple of years I've been wanting one. A long-armed stapler, which lets you make your own zines and booklets, just like a real professional! 

The excuse to go and buy one came when I finally finished this prototype version of my science puzzle quiz comic called Up, Down or Stay the Same, which is still open for comments please before I make a slightly improved version.  

The right tool for the job is a delight, always has been. This one feels like it might even inspire me to produce a few more random collections of comics and things, just for fun. And why not?

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    Click to see: What am I doing right NOW?
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    ​Note: Two Shillings per Day graphic novel-related posts now appear over here on their own page. 

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Michi Mathias     illustration & comics    

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