Narrative Illustration Book selection

For the narrative illustration brief I wasn't really interested in any of the books, except for H.P Lovecrafts weird tales, so it was an obvious choice, that is until the Nobrow brief was released, I spent a lot of time confused as to which I would choose, as the Nobrow brief seemed quite difficult, but I eventually decided that the Nobrow brief is the one I should go ahead with.

Its a 4-page narrative on the theme of Exclusion, and i really decided to go ahead with it after my friend suggested using her past experiences as a story, I thought it would be quite touching.

That's all I have to say really. It was a quick decision compared to everyone else.

Book of Drawing Development

Read the Book HERE

For my Book of drawings I decided to go with a style very much influenced by NoBrow books. This is very style based and quirky, compared to other influences, as they focus primarily on the technical design of comics. However, I also feel that unless illustrations have been specifically intended to be serious, they should hold an attempt of comedic value – I have tried to exhibit this in my work.

As all of the comic plots were based on real jokes, stories and experiences from Jamie and myself, very little story development was necessary. Therefore, I started immediately with a rough sketch in order to organise my ideas. After deciding the stories and drafting the layout I began looking into many different styles of comics and comic illustrators. After the initial digital fine-lining I decided that I wanted to do a monochromatic book. Unfortunately I soon realised something was wrong; everything appeared far too neat, clean, not in my own style. In order to make the comics more ‘mine’ I wanted to simulate a real pen or fine –liner.

After some research I found a good free-use Photoshop brush intended for lining. Above is a comparison of the regular Photoshop brush (Left) and the lining brush that I used (Right)

After re-lining my comic the original design of having every one comic per page seemed far too cramped. In order to fix this I converted them to five page comics.
 Here are some finished photos of my book after binding. I printed on high grain card so that speckles would come through and it would look a little more authentic. To bind the book I used a perfect bind technique. Here I used A4 card folded over for each double page spread, before gathering all five folded A4 sheets to create what's known as a signature. Then pressing the pages together in a vice I used Elmer's glue multiple times up the spine in order to create a strong bond. Finally I spray mounted the front and back blank pages to the cover.

Colours seem faded probably because I'm posting from PC and not the mac I printed on.

Here are some finished photos of my book after binding, i printed on high grain card, so that speckles would come through, and it would look a little more authentic, I bound the book using a perfect bind technique, in which, I used A4 card folded over for each double page spread, and then gathered all five folded A4 sheets and created what's known as a signature (group of pages) I then pressed the pages together in a vice and used Elmer's glue up the spine multiple times to create a strong bond, after that I spray mounted the front and back blank pages to the cover.

Jay Fleck

"The work of illustrator Jay Fleck is bold, beautiful and bursting with imaginings of faraway lands and fantasy playgrounds. His graphics are universal and full of heart" i adore this work, Jay Fleck is easily one of my favourite illustrators, his works just seem so meaningful but still full of creativity and beautiful design, all of his works look like they've been printed r hand rendered, which gives a really nice quirky style to them

I bought this T-Shirt

Luke Dixon

"I draw...alot, & chase animals in my slippers."

Luke Dixon is an illustrator that i am really impressed by, i love works that use extreme amounts of lines, i think that it looks so interesting, i have experimented with this in some of my reportage sketchbooks, but i think his main skill is giving animals personality, a lot of artists that i have looked at that draw animals, seem to struggle with giving the animals personality and making them look alive

Hector Mansilla

Hector Mansilla is a mexican freelance illustrator, there isn't much information i can give, his work seems very free and unconstrained, each piece seems to have a flow to it, which i really like, each of his works looks like woodblock prints, in the design and the textures

Carmen Segovia

Carmen is an illustrator, who was born and works in Barcelona, Spain. I think the strength that carmen plays to, is her use of the paper colour, the page is never fully coloured, and the colour is generally a big part of it, she seems to use one colour pallet for all of her works, as they all look similar in the colour schemes

Bianca Bagnarelli

Bianca Bagnarelli is an italian illustrator i found in NoBrow #8, she founded delebile, which is a small business, that publishes small foreign comics, i really love how she draws people, they have real character behind them, and definitely feel like they are based off of real people. there are no bright colours in her work, which gives a very washed out bleak feel, which i think suits the context of her pictures

William Grill

"William has recently graduated from Illustration BA (Hons) at University College Falmouth. 

His main interest lies in narrative illustration and publishing. He draws most of his inspiration from the natural world, and enjoys working in coloured pencils and relief printmaking."

William Grill is an illustrator that i recently found published in NoBrow #8 when looking at his website i found these works, which i've classed as characters and reportage, i really love how he's managed to capture the people, but still in his own style.

Sarah Lucia

"I explore cognition, perception, memory and reality in my artwork. Through manipulating the image in painting and printmaking, I re-create falsified moments in time which naturally occur in our own glitches of cognition. The fabric of our perceptual reality collects and distorts itself in our mind, allowing us to fill in the blanks on missing or deteriorated moments"

Sarah Lucia is a non professional illustrator, but i really love her work, it really has character and feeling in each image, she also has seemed to explore the same themes that we have in illustration, such as anaimals, characters, and reportage.

Matthew Daniel Swan

Matthew Daniel Swan is an artist living and working in the south of London, what i love about his work is the sketchyness and quickness, its as though he quickly scribbled a design, and then went digital with it without any neatening up, this is what i also like to do, so i really see myself in his work. Colour is another thing in his work that i like, the use of light faded tones.