More Paper Shredding...

(The next installment of storyboards...)

Generations later, on another dark and misty night, across the land echoes the haunting sounds of a wailing baby - or is it? Lets follow those echoes to the maternity ward of the Slice Splice and Dice Hospital where something out of the ordinary has just been born...

(*LOGO: Meat cleaver and samurai sword in a cross shape hover over a pair of cupped hands holding the Dice of Fate ('Dice of Fate' written in a scroll above them). Skull speared on top. MOTTO: 'Will this visit be your last?' All the doctors are skeletons, pirates and ghosts in white coats.)

Doctor Clive McDougal, Captain of the Hack Trap Belle:

Don't you worry Mrsh Crumble, you're in good handsh! Tell me aboot your diet if you pleash...Och, jusht wait a wee shecond there

Dr Clive McDougal: Ahh, thah's behtter, been troubling me for weeks! Now, have you consumed anything oot o' the ordinary during your pregnancy?

Mrs Crumble: Out of the ordinary you say? Why... no, not at all, only our traditional meal of shredded paper each night... It's been in the family for generations!

Mrs Crumble:...ever since Great Great Grandfather Crumble invented it accidentally in a serendipitous stroke-of-genius cookery/craft book mix-up!

Dr Clive McDougal: Ehhh. You do realise thah paper is completely devoid o' the slightest nuance o' nutrition?


Mrs Crumble: You cannot question tradition, Doctor McDougal! Traditions must be revered and respected-

Dr Clive McDougal:I am sorry to inform you that this is nae o' of them!

Dr Clive McDougal: It appears your son has...
...evolved.
Dr Clive McDougal: I hypothesise that your traditional dish o' Papier Mache a la Mode has altered the very genetics o' your child,


really rather...
radically!
Dr Clive McDougal: This child is a hopeless case!
Dr Clive McDougal: All the boy will be good for is doing away with your unwanted confidential papers.

On this note, the Doctor presents Mrs Crumble with her product - a whirring, mechanical beast of a thing!

Dr Clive McDougal: Your child, Mrs Crumble. What are you intending to call him?

Mrs Crumble: Well, we were thinking a nice respectable name like...Edwin Horatio Issac the Third. [pause]

Mrs Crumble: Ahh... but that doesn't seem appropriate now, does it dear...?

Mr Crumble: No, absolutely not, no, no. I think we have to allow the technology to guide us here, so it seems to me, we only have one option. The Paper Shredder Person it is!

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"

- Abraham Lincoln

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

I spoke to the external examiner recently and he encouraged me to continue to experiment with my work and not stop playing. "You're only just starting". I have finished uni having rediscovered my love of drawing, which is a joyful thing. Today is graduation day and soon I will be leaving Falmouth. Its such a strange time.

This is an illustration of Einstein which I'm showing at New Designers next month.

The universe is made of stories, not atoms.

The Paper Shredder Person

The Paper Shredder Person was a graphic novel idea which me and Pip Chorley had in our first year of BA Illustration at University College Falmouth. In our second year we sat down in the studio and wrote a 30 page script together and storyboarded it all. These are some of our storyboards. Our intention now is to develop the book further and hopefully find a way of getting it published.

This is a storyboard sequence at the start of the book, set generations earlier, with grandpa crumble attempting to cook spaghetti bolognese and making a mistake which would set in motion a chain of events which would eventually lead to the birth of the paper shredder person.

Porcupine

It could have been a brilliant career...

At the moment, I'm preparing some pieces for New Designers, some of which can be seen here.

You can also find some of my work at Foliomatch.

I'm also working on 3 images for an exhibition called [4inch] at Babahogs art cafe here in Falmouth (the idea behind it being that all the artworks are to be 4x4 size).

And I'm working on an advert for Security Hardware Ltd.


I've also been swimming in the sea and lying on the beach and playing badminton in the park...I've finished uni and the sunshine is blissful! There are butterflies everywhere and ducklings and cygnets splashing and gliding about. And I saw a blue spotted starfish and a heron. And shoals of tiny fish in the sea. And a grey cat followed me down the street.

Ofwah

The nice people at the vegetarian society are kindly featuring the posters I made for national vegetarian week on their website.

At the moment I am preparing for my end of year show, mounting work and printing business cards.
Its really exciting to be finishing and I feel very ready to start finding work as an illustrator.

I've watched some really inspiring films recently, including an animé called Tekkonkinkreet which is based on a really beautiful comic book called Black and White. It was one of the most beautiful animations I've ever seen, with detail and characterisation outstripping even Sylvain Chomet's films (Belleville Rendezvous, The Old Lady and the Pigeons). The simplicity of the drawing is something that really appeals to me.

I ♥ N Y

I am back from New York!
(with a cold).

There is quite a contrast in airport security between England and the US. Here they tease Pippa for her odd socks when she has to take off her boots at the detector. Over there, you get your fingerprints scanned.

While in New York, I fed squirrels in Central Park with Tonje (one attempted to bite her...he seemed to like biting his friends though), walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, went to the top of the Empire State Building, went to Staten Island (...by mistake), Coney Island (...again, by mistake) had a really wonderful time.

I also met Charles Hively (publisher of the very good 3x3 magazine) and David Goldman (an agent).

I was quite lucky with Hively to get a very balanced review of my portfolio - he was very clear about the pieces he didn't like, ("I don't even know why this is in here") but he was also surprisingly positive about all of my most recent work, and said my illustration of Barack Obama "feels like Obama". He said in Germany, illustrators have a wider variety of styles in their portfolios, but in New York and England, art directors only like to see one style. (Which got me thinking about working in Germany...).



David Goldman is probably what everyone dreams their agent will be like, he was so funny and easy going and full of wisdom. Everyone came out of the meeting with him seeming really positive. He picked out one piece from my portfolio which was very different from the rest "where did this come from?" and suggested I take that direction. Fig Taylor said of the same piece that I could either develop that style or cut it out completely, so now I'm thinking it would be wise to work at it and divide my portfolio into two styles.