"I Phantom" Exhibition

For my degree show I decided to exhibit my "I Phantom" work.

I blew up 3 of the images to over 20x their comic book size and mounted them on to 2 boards. I wanted to show them this big in order to give the viewer the feeling of being able to step into the comic book, and also having them at this size showed the intricacies of the drawings, some of which was lost in their shrinking.

Below are photos of the exhibition and the finished book.

"I Phantom" Comic Book

This was my final degree project, which culminated in a 28 page comic book based on and inspired by Mr Lif's concept album "I Phantom".

I chose to illustrate this particular album because I felt that it gave me the opportunity to explore different themes, and because it has a continuing storyline throughout which made it more suitable for being put into comic book form.

The album tells of a man who goes through struggles in order to make a good life for himself, but in focusing on the monetary factors of raising a family, neglects his wife and child's emotional needs, and so ends up alone at the end of the world.

I drew all of the images in the book by hand, and then digitally manipulated them to give them a more polished appearance. I used just 2 colours to highlight the images, depending on the mood of each song. Red signified anger, danger and nightmare/dream sequences; Blue symbolised calm, monotony and despair.

These are 3 pages from the finished comic book -

"Too Heavy for Cherubs"

I decided that I wanted to have a go at illustrating a song because music is such an important part of my life.

I chose to use Cage's "Too Heavy for Cherubs" because I like the song, but also because I felt that it lent itself particularly well to being illustrated.

As this was only a 2 week project I knew I didn't have time to fully portray the whole song, and so picked out just one section that I could envisage strong images for.

I made a conscious decision to not show any faces in the images. I thought that leaving the abusive father figure faceless added to the fear of the unknown. By leaving the protagonist a mystery, whilst having all the scenes shown from his perspective, it would make him seem more accessible and provoke empathy from the viewer.

I used black pen and ink and markers, and set the pictures out in a comic book style in order to make sure the narrative was shown in order.

Illustrated Alphabet

This brief was quite open, calling for me to create an alphabet based on any theme or subject I desired. I chose to create a usable font, corresponding to the English alphabet, with imagery as its basis, on the theme of Hip Hop.

I decided to focus on Graffiti, being the "visual embodiment of Hip Hop". I did not want to go down the obvious route of designing graffitied letters, and so instead opted for dismantling the physical components of a spray can, and re-positioning and layering images of these components to create a legible typeface.

The font is intended to be symbolic of the roots of hip-hop, based around the four elements, and designed specifically for use on posters promoting certain aspects of the elements.

A Journey

For this project I had to create a narrative without the use of text or figures.

I decided to focus on the relationship between childhood memories and my current perceptions.

I went to Islington in London (a place where I spent every weekend for about 3 years of my youth), to see how much the area had changed. I made a book with linked images that could be unfolded to create one long journey, combining the idealised impressions of my boyhood, with the reality I witnessed more recently.

To contrast with the harsh pen and ink outlines, I used bright watercolours to create a dreamy, child-like atmosphere to the images.

Below are the first few pages of the finished book.

Brand Identification

The below image is one of a series that I completed during my Graphic Communications course. The brief was to create a set of images that advertised a certain (real or imagined) clothing brand.

I chose to create images for marketing posters, for an imagined streetwear label. I wanted my images to be bold, bright and eye-catching, to appeal to as many prospective customers as possible, but without compromising the integrity and ethos of the company.

I combined hand drawn images of figures in the garments with parts of photographs I took of skyscrapers, other modern city buildings and cranes.

Each image I produced used just one bright colour, to highlight certain aspects of the picture. The colour was also used to tie in the drawn parts to the photographs and give a sense of the link between the garments and the urban environment.

Fineliner Faces

I enjoy sketching portraits. Generally I have used friends/family as inspiration, but have also drawn some from imagination.

My preferred medium is fineliner with colour markers. Sometimes I will scan in the original sketches in order to manipulate the colours and play with various filters.

Below is a small sample of my collection, which dates back to 2008.

Monoxide Child

I wanted to experiment with etching as it is a form of printing I am fairly unfamiliar with.

I found an interesting photograph of Monoxide Child from the Rap duo Twiztid, which I chose to base my etching on because I liked the angle at which it was taken and thought that it was a strong, bold picture for me to attempt.

Out of the several prints that I came out with, below is my favourite. I liked the way the purple around the eyes turned out because I feel it adds to his bizarre, surreal persona.