Until I'm Done With A Few Projects, Have Some More Thank You Letters! I Seemed To Have So Much More Success

Until I'm done with a few projects, have some more thank you letters! I seemed to have so much more success getting them sent on time when I drew pictures on them that I decided to keep doing that.

They did turn out thematically more boring than the birthday ones though, on account of my spending all the money I got on the same thing. Oh well, it was expensive!

Happy New Year, peeps! I thought I'd make a post with what I think is my best work of  this last year. In chronological order, these are:

The Mysterious Land of Under-Noodle, from the Inspired Eat Me! anthology

The Mystery of the Night Boy, a Patience mini-comic

The Hyaku Monogatari feature from the Hallowe'en issue of What's the Time, Mrs Woolf?

This Is Not A Serious Music Publication, a collaborative music zine I made with Sammy, which is probably my absolute favourite thing I did this year.

Two postcards from my Autumn 2012 set.

I think what I learned this year is a) I do some of my best work under extreme time pressure, and b) I also do my best work when I'm really excited about it. (Both apply to the music zine.) Possibly also c) due to being willfully contrary, bad reviews only make me draw MORE COMICS.

Unfortunately I also learned that it's very easy for me to get caught up working on small press comics and zines because they're a lot of fun to make, neglecting the work which would get me closer to illustrating actual books. Hence my plan for next year is to manage my time better and prioritise book-related work, even if it means making fewer comics. This was a really difficult conclusion to accept because I really love making comics with my friends, but I only have so much time in the week after going to my day job, and I just can't do comics (in the quantities I've been doing this year) AND do the work I need to break into book illustration. Not until someone starts paying me to draw things anyway.

So... I hope 2013 brings me people who pay me to draw things? 

AW YEAH NEW YEAR!

These are the other five postcards I made for Thought Bubble, in my 'dolly' style. These are all my own characters as well, but they're not all as well developed. I was still aiming for a limited colour palette with these, and I think I was fairly successful. I definitely like my own work more with fewer and duller colours.

There's Coda, a young princess who suffers from an arranged marriage and is moved from her home in the mountains to her husband's kingdom, which is largely forested. Then there's those two creepy edwardian children from the Danse Macabre postcard, perhaps this is where they found their skeleton friend. Then Lena, sister of Lucas and possessor of the gift of prophesy, following a ghost lantern. A little witch in a field of eyes. Lastly, young Nettle and Spider, enjoying a psychic tea party (the best kind). Possibly Spider will read their tea leaves when Nettle puts the cups down.

In other news, I'm incredibly tired and I don't know why. The weather? Not wanting to go to work? My house being really cold? Tis a mystery.

I still haven't got round to scanning my Sketchavember pics, so until then here are some observational sketches.

While my little sister was visiting here in Bath we went to the Fashion Museum. They had a timeline of dresses from 1800 to 1900 (loosely) showing the changing silhouette and the fashions for different fabrics. The ones from the early 1800s looked like the comfiest thing, but the late Victorian dresses were so stylish. There was also a special display of black evening-wear, but it wasn't very clearly labelled so I'm not sure how old one of the dresses was. I guessed 1960s, but in hindsight I think it was 1930s.

If you're wondering why the timelines go backwards... that's because I'm left-handed, so I start on the right-most edge of each page. Not ideal for chronological order.

This is what I've been working on for the last few weeks, I'm so excited it's finally ready! We'll have this at the Birmingham Zine Festival tomorrow along with a new issue of What's the Time Mrs Woolf?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/111949011/this-is-not-a-serious-music-publication

A music zine by Sammy Borras and Sarah Fogg

Articles, illustrations and comics featuring Blur, The Kinks, Everything Everything, Peace, Gorillaz, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Helen Arney, Bellatrix, Gil Scott-Heron, Ghostpoet, DANGER DOOM, The Subways, The Clash, Elastica, Phillipa Hannah, The Unthanks and Young Knives “About I know it seems silly to be printing a music zine at a time when music blogs are becoming a popular alternative. You can listen to the music at the same time as reading the articles and news updates are instant. I considered making my own because I have so many things I’d love to say about the music but I would never have the time to keep up with the pace of other music blogs. Sarah and I had been joking that we could fill a Blur fanzine without even making any new content. After a while I’ve not been able to resist the idea any longer and making it with a friend made it a lot more enjoyable and gave the project a better purpose. Because we both love illustrating and creating comics the end result has turned into a collection of music themed comics, gig sketches and a couple of small illustrated music articles. I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as we enjoyed making it!” A5 32 Interior Pages Black and White

The zine will also be available at these events -

Birmingham Zine Festival - 13th October 2012

London MCM Expo - 26th - 28th October 2012

Thought Bubble - 17th - 18th November 2012