The Age-Old Problem

Illustrators often talk about how to keep the freshness of rough drawings in their final artwork. I must confess that I didn’t really relate to this when I made my first book because it was all screen printed, and I felt like the illustrations really came to life when they were turned into screen prints (which I assemble digitally).

But it’s something that is now REALLY bothering me. For ages I’ve wanted to do a book in the style of my sketches. I try to draw from life every day (in reality I probably manage it about four times a week, and half of those are rubbish). I’ve been working on some stuff for a publisher which I can’t show you, but I have also been working on these things for myself which I can. I feel like the original sketch has a dynamism that can’t be reproduced, and I quite like the digital screen print (it’s actually all hand drawn and then assembled in photoshop), but I don’t like it as much as the original. But the original isn’t an illustration, is it?

What would YOU do? I’m really keen to know!

Things I’m enjoying right now:

Jam Today Press are playing game and you can join in - they suggest place names and you draw the characters you think fit those names.

Party, a sitcom by Tom Basden, it’s not new but I just introduced my daughter to it and it still makes me laugh a LOT. About some cretins setting up a political party. With Tim Key and Katie Wicks.

I uploaded the songs from my favourite mixtape made for me by my cousin Maisie, I’d like to do this with all my old mixtapes, I feel like I’ve lost touch with my music.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureshi (the book, not the TV series) - it’s funny, visceral, mad yet utterly plausible, exquisitely written, a lesson in how to do character.