Welcome!
You hold in your hands (or read through the magic of binary) the very first edition of Ziiine! In a moment of spirited adventurousness, we thought it would be a great idea to collect our differing works in one place, to have another outlet through which we could share our work with each other and with anyone else who was interested. That... and we thought it would be a bit of fun. So that’s what this is; a whirlwind but earnest glimpse into what we’re currently working on, our creative process as it is at the moment, and things that have bubbled up through our experiences. The beauty of creativity is that it changes and develops, grows and evolves from one moment to the next, so it is our hope this zine will become, over time, a snapshot-by-snapshot document of what we do, how we do it, our interests and our discoveries. Oh, and that it’ll always be fun. So, go ahead, flick through the pages, and feel inspired. We were.
Lauren & Adam
Contributors Front Cover – Adam Oliver & Lauren Morse Editor, Layout & Design – Lauren Morse
For future entries, email Lauren or Adam: lauren_morse@hotmail.com adam@adamoliver.com
Grace Bird 5 http://acebird1988.blogspot.com Marta Cutileiro 6 http://aarvoredotenere.blogspot.com Diana David 10 http://dianadavid.webuda.com Lauren Morse 14 www.laurenmorse.co.uk Adam Oliver 18 www.adamoliver.com
GRACE I have always been fascinated by the movement of smoke, to watch the shapes and images form as it moves through the air. This image is my first experimenting with smokey structure; it’s turned out pretty good. I want to do more!
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1 MARTA I drew a series of dead birds when there was that oil spill in Gulf of Mexico last year. I was inspired by the images of birds covered in oil and I wanted to make a tribute to them (1 & 9).
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I also drew the bird with the red background (8) more or less at the same time I drew the others, but since that bird is alive, that’s more of a hope bird. The other birds (3 &7) are connected to the oil spill too but I drew them simply because I like birds.
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1 DIANA Monster Eye (1) I made this illustration at a time when I had told myself that I would follow a theme, a concept. In this case the theme was “monsters.” I had to create monsters. But I do not want to do anything like what had already been done, so I thought, “What gets me more scared?” And the first things that popped into my mind were “Eyes”; yes!
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Many eyes! For me the scariest part of a creature are the eyes (and then the teeth), because it is with their eyes that they can see us, observe us and follow us. And to do that they don’t even need to move! They can be hidden in a dark corner of our house, just looking at us, waiting ‘til the right time to terrorize. This is the way I think about monsters.
I did not want to put this monster in a place; I wanted the monster to be imagined anywhere – everyone has the right to imagine where you want your monsters. I decided to focus only in his face and show the monster’s behaviour: his sparkling eyes and his viscous tongue constantly making the eyes wet to keep them shiny.
2 City in a Tree (2) This time the “city� was the concept. I wanted to create a city in the woods for the little human creatures that live there. And at the same time I wanted to challenge myself in doing a big paint in Photoshop, so the original picture is 50 x 70 cm (5906 x 8268 pixels). It has a lot of details like sprockets, wires, etc. I also wanted to mix the rustic with the contemporaneous, so on the one hand we have rustic houses and a big forest. On the other hand we have the gears embedded in tree trunks and all the wires and the cable car that passes over the city.
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Love Monster (3) This one has the same theme as Monster Eye – monsters. This time I got inspiration from an artist that I like, Johnny Doodle, and I decided to create an ironic illustration: at the top of the illustration there is a boat with two lovers inside who are going into the tunnel of love, as the heart signal shows. However this signal is not a normal sign, it is the antenna that the monster uses to attract its prey. If we observe under the water level of the sea we can see that the “tunnel of love� is a great monster, waiting for the right moment to have his meal.
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Blue Mom (4) Whenever I start a new illustration I try to challenge my abilities, so this time I wanted to challenge my abilities in colouring. The design of the character had already been done for a couple of years, during one boring lesson that I had at university. This character, according to some friends, is a self-caricature, and it could be (although it wasn’t my intention) that I probably pulled the same face when I felt bored in that lesson. At that time I just drew what I was feeling. Maybe this character is like me or maybe not, it depends on how each person sees me. So, one day when I was cleaning my bedroom, I found these old notes with this design and I decided to retrieve it and draw it in Photoshop. Although drawing characters is not a problem for me, painting is more challenging because it is something that I never really explored very well. Before I started painting I saw several references, like photographs of landscapes, people shots, illustrations by other artists. Then I decided to paint the character against the light, as when someone takes a shot against the sky. I know I still have much to learn, but I’m quite happy with the final result.
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LAUREN I’ve admired how some illustrators can work with only a limited palette of colours, and have always loved screen prints. So, feeling inspired and rather adventurous, I set myself the challenge of working with only 4 colours, plus the colour of the paper (represented by white). Initially, I thought I’d test the water and see how I got on. I started off with a character of my own imagination, who I already knew quite well – Peaches – but as I was enjoying it so much, I soon realised I needed to make something for the other two characters – one for Rocky, Peaches’ boyfriend, and something for Jeff, Rocky’s best friend. 14
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After Peaches in Love (1) was finished, I had a colour scheme and theme in mind already for Rocky’s picture – Dr. Rocky’s Frankenbot (2), like an old-skool movie poster. This was by far a much more complicated piece than Peaches had been, and required a lot more thought and problem solving as I was still getting used to my limited palette. But the colours fell into place; I felt like I was getting the hang of it. Jeff & His Birds (3) was yet another step 16
further into the realm of brain-ache as I wrestled with his colour scheme. I knew I wanted a green feel for it, with a pop of something red or orange, but it took a while before I got a scheme I was happy with. At each stage I was faced with a new problem: ‘how am I going to convey this is a tree branch with only these colours?’ and ‘how can I give the birds detail without over-doing it?’ Simplicity and readability are sometimes two of the hardest things to achieve.
But, I got there! My little adventure into the world of limited palettes was (in my eyes at least) a success! I truly enjoy using only a few colours – it’s satisfying – and finding that colour scheme to set up that colour that just explodes is great fun. I’ve never really been one to use only demure and harmonious, analogous colours; that one colour that pops up and says ‘hey there!’ and beams at you is exciting and makes me happy :D
Finishing university, you’re suddenly thrust into what everybody enjoys calling ‘the real world’. It’s taken some getting used to, and I’ve experienced some sharp learning curves as I’ve adjusted to life outside of academia. These are just a few of those things.
Be shrewd about what ‘work experience’ you take on I took some work experience on (unpaid) that I thought would be great experience, when in fact, once I really thought about it, I could have been doing exactly the same thing but on my own, unfinished film. I quickly realised that, even though my own film was also unpaid, I’d actually gain more from working on it, doing exactly the same tasks, because I’d be completing it for me, not for someone else. I’ve come to learn that filling time with un-enriching activities that have little or no personal or monetary benefit can become very detrimental to creativity, especially when there’s the opportunity to say ‘no’ to it – you spend all your energies on an all-consuming task, with none left for yourself and your own creative ventures. Not a happy place to be. It’s important to have balance! Make the most of ‘now’ – you might not be in that place again What I really wanted to do after university was work on my own projects, do whatever creative stuff I wanted, but I also felt the importance of having a job in an animation studio. After a lot of very long and hard thinking, I decided to take the leap and do my own thing. It was the right choice. It’s the only time in my life I may ever be able to afford it, both in terms of time and money, and it’s been awesome just doing whatever I want; total creative freedom. YAY! I do have a tendency to worry about the ‘next thing’, which often ruins whatever I’m currently doing, but right now, I’m trying my best to be in the ‘now’ and to make the most of it. The more I can get out of the ‘now’ now, the better it’ll set me up for the ‘next thing’.
It’s OK to take a break... Your mind and body, and your creativity need time to rejuvenate, so let them. After working so hard and intensely at university, I didn’t want to do anything creative for a while. At first I thought this was awful! A student of a creative course not wanting to do the very thing she’s been doing the past three years?? I just didn’t want to. But that was cool; I took a break for a while, and came back to it, ready. Like spaghetti. … And to take a moment to let it sink in
Do not injure yourself for free (or even if you’re being paid, unless you really, really, really love what you’re doing) It’s never really worth it. Injured on a project that you hate, (potentially) crippled for the next project you love. Another learnt from the afore-mentioned work experience. While for the first few days sitting at the computer clicking was dull but relatively painless, by the end of the month, I was in near-agony. It quickly became apparent that doing this for free was a massive FAIL; I could have been working on my own film, with more pay-off, no deadline, and more of an opportunity to still have a life. It made me question whether I’d want to finish my own film, let alone whether I’d be physically able to do it. In the end, I manned up and thought positively, and made sure there was a decent break between the work experience and starting on my film. Even in the not-so-great experiences, there’s still an opportunity to take something useful away from them, even if it’s simply a deep desire never to do work like that again, or to be more discerning next time. Being open to learning from it means it’s not a total waste.
I had a mini meeting with myself after I finished university, to sum the three years up, and to see what I wanted to do next and where I wanted to go. It is excellent if you can learn what you like and want, and equally what you don’t like and don’t want. There are no ‘right’ answers any more It’s about your view, your perception of life, your route through it. Of course, there will be times where you make decisions that aren’t as great as perhaps they could have been, but it becomes a part of your life. My mum told me recently that ‘your only real job in life is to be you. Be all that you are meant to be, be the “you” that God created you to be.’ It’s not about being or doing what you think others are being or doing, or even seemingly want from you; it’s about you being you, and learning what it is and means to be you. As Journey said, any way you want it, that’s the way you need it.
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ADAM This time last year (if you’re reading this at the end of 2011) I was somewhere in the U.S, starting a backpacking trip that lasted nearly 10 months. When I set off I felt like my mind was fogged with what I really enjoyed doing and even if I still actually wanted to follow the path I was currently on, creatively speaking. I said I wouldn’t bother drawing or painting unless I wanted to and due to luggage restrictions, I took one small sketchbook and a few materials. But being out of my comfort zone and seeing many new things, not to mention living a life
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without the presence of the internet for the majority of the time, I found an itch to make pictures the old fashioned way. I began to love drawing again for the reasons I loved it when I was 8 years old. The escapism and comfort from the practice
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became a habit, one which I’m trying to keep up now that it seems as though it never happened. I’m so glad I did push through those awkward first pages of drawing to build my confidence again, as a photo does not have the richness of a sketch, where even as I look at it now, all the sounds and senses come back to me like I’m there. That’s what keeps me drawing and why I love it more than I ever thought I knew I did. I just needed to live a while without my familiar possessions to see what I really valued.
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Don’t get me wrong, I do still love a camera! I’ve put a few in here for balance of memories, as they often leave less to the
imagination than a sketch, but are good to take an unfamiliar viewer back to that place that only you may have known.
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When I arrived back in the UK everything was like a dream. I was floating around my past and I felt like I didn’t really belong anywhere. I’m back in my hometown of Nottingham now working freelance, giving me the opportunity to see all those old places I haven’t seen since I was at school. The photo of the gate (6) used to be where I played tennis when I was 14, but it’s now in a state of disrepair. It’s strange how, although most things are the same, much of my childhood town seems so different and lost forever.
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It makes me reflective (as you may have noticed!) but gives me more depth and perspective when valuing new things that come up in my life. I’m currently pushing myself to follow creative paths I wouldn’t normally go down, mainly due to a comfort issue. I know what I’d like to do and am having fun developing my work, although there are definitely more areas outside of the commercial things I make that I have to try over the next year. I’ll still keep sketchbooks, I’ll continue taking photos. We’ll see where it goes.
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All works within this publication are the property of their respective owners. Want to use some of our work? Get in touch for permission :)
A Ziiine Publication 2011