Drawing Buddies - January Challenge

Above: Roof Rat by George Rex based on Jake Holmes’s Roof Rat.

Above left: Roof Rat by Jake Holmes. Based on the Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Above right: The Highway Rat by Axel Scheffler.

This year my screenprinter & illustrator pal Jake Holmes (jaketoothandnail on instagram) and I have decided to be drawing buddies. Each month we will take turns to decide on a drawing challenge that we will both undertake over the course of the month. Jake already has his own goal of drawing for at least 30 minutes every day, which he’s been doing for the past couple of years, and I’m trying to do that too this year (that’s 30 minutes of ‘free’ drawing, on top of my Oh Brother work!). The monthly drawing challenges we come up with are more to help us have a guideline of something to draw, if we’re ever stuck for ideas. I’m hoping to use these drawing prompts to challenge my skills, particularly in areas that I’m weakest (perspective, adding backgrounds, light and shadow, pushing poses to be even more animated).

Above left: Jaunty Space Man by George Rex based on Jake Holmes’s illustration “Homecoming”.

Above right: Jake Holmes’s original illustration “Homecoming”.

The January challenge was set by Jake. It was simple: we scroll through each other’s instagram account, pick some characters that the other had already drawn & posted, and then redraw the characters in our own style. My aim was to do one a week throughout January. I tried to pick a range of different characters and then push their poses and add backgrounds (if they didn’t have them already).

Above left: Tina Papanikolas by George Rex, watercolour illustration.

Above right: Tina Papanikolas by Jake Holmes, based on watercolour illustration by George Rex.

Jake ended up drawing a version of one my favourite characters I’ve created in the past few years, Tina Papanikolas, who (along with her new best friend Tori) solves mysteries and crimes happening in their neighbourhood. I love Jake’s version of Tina, particularly how he captures her cool mesh skirt (I get to live out all my fashion dreams through Tina). My version of Tina that Jake based his off is one of the few watercolour illustrations I did last year, when I was trying to get a handle on different mediums.

I really like how Jake uses light and shade to bring his characters to life, and redrawing his characters this month has really pushed me to think about how I use light (or don’t) in my illustration and comics.

Above left: The Gang by George Rex based on Jake Holmes’s cool teens illustration.

Above right: Jake Holmes’s original illustration of three cool teens.

These Jake characters were the most like ones I would normally draw and I had a lot of fun trying to show their personalities through their poses. When I showed Jake my version, he said that he’d been inspired by how I draw characters when creating the original drawings. I thought that was pretty neat.

I had a ton of fun redrawing Jake’s characters and it was a great way to get into the habit of drawing every day, because I knew when I sat down to draw that I didn’t have to think about what to draw, I just had to have a quick scroll through Jake’s instagram and get inspired. So far this year I’ve managed to draw every day for at least half an hour and it feels really good!

Above left: Cheese Wizard by George Rex based on Jake Holmes’s Cheese Wizard illustration.

Above right: Cheese Wizard by Jake Holmes. Jake originally drew this character based on a prompt by me!

It’s been really interesting drawing so much that I notice little habits of mine, like how I generally love my pencil sketch but then hate the inked version (and the flat colours even more). But when I start adding in shading (and highlights) or textures, it all starts coming together. When it’s just inks and flats, it looks okay but it’s kinda like looking at a haircut halfway through, it’s almost there but it hasn’t got that pizzazz of a final drawing.

It’s my choice for our February drawing challenge but I haven’t decided what it will be yet. But I’m looking forward to it and seeing what we both come up with (it’s always more fun to do a drawing challenge with a buddy, it definitely helps to keep me more motivated).

Map-Making

A illustrated map of Swamp-Ridge-on-Sea. A fictional island where supernatural creatures live.

One of my very first loves was map-making: as a kid, maps were one of my favourite things to draw. I would make maps of treasure islands, maps of our neighbourhood and maps of my bedroom (usually during my annual rearranging-fest when I was trying to figure out where I wanted my stuff to be for MAXIMUM BEDROOM PERFECTION. As an adult I still do this but for my studio. The never-ending goal of finding just the right place for everything is a curse I am willing to bear.

Illustrated diagram of the same bedroom with 3 room variations, titled “Various permutations of my room”.

Recently I’ve been getting into the animated series Craig of the Creek (which is absolutely delightful and fast becoming a firm favourite with me - thanks Mitch for the recommendation!). The titular character, Craig, is a self-proclaimed map-boy whose goal (while adventuring with pals) is to map the Creek where all their adventures happen. Watching it has reminded me of my absolute love of maps and prompted me to share some of the maps I’ve made, including this Story Maze Map.

Forest Story Maze Map. The map is of a forest with a yellow sandy path. The words START HERE and a bonfire are in the middle of the forest. Throughout the forest are scattered different monsters.

This one was originally designed for an issue of Pigeon Post (a quarterly publication by 100 Story Building, a centre for young writers). You start in the middle of the forest and choose a path to follow. Throughout the forest are scattered different monsters, events or items and when you come across one of these you need to incorporate them into the story you’re telling.

E.g. It was a bright sunny day and we were in the middle of a lush green forest. The trees were so tall and the canopy was so thick that you could barely see the sky. We couldn’t at all remember how we got here.
“We have to get home!” Sophie said. “It’s almost tea-time! I can’t miss dessert. Not again.”
We all agreed: missing dessert was not acceptable.
“I have a good feeling about the path to the left,” I said.
“I think right is the right way,” said Tom.
“Split the difference?” asked Carsen.
It was settled; we would go down the middle path. A short way into our journey there was a sharp turn which opened into a small clearing where we saw a large black cauldron bubbling over with something sticky, pink and incredibly smelly.

I’d love to do more of these Story Maze Maps. Or just more maps in general. Is it really a story if it doesn’t have a map?

A small section of my collection of maze & map making books.

I’ve shared my love of map-making with a variety of my students over the years. Recently I ran my map-making workshop with my Inky Fingers kids and they took to the challenge of making maps like a duck takes to eating popcorn. Here are some of the maps they created. They had to include:

  • A compass

  • A key (with 3 different items, e.g road, forest, lake)

  • A cartouche (a fancy illustrated title for the map, so people know what it is a map of and who drew it)

  • At least 3 special landmarks (e.g. home, a mysterious mountain, the best fish & chip shop).

I’ve been wanting to put together a short map-drawing activity book for a while (maybe once the final art is all done for Oh Brother and I have a bit more free time). But I have created a little guided resource for the workshops I currently run and I’ve just popped a free downloadable PDF version up on my online store. So if you’re looking for a fun summer holiday activity, head here to download it for free.

Two black and white worksheets on a green checked cutting board with two rulers and a lead pencil.

I love poring over maps of all types, they help me make sense of a world and give me a feeling of comfort and order. But also there is so much storytelling you can do with maps! If you have a go at making your own map, I’d love to see what you come up with.

A short comic where a friendly postal bat give a map to two lost witches.

Poppy & Gina's post-it note challenge

When I’m not reading comics, talking about comics with my friends or making my own comics, I teach comics. I predominantly run one-off workshops in schools and libraries, mostly to excellent children and young people. But I also have a few students that I teach privately, one-to-one. One of these students is the lovely Poppy.

I’ve worked with Poppy for a little while now - in lessons we generally talk about drawing techniques, try out different art mediums or materials, and chip away at putting together original comics (Poppy will be selling her very first comic at the upcoming Zina Warrior Print Fest). One of the drawing activities we did recently was a daily character challenge. During one lesson, Poppy and I came up with a list of 30 characters (e.g. a fortune-telling mermaid or a goth unicorn), one for each day in June (each of us taking turns to come up with a character). The aim was to draw a character a day, with the only restriction being that they had to be drawn on post-it notes.

I absolutely love these kind of challenges, although I have to admit that I can also find them very hard. I really struggle to put time aside for myself just to draw (when it’s for no reason other than fun). Also sometimes my perfectionism can sneak in and stop me enjoying the thing I love most - telling stories with pictures.

But having the restriction of the post-it note was really helpful for me to finish this challenge. It gave me a boundary to work within and meant that I felt more inclined to push that boundary (like trying to fit in full scenes onto my small little post-its and not just characters). And I was really happy with how a lot of them turned out and even prouder of myself for pushing through the days where I wasn’t so happy with the work and still sitting down and doing the next day’s challenge. Perfectionism in my work is something that I struggle with A LOT (although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from looking at my wonky imperfect art) and I have to keep catching myself when I get stuck In a perfectionism spiral and remind myself to just put pen to paper, and it can’t be perfect but it can exist.

In the end I had a lot of fun designing these characters (there are definitely a few that I wouldn’t mind maybe turning into full-comics ideas) and it was particularly fun to do the challenge with a friend and see how different or similar our characters turned out to be. Here are some of Poppy’s favourite designs:

Looking to take on a fun drawing challenge? Why not try out our post-it note drawing challenge for yourself (and a friend)!

All you need:

  • Pen

  • Post-it notes (your choice of colours)

  • A month with 30 days (so you can draw one a day)

  • Our character list below!

If you do decide to take on the Poppy & Gina post-it note drawing challenge, let me know! I’d love to see your versions of our characters.

Poppy and I will be selling physical zine versions of this list and some of our favourite characters at Zina Warrior Print Fest. If you’re on Kaurna land (Adelaide) on the 8th October, come along and say hi!