My transition to working digitally

Bundle (a mushroom person) and Bugg (Bundle’s pet bug) stand out the front of their home in an old tree.

Over the past few years, I’ve really transitioned to working digitally over traditionally. The switch happened slowly at first: I would still pencil and ink everything traditionally but scan it and then colour in Photoshop. But when the response of the Apple Pencil on the iPad started to feel almost exactly like using a regular pencil and I discovered the app Procreate (plus factoring in the ease of being able to create work on the go, anywhere, with just one tablet and one pen), I couldn’t resist the lure of digital.

A character with one prosthetic leg, wearing a tank top and shorts, standing in a welcoming position.

One of the things I've discovered when drawing digitally is that I've been able to experiment more with my art, without freaking out that I’m going to ruin everything. When working traditionally, the permanentness of using pens, textas, or paints can sometimes almost make me freeze (particularly when my perfectionism comes into play). But the flexibility of working digitally (sure, being able to undo is nice, but also to be able to copy, stretch and rearrange things easily) has really opened up a lot of options for the work I create. I can practice pushing my characters’ poses or getting that emotion exactly right on their face or try different colour combinations without worrying that if I commit to one and it doesn’t turn out okay, I’ll have to re-draw the whole image to practice it.

A character in full shadow wearing a woollen jumper and patched jeans holds their hand up to their eyes and is looking at something far away.

Working with light and shadow is something in particular that I’ve really gotten into playing around with when drawing on my iPad. Usually my drawings use simple clean lines with flat colours, but I’ve really enjoyed starting using coloured lines for textures ( e.g. in clothes, hair) as well as adding shadows to create a bit more depth to the flat images. More recently I’ve started playing around with adding highlights too - I’m still a while away from feeling like I’ve got a handle on those but it’s coming along.

A wizard in a purple robe covered in yellow stars and moons is holding a glowing orb and has a magical aura around them.

Full colour illustration of 5 roller derby players in roller skates and safety gear posing together looking tough and confident.

One of my favourite things about working digitally are the accidents that turn out to be really interesting and get me thinking about how I could colour in a different way. For example, I drew a collection of fictional roller derby players and coloured them as I normally would - natural, flat colours, add some shading for depth and then highlights to help create a sense of roundness in the characters. At one point I’d switched to the wrong layer and when I went to drop some colour into one of the characters I accidentally just blocked out all of the characters in this salmon pink colour. Initially I was all “Gah! Silly me!” Wrong layer!” but looking at the result I really loved how it turned out. It opened up my brain to thinking about how I could be using colour differently when making comics. I’m keen to see what a full comic of block colours might look like.

Pink & purple illustration of 5 roller derby players in roller skates and safety gear posing together looking tough and confident.

I still love working traditionally (I don't think anything will ever quite beat the scratch of pen on paper) but I think that working digitally has really helped me grow as an artist and refine my skills, so whenever I jump back to working traditionally (or try out mediums I’ve never used much, like watercolours or colour pencil or stamp carving), I feel more confident about giving things a go (and not worrying about whether they turn out exactly right).

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!

The 24-Hour Comic Challenge

A couple of weekends ago I took on the 24-hour comic challenge. This is an annual challenge where, basically, you have to write and draw a 24-page comic in 24 hours (a page an hour). It's the third time I've taken and completed the challenge (although last year I did finish 24 pages in the allotted time, but the story I wrote ended up being longer than that, so I penciled all 32 pages during the challenge and inked the remaining 8 the next day once my hands had had a little rest). You can read all of last year's 24-hour challenge comic about my Harry Potter fandom online here or if you prefer a physical copy you can grab one from my Etsy store here. 

Over the three years I've undertaken the challenge, I've refined my 24 hour technique, including making sure I have my paper all ready to go (I use 200 gsm card cut into single sheets of A5. I've found this size means you don't feel like you need to add too much detail and the single sheets are good because you can easily look back at what you have already drawn without constantly flipping through a sketchbook).

Having delved into the the 24-hour comics experience a few times now, I've noticed a few patterns in my emotions when affected by the lack of sleep and constant comic creation. So I give you my 7 stages of the 24-hour comic challenge:

HOUR ONE:

HOUR FIVE:

HOUR TEN:

HOUR THIRTEEN: 

HOUR EIGHTEEN:

HOUR TWENTY:

HOUR TWENTY-THREE:

I was so impressed with everyone who I took the challenge with this year (and in previous years too, of course). The comics all looked great and we all finished the challenge (and some people even managed to get shading and colour in their comics, somehow). I can't wait to see everyone's comics in print. 

And if you are thinking about taking the challenge you totally should give it a go! It's hard, no doubt, but it's super rewarding and you have a 24-page comic at the end of it. I recommend you do it with at least one other friend but the more the merrier. I'm sure I would've given up had I not had a lovely group of people encouraging me to keep going. 

That's if for this week, chat to you soon!

Gx

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Curiosity Care

Hello wonderful pals!

We all get stuck sometimes. It's a pretty common ailment of making something. Putting your heart and soul into a project, whatever it is, can be super rewarding and satisfying but also super tiring and scary. It can take all my brain power just to write a few words, because getting started is, at least to me, the hardest bit.

I've been stuck more than once while writing Oh Brother but luckily I've also been able to get unstuck too. Sometimes with help from other people and sometimes by just waiting around for my brain to let me back in on the project. And the bigger the project, the more chances you have to get stuck!

Of course once you're on a roll, then it feels good. You're working hard everyday, making great headway, nothing can stop you and then, BAM. You're stuck again. On a plot point or style choice or something stupid that doesn't even mean anything but you just can't get it out of your head.

I'm currently writing part three of my book, and the written script part of the process (before I start digging into the drawings) is the hardest for me. For a few months now I've been in this limbo space, flipping between productivity and slump. Seeing how I was feeling, a good friend of mine recommended and gifted me a book. This book was: 

I have been enjoying reading Elizabeth Gilbert's views on creativity and I would also recommend this book for any creative thinking person (or any person tbh). I was particularly grabbed by her writings about curiosity. Gilbert writes that curiosity is accessible to everyone, contrasting it to passion (which feels more specific, unattainable and somewhere over there). Curiosity, however, says Gilbert, only asks one question: "Is there anything you're interested in?" 

And Gilbert's thoughts about curiosity were able to capture some of the feelings that have been floating around my brain and helped me to bring them to the forefront and crystallise them.

So I've been thinking that curiosity care is something that we all need to start doing. Let our curiosity take us to places we didn't know that we were interested in. Give it the time to stare in wide-eyed wonder, gasp at new knowledge and walk down a different path. It may feel like you're taking the long road to get back to your project, and you probably are, but it's going to be a pretty great trip and if you don't take it maybe you won't get back to your project at all. 

Being curious can come in many different shapes and forms. You don't have to be learning about something new to be curious about the world. And a lot of my curiosity comes from stopping and thinking about something I already know pretty well and trying to think about it in a different way. 

A lot of the time I just want to get my brain out of all the To Do lists I've written and just thinking about anything else. So here are a few things I use to help me get my brain cogs off lists and relax enough to let the world in. 

1. Tea

Yes, yes, we all know that I, someone who categorises and labels her dried leafy mixes into individual specially bought plastic containers, really likes tea. But I think sometimes I forget some of the reasons why I really like tea. I love the waiting for the kettle to boil, picking out the right tea for the moment, picking out the right cup for your feels, breathing in the steam of the hot water, smelling your tea choice and sitting with it. Not doing anything but sitting with your tea. 

Picking the right tea for the moment can be hard but I think it's important. I get easily stuck on whichever tea I normally choose to drink in the morning, with my lunch or just before bed. So one thing I like to do when I'm in a slump is to try different teas at the 'wrong' time of day. Here are some of the teas I have made and their magical properties. 

2. A different point of view

I have found that sitting in chairs all day can be pretty tiring, particularly if you are staring at a screen all day too. So if I don't have time to leave the studio, I like to eat my lunch on the ground by my desk. I enjoy seeing the world from a view I spent a lot of my childhood, well, viewing. Also lying on the ground and looking up to the ceiling and just letting your mind wander can be really great. I find it really hard to let my mind wander on anything other than making lists of things I need to get done, but I do manage it sometimes.  

3. Walking

Walking has been one of the biggest things in the past 12 months that I've discovered really helps me to think through tough spots in stories or mental blocks. A lot of my a-ha moments are when I'm walking or swimming laps. This is because if I do it long enough I get over that natural brain reaction of making lists in my head and move onto other things that must have been lurking in there but have been hidden by all those To Do lists. 

I personally like to look up at the skyline and the clouds when walking. The sky is endlessly fascinating to me. I will never be able to capture in my illustration a cloud the way I see it in real life, and that is so intriguing and mysterious to me, like a 40s noir film. 

4. Reading

Something that I've been trying get myself back into is reading more. I know I read a bit but not as much as I would like or think I should. I often think that if I'm reading I could be drawing instead. But you see it's actually okay to consume things too, you don't just have to create! Crazy, I know, but it's something that I'm trying to come to terms with. And if I don't consume other media it won't be able to inform my own work and help me to grow as an artist. So when I'm feeling like my brain is sludge and writing just one more email will make me cry or everything I've been drawing lately has been coming out just not quite that minimum level I'm used to, I'm trying to get myself to read a book or a comic. And then I'm working on not feeling guilty about it.

5. Drawing

The last thing I do when I'm in a bit of a rut is draw stuff I know I can draw. Stuff I like. Usually for me this means drawing my bag and all of its contents. But it can extend to drawing ladies in styles of clothes I would like to trial wearing. Or skulls. I quite like drawing skulls. This gives me the feeling that I've actually drawn something that day and it usually doesn't look terrible. 

Even though I think taking a break or letting your curiosity take over for a while is good and necessary, my personal little motto, that I say to myself at least once a day, is:

The only thing that will make you feel better about the work is doing the work.

The only times I have felt like I'm on top of my project, that I'm making actually physical, tangible headway, is when I've done something. And it doesn't even have to be a big bit of something. In fact, I'm a big fan of the chip away every day. But it's when I do something that I feel the best. 

ANYWAY. This post is waaaaay too long so I will stop (plus this post has been in my drafts for months and I've already had to write and re-write it a few times. It's time for me to cut it off and focus on some new blog posts).

Have a stellar dream tonight. One that you remember really clearly the next day. One that you can still talk about in years to come. 

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For The Love Of Editing

Hello pals!  

As long promised, I have here a post about the editing process I've been using to work through story problems in my graphic novel. It's pretty much the same process I was introduced to at the Comic Art Workshop residency in 2015, which I completely fell in love with and have adapted into my own writing practice. 

I never thought I would actually look forward to and enjoy receiving feedback on any of my creative practices (I studied classical percussion at Uni and was terrible at getting feedback on my musical performances; I took everything personally and couldn't separate myself from the performance), but this method of editing has really helped me to embrace areas in my story that could be improved and not feel like I'm a failure of a human because my story needs some help from my friends.

Never underestimate the power of outside eyes! For example. I'd not noticed that I had never mentioned whether my brother or I were the older sibling, because it was something that I knew so well I'd completely forgotten that any reader who wasn't a good friend or a family member wouldn't know. This meant that people going into the story would make assumptions about which of us was older (it's me, just so you know). The upshot of this was that the reader, not knowing this information, would assume that I was whichever sibling they were (if they were older I was the older sibling too and if they were younger I was obviously the younger sibling). It was great that the readers would identify so heavily with me that they placed themselves in my position but I really needed them to know that I was the older sibling because it's important to how I tell my stories. 

So this is sort of a step-by-step guide about how to use the editing process I do (with a few personal interjects from my cartoon self).  

For the love of editing 3_edit_Colour_Flat.jpg

I hope that made sense and was hopefully some use to you and your creating!

Have a wonderful day, whichever day it might be.

Gx

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

 

Sick Day

Hello lovely humans, 

I'm sorry I missed last week's post. I've been trying to keep on top of a few things (the book, a zine fair, commissions, life, the To Read pile), as well as battling with a head cold. I usually try to push through, but with a few big events coming up I wanted to be as well as possible - so I took to the couch, sat in front of a pile of oranges and worked my way through a few comics I've been wanting to read for a while. 

That said, I got bored pretty quick and my sick brain triggered memories of being sick at home and how Rob would deal with getting a cold. 

I'm a terrible daughter! 

Anyway, I best get back to the drawing board. Next week I'll talk about the editing process I go through with my comics colleagues once I've finished the draft pencils of a section. 

Until we meet again, I hope your head remains clear and you remember that famous quote perfectly just in time for that quiz night. 

Gxx

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

Vegemite Parrot

I've been thinking lately about some of the short comics I did about Rob before I made the decision to work on a whole long-form book dedicated to stories about growing up with him. In particular, I've been thinking about one story that I have just revisited in part two: the Tale of the Vegemite Parrot. The first version of Vegemite Parrot was originally published by Comicoz in the anthology Australia! alongside lots of other rad Australian comic artists. And I thought you guys might like to see how my stories and style have changed and what things have stayed the same over the last couple of years. 

Let's start with my original mini comic. It's a couple of years old now and I've changednot only my haircut, but also how I draw myself and my family members. I have to admit I cringe a little looking at it now but I quite like the 3-eyed parrots (they have no bearing on the story; I just wanted to draw them). Maybe I'll use them in a future fictional story.

Next up we have the process of taking this story and putting it in the middle of a graphic novel. 'Vegemite Parrot' appears in Oh Brother around the 130 page mark and by the time I was writing the script for part two (January/February 2017), I couldn't really remember what I'd written for the first version. I decided to not really refresh myself about what I'd done because I now wanted the story to work as part of the book, not as a stand-alone piece. So without re-reading the short comic, I wrote a brief description about the Vegemite Parrot story. 

Then came my new favourite part of writing comics: thumbnailing! I took the fairly boring text and added lots of fun pictures to help me visualise what the story would look like on the page. I use red marker because it makes me feel like I'm some sort of fancy editor. I also really like red. 

Then came the actual penciling of the story. Now, I figure out the layout for the panels as I'm doing the pencils, because the layout to me is like I'm having a conversation with someone and I want the panels per page to reflect the speed and flow of the story I'm telling. That's why I use gridded paper note cards that are already cut to certain sizes, so I can play around with what the panels will look like on the page before I draw everything up (a trick I picked up from the very clever Pat Grant and adapted slightly for my personal writing style). Note: My pencils are normally a boring grey lead pencil colour. I made them pink for this blog because I wanted to.

The next step is making people read your work, seeing what they think and then editing it again. I've recently had an edit session (I'll talk about that in a future post) and this little story has yet to get a mention (which is good. It means people think it's a good story)!

And that's it! Technically the next step (which I am yet to do) would be to ink and colour the final art of the story but I'm not going to start inking anything until I finish the whole book and have edited it as a whole. I want my inking to be as consistent as possible throughout the book, so doing as much as I can at the same time is my goal. 

That's the blog for this week. I hope you found it interesting to re-read my old comic and compare it to the newer version of the story. I find it fascinating seeing what changed and what stayed the same. I didn't much like looking at my old work, but I rarely do. That's why I must always be making more comics, because the next thing will be better. Oh yes.

Have a super week!

Gx

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

My Go-To Story

Hello hello!

It feels like this year has been the year of short travel trips for me: Melbourne, Norwood and now most recently I've been off to Our Nation's Capital, Canberra. I was there selling my zines at Noted Festival and also getting in some quality hang time with my fantastic pal Kyra (who moved to C-town a couple of years ago for work). 

I didn't realise just how much I missed her face and spirit in my life until I saw her and got to spend time just being around her. Y'know those really great friends you have, that it doesn't matter how long you've been apart, you just fall back into each other's lives? It's a pretty great feeling. Although now I miss her more than ever. 

Anyway, with all these small trips my routine keeps getting all disrupted and it always takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things, respond to emails etc. But I'm back and about to get stuck into Part Three of my book (all about Fears and what the future holds for me and Rob). So while I'm working hard on that, have a read of this little excerpt from the pencil draft of Part Two. It's my go-to story when I'm trying to explain to someone who doesn't know Rob at all just how clever and amazing and perceptive my brother can be. 

This is straight out of my pencil draft manuscript so it's not final art (JSYK). 

Rob really is pretty amazing. 

Alright pals, that's it for this week but don't worry, there will be more coming soon, I promise. 

Until next time, stay indoors, keep warm and watch that movie you've been thinking about seeing but constantly putting off. 

Gx

 

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

Good Ripping Material

Hey guys!

Guess what? I've finished Part Two of my book! I'm pretty excited about having another 150 pages done of the draft pencils but also a bit nervous about taking on Part Three (the final part), as it will probably be the most emotionally taxing section (it's all about fears and what the future means for me and Rob). But I'll go into all that stuff in a future post. 

Part Two was all about obsessions, mostly Rob's obsessions - from food to TV and item placement to nappies. One of Rob's more frustrating obsessions for me was his ripping paper phase. He would rip pretty much anything, including my math homework. Here are a couple of non-sequential pages from Part Two featuring Rob's ripping abilities:

I've been cleaning up a few of my old school books and papers that have been living at my parents' house and the other day I found one of the original notes my mum wrote to my teacher. I can't believe that I've kept it after all these years (also I thought that the teacher would've needed it).

I'll be sharing a few different snippets of Part Two over the next few weeks, as well as a wrap-up of the differences between working on Part One and working on  Part Two. 

I'll be in Canberra for the next week, taking part in the Noted Festival Zine Fair. So If you're in Canberra for whatever reason on the 7th May, come and say hi!

Have an excellent afternoon, the next time you find yourself in an afternoon. 

Gx

My blog is brought to you by the help of my Patreon Pals. If you want to become a George Rex Patreon Pal, then just jump to my Patreon page here. 

The Burrow

Clothes for my Burrow adventure.

Clothes for my Burrow adventure.

During March this year I was invited to work and live out of a studio apartment in Norwood, South Australia for three weeks by the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust (MGCLT). I had been awarded the Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship (in fact I was the inaugural winner) for unpublished authors. So I packed up my things and got ready for an adventure.

The fellowship was created to help unpublished emerging children's and Young Adult (YA) authors and illustrators to have time to work on their current book project. There was also an element of networking and industry meetings. This meant that I spent two weeks solidly working on my book and then one week meeting with librarians, publishers, agents and book sellers to find out more about the industry that is Children's Literature. 

I had originally planned to finish part two of Oh Brother, which I assumed would be about the same length as part one (about 100 pages) during my time at the Fellowship, but I soon found out that this part had quite a few more extra stories and pages. I got 120 pages done while at the Burrow and still have about 20 more to go. Phew!

The essential art supplies for comic book making. 

The essential art supplies for comic book making. 

Even though I didn't achieve my goal of finishing part two (which I was pretty annoyed at myself about), I did get a big chunk of the book done. Hopefully I'll finish part two by the end of this week and then all I have to do is finish part three (and hope that it's no longer than 100 pages), find a publisher who's interested in it and do all that inking stuff. No worries, right?

While I was there I kept notes for myself to write up a little travel comic when I got back into my regular studio (with writing the book all day I ran out of drawing energy by the evening to make the travel journal happen while I was at the Burrow). But I did write up a mini travel comic for the MGCLT Fellowship visitors book. 

On top of getting a big chunk of work done on the book, I also finally got to make a big dent in my reading pile. These are all the books, comics, and zines I read while away from home for the three weeks. I'll talk more about some of my faves in a future post. 

Below is my leaf collection from my time at the Burrow. Each leaf represents a walk I made either around the neighbourhood or into town or to meet up for a coffee with someone. Some of the walks I took helped me to work my way through problems I encountered while working on the story.

Although there are quite a few panels that I drew in part two that I'm proud of (and quite a few I would rather not look at), this was probably my favourite panel that I drew during the Fellowship. I dig the expression on my Mum's face and we all know I love diagrams, cross sections and arrowed foot notes. 

And that pretty much sums up my Fellowship. I had a great time at the little studio apartment, getting up, making breakfast and then getting straight into book making. I think I lived on turmeric lattes and skateboard bread. The bad side-effect is that I do feel a little burnt out on the book at the mo (after working on nothing else for three weeks). I can't wait to have this section done so I can take a breath of air and maybe make short silly comics about nothing important. Or just illustrate some rad ladies. Or food. 

Catch you round!

Gxx