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

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George Rex Comics mini-documentary

Hello friends!

So I know I promised you a post about my manuscript editing process this week, but I'm still working on it and I'd like it to be the best it can be. So in the meantime I would really like to share with you a pretty rad little documentary. Some film students recently asked me to be the subject of a mini-doco and this is the result. I think the guys that made it (see credits at the end for a full list of those wonderful people) did a great job at reining in my tendency to blather when I talk about comics (I just get so darned excited). 

Anyway, I'll let you just enjoy and watch. 

That's all for this week, guys. I hope you liked the vid (I was really chuffed to be a part of it). 

Next week, I promise a post about editing. I'm really excited to share that process with you because I want to make Oh Brother the best book I can, and I think the process of nutting out the problems in my book with other humans really helps me get towards that great book.

Have a sweet rest of the week. May your skies be mildly cloudy so you have interesting things to look at above you.

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. 

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. 

Harry

About a year ago, almost to the day, our family dog Harry passed away. He was very old and had a(nother) seizure and the vet found many cancers throughout his body. I remember so clearly Dad calling me to tell me of Harry's seizure, that he was taking him to the vet and that he'd let me know what was happening when he knew more. That day I had gotten up early and was cleaning up my study while listening to the Stephen Fry audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the book about the boy wizard after whom our dog was named). 

Harry was a big part of my life, as are many childhood pets. He was always there for me when I was stressed about Rob, stressed about life. He was to me the perfect dog. Dorky, sweet, a great pal and a bit of an idiot. Even though Harry wasn't our first family dog, he was the first I had a say in adopting. When I drew wolves (my favourite animal) as a kid, I drew Harry.

He was like another sibling to both me and Rob. And I still miss him lots. I still sometimes forget he's gone and when I visit my parents I expect him to greet me when I arrive or automatically go to feed him my leftover fish at the dinner table. 

He was such a big part of our lives that he has a starring role in Oh Brother, in particular in part two (which I have just finished the draft of!). Which of course means that he needed his own character sheet. 

It's been hard writing the stories that feature Harry but I'm glad I can celebrate his radness with others in comic form. My biggest regret is that I wasn't with him when he was put down. I still wish I had seen him one last time, to thank him for being such a great friend and pillow. 

To all the pet pals out there, you guys are the best. 

Gxx

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

Mentor Pals // Part Two // Mandy Ord

Last week I showed excerpts from my sketchbook with Pat Grant, so this week I thought I'd show some of the work I did with Mandy Ord. 

This sketchbook delved more into my feelings about life and comics as well as more interaction between us. I would ask questions and Mandy would answer with illustration. What I found interesting was that my drawing style changed when thinking about what I would write/draw to Mandy. It would suddenly get more inky, I would favour using a brush pen to a fine liner, and I would include more blacks and textures. 

It was nice playing around with style and responding to someone else's work. 

Mandy Sketchbook 12.jpg

Working with Mandy was great. It was very different from Pat as they are different people. Mandy was always good to talk to about life and Rob. She would phrase interesting questions that got me to think about the stories in the book a different way. Mandy also runs workshops regularly and is a fan of finding and creating new drawing exercises. When I visited her we were able to run through a few new exercises I hadn't yet done (but now love). I feel like I should always make more time for drawing exercises. 

When working with both Mandy and Pat we did a lot of walking and talking (and walking Mandy's dog Lucy, which was super great because, dogs), which I found really useful to just talk out my thoughts and worries. I get really nervous when I sit still and have to answer questions, but there is something about walking and talking that relaxes me. Maybe because my brain focuses on not tripping over my own feet (a common occurrence if you're me) and that relaxes me enough to talk about my work and answer harder questions. Maybe because I'm a fidgeter - I need to keep my body moving if I want my brain to keep active. 

Anyway enough blathering from me for now. See you next week for more fun blog adventures. 

Gxx

 

Mentor Pals // Part One // Pat Grant

Last year was a big learning curve for me and my comics. Not only did I delve into the world of long-form comic making but I also worked with mentors for the first time. I've never before worked with someone who was there to help me figure out what on earth I was doing (with the story and with my life as a comics creator). 

I was super lucky to have two mentors that I worked with throughout 2016: Pat Grant and Mandy Ord. I arranged to have a shared sketchbook with each of them, where I would write something , a thought or question or worry, and then post it out to them. They would respond by adding their magic and then post it back to me. 

And I thought that you guys might want to have a peek at some of the pages from the books! Pat's book revolved a lot around the mechanics behind writing and planning the book out. I found this was a great way to keep track of everything Pat was telling me about story structure and writing techniques. Which, as I've not studied any type of writing, was all pretty new to me. 

Working with Pat was really interesting. It took a little while for me to stop being so darned nervous I could barely talk but once I got over that, working with Pat was great. I felt like I could discuss my problems and it really helps to have another pair of eyes to read through your story and discuss it with you. Particularly a pair of eyes that has done what you are trying to do and knows all the feels you are feeling. If you want to read more about what I learnt from Pat, head here to my previous blog post about hanging out with him in his home town of Wollongong. 

Next week I'll talk about and share a few pages from my sketchbook with Mandy Ord. 

I'm almost at the end of my Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship residency at the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust, which has been great and filled with lots of learning and making. But I also can't wait to be home with my boy (and my bed!) and getting back in my own studio. Hope you guys are having a lovely week!

Gx