ROUNDUP.

I am very very bad at keeping up with multiple platforms and stuff, so.

I am using Tumblr as my main blog/site for now.
I post a lot of wip on Faceboob erm book

I am also on Etsy in case you feel like buying any of my work/supporting the cause/etc.

I am in the (slow) process of setting up a proper website.

And also come check out my illustration collective Ink Soup here and here, we are totally badass and will conquer the world.

xx

colour and riso.

Testing out the Risograph at uni and adding a little colour to my work. Original illustrations in b&w. I am quite excited about this, it's looking interesting!

Shell of HK

(For some reason these never got posted, cheers blogspot.)
A few pages of a project I did, based on photos provided by the great students of HKDI. The man concept behind it is to walk someone through a post-apocalyptic Hong Kong, with the text adding information to the images. It stemmed from the idea we always have of HK as this busy, bustling, overcrowded metropolis, so I wanted to show it under a different light. Also, a lot of the photos I was provided with showed many abandoned flats and nearly whole buildings that had been evacuated and left to themselves. It seemed like such a stark contrast to what especially westerners' idea of Hong Kong is that I really wanted to play on it.

ink and quink.

Also using quink is pretty fun. It's just made me really undecided.

more inky goodness.

Testing out new techniques, mainly using brushes and ink and seeing what textures I can get out of fucked-up brushes. I'm still trying to maintain a high-contrast look, was a little inspired by Raymond Pettibon for the last one.

Red.

So I thought I'd do a little "work method" post. This is mostly how I work when doing a single image, spur of the moment, eye-candy piece. It generally starts out with a photo, something that catches my eye because of pose, colour, composition, anything. What I like of the original photo decides how much of it I'm going to take - if it's just the pose, I'll change pretty much everything else about it, if it's an expression, again everything else goes, if it's composition most elements will stay in one way or another. This photo was particularly stunning - the eyes, the expression, the colours. Damn I wish I could do my makeup that nicely. So I pretty much just wanted to draw it as it was. As I went along and started inking (mapping pens, ftw!) I started picturing it as just the face, all focus on the expression in the eyes. So when I got to adding ink to the black coat bit, I found myself covering everything up that wasn't the face. Sorry hands. Sorry tattoos. I thought about cropping it but I really love the composition and the contrast between the fine mapping pen lines on the face and total black encircling it.
So yeah, that's how I sometimes work. :)

scraperboard

Theda Bara and Rory Manning.
I've been experimenting a little with scraperboard these days, as if drypoint and monotype and general inking wasn't enough. I am all over the place this term. But anyway! Even though a little difficult at first (perhaps mostly to do with the shitty tools and cheap scraperboard - actually, not even cheap, it was fairly expensive, it just doesn't seem to be very good) I think I've kinda got the hang of it. And in doing so I created two images if Theda Bara - which is quite project-based, at least -  and Rory Manning, a model (I think? I don't know, she's utterly gorgeous and kind of a ghost on google). It's a great way to study contrast and lighting, really makes you think about negative and positive space.

Lulu

I've been wanting to do something on Louise Brooks ever since I watched Pandora's Box a few years ago. Actually, I've been smitten with her since well before then, as I grew up with Crepax's "Valentina" stories. So when my current project started going in a 20s direction, she was definitely going to have to be one of the subjects/characters. This ended up being a mini-project within the project, a little zine done in a mixture of drypoint and monotype (professional printmakers might kill me about it) which allowed me to have detail while maintaining the swishy inky goodness of monotypes. I'm also fairly satisfied with my hand drawn type. This will eventually be reformatted to fit the book I'm creating for my project as a short narrative under the name "the Courtesan".

Comica Comiket

So! This is quite late in posting, but last weekend the eye pie collective in top notch form (if a little tired) headed down to London for this year's Comica, the big city's own international and indipendent comics fair. The venue, Bishopsgate Institute, was pretty awesome and oh so many artists were there (Robert Crumb, Anke Feuchtenberger, Alison Bechdel, Joe Decie just to name a few). Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the full festival and many many events organized, but it was a good day, if a little excruciating having to stand by while people pick up your work, study it, read it, then leave it (it's £1 dude, honestly). But a very interesting experience nonetheless.

more monotypes (my favourite ones so far)

Nita

Nita Naldi, and generally a tribute to all the 20s flappers, actresses, women. I love that era.
This was a test for this heavily inked style I love, and kind of a study on the flapper style.

Cordelia.

I've been watching loads of crime drama series recently while doing work. They don't need too much attention to understand what's going on, so they're great for keeping company whilst doing work. So, I felt kinda stuck with the various ideas I've been working on recently for third year projects. Being able to write your own brief is *not* entirely helpful (at least for me - too many ideas whirling around, with no limitations on themes or outcome except for the ones i set myself). Getting back to the crime series, I thought I'd draw a simple sequence just to get out of the rut I put myself into, and get back into drawing narrative. Also, I needed to test out and get better at using my new fountain pen and creating a good mix of entirely black shadows, details and white areas. Anyway, this is what came out of that. I'm pretty satisfied with most of it, although I might switch the second and third panels round to give the entire page more balance. Aaand I'm not too happy with the reflection of the hand in the bottom panel - not sure if I should leave it white, shadow it like I did with the front leg in the second panel, or just get rid of the reflection entirely. Meh, I'll have a think about it and a go at it tomorrow.

wip...

Lilium

lomolove. II

Taken with my lovely Sardina.

summer.

Some photos of the gorgeous places I've been this summer. Illustration-related updates soon to come, in the meantime revel in the beauty.

lomolove.

Taken with my dad's old Lomo Supersampler.

Baba Yaga prints in the making, all hand-inked on mark resist.

printsprints

"Baba Yaga" screenprinted, one and two colour. I love how this came out, I found this dark blue paint and used it rather than black, and it looks so good. Anyone interested in one, email me (limited run of 30)

lisaroseharper@gmail.com

pinkness

I somehow decided to dye my hair pink, so I drew a new nymph to celebrate the occasion. Her hair is a lot prettier than mine though.