FSA (Food Standards Association) Primer
By way of explanation - I'd started the above with the intention of producing a simple line collage, easy enough to subsequently digitally trace and colour. The characters and groupings grew legs, and it quickly become a bit too time intensive to properly work on after the inking was finished.
Which has never been finished, for that matter - the chunk of white in the main circle, as well as to the bottom right, highlight that. I wasn't totally satisfied with how the picture was shaping up - too much small intricate frippery and not enough of the big clean objects or figures that the smaller stuff needs to be effective in scale and detail. As such, I lost the momentum a bit. I considered just drawing a lemon wearing a pair of trousers in both gaps, but two stark white warnings to future Mark Bradys seemed ultimately more appropriate.
If you're interested, the FSA theme was imagined as one of those heavy-handed PSA cartoons for children in the 80's, with government dietetic experts on one side, entry-level-vice 'bad guys' on the other, and a small band of civilians caught in the middle, on a quest to restore their favourite snack food to circulation, or something like that. I particularly enjoyed sketching up the dual-brushed robot janitor and the child sports-fusionist of the civilian group at the bottom, though they don't end up all that prominent. I'll most likely use these characters as stock material for similar pictures at a later date, as character generation is good fun, but soaks up time like a time sponge.
OTHER COLLAGES FROM THE PAST.
Spring/Summer Train Timetable (Late 2009)
I was big on the unsung heroes of stable civilisation at the time, so don't judge me for getting all excited about a pamphlet of train times. I enjoyed doing this, though a lot of key features were fluffed, I think I was going through a big coffee phase. I've never enjoyed drawing up my own words IRONICALLY, but I really ought to practice, especially with it all being so wonky in this one. Onwards!
Corpse Quest (Mid 2009)
What was supposed to be a pull-out poster in a one-off special magazine, Corpse Magazine, a magazine about corpses. I know, I know. Myself and the chap I was producing it with thought it was funny at the time, though it ultimately never saw the light of day. It's all there, though - about 24 pages of illustrations and feature writing, about dead bodies. It's not grim reading, either, though the text and images are showing their age now. Still, I enjoyed doing it, and I'm more powerful as a result.
P.S. Apologies for the stark greyness of the images - scanning them would've produced a much more palatable crisp whiteness, but with images this size, also would've taken about a morning of finikyness longer. My digital camera, on the other hand, is quick, but routinely lies about how white the white image it's just taken actually is. Technology.
