Grungy Lines
School, Super Mario, and a birthday…
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Salut Swifts,
Happy second best month of the year! April is my brith month, the first proper vibes of spring (I had a couple of coatless days this month, and I’ve seen my first swifts and swallows returning), and this year, chocolate egg season. My birthday always inspires a kind of nostalgia in me, sometimes not in the best way (3/4 of the house have some kind of time anxiety), and increasingly so, as trends and fashions come full circle. This year, as I’ve come to understand more abut myself, I’ve dived deep into the things that used to make me happy - and fully embraced them. So expect some 80’s/90’s sprinkles in this months letter - if I could hand write it in bubbly cursive and adorn it with stickers I would - I.D.S.T.
Every year I give myself a birthday present (as everyone should), some years it can be as simple as a trip out by myself but this year I’ve outdone myself. I didn’t realise quite how much I was missing this from my life until it arrived. I’m in love. Now, when I tell you what it is, you might think I’ve lost it, and I get it, but I also think you’re wrong. Behold, my new hot-swappable mechanical keyboard! And yes, it does have rainbow lights inside - with 19 different modes.
Mechanical keyboards have definitely had a glow-up. The tactile feedback I get from the keys and the satisfying ‘thocc’ (see, I’m even laying down the lingo) is heaven, perfectly designed - I chose the level of feedback and ‘thocc’ - for me. Modern keyboards just don’t give you anything back, whereas this beauty is a dream to write these words on.
Much of April, aside from birthday celebrations and school holidays was spent on final artwork for my Pathways X Nosy Crow assignment - designing a character for a preschool first experiences book series. Going from roughs to finals is my least favourite part of the process. I’m a chameleon, in life as well as art, and until very recently believed that was wrong. I thought that I had to have a defined ‘style’ all figured out and it kind of scared me. For all my routine and rigidity, creatively I don’t really like doing the same thing over and over again.
I was worried going into my assignment finals, I needed to do a lot of experimentation to find what worked for my character, for Nosy Crow, and for the 0-5 age range, and there wasn’t a huge amount of time with Easter holidays falling right in the middle.
I eased myself in by choosing colours first. Having a limited set to choose from that I know works together takes away some of the pressure. For simplicity I just went crazy with the pencil crayons. And then, by complete luck, the first idea I tried felt pretty perfect. Annoyingly I had to reverse engineer it because I couldn’t remember what steps I’d taken to get there, but ended up with a digital screen-printing technique using offset flat colours, traditionally drawn pencil lines, and grungy shading. I like to keep as much of the analogue noise and smudges as possible. My final artwork felt very much like it fitted the brief as well as containing some of my favourite things (grungy lines and shading) that made it mine.
Once the assignment’s been assessed I’ll be able to share more, including pictures of my process as well as the final character sheet submission.
Expect themes heavily influenced by my birthday books next month (so, comics and graphic novels, comedy, illustration history, neurodivergence, and Irish folklore), but for now enjoy this arty list peppered with a sprinkling of 80’s/90’s love:
School Art departments do so much more than teach art. They’re often also safe-spaces for the misfits, and the bullied, a place to exist outside the rigid confine of traditional academic learning and stiflingly complex teenage social hierarchy. Me and my friends hung out in practice rooms, sewing rooms and studios for 99% of our high school lunch breaks.
Now, heres an amazing school. Want to see inside?
Composition is one of my favourite aspects of illustration. So no wonder I love this library of cinematic techniques.
This Easter holidays me and the smalls went to the cinema to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It seemed fitting, Mario and I do share a birth year (of creation, not Mario’s fictional birth year). I might also have treated us (ok, mainly me) to The Super Mario Bros U Deluxe game - for all its 1990’s 2D, side-scrolling beauty.
I also share my birth year with MTV, and one of my favourite shows was Cribs. So, I was so happy to discover Architectural Digest’s Open Door you tube channel - but then proceeded to lose the rest of my day in the homes of Debby Ryan and Josh Dun, and Troian Bellisario and Patrick J Adams.
This, but Bullet With Butterfly Wings instead.
Fraggle Rock was quite possibly the best TV show of my childhood. I’m so glad they brought it back - even though I can’t actually watch it without AppleTV. I enjoyed this behind the scenes with the puppeteers though.
My favourite read this month was A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. I also really enjoyed the new CBBC adaptation of it - featuring a predominantly neurodivergent cast and crew.
I promised to tell you about my birthday party - we spent the afternoon eating food named after computer games, and playing free arcade games at a wonderfully friendly and accommodating gaming themed restaurant/bar. Definitely sneaking back for some more low-key Sunday afternoons with friends.
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Happy Birthday! 🥰
Love reading your news and about your fabulous creativity x. And Grandpops always bought himself, and gift wrapped, a present for Christmas and his birthday. I think I will start the tradition of a birthday/Christmas book for myself too - you’re never too old!