Dan Hallett's Blog

Release of 'Five Wounds', the Chinese Edition.

2011-12-24T02:33:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to announce the release of the Chinese edition of 'Five Wounds' by Azoth Books, Taiwan. (English first edition, by Allen & Unwin, is top left).

As well as maintaing the innovative design of the book's original layout, the Azoth edition also features a great new cover with a leather-like texture. The Chinese edition can be viewed and bought here.

'Five Wounds, An Illuminated Novel'. Cur.

2011-12-11T04:56:00.001-08:00

The character Cur. 'The rabit leader of a sect of dogs'; intentionally infected with a mutant strain of rabies and raised by a pack of dogs in an abandoned part of the city.

As Jon puts it, Cur is "animated by the same conflicts that drive the character type of the werewolf (human vs. animal, reason vs. instinct, free will vs. involuntary response". Through fencing Cur learns a disciplined and rational form of self control, opposed to his instinctual rabid urges.

In my post 'Five Wounds: Geometry' I discussed the design and annotations in the above illustration.

The first version of the above illustration. This was originally intended to be included in the book as one of the 'plates'.

In our original illustration, as well as the annotated fencer, the image depicts a dog-like human face alongside a dog's face. We looked at the illustrations of Charles Le Brun, which compare human features to those of animals.

Le Brun's "Relation of the human face to the goat".

Le Brun created these studies at a time when it was believed that a person's physical features could reflect their character.

One of my sketches of the stuffed wolf in the Barcelona Zoology museum, to be used as reference in the Five Wounds Illustrations.

'Cur's First Murder'
Jon has an earlier version of the above illustration on his Flickr with some of his comments and corrections.

In the final fencing illustration, we did not include the dog-human faces, but instead, we used collage. But, the illustration is collage made of my own drawn material intended to look like collage.
Jon sent me Max Ernst's graphic novel 'Une Semaine de Bonté' as inspiration. Above is one of Max Ernst's collages from 'Une Semaine de Bonté' made up of cuttings from various magazines and books.

An ink-blot which appears in the book. Ink-blots have always been linked to the idea of interpretation and today are related also to psychological analysis.
It took me quite a few attempts before I got an ink-blot which looked like a dog.

The Clay head I made of Cur for drawing reference.

Cur waiting to be shaved.

For further reading on the character of Cur:

'Five Wounds: Archetypes'

'Five Wounds: The Black Dog'

Jonathan Walker and Dan Hallett: Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel - Review @ Spike Magazine

2011-12-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Walker and Dan Hallett: Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel - Spike Magazine

Sketches- Canet de Mar.

2011-11-04T02:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T11:05:00.001-07:00

I Feel Tower

2011-10-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

Aleksandr Rodchenko. Guard at the Shukhov Radio Tower, Moscow. 1929. / Yoga diagram.Sketches from the Zoology Museum, Barcelona.

FIVE WOUNDS: Alchemical Illustrations

2011-09-28T23:59:00.001-07:00

This illustration accompanies a passage in 'Five Wounds' in which Magpie (Thief and spy) is preparing to take a daguerreotype of two corpses in the laboratory of Crow, the alchemist. Whilst considering how his subjects would wish to be photographed, Magpie contemplates the nature and essence of life and death.

Coal/Diamonds, Black/White, Presence/Absence, Life/Death. This illustration was inspired by images of alchemy. Both Coal and diamonds are primarily carbon, the same material in two different 'states', so appear to be equally balanced, of equal value. The scales suggest the idea of judgment; a concept very much linked to life and death at a time when alchemy was used by scholars to understand nature. The same material in two different states is also a reference to transmutation and transcendence associated with alchemy.

The laboratory of Crow, the Alchemist:

This illustration is explained in my post 'Jean in the Jar'.Alchemical Illustrations.

This illustration was created by Thomas Vaugham in the 1600's. Which possibly advises against possessiveness in order to live a dynamic life. I can't say for sure however. This drawing may even use the possibilities of steam power & the wheel to symbolise mobility. It may just depict a 'cycle' of life and death; in which the same material passes repeatedly through various stages.

"The King swimming in the Sea cryes out with a Loud Voice: He that delivers me shall have a great reward."From Michael Maier's 'Atalanta Fugiens'- 1618. Maier also composed a 'soundtrack' to go with the book. Alchemical illustrations such as these, together with a passage of text (and music in Maier's case), invited the reader to make interpretations and associations. The way of reading emblem books like Atalanta Fugiens is relevant to what Jon and I attempted with Five Wounds; as Jon says about our collaboration: "...the combination of words and images itself forms part of the argument, and that the latter can and should invite or require decipherment. They can therefore sustain alternate readings. Moreover, their relationship to the text does not need to be either fixed or obvious".

At a time before sophisticated scientific tools, alchemists attempted to depict, via metaphors, universal rules that could be applied to our understanding of nature. The illustrations were an early version of what we would refer to as a scientific 'models' today.The raw material that made up DNA was known, but before James D. Watson and Francis Crick created a model of how the chemistry was organised, DNA was poorly understood.

Alchemy unified various fields of science; chemical experimentation would also include variables such as astrology, mythology, spirituality and ritual. To the alchemist, what was practiced in the laboratory would correspond to movements of the cosmos and even other dimensions.

A scene from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' depicting non-scientific reasoning.

Another illustration from Atalanta Fugiens; a lion with wings being attacked by a, possibly jealous, wingless lion: *See the comments at the end of this article for further interpretations of this image. Many meanings of the motifs and 'models' are today lost or defunct as science moves on and theories are improved. In modern science this is also the case; I write this at a time when neutrinos have been recorded traveling faster than the speed of light, casting doubt on our current 'models' on which physics are based.

I attended a seminar last year in which the speaker (an academic who's special interest was in comics and films) attempted to explain how Fellini's 'Eight and a Half' related scene by scene to Atalanta Fugiens. I was not completely convinced, but it was a very interesting talk.

This illustration was partly inspired by the above scene in Fellini's movie.

An alchemical illustration that did not make the final edit of Five Wounds.

Sea

2011-09-24T10:02:00.001-07:00

A drawing depicting a barreleye fish and other deep sea life.

A varnished crustacean I bought from a retired fisherman neighbour.

A tee shirt design for Friday's Project. I included an extract from Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' on the back of the garment:

A Limited edition print to accompany the window display of the flag-ship store, which featured a 'live' mermaid put on for Bread & Butter trade show (when it was held in Barcelona). In the final design, however, the pin up was replaced with an anchor.

A Tee design for a private party.

The defrosting cuttlefish which inspired the comic strip 'Tamara La Flipá'.

Felt-tip Mandalas

2011-09-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

Five Wounds: Geometry.

2011-09-14T03:40:00.001-07:00

"I have seen Escher quoted a few times as an influence; this would be in relation to the 'Gabriella's Palace'.I created this illustration as a kind of automatic drawing, picking out furnishings and architectural features from my photos and constantly turning the image whilst working on it; so although I was referencing Escher's work, the illustration that I created has none of the mathematical logic and structure typical of his. The image is intended to reflect Gabriella's desire to remain lost in an incoherent web of rooms."
Quoted from 'Five Wounds- an interview with Jonathan Walker and Dan Hallett' @ The View From Here.

The title for 'Gabriella's Palace' is in fact 'Many Mansions'. The first rough is above, the concept was to create the idea of disconnected rooms. We also considered a cross section of a building similar to Chris Ware's cut away images of houses.

An image from the (unofficial) Acme Novelty Archive.

I admit, however, that I did include in 'Many Mansions' some illusions of depth and trickery taken from M. C. Escher.

'Waterfall', by Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher. When I was at school I was set drawing this for homework for maths class, as I was good at drawing. It was beyond my capabilities at 13 years old and It would still be a pain in the neck to draw now.

Escher's 'Reality'.

Escher was interested in incorporating principles of mathematics and physics into his work. In the same way that a drawing, through light, shade and colour, creates a visual illusion of reality; Escher used concepts such as infinity, multiplication and the mathematical laws that govern reality and included them in his work. During a trip to Granada, Spain, he was particularly inspired by the geometric division in islamic art.

Above: photo taken in the Alhambra, Granada.The complex and repetitive patterns in Islamic art express the infinite and continuous creation and recreation of life. Or, as Laleh Bakhtiar puts it: "...(geometric patterns) symbolize the cosmic process characterized by extension in all directions, by boundlessness and by infinite divisibility". The art form also reflects the deep interest in numbers and mathematics.

Today we are familiar with the fractal like patterns and symmetry of snowflakes, molecular structures, cells and crystals, including the recently discovered quasicrystals that resemble some of the tiling in the Alhambra. An example of this type of tiling is shown below. I once attempted to create a repeating textile pattern based on this tiling, but found that it is not very symmetrical. This tiling appears in Kepler's note books, many golden sections can be found in the design; which attribute to it's asymmetry.

Surface detail from subBlue on Vimeo.

A Meeting of Minds.

The number 'Five' is a recurring theme in the book; five senses, five protagonists, etc. In geometry the number 5 is represented as a pentagram, in which the golden ratio plays an important part. I incorporated pentagonal designs into the arabesques that appear on the cover.

Although I did not create any geometric patterns for 'Five Wounds' or attempt to represent infinity, I did divide the compositions at the rough stage using laws of golden ratio geometry. This seemingly excessive method of working integrates into the conceptual world of 'Five Wounds', as an anti-historical novel.

'DISEGNO' 3 'FENCING IS GEOMETRY BECAUSE IT'S LINES,CIRCLES, ANGLES, PLANES AND MEASURES. IT'SARITHMETIC BECAUSE IT'S NUMBERS TOO.4 'EVERY MOVEMENT OF THE BODY MAKESAN ANGLE OR AN EDGE. EVERY MOVEMENTOF THE SWORD MARKS A LINE. EVERYGUARD OR COUNTER-GUARD CAN BERENDERED AS A NUMBER. (Extract from Five Wounds)

Nicoletto Giganti's fencing manual. An example of the images Jon sent as reference for the above illustration.

An annotated fencing diagram from Joachim Meyer's - Gründtliche Beschreibung des Fechtens 1570. I found this image on BibliOdyssey. The concept of the 'Five Wounds' illustration, however, was to emphasise the pure, rational drawing; a reference to the separation of 'disegno & colore': "rational form to sensual content", as Jon describes it in his blog post 'Colour in Five Wounds', an important concept in art theory.

Illustration from Dürer’s ‘Four Books on Measurement’. The Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius wrote a book in which he put forward the argument that a building should imitate nature. He based his architectural measurements and proportions on (idealized) proportions of the human body. Artists like Dürer and Da Vinchi created annotated diagrams of the human body inspired by his writings.

Some of my own 'studies' depicting movement and postures using 'Vitruvian' proportions.

Above is an illustration from Cesare Cesariano's book, which includes an Italian translation of Vitruvius' treatise on architecture. Below that is a page from 'Pistols! Treason! Murder!', in which one of Vano's victims is 'framed' in a similar pose.

Five Wounds: Hour of the Wolf

2011-09-02T02:45:00.000-07:00

Magpie, prowling the streets at the 'hour of the wolf'. In this scene can be found:Various drunks- Magpie, a member of the 'Guild of Thieves', chooses to conduct his negotiations when his victims are at their most vulnerable, staggering home from the tavern.Fornicating cats.A noble with two prostitutes.A corrupt security guard selling goods from a warehouse. An angry old lady shouting from her balcony .

Most of the reference material for this illustration were my photos taken on the streets of Venice, during the night, following the 'pub crawl route' from Jonathan Walker's history book 'Pistols! Treason! Murder! The Rise and Fall of a Master Spy'.

One of the Dialog Chapters from 'Pistols!', in which Jon and two other historians, represented in the illustrations as stereotype academics, conduct a discussion on Venice in the 1600's during a bar crawl through modern Venice. These discussions actually took place.

Following this map I created for 'Pistols!' I soon got lost. I did find a pretty good bar though that seemed to be a local hangout for art student-types. It sold Bourbon on ice for 2€, in contrast to the generally high priced bars of Venice and had a background of reggae music. The bar was named after the two dragons fixed to the wall opposite- depicted in a photo above. Via my Castilian & Catalan and their Italian & Venetian I managed to communicate with my fellow drinkers who complained about the lack of night clubs and night life in modern Venice. They had a point, Venice is not the most debauched of cities so I had use imagination when creating the hour of the wolf illustration.

'Gin Lane' by William Hogarth. Created in 1751 in opposition to the 'Gin Craze'. In response to the gin craze, the government put tighter restrictions on sales and higher taxes on gin distilleries. Tea was encouraged as a more industrious stimulant than gin. The working class rioted in response.

First concept sketch. I omitted the fish & chips in the final illustration, but kept the urinating drunk.

Above: The first version, not used in the book.

"The Hour of the Wolf" refers to the time before dusk when, it was believed, dark supernatural forces were at their strongest and wolves would prowl outside peoples' houses; probably looking for scraps to eat, like cats and city foxes scavenging from bins today. On the right is a drawing of the 'Black Dog' from Five Wounds, which accompanies Magpie's nocturnal scene on the facing page of the book. On the left is a photo I took in the Louvre of an Egyptian statue of a jackal (I presume- or dog; I didn't make a note of the label). The jackal was often depicted as black in Egyptian art. A real jackal is, however, not black. The colour black was used as it symbolised both death and regeneration to the ancient Egyptians. Black is the colour of the fertile sediment that is brought by the flooding of the Nile, on which the Egyptian society depended. Black is also the colour that corpses turned during mummification. Jackals would prowl burial sites at night, probably looking for scraps to eat. The ancient Egyptian god associated with death and the afterlife has the head of a jackal.There is more on this in my post about the figure of the 'Black Dog'.

Sketch Book 'Studies'

2011-08-12T07:42:00.001-07:00

Inspired by a Palm Weevil I found on the way home from work.

I drew this from a dead specimen, the colours were vivid hues of blue & turquoise when the dragonfly was alive, but soon faded to the browns seen here. I once wanted to do this for a living as a scientific illustrator.

A drawing inspired by the wave-like movement of a millipede's legs.

Both sketching (from life) and science involve intense observation, imagination and interpretation. Scientists, however, have developed much more advanced tools; enhancing sight via microscopes and telescopes and enhancing interpretation via mathematical models and numeric formulas. You only have to go back as far as Da Vinci's era to see, by his famous anatomical and scientific sketches, or those of Dürer, to see how science and drawing are linked.

Today we have much greater ways to study nature than sketching. Science still, however, depends upon observation and what we decide to look at. Both also consist of trial and error.

Robert Hooke's drawing of the head of a fly from his book 'Micrographia' published in 1665. In his book, amongst other things, Hooke first coins the term 'cell'. New powerful microscopes allowed nature to be observed as never before. 'Spontaneous generation' of organisms was still widely believed at the time however, so flies were thought to be 'born' from rotting of meat (as oppose to eggs being laid on the meat by other flies). Mollusks were believed to arise from wet mud being heated by the sun, the difference in species depended upon the mud's consistency. Today we know that the variation of species depends upon species adapting to their environment, including the consistency of the mud which they live in. Jon included Hooke's illustration in the reference material for 'Pistols!' illustrations.'Micrographia' can be viewd online at the Project Guttenberg.

Drawings of live mantids published in the 'Mantis Study Group Newsletter' from 1997; when I was 16, convinced that I would become an entomologist, and dreamt of one day identifying a new species of insect. I regularly contributed drawings to the 'Phasmid Study Group' newsletters.

A depiction of the 'worms of death' under a microscope slide. Illustration from 'Five Wounds'.

Immortality by Sole and The Skyrider Band

2011-08-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Immortality by Sole and The Skyrider Band. The video and artwork was created by LANDO, sci-fi artist and co-founder of Decadence comic, of which I am a regular contributor, and have been for some years now.
Unless I am mistaken, all of this video was hand drawn and animated using old school stop-motion technique. A lot of sweat & ink went into this, respect is due. Great work Lando!

Textiles in Catalonia

2011-08-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

During 2010 I began some personal projects. One of these projects was an ambitious drawing project documenting 'The Effects of the Textile Industry on Catalan Society'; drawing factories from the eara of the Catalan industrial revolution; 'utopian' workers' colonies of the 1800's; the cheap housing estates built in the seventies to accommodate the influx of workers brought from the south during the textile 'boom'; the closed down factories of the recent past & present and contemporary textile giants like Inditex.

My first stop was at the utopian workers' town of Colonia Güell. Brain child of Gaudi's patron, the industrialist Count Eusebi de Güell. Above is a drawing of the entrance to the Gaudi designed crypt, the drawing below was drawn inside the building.

Some photos of the village:

A photo taken from the limits of Colonia Güell, looking to the neighboring modern village:

The Church drawings do not say much about the impact of the textile industry on society (other than the church it's self would probably not exist without the funding from textile profits) but, like most personal projects, the subjects are prone to change.
The drawing below for example is of the ruin of a castle style mansion that sits beside the road to Colonia Güell. I drew this back in the studio from photos I took of the interior and exterior. I don't know whether or not this building is related to textiles in any way. There is a lot more graffiti and beer bottles in the actual ruin.

The drawing at the rough stage. Above is a drawing of a female glow worm I found outside the ruin.

Five Wounds review @ The Spectator Book Blog

2011-07-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

Isabel Sutton has written a review of Five Wounds for The spectator Book Blog.
Here is an extract:

"...perhaps ‘describe’ isn’t the most appropriate word when you consider the principles on which this unusual book is constructed. The images don’t just visually present what has been related in words; instead they provide an interpretation or even an additional layer of the story being told."

Above is the rough pencil artwork of the leviathan described in the review.

Five Wounds: Influences 3

2011-06-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

An illustration from Five Wounds depicting the mystics and charlatans that gathered around the baby Gabriella (born with wings) to interpret her groans and murmurs.

This is the rough. I was reminded of a similar drawing which appears in Ralph Steadman's book 'The Big I Am', which can be seen bottom right of this webpage. Steadman was held in very high regard at the art college I attended in Northampton, the lecturer lent me Books by Steadman, and I was blown away by his illustration.

I included the monk on the right of this etching in my own illustration as a homage to Goya; one of the biggest influences stylistically on the Five Wounds illustrations. Below is a plate (a variation that did not make the final edit of the book) scripted by Jon, which references Goya's famous work "The Sleep (or Dream) of Reason Produces Monsters"

On the 'plates' we even mimicked the textures and effects of Goya's print making technique, although I used photoshop and scanned in textures I made with tea, sand and paint. Below is an enlarged section showing the result of these experiments:

Jonathan Walker has a more in depth article explaining the Goya influence on his blog entitled 'Five Wounds: Photographs and Etchings'.

'The Gospel of Bu-Ba-Baff' refers to the sounds made by the infant Gabriella which the mystics attempt to interpret. I did not at the time, but it is also a quote from Umberto Eco's novel 'The Name of the Rose'. Whilst studying illustration (almost a decade ago) I was given 'The Name of the Rose' to read and interpret as a book. The results are below. My 'art book' was influenced by illuminated manuscripts and I created these double page spreads using the program photoshop for the first time.

Five Wounds: Influences

2011-06-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

Giovanni Battista Piranesi: 'Imaginary Prisons' One of 14 etching published in 1750 depicting enormous closed spaces often industrial or unpopulated.

Five Wounds Illustration of Cur in the foundry. The lighting for this illustration had to be 'soft & diffused' in reference to the page header. Jon sent me photos of disused factories and foundries for reference.

The following artists' work came in useful for drawing water. I live by the sea, so I used first hand reference too.

Illustration by William Blake.

William Hogarth: One of the prints from the series 'Industry and Idleness

Five Wounds Illustration of Cur Drowning.
The original concept for this illustration was very different.

Five Wounds- Marbling

2011-05-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

The majority of the illustrations in Five Wounds were drawn with a rotring pen and felt tips; my habitual way of working. Others however, involved different techniques and some experimentation. Jon had the idea of using marbling for the endpapers. Jon's idea was to incorporate the colours of the five protagonists in a marbled design. The last time I had tried marbling was at school and I wasn't too sure how to 'marble', but I made my first attempt using black ink.

The experience was enjoyable and I 'discovered' by accident that if the paper is wet it repels the ink, or rather (obviously) more ink is absorbed by dry paper. My first reaction to this was a hand print, a bit like the first cave paintings when humans discovered mark making. This design is shown above, I was particularly pleased with it and thought it would be great as an endpaper design as it also related to the annotated hand on the cover and the element of water, which plays an important role in Five Wounds (and probably one of the reasons why Jon chose to use marbling in the book).

The finger prints at either side of this print was my 'eureka' moment. I also thought that this looked a bit like Crow- the alchemist in Five Wounds. My other marbling designs seemed to yield images of the protagonists or scenes from Five Wounds, but once my initial enthusiasm had died down they just looked like swirls and would be incomprehensible to anyone else.

Crow.

We scrapped the marbled endpaper idea in the end. The actual endpapers for Five Wounds are taken from a hand painted illustration in the book based upon Tintoretto's Paradise. The image features all five protagonists and is blown up the show the textures of the paint, a section of this is shown above. Jon has the full size image and the other half of the Five Wounds Paradise diptych on his blog, along with an explication of this illustration in an article entitled Colour in Five Wounds.

We did put marbling to effective use in the book, in the form of an annotation for 'MILK AND BISCUITS'

FIVE WOUNDS @ the Spectator Book Blog

2011-05-16T13:03:00.001-07:00

Jonathan Walker has written an intriguing article on the Spectator Book Blog about how Five wounds is influenced by the design of the King James Bible, which celebrates it's 400th anniversary this year.
All pages were laid out by Zoë Sadokierski, the Five Wounds designer, before I added the illustrations.

FIVE WOUNDS- UK release!

2011-05-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Five Wounds is due to be released on the 5th May in the UK! A PDF of the first chapter can be downloaded for FREE from the Five Wounds website.

"In a cruel and arbitrary world, wheredisturbing lapses in logic are commonplace, five orphans must face theirtraumatic origins.

Gabriella is a crippled angel, haunted byher inability to interpret prophecies. Cur is the rabid leader of a sect ofdogs, desperate to escape his inheritance. Cuckoo is a gambler with a wax facedetermined to find a fixed identity before his luck runs out. Magpie is a thiefin search of the perfect photographic subject, but terrified of going blind.Crow is a leper trying to distil the essence of death as an antidote to dying.

Each of them is deformed;each has a special ability; each is connected to all of the others. And eachgets exactly what they deserve. Or do they?"

Where to buy Five Wounds in the UK:

The Book Depository UK.

Five Wounds at Francis Lincoln Publishers.

Buy Five Wounds from Amazon UK.

National Family Week

2011-05-04T01:09:00.001-07:00

I created these fun drawings for the UK National Family Week. They are available to download and colour-in from the family week website and the 'Family Time' free magazine.

They were created for an age range of 4-14, but may you have fun clouring them, what ever your age!

Five Wounds- Interview for the Wheeler Centre.

2011-04-30T02:11:00.001-07:00

Jonathan Walker recently gave this interview on Five Wounds for The Wheeler Centre

WAITING ROOM SKETCHES

2011-04-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Aurealis Awards

2011-03-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to announce that 'Five Wounds' is among the shortlisted titles for 'Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel' in the 2010 Aurealis Awards.
A Big Congratulations to all nominees!!

Double page spreads from EL GLOBO.

2011-03-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

Five Wounds- 'Literary Minded' Review.

2011-02-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

Lyndon Riggall has written a guest review of Five Wounds for writer Angela Meyer's 'Literary Minded'. An excerpt of the review is below:

"The book lives through its words and breathes through its pictures - one is inseparable from the other. Like the five intertwining stories of its main characters, so too do the different forms of the narrative intertwine into one powerful hydra of a novel."

A page from Five Wounds.

'Modern Dystopia' at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

2011-02-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

Writer & art director of 'Five Wounds' Jonathan Walker has uploaded, on his blog, a discussion on 'Modern Dystopia' by himself and prize winning author DBC Pierre which was recorded at the Melbourne Writers festival back in August.

The 'Wheel of Fortune' illustration from Five Wounds, which is mentioned in the session.

Below are example of wheels of fortune sent by Jon as reference:

Below are two other illustrations related to wheels of fortune:

A medieval illustration which relates the wheel of fortune with the agricultural cycle.

This illustration was created Thomas Vaugham in the 1600's. Which possibly advises against possessiveness in order to live a dynamic life. I can't say for sure however. This drawing may even use the possibilities of steam power & the wheel to symbolise mobility, but I really am speculating now.

'Peace Cloud'

2010-10-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Pages from my short comic story 'Peace Cloud', which will be included in the next issue of the comics anthology 'Decadence', issue #8- Futures Weapons.

Look out for the Decadence stand at the MCM Expo in London, the end of this month.

For the scenes of physical struggle, depicted in my 'Peace Cloud' comic strip, I looked at Utagawa Kuniyoshi'd print illustrations for the fourteenth century Chinese Novel 'Stories of the Water Margin'.

The novel tells the story of a legendary criminal organisation that fought against corrupt officials and, who's members were seen as a kind of peoples' heroes. The 108 'honorable outlaws' that made up the gang were from all walks of life and, often, once respected officials that had been banished out of the rigid feudal society of the time. Talented individuals are sometimes persuaded to join the gang by blackmail or by the members eliminating obstacles to them joining- including family members and lovers.

Kuniyoshi began the prints series in the 1820's. The illustrations depict some of the 108 outlaws written about in the novel. Each villain had a special talent or was capable of super human abilities.

I particularly like the expressive way in which the gesture of the figures in Kunyoshi's prints seems to impose on the anatomy of the characters; like the force of the action distorts the physical. The general composition often reflects the tension of the movement.

The character depicted in this print is Kojoso Jisen, also known as "flea on a drum"; a common thief of dogs and chikens, but who has the super human ability to jump amazing heights.

*You can now view the whole 'Peace Cloud' Strip on my flickr.

Five Wounds review at Smṛti-Śruti

2010-09-28T05:53:00.001-07:00

A particularly in-depth review of 'Five Wounds' can be read on the Smṛti-Śruti blog "Dedicated to the dark arts of the bibliophile". Plenty of research has been put into it, with web links and further reading.

Cur in the Foundry. One of the illustrations discussed in the review.

Parc de la Ciutadella

2010-08-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

Sketches made in the Parc de la Cuitadella, Barcelona- one of my habitual drawing locations.

Unos dibujos realizados en el Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona- uno de mis lugares habituales para dibujar.Various drawings of the specimens on display at the Zoology Museum. The museum has been closed for the past year & the collection relocated, but it was a regular drawing location of mine when visiting the park.

Plaça de Tetuan, Barcelona.

Interlude 2

2010-08-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

By clicking on the picture below you can see the drawing which will be the four page spread for the 'interlude' in issue 2 my comic 'EL GLOBO'. Theme being communication, the last interlude was loosely based around water.
Al apretar en la imagen de abajo puedes ver lo que será el desplegable de cuatro páginas para el "interludio" en mi cómic EL GLOBO-capítulo 2. La tema: la comunicación, el interludio para EL GLOBO#1 fue basada sobra la agua.

Both interlude 1 and 2 are set in desert like environments. Interlude 2 makes references to dealing with a world of limited recourses; there are various contraptions to enhance wind energy. The themes of commerce and communication are dominant along with inventiveness and craft; a to the left is a kind of open market built from a structure of bamboo and twinning.

The drawing part-way through. The 'market' market structure can be seen here more clearly. I created the illustration as a kind of automatic drawing, inventing it as I went along. Below are photos I took in Tokyo, which came in useful.

Japanese miniatures (netsuke) sketched in the American Museum of Natural History NY.
I used this netsuke (the one depicting two amputees) in 'Interlude #2'; I thought that they represented well the idea of communication and cooperation; important in a world of limited recourses.

I made this sketch in 2007, but was reminded of it again whilst watching Alejandro Jodorowsky's film 'El Topo' in which two similar characters appear.

Exhibition- Els Fogons de la Teresa

2010-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

(Santuari de la Misericòrdia, Canet de Mar)

I'm busy sketching right now; in october I will be exhibiting work in the restaurant 'Els Fogons de la Teresa' in Canet de Mar. The work on display will be mainly sketches of public spaces in Catalonia.
In this example I have used the 'jump-cut' technique, to unify the two drawings, which was applied to the double page spread illustrations in Jonathan walker's novel 'Five Wounds'. It probably would not have occurred in this drawing if I had not left my 'big' sketch pad at a friend's flat. Effective technique.

Estoy liado en este momento dibujando; para el mes de octubre voy a exponer mi trabajo en el restaurante 'Els Fogons de la Teresa' en Canet de Mar. La obra en exhibición será principalmente dibujos de los espacios públicos en Cataluña.
En este ejemplo he utilizado la misma técnica aplicada a los ilustraciones que atraviesen paginas dobles del libro ‘Five Wounds’, escrito por Jonathan Walker, en que dos ilustraciones distintos están unificados por un detalle repetido en ambos. Probablemente no se habría pasado si no hubiera dejado mi bloc de dibujos "grande" en el piso de unos amigos. Es una técnica muy efectivo.

Five Wounds: Dogs

2010-08-09T01:45:00.000-07:00

(a dog in modern Venice/ Un perro en Venecia moderna)

Jonathan Walker has published an article on his blog discussing the use of dogs in Five Wounds.

Jonathan Walker ha publicado un artículo en su blog explicando el uso de perros en 'Five Wounds'.

Five Wounds on 'The View From Here'

2010-05-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

Paul Burman recently interviewed Jonathan Walker & I for the online literary magazine The View From Here. The interview gives an indepth account of our collaboration on 'Five Wounds'. This interview is accompanied by a review of 'Five Wounds', also written by Paul Burman.

Escritor Paul Burman ha entrevistado a Jonathan Walker y a mi para la revista literaria ‘The View From Here’. La entrevista explica con más detalle nuestra colaboración en ‘Five Wounds’. Esta entrevista se acompaña de una crítica de ‘Five Wounds’, también escrita por Paul Burman.

The Making of Five Wounds on Spike.

2010-05-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

(A storyboard sketch created by Jon to accompany his written script for 'Initiation')

Jonathan Walker has written two guest posts for Spike, the blog of the australian literary journal Meanjin. In the first post, Jon explains our working relationship and reflects upon the task of writing an illustration brief. In the second post, the wider collaborative process of creating the finished book is discussed, along with the 'Five Wounds' approach to collaboration.

Jonathan Walker will be appearing at the Sydney Writers' Festival this weekend, along with award-winning comic writer/artist Josh Neufeld and 'Five Wounds' designer Zoë Sadokierski.

'Five Wounds' is Released!

2010-04-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, the first of May, is the official release date of 'Five wounds'!!
For anybody in Australia; Jonathan Walker will be signing books tomorrow in the Kinokuniya bookshop in Sydney.

the first chapter is downloadable free from Jonathan Walker's website.

¡Este sábado, el primero de mayo, ‘Five Wounds’ sale a la venta!
Si estás en Australia: Jonathan Walker estará firmando libros mañana en la librería Kinokuniya en Sydney.

el primer capítulo se puede descargar gratis desde el web de Jonathan Walker.

Visual Writing

2010-04-30T04:54:00.000-07:00

Zoë Sadokierski, the graphic designer of 'Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel', has made her thesis available to download from her blog.
Zoë examines the use of graphic devises with written text in, what she refers to as, 'hybrid novels'.
I am currently reading it myself.

Zoë Sadokierski, la diseñadora gráfica de "Five Wounds: Una novela Iluminado", ha hecho su tesis disponible para descarga de su blog.
Zoë examina el uso de elementos gráficos ajunto con texto en, lo que ella se refiere como, ‘novelas híbridas’.
Actualmente estoy leyendo lo (está en inglés).

EL GLOBO #1

2010-04-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

The first issue of 'EL GLOBO' has been completed!
El primer número de 'El Globo' se ha terminado!
Up-date: June 2010:

EL GLOBO #1-¡¡¡ la primera edición ya se puede comprar en Barcelona y pronto a través de Internet!!! La edición hecha a mano todavía se pueden comprar en Vallery y Ras.
EL GLOBO #1- the first edition can now be bought in Barcelona and soon over the internet!!!
The hand made edition can still be bought from Vallery and Ras.

He incorporado en las viñetas de 'Camino Interminable', en El Globo, una adaptación de un cómic que creé en 2005 Para el comic Decadence # 5, que se puede ver aquí.

Below are the two earlier strips that I fused for the above strip- one imaginative, the other biographical :

a comic strip I created in 2005 for Decadence #5, which you can see here.

In Feb 2008 I began a comic in which I am the protagonist. Based upon a mixture of dreams and memories it has a non-linear narrative, punctuated with 'interludes' and was created unscripted, a page at a time.

Five Wounds: 'BARATTARE' IS TO 'BARARE' AS GABRIELLA IS TO CUCKOO

2010-04-16T03:09:00.000-07:00

These two images appear on either side of a double page spread. The brief was as follows:

126-7: 2xB [Blow-up fragments of Bagatto, or redrawn images to exemplify the themes of banker / moneychanger (Gabriella) and gambler / trickster (Cuckoo). Whatever appears here should ‘rhyme’ with the Bagatto stand-alone. Don’t really want to just ‘quote’ the stand-alone pic. These two pix should probably also refer back in some way to the double Cuckoo pix at 60-61.]

Estas dos imágenes aparecen a ambos lados de una doble página. Las instrucciones fueron el siguiente:

Fragmentos ampliados del Bagatto, o vuelve a dibujar imágenes para ilustrar los temas de banquero / cambiante (Gabriella) y jugador / estafador (Cuckoo). Lo que aparece aquí debe "rima" con la Bagatto ilustración. Realmente no quiero simplemente 'cita' el Bagatto ilustración de antes.

This is the image of Bagatto used in the separate Plates section, which is referred to in the brief.

Esta es la Bagatto ilustración a que se refiere en las instrucciones.

Bagatto

The brief Jon provided for the original Bagatto stand-alone illustration was to create a scene similar to the ones shown on these Bagatto playing cards, which were sent as reference material.

The three illustrations accompany a chapter in the book in which Gabriella and Cuckoo have their first conversation, a kind of ice breaker between the two, discussing the iconography on playing cards. Jon describes this as a 'seduction scene', but one carried out entirely through dialogue on an apparently unrelated subject.

In the narrative Cuckoo explains that the 'Bagatto' card, which Gabriella knows as the 'Magician' in the Tarot, has more than one meaning, or at least that its meaning is obscured by its name, which relates to two words: 'barattare', which means 'exchange' and 'barare' which means 'cheat'. Cuckoo believes that the image shows a money changer and/or a con-man playing the game where you have to guess which cup the ball is under (sometimes known as 'Three-card monte').

Las instrucciones para crear la Bagatto ilustración fueron para crear una escena similar a las que se muestran en estas cartas de Bagatto, que fueron enviados de Jon como material de referencia.

Las tres ilustraciones acompañan a un capítulo en el libro en el que Gabriella y cuckoo tienen su primera conversación, una especie de romper el hielo entre los dos, hablando de la iconografía de la baraja. Jon describe ese capitulo como una escena de ‘seducción’, pero que se llevó a cabo completamente a través de un diálogo sobre un tema que en apariencia no tiene relación.

Cuckoo explica que la carta de Bagatto, que Gabriella conoce como el ‘mago’ en el tarot, tiene más de un significado, o al menos que su significado está oculto por que su nombre tiene sus raíces en dos palabras distintas: ‘Barattare’, lo que significa ‘intercambio’ y ‘barare’, que significa ‘engañar’. Cuckoo cree que la imagen muestra un cambiador de dinero y / o un estafador quiza jugando el juego en que tienes que adivinar cuál de las copas está la bola.

Roughs / Bocetos

After some deliberation, I started work on 'Gabriella the banker' & 'Cuckoo the trickster', but losing the silly hats from my original doodles. The two figures and compositions in the new illustrations had to oppose or complement one another in a similar way to the figures in the original Bagatto stand-alone illustration.

Después de algunas deliberaciones, comencé a trabajar en ‘Gabriella el banquero’ y ‘Cuckoo el estafador’, pero sacando los sombreros tontos de mis bocetos originales. Las dos figuras y composiciones en las dos ilustraciones tuvo que oponerse o complementarse unas a otras de una manera parecido a la ‘Bagatto ilustración’.

Reference Material / Material de referencia

('The Conjurer' Hieronymus Bosch -1500's / 'El pretigigitador / ratero' por El Bosco -1500's)

This image was sent to me by Jon. The painting shows a 'fool' being distracted by a ball & cup game whilst having his purse stolen from behind by the trickster's accomplice. Tourists visiting Barcelona, who are obviously unaware of this painting, still fall for the same trick on the Ramblas, so much so that recently the council erected posters warning of the cup & ball trick, with the slogan in English 'This is Not a Game'.

Esta imagen me fue enviada por Jon. El cuadro muestra a un ‘tonto’ ser distraído por el juego de la bola abajo las copas, mientras un cómplice está robando su cartera por detrás. Los turistas que visitan Barcelona, que obviamente no son conscientes de esta pintura, todavía caer en el mismo truco en las Ramblas, hasta tal punto que recientemente el ayuntamiento pusieron carteles de advertencia con la frase en Inglés “This is Not a Game”.

'The Money Changer and His Wife' (on the left) Quentin Massys -1514 (on the right) Marinus van Reymerswaele -1539. / 'El cambista y su mujer' por Quentin Massys -1514 (a la izquierda) Marinus van Reymerswaele -1539 (a la derecha).

Visual elements used in the illustrations / Los elementos visuales utilizados en las ilustraciones

Cuckoo:

Cuckoo's gloves are taken off and laid on the table. Cuckoo always wears gloves whilst gambling, the fact that they are explicitly off reflects the beginning of intimacy in the narrative.

The facing card on the table is the 'knave of coins'. This card in Tarot (an interest of Gabriella) is related to prosperity and material wealth.

Cuckoo's finger is pointing to an empty space under the cup. As he says in the book: "the bean is never under the cup you choose, but you're always sure it'll be there next time...". His hand is turned as if he could also be pointing up into the cup. The position of the hand is contrary to Gabriella's, whose hand is turned the other way, pointing down to a book.

Las guantes de cuckoo están sacados y puesto sobre la mesa. Cuckoo siempre lleva guantes para jugar. El hecho de que están explícitamente sacadas refleja el principio de la intimidad en la narrativa.

La primera carta en la baraja es ‘la sota de oros’. Esta tarjeta en Tarot (un interés de Gabriella) se relaciona con la prosperidad y la riqueza material.

El dedo de Cuckoo está señalando a un espacio vacío debajo de la taza: "la bola no está en la taza que elijas, pero siempre estás seguro de que estaré allí la próxima vez ...". Su mano está girada como si él también podría estar señalando hacia arriba en la taza. La posición de la mano está contraria a Gabriella. La mano de Gabriella se gira en sentido contrario, hacia abajo a un libro.

Gabriela:

Gabriella, who is a crippled angel, is holding some scales, which in this case are also a reference to judgement, which is discussed in the text. She is surrounded by keys, coins and other paraphernalia associated with banking.

Gabriella is pointing to what appears to be an account book. What is on the pages however is associated with Gabriella's role as interpreter and her preoccupation with codes and ciphers, rather than banking or tricksters. Although both diagrams concern the values and qualities of numbers. The other diagrams below the main two are garbled generic diagrams.

Gabriella, quien es un ángel discapacitada, aguanta algunas escalas, que en este caso son también una referencia a juicio, que se discute en el texto. Ella está rodeada de llaves, monedas y demás parafernalia asociada con el banquero.

Gabriella está señalando a lo que parece ser un libro de cuentas. Qué hay en las páginas sin embargo se asocia con el papel de Gabriella como intérprete y su preocupación por los códigos y sistemas de cifrado, en lugar de banquero o estafador. Aunque ambos de los diagramas se refieren a los valores y cualidades de los números, como las cartas. Los otros diagramas debajo de los dos principales son ilegibles diagramas genéricos.

On the left is a magic square taken, again, from Dürer's 'Melencolia I'. It can only be recognised in the illustration by a couple of numbers. Magic squares first appeared in China around 650 and were later known to Islamic mathematicians through contact with India in the seventh century.

The chart on the right, which is only recognisable by its diagonal dividing lines, actually has more to do with the science of letters than numbers. It is taken from Sufi, a philosophy in which letters have inherent qualities and values that are 'alive' when made into a word. Letters also have their corresponding numerical values. Numbers, it is said in Sufi, are the root of all sciences.

A la izquierda hay un cuadrado mágico, lo mismo que aparece en el grabado ‘Melancolia I’ de Durero. Sólo puede ser reconocida en la ilustración por un par de los números. Cuadrados mágicos apareció por primera vez en China alrededor de 650 y más tarde fueron conocidos por los matemáticos islámicos a través del contacto con la India en el siglo VII.

La tabla de la derecha, que sólo es reconocible por las líneas divisorias diagonales, en realidad tiene más que ver con la ciencia de las letras que los números. Se toma de sufí, una filosofía en la que las letras tienen cualidades inherentes y sus valores están "vivos" cuando se hacen en una palabra. Las letras también tienen sus valores numéricos correspondientes, como se muestra en el gráfico.

Perhaps Dürer's magic square represents Cuckoo's view of cards: "I look objectively. I count numbers". By contrast, the Sufi chart represents Gabriella's more subjective interpretations.

Quizá el cuadrado mágico de Durero representa la visión de las cartas de Cuckoo: "Yo veo objetivamente. Yo cuento numeros". El gráfico de sufí representa las interpretaciones más subjetivas de Gabriella.

These diagrams along with some other elements, however are not essential to understand and appreciate the illustrations in context in relation to the text. I am just giving a further explication of my thoughts and the process involved in composing the images.

Estos diagramas junto con algunos otros elementos, sin embargo, no son imprescindibles para comprender y apreciar las ilustraciones en el contexto con la historia. Solo doy una explicación más de mis pensamientos y el proceso involucrado en la composición de las imágenes.

'Five Wounds': The Black Dog/El Perro Negro

2010-04-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

The black dog, the highest ranking member of the mafia of dogs, which Cur, one of the five main protagonists of 'Five Wounds', is destined to lead. This 'unnaturally black dog' is the object of fear and an omen of devilish deeds to the superstitious inhabitants of 'Five Wounds'. This reputation is perpetuated by the 'Comittee for Public Health' who order, from Mr.X, black dogs to urinate on selected door posts, as a portent of doom, in an area of the city where the government is planning a controlled outbreak of the plague.

El perro negro es el miembro mas prominente de la mafia de los perros, que Cur, uno de los cinco protagonistas principales del 'Five Wounds', está destinado a mandar. Este "perro de negro antinatural” es el objeto de temor y un presagio de actos diabólicos a los habitantes supersticiosos de "Five Wounds". Esta reputación se ve perpetuada por el ‘Comité de Salud Pública’. Ese comité piden, de Mr.X, perros negros para orinar sobre postes de las puertas seleccionadas, como un presagio de fatalidad, en una zona de la ciudad donde el gobierno está planeando un brote controlado de la peste para controlar la población.

The Ghetto/El Gueto

(The Venetian Ghetto today/El gueto de Venecia hoy en día)

The sect of dogs is based in the Ghetto. The Ghetto in Venice was the area of the city where the Jewish community was forced to live. Its boundaries were controlled and policed by night. Due to the population being forced to grow in an enclosed area, the houses in the Ghetto had an unusually high number of floors, perhaps the equivalent to today's tower blocks.

La secta de los perros se basa en el gueto en una zona asignado por el gobierno. El Ghetto de Venecia fue la zona de la ciudad donde la comunidad judía fue obligado a vivir. Sus límites eran controlados y vigilados por la noche. La población fue obligado a crecer en una zona cerrada y limitada, como resultado las casas eran unas de las mas altos del ciudad. Tal vez eran el equivalente a los pisos altos en algunos barrios de vivienda pública.

The Black Dog/ El Perro Negro

(Goya's black dog/ El pero negro de Goya)

Jon & I never discussed what the black dog meant, so I made my own interpretations and drew my own conclusions from his writing, as I was encouraged to do so. The figure of the black dog is most recognized as a metaphor for depression, possibly made widely known by Winston Churchill, who referred to his own depressive moods in this way.

Jon y yo nunca hablemos de lo que representa el perro negro, así que hice mis propias interpretaciones y llegue a mis propias conclusiones de su escrito, como me animó a hacer. La figura del perro negro es más reconocida como una metáfora para la depresión, posiblemente den a conocer ampliamente por Winston Churchill, quien se refirió a sus propios episodios depresivos de esta manera.

The Black Dog of Myth/ El Perro Negro del Mito

"If a man shall meet the Black Dog once, it shall be for joy; and if twice, it shall be for sorrow; and the third time, he shall die".

Another 'black dog' is the mythological phantom black dog from folklore, a giant dog with glowing eyes, believed to be a terrifying portent of death, although on other accounts it is protective and watches over people making their way home at night. Most people will be aware of the ghost dog in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Otro "perro negro", el mitológico perro fantasma del folclore, un perro gigantesca con ojos brilliando, que se cree un presagio terrible de la muerte. Aunque en otras cuentas el perro negro protege y cuida a la gente haciendo su camino a casa por la noche. Mucha gente será consciente del perro fantasma en "El sabueso de los Baskervilles" de Sherlock Holmes.

Jin Jarmusch wrote and directed a film entitled 'Ghost Dog'. The main protagonist, played by Forest Whitaker, is an African American assassin who dedicates his life to the samurai code and calls himself 'Ghost Dog'. As the film progresses he finds himself at war with an aging Italian mafia. Both Ghost Dog and the mafia are bound by codes of honor that seem out dated or at odds with the changing and modern world around them. Here is a scene in which Forest Whitaker encounters a mysterious dog, which latter appears on a second occasion in the film, observing him:

Ghost Dog link

Jin Jarmusch escribió y dirigió una película titulada 'Ghost Dog' (Perro Fantasma). El protagonista principal, interpretado por Forest Whitaker, es un asesino afroamericano que dedica su vida al código samurai y se hace llamar 'Ghost Dog'. Ghost dog se encuentra en guerra con una mafia italiana compuesto por hombres ya mayores. Ambos Ghost Dog y la mafia están obligados por códigos de honor que parecen fuera de fecha o en desacuerdo con el mundo cambiante y moderno que les rodea. Aquí hay una escena en la que Forest Whitaker se encuentra por la primera vez con un perro misterioso que lo observa:

Ghost Dog link

Despite the mythological figure of the black dog and the actual ghetto in Venice, in today's world, when reading the first chapter of 'Five Wounds' and seeing words together on the page such as: black, Ghetto, tribal, Mr. X, it is unavoidable not to make an association with Afro American culture. This was a theme never discussed between Jon & myself. As I mentioned before, I was to react to the book with my own intuition to a certain extent.

In the same way in which the government in 'Five Wounds' exploited the fears of its subjects of the figure of the Black Dog, I exploited the negative visual iconography of perceived causes of fear, associated with Afro American culture in the illustrations of the black dog. This does not mean I share these prejudices: rather, I am drawing attention to how they shape or have shaped people's perceptions.

A pesar de la figura mitológica del perro negro y el ghetto real en Venecia, en el mundo de hoy, al leer el primer capítulo de 'Five Wounds- y ver las palabras en la página, tales como: negro, Ghetto, tribales, el señor X, es inevitable no hacer una asociación con la cultura afroamericano. Este fue una tema nunca mencionada entre Jon y yo. Como mencioné antes, yo iba a reaccionar ante el libro con mi propia intuición.

De la misma manera en que el gobierno en ‘Five Wounds’ explotan los temores de sus súbditos del perro negro, yo exploté la iconografía negativo, o causas percibidas de miedo, asociada a la cultura afroamericano en las ilustraciones del perro negro. Esto no significa que me compartir estos prejuicios: más bien, estoy llamando la atención sobre la forma en que han dado percepción en nuestra propia sociedad.

The Gold Chain/La Cadena de Oro

The brief here was to draw the black dog with a fob watch on a chain, relating to the running header 'The hour of the wolf', which refers to the early morning hours before dawn in which people believed dark supernatural powers were at their strongest and wolves would prowl outside houses (on my flikr there is information on how this particular illustration relates to the Egyptian jackal).

I decided on drawing the fob watch dangling from a gold chain around the dog's neck after two failed attempts; one of the dog holding it in his mouth & another held awkwardly in its paw.

The oversized watch dangling around the dog's neck would make some think of Flavor Flav from Public Enemy. A more important element in the drawing however is the gold chain itself. The gold chain is a sign of material wealth and status symbol associated with gangsta rap, also typically with London mobsters.

Gangsta rap is a big business sub-genre of hip-hop, and surely the image of hip-hop music most promoted by today's mass media. Gangsta rap is often criticised as promoting and perpetuating a criminal image of the Afro American male.

The use of gold chains, along with diamonds (the raw materials of both often come from Africa and as the result of exploitative industries) as status symbols are often criticised by less gangster-like rappers such as, comic book inspired MF DOOM, or Saul Williams, whose lyric in 'Coded Language', "We know that the heart is the philosopher's stone. Our music is our alchemy" has relevance to my last post; Hip hop, along with dub, being a good example of 'Solve et Coagula', explained in the Alan Moore video, for it's use of sampling & loops.

Las instrucciones eran para dibujar el perro negro con un rejoj de bolsillo con cadena, en referencia con el título de la pagína 'La hora del lobo ", que se refiere a las horas de la mañana antes del amanecer en el que la gente creía que los poderes oscuros y sobrenaturales eran en su más fuerte y lobos merodean fuera de las casas.

Me decidí por dibujar el reloj de bolsillo que colgaba de una cadena de oro alrededor del cuello del perro, después de dos intentos fallidos, uno con el rejoy en la boca del perro y otro cogiendolo torpemente en su pata.

El reloj de gran tamaño colgando alrededor del cuello del perro haría algunos piensan de Flavor Flav de Public Enemy. Un elemento más importante en el dibujo sin embargo, es la cadena de oro en sí. La cadena de oro es un signo de riqueza material y símbolo de estatus asociado con el gangsta rap, también típicamente con mafiosos de Londres.

Gangsta rap es un gran negocio y sub-género del hip-hop, y seguramente la imagen de la música hip-hop más promovidos por los medios de comunicación de hoy. Gangsta rap es a menudo criticada por promocionar y perpetuar una imagen criminal del afroamericano.

El uso de cadenas de oro, junto con diamantes (las materias primas de ambos a menudo provienen de África y como resultado de las industrias de explotación) como símbolo de estatus son a menudo criticadas por raperos menos gangsta como (un rapero inspirado por los comics) MF DOOM, o Saúl Williams, cuya letra en ‘Coded Language’ (lenguaje codificado), "Sabemos que el corazón es la piedra filosofal. Nuestra música es nuestra alquimia" tiene importancia para mi último post, Hip hop, junto con el dub por su uso de muestras y loops es un buen ejemplo de "Solve et Coagula”, como explicado en el video por Alan Moore.

Voodoo/Vudú

(Voodoo diagrams or Veve/ diagramas de vudú o vévé)

In more superstitious times, before gangsta rap, the practice of voodoo was feared and misconceived as a malevolent and satanic practice.

The practice of voodoo, through the language of symbols and ritual, is intended to communicate to spirits who act as mediators between humanity and divinity. These mediators, sometimes legendary heroes or passed away members of the community, are none the less manifestations of an absolute creator who is not concerned with worldly matters, similar then to the Christian idea of the Intercession of Saints.

In the drama surrounding the story that the villagers tell of Cur's kidnapping, it is not hard to associate the black dog's claw marks left outside the baby's house in intricate and deliberate patterns and the circle of sacrificed chickens at Cur's initiation with common perceptions of Voodoo.

So, in the illustration of Mr.X drawing patterns in the dust next to the body of a dead black dog, I used a garbled (and deliberately asymmetrical) mixture of two voodoo diagrams: one used in in the consecration of a temple and another used for initiation.

En tiempos más supersticiosos, antes que el gangsta rap, la práctica del vudú era temido y mal concebida como una práctica malévola y satánica.

La práctica del vudú, a través del lenguaje de los símbolos y rituales, se intenta a comunicar a los espíritus que actúan como mediadores entre la humanidad y la divinidad. Estos mediadores sin embargo son manifestaciones de un solo creador absoluto que no se ocupa de las asuntas mundanas, parecido entonces a la idea cristiana de la intercesión de los santos.

En el drama que rodea la historia de secuestro de Cur, que cuentan la gente de su pueblo, no es difícil asociar las marcas intrincados y deliberada que hace el perro negro fura de la casa de Cur y el círculo de los pollos sacrificados a la iniciación con la percepción común de vudú.

Así, en la ilustración de Mr.X dibujando formas en el polvo junto al cadáver de un perro negro muerto, he usado una confusa (y deliberadamente asimétrica) mezcla de dos diagramas de vudú: uno que se usa en en la consagración de un templo y el otro utilizado para la iniciación.

The Gondolier/ El Gondolero

(Click on the image to enlarge/ Haga click para ampliar la imagen)

Cur's enemy and oppressor, the Black Dog, in a way also represents his own negative image of himself as a further inner conflict (an explication of Cur's character can be seen here on Jonathan Walker's blog) and (not coincidentally) also is a symbol of depression. Both of which have to be overcome for Cur to gain his freedom.

In the book, the image of Mr X's foot nudging the body of the black dog is linked with another showing the upper half of a gondolier. They are two different characters, but they can be combined imaginatively to make a single image. The complete image, by combining the illustrations from pages 126 and 127, now could be interpreted as a symbolic exorcism or psychological ritual to accompany Cur's escape from the mafia and the ghetto: the Gondolier being the 'mediator' who must take Cur across the river on his unconscious journey.

El enemigo y opresor de Cur, el Perro Negro, de una manera representa a su propia imagen negativa de sí mismo como otro conflicto interno (una explicación de carácter de Cur se puede ver aquí en el blog de Jonathan Walker) y (no por casualidad) también es un símbolo de la depresión . Ambos de los cuales se han de superar para obtener su libertad.

En el libro, la imagen de pie del Sr. X empujando el cuerpo del perro negro está relacionada con otra que muestra la mitad superior de un gondolero. Son dos caracteres diferentes, pero con imaginación se pueden combinar para hacer una sola imagen. La imagen completa, con la combinación de las ilustraciones de las páginas 126 y 127, ahora se podría interpretar como un exorcismo simbólico y psicológico o ritual para acompañar el escape de Cur de la mafia y el gueto: el gondolero siendo el "mediador" que debe llevar Cur sobre las aguas del río en su viaje inconsciente.

'Jean in the Jar' illustration from 'Five Wounds: An Illuminated Novel'. Jean en el frasco

2010-03-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

(Click on the image to enlarge/ Haga click para ampliar la imagen)

The illustration brief was as follows:

Crow’s workshop? Should be broadly consistent in feel with the depiction on the stand-alone pic of the same name, but here a view of eyeless Jean and dead cats and dogs floating in jar, decomposed?

Following the brief, the image therefore shows the decomposin

g body of Jean sealed in a jar in the workshop of Crow, the alchemist. Jean is accompanied by several

cats and dogs.

Las instrucciones para crear la ilustracion:

¿Taller de Crow? ¿Debe ser consistente con la representación en el otro dibujo del mismo nombre, pero aquí está Jean sin ojos y los perros y gatos muertos flotando en el frasco, en descomposición?

Y eso es lo que muestra; el cuerpo en descomposición de Jean sellada en un frasco con perros y gatos en el taller de Crow (Cuervo)-El Alquimista.

Roughs/ Bozetos

'In Sin' was the original running head for this page, which was later changed to 'Various Bodies'. There is an annotation to tilt the eye-line to give the feeling of floating, as Jean is also floating.

“In Sin” o "En el pecado" era el titulo para esta página, que más tarde fue cambiado por "cuerpos variados". Hay una anotación para inclinar el composición para dar la

sensación de flotar, como Jean también está frotándose.

Reference Material/ Material de Referencia

For the objects in the lab, I used my drawings of medical equipment and specimens sketched from the Hunterian Museum in London, which I visited in 2006 on Jon's recommendation. Jon posted me the book 'Old Medical and Dental Instruments' by David J. Warren, which also came in handy for reference.

Para los objetos en el laboratorio he usado mis dibujos de equipos médicos y muestras del Hunterian Museum en Londres que he visitado en 2006 por recomendación de Jon. Jon me envió el libro 'Old Mediacl & Dental Instruments' por David J. Warren, que también fue útil para la referencia.

Melancolia I

This is 'Melancolia I', surely Albercht Dürer's most interpreted engraving about theory and practice. I took from this the sand timer & the bell which appear above the head of Jean. The sand timer represents the passing of time for the decomposing body of Jean; a living man who was trapped inside the jar.

The bell is a more vaguely interpreted symbol in Dürer's engraving, which is partly why I chose it. Some interpretations suggest that it represents the heavens because of its dome shape, also that it symbolises a connection/communication between the heavens & the earth because of its hanging pendulum. This then would represent the 'expiring soul' of Jean, which Crow wishes to trap inside the jar with Jean's body. I also chose a bell because sound and music are the least considered practices of alchemy.

'Melancolía I' -Seguramente el grabado mas interpretado del Alberto Durero sobre la teoría y la práctica. Tomé de este grabado el reloj de arena y la campana que aparecen por encima de la cabeza de Jean.

El reloj de arena representa el paso del tiempo para el cuerpo en descomposición de Jean, un hombre vivo que había quedado atrapado en un frasco.

La campana es uno de los símbolo menos claros en el grabado de Durero, que es en parte por qué lo elegí. Algunas interpretaciones sugieren que representa el los cielos para la forma de cúpula, que también representa una conexión y comunicación entre los cielos y la tierra por el colgado del péndulo. Esto representaría entonces el "alma que expira" de Jean, por lo que Crow desea atrapar. También elegí una campana porque el sonido y la música son las prácticas de la alquimia menos consideradas.

Bricks/ Ladrillos
(Photo of brick work from Colonia Güell/ foto de una obra de ladrillos de Còlonia Güell)

I drew a brick floor as I imagined the workshop being hidden in a cellar. In general I give a lot of attention to brick work in my drawings, being the son of a bricklayer.

In fact you could even interpret Jean representing the figure of 'Melancolia'- pensive and immobilised- in a workshop filled with unused instruments and tools, the bricks being evidence of manual labour. This, however, did not pass my mind whilst working on the illustration.

Below is a video of Alan Moore, who is probably most famous at the moment for writing the 'Watchmen' graphic novel. Here he is talking about the alchemical theory of 'Solve et Coagula': analysis and synthesis, which I thought was relevant for this particular post:

Dibujé un suelo de ladrillos por que imaginaba el taller está escondido en un sótano. En general me dan mucha atención a los ladrillo en mis dibujos, siendo el hijo de un albañil.

De hecho, hasta se podría interpretar que Jean representa la figura de 'Melancolía' en el grabado de Durero, pensativo y inmovilizado en un taller rodeado de instrumentos y herramientas no utilizados, los ladrillos son evidencia del trabajo manual y la práctica. Esto, sin embargo, no pasó por mi mente mientras trabajaba en la ilustración.

A continuación se muestra un vídeo de Alan Moore, que es probablemente más famoso en este momento por escribiendo la novela gráfica ‘Watchmen’ hablando de la teoría alquímico de 'Solve et Coagula' análisis y síntesis. Lo que me pareció relevante para este entrada en particular:

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcgIGNAuy-4

First years in Spain.

2010-03-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

After finishing University I worked for a stint in a comics shop in Cambridge before emigrating to Spain, originally intending to stay for six months. For the first couple of years I lived in a rural area of Tarragona, before moving closer to Barcelona to work in textiles. During this time time I painted and sketched subjects inspired by the flora and fauna of the area, which was new to me.

This is a seed pod from a magnolia tree which are planted along the roadside in the village where I lived. I painted and sketched a few of these at various stages of their development; changing from lime to dark brown, in which time the bright red seeds are expelled, suspended on thin silky threads.

This was painted from life. A Gecko lizard that I found under the sink. I painted two small canvases, one of which I sold in a local exhibition.

This painting was based upon drawings made in my sketchbook of the grasses and plants.

Above are examples of the more surreal paintings I created at the time, both of these are about a meter high. These types of paintings were based upon doodles from my sketch book. Below is a 'doodle' from this period- the theme was sex, so it's not just the result of my dirty subconscious; I drew it to submit to a art zine/magazine.

One of my postcard designs from 2003. I printed these with my printer on fancy paper, hand cut them & sold them for €1 each at exhibitions and in shops.

A page from one of my first strips for Decadence.

Below are some sketches from the area:

This last sketch is from the village of Miravet; probably my favorite village in that area. The photo below the sketch is the view from the castle of Miravet. I sold the sketches locally.

Marc Piña Sala

2010-02-05T04:23:00.000-08:00

I was recently commissioned by stylist Marc Piña Sala to draw a duck head that would be fitted to a mannequin and displayed on his stand in 'The Brandery' trade show of urban and contemporary fashion.

Marc Piña Sala is represented by Volitif creative management.

Hace poco el estilista Marc Piña Sala me encargó que bibujara la cabeza de un pato que se colocaría en un maniquín y se exhibiría en su estand de la feria de moda urbana y contemoránea 'The Brandery'.

Marc esta representado por Volitif creative management.

flickr: Sketches- Croquis

2010-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

The cuttlefish that inspired the comic strip 'Tamara la Flípa'!

¡La Sepia que inspiró el cómic 'Tamara la Flípa'!

I have created a folder on flickr to upload my sketches:

He creado una carpeta en flickr para subir mis croquis:

flickr LINK

Five Wounds. Clay Heads

2010-01-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

Clay heads of four of the five protagonists of 'Five Wounds', created as drawing reference.

Mis bustos en barro que representan los protagonistas

de la novela ‘Five Wounds’. Los sirvieron como

modelos por los ilustraciones del libro.

Limericks

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Tamara la Flipá

2010-01-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Mis primeras páginas de mi primer comic en castellano: Tamara la Flipá

Alien Onion

2010-01-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

Sep 09: Thanks to those lovely people at Alien Onion for their great write-up on Five Wounds. Exciting stuff!:

alienonion.blogspot.com

Publication of 'Pistols! Treason! Murder!' in the US.

2010-01-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the publication of the US edition of 'Pistols! Treason! Murder!' by the Johns Hopkins University Press, author Jonathan Walker will be posting articles on his blog discussing the book's themes and influences: www.jonathanwalkersblog.com.

Decadence 7

2010-01-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

Decadence 7 is out and it's a 68 page anthology! www.decadencecomics.com. This is page one & two of my contribution.

Wallcharts

2010-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

Tree building

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An A2 'automatic drawing', I had reference material at hand, mainly 'Nature and Architecture' by Paolo Portoghesi and sketches made in the woods. I began working up from the roots.

Pistols! Treason! Murder! (gimmicks)

2010-01-26T05:01:00.000-08:00

May 08: Zoë Sadokierski (Five Wound's graphic designer) wrote a article discussing the graphic elements used in Pistols! : http://zoesadokierski.blogspot.com/2008/05/pistols-treason-murder-gimmicks.html

Comic of Myself

2010-01-26T04:43:00.000-08:00

Feb 08: I began a comic in which I am the protagonist. Based upon a mixture of dreams and memories it has a non-linear narrative, punctuated with 'interludes' and was created a page at a time. You can see this & other strips on my comic blog: http://danhallettcomics.blogspot.com/

Dragonfly

2010-01-26T04:36:00.000-08:00

May 08: Jason Andrews, the editor of 'Dragonfly- The Magazine of the South East Wales Hand Gliding & Paragliding Club' interviewed me for their magazine, for which I drew the cover illustrations.

http://www.online-brochures.net/files/2864/#

Blanket- issue8

2010-01-26T04:18:00.000-08:00

Feb0 08: My submission for 'I Made This'; the theme for issue 8 of 'Blanket', a bi-monthly free PDF magazine aiming at uncovering new and emerging creative talent in the areas of art, design and photography. http://blanketmagazine.com/

Threadless

2010-01-26T04:15:00.001-08:00

Here is my design entered at 'Threadless'. Voting has stopped and it didn't win, but received some nice comments. http://www.threadless.com/submission/133222/What_the/showmore,designs

Biocube- Speakerdog series3

2010-01-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

I have customized one of Ben the Illustrator's 'Speakerdogs' into a rain forest inspired 'Biocube'. You can download the template to create your own (it prefers recycled paper) .Look out for it's fishy underworld.

http://www.bentheillustrator.com/speakerdog07.html

Decadence 5

2010-01-26T03:51:00.000-08:00

Aug 07: Decadence number 5 is out and comes with the free CD 'We Fucked Everything' created by, Decadence forefather, Lando himself . Also look out for my own contributions in this special issue. www.decadencecomics.com

Computer Arts 137

2010-01-26T03:39:00.000-08:00

June 07: Illustrations created for Jonathan Walker's 'Pistols! Treason! Murder!' and 'Five Wounds' are showcased in Computer Arts magazine issue 137. http://www.computerarts.co.uk/gallery/gallery_2/july_2007?result_page=5

Textile designs.

2010-01-26T03:38:00.000-08:00

I have worked for studios creating textile designs for a range of clients, including Zara, Pull & Bear, Walmart, Bershka, Oysho, Friday's Project and other brands. Below is a sample of my work.