I was struck by the beauty and appeal of such a well designed, drawn and printed book so I thought it would be nice to find out more about the process behind creating such a work, which he had published through a cool printing and publishing company called Nobrow.

Jack gives details of his book: ‘Jeff Job Hunter‘ and the process behind its creation, below.

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Introducing the Book:

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Jeff Job Hunter is about an unemployed man who simply can’t find work. Jeff is on his 13th week of the dole, and has his payments stopped. He has to go on a work placement to receive further benefits. His work placement is to go into the dungeon underneath the job centre to kill a monster to start his payments again.

Jeff Job Hunter is a story based around the trouble I had with signing on, when I was unemployed. I wanted to create a comic which reflected the situation I was in, but add in my sense of humour.

Nobrow approached me after they had spotted my work at the D&AD design awards. They create artists books, comics, narratives, limited prints and showcase the talents of a variety of artists and illustrators.

I had worked with them on their Nobrow: Jungle book, they were pleased with my work, and knew that I drew comics for fun.

They want to give a platform for British comic artists and writers because there isn’t really a platform for comics in the UK like there is in Europe or America. They asked me if I was interested in creating a comic book for them, gave me the specifications and asked me to start writing up a story.

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Planning the Story:

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When I had to sign on, everything seemed pointless. I would search for jobs days on ends, attend interviews well out of my way, where I would have trouble getting to work everyday. The people at the job centre just didn’t seem to care, they always treated me like I was a waste of time and space.

I wanted to try and get some of that into my comic, a poor man going to impossible lengths to get work or to receive payments while receiving indifference from the job centre employees. I had no shortage of ideas for the project because of my experiences, so I started to plan.

I started off with a blank page for each comic page,and started to try and flesh out the idea by drawing a small rough comic. At this point, I didn’t know the style, or really what was going to happen.

I showed Nobrow the comic, they made suggestions and changes and then I started to write up a much more solid story based on the feedback and rough comic. Now I had a script for each page, so I made another plan which was much more developed.

The style was taking shape, and I managed to fit more into the comic. After a few chops and changes, Nobrow were happy with the comic, and I started to work on the final.

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Planning the Visuals:

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Visually I tried to keep to my usual style when I work in pen, I thought this would relax me and get the best work out of me. I wanted to keep it simple, but also be able to build up areas of detail when needed.

When I created the characters I wanted to create a protagonist you could sympathise with.

I designed my characters hunched over, so they looked tired and like they couldn’t be bothered with things.

I usually draw my characters with large eyes, but I thought that I could get more expressive faces by simplifying them to black dots.

With panel layout I kept things quite traditional. I didn’t want to cram too many panels in, so I think at the most I have five or six panels per page.

I use more panels if I need to get crucial timing across, and less panels for easier to read material.

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Rendering the Finished Piece:

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When inking the finals, I planned out the pages and doubled the size to get more detail into them, put in bleeds and panels, and then inked into them. Nobrow have a very unique way of colouring their work, which I had to follow.

I was given three colours to work with, and had to use Photoshop to merge and blend these three layers of colour to get a variety of other tones and colours. Mixing all three gets the dark line I used for outlines.

The process was quite complicated, but the outcome was well worth it.

Text wasn’t too much of an issue, I’m a big fan of hand drawn types, so I hand wrote everything in the book, including the publishing information in the back.

I didn’t need to worry too much about printing, as I sent my files to Nobrow, and they checked everything was in order before the print run.

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Getting Published:

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I’ve worked backwards for this process, instead of approaching a publisher with an idea, they saw that I drew and self published comics, and wanted to give me a chance to create a published work. It was going to be in book form from day one.

© Jack Teagle and Nobrow, 2010

I think from my experience, the best advice I can give is, keep drawing comics, just draw for you own amusement, self publish, post online, get them seen!

The more comics you draw, the better you will get at pacing, timing, telling a story and drawing. People will be able to see you create comics and approach you.

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Buy the book here!

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Despite only very recently completing an illustration course, her work has achieved a very high level of consistency and accomplished style. I asked her a few questions about her background and work.

What training have you had in illustration?

When I started my study of Arts in my city I didn’t have an illustration department, so I started learning illustration by myself. Three years later I went to an illustration College in Canada. This year I finished my degree in Barcelona.

How long has it taken you to develop your style?

I’ve been always drawing people and animals but I started to be more comfortable with this style while traveling and moving form city to city. At first I used to work with wattercolors but now I always prefer digital.

What materials do you use and what is your work process?

I start working on my sketchbook with a pencil or pen. Then I use Photoshop to finish it.

For personal work I like going to public places and take some roughs from people around me. For assignments sometimes I need go to specific places for referents. If I need to create some animal illustrations I could go to a park, pet shop or the zoo. I love looking for real references rather than photos.

©  Laura Pérez, 2010

What are you working on right now?

Right now I´m working on a cover book for Penguin Books.

Hello again, friends of Ape on the Moon! It is a pleasure to be back with you whilst your captain Alex is still away on holiday. He has promised to take many photos which I am certainly looking forward to seeing.

Today I present the keen work of comic artist/illustrator Eric Hews who lives in the US. I really like Eric’s fresh style that is never overworked. He has a terrific habit of not only showing off his roughs and ongoing work process but also providing running commentary throughout his flickr stream which you will definitely want to check out.

Many thanks to Eric for allowing me to toss a few queries his way. Read/look on and enjoy! –Amy

What does the career path of an artist who draws and write comics look like?

I’ve been drawing cartoons as far back as I can remember. My father got me started with rocketships, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny… but I never really considered it a career path until lately. In college I studied art, psychology and creative writing and graduated with an ever useful degree in English Lit.

I started my working career as a one-man writer/editor of a corporate newsletter, which included doing illustrations for the articles I wrote. After that stint, I spent 15+ years working as a creative/manager in Advertising and Marketing. I left advertising two years ago to go the freelance illustration route. While it hasn’t exactly fed me, it has certainly been the saving grace of some hard days.

Throughout my life I have always found plenty of downtime, no matter what I was doing. I inevitably draw cartoons in the borders of my work-papers.

What inspires you most?

My girlfriend, friends and family inspire me most. I seem to have plenty of funny people around me. All I have to do is listen well and the material just keeps coming.

What is your work process like?

My work process is very organic. I’m constantly taking notes during conversations and many of these notes become dialogue for my characters. I always start with the dialogue.

When I begin to draw a cartoon out, it is usually the first draft that I stick to. It’s normally the most ‘honest’, even if some things about it are admittedly awkward.

I only draw freehand, these days, and usually directly in ink. If I add color, it’s usually a Photoshop job. I have been known to simply publish rough pencil sketches from time to time. I have no problem letting people see the underpinnings of my work.

Tell us about your comic “Yo & Dude”… how it came about and where it’s going. Very curious to learn more about its upcoming animation leap!

I’m bi-polar, so ‘Yo & Dude’ is a natural offshoot of my swinging moods. Yo, the cat, represents my jaded, serious and cynical side. Dude, the dog, is the innocent, naïve one who sees the best in people and things. Those two sides of me are constantly at odds and fighting for attention. You can see which side is ‘winning’ by which character gets the most lines.

Moving them into animation is becoming a bear of a project. I’m currently working on the script and trying to convince a few friends to collaborate with me on the writing and animation. I have no experience doing this, so it really is a seat-of-the-pants production.

I can reveal a few things about the first short. It takes place on a moon-base, and not necessarily OUR moon. There will be a house-robot character. There will also be a small cube of ham that speaks. That is all I can say for now without pigeon-holing the project. For all I know, it’ll end up being a morality tale set in medieval times.

© Eric Hews, 2010

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What stood out for me the most, apart from his frequent use of intense, distorted facial expressions, is his application of retro effects to his work, which he explains below.

Most of my “aging” effects are done in Photoshop. I mainly work with ink and brush on textured card stock, so my artwork is basically lineal. All the cracks and stains are real cracks and stains scanned from real, yellowish paper, old card or newsprint. The halftones are created entirely in Photoshop.

There are many ways to create these effects. The first time I created those “fake comic book covers”, I did it intuitively, experimenting with colors and shapes. It took me a while to figure out how to created the best look.

© Manuel Gomez Burns, 2010

© Robin Boyden, 2010

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© John Lee, 2010

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ⓒ Eleanor Davis, 2009

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What’s particularly excellent about the work he does, is the method he uses, which is to use old fashioned pencil, brushes, gouache paint and inks instead of what would seem the obvious, digital route.

ⓒ Michael Cho, 2009

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Here I have featured the work he has done for various pieces of literature.

Thirteen Orphans, Tor Books:

Lord of the Flies, The Folio Society:

Fever Crumb, Scholastic:

House of Mystery, DC/Vertigo Comics:

Prospero Lost, Tor Books:

ⓒ Sam Weber, 2009

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ⓒ Kim Herbst, 2009