Wall almost finished

I'm really proud of the work that Becci Such and fellow students completed during the summer. In just over a week they established Cartoon & Comic Arts in the Cadman building at Staffordshire University. Special thanks to Will Vaughan and Kieran Hayes who gave up their time to help and big thanks to John Charles for drawing Batman and Judge Dredd and Tin Tin.

New Studio

New Studio

I feel at long last we are finally getting there in our attempt to turn a pit into a new studio space. We've still got a few issues but I feel the biggest part is over and done now and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Though to say its been a swift transition is an under statement.

Just a reminder of the state that the room was handed over. This believe it or not is after it had been cleaned/swept. So you can see the sort of devastation that surrounded it!!

I was forced to leave the building during June as they had to rework the wiring and install a state of the art internet system. What they failed to tell me was that they were installing it in the middle of a teaching/seminar room. Let me reassure everyone that if you don't pass your degree in Comic Arts then you could always try the IT department as you don't need any brain power to work there!!

First the walls were painted then the floor.

The top right of this picture is what is shown in the very first one of this blog. This is with the walls and floor painted and cleaned.

As you can see from the above image, the painting of the floor took a bit of time. there is so much dust in this area it keeps settling on freshly painted areas and making them look old.

The above images show the construction and the build of the desks in the cartoon 1st Year studio. I assembled the whole set up by myself. 

There is still a bit of work to do, but It is all Cartoon & Comic Arts stuff, So table chairs and lockers need to be put in place and some how we need to get the Comic Stand up the stairs and through the doors to our new studios.......Ideas please!?

These are our recently added images for the stair well leading to the room and hopefully come September these will be painted and inviting both old and new students to the fantastic world of Cartoon & Comic Arts

New Challenges for 2014

New Studio 

The Dream, The Move, The Design 

The Dream

This year see Cartoon & comic Arts move yet again. To be honest we needed the move as the course continues to grow in popularity and goes from strength to strength. The first set of students graduating in July have left a profound image on the award overall, Giving it purpose and direction for the next 3 years.

The Challenge for me now is to re-imagine the work space and make it the best space that encourages students to us and utilise.

To do this did a bit of research into the best creative companies, and what they consider best practice. I strongly believe that face to face regular contact with people from the cohort is important, and not just years, but the whole way through. 1st years should be looking at what 3rd year students are doing and vice a versa, 3rd year students should be looking at what the others are doing as well. They need top be aware of the local and new trends, whats happening in the community they are entering, where the breaks are and which conventions to go.

here are some examples that I'm looking at 

Disney Studios, artist at work

 This is the entrance to Pixar Studios, the open and well lit space and to the left and right are the canteen and hang out places. Above are the offices where the artist work.

This is a Disney School were students get a chance to experiment with the latest technology

And here is an actual Disney Artist working away.

One of the office spaces at Pixar. Inspiration is very, very important. Also it should be a place you want to got to in the morning and not want to leave at night. It should be an extension of you and your personality 

The two images above are the Marvel Offices. Well Lit (and warm) very snazzy and a modern feel to them.

Pixar Chill out area!

The artist at Pixar are encouraged to decorate their areas and offices. See the image above and below

Here is what I've got to work with at the moment. It is worth noting that Fine Art should have vacated the studio space Wednesday 25th June, the image below were taken today at 10.00am Thursday 26th June. Seeing as we/I am having 30 tables and chairs being delivered tomorrow and over the weekend some thing is going have to go in the skip! (And it wont be my tables and chairs)

Rubbish or Art? I don't know?

Corridor/walk through. The offices have been cleared and the stuff as been moved to the walk way

I assume some one wants this stuff as its boxed up... Any chance or removing it please

More stuff???

I think I'm going have a fun summer trying to sort this out! I don't think there is a skip big enough to put all this stuff in!

At least one room is partly done. This is the room the 2nd years helped with during May. Yes some one has come in and sprayed on the painted floor and also dropped of charcoal drawing and lent them again a freshly painted wall so the black will rub off!! (As you can tell from my tone, I'm not impressed!) 

Captain Staffs

John Charles Re imagined Captain Staffs

John Charles from MarvelUK, 2000AD and colourist for the Star Wars Comic, decided to redraw the Captain Staffs Character making him a little more gritty and menacing... I little like myself!

Many thanks John.

Here John is with Jack Baker and Lex Harford

and the new Captain Staffs drawing.

Final Farewell

Gifts from the Crew

I think to call them sneaky is a little underhand, but both Gareth Cowlin and myself never expected what we received on the opening night of the degree Show. Unbeknownst to us, the gang had got together and produce a little surprise for us. I was totally gob smacked because I never expected it!

Here below are the gifts and the class of 2014 

Bryony (Nigel) Morey 

Alice (Give me pizza NOW!) Urbino

Millie (I've got a long neck and love snails) Harrop

Henrietta Looms (Our international student)

Claire (My hair is its natural colour now!) Smith

Jack (Let me run the award) Baker

Tom (Master Draughtsman) Stephens

Verity (I watch a lot of wrestling and I'll put you in a cross face chicken wing if you look at me wrong!) Hall

Esme (I'm a bad ass Manga girl and I do not smile in photos.... I glare!) Baran

Final Comic Stands

I had to laugh. We were discussing what we should call the new comic shop for the 3rd degree show. We already had the pop up comic shop for the 2nd years, and another one would just add to the confusion. After a brief discussion,  the 3rd years wanted to use the dreaded font Comic Sans, but I wanted to know what did we want to call it, to which the universal cry went out COMIC StANdS.
Genius.... pure, unadulterated genius!.

The best bit is watching Graphic designers trying to figure out the joke.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the class of 2014 Cartoon & Comic Arts.