ELCAF

Yesterday Naomi and I decided to take a trip down to the East London Comic Arts Fair! The pair of us aren't massively into comics, but following on from the inspiration from last years Thought Bubble we thought we could explore this field further.

The venue was lovely; a really quaint little London church that had such a buzzing atmosphere. I think it is important to keep artists and customers in such close proximity to emphasise the social and sharing aspect. 

Things I Bought

I made sure that I spoke to as many people as possible, although I have to say that a lot of the artists were SO PAINFULLY SHY! Maybe that explains why they have become artists so that they escape the fundamental aspect of a job relying heavily on social skills?

Anyway, Naomi and I were able to have a chat with people we already knew which was so nice, for example Jon Boam and Krystena Baczinski who were really interested in finding out how we were doing and how our studies were going.

New people we met:

Kim Clements

http://www.kimclements.co.uk

Kim was lovely to talk to, and I was really attracted to her playful child like tone of voice within her work. Many of her publications such as zines focused strongly on light hearted humour, especially the caricature-esc drawings of Freddie Mercury. 

Babak Ganjei

http://www.babakganjeiworks.com

I really commend this chap for just 'grabbing the nettles' in the way that he visually expresses his vibrant thoughts, feelings and opinions so openly and confidently. My favourite thing of his was the greetings cards that were painfully funny and passive aggressive. This is great because it's noticeable that sarcastic/punny cards are becoming increasingly popular in such a 'meme' culture.

Anna Krztoń

Anna's zine entitled 'first weeks' had a kind of reportage feel to it, as it visually recorded her first few weeks moving into and living in the Polish city of Cracow. I love the raw-ness of how her feelings come across through the energy in her line work, and how she has described the new sounds and sights around her. 

Summary:

Today was a great opportunity for inspiration and aspiration, in the fact that by asking various illustrators about their creative journeys and what inspires them within their work to gain some scope  on our own creative practices. I personally don't feel as if narrative is my strongest area within illustration, but I am really interested in developing greetings cards and zines within my practice.