After searching through artist books websites and getting disheartened by page upon page of people trying to one up each other with their crazy designs I picked up a copy of Hand to Eye and found Tom Gauld. I read one of his mini books when Chiu brought us some examples in but I didn't think much about him until I went on his website and found his short comics which I felt my work related to not so much in style but the short narratives and pictorial one liners.

Taken from the Cabanon Press Website
I found this small comic of Gauld's after I wrote the one I'm about to show but if I had found it sooner I think I could have took some tips from it to help me write 'Things not to put on your face'. For such a broad title it took me ages to think of things that would actually be funny to illustrate and some of them are still a bit hit and miss. I indent to go back and redraw each panel adding shading and maybe colour. ( I have the hand writing of a cracked up spider so i might change the text )

(these are just some examples of panels for 'Things not to put on your face' not sure how I want to set it out yet.)

I like the openness of the 'things not to put on your face' idea but I've also been sketching out ideas for a few short stories. I've be looking at Greek mythology and thinking of other myths I could make a collection of. So far I've been playing with the story of Icarus.

"Icarus' father, Daedalus, a talented and remarkable Athenian craftsman, attempted to escape from his exile in the place of Crete, where he and his son were imprisoned at the hands of King Minos. Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the giddiness that flying lent him, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea."(Taken from Wikipedia and edited slightly)

I took this story and twisted it turning Icarus and his father Daedalus into birds cornered in a room and held captive by a cat. Every time they try to fly away the cat wakes and pins them back down. They sit and wait for their death until a baby comes along and wakes the cat. Noticing the cat doesn't attack the baby Daedalus comes up with the idea to make wax bodies for them both to make themselves look human and escape. Using a nearby candle they pack wax around their wings and legs molding them into a human shape. They walk past the cat who wakes then ignores them until Icarus gets too excited by the thought of freedom and walks too close to the fire where the wax melts and the cat pounces.

This first sketch was the rough ideas for the wax bodies and the baby.
I used pencil and fine liner for the sketches and then calligraphy pens and acrylic in for the rough panel. I think the pen and inks give the feathers on the birds a much better look than just a fine liner.

And a rough sketch of how the first panel will be composted with the two cornered birds and the shadow of the cat.


And heres a sketch from Tom Gauld to tie everything together.