Lauren Anne Sharp

Le Jardin Secret

2012-01-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

"Description Demure Events proudly presents Le Jardin Secret - a Burlesque evening like Northampton's never seen before!! Saucy Burlesque dancing, twisted circus acts, magicians, ventriloquist performances, singers and dwarf presenters! We are also going to be holding a charity raffle in aid of Macmillan Cancer Trust with some amazing prizes lined up! You certainly wouldn't want to miss out on this one of a kind evening!!"

Here are a series of adds for Demure Events, for 'Le Jardin Secret', where I played the role of photographer and designer. The event is on the 23rd of February, 19:30, at Sazarac Bar, Northampton - come along if you can!

At last - a new blog!

2010-10-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

I'm sort of ashamed of myself when I realise my last blog update was back in January. So much has changed in such a short amount of time and I'm not really sure where to start. When I think back to the start of this year I think straight away of Insomnia Publications. That bright ambitious publishing monster, that seemed to be snapping up talent left right and centre, and I was slowly becoming more and more of a part in that process.

As I said in my previous post, along with Alex Willmore and Matt Gibbs, I had just been appointed Sub Editor for the company. It wasn't a paying job, but for the small amount of work it was supposed to be, and the experience of doing it, that wasn't an issue.

Well, to cut an ugly story short, Insomnia Publications ceased trading on June 30th 2010. All the creators tied to Insomnia then entered the ordeal of trying to reclaim their novels, and thanks to the CBA, we managed :)

So where am I now?

Well Kronos City has now been signed to Time Bomb comics. We found a new home and are so pleased to see it well looked after!

Quarantined has some exciting news of its own, which I will be bring to light soon enough ;)

And rather than being the Sub-Editor for Insomnia Publications, I'm now Editor in Chief for The Sleepless Phoenix, whose first anthology, Survival Stories, was released last weekend at BICS. The Sleepless Phoenix grew so organically out of the death of Insomnia Publications, it's strange to think about what it has become and where it might one day go. With Survival Stories a huge success, smashing all my own expectations, talk has now turned to the next anthology for The Sleepless Phoenix, with new team members on board to lend a hand.

So, that's my year so far, hopefully more good news to come :D

Sub Editor

2010-01-27T04:53:00.001-08:00

I've just started my new job as Sub Editor for Insomnia Publications. I'll be reviewing all art submissions for the company, along with Alew Willmore, and Matt Gibbs who will be reviewing all script submissions. I can't wait to get started with it!

For more info about it, catch the redeye

Dredd

2009-11-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to improve my style recently (maybe adopt a new one too) so have started to find new artwork to experiment with. Not entirely sure who the black and white art is by (sorry) but I was quite pleased with what I managed to do with the colour.

Doodle Planet

2009-11-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've been working with a new style recently, so I decided to take a picture of myself and a group of friends at Chester's Doodle Planet and have a practice.

How To

2009-11-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

The how to from Alex and myself!
Hi folks! We thought we'd post a blog outlining the Kronos City art process. Above is the base of operations for Lauren and myself. On the right hand side is our lovely little Macbook which I use to view the script and find the odd reference image. (Also, note the lovely comic page by Nigel Dobbyn hanging above my desk - a continuing source of inspiration for me).

Anyway, on this side of the desk I take Andrew's script and from that make a quick sketch (too shameful to picture) to plan composition, flow etc. Once this is done I rough out the composition on the actual page. Once I'm happy with the sketch, I neaten it up with a mechanical pencil, scan it and zip it over to Andrew for approval (see below image).

In this instance Andrew had a few ideas about the page.

"Can you add in a couple of different shapes, like hexagons and rhombuses, rhombusususes, um, rhombi? Apart from that, this is good to go!"

Good idea Andrew - the page looks much nicer for it! Pictured below is the inked up version complete with background shapes!

The inking is done with a Pentel Pocket Brush. This lovely little brush pen was reduced from £12 to £6 and I LOVE IT! It may not be the most expensive brush pen in the world but it does the job just fine! It's really nice to use - much nicer than the cheap disposable brushes I used to use at uni! The finer details like the bubbles and shapes are done with a 0.3 and 0.1 fineliner.

Once the page is inked, I usually scan it, arrange it on the digital page and then Lauren does her thing. This page however is set under water and the colouring technique for water in Kronos City is a little different than straight forward digital colour. At this stage we need to take a trip to Staples - which is actually really far away! Here we get the page photocopied onto heavy weight matt paper. This is so that when Lauren adds the water colour the ink doesn't run.

I'll hand over to Lauren to talk about the colouring.

In Kronos City I used two different styles of watercolouring, messy and neat. In this scene Sally is fully in the water so I use a style that I hope shows this. It's done in the same way that the first few pages of the book are painted, as here all the images are formed from the water. In other scenes the Kronos water is just part of the images, for example page five of Chapter One, so the water colour is quite neat and contained.
When it came to this page, I already knew what colours I would be using as this page preceded a scene I had already coloured. So the blue and yellow? So far I've been told that the Kronos City colour seems to be brown/red. As this scene and the ones after are set after a huge storm I decided to give the next seems some fresh colours, to show how a storm can really change and cleanse things. I like to layer up colours to create more depth in the picture, which is something that can be seem in the bubbles and shapes in the water.

Back to Alex.

So there we have it, from pencils to coloured page!

And on that note, I'm off to pencil page 6 of chapter 3.

By for now,

Alex x

Another Week, a little more work :)

2009-11-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

This has been quite a good week for work. I began by getting those greyscales, I mentioned the week before, by Monty Borror, all finished. I'll post a page or a panel of that soon when the company has released it. While it was nice not to have to worry about colours, I really did miss them, and was more than happy to get back to Kronos City and begin work on Chapter Three!

This Chapter is looking even better than the last! There are some brilliant scenes that really let me play with and explore the colour possibilities. I feel like each page could stand in a gallerey and classed as a masterpiece by itself, and while that may be a little big headed, it's a brilliant feeling.

Team Kronos City and I have now launched the 'How do you see Karl?' non-competition. Here are the details:

'Recently Team Kronos City decided to compare their characters. Everyone sees a character differently so here are our versions. Here at Kronos City, we'd also like to see your ideas of Karl, which will be published here on the 20th of November, just before the Thought Bubble Convention where they will also be on display. Here's a description of Karl:

'Karl is a vampire, but one of the Donor Movement ones so he doesn’t hunt. He’s actually kind of anorexic, and doesn’t really eat at all. He’s about as threatening as a kitten wearing a top hat. He’s tall and very, very skinny. He wears very tight black t-shirts and jeans, so tight that you can practically see the bones through them. He has a cute button nose and tiny fangs. Vampire eyes are bigger than human eyes, and very expressive, but they are totally black, no whites or irises, and the pupil is a white dot. He has very pale white skin and pronounced cheekbones, and black spiky hair that looks like he spends far too much free time on it in the mornings and far too much money on hair product on it. He moves very gracefully, almost effeminately. He has pointy little ears.'

Please send all your pictures to kronoscity@googlemail.com, along with your name and any internet contact details you'd like us to link to. Hope to see the interpretations!

Hope you get involved!

I began work creating an avatar for the blog of Gareth Edwards. I tried to do something slightly different with this one, using the selection tool rather the pen tool. I was a little worried when I began as I wasn't sure if it would all go horribly wrong or not, but once I finished I knew I had nothing to worry about. The technique worked really well, and is definitely something I'll have to continue playing with. As soon as this avatar is finished off and sent I'll be sure to upload it.

Overall it's been an exciting week as I've been about to get back to what I love, colouring.

A Little Update

2009-11-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated my blog in a while, and so am shaming myself a little. I look at some peoples blogs who constantly update it with their drawings and wonder how the hell they find the time! If there was an award for the person with the most blog dedication I'd give it to Jennie Gyllblad. Look at her blog for a lovely new picture everyday :) Her blog is always being updated and her dedication goes as far as to apologise for not blogging for a total of one day because she had the flu. Jennie, you make me feel about myself. But in a good way at least, the kind of way that spurs me on and gives me drive. Which is something I like anyway! I may have to make the promise of updating at least once a week (for my diehard fans, all 4 of you :s ).

So what have I been doing with my time?

I finally have a backlog of work! It feels so great to say that because I love colouring and not having any to do really ruins my day. I've already gone to Insomnia once begging for more work (resulting in Michael Morecci's Quarantine :) ), and luckily for me that coincided with the getting of my new job (the slow torture of myself

assisting at a college). Last I checked Quarantine was 6 pages in, but with the promise of being featured in the RedEye, a free daily paper in Chicago, part of the Chicago Tribune (not to be confused with Insomnia Publication's blog, the Red Eye).

The 2nd Chapter of Kronos City has been completed for a while now. There was a small intermission in the proceedings but its now back and looking better than ever! The first 3 pages are ready to be coloured, with pencils being started on page 4. It's all looking quite kick-ass, and both Alex and I (and I'm sure Andrew) are getting excited (and scared) about starting Chapter Four.

Monty Borror, the artist for Quarantine, was good enough to throw me some extra work doing 9 pages of grey scale. my experience with grey scale has so far been some what limited, so I was a tiny bit cautious at first. Then I got into the swing of it and had a great time. I'm on page 5 of 9 and should complete today or tomorrow!

I've also started to do a few little pictures for the museum Beamish. I'm illustrating a few accounts from peoples lives. This picture is from an account by Janetta Scurfield in 2007:

"...And the dog got on very well with the cat, and when she had kittens she would allow him to pick them up and carry them in the back yard, put them in the basket."

So I think that's all I'm up to so far. But I'll be sure to update on time in the future! :)

Quarantine

2009-10-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late on the announcement, but on Saturday 3rd of October, at the British International Comic Show, I signed a new contract with Imsomnia Publications to work on Micheal Moreci's Quarantine.

'Quarantine follows a group of survivors trapped in a small town in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan shortly after a biological plague is released into the water supply. This plague turns a person into a homicidal war machine, which forces the borders to close, leaving our band of survivors to fight for their lives.'

We're currently six pages into the first chapter, so there is still a long way to go!

The Quarantine Team are as follows:

- story: Michael Moreci

- art: Monty Borror

- colour: Me

- Letters: Jim Campbell

Catch The Red Eye on PSP!

2009-10-17T15:18:00.001-07:00

In the blackest hours before dawn, when all good comic readers were tucked up in bed, the Insomniacs crawled into their dreams.

What were they whispering into the darkness? What did they wish for, lost in the sleep of the innocent?

No less than:

To be able read Insomnia comics anywhere, at any time
Take their entire comics collections wherever they went
To listen to their own music while reading
To navigate pages their own way
To find and buy comics easily and access content instantly from the PlayStation®Store

All this will be on offer for PSP owners in December 2009, with the opening of the Digital Comics Store on the PlayStation®Network.

Red Eyed and bushy tailed, Insomnia Publications will be standing proud on launch day as our critically acclaimed books take their place on the virtual shelves, next to world famous names in comic book publishing.

Insomnia Publications’ graphic novels will be presented in the store as single-issue length chapters, following the publication of the book. The first chapter of every book will be offered free to readers as a “taster” of the story.

Crawford Coutts, Managing Director of Insomnia Publications, says:

“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Sony in the launch of the Digital Comics Service.

Insomnia is committed to nurturing the very best new art, new writing and new concepts in its original graphic novels and the unprecedented scope of this Comics Store will connect independent publishers and readers around the globe.

The help and guidance we have received from Sony throughout truly demonstrates their commitment to support the medium, the publishers, the readers and the comics industry itself.

Many of our creators are gamers themselves and so were delighted to hear that their work will be offered through PlayStation Network.”

With the first Insomnia titles available right from the December launch, you will be able to:

With a growing range of titles to choose from and the phenomenal scope of the Digital Comics Store, this is just the beginning.

Come and visit our stand at the MCM Expo on 24th to 25th of October to learn more.

Notes:

The Comics Store will launch on the PlayStation Network for PSP in December 2009
Official Sony Press Release and video demo
For further information, interviews and comments please contact Crawford Coutts, MD
Insomnia Publications can be found online at:
Website: www.insomniapublications.com
Blog: www.theredeye.co.uk

The Story of Kronos City

2009-08-24T16:24:00.001-07:00

After Andrew said that he came up with the idea for Kronos City after a random comment from a housemate, I decided to see if I could guess that comment! Let's just see if I'm right!

Kronos City, Chapter One

2009-08-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

The first Chapter of the graphic novel I've been working on, Kronos City, has now been put online.

For more information visit either the Kronos City blog or the Insomnia blog.

Album Art

2009-08-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

This was made as a possible album cover for the band Eflonso.

Lauren the Penciller and Inker

2009-08-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

I decided to give pencilling a go, just to broaden my horizons. I think it turned out okay, but I think I've always had a knack for people and tone. Now to practise backgrounds!

Kronos City Website

2009-07-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

The most recent of my web masterpieces (or mimi triumphs of flash persistence and screaming at computers that results in something that impresses me any way) is now online. It's the new Kronos City website, and it can be found at http://www.kronoscity.co.uk/. But wait, isn't that where the blog was? Not any more! that address was always a temporary stop for the blog, which is now found at http://www.kronoscityblog.com/.

The top picture is a shot of the site in full swing. You may notice little black dots in the city. These become far more interesting when you view the site. They're little Kronites, going about they're daily business. The city is fully animated, with birds, people and weather conditions (that do funky things).

The bottom picture holds the images for the creators page. If anyone reading this knows what we look like, then yes, both Andrew Croskery (writer of Kronos City) and Alew Willmore (artist for Kronos City) have chins that are a bit too small, and my eyes are doing a Shannon Doherty. And if you don't know us, they're perfect.

Make sure you check out the site!

Beamish Tram Illustrations

2009-06-21T11:05:00.001-07:00

Berny Blackpool.

I've recently been offered the opportunity to illustrate a series of stories about trams, which will be written by Tom Young. While the stories are not yet finished, so I can't start illustrating them, I wanted to experiment with drawing trams, and give Tom an idea of what I could do. Drawing this has been quite helpful in understanding how I could produce these images. For example, I have attempted to draw in parts of the inside of the tram. It would be a lot more effective I've I let the glass become opaque and hide the inside as this distracts from the face. I also need to draw more attention to the mouth. I'm not sure it's very obvious where it is.

I enjoyed creating this piece and look forward to continuing with the illustrations of trams once the stories are completed.

Kronos City - Page One

2009-06-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Work on Kronos City has now begun. This is the first page. It is inked using a brush pen, and coloured using black water colour and Photoshop.

Writer: Andrew Croskery

Art: Alex Willmore

Colour: Me

For more on Kronos City, visit the blog.

Strip!

2009-06-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Resonance FM

I'm really psyched. Today I was on the radio. I was interviewed a few weeks ago at a Manhwa Exhibition in London, and today it was aired on Resonance FM, on their show Strip! all about comics. It was very strange to hear myself, but hopefully its a sign of things to come once Kronos City has been completed. To hear the interview and read about the show, see the link above.

Freddie and the Fairy

2009-05-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

I've just sent of my submission for Waterstones 'Picture This' competition. I really like the character sketches that I produced, though my double page spread could have been better. I ran out of time to make the improvements I wanted to, which is a shame. Maybe I will improve on it one day. I can only wait and see what happens with this one.

Macmillan Book Prize Award Show

2009-05-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended the Macmillan Children's Book Prize Award Show. It was so amazing to see my work up in Foyles Gallery, and to hear the Judges discuss the piece. It was a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed seeing all the other pieces on display, and seeing 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Insomnia Publications

2009-05-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone!

Alex Willmore (pencil and inks) and I (colour) have been signed to Insomnia Publications. We're going to be working on a Graphic Novel written by Andrew Croskery, called Kronos City. Here's the blurb:

In Kronos City it's not water running through the canals - it's time. It's possible to submerge your head to see visions of the past and future, although it’s risky. If you know how you can even manipulate future events, not just watch them unfold. Some say you can even change not only time, but fate..Finnegan Vedant, being an enterprising individual, sees here a business opportunity like no other, but when a mysterious client puts him on a case with bizarre consequences, he’s forced to face harsh truths about himself and the world around him. The game he’s playing is for much higher stakes than it at first appeared.

We're both really excited to begin working with Andrew and the Insomnia team.

Go 'Team Kronos City'!!!

Sonic the Comic Online

2009-05-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Last One Standing

A fan continuation of the Edgmont comic Sonic the Comic.

Another branch of my ever diverse talents (lol), I put my hand to being a colourist. This started in November with a different Sonic the Comic Online strip, which is still waiting to be uploaded. This strip was completed in January and has finally been put online! It's a free comic, which I put in as one of my Uni projects. It's been a real learning curve. When the next one is put online, the curve will become very visible. Doing this work for STCO has really improved how I work with colour, and though at the start of the year, I'd never considered working in Graphic Novels, and now it seems that is where my carrier will go.

Macmillan Book Prize

2009-04-30T14:54:00.001-07:00

Eeeep! I'm so excited! Out of all the Macmillan Book Prize entries, mine was in the top 20 of highly commended pieces. I never expected to get to that point, and I especially never intended to win, so I'm so pleased my work got this commendation. I really enjoyed doing this work, but I was worried it wasn't entirely suitable for a children's book aimed at under 5's. I did it at a time when I was still finding my precise style, and once I'd got a fix on it, I wasn't going to adapt it to fit a market, I wanted to perfect it and think about the technicalities at a later date. While I don't know if this book could ever be marketed, (as it ends with the main character massacring a group of hunters) I'm so glad the art in it is appreciated.

Great Success!

Caldecott Competition

2009-04-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I found out that I won the first place in the Caldecott UK Competition. I'm really exited. It's only a small competition, but I'm still pleased. Last year the entries were displayed in Liverpool, but this was because it was an anniversery year. So this year, I contacted a gallery in Ellesmeare and we too will have an exhibition. The work will be displayed on the 16th of May at S.P.A.C.E.

I really enjoyed making this piece. It was tought to get it right, but once I commited to making my life difficult, and adding in so many dogs, the work relaly improved. It's a good one to add to the portfolio.

Elfonso

2009-02-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is a website I built for Northampton video game folk pop band, Elfonso.
http://www.freewebs.com/elfonso/

Seven Years Website

2009-02-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

This is a website I built for Daventry based punk band, Seven Years.
http://www.sevenyears.co.uk/

Doodlezine

2009-02-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

After attending Doodle Planet, some friends and I were asked to contribute some doodles to a magazine. I'm not a very confident doodler, and I prefer to sketch things out first, but I quite like this outcome. Ideally I would have filled it with rabbits, to make it like a Where's Wally, but I felt this compostion worked really well. The only thing I've noticed is wrong is my rabbits co-ordination. Some are tearing off the wallpaper, while others are painting it. But that's not my fault, those rabbits will misbehave!

Fox Hunt

2008-12-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

These are pages three and six of a children's book I'm writing, called Fox Hunt. It's all about Fox, a very mean creature. When he hears that there is going to be a fox hunt, he decides that he must put a stop to it, so constructs a very wicked plan...

Happy Helper

2008-12-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

My little Rabbits have been hard at work, constructing me a new blog! We would have stuck to the normal layout, but I realised that though it looks good, it isn't very sensible for my dyslexic self, so had to go for a grey background. Hopefully I'll keep this blog better than my last one, even though I can't really be bothered with them!