Rusty prints, spooky stories and a hovercraft coot

Story Street #9

I’ve just finished the BIGGEST piece of work I have ever done – a 15 metre mural.

For this project I’ve worked with hundreds of children in five different local schools, and also in June held a drop-in workshop at Kimber Skate Park, where young skateboarders joined in making some amazing artwork – mostly while still wearing their helmets. I had such a nice day there with everyone – and it was brilliant to have support from Melissa from Higgins Homes, as well as Charlie and Will from the Skate Park (me and Will are glasses twins!).

Huge thanks to Brendan for making this project happen – and bringing boxes of lollies for everyone on one of the hottest days of the year...

I specially loved this skateboarding duck (complete with helmet of course):

My biggest worry was that my computer (and my brain) wouldn’t be able to cope with the gigantic file sizes required for such a huge piece of work.

I have made all sorts of discoveries, such as that clearing caches speeds things up no end, and that there is such a thing as a Photoshop Large file – who knew?

I’ve been keeping track of the layers with labels like ‘friendly flounder’, ‘origami moorhen’ and ‘moustache eel’. I’ve shown the Hovercraft Coot at the top of this newsletter – isn’t it wonderful? And below is the Friendly Flounder - I love the way the girl who made it snipped some feathery bits into the fins, and the choice of colour for the speckles, which works nicely with the sticklebrick swirls I made when I prepared the paper earlier. 

I have now uploaded the enormous file, and am waiting slightly anxiously for it all to be printed onto Dibond and installed on Garratt Lane in Wandsworth.

Yesterday morning I visited Riversdale School to do an assembly for their careers week – and I was able to give the children a sneaky preview of their section of the mural. Here it is! They had a lovely time spotting their own creations… this is just a tiny bit of the whole thing. Can you spot the moustache eel?

End of an era

Next Friday will be my last day teaching at Putney School of Art – after 8 very happy years running illustration and comics classes there, I decided it was time for something new. Over the years I have met so many wonderful students from all over the world, and while I hope I have inspired them it’s very often my students that inspire me…

Thankyou to all my past and present students, and to all my colleagues at PSAD for this joyful experience. Here’s me on the steps of the building, which was purpose-built as a School of Art in 1895 - if you’d like to know more about classes there, here's a link.

If you’re reading this thinking “Oh no! But I was going to sign up to Jane’s online comics class and now it’s too late”, don’t worry! From September onwards I’ll be running the comics class independently, on Wednesdays on Zoom 11-1 and 7-9pm. It’s definitely one of the highlights of my week, I love my comics gang and we have a lot of fun – here’s what the students say:

“I love the course. It's very inspiring - I wouldn't have felt ready to challenge myself to create characters and tell stories without it, so it was just what I needed. I don't know how you've managed to create that feeling of "really meeting" and connecting with other people through zoom. But you have. And it's lovely.” J, The Netherlands

“Your class allows so many of us to feel like we’re not on an island, that being an illustrator is a real thing, and that there are others like me trying to find their wavy way into or how to navigate illustration, picture book making and/or comics! You’re a breath of fresh air and a peek into my wish for the future.” Abby, Minnesota USA

Each term we do a ‘Zine Swap’, and this time the theme was ‘A Ghost Story’ – there have been some brilliant spooky tales, from a sweet pink ghost to a high school prank. Here’s a taster of mine, which was all about a scary stay in Somerset many years ago. If you want to see the rest, you’ll just have to join the class…

Click this button for all the details about the September term and how to enrol - a bargain at only £164!

More comics

Earlier in the month I had a fun afternoon over in Brixton at the Baytree Centre, making Zines with a group of girls aged 7-10. I made a sample one based on the idea of My Favourite Things – it looked like this:

…and then the group all made their own versions using collage and drawing. It was lovely to meet a fellow fiddle player - she enjoyed my Zine ‘Tough Crowd’ and was very worried about how rude the donkeys had been! Best of all, we had access to the photocopier and the girls were very excited to make multiples and were keen to share them with their families. Thankyou Stepping into Stories for organising this workshop.

A little bit rusty

I’m still making my shipyard collages based on my Dad’s old photos (see previous newsletter for more ). I’m now digging deep into the really abstract ones, showing rusty details of things I don’t understand (though I have learned a new word – caisson, which means a watertight retaining structure). I had a rummage through my collage drawer for something suitably rusty looking, and discovered a batch of prints I made a while ago after visiting the Helen Frankenthaler exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Her large-scale abstract woodcuts made me itch to dive straight into a skip on the way home for a giant piece of wood to print from.

Sadly I wasn’t lucky with the wood foraging, but as soon as I got home I set to work with my rollers and produced these…

…which have been sitting in a drawer ever since I made them. Could this be a vindication for my policy of never throwing anything away? (though I am VERY lucky to have this plan-chest to keep it all in)

The collage shown below features even more scraps from the archive including some oil-painted sheets I made on my Foundation course at Wimbledon School of Art more than 20 years ago. The big blue dotted line is part of a paper kite I found at Work and Play Scrapstore, which features the deepest, most velvety black I have ever found (though it does come off on my fingers). The crane on the left is an offcut from a Thames-themed exhibition I held many years ago, Skim Sky Blue). You might also spot some lino-printed wood effect and some fragments of folk music given to me by a student last year (thanks Beth).

I’ve even had a commission for a shipyard collage – to create a larger version of this view of HMS Cavalier in the drydock at Hebburn (happy birthday, David). Funnily enough it felt very different making the same scene and trying to match the colours – a lot less spontaneous but still very satisfying.

Class of 23

In July each year a very special ceremony always takes place – the Graduation at the nursery I visit every week. It’s always so touching to see the children singing and answering questions about what they want to do when they grow up.

Firefighting is usually a popular option, and once somebody had plans to become a professional clown.

Sadly, this year I am double-booked so will have to miss it, but next week I’ll be giving all the ‘graduates’ a copy of Let’s Get Ready For School, written by me, illustrated by Carolina Rabei and published by Walker Books. In the photo below I have shown the most important advice in the book – a little encouragement to children to tell their parents a something about their day, and to see that information as a gift.

I remember when my children were little, I was bursting to know abut their school day, but they rarely gave anything away. If you know any 4 year-olds starting school soon, this would be the perfect present – there’s a handy link to buy the book here.

You can also watch me and Carolina chatting about our memories of starting school in this video:

That’s it for now – I’ll write again on 1^st August and I hope by then to share some photos of the finished mural. Enjoy your July, whatever your plans are - and if you have enjoyed this newsletter, do share it with friends!