Somehow this got lost in the mix, my übersimple submission for the most recent issue of the HOWieZine, a collaborative zine project done up by members of HOW magazine's online forums. My contribution to this long-standing tradition (I believe this is HOWieZine number 12, the series spanning some four years) were hamstrung somewhat by our extensive spring holiday in Europe. As such, I panned through my vault of photos to search for applicable entries, eventually settling on these two above to best represent the zine's theme of nightmares and dreamscapes. Both photos have appeared on this site over the months and years; the first, an indoor roseate spoonbill at the Assiniboine Park Zoo taken beneath a blanched-out skylight in 2007 (click here for a closer look), and the second, a mannequin street performer at Mardi Gras (pre-Katrina) in 2005 (click here for a closer look).
These I figured to be my best two singular 'storytelling' images to fit the zine's dual theme words. The typeface used is Diavlo, available for free download from the typographically amazing and generous folks at exljbris – do check them out.
Honestly, I completed this zine contribution so long ago I damned near forgot it existed. That's one reality of the zine business in general, I believe (not overly known for rigid structure or schedule). But if all goes according to plan, my copy should be sitting on my desk at work when I show up tomorrow (I'd been away, whittling my two remaining vacation days into a five-day Nova Scotian Canuck-style Thanksgiving siblingal visit spectacular, where it was infinitely better than the sludge they call weather here upon my return).
So yes, Virginia, there is a HOWieZine still, and its theme was robots – one of the design industry's all-time favourite and most dependable fallbacks for kickass source material. My own submission stemmed from last year's midwinter photo shoot, and subsequent Photoshop-phest, that I had with a few of my more inspiring toys strewn about the house. I decided to turn a one-off photo concept into a vaguely more coherent two-panel storyline. The real trick was attempting to mimic the setup, lighting and all the Photoshop steps I took months ago, in recreating the second panel, because I failed to write down said steps while they were fresh in my brain. Above is the first panel (though the more newly-built recreated scene), and below is the payoff – if one can call it that. But I suppose I am, for one.
My attempt at recalling some of the digital procedure can be had here, from when I wrote about another shot in last winter's toy shoot. And a bigger look at the zine's second panel can be had o'er on Flickr, right about here.
After a long breather, the ageless HOWieZine project rolled back into gear, heralded by the arrival of the latest issue – themed myths and legends – to my desk at work last week. I submitted a page for the book (which I discovered in the end to be a wonderful box design containing each entrant's work loose inside) early in the new year that featured a bit of design, illustration and photography.
My first page (above) featured the raven sketch I modified and passed on to Illustration Friday for their recent theme of polar, which I actually drew in advance of the zine's deadline around Christmas and on a winter vacation in Cuba. Here, the raven is surrounded by a field-guide description and a short mythological tale of the bird from the Pacific Northwest. The strong presence of the raven among New World folklore was a primary influence on this page, but moreso the theme gave me a chance to do what I love most if I'm drawing: sketching birds in pen.
One of those you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it moments was the inspiration for my second page (above). Last fall Kerry and I ducked over to a neighbourhood coffee shop, where through the window I noticed this television-headed man with a handycam-toting friend, preparing to shoot a scene for a film assignment (my guess anyways – and for their sake I hope it's true). Living a half-block away, I discarded any pretensions and basically told them to wait while I ran home and nabbed my camera. So while my first zine page covers the territory of myth, my snapshot of this dude stands in for legend – and my interpretation of a legend in his own mind. My Flickr link for the original shot acheived the understandable what the? response, and also offers access to a better-quality look.
