Leeds LDC 11/02/2019

Hello there!

Here is a better-late-than-never upload of my sketches from our night last month.  Every time I log back in here to eye up what other folk have put on the blog, I always wish I’d done something more imaginative or graphically informative with my recordings.  However, I do love an excuse to sketch.

Speaker #1

This is not a great likeness of my fellow co-operator Clare.  We are members of Footprint Workers Co-operative in Leeds.  Although our website is not very pleasing to look at, a lot of the stuff that we print is!  We specialise in riso printing, which is not only exciting to work with, but also not as harmful to the environment as other printing methods.  We also only use recycled paper, as continually chopping down trees to make paper is not a good idea.  We work to help out groups whose politics we align with (i.e. anti-fascist, feminist, eco-activist…) and who are struggling for money, by doing printing for cheap or sometimes free.  We are a member of Radical Routes, a network of UK co-ops dedicated to radical social change.  As a co-op, we have no boss, organise non-hierarchically, and make the decisions together.

If you want to get in touch email us at footprint@footprinters.co.uk, or if you prefer the telephone it’s 0113 262 4408.  Find us on the auld social media:

t: @FootprintLeeds – insta: @footprintworkerscoop – fb: @footprinters

Sorry about the long post which is not based on what Clare said but what I know.  We were invited because we print a lot of comics and zines (some of us occasionally make them too…) and love to talk about riso and DIY publishing!  We’ll be aiming to do the Leeds Zine Fair later on in the year again, so do keep an eye out for those announcements.

SPEAKER #2

ELEANOR HOLLINDRAKE

You should go and look at Eleanor’s excellent work in breaking the 4th wall.  Her work started out as a project to get art out of the galleries and on the streets, up close and personal!  She started making zines about her super cute character, Dragon Mouse, and setting up stalls in city centres.  This progressed into a veritable Mythical Mouse dynasty which lives beyond the page of a story book.  Eleanor also KNITS these fuzzy furry friends!  A great lover of history as well as fantasy, Eleanor’s latest work, Echoes, is a short graphic novel based on Neolithic Orkney – a beautiful and contemplative comic.

Here come the external links!

– tumblr: eleanorhollindrake – tw: @idrawdragons –

– fb: @idrawdragons – etsy: ElleanorHollindrake –

SPEAKER #3

RACHAEL SMITH

(I finally got warmed up enough to be able to capture words and a drawing by this point – all of these captions do make sense, I promise)

Rachael’s presentation was funny, honest, and gave us an excellent insight into her drawing and story-writing processes.  Everyone loves nerding out on techniques at LDC, which is why we were also all extremely pleased she’d brought along some of the regular media she works with: a Bristol board and some fancy pens (I can’t remember what type).  As pleased as we all were, no-one was bold enough to make more than a tiny mark on the board.  She also shared the reasoning behind that blue under-drawing you often see on comic art (here’s a youtube tutorial I found online that kinda explains – skip to 6:40 for the reveal).

I am finding it hard to remember all the stuff as it is now over a month later, sorry about that.  Here are the links to Rachael’s work, please do check it all out coz she’s cool as heck:

– website: www.rachaelsmith.org/ – twitter: @rachael_ –

– fb: @rachaelsmithillustration – insta: @flimsykitten –

Thanks to everyone who came, to Lou for hosting, and to the people at Wharf Chambers for making some nice coffee for me.

This post is by Hannah McCann (find me doing not very much on Twitter @hannahwotmccann).