Filed under: Uncategorized
This blog will no longer be updated. For more bloggy goodness, please direct yourself to:
karenrubins.com
and please take a look around my new website.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: children, comics, competition, contest, drawing, fun, kids, libraries, London, manga, southwark, teenagers, teens, things to do, young people
Manga Competition in Southwark
Southwark Libraries are hosting a manga drawing competition for young people aged 7 – 17. You can enter by post and apparently there are prizes! Look at the website for details.
Filed under: illustration, Life | Tags: b-movie, commissions, illustration, invitation, invite, robots, wedding, york
I was asked by a friend to design wedding invitations “in the style of a B-movie poster”. The couple wanted some horrible threatening robot or creature, and the bride carrying a swooning groom to safety. In the background, York Minster is flooded (a regional joke!) and beset by tentacles.
All the text is based on captions from various B-movies, as was the colour scheme. They asked for something in a similar vein to this wedding invite by Ellen Forney.
Today is Lesley and Matt’s actual wedding day, so let’s all wish them “Congratulations!” and hope that no squid, floods or robots are putting a crimp on their day.
Filed under: Events, Fun, Manga | Tags: drawing, events., fun, letraset, London, manga, MCMexpo, things to do, workshops
MCM Expo Letraset Manga School
Come along to the Letraset Manga School at MCM Expo this weekend! I’m running workshops on Body Pose and Movement and Drawing Clothes, on both Saturday and Sunday. All the details are on Letraset’s website.
Filed under: Comics, Events, Fun, News | Tags: children's, city read, cityread, comics, events, fun, London, things to do, workshops
Phew! That was a mammoth month of kids’ comics. Now I’m recovered, here’s a blog post! After a month spent running around to 18 different libraries all across London and meeting hundreds of comics-loving children, I finally completed my run of workshops for CityRead London. So many crazy characters created (with at least one called “Bob” in every group), so many random stories written and drawn!
The idea of London Lives was that after making up a character each, the kids would pick two characters made in the group at random, a random object and a random location, and make a comic strip based on whatever they had. (No looking, and no swapping!)
My example, made with two random characters (Ted Todd the skateboarding student, and undertaker and amateur magician Peter Charles Griffiths) created by my friends, with a football as my random object and a museum as my random location. All objects and locations were inspired by A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks, the book for CityRead London this year.
Workshop in Hounslow, photos courtesy of John from Hounslow Libraries.
Almost all of my workshops were at maximum capacity! It warms the cockles and mussels of my heart to see that so many young people are really engaged with comics, both reading them and making their own.
Children’s finished comic strips at Barbican Library.
A selection of characters made by the participants.
Many thanks to CityRead London for inviting me to run comics workshops again this year, and all the participating libraries and staff! It was brilliant.
And I’ll leave you with a quote from one of the children who took part.
“I loved the workshop! It was terrific! I gained loads of confidence in drawing comics and know about them. I never had such a wonderful experience! If I had a word to describe it: Comic – cool” Abdul age 9
Come along to the Mall Galleries in London for Lineup, an exhibition of illustration and comics art! As well as work by me, comics creators Hannah Berry, Daniel Locke, Dan Berry and Joe Decie are showing their art as well as many more good folks of the comics world.
There will also be a comics and illustration fair on Saturday 4 May, at which you can by prints, comics, artists’ books and all kinds of interesting things, as well as bagging yourself some original art from the exhibition.
Filed under: Comics, Events, Fun, News | Tags: children's, city read, cityread, comics, Easter, events, fun, London, things to do, workshops
For children 8 – 12 years old. This April, join me for London Lives: Cityread Comics Workshops in libraries all around the capital. Create colourful characters, then see what happens when they meet other peoples’ in the streets, stations and stadiums of London.
Cityread London is a campaign to spread a love of books and reading to the widest possible audience throughout our capital. This year the chosen read is A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. There are also many other events happening for all ages, so take a look at their website for more.
London Lives Comics Workshops
Please contact individual libraries for details of how to book your place!
Tuesday 2nd April
Newham
Manor Park Library
685-693 Romford Road
E12 5AD
11:00 – 12:30
Dagenham
1 Church Elm Lane,
Dagenham,
RM10 9QS
2:30 – 4pm
Wednesday 3rd April
Barnet
East Barnet Library
85 Brookhill Road,
East Barnet,
EN4 8SG
2:30 – 4pm
Thursday 4th April
Bromley
Bromley Central Library
High Street
Bromley
Kent – BR1 1EX
11:00 – 12:30
Bexley
Bexleyheath Central Library
Townley Road
Bexleyheath
DA6 7HJ
2:30 – 4pm
Friday 5th April
Barnet
Edgware Library
Hale Lane,
Edgware,
HA8 8NN
2:30 – 4pm
Sunday 7th April
Hounslow
Hounslow Library,
Treaty Centre,
High Street,
Hounslow,
TW3 1ES
1:30 – 3pm
Wednesday 10th April
Wandsworth
Southfields Library
300 Wimbledon Park Road
London SW19 6NL
10:30 – 12:00noon
Southwark
Peckham Library,
122 Peckham Hill Street
SE15 5JR
2:30 – 4pm
Thursday 11th April
City of London
Barbican Library
Barbican Centre
Silk St
London
UK
EC2Y 8DS
11 – 12:30
Westminster
Marylebone Library
109-117 Marylebone Road (entrance Gloucester Place)
London NW1 5PS
2:30 – 4pm
Saturday 13th April
Merton
Morden Library
Civic Centre
London Road
SM4 5DX
10:30 – 12noon
Brent
Kingsbury Library Plus
522 – 524 Kingsbury Road
Kingsbury
NW9 9HE
2:30 – 4pm
Tuesday 16th April
Hammersmith and Fulham
Hammersmith Library
Shepherds Bush Road
London
W6 7AT
4:00 – 5:30pm
Thursday 18th April
Harrow
Wealdstone Library,
The Wealdstone Centre,
38/40 High Street,
Wealdstone,
HA3 7AE
4 – 5:30pm
Thursday 25th April
Havering
Upminster Library,
26 Corbets Tey Road,
Upminster,
RM14 2BB
4:00 – 5:30pm
Saturday 27th April
Hackney
Hackney Central Library
Hackney Technology and Learning Centre
1 Reading Lane
E8 1GQ
10:30 – 12:00noon
Croydon
Central Library,
Katharine Street,
Croydon,
CR9 1ET
2:30 – 4pm
Filed under: Commissions, illustration, Manga | Tags: commissions, illustration, manga, portrait
Just a few A5 size manga portraits I have drawn for commissions (fairly) recently. All were drawn with brush pen on heavy cartridge paper using photo references.
Feel free to get in touch if you would like one done for yourself! ^_^
Back by popular demand…
This half-term, I’ll be running Manga-tastic! a manga-making course for young people, in the London Borough of Barnet. After four afternoons of planning, writing and drawing manga stories, the results will be published in an anthology that will be distributed in Barnet Libraries. Come along to learn manga techniques, talk manga, read manga, and draw manga! It’s all about manga.
Ages: 12 – 18
Dates: 19th – 22nd February 2013
Times: 2 – 5pm
Location: Chipping Barnet Library
Cost: £24
Booking: Bookings must be made through the Futureversity website.
See you there!
Once again, I am running a weekend (optionally) residential course on creating Comics and Graphic Novels at West Dean College, near Chichester in Sussex. West Dean is a lovely setting, an unspoiled country manor house set in beautiful gardens and parkland. Topiary! Mosaics! Stuffed animals! Surrealist objects! It is a truly unique location, and a great experience just staying there, never mind the learning and socialising.
Comics and Graphic Novels is suitable for all levels – come along and have an early summer break, while exploring the wonderful world of writing, drawing and storytelling. You can also put this course towards a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. The course begins on Friday evening, and continues until Sunday tea-time, with plenty of civilised breaks for meals, tea and socialising.
Dates: 7 – 9 June 2013
Details: Available on the West Dean College website.
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