This is me, in the box Adam originally helped design. I think I make quite a good monster.
As mentioned previously - working in the studio with Tom was pretty handy, because he had a lot to talk about working as an artist, being in the comics industry - and also links to organisations that helped to make the #getintocomics project come to life.
The studio space we worked in for the project was actually an empty office unit in Thorpe Park, out next to Colton, en route to Leeds. A company called Skippko provides this; for £10 a week, they'll give you a empty unit anywhere in the city for you to use as a studio space.
This is an amazing alternative to paying extortionate rent prices - but the downside is you can be moved at any time (which happened mid-project) and depending on the unit there can be restrictions in mess (Thorpe Park were incredibly stringent about keeping the unit clean - which meant for a few panicky paint accidents at certain points). Skippko also provide art workshops for different communities in Leeds - which is interesting, and something I might investigate more about later.
The other thing Tom tipped me off to whilst working with him was Leeds Inspired. They're an organisation funded by the Arts Council to help facilitate arts and culture projects in Leeds - and they give out grants on various scales to help artists fund projects - from £1,000-£15,000 at a time. To get this you usually have to put an application in, pitch an idea and if they like it you agree on a set grant amount. They funded the #Getintocomics project, and they also funded Tom's previous Thought Bubble project, 'Kodama Woods', which had 3D installations combined with on-the-day workshops.
Prior to this, i'd never considered grants as a route to pursue as an illustrator - it had seemed a thing much more exclusive to fine artists. However, the freedom to be able to source funding for your own projects, as opposed to having to tailor your work to the whims of an art director seems a lot more appealing to me - though there are obviously pro's and cons to both approaches.
As well as his advice about grants, Tom talked to me a lot about his work with 2000AD. Theres a good interview with him here for 'The Streets Today' that touches a lot on what we talked about.
Although he is an illustrator and artist, his main trade with 2000AD is as a writer - and it was interesting to hear about the way creatives work with comics publishers. For example - a lot of artists usually make a lot of extra pennies on the side from selling off the original sketch blueprints for comic pages (I didn't even know you were allowed to do this!) - and that 2000AD operates somewhat like an in-between from the big, commercial giants of people like Marvel & DC and the more smaller-scale comic creator community. They're very obviously a commercial publisher - but their creators tend to have a little more freedom in how they produce work compared to the more stringent Marvel & DC.
At this point I was still really interested in pursuing comic book work more - one of my original chosen briefs was to enter the 2000AD competition that runs every year at Thought bubble. However - due to the commitments i'd taken on getting the #Getintocomics work finished, I ended up having to drop it. This allowed me more time to properly focus on #Getintocomics as a significant brief, and in hindsight it allowed me to move my practice away from narrative and sequence, which I think was a benefit.
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