An anthology series of poetry and illustration, Stop Sharpening Your Knives has been around for a good few years, and is currently accepting submissions for its 5th edition. I had the good fortune to hear a performance by one of its editors, poet Jack Underwood, at the launch night of the London Word Festival a few months back, who was equally hilarious and heartfelt. No doubt he’s got good taste as well, eh?
Even though I prefer the idea of a ‘real life’ portfolio – one which I can have in my hands and flick through glossy colourful pages one after another, I have come across on online portfolio, which I think is fantastic! The most appealing part for me is the hand drawn illustration by Jesse Willmon.
Willmon combined his trade of web designing with his love for comics and goes on to talk about the reason behind this design of the portfolio/website was on purpose to make people feel more relaxed, compared to the usual computer tech savvy designs. Therefore to get the comic effect Willmon loved so much he actually hand drew every page of the portfolio / website and scanned them in!
The front page is very different and unique, with various illustrations scattered across the page of work he has done. It makes me want to click on all the different illustrations and see where it will take me. I particularly like ‘I made a paper toy download and print’ and ‘I designed a fancy Doctor Who set check it out’ illustration. As you scroll across each illustration, it transforms from a pencil like grey to a pop of colour bringing the image to life.
However the front page was only the beginning of all the magical illustrations that were yet to be discovered. Once I clicked on the ‘new illustrations check them out’ drawing, I was (gladly) drawn to the text ‘Wild Animals, Dressed as Farm Animals’ and clicked onto it straight away. To my amusement I came across a whole bunch of hilarious drawings of, what simply was’ wild animals, dressed as farm animals.’ My favourites are the ‘pigorilla’ the ‘snorse’ and the ‘bunnligator.’ Bizarre yet hilarious. Take a look here and see what delightful distorted animal is your favourite!
Whilst perusing Etsy for interesting zines, I was taken aback by the amazing False Dictotomy by illustrator Junyi Wu, filled with sombre, yet beautiful black and white artwork, paired with scrawled passages from the work of poet Emily Dickinson. The pen and ink illustrations of flora are set against sparse white backgrounds that highlight their delicate intricacy, occasionally clouded by expressionistic smudges. Junyi describes False Dictotomy as “journal-like” – the handwritten excerpts, complete with mistakes and ink blots, adds to this feel and gives the artwork, despite its still-life subject matter, an emotional intensity that is captivating.
Preview it here, and buy it from her Etsy store.
Having developed a keen interest in photography over the last couple years and an on going ‘passion for fashion’ I thought what a great way to combine the two with publishing. Having been at Proboscis for just over six months now, I have become more familiar with publishing than I was before. Therefore what a great way to mix my two favourite interests with publishing and Proboscis.
Over the weeks I will spend some time looking out for any nifty and unusual ways of presenting look books, portfolio’s and even CV’s in areas from fashion and photography to illustration and interior design.
Be sure to come back to read up on the exciting things I find – ‘I’m bringing some style to publishing.’ 🙂