Manga Meet-Up 2023
I was invited again in 2023 to host an art/creativity activity at the Manga Meet-Up event held in the Scunthorpe Central Library. I was commissioned to create the social media and website promotional materials for the event again too. I planned out the art activity I was asked to host at the event which was up to me to decide what I wanted to do. The main design for the event was printed on to stickers like in 2022, and handed out to guests who attended.
Rather than repeat what I did the previous year for the event, I wanted to freshen things up for those who attended the previous year, and make something more of a crafting workshop which allowed for a more unique finished piece for guests to take home with them. Being a manga and anime fan myself from my early teens, I tried to recall trends in the community and art trends. I remembered around 2014, "paper chidlren" were very popular on social media. People would draw anime characters or their own characters in interactive poses and cut them out, photographing them or displaying them in a place where it looks like they're interacting with reality.
I created a presentation to introduce myself to everyone and guide people how to create their own paper child. I went around tables to attend to guests who were struggling with their illustrations or needed any help.
Rough sketch phase, planning where to place characters.
Second sketch phase, detailing how the characters look, positioning poses.
First lining phase before final lining and colour added.
Finalised look of the logo. This design was made in mind for the square print sticker, the same as Manga Meet-Up 2022.
Finalised design for the poster used on social media, printed poster, and on websites.
Opening sketch I created for presentation.
I included previous works and drawings I had made to present my work to everyone.
Introducing the concept of "paper children" to the guests, showing my own work as examples.
1/6: Showing how to start the creation of a paper child. I talked through the slides to elaborate on the stages.
2/6: Explained this stage was optional, but it's a personal preference of mine when traditionally drawing to lightly erase the sketch so I can clearly see the linework. Pencil lines under ink linework makes the linework look less clean.
3/6: I regarded this slide optional too, leaving it up to guests to decide if they wanted to line their drawings in ink to make it stand out more and look clearer.
4/6: Again, this slide was down to the discretion of each guest if they wanted to colour their drawing in or not. I encouraged people to as the drawing would pop out more and look better when cut out.
5/6: Created a bordered line to show an example of the gap people should leave around the edge of their drawing when cutting it out to make it easier and less likely to cut into the illustration by accident.
6/6: Final example of a cut out paper child.