Jude Melling's Five Things.

Written by Lazy Gramophone on Thursday the 21st of March 2013

Five Things is a series of short journal posts introducing each of the writers and artists involved in our up-coming Time project.

Since the project's inception, the idea has been to create an environment where independent writers and artists could come together in order to share their work. The result of this endeavour is a collection of stories, images and poems based around the theme of time, its pages placing particular focus upon the relationship between words and pictures. By sharing in this way we hope to inspire each other as well as those around us, to draw a diverse audience and so help to illuminate the work of alternative artists and writers everywhere. 


Biography.

@JCMelon aka Jude Melling, an unprofessional illustrator, comic artist and writer based in London. 



Five Things that have Inspired my Art.

At a very early age I had a large hardback volume of art by MCEscher. And maybe those bold black and white images coloured my appreciation of art, it's hard to say.

I more or less learned to read, reading comics. Comics in general, were three and four colour publications with weekly adventures of naughty working class children, or various surreal reworkings of tropes from narrative fiction, indulging in painful puns and culminating in a good slippering from the ubiquitous authority figure known only as "Dad" a character notably absent from my own life. From here I discovered Asterix and my knowledge of European history begins and ends with Goscinny and Uderzo.

At about the age of eleven I went on a canal boat holiday with my own family and the family of my oldest friend. His tales of the X-Men were enough to spark my imagination, sending it into over-drive, but at this time I'd never even seen an American superhero comic.

The first american comic book I ever bought was a copy of The New Mutants somewhere deep into the Demon Bear story line. It was drawn by the mind-blowing Bill Sienkiewicz and at the time I had no idea how esoteric it was.

Soon after discovering a Forbidden Planet in the Milton Keynes shopping centre I bought a copy of "How to draw comics the marvel way" by Stan Lee and John Buscema. So lets face it John did all the work! And that single beautiful tome taught me all the the essential basics of illustration.

During the Eighties it became apparent that comics were not a (superhero) genre and were, in fact, a medium for telling all manner of stories. I didn't know much about art but I knew what I liked, and I liked who I wanted to be. I tried my best to emulate my heroes. My earliest sketch books were full of attempts to be Jamie Hernandez, Evan Dorkin, Joe Matt and Scott McCloud.

Then I met my father. 

Until this time I had honed my skill utilising the Marvel method. Pencils, inks, and maybe colours. My father threw paint around with abandon, didn't pencil and like a good catholic, never used a rubber, and this lack of control scared me. We clashed over methodology but before he passed away I think we learned to like and respect each others work. If anything he taught me to relax and to embrace the happy accident. I was after all a happy accident myself.

In the past I felt I wasn't good enough, I felt I needed to be more like someone else. In retrospect I feel this has held me back. In recent times I've grown to tolerate my own style. This Jude Melling guy is alright I should try and draw more like him: http://judemelon.blogspot.co.uk/ 


The Time Project.

1. Time Book Launch Lazy Gramophone Events Page 

2. Time Book Launch Facebook Page

3. View our Clock page (counting down to the release of Time)

4. An introduction to Time

5. Contributors' Five Things Journal Posts:
- Adam Green
- Bryn Hall
- Inua Ellams
- Zoe Catherine Kendall
- Andrew Walter
- Laura Dockrill
- Mat Lloyd
- Sorana Santos
- Will Conway
- Hannah Stephenson
- Matt Black
- Claire Fletcher
- Carl Laurence
- Zophiel Webb
- Jude Melling
- Stacie Withers
- Tom Hirons
- Megan Leonie Hall
- Vincent J Prince
- Kaitlin Beckett
- Guy J Jackson
- Eliza Gregory
- Jeannie Paske
- Jo Tedds
- Maria Drummey
- Tom Harris
- Liz Adams
- Lola Dupre
- Kirsty Allison
- Alexander Aspinall
- Paul Bloom

6. Buy Time from the Lazy Gramophone Shop 

7. Press/Reviews
(Click the links below to read each article in full)

Huffington Post:
'An intriguing book project from one of the most innovative groups of creative people in the city.' ~ Huffington Post

Fabric Magazine:
'...we'll bet you've never seen time as it's portrayed in this stunning new publication.' ~ Fabric Magazine

Rooms Magazine:
'Time is a treasure box brimming with creativity and fresh talent.' ~ Rooms Magazine

Annexe Magazine:
'Lazy Gramophone's anthology, Time, lives up to the high bar it sets for itself.' ~ Annexe Magazine

MORE...

For more on The Time Project tweet us @lazygramophone or #TheTimeProjectLGP or visit our Time Facebook page.
Tags for this post: Jude Melling, Lazy Gramophone, Time, Five Things, Jed Melling.
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