Alex Jenkins

0:13Yeah thank you so much for coming I'm Alex Jenkins and as already introduced I'm an illustrator from South London I've been freelancing for about three and a half years now after graduating from Campell College of univers yeah I got it wrong but I know there's some cwell students in the crowd there so shout out if you're there I suppose I describe my work it's it's grotesque I mean I do get a bit Fed Up of slinging that term around but it probably does best fit it I like to draw things that are a bit gruesome and also perhaps even disgusting it's probably a picture of my bad personal habits are also the less flattering side of human nature which is always good to highlight and I also aim to create images that tell a story you can see beautiful dance I like to ting with The Surreal and they are hopefully funny sometimes I try not to take myself so seriously and I don't know how I could when I draw pictures of people squeezing spots for a living but I tend to be influenced by the things that I see around me it's probably observational in style and maybe a bit self-reflective too like the spot I' got lots of those at the moment quite a lot of what I draw is actually a comment on the things that I might be worried about in life for example example smoking too much is a current or a common theme also annoyances and things that I find a bit absurd or frustrating this one is you know the frustration of the the obsession of celebrity that you can see here and as I said storytelling is a big part of my work I've never really been the best Communicator verbally I see myself as pretty much a big sort of bumbling guy with a bit of an awkward sense of humor so illustration is a great way that can express a story without having to like look anyone in the eyes and I do avoid adding titles to my work again I don't take myself too seriously so I find that if you had like a kind of heady title to it it can often make it seem a bit more pretentious if it's coming from myself you know and you know I don't think I could come across that well I did like this one though actually it was I called it good cop sad cop and like the play on good cop bad cop I like the idea of like a policeman who was so distraught in the interrogation room that the the criminal had comfort him clever stuff yeah and this one as well.

2:33This is this one was called show me the future cuz the the portal directs the future up his anus I think a lot of the the the influences come as from experiences as a child I used to draw I used to play with Vance for hours on end and make them fight and I'll try and turn it into a more serious subject this is meant to be a comment on Invasion and the destruction of war with ants so it's like harking back in my child days this one is about bullying in the workplace I feel like car salesman they actually get quite a bad rep so I thought I'd stick up to them and estate agents too but and here's God just bowling Earth out the Gates of Heaven see you.

3:17And I I don't offend anyone anyone here who's a fan of friends I felt I was forced to watch it a lot as a kid and I was never really that big on it you know it's a bit Yeah bit gratin after a while but yeah I often try and have a straightforward message and this one I did it. And it was it was just about me going out too much and getting McDonald's at 5 in the morning and then you you can see lot the kind of excess around me.

3:40But then you know when I put it online a lot I got a lot of comments about it being about veganism and anti fast food corporations but it was really a lot more simple than that it was just me yeah doing too much bad things yeah.

3:55So I worked with Comics recently they they seem to I've given me a new lease of life and my creativity and moving away from the single image illustrations it became quite difficult I think to tell a real story or to tell fit all the story into One Singular image and you get a bit like claustrophobic in a sense of trying to think of the idea and everything but Comics have given it at least a life.

4:16And I can create a bit more freely which is great yeah and you think I think you you plan your illustration in a different way as well like now it's it's a different way of approaching the planning process I started these Comics as a form of getting me into animation I'm going to show you really a bad animation though because this is all I've managed to do in 2 years. And it's going to be loud music.

4:35So I' beware as ♪

4:48well enough of that but no no the reason for that yeah no it was just to show that like you know the reason I got into Comics was because it was the the idea of wanting to get further in animation and the good thing about it was I could then plan out a story through this and like you know have your key moments and and fully prep but I didn't get that far of Animation as you see so Comics kind of I not that accidentally stumbled across them.

5:11But that's what's resulted from this which is which is cool of course good well. That's why I'm here now. But yeah yeah yeah.

5:18So this is one of the first ones I did actually it's it's one about me struggling to look for creativity CU I did at the beginning and having no ideas I thought like how can I do an animation what could I think of and you know I end up drawing a penis having a cigarette and then something just rips my brain out and all my creativity's gone again and I'm content where back where.

5:37I was this is another six panel comic and this is what I started doing this one a guy gets on a treadmill and his his heart stays in bed he falls off the treadmill dead poetic but it's also cool because you can also you can have two stories running alongside each other which is great nine panel Comics are good I think they can help to you can tell more of a story with them and maybe they're quite they're a bit better for maybe more serious content because you can and also abstract work as well because you can kind of like make it you can rule the story back. So it makes sense to the viewer so they're good to to use and this is meant to be like you know like a sort of circle of life is that from Lion King cycle of Life.

6:20Anyway yeah and then he ends up meeting de at the end and then de gives him a piggy back. So it's quite a comforting ending to the Setting Sun it wasn't yeah but this I've got into four panel comics and I think they they work better in terms of humor I think you have to be more Punchy with the and finding the you know having the joke and finding planning where it's going to be and where it's going to result this one is actually about my experience tonight I kind of tried to perceive how it would be so there. I am outside the venue it's like the cigarette of death there you guys as you can see there's me like pushing my buttons nervously there's my exposed buttocks and there's my tiny penis as I hide behind the microphone and there you are huge I thought about other ideas for this. Actually I thought about maybe I could be like the Elephant Man in like a Victorian physician is that the right word physician Auditorium or I could be perhaps like a a dissected frog under a microscope or something but you get the idea yeah that kind of thing of how I am now.

7:21And this is another four panel comic so I'm going to move into these now. And this is what I'm currently doing this is probably a bit self-reflective actually there. I am I'm romantically with my phone in bed I blissfully recline I can sleep peacefully now there's my hand traumatized I thought it'd be nice to capture the perspective of hand because you know they probably they probably go for a lot in life. And it's good to like someone sticks up for them and shows how they would feel here's another one engrossed in a book fantastic novel in the park can't stop reading oh policeman Facebook maybe good work Facebook clever player this one's a bit Bleak actually not really that funny but I quite liked it not biging myself up.

8:23But it's quite sad in a way there's a guy in his cell looking out on the full moon the glimmer of hope ah he approaches it's just a picture here's another you might yeah it's about spots again another thing about spots there she notices it in the mirror gives it a good aggressive squeeze doesn't go anywhere it just gets bigger so she Embraces it and walks off into the sunset arm in arm what's nice about Comics as well.

9:05This is another one I think it gives you freedom to play with perspective and scale not that I'm that good at it but you still have the option with Comics as opposed to like a singular illustration where it'd be a lot more confined so he's in his gloomy be room he grabs the bottle he climbs on a table he gets undressed and plunges into the the neck of the the wine so I think we've all been there right unless you don't drink and this another one this is probably yeah a bit more serious I guess guy in his dark box he BL he he's irked By the Light coming through he blocks the light but it's just a vast desert I thought it was a play on like ignorance is bliss I thought it was quite good so yeah oh here's another one so this one I think it's about that you can just grab inspiration from like everyday things or the mundane things you see around you it could be hand cream this.

9:58Actually inspired me my girlfriend got one of those like Teeth Whitening kits off the internet which probably do lots of damage to you so you see this in the comic how it makes sense she applies a face cream sizzles a hole in her cheek but now she's got the look she can look like everyone else it was all worth it because you're worth it oh and here's another one I suppose my Comics they do kind of fit in that bracket of being like a relatable comic which you find online because maybe you can find some relatability in the the gym go Pumping Iron big and strong but in the locker room he's just sort of pale and insecure and oh there's one more it's the early hours of the morning what's in the fridge pours his milk M nicar milk nicotine milk that's yeah chewing G but what was great about these com is I was able to get a gig for Adult Swim and I mean they were a huge influence and reason I got into illustration in the first place I'm a big fan of their humor and their their style and and they you know they work with young illustrators and animators it's great they gave me complete creative freedom in this which is kind of a bit more pressure as well in way because you don't you never know you're going to nail an illustration you want to do your best one for them but sometimes you can end up really pretty which is unfortunate but anyway hey ho that's life here's one prob did for them it's a sexy pool scene they flirt he takes a drag on her cigarette she blushes he exits the pool he has a big scrotum esque body with sort of things and arms and limbs on it I thought it was quite clever I thought of the word it could be called shallow but then I realized the the word shallow comes from that. Anyway.

11:55So I wasn't actually being clever at all.

11:57This is a new one for actually I'm not sure I should be showing this probably get in trouble but anyway hope it makes sense there's a patient in the doctor's office the the doctor instruction get onto the bed you know as a doctor would he corts wearing a thong and a bird beak the doctor intently takes notes the real Doctor enters the room the fake doctor escapes through the window with suspenders on. And weird funny drawings and here's one more Adult Swim foreplay tying up she feeds him she continues to feed him three months later she still feeds him yeah. So big Grim so that's it.

12:48This is just a a video of like my process I work on an iPad and I always feel like working digitally can be you know for an illustrator maybe it's a bit frowned upon in the illustration world.

12:56But I mean it kind of Suits my my method of working I find like I kind of get my stuff isn't very technically refined but it helps to like you know get stuff out quickly I mean here's a video of the process just to give you a run it won't be the whole five hours because you you you'll be falling asleep but yeah.

13:11So this is it I I mean I work obviously get the idea down in a Sketchbook like most people do and yeah I like to sort of look at the mundane and try some try and find something ridiculous in it I think that's the the way I work yeah I've run out of things to say and the video is still playing yeah no so and and I think that illustration in comic form for me personally it's been really liberating because it's given me like a lease of Life of in a way because as I said it's that different method of thinking and approaching it and you can just get on with it.

13:47So I've run out things again so I let I'll let you watch just the process until I can escape my buttocks sorry there you go thank you very much thanks for coming