COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM- 51 -
JUNE 2019SPRING 2018
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM- 51 -
P
hilippa Rice works across an impressive
range of media, from comics,
illustration and animation, to model-
making and crochet. As such, her style
isn’t dependent on her tools, but a
more innate commonality in her work that
runs through all her work, from her stop-
motion crochet character shorts to her books
that draw on real-life relationships.
Rice studied animation as a degree, and
used the skills she learned to start creating her
collage-based webcomic My Cardboard Life
about a year after graduating, moving on to
creating animated GIFs and longer animations.
Currently, she’s particularly enjoying the
crochet side of her practice: “Even though it
takes a long time, the final result is always
worth it,” she says. “I love completing a real,
3D object that I can hold in my hands!” Her
work often appears incredibly tactile,
something she favours for its “immediacy and
sense of realness: it gives you a feeling of
connection to the work.” Rice adds: “I find
comics more rewarding than fun, because it’s a
chance to share a story.”“I like working quickly and using a lot
of colour. Collage is very good for that
because it’s quite immediate. I also
love using Pentel colour brush pens. I
started using an iPad with Procreate to
sketch ideas and I find that really useful
because I can add colour right away to
my sketches. It’s much easier to draw
and test animations quickly as well.
Previously I would draw everything and
scan the pages before puing together
gifs in Photoshop. I feel like I never
quite technically know what I’m doing...
I would always suggest to try lots
of different mediums and techniques
all the time. Don’t be afraid to try out
something a bit weird – it’s oen very
inspiring. Start with small and simple
things and build from there. Make lots
of animated GIFs!”PHILIPPA
ON HER
DIGITAL
TOOLSThe unusual techniques she uses are both
clearly something she enjoys, but also a smart
way of making her work stand out. “I think a
signature style can develop naturally by
making the things that interest you, using the
tools you enjoy, and telling the stories you
want to tell,” she says. “Your signature style is
already within you, but you have to make the
work first to see it.”
Rice knows when she’s hit on a good
character when it begins to naturally take on a
life or personality of its own. However, many of
her comics are partly autobiographical, or
about her family, partner and daughter. “For
fictional characters and situations I often base
them on real life too,” she says. “With fictional
characters I often make them rude or
obnoxious, or any other bad personality traits
that I feel like I’m not allowed to have in real
life myself.” Rice continues: “I think you just
need to get across a feeling of realness that
people can relate to. Maybe not directly, but
if we believe that a character can have real
thoughts and feelings, then I think that makes it
a successful design.”Opposite One of the title pages for Philippa Rice’s web comic We’re Out. Above My Cardboard Life characters.Above Art from Rice’s book Sisters BFF.CHARACTER DESIGN WORKOUT