I’ve spent the last twelve months creating and developing creatures that live on the Moon. My degree show will feature an encyclopaedia that contains everything you would ever need to know about each of these species.
Their characters are based on behaviours that I’ve seen and recognised in myself and other people. This project has forced me to pay closer attention to the way people act and ask why that is. The characters are aliens, and some of them only have a close visual resemblance to humans, but they are based entirely on the worst and best aspects of human behaviour.
I have always considered drawing by hand to be absolutely central to my practice, using biro pens as my preferred media.
I have recently tried hard to break away from using biro by screen printing, ink and watercolour to try and inject some colour into my work. However, the struggle served to prove that, at least for my creatures, biro is best way to tell their stories.
Alongside my encyclopaedia I’ve been working on monochromatic, wordless comics, in which my aliens are going about their daily routines. I try and tell the most basic of stories with intense mood and drama, just to see how far it’s possible to dramatise the mundane.
Arran’s instagram – @azzastamp and website – www.azzastamp.com
