The InnerCity Tarot - Gonna give it a go.

Little Baron

I have had a drawing at home that has been sitting about for exactly a year. It is a shabby sketch, kind of cartoony. It is of a ginger youth in sportswear with a cigararette hanging out of his mouth. Nobody that has seen it, has liked it.

But I love him. It is very much like the pictures I did for the 'Minute Deck' exercise of Chronata's - except I did him with felt pens and not on the computer. He is purposely messy, jagged and harsh. He has hair on his knees, like small orange needles. He eyes are large and lifeless.

And I was thinking about him today on my journey home from Surrey. And I thought about what I could ever do with him. And then I thought about a deck, and this whole load of ideas, visions and inspiration washed over me. Because I am pretty sure that this guy has got some mates; not the kind you want hanging about outside your house, but they are definitely there. And I got this wild urge to bring them out of the shadows.

As a kid, I always had a real fascination with housing estates. I didn't live on one, but in South London, I walked through and visited enough. Often, it would be like a maze of small lights at night time - little balcanies, tight lifts and maze-like corridors. And the characters that came out at night were both scary and intreaging. There were real night creatures, in shadow.

And they still fascinate me today. I see them as I pass in the car - their caps, their scarves pulled up over their mouth, their tracksuits.

Call them what you like - scally, chav etc, but there is something haunting about this image. I am not planning on doing a 'jokey' deck - burberry chav send up - I actually want to explore the image and lifestyle. I want to do a dark, scratchy and edgy set of pictures to meditate through, like windows peeping into another world. I want to jump into these shadows with these lads and ladies. I think it might be uncomfortable but I am really excited about the idea.

You might not like the idea. It might not be that great. I still havn't worked out how I am going to do it yet and in which media.

But for now, how does it make you feel?????

LB
 

Little Baron

Before I post these, I will just say that these are the most rough of sketches but I am just posting so you get just a little more of an idea about where my ideas are heading.

LB
 

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Gardener

I'm thoroughly intrigued, LB! Your write-up of your moment of inspiration is great! But it doesn't really matter what we think - you're the one who felt the images, you're the one who's going to bring them to life. I would love to see the images!

Oh, I refreshed the screen and you've already posted two. I LOVE "dope", the one in color, he has fabulous otherworldly energy to him. The b/w picture seems anatomically impossible to me, in a way I can't quite get over. I want to see the original picture with the hair on his knees - I don't get it!

More, more - get to work!
 

Little Baron

That first colourful one is the original sketch I was talking of. He is not wonderful, artistically, but he is where the energy of all of this has come from.

The second one was just a quick line drawing on computer to see how it would work there. I think it is possibly too slick, but I will try again with nice dark colours. I think I am going to have to have a go in many different ways to see what is the most effective. I want it to be naive and almost cartoon-illustration-like, but not so flat that it looses it's raw magic. But now I have the idea, the rest will hopefully fall into place at some point.

LB
 

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Gardener

Thank you, the knees are perfect!
 

Chronata

Oh absolutely, LB...you HAVE to turn him into a deck...

I loved your other people that you did on the computer...the ones that were inspired by the Minute...I
kept thinking about how they reminded of me of a certain crowd I used to hang around with...
and how much fun it would be to read for them with a deck that they would relate to...

this in turn, inspired ME in many ways to draw the goth punks of the All Hallows!

So...yes...you need to keep at this..
I very much can't wait to see what will come next!
 

Silver_Skye

Oh! I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea!!!

It reminds me of something that might come out of Jerimiah (this wonderful post apocalyptic show - written by the same guy who did Babylon 5).
 

Little Baron

Thanks guys.

I have no idea how it is going to materialise.

Or what the purpose is. The only reason is that I want to give them life, because they arouse me so much. I want to know about their lives, their sorrows, their fun.

Have been watching films like 'Nil by Mouth' (Ray Winstone/Kathy Burke) and 'Football Factory' (Danny Dyer) of late so this may be part of my renewed interest in capturing the grittier parts of South London and trying to get it onto paper somehow.

I want to do a deck that is dark - but internally dark. Not in an obvious way. Try to get right into the heart of darkness - the human reality of it, pick away at the scars, if you like. And I think these boys and girls can help me do it.

There was a part of this year's Big Brother that also did a bit of inspirational work on me. There was a girl in there called Aisleyne. By the end of the show, she came across pretty good. She was pleasant. But they showed a clip of how she was before going in. It was like a different person. The person prior to the show looked trashy, was harsh and actually quite scary. She took me back to the people I had seen in the innercity boroughs of London when the sun had gone down - the creatures that came out in the darkness. It both inspired me and sent a chill through me. As much as I want the sense of intimidation to come through around the gangs I am focusing on, I also want to locate the warmth. I don't want the deck to be cliched. I want its harshness and sharp corners to be beautiful.

Just incase anyone is in doubt about my subject, here are a few inspirational/research shots I found on the internet.

LB

Edited to add: the names of the files were not named by me, lol
 

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Wings

oh yes...

I think the idea is wonderful and I love your "ginger lad"..if you prick them do they not bleed ? as an artist and the mother of 2 kids I have always had a soft spot for the young and marginal elements of society...i used to have open house at Christmas and Thanksgiving for those on the streets some times the party would last a week ...I found them very creative at survival...but they were never as clean as the kids in the pictures you showed
and a hot shower and use of my washing machien was a real treat for them...
I love that you are giving us a new journey of creative vision to fallow
you are so brave to just slap your rough drafts up for all to see...you are an amazing artist...
 

Little Baron

Thanks Wings.

I did consider whether or not to put the rough sketches up because they are not brilliant, artistically. But it was very hard to explain where I was coming from without doing so. And I thought 'what the heck!'. I think that in life, it is good to show the experimental as well as the polished. It's a process. I am looking at this thread as a little pot to add different ingredients to. I have only considered doing this for half a day so it is all a little shaky right now.

But thanks for your kind words.

I am enclosing a few more inspirational pictures from the films I mentioned previously, to give a little more understanding to the idea.

LB
 

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