Foreword
Before I say anything, I would like to express my gratitude to all who have viewed the gallery installation or joined Marcus and me at Kinokuniya for today’s event (17/5/25).
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who have purchased a copy of Young Man. As my own and the studio’s first published and exhibited project, it’s been amazing to learn all about the process of illustration, publishing, marketing and communicating which I will be sure to write more about when I have more time.
Artist Talk
This small post covers the artist talk/discussion by Marcus Khoudair and myself (Ethan Scotney) in the gallery, which Paul Pinga Matereke very generously moderated. I was amazed by the turnout of people, both known and soon-to-be-known. It exceeded my expectations, considering the delay in advertising the event—a lesson learned.
Marcus covered topics such as the very ideas and conversations that sprouted the ideas for Young Man. I learned it sprouted from a conversation with a friend of Marcus’ who, as a child, would have these recurring nightmares and the emotions surrounding that. Other topics I discussed included the major graphical decisions made.
My answer to that… no. It started quite traditionally, but one day, while testing graphic methods, I stopped and decided, after much mental agony and pondering, that we must push the envelope in visual storytelling, take a risk, and do something brand-new and vastly different. However, the restriction of text in the story was always key, as it enforced universality. There were some minor disagreements over details here and there, but everything went quite smoothly as we work very well together. Further tests with parts of the script, and after that, I dove headfirst into the illustration process, of which took over a year.
However, I feel slightly influenced by the talk occurring in the space. Gallery goers were more active in the space, stopping by to check out bits of the talk and, even more exciting, picking up copies as the talk was going on. It fills me with such joy to see my illustrations of Marcus’ script viewed, enjoyed, and hopefully learned from and pondered.
Again, thank you to all who attended.
Until next time!
Photo Gallery
