Creating Comics!

Creative Process

This was a commission to illustrate an article on the growing

number of online record and audio sample collectors. The article

explains that, while most DJs and music producers still search for

their tracks in record stores, there are a growing number of spe-

cialist sites and member networks that offer rare audio samples

and tracks online.

As the title of the article suggests, there were many references

to mining or digging in the article, so that seemed like the best

way to approach such an abstract piece. Another theme in the

article was that the real record stores and communities were

mirroring themselves online. To illustrate this I wanted to mirror

the real world to the underground world, so I chose to mirror a

fruit tree being harvested in the real world with an underground

network being mined.

I drew the tree first as an abstract network of branches, and

then flipped it upside down to create the network of tunnels. I

wanted to make the elements in the ground colorful and bright

without resembling anything specific.

C

hris Haughton is an Irish illustrator living in

London. He illustrates regularly for the Guard-

ian, the Times, the Independent, and many

other publications. He has worked for several large

national and international advertising campaigns, and

has created murals in London and Tokyo. His recent

campaign for London’s Capital Radio involved large

graphic stencils sprayed on sidewalks in eighty locations

across the city overnight. He was listed in Time maga-

zine’s Design 100 in 2007 for the design and illustration

work he has done for the fair trade clothing company

People Tree. His work has also been featured in books,

including GRAPHIC and Illusive 2 by Die Gestalten

Verlag, and Pentagram’s Picture Book. Haughton is

currently writing and illustrating a children’s book for

Borim Press in Korea.

Chris Haughton

62

Creating Comics

Creative Process

This was a commission to illustrate an article on the growing

number of online record and audio sample collectors. The article

explains that, while most DJs and music producers still search for

their tracks in record stores, there are a growing number of spe-

cialist sites and member networks that offer rare audio samples

and tracks online.

As the title of the article suggests, there were many references

to mining or digging in the article, so that seemed like the best

way to approach such an abstract piece. Another theme in the

article was that the real record stores and communities were

mirroring themselves online. To illustrate this I wanted to mirror

the real world to the underground world, so I chose to mirror a

fruit tree being harvested in the real world with an underground

network being mined.

I drew the tree first as an abstract network of branches, and

then flipped it upside down to create the network of tunnels. I

wanted to make the elements in the ground colorful and bright

without resembling anything specific.

I used textures from here and there; the star is an element from

an old nineteenth-century wallpaper. I changed the color and

texture of these in Photoshop to make them resemble gems or

precious stones.

Title: Digital Digging

Client: RES magazine

Media: Pencil on paper, collage, Photoshop

[The above] was a cynical article for a car magazine about

the notion that “safety features” in car manufacturing are more

about marketing than any real safety concern on the part of

the manufacturer.

I drew this quite simply in ink and also with a little pencil,

and created washes underneath in Photoshop.

Title: Safety Feature

Client: Drive magazine

Media: Pencil and pen on paper, Photoshop

Chris Haughton

63

Chris Haughton