Edward Ross is an Edinburgh based comic book artist and writer.  He is best known for his film theory comic ‘Filmish’, and is currently working with Glasgow University to create a comic about research into Malaria. Edward also helps to run the Edinburgh League of Comics who organise events and meet-ups around comics in Edinburgh. 

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I kind of fell into making comics after university, and I’d always thought I wanted to be a film-maker.  But comics, which I’d always had a fascination for, took hold as soon as I started playing around with the form and realised just how easy and accessible they can be.  Unlike film, here was an artform that didn’t require budgets and resources to get your work out there; fundamentally all you need is a pen, paper and access to a photocopier or the internet.  Plus, there’s something exciting about working in a medium that is still learning what it is and what it can be.

The best thing as an artist is getting your work out there.  It’s a great thing to be able to cheaply and easily produce artwork, and be able to distribute it really widely, and I think comics are one of the best placed media for that.  Everything in their production can be as small and personal, or as big and collaborative as you want, and any which way you do it, there are never any restrictions on what you put on a page except for what you’re able to draw.

For those who are interested in technical stuff, in the last year I’ve moved towards exclusively producing my work digitally.  I use a Wacom tablet and an iMac.  I think the move initially slowed me down as I adjusted to the feel of drawing digitally, but I think it’s been worth it.  My work has expanded in its complexity and detail, and I’ve been able to create compositions and images that I guarantee I wouldn’t have been able to do on paper.  That’s not to say it suits everyone: most of the artists I admire work on paper, and I know a number of people who have in recent years moved away from digital and gotten their hands inky again!  And in a lot of ways I hope I can do the same eventually… there’s nothing as satisfying as a flawlessly inked comics page.

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.