The Missing Moustache (2024)

My final project in my Master's course and one that I think was probably the most ambitious.

This story I wanted to gear more towards adults in order to deconstruct the idea of manliness by presenting a farcical concept of a moustache who, upon becoming bored of their life decides to make something of themselves and leave their host behind, with the man in question not being able to grow another one out, and due to him placing so much pride on his facial hair, tries to bribe it to come back to him. I find it very silly how certain men place an amount of pride on something so inconsequential such as facial hair and hate the idea of going bald.

The more the story developed, the more I embraced the ridiculousness of the situation until it eventually became a Looney Tunes cartoon.

The laminated effect on the ink was a new technique that I always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to do until now, and because my tutor didn't want me to clean up the very deliberate, strong pen lines in the initial sketches, he suggested that I embrace that with coloured ink. I think the effect looked very professional and actually elevated that sort of politicised artwork look I was going for. That said, the equipment was... temperamental to say the least. Sometimes you'd have to reprint a picture ten times over due to it being slow or not getting every corner so you have to re-emphasise a specific line that the printer missed. Not the best when you've only got limited access to it and a deadline to meet. But complications aside it was a really fun project to make.