War Horse

To arms!!!!

Growth

I'm a little disappointed with how the scanning process has warped the tones and subtlety of the colours. Otherwise just another image from my sketchbook, focusing on colour balance.

Teenage Tantrums

Another gem excavated from depths of my sketchbook. The Hiroaki Samura influences are there for all to see!

Wonderfully Weird

Doodles from the recesses of my sketchbook.

Siege Gulls

I recently completed work on my latest painting - Siege Gulls - after two to three months of on/off work at the weekends.

The image was inspired by of all things, office politics, and the relationships and patterns people form with one another. I get especially sick of the grovelling attitude some people have towards figures of authority - like parasites latching onto someone who they believe will benefit them in some way.

So the core school of thought behind the painting is around 'parasites'. As per usual I have put my own pop surrealist twist on proceedings, with a potential ambigious narrative in place for others to fill in.

Is Mr. Birdhouse guy coming under attack from a swarm of parasitical birds, ready to strip him bare of his resources? Or are the birds simply in search of the shelter that Mr. Birdhouse will offer them?

I'll post some sketches soon, as work begins on my next painting.

A Tasty Offfering

Again I have been slacking off the blogging front. Whilst much time has passed since my previous post, I have been a busy boy with much to report on.

Back in July I visited Paris and attended the Offf Festival , a mini creative festival (yeh! the clues in the name) that focused on animation, illustration and advertisement. The festival took the form of multiple presentations from the very best of the best within the creative industries. Highlights were the following:

Tara McPherson

McPherson is just one of those lucky people whose career has snowballed to propel her to illustration rock stardom. She’s effortless endearing, churns out work, and has a well defined style – she’s the complete package! Her presentation was definitely the highlight of the show for me. I always get ‘child dizzy on too much lemonade’ syndrome when I see a famous illustrator break down their style.



Julien Valée

Ok, you know when you see someone’s work and you can’t believe you’ve never heard of that person before. That was the vibe with this guys work. All hand made with a little visual/digital trickery thrown in for good measure. I was flagging a little on that day, so actually fell asleep part way through the presentation; however Valée’s charming work soon dragged me back to full consciousness.


Non-format

Again I’d never heard of these guys, yet I’ve been exposed to their work many times without ever realising it. As an ex-intern of the AOI, I was shocked to discover these were the guys behind the logo for Varoom! (AOI’s illustration magazine) – They’ve been under my nose the whole time! Kjell Ekhorn put together a witty and amusing presentation that broke down the life cycle of a new style of work, going from being a hot original concept to a forgotten relic of a past trend. One core reason behind Non-format’s success is that they know when it’s time to start afresh, scrap an old style and break out a new one.


On the artwork front, things have been slow – as ever my full-time job takes precedence over my personal commitments. However I’m still slowly working my way through some new images which I’m hoping will pop up on this blog at the end of August.

Poetry Posters!

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, I recently completed a commission for the Poetry Society, producing two posters to be sold as part of an education pack to schools around the UK.

I’ve done a few collaborations in the past with my brother on some his poetry based projects, so creating illustrations designed to complement poems was something I’ve had moderate experience in, all be it at an amateur level.

I completed accompanying illustrations for two poems – the first was ‘The Night Crow’ by Sujata Bhatt. The second was ‘Introduction To Poetry’ by Billy Collins (whom I’m told is one of the most well known poets in America!).

‘The Night Crow’ was full of imagery that lends itself particularly well to visual mediums, so my illustration was a very literal translation of the poem. My first rough received instant approval from the client, so the transition through to final artwork was a painless process:


Leaving me with the second poem – ‘Introduction To Poetry’. Buoyed by my previous success, I felt confident I could wrap this up with my first attempt as well. Yet Poetry is a fickle beast, and my initial roughs were met with disapproval by the client. After around seven roughs and a day at a museum searching for inspiration, I finally cracked it. The final image is suppose to convey the sense of euphoria that poetry can provide - along with the rich and fertile imagination that is the driving force for the poet. Or something like that.

Did I just spill my guts?

I think it would be a fair criticism to say that I have allowed my blog to become a desolate wasteland over the past few months. Being a proactive illustrator has become less and less of a defining feature of my life recently – a fact that regularly irks me and leaves feeling of regret and guilt in equal measure.

I fear I have fallen into the routine of the average yuppy – that is operating an endless cycle of working the day job and then blowing out at the weekends. Behind this weekly grind, there exists a little-but-oh-so-potent voice at the back of my head urging me to rediscover my enthusiasm for my personal creativity and find the discipline required to realise my ambitions.

Despite the apparent lack of productivity, I have had a small victory fairly recently – that is the completion of my first professional commission. I have painted two posters for the poetry society designed to complement two very unique poems. Completing these commissions presented a fresh challenge for me, and it was certainly a very positive experience dealing with a client in a professional climate. Luckily for me, the client was relatively painless to work with, and seemed pleased with the end product. I will blog about this in full once I am allowed to publish the final posters.

In other news, I have recently started working towards a series of around 10 paintings for what I hope will double as a backbone to both a concrete portfolio and allow me to exhibit some of my work.

On a final note, in future I plan to start using my blog to review sources of interest and inspiration, rather than purely focus on my artwork alone. With this in mind, there are a couple of websites I’d like to mention that I have stumbled upon of late – firstly http://listen.grooveshark.com/ - a music site much akin to Spotify that includes a more niche range of music in its library as well as loses the irritating adverts.

Secondly I’d like to mention a musician I had the pleasure to see at a recent Leonard Cohen tribute night (run by my brother) which I attended. She is called Fiona Bevan and you can listen to her music at http://www.myspace.com/fionabevan - she plays an entertaining blend of acoustic indie folk that is perfectly complemented by her exciting vocals. If you like the music of Leslie Fiest, then you’re certain to enjoy what Fiona has to offer.