Three Penny Orchestra

2012-01-29T09:29:00.003Z

reportage book project stuff. sorry for the drips and drabs-ey nature that these are going to go up in, but my blog seems to wig out when you try and put more that five images to a post. a booooo.

cover wrap -

page one-

wwwwwwwhich are totally going to get swapped around when it comes to re-jigging this thing. and that'll have to happen sometime before our super final assessment because this thing is chock-a-block with rushed visual faux-pas and things that made my tutors toes go a little on the curly side. aw yeah.

but in the mean time, a "new" release from neutral milk hotel? oh my god yes. their front man's touring this year- how i would have given my eye teeth to go see that. except i think we're going to be in antwerp when that's going down. and tickets are, like, £300.
...
oh well. you'll always have your ipod.

2012-01-25T08:35:00.004Z

hur hur. so the whole up-dating the blog thing hasn't really been happening too much over the last few weeks. i would like to blame mid-year assesments- but now they're out the way, we've got a whole week to back peddle and squander as we see fit. HOOHARR!

got some more illustration-y stuff to put up but hey, everyone loves scribbly naked people, riiiiiiiiiight?

aaaaaaaaand here's a total stop-motion animation sensation. if only all fight scenes were conducted with such majesty...

2012-01-08T22:32:00.002Z

IT'S DONE. IT'S FINALLY DONE.

oh man. everything about this took about a bajillion times longer than it should have but that's the brighton rock comic finally lick. phew.

well, that's two projects down. only another two to go. BOOYAH!

2012-01-06T16:12:00.004Z

so one of the projects i'm currently trying to nail down is this book about all the old shops in muswell. what with everything turning everything into yet another supermarket or ubber bougie hair dressers, they're becoming something of an increasingly rare breed.

anyhoo, some in process stuff. i apparently learnt NOTHING from the last talk with the tutor about this because we are still very much in 'AAAAHHH, LET'S JUST DO A LOAD OF SHIT AND CHUCK IT AT THE WALL AND HOPE IT WORKS' vein of things.

(warning. high levels of funky perspective can induce brain aneurisms)

hopefully going to get the brighton rock project licked today. this is not a lie i tell myself.

p.s. recently discovered you made it weird, another wonderful show on the ever expanding nerdist network. holy shit. this show. it's pretty much just pete holmes sitting down with a fellow stand up and rapping for an hour but oh my stars and garters, is it good. HERE'S A LINK TO A PERTICUALRY FINE EPISODE WITH TJ MILLER . put it in your ears, son.

2012-01-04T14:08:00.002Z

so the hitchcock poster project got wrapped up a while ago. hurrah! would have posted it here soon but i've been scrambling to get on top of all the other work (least of all the disastertation draft that needs to be in for uncomfortably soon) to acctually get around to doing that. boo!

but oh well, here they are in all their updated glory(?)

(according to the back of the dvd, THAT shower scene took seven days and ten as many cameras to shoot. c-r-a-z-y. also, hitchcock totally poo-pooed the piece of music (you know the one) that bernard herrmann penned to accompany it and didn't want it in the film. fortunatly, hitchcock went off on holiday and herrman slipped it into the final cut. TRUE STORY.

aaaaaaand these old bits of news- NOW WITH ADDED SHITTY TYPOGRAPHY! AWWW YEAH!

was debating adding colour but i don't know... kinda like the black and white. what do you think?

2011-12-23T19:45:00.002Z

so with that whole christmas thing round the corner, i guess it's probably SEASONAL BLOG DUMP TIME.

so as part of our efforts to make the green to cover the degree show, our year set up shop for the last week of term. folk made a whole ton of funky festive themed stuff. one of the things we put together was an advencalendar. ok, so we didn't choose the most time effective way to put it together, but it ended up looking pretty tight! not to mention all the artwork everyone did. here's my offering:

asides from that, people also made a tone of cards and decorations. check these out!:

fredrick eden's christmas cards. perfect for animal lovers everywhere.

eileen kwan's totally dapper cards and labels.

these hand made decorations abi moulder put together. whoar

aaaaaaaaand here's the art for the cards i whipped up:

well that was that. MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR TOMORROW! oh man, i hope you all have a great one.

2011-12-20T10:57:00.002Z

a little work in progress. the (still unfinished) brighton rock comic project was getting dangerously close to turning me into a full blown manic depressant... so i opted to do the sensible thing AND TOTALLY BLOW IT OFF. NYAH!

in the mean time i thought i'd try and totally blitz one of the smaller projects so i've, you know, actually got something finished. so yeah, hitchcock posters. so far this has been a blast, AND an excellent excuse to watch some totally ace films. got to design four of these using three colours. once i've got the lot of them drawn out, i'm going to start twiddling with the pallet and lettering but so far we've got:

north by north west

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lifa3aEBEfM

and the birds

god, this SCENE. shit's so tense. this film also makes me totally take back all the smack i may have said about hitchcock tending to screw the ending after watching psycho and nxnw. what a totally creepy last shot.

aaaand now all the unrelated crap;

sketchbook junk:

a totally rad episode of the nerdist podcast with penn jillette. hot dog. this guy is just a fountain of great stories.

LATERZZZZZZZ

2011-12-12T05:53:00.002Z

although this is looking a whole lot like "INTENSE EYES AND FEET: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL EXPERIENCE", these roughs are actually based on a section of graham greene's 'brighton rock'. man, what a taunt wee thriller that is! if you like totally despicable protagonists, you and this book should probably get together some time.

huh. these are a heck of a lot more detailed than the glorified scribbles and stick men that normally constitute as roughs. i'm actually in the middle of light boxing these. holy moly. what a time saver that is. thinking i might defiantly have to get my mitts on one of those bad boys.

oh, and note to self: please could you GET YOUR ASS INTO GEAR AND FINISH THIS PROJECT LIKE RIGHT NOW PLEASE? thank you.

2011-12-06T07:05:00.003Z

right now we're trying to juggle four projects that need to be in by the end of january.HOLY SHIT IT'S FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS TIME. one thing i need to do is put together an artist's book about the area i live in. i think i got waaaay too carried away by the prospect of doing out and about sketching though; turns out your BRILLIANT plan of just drawing a load of random shit and hoping that it would slot perfectly together with the help of a little photoshop it a load of old hooey. aw yeah.

i think this video perfectly encapsulates my fantastically methodical approach:

and some random sketch book stuff.

2011-11-27T21:56:00.002Z

you know what? it's probably high time you posted something that wasn't an exaggerated stick figure. or naked. so here are the finals from our first project as third years for which we had to produce a cover and three illustrations for angela carter's bloody chamber.

cover-

the bloody chamber-

puss in boots-

the company of wolves-

except they're not really finals. O PHYCHE! nah, the crit for this pointed out about a billion and one things that could be tweeked and reworked (not to mention the issue of my fantastically gender- channelled women. good god, i really need to learn how to draw things with uteruses) so these are going to get a big fat over haul in time for when they mark us at january. BRING IT.

so if you made it through all these half baked ideas, here's a little something for your efforts:

Wild Go by Dark Dark Dark

GOOD STUFF!

2011-11-20T12:13:00.002Z

WHAT'S THIS? ANOTHER POST OF ASSORTED BITS AND BOBS?

scrapped idea from the bloody chamber project. at some very early point in the project, out tutor pointed out that quite a few of our pusses in boots looked liked they were fresh off the stage of the local pantomime/shrek set. from there, i somehow wound up up with this bad lewis caroll acid trip. huh.

aaaaaaaaaaand some more life drawing. now with 100% more clothing.

2011-11-13T14:51:00.003Z

so yeah. we're currently in the middle of trying to organise a wee fund raising event to save the rec centerohwaitimean to put towards our degree show. if you'd like to come along to buy some sweet arts and crafts, that would be the greatest. there might also be cake.

one thing there most defiantly will be will be a run of calendars put together by some of the fine folk in our year.

here's my paltry offering for november. i saw such things for this but i seem to be in the midsts of the most glorious self-loathing art funk. blllllllaaaaaarrrrrgh!

on the subject of november, i do believe it's that time of year that the men folk do their best to grow some illustrious upper lip hair. may all your moustaches be long and prosperous!

2011-11-06T08:44:00.002Z

SKETCHBOOK SUNDAY!

so for our first project, the powers that be had us illustrating selected stories from angela carter's the bloody chamber. if we manage to come up with anything half way decent, the finals will be sent to duke it out in the folio society's latest competition.

here's a buch of half baked ideas. there were a lot of those. seems like the key thing they want to drill into us this year is how INSANELY important it is to keep pushing and pushing and pushing your ideas.

2011-11-04T06:54:00.004Z

belated happy halloween! i failed miserably at celebrating it this year. here's hoping you did a much better job of it.

today is crit day. pass the gravy boat because this thing is going to be a roast. oh well. once that lovely business is out the way, i'm going to do my darndest to update this thing with some slightly more recent/relevant nonsense.

aaaaaaaand before this thing gets to morose, here's a fun little ditty about the four stringed wonder that is the ukulele. i am ALL OVER the accompanying art by Shepard Fairey.

Ukulele Anthem by Amanda Palmer

2011-10-31T07:38:00.003Z

a wee snippet of a business card for a friend. if his website were up and running, i'd be linking the shit out of that thing because what that man can do on the spur of the moment with a saxophone is CRAZY.

aaaaaand now that back to school time is in full swing, here's an episode of 'this american life' that'll make your university's party scene look like a wet ballon:

2011-10-30T19:01:00.006Z

HOLY MOLY. YOU FELL RIGHT OFF THE KEEPING THE BLOG UPDATED WAGON, DIDN'T YOU?

in my defence, we're back at uni. it's pretty intense. i've yet to follow my tutor's advice to cut sleep from the schedule, although pretty much everything else has been scrapped BUT THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE I TOTALLY GET OFF ON THIS SHIT.

and now, naked people:

i totally suck at keeping up with what's going on in tv land, but apparently amanda (the model) was duking it out on "come dine with me a few weeks ago. c r a z y. i hope she kicked some culinary ass!

p.s. not so long ago ben folds was guesting on this episode of the nerdist podcast. hot dog. what a talented chap. the last 25 minuets of this made me so incredibly blue that i had to sell my ticket to go see him last time he was in town.

2011-10-20T06:41:00.004+01:00

sorry to be the bearer of bad news ms tourist lady, but there is no ham museum. i know. it's a sad, cruel world we live in.

more sketch book scraps from time ago. yeah, i really don't get your compulsion to put everything on the internet either.

also, don't you just freaking love it when you stumble across a total gold nugget of a track on your ipod/zune player/portable gramophone that you'd totally forgotten about?

2011-10-16T16:01:00.003+01:00

aaaaand that's that for the summer project (note to self- do something about that horrendously illegible lettering. SOMEONE thought they were going to be all super cool and slap some filters all over this on their twat phone. someone didn't notice that totally ate up the resolution and scuffed up the text to fuck. which proved to be a killer combination. and not in some bodatious 90's way.). how timely too since this was back to school week.

it's crazy. school was out for summer for what felt like F O R E V E R- but now we're back it's like we never left (er, asides from the small detail of them bulldozing our old kooky campus and transplanting us into something that feels like FUTURE HOSPITAL OF THE FUTURE but that's only a minor detail, right?). oh reletivity, you mind fuck, you.

and then it was time for some nostalgic holiday snaps.

2011-10-11T06:43:00.004+01:00

more summer project tomfoolery. huh. if you replace "places" with "the internet", you might get something that resembles a half truth.

all half ass-ing it aside, i don't know if i'm incredibly late to the party but holy moly, is reggie watts one talented mofo. if the singing, beatboxing and mad improvisation weren't enough, man can work magic that loop peddle/synth of his.

he also recently guested on the second half of this episode of the nerdist podcast. hot dog. what a cool dude. i will forever be in awe of folk who can just splurge awesome music.

2011-10-09T08:29:00.004+01:00

o9

1o

11

12

13

...

sssssoooo anyone out there fancy publishing a children's book?

also, google images may be owed a very big thank you for helping out on that last spread.

2011-10-03T09:40:00.004+01:00

o5

o6

o7

o8

huh. on reflection prehapse doing a children's book about a small girl vanishing into the night with a tall, mysterious stranger wasn't the wisest of ideas... #questionablesubtext

oh well. at least you didn't have him rolling up in a dodgy white van with blacked out windows and "free puppies" scrawled all over the side.

SIDE NOTE TIME! here's a totally jammy blog by comic book artist sean gordon murphy about how to deal with back grounds. those are some wise words. and while you're over there, you should check out the rest of his DA page. holy moly! i cannot wait to get my grubby little mitts all over joe the barbarian/a trade of his run on american vampire

2011-10-03T09:19:00.002+01:00

o1

o2

o3

o4

ah yes. this old chestnut. one of the things i really wanted to do over the summer was to get the rest of the macmillan book licked. ok, so didn't get round to doing a cover or second lot of end pages, but hey, it's a pretty good stab, right?

also, sorry to get all pip-pip-cheerio british on this, but what is up with this weather? it's like peak summer time out there... and then some dude in the shop was all like "they say it's going to snow before october's out." lol wut? IS THAT THE ENDTIMES I SEE RIDING OVER THE HORIZON?

2011-10-02T17:09:00.003+01:00

well that's one off the list... and oh boy design elements. who'd though arranging lines and letters and circles and what not on a page would take like 5 bajillion times longer to do than the actual drawing side of things? also, an awful lot is owed to chris ware's acme library. not only can that man draw like a mother fucker (while probably filling you with as much joy as a shit day in february) but his eye for design. oh me oh my. flicking through that thing makes me wish i understood that sort of thing.

2011-10-02T16:14:00.004+01:00

some things that are currently cooking for the summer project. this might be starting to turn into a desperate scrabble for the finish line.

aaaaaaaaaaand here's an episode of aisha tyler's hi-larious podcast. although actually in this one they get all crazy philosophical on how to feel/deal with having careers in the creative/entertainment industries. it put me in a fantastic mood.
http://girlonguy.libsyn.com/girl-on-guy-07-paul-f-tompkins

2011-09-27T11:33:00.005+01:00

what's on the drawing board today....

hopefully going to get the rest of the pencils licked and slap on some water colours before the end of the afternoon... #OPTIMISM?HOWCUTE

far more exciting (please note that the word 'exciting' is about to be bastardised because i'm about to launch into a totally boring anecdote and bitch-whine like a total bitch) though is the means to which these photos were brought to you. in case you hadn't noticed, i really fucking love taking snaps of things (namely creepy ones of you when you're not looking) and then waste away hours of my life tweaking them in photoshop. when i got an iphone at the beginning of summer and discovered instagram it was like freaking christmas all over again. NOW IT WAS EVEN EASIER TO TAKE PHOTOS OF UNSUSPECTING VICTIMS! AND YOU COULD ADD A HIPSTER DOUCHBAG FILTER AT THE TOUCH OF THE BUTTON! OH CALOO CALLAY!

but then the latest update happened. the tilt shift tool was way less malleable and the gotham filter was gone. GONE. again, total first world problems, but LOL WUT????????? THAT FILTER WAS MY HOMEBOY! unlike instergram's other black and white filter, it was great at giving your pallid snaps a shot in the arm and transform them into something crazy bold and striking...

RIP gotham. you will be missed.

so in the fallout of this most tragic of losses, i was pottering around the internet to see what everybody else thought of this gross miscarriage of justice and came across a link to an app called snapseed.

oh wow.

this thing... it's incredible. contrast, focal points, filters, textures... the extent to which you can tinker and fine-tune your photos with this thing is NUTS. and it's only like £2.50. for a mini version of photoshop in your palm, i would STRONGLY RECOMMEND getting your grubby little mitts on this.

THE END.

god. so sorry for that. here's a podcast. it's about comics. and if my sense of humour could be anyone, i'd hope it would be these two.
Awesomed By Comics: Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #151: This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by THE BEST POWERPUFF GIRLS FANFICTION SOMEONE WHOSE SILLY NAME I GOOGLED H...

2011-09-26T15:39:00.005+01:00

playing around with some ideas for business cards for a friend. oh man. i want to turn that last one into a stupidly massive poster so very, very badly.

aaaaaaaaaand speaking of stupid massive posters, another thing for the summer project wherein i think i can make like chris ware.

HA! riiiiiiiiiiiight. you tell yourself that. and oh my god, perspective. i love you and all but this nearly destroyed me. so many scrapped attemps... and i still prefer the thumbnail that took a micro of a fraction to scribble down... #IRONY

ON A MORE CHEERY NOTE, i totally didn't know that yann tiersen had music out there beyond his soundtrack work. man knows how to pen a tune. also, even if this particular track takes a while to warm up, stick around for the outro. it might make your heart soar...

2011-09-25T07:15:00.005+01:00

oh man. my internet's decided that actually, working part time is a waaaaaay cushier deal so i've only really been able to get on it for like five minuets at stupid o'clock in the morning for the last week or so. hence the lack of stuff going on round these parts. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMVS, AMIRITE GUYS?????

that and i've been keeping kind of busy with stuff like this. i'll quit being all mysterious once we've got everything all ironed out bbbbbbbuuuut i might be taking part in a business venture which would be totally cool if it works out. more on that later. hopefully.

aaaaaaand the summer project. oh god, the summer project. you had like what? HALF A GODDAM YEAR to do this thing? and you've done what? two drawings.
...
two. drawings.
...
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT??!?!?!?!

i am alex's crushing sense of dissapointment in one's self. hopefully i'm going to get the one this thumb's for wrapped today and there's another that just needs to be put together in the old photoshop but in an ideal world, i'd really like to get another four done. at least. there are two weeks to do it.

I SMELL A CHALLENGE!

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ew. that veered off into self self pittying county just a bit, didn't it? sorry. HERE'S YET ANOTHER ROLLICKING EPISODE OF THE NERDIEST PODCAST (FEATURING THE DELIGHTFULLY LOL-LARIOS AISHA TYLER) FOR YOUR AUDIBLE ENJOYMENT.

also, i can't decide if this is the greatest or worst thing ever:

2011-09-16T14:08:00.004+01:00

a little something that i should have got licked AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGEEESSS ago but first time round, the dude on the can ended up being one bag of onions away from the most horrendous french stereotype.

it wasn't good.

aaaaaaand on the topic of racial caricatures, this episode of the movie discussion podcast BATTLESHIP PRETENSION turns into a really interesting back and forth about how racist imagery has a nasty habit of popping up in sci fi and fantasy flicks. oh, and it's also pretty lol-arious.
...
er, the podcast that is. not racism.

2011-09-16T13:43:00.002+01:00

aaaaaaand the rest of the faces. now to snatch a moment to compile them into something for the much neglected holiday project...

IN OTHER, ASTRONOMICALLY EXCITING NEWS, CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

the incredibly funky, rotating banner at the top of that page was done by uni buddy HECTOR. goddamn. i am a little bit in love with those drawings.

2011-09-14T10:03:00.007+01:00

right. buckle in campers. there's quite a bit of ground to cover.

the last of the pencils for the macmillan book. they have since had the water-coloured-the-fuck out of them... and just in time too since it needed to be ready for this:

so my old school decided to put together a show of ex-student's work. it opened last night and is going to be running till the 23rd. if you fancy popping your nose in, that would be super cool. there's a crazy mix of stuff on show... and if you'd like to check out some of the artists' work from the comfort of your own home, here are some links:

CHARLIE GOLDBLATT
CHARLOTTE KAYE
JOHNNY MORGAN

aaaaaaaaand while we're on the topic of plugging artists, i recently got my hands on the first issue of FATBREAD'S brand spanking new zine. this quarterly publication's being put together by a squad of recent middlesex graduates. it's a really neatly designed book that feels super cohesive despite the big list of contributos:

www.jamesboast.com
http://keshetbuckle.blogspot.com/
http://www.shanenoonan.co.uk/
http://www.johncthurbin.com/
http://www.ginocullen.com/
http://www.vickyiscool.com/
http://www.arjunmahadevan.com/

it's also super fun. here's to the next issue!

FINALLY. i may have got around to getting a website put together. if you want to kill five minuets clicking through some goofy pictures, you can get right on that RIGHT HERE.

phew. for managing to make it through all that yadda-yadda-yadda, here's some neutral milk hotel. it's good for what ails you.

2011-09-14T09:36:00.003+01:00

blocky drawings and shitty homemade typography? THERE MUST BE A BIRTHDAY AFOOT.

bon anniversaire, saskia laroque rothstien loggaretti! aside from being a top contender for most delightful name ever and just generally being a good bean, sas is also in a band.

they're called kiho. you should click this link and check them out. it's good stuff! although they've got some douche bag playing musical saw on the 'hummingbird' track... god knows what's up with that.

PUT IT IN YO EARS SON!

2011-09-06T19:43:00.003+01:00

oh man. kinda haven't had a chance to jump on the old blog in a while... in my defence, i've been pretty much married to the book in a crrrraaaaazzzzzyyyy attempt to get it all wrapped up in time for the show. oh, and i took my like annual five minuets of holiday.

went to germany.

it was amazing.

inevitably i'll get around to boring you with photos and witty anecdotes but WHATEVERRRRRRRRRR. anyhoo, more sketches from madrid. OLD SHIT IS OLD, SON.

oh, p.s. can't remember if i've raved about this or not, but this american life has become a staple of my podcast diet. holy shit. this show is FACINATING. think of it as a bite sized documentary FOR YOUR EARS. GIVE IT A SPIN!

2011-08-24T15:15:00.004+01:00

collecting faces at the moment. and totally not in the creepy, buffalo "it puts the lotion on its skin" bill kind of way...

in other news, is it me or does one of these songs sound kinda-sorta a whole lot like the other?

OH MUSICAL SNAP SON!

2011-08-22T09:46:00.006+01:00

sketchbooking from madrid. oh my gosh. that place has the most UNBELIEVABLE zoo. if you're ever in that neck of the wood, hop on the unbelievably cheap subway they've got there and check it out. they've got pretty much everything under the sun (including a couple of things that need to be seen to be believed (goony-looking, long nosed turtle thing, i'm looking at you!).

2011-08-16T16:01:00.002+01:00

aaaaaaand some more pages from the macmillan book. hopfully going to get the last three pages drawn by the end of the weekend... and then get them all coloured, photoshopped and ready to before next thursday when i bugger off on holiday? AH HA HA HA HA. LIKE THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

ah well. you can always hope.

in the mean time, i never saw black dynamite BUT i did CATCH THE PILOT FOR THE ANIMATED SHOW OVER AT THE NERDIST. holy moly. this shit is amazing. as so beutifully animated too.

pimps don't do chores, yo.

2011-08-10T19:40:00.003+01:00

just some goofy little drawings for something i'm trying to throw together.
...
ENIGMATIC POST IS ENIGMATIC.

gosh, everything about this post is a bit balls. to make it worth your while, CHECK OUT THIS TOTALLY AWESOME PAGE SEAN GORDON MURPHY POSTED ON HIS DA PAGE. ooooooooooooh man. what a totally dope bit of story telling, and such delicious layout too...

2011-08-08T08:30:00.002+01:00

doodle-caboodling! so this time round, the theme's 'pictorial charades'. think i may have put this one forward only because of my massive, drippy love for all forms of word play.

two words, it's a band.

but seriously, check out that blog. folk have been submitting some well jammy stuff.

2011-08-08T08:18:00.003+01:00

sketchbook stuff, featuring casualties of shitty drawing.

aaaaaaaaand on the subject of making mistakes, here's another bitching talk from the good folk at TED:

2011-08-05T07:41:00.002+01:00

another demotivational poster for the holiday product that was scratched out with a shiny new photoshop brush i recently downloaded.

oh my god. OH. MY. GOD. this thing is amazing. if you're one for drawing with a tablet, you should deffinatly DOWNLOAD IT RIGHT HERE ASAP. SO GOOOOOOOD.

2011-08-05T07:04:00.003+01:00

some scribble from the second year sketch book. YEAH. BEEP IF YOU HEART CLOSE CROPPING.

aaaaaaaaand another page of that macmillan malarky (jesus, alex. what the fuck is this post? alliterating in the AM?). don't know if it's some form of stockholm syndrome, but i think i could happily draw silly wonk-factor five buildings all day long...
huh. turns out i did some rather funky maths the last time i posted one of these pages. turns out there's only 15 days to draw the last 6 pages and colour all 9. that's still... do-able...

right?

P.S HERE'S ANOTHER BLOG YOU SHOULD TOTALLY CHECK OUT! this post features some crazy awesome illustrations by kent rockwell for paul bunyan. check out those crazy cool initial caps! man, what ace designing. but this guy's whole blog's worth checking out, especially for those who thought our history of art lectures gave the short shrift to the history of illustration...

2011-08-05T06:39:00.006+01:00

continuing the process of tarting the shit out of the old moleskin. god damn madrid. you were a bag of fun. so very, very excited for wherever they're going to cart us off to next year.

in other news, here is a lolarious podcast about how totally fucking awful hip hop lyrics can be. if i could write shit like this, i would be oh so happy.6.19: Worst Hip Hop Lyrics and Rapper Names of All Time

2011-08-05T06:17:00.002+01:00

oh the liberty. i really should be working on you ever waking moment but i'm totally blowing you off this month. i should also probably be reading up for the dissitation right now instead of pottering around on blogger.

OH GUILT. HOW YOU GNAW AND GNAW AND GNAW AND GNAW.

i am so happy whenever the air ship docks come up in this book. sure, it means the pages take like 9 million years to draw but whatever, stella.

in other news, when i grow up, i would very much like to be this lady:

this song/video combo is utterly exquisite. came its way after listening to EPISODE 2 OF THE MAKING IT PODCAST over at the nerdist. i would recommend it if you like stories about creative people prevailing. just... try not to rip out your ears when the glee-tastic theme song kicks in....

2011-07-31T09:01:00.002+01:00

still working through the macmillan. in an ideal world, this is going to be licked by the 25th. hrm. 26 days to draw 8 pages and colour 10. that's.... not totally crazy... right?

2011-07-31T08:09:00.004+01:00

pencils for a little something for that doodle caboodle thing we do. man. that moment right before you start laying down watercolours on a drawing is always so very, very terrifying.

while we're on the subject of things in circles;

BITCH DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT DESIGN, YO.

in other news, here's a fine podcast from the folk over at books you should read discussing books and their film adaptations. god damn. jaws the novel sounds AMAZINGLY awful.
BYSR – Episode 65 – Books Becoming Films

2011-07-26T07:01:00.002+01:00

final line up fro the wall stickers. JENNY'S in the process of looking up a place to print these off where it won't cost all manner of appendages.

speaking of jenny, i went to check out the camberwell graphic design show.

HOLY MOLY WAS THAT A TREAT FOR THE EYES. the standard of work at that thing was high. so very, very high.
some of the fine folk who were exhibiting:
http://naomi-workman.blogspot.com/
http://rhopejohnstone.co.uk/

today, i am hopefully going to go rot in the british library. can't wait.

2011-07-25T08:17:00.002+01:00

stuff from the last batch of liberty pages. now with at least 100% more gonnahavetachokeabitch action.

here's a great little blog post from sam macleod examining shot progression through a scene and how it can play into characterisation. you should check out the rest of his blog to boot. man does some FANTASTIC watercolour studies.

2011-07-24T09:11:00.003+01:00

moleskinning, with our now non-existant studio (SOB! WAIL!), madrid and unsuspecting victims.

and now, time for a random photo

2011-07-20T10:09:00.003+01:00

DONE! well thank god for that. lets hope the next thing you try and do for this project doesn't take two months because other wise i've got a very bad feeling about productivity.

in other news, this week has been a pretty awesome week for getting things in the mail. first up, i got a physical copy of 'now i am twenty' by nowhere again who were super cool enough to let me do art chores on the album;

feast your ears right here;
Now I am Twenty by Nowhere Again
if you think this could be a keeper on your mp3 player, l you can download the digital album down at their bandcamp page for the low, low price of whatever you feel like paying. if you want the physical copy, it's £3 and you get that very, very funky pop up case photoed above. and, of course, some heavy tunes.

second thing to come in the mail was this:

richmond clements and i did this for the good people at renegade arts roughly two years ago, but it's only just gone to print. needless to say, this is still OMGWTFBBQ levels of exciting. if you feel like snapping up a copy and pouring over richmond's super fly story about a giant millitary robot on the run (and some rather...er... "old" art by me), you should be able to buy it soon on the RENEGADE ARTS STORE

2011-07-20T10:02:00.001+01:00

man. what timely, seasonal scans these are. also, lol wut tortoise feet?

2011-07-20T09:51:00.003+01:00

MORNING!

so back to the macmillan. man. i really, REALLY love pencil drawing. that first panel is WAAAAAAAY too heavy handed though- totally need to redraw that if there's any time left over once all the pencils are done.

aaaaaaaaaand some more random junk left over from the second year sketchbook. what fun!

2011-07-18T12:58:00.004+01:00

JENNY , a foundation buddy from way back, is doing something really cool with her summer. she's managed to get permission to renovate a retirement home down into camberwell and is planning turn it into a totally rad blast from the past. the sketches are for potential vinyl wall stickers. because who doesn't love 40s swingers (and not the kinky kind. although i bet they'd be all kinds of fun too).

remember these guys? speaking of nostalgia, i'm taking part in an exhibition down at my old school where they're getting a bunch of ex-students to show our stuff. figured this would be a fine excuse to finish off the children's book from last year. mostly just throwing these up here for reference because drawing from massive sketch books is such a pain in the keister.

lastly, saw a poster for this up in the windows of one of those wonderfully hip and trendy galleries down in old street. i know nothing about this book other than i yearn it.

oh alex. you're such a sucker for anything nicely drawn.

2011-07-15T17:29:00.005+01:00

what's this? yet another horrifically late birthday card... or if i was being a smooth criminal, this could be passed off as being TOTALLY prepared for next year!

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeaaahhhno.

also, some random bit's of junk from last year's uni sketchbook. REALLY want to do something with the crazy cavalry horse thing.

2011-07-13T09:16:00.006+01:00

AND DONE!

well, that's one thing off the never ending list of to-do. also, this taught me an awful lot about creating filters/colour tweaking with photoshop. god damn. that program is so smart.

went on a total ted binge yesterday. here are some highlights;
hans rosling on the growth trends in the spread of aids.

aaaaand julia sweeny on her religious convictions

that second one's a total ace bit of storytelling. i could seriously listen to sweeney read the phone book all day long.

2011-07-13T08:58:00.002+01:00

bits and bobs from the summer project. man, really digging putting images together with just block colour and minimal lines. it's like the total antithesis to how i normally work... have i just turned into nega-vers me without noticing?

crossing those fingers in the blind hope that everything for this poster is going to be nailed by the end of the day...

SOME OTHER MUCH PRETTIER THINGS FOR YOU TO FEAST YOUR EYES ON:
aaaaaaaaaaages ago, one of my uni buddies posted some photos from a pop up book they're making. they're not totally done yet, but already they're looking totally dope. go have your mind blown in eye popping 3D over at ABI'S BLOG

also, another uni comrade, EILEEN KWAN recently started up a blog and it is UTTERLY GORGEOUS. go check it out.

speaking of things uni related things, apparently middlesex is going to be the most expensive university in england come next year. a lol wut? GOOD THING WE'RE OLD AND NOT GOING INTO THIS HIGHER EDUCATION MALARKY NOW, RITE?

2011-07-11T08:32:00.005+01:00

pencils for the poster. man, the first crack at this was a total disaster. the composition was super dull and it wasn't drawn with any real idea of how it was going to be coloured. i've come to realise that this is just a really good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

PLAN THAT SHIT OUT, YO.

thought it could all be magically turned around in photoshop. ah ha. i don't need kevin spacey to tell me how wrong i was on that one. still. lesson learnt so it's all good, right?

and here's milton glaser (designer of the i heart new york design) on the fear of failure;

Milton Glaser – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.

it's a pretty enlightening seven minuets. but shit, dog. could they have chosen a more terrifying still for the preview image?

2011-07-11T07:42:00.004+01:00

a block coloured drawing with bad home-made fonts? MUST HAVE BEEN SOMEBODY'S BIRTHDAY!

yes. paper-party hats off to LEFKI who is just too damn cool for school.

RELEVANT NEWS TIME!

so yeah, i was at the LFCC this weekend for the launch of the SPIRIT OF HOPE ANTHOLOGY which jordan and i did a piece for. the book's been put together by the good folk at the comic book alliance- all profits are going to new harvest and the NZ red cross to help the victims of the japanese/new zealand earth quakes.

i also got a chance to play photographer which was pretty goddamn cool. the cba wanted some photos of the famous types with the book for promotional purposes;

yes.

and today's going to be all about licking the poster because something needs to be done about all those eggs in the air...

2011-07-06T08:41:00.003+01:00

MORE FACIAL HAIR RELATED SILLINESS FOR THE DOODLE CABOODLE!

i freaking love train journeys. they are the perfect excuse to draw inane nonsense like this.

2011-07-06T08:24:00.001+01:00

sketchbook stuff. wow, lady on the bus. your ability to sniff out high pheromone levels is, quite possibly, the creepiest shit ever.

2011-07-06T07:39:00.003+01:00

OH HAI! MOAR RANDOM HEADS!
something for our GROUP BLOG. the current theme's facial hair... and somehow you got lumber-wolf man-jack from that? i don't know. lumberjacks are the most viral, manly thing out there, right? and viral, manly things tend to be hairy (chuck norris, case in point) so this totally makes sense. yes.

HORRENDOUSLY OUTDATED THINGS FROM THE INTERNET TIME!

this thing exploded all over the internet like a year ago, so chances are you've probably already seen it. but for the uninitiated, a while back this dude released a series of videos critting the star wars prequels. yeah, i know that horse has been flogged to the point that it's nothing more than a rancid soup, but this guy takes them apart to a level that is MOLECULAR and shows off just how badly put together these movies are. they're also a total hoot if burying ladies of the night in your backyard is the kind of thing that tickles your fancy. ENJOY!
STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 – THE PHANTOM MENACE

2011-07-04T10:36:00.003+01:00

bits and bobs for something for the summer project. i think this thing's just going to manifest in the form of a bunch of... er... "posters"? oh man. can already see i should have drawn all these heads together instead of sporadically scribbling them throughout zee moleskine since the scale and alignment's going to all over the show. oh d'oh.

ah, whatever. let's while away those woes with some more over-saturated photos (i think i'm just using these as a distraction from how UNCOLOURFUL this corner of the internet is)!!

even the tutors agree that sammy is the number one thing to draw on;

2011-07-04T09:42:00.002+01:00

pencils for the poster. mmmmmaaaybe got a little carried away with the drawing on this one since this is going to get buried under like a bajillion layers in photoshop.

OH WELL.

oh hey, want to get your mind totally blown? then check THIS DUDE. i acctually can't get enough of his wonderful stuff... AND HE'S 16 YEARS OLD.
...
SIX. FREAKING.TEEN

oh my stars and garters. he's got such a handle on form and character, it's nuts. dude's already interning at disney. i think he's going to take over the world.

2011-07-03T06:16:00.004+01:00

rough sketches for the holiday homework. holy shit son, it is WAY past high time to get cracking on that. gah. so many things i want to try and get done for this, but i don't know... i think i'm kinda obsessing with the book at the moment. OH TIME MANAGEMENT. WHAT STRANGE MAGIC ARE YOU? in an ideal world, i'd also be finding the time to fix up the self initiated project and finish off the macmillan AND OH MY GOD STOP WITH THE BITCH FITS. BROADCASTING YOUR NEUROSIS ON THE INTERNET IS SOOOOOOO LIVE JOURNAL.

...

in other news, did you know 9 out of 10 middlesex illustration students prefer drawing on sammy than real paper? it's true!

2011-07-01T10:27:00.005+01:00

stuff from the book WHICH WE'RE NOW A QUATER OF THE WAY THROUGH. AW-FUCKING-YEEEEEEAAAAAAAH.

what's a better way to celebrate than with some beatboxing fish?

2011-06-27T16:22:00.004+01:00

for the group blog, DOODLE CABOODLE. the topic this time round was 'dream', which seemed like the perfect excuse to draw semi-submerged-bald-statue-men andOH HAI I THINK I SEE A MOTIF APPEARING. LOL WUT A HACK.

aaaaand in the spirit of blogging about things waaaaaaaaaaaay past the fresh news expiry date, this happened:

Nighty Night by Amanda Palmer

so a while back ben folds, amanda palmer, neil gaiman, and damian kulash (of ok go) got together and decided to collaborate on album as part of the ReThink music conference. they gave themselves eight hours to put it together from scratch. and all the tracks were going to be based on suggestions from twitter.
...
HOLY MOLY, THAT'S BALLSY. but in the end, they got a totally fun package out of it. check it!

2011-06-23T07:59:00.004+01:00

our holiday homework this year is to produce a 'body of work that explores who we are as illustrators'.
...
a bbbooooooooooo. this is the kind of stuff that totally makes my toes curl. also, totally void of any idea as to how and make this clever and interesting but oh well, what the hell. it's man the fuck up and get on with it time. in the end, it's probably just going to be a load of random shit like this that rips into my failings because that's just how i roll :D

gotta say though, i am super pumped to see what everyone else is going to do for this.

gah. totally in a pinch as how to draw the little heads on the side so tried out a bunch of styles. if you guys have any thoughts, please feel free chip in and i will love you forever.

2011-06-22T06:03:00.003+01:00

GOOD MORNING!

there were some pictures here, but now they're gone.

'painting' over other people's drawings is a bit surreal but my god, it's so so so nice to be in a work environment around other people again. and as much as i love you, drawing-board in my room, you can be a bit of an island.

*BONUS ROUND*
since this post was as dull as a butter knife, here's the obligatory 101 links to things you should check out:
EPISODE 218: with special guest PETE HOLMES if you like to listen to people ramble about movies, these guys are totally fun.

totally impulse bought this album on the basis of this one song because it's just goddamn funky but alas, none of the other tracks on 'treats' sound anything like this. the rest of that album sounds like FIGHTIN' ROBOTZ WITH LAZORZ. i still can't work out if that's totally awesome or not.

2011-06-21T06:01:00.004+01:00

just a heads up. what follows is a totally waffle-y piece of waffle that ran away with itself and has nothing to do with cowboys. there are, however, some links to some rather dope art blogs that are TOTALLY worth checking out.

***
booked in to work again this week. a while back, i got an email out of the blue from JESS LINARES, who i haven't seen sine we did our foundation at camberwell. if you're stilll reading this, go back and click on that link. girl has CRAZY talent.

but i digress.

ANYWAY, she hooked me up with some rather nice chaps who farm in folk to do things like storyboard commercials for them and what not. i did a stint with them a while back and apparently didn't fuck it up too amazingly because they asked me back this week to help out with some colouring in (dear jess and freya, i take back every crack about geography ever).
it is a tiny bit terrifying though. one thing i learnt from the last time there was my photoshop skills are totally dinosaur. these people were doing RIDICULOUS things with image manipulation that probably saved them 900 hours and resulted in super nice, super crisp pictures (which is totally what their customers are looking for).
...
i don't know how to roll like that. but it did bring to mind a totally awesome blog post written by recent middlesex graduate, HOLLY EXLEY. read it HERE. she raises some very interesting points about how well these degrees are actually preparing us for the real world. you should read it.... and then go marvel at her totally sick watercolours.

***

wow, sorry. that was a little bit tl;dr. the super rough cowboy doodles are thumbs for a poster gig (not to be confused with a gig poster. my god, i would give my eye teeth to work on something like that). holy shit. i NEED to find the time to nail this bad boy. this summer is severally schooling me in the fact that i CANNOT juggle projects at all.

speaking of summer, do you remember when it used to look like this?:

god fucking damn, i want to go play with my camera.

2011-06-16T09:20:00.002+01:00

sketch book stuff. currently running through it and polishing some pages up because i'm neurotic like that. also, it's an excuse to get the water colours out.
...
and draw ugly mermaids.

2011-06-16T08:39:00.003+01:00

for our group blog,THE DOODLE CABOODLE. theme this time round was "If one of my bodyparts was a ______". this one's for you, twat-tastic MC. a while back, we went up to oxford for the vaudeville rave. the music was totally aces and everyone (bar us) was fabulously dressed. but the guy running the show. oh my god. everything he said took like 9,000 HOURS because each sentence had to be punctuated with a flurry of noises that sounded like android hell.

it was... mildly frustrating.

p.s while i like to look all sophisticated and intellectual posting links to ted lectures and documentaries about economic meltdowns, my real bread and butter is super dorky podcasts about THE nerdiest shit you can imagine. the NERDIST PODCAST is one such show. but oh my god, this thing is hilarious.

2011-06-16T08:17:00.005+01:00

a big old sploge of work stuff. mysterious, out-of-context boxes! what secrets do you hold??
...
i guess you'll have to wait till it's done till you find that one out.

ANYWAYS, remember that totally heart warming story about the time they let us paint the university red (and black and blue and yellow and any other colour we thought to bring with us)? well, turns out some genius in management decided that it was ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to white wash the place the next day. even though they're demolishing the site pretty much right now...

wack.

oh well, at least we'll always have the photos on facebook.

p.s watched this superbly put together documentary about rand-inism and how it tied into the economic meltdown. you should give it a go. it's TOTALLY facinating:

2011-06-15T10:31:00.003+01:00

so a while ago, i was asked if i wanted to take part in an anthology the good folk at the comic book alliance were putting together called the spirit of hope. the book was, in the words of the cba, to be "...a unique anthology of short stories from the world’s greatest creators dealing with the impact of disasters on people’s everyday lives. Creators include Liam Sharp, Henry Flint, Nick Abadzis, Glenn Dakin, Mark Buckingham, Al Davison and Peter Hogan with stories covering all aspects of human life in the face of catastrophe. The collection comes in two editions – one with a beautiful Jimmy Broxton cover and a second with a cool Michael Allred cover. All profit from the title will go to help disaster victims via Second Harvest and the New Zealand Red Cross."

these guys managed to put this thing together in record time considering over 90 artists and writers donated work to it. the book is currently taking PRE-ORDERS and should be coming back from the printers in a matter of days.

2011-06-07T07:47:00.001+01:00

the rest of the self initiated pages.

*note to self. find the time to finish this off.

2011-06-06T07:32:00.004+01:00

kudos to miss griffiths who, as of last saturday, vanquished her german and french degree at oxford. we celebrated by drinking a lot of shit champagne. it was well classy.

OLD NEWS TIME!
as part of the end of the year/we're bulldozing the shit out of your campus celebrations, the powers that be granted us leave to run riot through cat hill armed with all manner of things that make marks. holy shit. it was so, so great watching people just go to town on the place.

2011-06-06T07:02:00.004+01:00

work and HEY DUMBASS! WHERE THE WORD BALLONS GONNA GO?!?

on a totally unrelated point, i needed to learn how to do this like 5 minuets ago:

2011-06-05T16:21:00.005+01:00

for our group blog. this week's theme was black and white. for some reason, gnarly monsters seemed to be the OBVIOUS thing to do.

speaking of gnarly monsters, i know i'm totally late to this but oh my god. the video for MGMT's kids is the most glorious, freaky shit.

we were in a totally cheesy club last night, and suddenly this thing comes on the screen that's like the bastard love child of labyrinth and john carpenter's the thing. it was kinda amazing.

2011-06-05T15:27:00.004+01:00

WALK OF SHAME! actually, that's wholly appropriate seeing as i only managed to get a shocking 2 PAGES done this week. poor form, moore.

IN OTHER OLD, OUTDATED NEWS:

so a while back, we went to the macmillan book prize show. as mentioned before, HECTOR got his ass shortlisted which is totally awesome. speaking of awesome, some of the other entries on show at that thing were absolutely mind-bending. it's a shame the macmillan website has ABSOLUTELY NO COVERAGE OF THIS COMPETITION WHATSOEVER since this stuff totally deserves to be seen.

being anal, i did some rooting around and found some websites you should most definitely check out:
http://emmabennettillustration.tumblr.com/
http://cargocollective.com/naomijonesillustration
http://elysdolan.blogspot.com/
http://vanyanastanlieva.blogspot.com/

2011-06-03T09:57:00.004+01:00

coloured pages from the self initiated. i thought i was going to get 24 of these licked. i did 5. ah well, win some-lose some, right?

it's a bugger though. moseying through SKOTTIE YOUNG'S totally badass blog (speaking of, why are you still here and not checking that shit out? it's HOT!), i came across this pearl of wisdom: that you draw things differently depending on how you're planning to colour them.

this kinda sorta totally blew my mind.

i guess before this, i'd put ALL the emphasis on the drawing and left colouring as an after thought. but thinking backwards like this could lead to such richer results. take water colours- you can actually do so much of the form building with them rather than over-saturating a picture with too many lines. this is something i deffinatly need to remember; such an anal control freak when it comes to drawing and OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO BORING. HERE'S A PHOTO OF SOMETHING FUN INSTEAD.

2011-05-30T14:08:00.001+01:00

work stuff.

oh my god, library backgrounds. you are an awesome way to drive yourself totally nuts.

2011-05-26T08:36:00.002+01:00

so last year we started up a sketch blog. it was good fun. but then second year happened and it became one sad, neglected puppy. now that we're off though, we're going to resurrect its ass.

them this time round is "NOW UNI'S DONE, I'M GOING TO_______". yeah. i'mma going to be hanging out with my drawing table. a lot.

(but i love it really)

2011-05-26T08:24:00.003+01:00

life drawings. oh man. life models that are an assortment of angles and skin are definitely my favourite kind of life model.

so much angst in that bottom one. SO MUCH ANGST!

2011-05-26T07:41:00.003+01:00

GOOD MORNING!

so yes. the last couple of pages for the self initiated. ah well, at least i pleasantly surprised myself with how quickly i could actually draw a comic page when i has to, RIGHT?

unfortunately, this speedy clip doesn't seem to have carried over to work-work. a boo-hoo-hoo.

in other news, totally impulse-bought seabear's 'the ghost that carried us away' and it single handedly restored my faith in blindly throwing money at albums.

2011-05-23T07:29:00.003+01:00

so it was KATIE'S birthday the other week. as such, it was crappy, home-made card time.

i was all out of pasta and p.v.a glue,
so i'm afraid this'll have to go and make do.

NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY SHE DRAWS THESE THINGS. draw stuff with faces. it will make you ∞ more happy.

2011-05-23T07:16:00.008+01:00

and that was how we lost all and any cool points gained by going to le gun's opening night.

chris bianchi (a.k.a most deffinatly NOT mr fat) is an ex-middlesex student. he's also a member of said art collective and a totally banging illustrator. check out his/their stuff HERE.

that room. oh my god that room. you could live there FOREVER.

SHITTY RELAVENT PHOTO TIME!

2011-05-23T06:55:00.002+01:00

the last of the prints for the print project and OH MY GOD HALF TONES. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?!?!?! so, so sad i only made your acquaintance now they've thrown us out for summer and are tearing the place down.

sssssiiiiiggghhh.

anyhoo , mrs.o is a totally rad song by the dresden dolls. you should listen to it. a lot.

Mrs. O by The Dresden Dolls

p.s i don't know if you're familiar with TED lectures. they're a series of wonderful, wonderful bite-sized talks on all manner of things by some super insightful folk. here's an ace one on the state of the education system. GIVE IT A TWIRL!

2011-05-23T06:35:00.003+01:00

more of that self initiated malarky. oh god. so riddled with error.

on the upside though, there's been a whole lot more of this in our lives as of late:

2011-05-21T07:19:00.002+01:00

reference doodles for the book some of these are very, very old but HOLY SHIT. IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE WORKING ON THIS THING AGAIN.

plan is to try and blitz the crap out of it before it's back to uni time. probably not going to happen but we can always dream, AMIRITE?

2011-05-19T06:37:00.002+01:00

self initiated pages.

ugh. now it's all said and done, totally not happy with how i went about this. as tutor man said, i was waaaaaaaay too focused on trying to cover as much ground as humanly possible instead of aiming for a smaller target and making something that was far, far tighter.

frustration.

i don't know, if there's a chance this summer, i'd really like to take another crack at this, but treat it a bit more like a picture book. eric's writing is totally shwaay anyway and doesn't need to be rail-roaded by mediochar art AND OH MY, ARNE'T WE BEING QUITE THE LITTLE SELF PITYING ARTIST TODAY.

in other news, they are letting us draw ALL OVER our campus as part of the little send off party. i am alex's overwhelming, quivering excitement.

2011-05-19T06:23:00.001+01:00

life drawings. they are drawings from life. and that's all right.

i don't know what's up with all the super strainy male torso either.

2011-05-17T07:01:00.005+01:00

original drawing for the last of the of the print project. skull kids and atom bombs? WWWOOOOOWWWW. this is some cheery stuff right here. i think this calls for some over-saturated photos to lighten the mood.

gosh, the prints BEN was working on in these photos were totally lovely. follow that link to check out more of his stuff. IT'LL BLOW YOU AWAY. man, it's stupid how much talent there is on our course.

2011-05-16T04:56:00.004+01:00

leftovers from the macmillan project. the dip pen drawing is a fabulous showcase of my COMPLETE lack of understanding of hatching. i think i may have also been a little illibriated when i sat down to do this so that's a double fault. also, had a revelation the other day that mr. cloak man is essentially what would happen it spawn and mickey mouse had some kind of terrible love child.

hats off to class-buddy hector lloyd for landing himself a highly recommended award and a place in the macmillan exhibition. you can see some spreads from his totally fucking charming book RIGHT HERE . man. cannot wait to check out that show.

it's only may, but here's some stupidly summery music for your ass.

2011-05-12T04:54:00.000+01:00

oh hai thar internet! i have not totally forgotten you, it's just that we're having our big, fat double-weighted, end-of-year project is in for today. as a result, the last week's been spent as a jibbering, under-slept mess face down in comics.

it was pretty wild. but it's done. i kinda feel a bit like this:

and on a totally unrelated note, here's some life drawing.

2011-05-01T09:34:00.002+01:00

life drawings. that top one's the result of drawing a repeated sequence over and over and over and over again, not from dropping too much acid before going to class.

2011-04-25T12:48:00.003+01:00

IT'S OVER!
...
well, not really. i still need to whip an end paper that dosn't totally suck ASS, but the heavy lifting's done. thank god.

initially when tutor man said i should go back and colour it by hand, i was all like;

but in hindsight, i'm so fucking glad i took him up on it. the digital colouring was totally oppressive and dead. like to think this is a bit more spritly. also, watercolours and photoshop play surprisingly nice together. take note for future reference.

2011-04-25T12:19:00.003+01:00

life drawing.... FROM LIFE!

in other news, i got an email from the new york musical saw festival. i don't know wether to be totally heart broken i can't go or a little weirded out that they know i have one...

and in other other news, here's an article from /slashfilm.com show casing some totally awesome mock up posters for that hanna movie. gosh, these are tight. that jock chap is a total genius when it comes to design and mind bending perspective. it makes me rather sad that nowadays, film posters seem so keen on plugging what names and faces are in the flick they're advertising, rather than trying to do something clever with the concept.

but then that would probably make for tres shitty marketing.
...
IS THAT THE OVERWHELMING STENCH OF CYNICISM I DO DETECT???

2011-04-24T10:21:00.002+01:00

so in honour of our campus being reduced to a pile of rubble this summer, the university's putting together a book with drawings and photos and what not of the old girl.

i'm kinda sorta a little bit desolated.

the place is totally quirky, higgldy-piggldy and has a real charm... unlike the sterile, super-swish building we'll be in next year. siiiiigh. and as much as i bitch and moan on this thing about screen printing, that room is totally one of my favourite places ever. you will be missed.

2011-04-23T09:13:00.005+01:00

more early stage stuff from the self initiated. gah, i have totally been neglecting this in favour of trying to put the macmillan to bed. this will undoutably going to be payed for in spades further down the road.

in other news, one of my friend's managed to land a gig illustrating an interactive game for the guerilla dance project. it was part of the last 'late at the V&A' event which is so freaking cool so hats off to abi (who's blog you can check out here. she's a total ace with collage and watercolours, but will deny it vehemently).

OLD NEWS IS OLD!

2011-04-22T16:04:00.003+01:00

currently in the middle of trying to fix up the macmillan entry. it's... kinda long...

right now my brain feels like a sad, floppy fish out of water. *GASP GASP GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP*

2011-04-20T11:31:00.004+01:00

finals for the stamp project. american's came up with some of the most amazing nick names for their heads of state. also, the internet is an AMAZING source for fonts. been raiding that thing like a GODDAMN VIKING.

oh god. these things are going to be waaaaay too tiny irl for you to be able to see jack or squat. time to fudge the dimensions in photoshop methinks...

MY GOD. CAN WE DO ONE PROJECT WITHOUT CHEATING HORRIBLY PLEASE?!?

2011-04-19T16:40:00.003+01:00

aaaand more print project stuff. holy crap. i could actually listen to 'melancholy hill' by gorrilaz ALL DAY. EVERYDAY. that shit is just so synth-tastic, it's off the chain.

it also has a gloriously random music video. i'm guessing it makes a whole lot more sense if you've kept up with the storyline that's been evolving over the course of the band's discography... should catch up on that some time since i am totally in love with what jamie hewlett can do with a pencil.

2011-04-19T16:23:00.005+01:00

aaaand for a closer look:

MY, WHAT PRETTY HAND-WRITTING YOU HAVE, ALEX. for the print project. oh man, why they didn't include 'bird song' on lungs is a bit of a mystery. this song is just too much damn fun. hooray for maddening guilt!