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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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!

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.

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;

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

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?

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;

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!

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.

o7
WHAT A DAY THAT WAS.

given how art, ba 'n moon and masochistic activities all press my buttons, this was quite possibly the most amazing experience ever. so amazing in fact, that you had to draw a shockingly lazy comic about it. i would love to blame IMPENDING DEADLINES for the lack of class shown here, but that doesn't go down to well with the aforementioned masochism.

AND OH MY GOD GUYS, HOW LOL-LARIOUS IS THAT VOICE OVER ON THE SPOTIFY PRINCE OF PERSIA AD?!?

o6
god, i actually love this thing. in fact, i love it so much that i would totally give it a hug... but that would only result in massive damage.

OH FATE. WHY MUST YOU BE SO CRULE?

one day i will learn how to play an instrument that exists for something other than novelty value.

o5
i've skipped a couple pages of this project since we'd just be rehashing some of the same old shit BUT THAT WON'T SAVE YOU NOW.

oh my god. that was the most amazing jam session. sylvester mccoy plays some mean spoons, yo.

o4
GAIZ! SRSLY, DON'T BE GOING TO THE HINEKEN MUSEUM. THAT IS 15 EUROES YOU WILL NEVER SEE AGAIN.

that said, we totally broke their beer token system by scrounging round on the floor like a pack of hungry hungry hobos. my god. no one should be that drunk by three in the afternoon. can i hear you say HAMMER-ED TIME?!?

o3
and the crimes against coherent layouts and halfway decent presentation continues!

o2

goddamn, we saw some scary things in amsterdam.

o1
the last summer project i sent off to martin was a total frankenstine case. it's literally just a miss-match of WHATEVER. clearly coming up with something self contained and coherent was totally beyond my wee-pea brain by this point.

the cyclists of amsterdam are a terrifying breed.