FRIENDS. THE END TIMES ARE NEARLY UPON US.

that's right. in three weeks time, middelsex illustration's class of 2012 are going to be done (sort of) with this degree business . good fucking gravy.

asides from getting all misty eyed and nostalgic about the good times, that also means IT'S TIME TO HIT THE GAS AND FLY BY THE SEAT OF YO ASS.





so for my FINAL MAJOR PROJECT, i was going to try and turn the first part of toby barlow's sharp teeth into one of those super cool, free flowing digital comics a little like this:

http://www.ryan-a.com/comics/sarahandtheseed01.htm

and this:

http://emcarroll.com/comics/outthedoor.html

(but really you should check these cats out anyways- they really do put the awesome in awesomesauce.)

aaaaaaaand then you realised that adapting 50+ pages was a little ambitious and it was maybe going to be some sort of animated thing instead? ok!

after a whole lot of hmming and hawing, finally figured out how to draw the damn thing in week eight of this 12 week project. awesome. BUT THAT MEANS I CAN JUST CHURN IT OUT TOTALLY IN TIME FOR SUPER FINAL DEAD LINE, RIGHT?

totes.

so stop writing this clap trap and get back to work.



(p.s. if you like stories about organised werewolf crime in nourish LA with wereolves, you should pick this book up. you two will be very happy together: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharp-Teeth-Toby-Barlow/dp/0099512467/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334985771&sr=1-1 )

(p.p.s in other news, TURNING TIGER CAME OUT ALL PHYSICAL LIKE THE OTHER DAY!!!



for those of you going "aahhhBWWAAAHH???", this is the comic i did with richmond clements for the good folk at renegade arts like three years ago? it's got robots. and heart. if you fancy snapping up a copy or even just spreading the word, that would be holyshit levels of amazing…

you could get it here.

or maybe even here.

and i even got to go on one of those podcast things to talk about it here.

#ABLAHBLAHBLAH

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.

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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.

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!

life drawing. exciting stuff, i know. charcoal and pencil might be something worth thinking about.

in other news, i think we are going out drinking tonight THANK GOD. i think i might go a little loco if i spend any longer shut up in the house and tied to the grind stone. don't get me wrong, i love the working, it's just the not being around other people that i miss. OH GOD, HOW I FEAR YOU SUMMER HOLIDAYS WHEN THAT WILL BE MY LIFE FOREVER.

... i am so sorry for getting so live journal up in this shit.

in other news, did you know that origionally alfred hitchcock didn't want any music in THAT shower scene. good thing he went on holiday and bernard herrmann was all like 'I KNOW BEST, BITCH'.
r
if you would like to learn more about the composer bernard herrmann, may i recomend this totally informative and entertaining episode of battleship pretension: EPISODE 210: artist profile of BERNARD HERRMANN. there's a ton of preamble, but if you can get past that it's a swell show.

this is 'this is laura' > http://www.myspace.com/kittyandsarah < they are really rather good.
we had the total good fortune to catch them playing at caberetnightshowthingy. they didn't have their drummer with them, but they still blew my socks off. if you like your music on the dark and gypsy, folky side of things, you should look them up. i've been swearing up and down that i'll go see them intentionally, but so far have failed miserably. note to self: stop sucking.

(god damn do i love drawing music folk. dose anyone want to give me a job doing this?)

another piece for The Show. ugh, i am currently paying for the sin of charging in head first with this. SILLY RABBIT. ONE DAY YOU WILL LEARN TO THINK THESE THINGS THROUGH.

... oh who are you kidding, alex. you will forever be a slave to short-sighted foolishness.

AAAAaanyways, sorry about the quality with this one. had to take a photo of the bugger since it's a big one. man, a B2 scanner would be totally sweet right now.

on a lighter note, i think this might be my most favorite thing in a long time:

Death Buy Lemonade from Cartoon Brew TV on Vimeo.

second of the three tickets i'm making for part of summer project. this one's for the joanna newsome concert amir and i hit up waaaaaaaay back at the beginning of summer. it was pretty boss. me oh my, that lady plays one mean harp.



i don't know if i'm just confusing lazy colouring with a 'sense of design'. ho hum. heh, in an ideal world, i'm going to get the last one of these done before i have to take off stupidly early tomorrow morning for berlin. likelihood of that happening? roughly -100%


p.s have you been having the same lack lustre reaction to all the stuff for the upcoming thor movie that the rest of the internet and their mum's been having? the trailer's been leaked. i had to stop watching after a minuet. not because it was the total hoke-fest i was expecting, but because it was totally one of those 'oh hai, it's the entire movie in the trailer' jobs. my god,what a dope looking movie it is too.
http://www.ifanboy.com/content/articles/Five_Minute_THOR_Trailer_From_SDCC_Leaked

more character designing. hopefully going to get another two designs nailed today but that might be wildly optimistic thinking there...

completely unrelated topic time with surprisingly appropriate visual aids!



so this week amanda palmer brought out out an album of ukulele covers of radiohead songs. that sentence there contains three of my favourite things and needless to say, i snapped that bitch up the second it came out. you can download this delightfully named record over at http://music.amandapalmer.net/album/amanda-palmer-performs-the-popular-hits-of-radiohead-on-her-magical-ukulele for less than a dollar. in the words of arnie, DO IT. DO IT NOW.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

... except not really because we never went because i totally suck. AGH, this took waaaaaaaaay too long. need to find a way to print it off super massive as well. apparently, fellow middlesexers, we can still use the repo graphics department up till the end of term but we need to book an appointment through nancy.

then it's just a case of spending a bomb on postage and packaging and mailing it to martin. i'm thinking novelty sized envelope?

whoar. some fun things can happen once you start fucking around in photoshop. i am determined to find out how to use it, especially after seeing this wonderful step by step:

http://theanthologyproject.com/theanthoprocess.php CHECK IT, YO!

more backgrounds for animation. gah, these things are (in theory) meant to be in for next wednesday. outlooks looks... mildly improbable? hmm, backgrounds have always been one of those things i've always thought i've kinda fobbed off so to have to focus on them like this has been a super fun exercise and oh my god this post is dull dull dull. let's talk about something else.

went to the last of the london evelyn evelyn gigs on sunday and oh my, was it a good stuff. for those not in the know, evelyn evelyn is the current pet project of jason webley and amanda palmer that involves the pair pretending to be conjoined twins and singing show tunes. you can check some of their stuff out here: http://www.myspace.com/evelynevelyn

it was a hoot. hats off to those two as well for managing to play pianos, guitars, accordians, drums and ukuleles while wearing the same dress

page o6


i'd like to thank a combination of ball bust levels of work and shit internet for the lack of updates round the parts. shit internet has been sorted! wish the same could be said of the criminally long to-do list...

more from the book! yes kids, drinking brown smelly water is never, ever a stella idea no matter how much the locals tell you it'll do you a world of good.

LIES!

still, despite the onset of massive gut rot, that bit of scotland was. so. pretty.



PLUGGERY TIME! oh man, there is sooooooo much good music out there. recently got my mitts on the soundtrack for where the wild things are. so. so. so. SO. GOOD. there is no way in hell you can feel blue after listening to that thing; it's crazy levels of energetic, but then i guess that's what you'd expect from karen o (front lady of the 'yeah yeah yeahs').

character designs!

stuff's been going on y'all. despite being all like 'yah! i'm going to blog the shit out of this blog' this week i have been B-U-S-Y cranking out the last couple of pages of turning tiger and finally, after so so so soooooo long, IT'S DONE! *throws hands in the air like she just don't care*



despite that, it's still go go go. i was at hi-ex a couple of weeks ago (a totally sweet convention up in inverness run by richmond clements, writer of turning tiger. you really should all go). i got to hang with a bunch of really cool cats like Gary Erskine (http://garyerskine.blogspot.com/) , Charlie Adlard (http://www.charlieadlard.com/home.htm) Simon Fraser (http://simonfraser.posterous.com/ -someone remind me to buy the act-i-vate primer. i took a peek at it in the flesh while i was up there and bloody hell, it was prutty) and got to say hi to John Higgins (http://www.turmoilcolour.com/) which was particularly mind blowing. i was working on colouring stuff in and he came over to chat about wether or not he should get a wacom. he had a go on mine, drew this and was thoroughly wireded out by it:



aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, good things came of it. there's going to be more turning tiger and what i posted way back at the beginning of this post is some prep work for an anthology piece by GM Gordan. MAN, i can't wait to get started on this thing!

old, cold leftovers from the christmas project. we had to come up with the perfect gift for a famous person picked at random from the festive fez. i got orson welles (who was a total DUDE!) so i gave him a snow globe featuring a scene from his glory days in theatre.

also, i may have just figured out how to embed videos into posts. to celebrate, here's a wonderful song on the subject of that most polarising of toast toppings; vegemite.

more book marking. check these out folks, they're pretty damn niffty!

http://www.dutchuncle.co.uk/illustrators/du/tavis-coburn/portfolios/bafta-2010 -travis colburn's posters for the 2010 baftas. there's one for each of the five movies up for best film. mmm-MMM! love those old school aesthetics.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/22/cool-stuff-brandon-schaefers-movie-posters/ - god, i WISH the folks who churn movie poster out would take a leaf out of this guy's book.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/16/cool-stuff-the-lost-art-of-inglourious-basterds/ - un used art work for inglorious basterds.

i think pretty much all this stuff was pilfered from the /film website.