Becoming Taskless

From Above: The Resurrection of Don Giovanni

2012-02-10T17:32:00.000Z

Once again, an older project.
This time we had to create a piece of narrative based loosely off of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. My take on the original narrative transformed into a story of betrayal in which an Aquarian angel figures out it has the unique ability to kill people
and fellow immortals in a godless heaven.
Here are 3 images taken from the original 7 piece sequential narrative:

'From Above IV-VI'
[Gouache on 250gsm Pure White Paper]

These have been done for a while. Remember?

I mean, cut back to half a year ago and you'll find me discussing painting, and how from time to time no matter how much I love the outcome, it can become a serious life-bane.

This is what lead me to that micro-discussion.

Notice how I've only put up 3/7 paintings? Well I think the rest need some substantial tweaking. If you ever see them, they'll hopefully be part of an upcoming publication.

My comrade Kenny, the good man behind YEAIKNOW brought it to my attention that my blog is mostly full of sketchbook work, and I should put more finished work up here. That's why this wild project has suddenly appeared after all this time.

The reason behind this is because believe it or not, I can be very merticulous with things. The more I grow up the more I find myself overanalysing things actually.I do a lot of projects, many that at the point of technically finishing, I don't see as 'finished', so I hold on to these projects, hiding them from the world, because my personal standards, according to others are too goddamn high.

Even though I've written this, aware of this fault of mine, I'm finding it very hard to change;
as I said earlier, this project needs tweaking,
but that's just according to me.

The First Rut

2012-01-29T03:30:00.000Z

Hello everyone. It's 2012, and I need some help,
a little bit of alternate perspective if you will.

I've been working on a narrative project for a while now, the characters are developed,
the scripts are written, the storyboards are all done, but I seem to be having problems starting.
I can't decide how to render it.
Whenever it comes to making decisions with this project my mind keeps malfunctioning
and bringing me to a halt. This isn't great, as time is hastily running out

So yeah, could you help me, what route should I take?:

Digital...

...or Traditional

I suggest you click on each image for a closer look.

Please let me know which image you prefer, by commenting below,
Facebook commenting me (if you know me duh), tweeting me or whatever!

Save me internets!

Rather annoyingly, whilst messing about with both these images, I found merging them together to add a some texture to the flatness of the digital image is the perfect compromise. But in order to do that, I'd have to both digitally and traditionally render each image.

Screw that.

Laura Marling: Folk Deity

2011-12-30T20:39:00.001Z

So, this is probably my last post of the year.
So all at once, Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year.

Looks like I'm ending this year on a note pretty similar to the beginning of this year.
Way back in October I had the pleasure of seeing Laura Marling perform again.

Once again she managed seemingly effortlessly blow my mind.
If you ever fall upon a chance to be in her audience, I suggest you take it.

The image above depicts the performance of two songs back to back from her most recent album 'A Creature I Don't Know,' titled 'Don't Ask Me Why' and 'Salinas'.
These songs are meant to be heard together, and just for a bit of clarity, I think you should have a listen:

Don't Ask Me Why/Salinas (Live at the WFVU)

This album, that she finished this year, may be my favourite Laura Marling album so far, and is one of the many incredible albums released this year.

I've been tempted to do a typical 'Top # Albums of 2011' post, but instead I've settled on creating a playlist full of some my favourite songs from these albums. I know that's equally as low on the creative scale, but still. I enjoy it.

I hope you do too, just click below to listen:

So yeah, to re-iterate Have a Happy New Year.

Lets start again next year.
In the best possible way.

P-P-P-P-P-P

2011-10-31T23:17:00.000Z

Hey there, I'm still alive.

Here's just a glimpse of one of the few things that have been
preoccupying me the last couple of months.

I've been extremely busy lately, so much so that I've finally skipped a month of blogging,
which I had a personal vow not to do.

C-C-C-Combo Breaker and whatnot.

You won't hear much from me here until the end of November,
for more information as to why, click right here.

Might seem like it came out of nowhere, but yeah, it's all about Pixel Art,

I've almost finished writing about it, so now it's time to make some more.

On that note here's some awesome Chiptune.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://disasterpeace.bandcamp.com/track/five"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Five by Disasterpeace&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

On a completely unrelated note, Happy Halloween!

Headgear

2011-08-30T12:29:00.001+01:00

Lady Protection
Lady Super
Lady Taminiau III

Abbey Lee Kershaw
Mariya Markina
Charlotte ?

First Rome

2011-07-30T19:12:00.008+01:00

I went to Rome in March.
I've been holding onto these for a while.

For the first time in years I ditched the digital camera
and borrowed my friend's old film camera.
I enjoyed it, it made taking photos more interesting,
as I had to be more selective with what memories I wanted to capture.

Have a gander at a few select pictures after the jump, or if you want to see the whole set, view them on my new brand Flickr page.

Oh yeah, I didn't go alone:

Aqua-Don

2011-06-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

I had the choice of working in monochrome or colour - biro or paint.

I chose to paint. That choice became the bane of my life for 2 weeks.

I've never been a fast painter, out of all the things I'm slow at, it may be the thing I'm slowest at. I gave myself 7 intricate paintings to do, because compromise wasn't an option for this vision.

2 weeks is a long time without sleep.

Angels

2011-06-15T19:40:00.001+01:00

Apparently.

Metronomy. The Look. The Bay.

2011-06-14T15:29:00.009+01:00

Back in April I had the pleasure of seeing Metronomy perform at Rough Trade. At the same time I manage to finally get hold of their long awaited 3rd album, The English Riviera. Afterwards with their song 'The Look' stuck in my head I sat down for a while and did this:

I've become aware that all I draw in my personal sketchbook these days are musicians,
but I'm OK with that.

After their performance in a typical fluster to get my album signed I nervously met the band and ended up having the tiniest of conversations with them, which ended up with me receiving these buttons:

I think all I managed to blurt out afterwards was, 'these are awesome!' And then I huddled off. I'm currently annoyed with myself about this encounter, as I completely forgot to ask them who did the illustrations on the buttons, as they're great! If anyone reading this happens to know could you please tell me!

I've always admired the music videos Metronomy come out with, they almost always find the perfect balance between distinct style and narrative, and when they don't, they always excel in one or the other. To keep it short you'll want to see all of their music videos.

Just watch these and you'll see what I mean:

Their last single:

Their latest single:

And I think I'll end with what is my favourite Metronomy video, and probably my favourite music video ever so far. There's no question about it, you will enjoy this:

PCP (Print Crowne Plaza)

2011-06-13T01:49:00.009+01:00

Here's a series of screen prints I created for a Crowne Plaza Hotel Competition. The students of CSM were challenged to create illustrations with the London Blackfriars scene as the theme.

Wow these are old, seriously, I did these back in March...

Unfortunately I didn't win, and as far as I'm concerned I didn't even come close (although how am I to know? I had no insider knowledge of the voting panel). I believe this because this project was extremely rushed, as I was horrendously pushed for time, I'd just returned from Rome with just over a week left to work on the project, found myself a week behind work wise, and had 2 other projects and another live brief to work on alongside this one. The plus side was, I became a little bit more competent at screen printing.

But, as a minus every other part of the project went wrong, and I may have screwed everything else up. A few years ago I wrote in the 'About Me' Section; 'I have a problem, I want to do everything at once causing me to treat time & fatigue as the greatest of enemies.'

I'm not sure what to think about the fact that nothing has changed.

CSM Pop Up Shop/Off Sight Exhibition

2011-06-09T15:31:00.010+01:00

This is happening right now!

CSM students are having a Pop Up Shop! In which we're selling a great selection of hand made items! It's running from 8-10th of this month! So yeah, todays the second day, once again another slightly late post. The pop up shop is running alongside the CSM Off Sight print protest exhibition, running until the 21st of June. Th exhibition shows a plethora of brilliant print work from the students of CSM, in response to recent problems with our print and bookbinding studios.

For more info on the Pop Up Shop check out: csmpopup.tumblr.com
For more info on the Off Sight exhibition check out: off-sight.tumblr.com

My contribution to the shop is a hand-bound narrative zine called Summer/Winter.
I've unintentionally been keeping this under wraps the last few months. It'a a story of gods seasons, based in a universe in which the seasons are run by gods, and the problems which would be bound to occur. This is where my characters Summer and Winter stemmed from.

The zine comes in a special package:

In the package you get a copy of the zine along with a free print of Summer or Winter!

The zine has 3 different covers to choose from, a neuteral cover, summer cover, and winter cover! Overall there are only 10 copies in total, so if you feel like it come pick up a copy!

The shop is on right now! If you're in London you've still got a couple of hours to check it out tonight! If not, the last day is tomorrow from 12-7! There are some awesome stuff on sale here and you won't want to miss out!

Let's just say I'm surrounded by some incredibly talented people.

See you there.

57 Protagonists

2011-06-01T20:11:00.007+01:00

Tomorrow the Central Saint Martins 2nd year illustration work in progress exhibition begins.
We've called the show 57 Protagonists:

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, ah well.
The show shall be from 2nd-11th June at the SW1 Gallery in Victoria.
If you're based in London, come on down for the private view tomorrow (2nd) and enjoy some lovely illustration with a touch of added alcohol & cake courtesy of Bea's of Bloomsbury just for the night.

For more information check out the show's...
Work in progress blog: http://57protagonists.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/57protagonists
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=201041676597544

Oh and one more thing,
a sneak peek of what you'll see from me at the show:

IV-V-VI

The Damage

2011-05-31T21:27:00.004+01:00

Hai guise, I'm back.

This is how I've felt the last 2 months.

Just been constantly bombarded with work. I spent the holidays interning with the wonderful Inca Starzinksy, whilst at the same time trying to figure out what to do my impending dissertation on! When I finally made up my mind, the holiday was over and it was back to work. And, as it was the last project of the year, I decided to do something I'm not that great at.... paintings... 7 frikkin paintings.

Let's just say I'm still blinded by ambition and foolish as ever.

I just managed to hand in work for this year's final assessment on Friday, but at a cost:

That illustration was probably a metaphor for my room too.

I haven't been here for a while, so my list of things to post here has grown over time. Expect a ton of new stuff soon. But not too soon. I'm still very lost in a swamp of academia.

Ghostpoet. Liiines.

2011-04-06T07:26:00.012+01:00

I've been listening to a lot of Ghostpoet recently, particularly this song:

Liiines

Hot damn, I think this man must be at least 60% of what I want to be.

I'll admit, drawing on lines was a conscious decision, but only because Roxie Vizcarra very indirectly suggested I do so...
I didn't have any graph paper OK.

Seasonal Proof

2011-04-05T03:15:00.002+01:00

Ah, I was only meant to scan them in...

A couple of month old character sketches from my last narrative project
that I want to redux before I post here.
You've seen the apparently androgynous one before.

Just so you know Spring and Autumn exist too, they just didn't get as far as these two. If they were in the final story, it would have become a 50 page epic. Accomplishing something like that that in 3 weeks is something that's only possible in my dreams.

Mother

2011-04-03T19:14:00.003+01:00

Yeah I came back for her.

Our Lethaby

2011-03-22T19:57:00.000Z

Ok so...

Yes, this is what that was all about.

This animation is a response to the "My Lethaby" project we had recently, in which we had to create a form of moving image that celebrates the Central Saint Martins Lethaby Building located on Southampton Row. We are leaving the building for King's Cross next year you see.

The aim was to display the building as even more beautiful visions, so that the world outside of Central Saint Martins would appreciate the beauty too, a beauty that it has taken many time to fall in love with. It also displays the students' nostalgic thoughts as they mentally prepare themselves for the KX move.

We were working in pairs this time round, indeed this is a collaborative effort with Kenny Yu. I must admit this animation isn't what I'd usually come up with, and it may be the first piece of moving image I've ever done that isn't narrative based,
about time eh.

Now to end with a few still moments:

SCRN PRNT WNTR

2011-03-20T01:38:00.007Z

Finally done my screen printing induction. For the induction we could create an image based on anything we wanted, so I opted for one of my brand new characters.

I present to you, Winter:

I put these together using a paper stencil and 2 images exposed from acetate prints. In the end I managed to create 24 2-3 colour screen prints in total, and each one is completely unique. Not too shab.

Here are 6 more of my favourites, just click on any of them to view them at a reasonable size.

Ah, to think I'm technically on my 3rd year at CSM and I've only just got round to screen printing seems a bit ridiculous. A little part of that is my fault, but most of it isn't, seeing as I wasn't even allowed to use the facilities until the start of this academic year.

***

There has been a lot of controversy recently at Central Saint Martins about the proposed future state of our printing & bookbinding facilities. The CSM administration have proposed to move all our print facilities to Byam Shaw as a consequence of our big move to Kings Cross, and that in their place we have more computer suites and desks. They have changed things from their original (and logical) plan to keep the facilities on the same site as the people who would use them, which is a massive shame, sacrificing the traditional for the digital.

The students of CSM Graphic Design are not happy, and have been protesting ever since.
So please help us, and sign our petition, we only need a few more signatures:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/csm-to-lose-print-workshops-to-byam-shaw/

Also, to keep up to date with and find out more about what's going on, check out the protest blog here: http://csmprintprotest.tumblr.com/

Thank you.

Disconnecting from Desire

2011-03-19T19:42:00.005Z

Phew,
it's been a busy busy month, and now I've got a quite a few things just dying to be posted here. I'll start with something simple.

A few weeks ago we were asked to create one A4 image based on desire. However, after the hand in, I made a few changes:

Desire is the motivation behind all human action, it controls us.
Without desire, people would do nothing.

After I created this image, I looked back at it, and I just didn't like it.
So I decided I need to change what I consider my drawing style.

Now I just have to see if my subconscious will allow it.

Lethaby

2011-02-17T19:27:00.007Z

And now for something completely different.

Objects of Undesire

2011-02-07T23:32:00.008Z

This has been a long time coming.

Here is the redux of that project I was talking about a few posts ago, part 1 of a 3 part project. We simply had to illustrate 4 personal annoyances.
My 4 things, were quite hard to muster,
but I dug deep into that unhappy place and pulled something out.

Now I've never wanted to use this blog as a platform for whining, but this project basically dictates me to do so. Hey, at least my mostly ashamedly trivial persecutions are illustrated. Here goes:

No.1: Sleep

I have a love hate relationship with sleep, there are some times when I just can't get enough of it, but sadly most the time I dislike the whole idea. I'm no insomniac, I have no problem sleeping, my problem is that I've somehow grown up with the mentality that when I'm sleeping I could be doing something else, so I like to stay awake for as long as possible.
I have chronic sleep guilt.

No.2: 'Spelling Nazis' who aren't 'Grammar Nazis' and vice versa

There's something that just infuriates me when people correct my spelling whilst simultaneously using incorrect grammar. The moments when this specifically happen are no doubt rare, but they do happen. Still there are people who insist on pointing out your spelling/grammar mistakes, at times with an annoying sense of 1-upmanship, even though they really didn't need to, and even though they themselves get things wrong all the time.

If you're going to constantly correct me on an aspect of the English language, please at least try to be constant with yours. And with a line like that, maybe I'm a hypocrite? In retrospect it does sound very silly asking only people perfect at speaking English to correct me when I'm wrong.

Overall I think the crux of this problem is I don't like being wrong, which is a problem for someone who gets things wrong all the goddamn time. I don't think I've had one day where I haven't said something that's left fact in fits of laughter or rage.
I just don't enjoy being corrected by someone who's wrong.

No.3: Unnecessary narrow passage blockers

I must point out that it's still possible to maintain conversation whilst walking in single file. To the offenders out there, you do realise that by doing this you leave me only 3 routes of passage, all of which are faux pas. (4 if you happen to be a high jumping star with catlike reflexes)

No.4: When people tell you to do things... that you're already doing

If this happens to you, you'll get it.

Talking to my friends recently, it's occurred to me that there's a severe lack of work in progress on this blog. Seeing as this project really evolved over time, this seems to be the ideal time to start showing this sort of work again. So, here, here & here are some of the initial drawings that I did for this project, looking at them, you can see why I started them again...

Reduxing: No.32

2011-02-07T20:45:00.003Z

Assessment assisted silence is over.

I'm know I'm all talk when it comes to redoing and changing things,
but once in a while I'll actually get round to it.

That is all.

Folk Goddess: Laura Marling

2011-01-05T11:41:00.008Z

Alright.

Back in late November, the 23rd to be exact, I went to a Laura Marling concert at Conway Hall.

In very few words, it was awesome.
She and her supporting band were incredible.

After the gig I thought it was imperative that I draw the sultry goddess of folk herself.

Sadly I only just got round to finishing the said drawing.
Just one example of my work backlog these days.

Now have a listen; I have not bestowed the aforementioned moniker upon her for nothing;
not that I'm honourable enough to bestow anything:

The video's not too shab either.

IV|Is

2011-01-01T19:56:00.006Z

First drawing of the year!

Another year of intention has begun!

Christmas Is Awesome!

2010-12-26T18:49:00.004Z

I like to post this in places around Christmas time;
It's my favourite Christmas song:

A slightly belated Merry Christmas to you all!
I hope it was awesome. Xx

Human Wrongs, Human Rights

2010-12-19T17:21:00.027Z

A month or so back, I was doing a project on human rights.
We had to illustrate one of 8 selected articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
& I chose...

Article 18:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with oth- ers and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

So this was my response, a drawing.
But to be more accurate, an interactive drawing.

If you look in the mind you can choose a religion, choose a belief:

You can choose from Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism...

...Islam, Christianity & Judaism.

You can even chose from Atheism and Agnosticism.
Ok they're not actually defined as religions, but you know they kinda count.

This is part 2 of a 3 part project. Over the holiday I'll be working on part 3, and part 1 is in a state of redux, so I thought I may as well put part 2 up, as it's the only bit that's "finished."

Just a bit of detail:

I just can't seem to let a project die these days. I'm going to re-do this. You see the character in the portrait is a little too stylised for the theme. So soon you'll see the same thing here again, but looking a little more generic. In a good way I think. If I'm lucky, in that future post, you'll enjoy a diptych.

Fresh Kristmas Air

2010-12-14T07:25:00.004Z

In-jokes for the win.

For all those I have alienated with this post,
I hope you've at the very least enjoyed these images.

Innova Libre

2010-12-04T18:53:00.002Z

You know, I never mentioned, while I had my Hidden Histories project,
I had an additional film project to get on with:

I present to you Innova Libre, featuring my wonderful comrades
Lillian Squires & Agostino Carrea.

It's a short film I created for a brief called 'My Eye, My Vision'. It deals with my vision of where character ideas stem from, and how they choose to manifest in your mind:

Did the boy look familiar at all?
& don't worry, it's not meant to be serious.

Despite choosing to specialise in illustration,
I do still very much love moving image.
Experimenting with some simple yet effective shots throughout the filming process
reminded me of this

FFFFEEDBACK:

My tutors said it was a very ambitious projects, as I was directing, filming and getting actors together. I got a feeling one of them wasn't too much a fan of some snippets of acting, but they were impressed on a whole... I think.

According to my friends & peers, I've come up with something cool.
But personally, I feel I missed the mark with this one, with a bunch of tweaks, and a few re-shoots, this could have been something great.

Hey, it's my first live-action film. I think I've done ok.

Oh, see what I had to put up with filming this!:

Just a thought, is it worrying that the outtakes are longer than the actual film?...

The Rise of Angle Grinder Man

2010-11-24T01:56:00.012Z

Finally, Here.

You're about to read my outcome for the first illustration project of the year.
The project was called Hidden Histories.
It had to be about something real. So I went with Angle Grinder Man.

This is the story of how it all began:

Yeaabedadai!
Done.

What do you think.
It's a little sad to think, that of all the time I've been at CSM, this is the 1st comic I have ever finished. To think one day I want to call myself a graphic novelist!
I've definitely got to do more, and soon - good thing I have a plan to force myself to,
which I'll reveal another day.

You know, where there's a rise, there tends to be a fall.
So if I were you I'd be asking, "Where's the fall of AGM?"

Good question.

I wrote a script to it, but only had to time to do one of the proposed 2 comics for the final piece.
Which was more than enough of an outcome.

But I'd love to put the script into images, as I personally prefer it to the rise. What you've read is basically a summary of how AGM came to be. The fall deals with AGM in a much more personal light, reflecting on his last ever real blog post, and his disappearance after that.

I intend to do it at some point, but then again, I intend to do a lot of things.

Angle Filler

2010-11-23T23:51:00.009Z

I wanted to post these before I showed you all the final piece.

They're just pages from my sketchbook, part of my obsessing over
the lost avenger that is Angle-Grinder Man.

I've had to stop searching unfortunately, mainly because the project is now way past over,
and I currently have no time left.

But I might as well tell you, this is how close I got in the end;

I found one more contact number for AGM, not the one that's plastered over all his working sites - but one hidden on one of his defunct websites that resides in the depths of the internet.

I called it once - it rung - I got no answer.
I called it twice - and a man picked up!
He spoke in a gruff tone, as if just woken up.
As he muttered incomprehensible but at the same time clearly English phrases,
the signal began to leave.
& then he hung up.
I called it thrice - and there was no answer.

And there has been no answer ever since.

Goddamnit! So Close.

Maybe one day in the future I'll get that interview.
Not for any project or anything, but simply for myself.

Whatever happened to Angle Grinder Man?

2010-10-30T19:03:00.007+01:00

For the last week I've been trying to contact this man.

At uni we're currently doing a project about hidden histories.

Who would think that through this project I'd find out that real life superheroes exist.
Well, Kinda.

I've spent so long researching this man, that I have become almost completely fixated.
At times I've become so close to contacting him,
and I might have even deciphered his real name, but that's just not enough.

In late 2004, he self admittedly went a little quiet, but proclaimed to be back on an uprise.

Then he disappeared completely...

Just whatever happened to Angle Grinder Man?
Am I the only one out there asking this?

Glasser. Ring.

2010-10-19T14:30:00.003+01:00

This is Glasser, aka the one woman orchestra Cameron Mesirow.

She has become my latest aural preoccupation
with the recent release of her debut album Ring.

The story so far:

Listened to Ring.
Mind blown.
Bought Ring.
Saw Glasser on 10-10-10.
Met Cameron Mesirow.
Saw Glasser again within 2 days.
Would see her perform again if I could.

Ring is certainly one of the best things I've heard this year. It will definitely be high up there on my top 10 albums of 2010 when this year comes to an end.

It's one truly eclectic piece of work, full of bewitching synths,
swirling woodwind, and simple, yet beautiful melodies.
Just listen ok:

Treasury Of We

I think Glasser has become my new musical obsession,
but once again, can you blame me?

No.

Thank You.

Fighting O'Gold

2010-10-11T21:45:00.006+01:00

A wheelbarrow suplex clusterfucks the flying gigabuster.

Language excused?

No. 2

2010-10-09T18:17:00.010+01:00

You're looking at my first drawing of the new term, that's right,
my 2nd year on my Graphic Design course has finally begun.

In case I didn't mention it earlier, I chose to specialise in Illustration.
But thankfully, I'll still be doing some animation! I think I made the right choice. We'll see.

So what the hell is that image about? No it is not a typical bout of pictorial rambling.
As a warm up we were asked to read Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth,
and pick one statement to make a black & white image for.

I chose to make a response to No. 32: Listen Carefully.
Makes a little more sense now right?

You should give the manifesto a read. There were quite a few I agreed with,
some I already deeply follow and some I would certainly like to try, such as:

No. 2: Forget about good.
No. 18: Stay up late - Strange things happen when you've gone too far.
No. 28: Make new words - Expand the lexicon.
No. 36: Scat - When you forget words, make up something else.

There's something there for everybody.

Birthday Wishes: Kate 1

2010-10-02T21:33:00.007+01:00

To those of you who thought to themselves;
"Kate 2? But where's Kate 1?" Here you go.

Meet Kate Johnson, one of my good friends from back home,
she recently turned 21 too.

She turned 21 before "K2" in fact, hence her number 1 status. There's no bias here!
I drew her this portrait of herself on commission from her swain.

Now I've heard from the woman herself that it's finally in her possession,
I've finally put it up here!

If you read this Kate, I'm just simply glad you like it,
and narrowly avoiding butchering your face was a plus.

Birthday Wishes: Kate 2

2010-09-28T04:12:00.011+01:00

My friend Kate's birthday came & went on the 24th.
It was the landmark. You know. 21. XXI.

One of my presents to her, was a zine, about her and her celebratory ways.
She appreciated it. I think, or more, I hope! You can read it here:

Now this zine appears to have a normal layout, but that's because you read the digital version. The real thing differs a bit:

It's a fold out zine, after each page you get more of the story (well guide really), whilst leaving certain aspects viewable.

The contents of zine, are clearly 100% true, why would you think otherwise.

Kate, if you read this, I forgot to say.
Stay Gangsta.

Aleksander Vindenes Dahl

2010-09-06T12:10:00.006+01:00

A few of months ago my friend Aleks passed away.

Today is his birthday, he would've turned 20.

Aleks, we miss you.

We really miss you.

A V D

Digital Childhood

2010-08-28T05:20:00.013+01:00

I finally got round to buying a tablet.
So I decided to celebrate by doing some pencil drawings in my sketchbook,
makes complete sense doesn't it?

After attempting to draw using my new Wacom, I kinda had to do some non digital drawing just to make sure I still knew how to draw. Yes, my days as a recent tablet unvirgin* haven't gone as well as I blindly assumed! I feel like I'm learning to draw for the first time.

Ah, I'll get the hang of it at some point! Early days.
At least it got me drawing some old(ish) characters again.

*Yes it is a word! In the urban dictionary anyway...

Autumn's Trigger

2010-08-19T00:46:00.011+01:00

It has arrived.

Autumn that is.

Both the illustrations above have been brought on by both a need to keep my hands innocently busy, and inspiration by the song & its accompanying video below.

This song is so unbelievably awesome,
so brilliant yet so short - its sudden ending can shatter your heart to pieces.

I've been listening to this every day for the last week,
it's been playing on repeat in my mind,
& it really isn't a bad thing:

Thank you, Gold Panda.

True Advocation

2010-08-09T18:18:00.018+01:00

Last Friday I finished a 3 week internship at
Advocate Art illustration agency in Wimbledon.

Aww, I could never replace their lil' mascot.

It was pretty cool, not only did I work with Advocate Art, but I did some work for their other, darker side, Vendetta Arts - doing things like creating, developing, and where I could designing various blogs for them.

On top of that I got a pretty good view of what it would be like working with/in an illustration agency in the future, which for the moment I hope one day to do. Working with a group of wonderful people was obviously an added bonus.

On a finishing note, whilst I was interning at Advocate/Vendetta, I stumbled upon these awesome artists & collectives, I suggest you check them out:

Lukasz Pazera
Alberto Mielgo
Jorge Monlongo
& DGPH.

Once again I am being bombarded my many ideas at once.
Oh how I wave my fist at inspiration and it's sporadic movement.

A Month's Silence

2010-07-31T02:08:00.015+01:00

Font BeTa

2010-06-17T20:38:00.009+01:00

My first real font is almost ready.
I did say I'd do this at some point.

I named it Becoming Taskless after this blog, as the typeface is based on an illustrative style that I began to develop just a little before I started this blog.
Part of it was even in my old header:

You can see every single letter of the fully working font just below:

I still have a few more things to tweak before I put this font up for download, I've got many a punctuation symbol to illustrate before I'm completely happy
- perfectionism can be a curse at times.

I'd like to thank Kate who has helped me out and modeled for me here and several times before.

In my last portfolio review of the year, upon seeing this book, my tutor asked me what does the term 'Becoming Taskless' actually mean.
Which lead me to think, I haven't mentioned it here at all.

You've probably worked this out by now, but for me becoming taskless is the ultimate dream, once you've become taskless, you are completely happy, as you've finished all the tasks you've ever needed/wanted to do. You're at the point where you could actually say, ‘I can die now’ and mean it.

This blog is an account of me becoming taskless.

Vinyl Magnitude

2010-06-14T21:13:00.011+01:00

I'm rarely one to backtrack, even though I said I would in my first ever post. Yeah sure I may show something that I did a couple of months ago, but at times there tends to be that point of no return. But this time I've dug deep - with no more work to do as the year is basically over, why not?

Now this is pretty damn old:

For a typography project during the first term, we had to create something that communicated the essential personality of an almost randomly selected typeface.

I ended up with Amplitude; a rather young font (about 6-7 years old as I recall), created by Christian Schwartz that currently has 35 different styles.

Upon further research I found that the typeface predicts the spread of ink on paper using Ink traps.

So I created a 'Vinyl Toy Prototype' for a toy collection based on the font's ink trapping capabilities. Part of my reason for designing a toy collection was to point out how young the font really is, and to highlight just how many different versions of the font there are! Surely if I had more than 3 days to do this I would have definitely attempted to create a fully painted, fully packaged whole series! Madness indeed.

They trap ink in their deep clefts.

How cute.

I must make more toys, solely to look at them.

Heroes of Fiction

2010-06-01T01:20:00.015+01:00

Hey there, I present to you my last project of the academic year.

It was a rare occasion, as I went for a design brief.
We had to design a collection of books based on inspirational people of our choice.

I chose to design a series of book covers on the fictional spearheads of various bands:

Lumi from Genki Rockets,

The Duke from Marmaduke Duke,

& Murdoc from Gorillaz.

Why the masks? I played with the idea of people being so inspirational that other people would want to be them. I decided to take photos of "normal" people being their inspirational person. Also unintentionally I feel that the use of masks outline the fact that the characters aren't actually real. There's also a chance that I subconsciously came up with this idea because of my underlying obsession with masks... I'm not complaining though.

The main focus of each cover is the photograph, so I put the book title on an easily removable label. It'd be up to the book's owner to keep it on, I personally would keep it, but that's because I find it hard to let things go.

I know that by posting these next pictures I'm effectively showing you the same images 3 times, but I feel they need to be seen alone, in their striking form; with no distractions:

Man, photography is fun - next year I must be sure to do more of it.

Doing this project has made me appreciate and enjoy aspects of design a lot more than I used to. The idea of having to choose one pathway next year and go with it for the rest of my degree is a little scary, as I keep becoming unsure of my specialties.

As I've said at many times in general conversation I feel like a Jack of all trades,
but master of none.

Test Scaly Grins

2010-05-28T00:50:00.008+01:00

This is valid work:

I swear it.

C+Z

2010-05-19T22:16:00.009+01:00

Sometimes you have so much going on you can forget about the nicer things.

'Undo' [11.7"×16.5" Acrylics, Inks & Pencil HeavyWeight Paper]

I remember hinting at this a long time ago, then wild obstacles appeared,
and brought the painting process to a complete halt...

...just to begin again a few months later.

As always, many man hours were lost to this,

actually not so much lost than self-refreshingly squandered.

Opening Time

2010-05-04T14:27:00.014+01:00

Finally!

Yeah that's right...

The remnants of those alphabet bags I made a while ago are finally up for sale!

Click here or the image above to do a spot of screen shopping.

********************

Oh and update:

My bags have just been featured on Lovely at Your Side as a "Lovely Etsy Find of the Day"

Thanks Olivia!

********************

Update 2:

& here too!

Supernature

2010-05-02T21:54:00.014+01:00

Ah, the last couple of weeks have been pretty damn intense, but what else should I expect from moving image.

This time we were creating 30 second films using pixilation under the project title "Supernatural." For those of you who don't know, pixilation is basically stop motion with people, I didn't know that myself until a few months ago.

Here we go:

If spaghetti westerns...

...had involved deities...

...they may have looked a little like this.

We were working in pairs again, and luckily I got to work with my good comrade Caspar. It was pretty cool spending time both in front of and behind the camera! We spent two sleepless nights living on a rooftop in order to shoot this, along with many more sleep deprived days & nights working. I think all our work paid off. Caspar and I made a good team.

At the start of the uni year I was so focused on specialising in illustration... but the more work I do I find myself not looking so out of place in an animation studio. It's gonna be quite tough choosing between illustration and moving image, as I'm besotted with them both.

Packing Pixils

2010-04-29T23:16:00.006+01:00

This week we became pixil-pros.

Got some cool stuff coming round a near corner awfully soon.

Her Brother Your Brother

2010-04-13T01:45:00.005+01:00

This Is Part 2

Remember Part 1?

Together they still fail to make sense!
What can I say? Pictorial rambling!

Got Possibilities

2010-04-07T19:51:00.019+01:00

At the start of the year we had an illustration project focusing on

how the world will change in 2010.

In a small portion of my sketchbook I toyed with the idea of my own future,
and came up with 4 personal predictions about MMX.

No.1:

My hair will finally change.

No.2:

I'll become a real person.

No.3:

We shall meet.

No.4:

I'll lose my mind.

None of them have happened yet, but there's still over 8 months left to go.

The final piece ended up being completely different. It grew to be so complex that I didn't quite finish it in the 2 week dedicated time. I had to leave it for a while, but now I'm ready to finish it, it's still gonna take a while, like everything I do.

I'm not gonna mention what it is for the time being, but I'll just say that when I told my tutor about the project she literally said it sounds like a movie,
just as well,
seeing as it does actually have a script:

iamamiwhoami; b

2010-03-28T08:25:00.015+01:00

This video is part of a mystery viral.

I suggest you google iamamiwhoami if you don't know the whole story behind this, as there's just too much to explain! It appears the mystery has now been solved, but I got a feeling there's much more to it.

I'm excited for this, it feels hit or miss, and I'm hoping for at the very least a black eye.

A Hunterian Production

2010-03-26T22:28:00.006Z

Last week I had one productive day. From what I recall it was just the one. It was spent drawing with Jasmine at the in the Hunterian Museum in Holborn. If you love preserved human and animal body parts in jars & tubes, this is your place!

So, those of you looking for a first date destination; problem solved!

You're welcome.

About Last Week

2010-03-20T18:07:00.016Z

That's what last week got me asking.

You see, I took part in this year's Arts Market at LCC, and to tell the truth it didn't go too well. I'm not sure what it was? Maybe it was bad timing or lack of items, but my items just didn't sell. It's given me the fear that maybe my work just isn't in fashion.

It was a little depressing to say the least, especially when you're surrounded by many gifted people who's work are flying off the stalls. It was odd, people said they liked my stuff, they just not enough to buy.

So what did I sell? Hand drawn alphabet tote bags, that's all. I thought people would like them, you could choose one to match your initial, like the bag was made for you personally ...and anyone else who happens to share the first letter of your name!

Seeing as I'm lacking in models, and am currently too lazy to find a decent location, I ignored the rules of the photogenic and modeled some of the bags myself. I'll take some proper high spec fashion photos later, hopefully.

I gotta admit, I was pretty pleased with the designs, It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, the idea of profit was simply a bonus.

& just to let you know, I have done a design for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet, which shall at some point congregate in a book. No doubt it will appear here at some point, and once I figure out how I'll turn them into a fully working font!

My work is not in fashion.

Yet.

You know how fashion shifts.

Fractures from Anxiety

2010-03-13T16:01:00.008Z

Recently we had a book design project for typography. It involved creating a cover design for an unpublished book called 'Fractures from Anxiety', a set of short stories by Marcus Bastel.

I illustrated my interpretation of a character simply named Will from one of the stories within the book. Throughout the book there are many middle-ish aged men as leads, so the character choice is quite ambiguous, it could be any of them, which was the point.

I felt like doing something kinda surreal, yet relevant, so I played with the idea of anxiety bringing people to pieces, and how fragile it can make you.

At times anxiety can make you as fragile as porcelain.

A little emotional I know...

It took a while to paint.

Now for a closer look and an extra button:

'Will' [Acrylics & Pencil on Ivory coloured mountboard]

I guess this is another stage of my bid to paint more. I've been inspired to paint a second cover a bit later on, depicting the female lead from the same story.

In my mind it's appearing just a little bit more surreal. Let's hope that's a good thing.

Cindy's Secret

2010-02-23T02:17:00.010Z

A couple of weeks ago I had a moving image project

We were working in pairs this time, and with a little luck I was paired up with my friend Katy, we spent 2 weeks working feverishly, day in day out on a 20 second animation on the theme of a secret.

We were given 4 words to work with, Extravagant, Bag, Sad & Radio. At the first sight of these words I never suspected we'd come out with anything as odd as this:

The guise of theater...

...followed by flying pigs & steam-punk radios.

I would put more screenshots up, but I fear it'll ruin the animation for people who like to read the full posts first...

Cindy's secret is no more.

Yeah that's right we named her Cindy, it's not like we went a little mad through two sleepless weeks, became attached to the character and thought up a name... honestly... We were just working, I mumbled something and Katy replied with "Did you just call her Cindy?!" And so the name was born.

I'm so glad I shared that story with you.

Basking in Perplexity

2010-02-20T19:03:00.012Z

February has been a busy month, I've been preoccupied by various projects (of which I am yet to show you), along with the prospect and mental event of turning 20. Now to start revealing what the hell I've been doing this month:

I always mean to do extra projects, but always get struck down by my unintentionally lethargic approach to work, and run out of time. But not this time.

Dazed & Confused magazine had an Illustration project/competition which ended earlier this month. They wanted people to illustrate one of a chosen 10 covers from the last decade in their own way.

So I did an illustration based on this September 2002 cover, featuring Maggie Rizer:

The winner will be commissioned to do a piece of work for a later issue of Dazed, which sounds pretty awesome. You can see my entry page here.

Test can be enjoyable:

'Eye Test Delight' [Inks, Acrylics, Pencil & Gouache on HeavyWeight Paper]

It naturally took me far too long to figure out how I was going to do the Dazed cover, in the end I chose lady 3.

Next Time on the BTBS: Animation Returns!

Salute The Future

2010-01-29T13:33:00.008Z

Finally we have new projects underway.

For the next week I'll be working on a illustration project all about depicting the future in 2010.
To begin I made this book cover for my sketchbook, and found myself taking some inspiration from the awesome Ren & Stimpy creator John K.

Looser character design for the win.

I hope I'll fill this sketchbook with some lovely stuff,
It's been a while since I had a highly sketchbook based project.

How good can it be?

How bad can it be?

Runaway Brain

2010-01-27T02:15:00.011Z

Got to stop drawing myself, it's making me look vain.

'Becoming Mickey'
[10.5"x16.5" Inks & Monochrome Pencil on HeavyWeight Paper]

I don't know why but this feels like my first proper illustration in a while.

Oddly enough, dressing up as Mickey Mouse the other day has rekindled a couple of feelings.
For one, my fondness of the lil' fella.

Another thing that has been rekindled is my love for animation. Through researching for the costume I came across a few mickey mouse cartoons, old & new.

They are fantastic. Full of perfect motion, charming narratives & beautiful scenery.

One which really stood out to me was the Academy Award nominated short called Runaway Brain. Seeing as it came out in 1995 I'm surprised today was the first time I saw it.

Watch it here:

It's the little things that got me with this, like the rapid change and contrast in the characters' colour palettes during the fight scene.

This year I have the hard choice of choosing to do illustration or moving image next year. Over the holiday I was starting to edge towards illustration. But after watching shorts like this it's become a level playing field again.

I just love Mickey's freaky altered look

& now I desperately need to get hold of this vinyl toy.

I think I should give the Mickey Mouse theme a bit of a rest.
Well, for now anyway.

Epic Mickey

2010-01-23T14:43:00.010Z

Over the holiday we had an optional photography brief/competition, we had to photograph ourselves in the style of our hero!

I chose one of my favourite characters, Mickey Mouse.
The photoshoot involved hitting the Brick Lane scene donning my best MM gear.
I think I may have slightly altered a few people's view of the happy rodent forever...

I was originally gonna do this shoot in the Disney Store on Oxford Street, but they wouldn't let me, for the life of me I can't figure out why.

The Final Image:

This creepy rendition of Mickey Mouse got nominated for 4 out the 5 categories,
including most humorous, most technical & overall winner,
but unfortunately won none of them, so close yet so far.

... sigh, one day.

But on the plus side my comrade Jamie won,
and got the prize of a brand spanking new camera!
I'm sure the picture shall be up on his blog any day soon.

Oh, and to close, for the hell of it, a sneak peek at an illustration I'm currently working on:

Sporadic Anxiety Deity

2010-01-17T23:27:00.006Z

As the throat closes, the mind caves in on itself.
My mind's gone blank because I've suddenly gotten really worried about some upcoming projects, curse you Sporadic Anxiety Deity!

You strike again!

Welcome To London, Fancy A Race?

2010-01-12T18:18:00.011Z

It's about time I put this up.

This is the London Project I was going about all those months ago, actually, I'd prefer to call it the London Project Redux. You see this holiday I basically redid the whole project, as what I handed in for the crit was to be honest a complete shambles... I'd say this is now about 90% better.

For this project we were allowed to do basically anything we wanted, as long as it was about the river Thames.

So I decided to create a fanzine about what the boat race would have been if boats had just been invented 7 years ago by a bunch of wayward traceurs. For a start they wouldn't be called boats...

Welcome to the crazy world of W.B.R.V Racing!

Did you read it? Go on, it's a hoot I assure you!
If this was the equivalent to rowing, I may have stuck to it...

The Real Thing:

Zines are cool.
Like everything I make, I'd like to make more of them.

MMX.I.N.I.F.S.

2010-01-06T16:53:00.009Z

First drawings of the year.
I'm feeling lucky.

Oh and I shall definitely be painting more.

MMIX ID

2009-12-31T20:17:00.009Z

For when the time comes,
Happy New Year.

Enjoy Yourselves. Xx

Birthday Wishes: Nick

2009-12-26T20:11:00.006Z

You've narrowly avoided being shafted by Christmas, you lucky thing.

This shall be arriving in the post soon Nick.

Boys & Girls & Girls & Boys in the Snow.

2009-12-22T22:08:00.007Z

It's almost here.

Frostbite

2009-12-19T21:47:00.006Z

I am obsessed with her...

...but can you blame me?

Vomiting Thoughts

2009-12-16T23:19:00.015Z

The last couple of days I've been working on a sign for my door, as I still feel my room lacks character even after living in this flat for a few months.

Nothing says "welcome to my room" more than a cartoon portrait of one's self.

It's just one of the things that will make my room eventually feel like it's mine.

Finished: Now come on in and...

Ah, to go with all the festive cheer, I added little optional Christmas hat, I think I'll give him a memento for each holiday approaching whilst I'm around in the flat... I guess next is Valentines Day.

That's always a good day.

Mis Luchadora

2009-12-12T18:03:00.009Z

I know nothing about wrestling, I just love those masks.

I'm not completely sure what it is about masks that I love so much, but I do have a little idea. I don't think it's the fact that they seal your identity, I think it's their ability to let you assume a completely different persona. They're dressing your face up without the makeup.

Whatever it is i'm constantly drawn to them.

Out of all the different types of masks I've come across, Mexican wrestling masks seem to intrigue me the most. I like the way they're used to symbolise images of gods heroes and animals, along with how beautifully and intricately designed they appear to be these days.

Also they're killer in costumes.

All in all I just find designing masks, any kind of masks really fun, when I look back at my work it's sometimes a little ridiculous how many times I shove masks in there haha!

Now a little fun, I found this site that generates Mexican wrestling names for you!

Mine is "Caballero Magico", which translates to "Magic Knight," oh if only I were!

What's yours?

Bug Rolls

2009-12-11T02:17:00.012Z

Today (well if you wanna get all technical on me, yesterday... sheesh), was the last day of term, and what can I say, it's been great, yet typically I've basically shown you none of the work I've done. Right now I'm playing catchup, and as you've probably worked out that's a regular occurrence here!

So yeah, a month ago we had a group animation project, we had to create a 10 second animation based on a pet peeve. So we went with my friend Caspar's obscure hatred of toilet paper hanging the wrong way in bathrooms.

Enjoy 10 seconds of pure toilet critter madness:

Despite it being at 20 frames per second the animation didn't take as long as I thought it would, well it didn't seem to, time flew right by. The sounds a teeny tiny bit off, as we recorded it the day before we filmed it, and didn't really get a chance to refer to it whilst we animated. Ah well, I still think it works pretty damn well. Take note of Caspar's "plop" sound at the end... I still can't figure out how he does it!

Now a couple of things:

I fear I may have gone a little over the top with the storyboard...

Naturally I found myself illustrating quite a bit for this animation.

This was the first time I'd ever done collage stop-motion, and I loved it! Hope to do some experimenting with that in the near future.

Computerboy Sleeps

2009-11-30T04:12:00.019Z

So, it's 4am, and now seems to be the only time since last week I've been awake, free, and it's not too noisy from the rain to record that video I was talking about. Finally did it, so enjoy!

Now, a few points to clear things up:

I lied, I didn't do it in a week, it was more like 2 days...

I hate my voice too.

It's drool, not jizz.

So yeah, just to summarise:

No noise: Computerboy Sleeps.

A little noise: Computerboy flinches.

Too much noise: Computerboy pissed off.

Now I know you got it the first time, I just really wanted to put these drawings up.

Hibernation

2009-11-18T22:04:00.004Z

[1985. A secret tree house. Two children disguised in animal costumes experiment on reviving a bee. But they are searching for a way to bring back something much bigger.
A magical and moving story about a journey of discovery and revelation.]

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across this award winning short film at short&sweet, it's one truly beautiful piece of film, and if you don't well up, just a tiny bit, at least a little on the inside, I might be inclined to declare you're lacking a soul.

Compose This.

2009-11-16T22:49:00.014Z

I began my 1st academic project at csm a whole month ago, it feels so far away already. I'll take that as a good thing I suppose.

This project was my group's beginning of the 1st term rotation, where each week we'd do a project based on a different field of design, we started off with interactive design.

We had to create a screensaver depicting a computer's soul using a pretty basic program riddled with hidden complexities called Quartz Composer (the penny drops, the terrible pun now makes sense, and I quite rightfully bow my head in shame).

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook that lead up to the final piece...

Can you figure out what I did in the end? Yes it's kinda obvious, I'd put it up now, but the only way I can show it properly here is by recording a video! Hopefully I can post it in the next couple of days. All I can say about it is, it's pretty fun, you might like it.

Well of course I bloody well hope so.

Err 4

2009-11-15T23:32:00.011Z

Ever since I worked on that music video I've been in a love affair with televisual heads, it's just one of the things I've been drawing a little too unhealthily.

I started drawing this for an E4 competition, but never managed to finish it in time! (mainly because I started to draw it on the deadline date...)

So it turned into an illustration to do for myself, something that I feel with the course now coming into full flow I may not get to do much more in the future. Of course I don't hope that, so we'll see.

Just finished this today, to my surprise if feels DeviantArt worthy.
How did I forget that place, how did I forget that I'm the cliffybiroguy....

Breakfast: Add Scissors & Glue

2009-11-09T00:45:00.007Z

Oh dear I can't believe I almost forgot!

What's that? "Where can I get those templates? Those guys look like they were having so much fun! I wanna make my own paper breakfast!" I choose to hear you cry...

Well don't worry, you can download them here!

Have fun, do with them what you will! And if you feel like it, show me the result!

Download Templates

Hopefully I'll be doing more papercraft to download in the future!

Breakfast: Don't Add Milk

2009-11-08T17:23:00.026Z

So yeah, as I mentioned before, I started my course at csm a few weeks ago, well about a month ago now, it's been rather busy, I've had barely any time to put work up! But to make up for it, this post is pretty image heavy, and I gotta admit, a little different.

This was my first project, the summer project, it had a simple theme, breakfast.

That's right, a paper breakfast.

We had to represent breakfast through five pictures. I had an instinct to make paper templates of typical breakfast things, as I didn't feel like going for the real thing... and to be honest all holiday I'd been itching to try out some papercraft!

So I decided to document some beautiful people making breakfast in an entirely different way... Here are the 5 photographs I went with for the exhibition. In these pictures we travel from the original templates to the final breakfast items. Smiles all round.

Unfortunately there were some pictures that didn't make the cut.

Yeah MILKY!

And of course, there were some outtakes...

Hell yeah she's gonna kill me...

It's quite easy to see we had fun...

The tutors liked it, but informed me I'd done a graphic design answer to a photo brief... whoops! Still quite pleased as I wouldn't describe myself as that fictional word "graphic-y" at all.
Maybe I can do something besides illustrate and animate after all!

Ah well, it was just a bit of fun! God I love papercraft!

Nom Nom Nom!

Something To Tell You

2009-10-30T00:29:00.015Z

A general if not slightly generic life rule I've been trying to stick to recently. It's kinda hard to follow.

People worry far too much, especially people attempting to break into the art and design world, there's such a strive to be original. Naturally I'm one of them.

Earlier this week we started what is known as "The London Project." (Yeah, obviously I've started uni, a few weeks ago in fact, but I'll get into that another time.) The aim is to do anything related to the Thames, and I mean pretty loosely. That's right, we can basically do anything.

Before we set out to walk to the Thames the other day, our illustration tutor Rachel Cattle gave us a little briefing on drawing, naturally with a few hand outs. The final one simply had a medium length quote, all in block capitals, which read:

"Nothing is original.

Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.

In any case always remember what Jon Lu Goddard said:

"It's not where you take things from - It's where you take them to" "

- Jim Jarmusch

Now I don't condone stealing artwork, but as I read this I still thought to myself,

my god,

he's right.

E Plethora Yo Chocola!

2009-09-28T19:10:00.008+01:00

This feels a litle bit like an interlude. As I'm currently in some sort of lovely work free limbo, but it's no holiday!

I've come into the habit of doing letters like this all the time, maybe I should stop? But then again I think it's pretty damn cool from time to time.

So, which vowel should I go for next?

STILL HERE

2009-08-10T07:08:00.008+01:00

Ah I've been drawing in my sketchbook quite a bit recently, so I thought I'd share my current favourite pages. It's been a little odd drawing for myself again I'll admit, but I'm getting back into it. So yeah, enjoy some of my pictorial ramblings from the last couple of weeks!

My odd depiction of Nanna Øland Fabricius aka Oh Land, I've fallen aurally in love with this woman.

Much more of this to come I'm sure, but that's all for now!

FOR LAYERS: THE FIRST CUT

2009-07-13T11:17:00.009+01:00

Here it is, the final outcome, We Are Finally Cowboys’ first music video for their first single, “For Layers”

This is what I like to call the “First Cut”

Why “first cut”? Well, some parts didn’t quite make this cut you see.

I drew so many frames….

…but due to time constraints I couldn’t fit them all in the animation for the deadline. Also the song For Layers is two minutes long; you’ve only seen and heard the 1^st minute.

For the foundation exhibition I used my space to basically advertise the music video and let people listen to the full song.

I’ve decided to continue with this project in my spare time, bring back the deleted scenes, and animate the final minute of the song. I’d like you to see and hear my full vision; it’ll be worth the wait.

I promise.

WE ARE FINALLY COWBOYS

2009-07-11T22:21:00.010+01:00

The seeds were planted, the band was conceived, the stars are born.

Meet “We Are Finally Cowboys"

Introducing...

Davvy Fantango.

The bastardised arrogant and deluded lead singer stereotype. Donning an eye patch and a Winehouse-esq beehive, he proclaims that his odd skin tone is down to an intentional all over body “zombie-chique” tattoo – but there has been rumours it was down to a bizarre tanning accident. This guy has tattoo of himself on his back, need I say anymore.

...and...

Terabite.

Davvy’s brother, the eclectic recluse behind the music. Wears a mask in a bid to have some spotlight yet still remain anonymous. Personally he thinks the mask is pretty cool. When it comes to media attention he appears to be in a constant state of “coming of age”.

Together they are the indie/synth/western/powerpop/megapop phenomenon "We Are Finally Cowboys".

Hopefully you’ll see these guys a lot more in the future.

When the band concept was complete I set about looking at the process of lip-syncing and the effects of phonetics…

…then began to bring the characters to life.

Lipsyncing test using Davvy Fantango and a line from the Marmaduke Duke song Kid Gloves.

Animation test with Terabite.

With their latest single, "For Layers" soon to be released, they needed a music video...

More on this project ridiculously soon.

INSERT BAND NAME HERE:

2009-07-11T08:32:00.012+01:00

Decided to start with some of my most recent work, so I introduce my foundation Final Major Project titled “Insert Band Name Here”

The aim of this self induced project was to take on the dream and create a band, well, I’d call it more of a sub-dream, as people usually actually want to be in the band, probably as the lead singer, not manage it…

Let’s just call it taking on the sub-dream…

Along with creating this band, this virtual band I aimed to create an animation to bring the said band to life.

I did research into what makes fictional characters stand out and the appeal of celebrity musicians to develop my band members.

I managed to get quite a few drawings in my sketchbook, unfortunately I couldn’t scan them in as the sketchbook was A3, and I don’t have a scanner that big, so these crass photos will have to do.

I just tried to look at this project from a humorous point of view, and of course keep Gorillaz out of sight and out of mind.

There's more of this project coming soon, and by soon I mean probably later today, and if not today, there’s always tomorrow…

BACKTRACKING

2009-07-01T13:38:00.004+01:00

Now, things might get a little confusing here.

But rest assured, just a little bit. Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll be erratically shuffling through work old and new, and with any luck I'll share them here.

Still got a couple of things to sort out here layout wise, but fortunately I appear to have plenty of time on my hands at the moment. That said, I better not let it go to waste.