Hardball II

Another render test from two doodles turned digital, dudes.
I suddenly wish there was a bigger story behind this.

Hardball

This is a render test which has evolved into a little something else.
Her name is currently Dahlia Waleed, and that's all for now.

What Doesn't Kill You...

A couple of ink sketches of a couple more bikers,

thought it would be nice to put them together.

I might just turn this into some kind of print, what do you think?

I think this may have happened because I can't pull off leather jackets.

Or patches.

No Words Kid

Well, this has been sat on my computer for a while, I'm talking over a year here.

One day I was waiting to get my visa at the Nigerian High Commission.

As I was sitting alone observing everyone, I saw two families, 

one with a girl and her brother, the other with a boy.

The girl was just sitting about super cool, cooler than Willow Smith in her Hair whippin' days, watching her little brother who had just proudly discovered the joys of walking.

The boy from the other family... every few minutes he'd walk up to the girl, she'd smile, he'd freeze, not say a word then walk away. Every single time.

It was a little painful to watch, at the same time extremely endearing.

I remember thinking, 'just say something dude!'

Then I thought about how mentally I've been in that kid's shoes multiple times in recent years.

So yeah, I drew the situation, not sure where I was going with that story. 

I guess slice of life and all that.

Redux & Errors

So yeah, I've been gone for a long time. A long long time.
This is just a short message noting that I do intend to return.

Here's a super quick digital sketch, I never do those.

Be prepared, this blog's layout shall be slightly updated, at some point,
so if things appear to just look plain wrong at some point soon, don't worry,
it'll be sorted soon.

If you read that back in a years time and think the same thing,
either I've gone wrong or I'm now insulted.

Also, if you actually know what I've drawn here, you're a certainly a friend of mine.

Hey, we made it through the night!
Cue an added dose of nostalgia!

F***HEAD

Whilst working through the night I began to panic (again)

about how much work I have to do in so little time.

So I calmed myself by drawing Travis Touchdown.

11th Angel of Limbo

You... you can tell whats going on here right? 

Headgear

Lady Protection
Lady Super
Lady Taminiau III







Abbey Lee Kershaw
Mariya Markina
Charlotte ?

Aqua-Don

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

Apparently.

Seasonal Proof

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.

IV|Is

First drawing of the year!



Another year of intention has begun!

Angle Filler

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?

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?

Digital Childhood

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

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

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

Got Possibilities

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:

A Hunterian Production

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.