Crab

snappy snappy

Fish Tank: The Grinch

Just before Christmas, I was given the opportunity to create an illustration to apply to the glass office - fish tank- of Manchester design agency Music. Music are running a fish tank project, getting different illustrators in to do temporary designs on the glass windows. Each design is based on a song, and I chose to do The Grinch Song, as it's Christmas based but also has a slightly sinister tone to it which I liked.

Using posca pens it took about 4 full days in all, spread over a couple of weeks, and was a bit of a learning curve as I'd never used the pens before, and I haven't done much free hand drawing as my work is often quite geometric and grid based. But it was fun, and thanks go to Matt, Kris, Tom and Stu for helping me out, and Ed and Craig for the opportunity. Cheers! 

Below is a coloured up version of the main window design, and some photos of sections up on the glass....

Astronaut

Astronaut counterpart for the diver. Need to work on the backgrounds for both of these, and then play around with mxing the images or elements to create one image...

Mapping the ocean's hidden worlds: Robert Ballard

Posted below is a talk by Robert Ballard on ocean exploration that is really enlightening. For my FMP I'm looking at exploration of both the oceans and space, and I think that I probably considered space exploration to be of more interest or to be less explored than the oceans, but this talk convinced me otherwise. Love his enthusiasm, take a look...

Diver

New design for the diver half of a aqua/astronaut image. May tweak this a bit to improve it at some point, and the background will be done when I've sorted the astronaut half....

FMP

So, it's Final Major Project time at uni, which means we have about 16 weeks to work on a self initiated project. The project I have decided to work on is about the extreme environments of in space and under the sea, as they are one one hand the complete opposites, one being close to earth and the other far away; heights and depths, but on the other hand are incredibly similar. They are both vast and hostile environments where humans physically shouldn't be able to travel, and rarely have, as they are still fairly unexplored areas. Because of this, the technology humans have developed to travel and explore both areas is relatively similar; space/diving suits, rockets/submarines, radar/sonar, etc, and because they are relatively investigated, there is also a plethora of myths, legends and theories about what may exist in both. 
So there is loads of interesting options for the project, and I'm not too sure where the project is going at the moment, but it should work out hopefully. We have also been asked to create a small animation as part of our FMP, so I'm really looking forward to getting started on that too, whatever it might be.....
At the moment I'm working on creating some image elements for the project, and below I've posted an attempt at an image that didn't really work out and isn't up to scratch with what I wanted look wise, so I'm working on some new stuff. Learning from my mistakes and all that.....over and out.

'Christmas in Uganda' Childrens Book

So last November, there was a small book launch for the childrens book I illustrated called 'Christmas in Uganda'. I've been really busy (and forgetful), so this is a veryyyy late post with some photos of the book in print and some pics from the launch. It was a good eve and a good few books were sold to raise money for the charity. Cool.

This is the book, and a few of the spreads...

 

And here are a few photos from the launch.....

 

Countdown - Celine Desrumaux

This animation by Celine Desrumaux was recommended to me last summer when I was in the process of researching a space project, and I absolutely love it. It's a short animation about the countdown of a rocket launch, and is a fantastic mix of narrative and slightly abstract images that link back to the technological/mechanical/space flight theme of the film. She has used a huge range of different shots and perspectives, and the mix of narrative imagery and abstract detail images of clocks, computers, logo's, mechanical movements, etc.; work and flow really well. Check it below guys.......

Manchester Museum : Bug Art

Last Saturday, all of us 3rd year illustration students took part in the Big Saturday event at Manchester Museum, entitled 'Bug Art'. Since last year we have all been working on various illustrated responses and activities to chosen insects, such as posters, games, worksheets, masks and animations. We took these to the event on Saturday, for children and families to look at and interact with to learn about the insects. Overall the day was a big success and it was really busy with lots of kids and families coming to see what we had done. 

Starting last year, I'd been working on a short animation with the help of Tom Mathieson, to visually represent some of the Egyptian history of the Scarab beetle. The idea of the animation was to reveal some of the rich history of an insect, which from the look of it, might seem to most as rather insignificant or less special than other insects. The Egyptians regarded the beetle as sacred, relating to their sun God, and even used carved scarabs as amulets, placed over the hearts of mummies to protect them in the afterlife. 

We will hopefully be making a few improvements to the animation and adding sound at some point, but for now check out the animation below, along with a couple of still images of the beetle and what not.......enjoy.

Nobrow Talk

Whilst at the Leeds Though Bubble festival a few weeks ago, I went to a short talk by Nobrow's Alex Spiro, about how he and Sam Arthur set up Nobrow, and the philosophy of what they wanted to create, and how they found their place in the market.

It was really interesting to hear from a successful publishers that started out only a few years ago in 2008. Their aim was to find a place in the market by publishing bespoke books and print that had high production values and good quality. As it says on their site, they wanted to create "an independent publishing platform for illustration and the graphic arts", and really be a place for new up and coming artists that create good work. 
Alex spoke about how they wanted to find some premises in London that had room for them to have their own print room for screen printing. In the early days, most of the work published was screen printed in small editions and sold via museum shops and small book shops, and that screen printed aesthetic has stayed with them and become synonymous with most Nobrow publications. Alex spoke about how they liked this look, and using spot colour throughout the publications is something that they try to keep going, and in some way can be a deciding factor in the sort of work they publish, but not always. 

   He mentioned that when Nobrow first started, in order to be taken seriously when trying to sell the books and zines, they first spent time building up a small library of 4 or 5 publications to better illustrate what they were about and the sort of work they aimed to publish in the future. They then just walked to shops to try and sell them. It was good to hear that such a successful company started in a very low tech and simple way, by just printing a few books and taking them to different shops and seeing if they were interested.

   Now that they have gotten a bit bigger, they publish through Nobrow Small Press which is still via screen printing in the basement, creating high quality, low runs of print, and through Nobrow Press which is done through offset litho printing which means they can produce many more editions but still at a high quality, and can still try and keep to the spot colour aesthetic if appropriate.  

  When asked how they went about finding people to work with, he said that they did get a lot of submissions through their site, but they mostly find the people themselves via events, degree shows or the web. I think I imagined that they would find most people via submissions, but it was interesting to hear that most people they have found themselves and asked to work with rather than the other way around. Perhaps this is where attending events like D&AD New Blood could pay dividends? But obviously getting any exposure to be seen is the key. 

  Overall it was a really interesting talk, and although I've probably missed out a lot of what was said, I felt like I learnt a lot, and also getting to hear from people behind the names of companies or publishers such as Nobrow, makes things a little bit less scary in terms of possibly contacting people or companies in the future; they are mostly just genuinely nice people who have the same interests as ourselves! Thanks Alex!