Gregory's Sketching Blog

If anybody's reading...

2010-04-23T10:03:00.001+01:00

...my blog's now here.

Busy busy

2009-04-29T12:24:00.004+01:00

Well I've been a bit busy lately transmogrifying myself into a web designer as well as an illustrator, and you can see the results here

Consequently I haven't been doing a great deal of illustration, which is starting to get to me a bit. Time for some intensive drawing methinks. I've got quite a lot of stuff I haven't been able to show or haven't got round to uploading yet though, so here's a load...

I did some illustrations for KnockBack magazine, a comic strip and an illustration to go with an article about the effect of the internet on relationships and thus the relating evolutionary results.

Initial ideas...

eventually settling on a different idea...

and

and this is the comic strip, based on an anecdote I was given...

I was also asked to help out designing a logo for the delightful Pure Filth events party type company thing. But they didn't like my ideas. I think because they're not bad enough. Or something. They're silly. Having said that, they might be better simpler...

Finally the background for a yard sale poster I designed gives me great pleasure (not so much the finished product though)...

and a little illustration I did to go with an email to try and get some work with a magazine called Bearded. It hasn't paid off yet.

Like it's your birthday...

2009-02-23T10:32:00.003+01:00

Michael Jackson vs Prince

2009-02-06T10:36:00.007+01:00

I think I got a bit more excited about having made this t-shirt for a Michael Jackson vs Prince night than anyone did seeing it, but I won the costume prize in my mind.

...the back...

Oh, and in the spirit of y'know, enterprise or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing with my life, I now do custom t-shirts as well as sketchbooks. If you so desire...

Pastel colours...

2009-02-03T17:51:00.002+01:00

Here are some things I've done. I've done some other things too. But I can't show them to you. Mmmmmmm.....mystery.

This is some bunting. I bunted the f*ck out of a Schmonday once and became briefly infatuated with the aesthetics of bunting. Very briefly. You had to be there.

This was an idea I had on the theme of smoke and mirrors. It's slightly premature, I don't think it's even developed nipples with a specific purpose yet. Something to do with smoke coming from things that rely on mirrors. Like a camera for example.

Yeah.

An entry for a competition to illustrate some saccharine little quotes. I was going for quick and messy. It took hours, obviously.

Bits of jetsam

2008-12-15T21:31:00.003+01:00

Well I'm quite enjoying getting back into this sketchbook thing. It's reopened old roads full of paint and bits of jetsam. Just sticking things to paper is nice. I particularly like the square of faintly striped paper in the first one, which is just the inside of a pack of pencils. You might need to see it in person. Might just be me too :)

Greg's Fun Plan

2008-11-28T19:36:00.000+01:00

Super Colour Multi-Shaded Crazy Sausage (me me me)

2008-11-19T01:34:00.003+01:00

I'm loving my new sketchbook and playing with colouring pens and tippex. Here are the results. Lots of me and a weird gothy clown dude.

A bit special:

Not a self portrait:

No social commentary:

Plumping For

2008-11-12T20:00:00.004+01:00

Ended up with two different versions of the design. I reckon the second would probably work better on a t-shirt and I think the text is easier to read, depending on the background colour...I think that's the one they'll plump for.

Capoeira

2008-11-07T15:38:00.005+01:00

I've always wanted to have a good excuse to do some capoeira related artwork so when my group in Bristol needed their t-shirts designed I was made. I'm also going to do a design for a capoeira related charity t-shirt too. A veritable bounty of capoeira fun! None of them have been taken to their finished state so these are the drafts. The roughness definitely works for them though:

I think my favourite is the last one, but the third's been chosen. I suppose the type mightn't be that legible but they're all drafts anyway so I can make any of 'em look grand :)

Happy Hallowe'en!

2008-10-31T15:17:00.006+01:00

A 'kick ass' pumkin headed 'babe' for Hallowe'en...

...and where I drew and lovingly coloured her in:

Down with the kids

2008-10-29T23:09:00.003+01:00

This is the genuinely heartwarming response to all the work the team I was in did as part of the Young Design Programme, helping to redesign/bring design to secondary schools in the UK. Our lot were hilarious as you can see from the (slightly long) video. Just skip to the end where it says how great we were...

What I've been doing

2008-10-16T14:03:00.007+01:00

Aaages since I last posted. I've quit college, got myself involved in the daily drudgery of reception work..."Good morning Hudson Sandler"...and had some bloody good summer fun. I've had a couple of commissions and made some other bits and pieces, including a new sketchbook for myself. It's shiny and bright gold and I'm starting in it now, with collage and paint and spit and blood and all the things I used to love doing and thinking. Good things will come from it I hope. Back to the good old days.

First a comission for the Sorrell Foundation with a set of characters designed to represent the various people involved in the big design process to rebuild secondary schools in the UK. I was involved in this and so are professional designers (such as that guy from Grand Designs) and the best bit is that the pupils are the client, with all the power and input that that includes. The characters are to try and give the kids something to latch on to when we're talking about the people when they first hear of them in the initial presentations. I had to design representations of the pupils' peers, an architect, the head teacher, a representative from British Schools for the Future, a pupil (i.e. one of the clients themselves), a builder, someone from the government and someone from the Sorrell Foundation (e.g. me).

Rough sketches:

The full cast:

And an example of the bits in between, you'll need to click to see the animation:

Then there was a logo I was doing for a friend. It was basically a refinement of an original logo I was given. I was going to do this and try reinventing it entirely as well, but I lost momentum and then lost the original file so the whole thing crashed and burned. Someone else is doing it now :( I think it's ok.

I also made a sketchbook and card for my bezza mezza Sara.

Birthday wishes from Bruce Springsteen:

The slip case for the sketchbook:

The sketchbook itself:

A family shot:

And the sketchbook in its protective case:

Finally, a shot of my own new sketchbook. I'm loving shiny shiny gold. And it's like a mirror. As will be the contents. God I'm good.

Shiny!

By the way, if you did want a sketchbook for yourself or as a present I'd be more than happy to take commissions. I can do just about any cover (paper, card, fabric etc.) and paper type and I can sew things on them (I had a stuffed doll on the front of one of mine once) and so on and so on. Anyway, pimping myself sounds odd so I'll stop there, but just so you know....

Rrrrrrrrrrewind!

2008-08-07T23:31:00.003+01:00

So I got back from capoeira and looked at my picture and immediately decided his face/nose was too long. After I'd sent it off. Damn impatience. Anyway, I've redone it and found a snazzy de-faced version whilst fiddling. Both of which are below.

So four versions of the same thing. Collect 'em all.

Facial hairs

2008-08-07T18:13:00.004+01:00

A wallpaper I did for a Kitsune Maison competition I found. They do a wicked wallpaper every Wednesday if your computer needs a makeover. ( http://kitsunenoir.com/blog/ ) Fingers crossed, then I can clothe myself...

Oh and...

2008-08-05T14:51:00.000+01:00

Jaunting around

2008-08-05T10:16:00.005+01:00

Things have been bouncing around a lot lately and not all satisfactorily, but just recently it's come out and left me predominantly feeling like this :

:)...........here's a poster I've done for The Duchess, which you ought to check out if you're up at the Edinburgh festival. It's free and all.

I've been scribbling in biro while I've been jaunting around in search of...

Well do ya?

2008-07-04T13:01:00.007+01:00

Been pretty busy lately but lots of it has been arting, which makes me happy...

The reaction of a security guard at the V&A to me leaning on a cabinet...

Been working on a character design for a mercenary alien recently, with the starting point of a praying mantis. Trying to get a bit of a Clint Eastwood feel to him and these are a couple of attempts to get that in my mind. This character design stuff isn't as simple as I thought though...

And a couple of designs for a flyer/poster for a night in Camden soon. The brief was for flyers that are less information and more artistic. But with the info on it obviously :)

With a bit of an open brief I started out sketching faces from the Facebook and thought this girl looked suitably mardy to give the night a bit of attitude...

But then I started getting frustrated about not having a good idea and my mind then went something like this: came up with the vision of someone proffering things to the viewer in order to please (whether artistic ideas or the musical gems at a club night) and it went from there. Not being sure what to make him giving, eggs seems suitably creation related and...

So there you go.

Play

2008-06-20T17:17:00.004+01:00

I've finally managed to scan in these A2 images that were the final pieces (as far as it went) to my Play project. I wanted to screen print them (and also to take the idea further) after I finished but I've just played about with them on Photoshop instead.

I should probably play (ahem) with them a bit more, 'cause the top one's too light for example. And they don't have the punch that I think they might if screenprinted. But there you go.

Pictures of things

2008-05-25T12:03:00.005+01:00

Like children wearing buckets...

...and freaky kids holding strange devices...

...and Naruto, my anime obsession...

Thanks for listening.

SAD no more...

2008-05-14T15:00:00.006+01:00

Riiiiiight....it's been months since I last posted anything here cause I've been up to all sorts. Haven't been doing a massive amount of art, but I've had a few spurts and I've been working on some stuff for college I'm going to upload in the next post if I can be arsed to do any more scanning. Lots of observational drawing as per usual basically...

I almost wet myself with laughter doing this comic. In my defence I was very tired and slightly hysterical from a project I was working on...

A couple of our Play Project related bits. Sort of like an exciting preview of what's to come...

The traditional SPs. Really enjoyed doing them but they're overall a bit dodgy. More mark-making than accuracy involved methinks...

And finally a picture done during the sweltering heat on Sunday. Played around with it on Photoshop and I quite like the results...

That's all that's on the computer at the moment but I oughta have some more stuff on soon that I'm quite pleased with.

Disco Stu likes to Boogaloo

2008-02-11T23:23:00.000+01:00

Forgot to add this mechanism I designed as part of the kinetic day of our Play project, in which we have to design a functional toy. It was originally supposed to do that dance move where you walk on the spot and 'pedal' with your hands. But it's quite hard so he's just pedalling a tricycle instead. He's still Disco Stu though....

Not Done Yet...

2008-02-11T19:57:00.001+01:00

Big of the Dump

2008-02-11T19:45:00.000+01:00

Final piece for my Catcher in the Rye project was a log cabin with illustrations (in some way by Holden Caulfield) on its walls, doubling also as the mental hospital he goes to after the end of the main events of the book, hence the little metal bed. I've discovered/rediscovered that making stuff is sometimes as fun as drawing stuff, so there's some more of that to come...

...and the wallpaper...

Otherwise just some doodles from here and there:

Here...

There...

Hair...

Let me out

2008-01-05T02:14:00.000+01:00

Very influenced for the body by this video (which you can't see if you're looking at this from facebook):

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T03:32:00.000+01:00

A couple of pics I did over the holidays...

One for my Catheter in the Rye project

One for my 'stag' project. Maybe I should call it Project Stag? And Give myself a code name.

...and you know when you have one of those evenings when you're fidgety and none of the music you put on is right and nothing you draw comes out right and generally nothing you do is quite what you want to be doing. Nothing quite satisfies you and so you all you're left with is a general malaise (or maybe you actually started with the malaise)? Well I thought I'd try and draw it.

I'm really satisfied with it, even though I feel like I cheated with the colours having done it true to life first and changing the blending mode after that 'cause it was a bit heavy-handed. Still can't put my finger on what's driving me to distraction though. Well, I have my suspicions. I feel like Mersault in the sun.

The 3am yield

2007-12-18T04:58:00.000+01:00

"Their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end."

Black hair, no glasses

2007-12-17T04:26:00.001+01:00

Perhaps slightly inebriated isn't the time to be attempting complicated portraits but I reckon this one's come out okay, if a wee bit suave.

continued...

2007-12-13T06:01:00.000+01:00

Should really be working on my actual work projects but I'm enojying my little 'stag' project too much. Which is basically drawings of all of my friends, especially those I need to keep in touch with. In real life it's all in a booklet, which I think makes it look better. Although remember not to draw on both sides of thin paper kids. It's not worth it.

And now TO BED.

In a herd of love and trust, I am a stag of complacency.

2007-12-04T04:39:00.000+01:00

A new project I'm starting for myself...

Doodles

2007-12-04T04:36:00.000+01:00

Well it's not really a doodle if it takes over 2 minutes I think, but never mind...

The next three are definitely Catcher In The Rye related. I'm trying to make a little book of observational drawings related to the text. The woman on the train didn't enjoy being drawn, but sometimes art's painful eh?

Oodles

2007-12-04T04:22:00.001+01:00

Back on the posting now I've got everything working again (Leopard killed my computer so I had to wipe everything and reinstall in case you're interested).

Done loads of doodles and little pics over the last little while. Some are related to our 'sequence' project, which I'm doing from Catcher In The Rye, hence some Holden Caulfield biznizz:

The Wonderful World Wide Web

2007-11-06T18:34:00.000+01:00

I haven't been on the internet for a while but finally I can breathe again. I've been continuing work on the Duchess logo and poster and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

These were a couple of my more refined efforts after the last batch, slightly closer to Sara's vision.

I actually initially preferred the lower one, having got the idea of illuminated letters in my head, but we settled on a better version of the top one and it came out like this...

Then came the poster, which Sara had a pretty precise brief for so it was easy to get on with.

And the flyer back.

And finally a couple of sketches...

Otherwise, been trying to take interesting photos for our photography elective in vain. Feeling a bit of a lack of inspiration which is eating away at my enthusiasm, or maybe it's the other way round. I'll post if anything interesting happens.

Logo Designs

2007-10-04T02:01:00.001+01:00

Right, so I'm currently trying to design a logo for a play called The Duchess. Ritual, masks and a jarring displacement from reality in some way seem to be the strongest themes/things to think about that translate visually and after some doodles this was my first effort. It was designed to be on its side, but I prefer it vertically and you can read the text anyhoo:

However it's not a logo and I basically got carried away playing on Photoshop to make a real face into a mask. It was fun though. Here are my latest efforts which are hopefully a bit more on target. I'm finding it hard to get the title into the logo, which has to be visually legible even when small. I'm a fan of the 'D' on the beginning of the second page and the very last one. However it's not my vision so I'll have to wait and see what the response is.

As it turns out this illustration for other people malarkey is mighty fun. I might make a crust after all...random hand time.

Night Night x

The Duchess

2007-09-25T00:06:00.000+01:00

For Sara:

Just the very rough ideas I've been doodling. Let me know what you like and what you don't...

And the rest...

2007-09-24T21:21:00.000+01:00

A few ideas for t-shirts or something...

Thousand Hand Technique

2007-09-24T20:59:00.000+01:00

It's been a wee while. Done a few little drawings though, mainly on the train and mainly of hands. Mainly of my left hand (because I draw with my right). Even the right hand I drew is a picture of my left hand cunningly flipped by my massive brain in real time. I want to colour some of them, but I've got too much else to do for now so I might get around to them later. Anyway, these pictures are mainly just some exploratory thinking for our first project when we get back to college (only a week...uh oh). It's called 'Play' and we have to make some sort of working toy. I'm a bit stumped so far, but then I haven't tried all that hard yet.

The rest of this post to follow....

Not So Fortunate Drive

2007-07-17T17:53:00.000+01:00

Well I had a quicksharp project set for me over the weekend. The cover art for the Fortune Drive album wasn't working out so I was given the chance to have a crack at it on Friday or so, deadline Sunday night. Problem was I was working Friday til 4am and the same on Saturday so a bit of time on Saturday afternoon and Sunday was all I really had.

I fucking love Fortune Drive which gave me the impetus, but might also have made me a bit too precious in retrospect. Saturday was spent drawing shit pictures of Bobby singing from grainy video, but by Sunday afternoon I'd managed to get a bit more of a feel for what they were after. In the end I was knackered from the late nights by about 10pm on Sunday so I only cranked out one idea and a variation.

All of which is a massive excuse for 'They didn't go with it.' Apparently the slingshot version went down well but email shite meant it wasn't recieved til 1am after work on monday night after the cover they went with was discovered. If the internet wasn't such a bitch, maybe they never would've seen the one they preferred and I would therefore now be a megastar (in my mirror). Anyway, a bit of a taste of a live brief with the conclusion that: There's no point in being precious just because you care.

Enough guff.

First go...

Some variations...

A response to some feedback...

Sara

2007-07-09T23:58:00.000+01:00

Took a little while this one...

Old Ladies Are Like Pringles

2007-07-01T19:47:00.000+01:00

It's not unusual

2007-07-01T17:46:00.000+01:00

Well I decided to draw Tom Jones but his suit was a bit uninspiring so I decided to spruce it up a bit. It's sunny outside but I just can't stop drawing!

Something about it didn't quite fit so I rubbed out the pencils and inked it, trying to unify the lightsource. So now we've got Tom Jones having had the shit beaten out of him in the back of a van after a head transplant with a strange old lady who you've probably seen parading around - note her tattoos can easily be concealed by a lovely cardigan. In retrospect I probably should've just inked over the pencils then rubbed out. You live and learn.

Here's a leaf I had to draw for our end of year show that was shut when I went to see it with my ma.

And my father's day card. I think my dad missed the point of my retro card when he asked 'How boring do you think I am?!' Can't win 'em all...

wordspunctuation&.

2007-05-21T18:00:00.001+01:00

Right so this is the magazine project I've been diligently working on recently..................................................well, the magazine project I've been working on recently.....................ok the magazine project I've been doing for the last day or so. They're in sequential order and there's a soundtrack that goes with it. That you can't hear just yet.

Narcissism can be fun

2007-05-18T18:30:00.000+01:00

I had a load of self portraits to post, so I thought it'd be interesting to post them in one lot so you can see how different they all are. Hereyago:

A screen print based on a pic on here in an earlier post:

And some others:

Big Dump

2007-05-18T18:10:00.001+01:00

RIGHT. I've finally got my computer back and though it's still got some weird screen action going on, I think it's just the herpes my iPod seems to have caught after completely shafting itself. Dead. Gone. Anyway, got loads of pictures I've done since I last had my scanner online (other than a couple I scanned at college).

They were all done in college while in some sort of meeting. The next few are while travelling. There are a few buses. I like drawing buses.

...and a random picture of a girl called Liza which went a beet wrong, but it's ok.

SPiP

2007-05-03T15:57:00.000+01:00

Well I think my computer's finally got tired of me slapping it about for doing weird things with its screen, 'cause it's given up the ghost. Fortunately I had AppleCare so I've just dropped it in and it'll be back within the week I hope. Something to do with logic boards allegedly, which won't affect the masses of animal porn I left on my desktop. Phew.

Anyway, back to the art. My new less sketchbook orientated working style means I've got bits of art everywhere so things'll be less chronological from here on in I expect. So here are some recent doodles and bits...

A thingy:

Exhibit One:

Nonsense:

New shoes:

Girl on my course:

And the world wouldn't be right without a self portrait:

With the original in tow:

Thankyouandgoodnight.

Hi Jack

2007-04-04T19:54:00.000+01:00

I didn't get that 'Who's been on your page?' thing to work so I can't confirm my sneaking suspicion that you're the only one who looks at my page. But is it superfluous to post my Don't Panic entry here as well seeing as you've already seen it? Well, to quash any thoughts of redundancy (I've had too much of that lately) I'm gonna post the version I almost entered before realising that 'less is more'.

Oh and in case there is anyone else out there, here's the version I call 'final'.

Final Flyer

2007-04-03T15:08:00.000+01:00

Ah what the world's done now though is tell me there's a night I really want to go to on the 14th. But I'm poor and I'll probably be dead. Ohdearohdearohdear...

Palooza Time

2007-04-02T15:53:00.000+01:00

I had to look up what a palooza is on the urban dictionary, but we're having one. I got rather overexcited today so I'm designing not only a flyer for facebook, but some promotional advertising too. I guess that's what happens when you're out of work. Anyway, first a couple of drafts for the flyer, which isn't finished yet. By the way, a palooza is a party in case you didn't know.

And some other random pics on the theme. I can't stop going 80s...

You should come. It'll be a blast.

Another coherent assumption

2007-04-02T01:49:00.000+01:00

It's good if you're careful not to live life making too many assumptions. 'Cause what you perceive is going to be made up of a coherent set of all the things you think. This doesn't ensure that your set of coherent beliefs map onto what's actually going on. So don't make too many assumptions. Or they'll make your web weak. And no doubt it'll shatter. I probably thought of that on drugs. I did try coffee yesterday. Verdict: actually not so bad but I can't see what all the fuss is about.

Here's the original by the way. Which I think I might prefer.

You Are More Beautiful Every Day

2007-03-29T17:59:00.000+01:00

Um...threadless!

2007-03-26T18:38:00.000+01:00

Just like Jack I'm washing my hands of Don't Panic. Though, of course if you can keep me in the top 5 I get a book :) I did a couple of designs a while ago for Threadless and fingers crossed they'll be accepted and I'll put up a link to vote for them. Whaddya think?

Along For The Ride:

Nice Slippers:

(I hope I can say 'shit'...)

I like pink and yellow

2007-03-13T17:25:00.000+01:00

Here's a little picture I put together for my bezza mezzas Hannah and her boyfriend Pete. Hannah's in the far flung corners of the earth you see and she needs a care package. I figured she might want something to stick on the walls wheresoever she might stay.

Obviously the world's just trying to mess with my paleness settings. The poster for Don't Panic in fact looks darker than I made it on the PCs we use at college whereas the picture above I just made on said college computers is in fact now coming out lighter. Printout looks good though :)

Don't Panic!

2007-03-12T14:01:00.000+01:00

Well the Don't Panic website's obviously a bit of a piece of shit. I can't change my name from being Greg Hannan Hannan (yes I know everyone else managed it) but I guess it has a certain double-barrelled cachet. More annoyingly though, the image came out too pale and the website doesn't let you delete entries or resubmit or any of that malarkey. Don't want the votes being split by entering twice now do I? All of which is irrelevant 'cause a five day old colourblind raccoon is going to win by 7000 votes. Might as well give it a crack though eh?

If you're rather taken with it or you're my friend (I think they're the only kind of people that actually read this blog), you can use this big fancy button to vote for me. It only takes a username and password to sign in:

Get voting! (for me)

Morality

2007-03-09T21:09:00.000+01:00

Here's an initial sketch which is going to go into a Don't Panic! entry I'm creating. I'll post more when it's ready, I've got about 5 versions on the go as we speak...

Typography

2007-03-07T13:27:00.000+01:00

Here's pretty much the first thing we've had to do for the new typography section of our course, which is something I want to get into. We had to take an advert for something we found and redo it in a different style. Here's the original I chose:

I decided as I didn't know what it meant, I'd go with that and not try to respect the grammar etc. of it. It all went a bit graffiti, not so sure about the colours...

One Night in Paris

2007-02-28T16:32:00.000+01:00

Well Blogger doesn't seem to be a fan of Paris Hilton. Hopefully this picture will load...I had to provide a quick sketch to accompany 'Paris' for a PPD (don't ask, it sucks) group presentation we have to do on DaDaism. Got a bit carried away.

All Day I Dream About Sex

2007-02-28T15:51:00.000+01:00

I've stopped drawing pictures of myself for a while. (I'll send you the nude one for a fee.) Mainly because adidas are offering £100 per drawing and a billboard the size of New York if you can tickle their fancy. I didn't really think I fitted the bill as we had to illustrate various straplines they gave us from genuine runners like 'Bob' from 'Leeds'. Here are my submissions. I don't really think they'll go for the Chariots of fire ones with the hands. Or any of them really except maybe the Richard III one. They just don't really have the right mood for the brief. Shoulda done them all in pencil. Fun though...

And the practice sheet for the grasping hands worked out much better than any of it really.

Flash animation

2007-02-19T16:24:00.000+01:00

This is my first decent little animation. Unnecessary for my course but hopefully it ought to spice up my showreel, which is currently looking a little lacklustre...

Me and myself

2007-02-18T07:25:00.000+01:00

Just an sp from a couple of photos. Like the left one, the right one's a bit deformed.

Iiiiit's Christmas!

2007-02-14T18:56:00.000+01:00

I forgot to post these after Christmas, cards I made for my Muh, Da and Brother. I find them really funny but then I'm simple.

Merry Valentine's Day!

Self Portrait

2007-02-01T02:25:00.000+01:00

While I dunno if it really looks like me, I like this one.

Night all.

And now a flurry

2007-01-22T19:18:00.000+01:00

Right, I've managed to upload some of the animations, though I'm still having issues with one of my flash animations and one of my pixilation ones. Computers suck. Anyway, these following are pixillation animations, which as far as I can tell means stop-frame but with people?....oh, wikipedia agrees. But spells it right. Anyway, it's a ridiculous amount of fun and really easy, all you need is a digital camera and iMovie. Go forth and pixilate!

Me as a snake:

Rock snake

Our first effort:

Smoking

And Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2:

The fight

A brief hiatus

2007-01-22T16:14:00.000+01:00

I haven't had much output to show since before Christmas, but that's for a good reason. Namely I've been on my animation elective and what with working my fingers to the bone at a bar in Brixton too I haven't had many side projects on. I'm in the process of trying to upload some simple animations onto my Myspace as I speak, so maybe by the end of this paragraph you might see me crawling over rocks like a snake (all will be revealed...hopefully). Anyway, otherwise here are a couple of pictures I just haven't got round to uploading yet...

...gritty.

And here's a poster I did for a play on in Bristol called Mojo. It's set in 50s Soho and I got some inspiration from old rock 'n' roll compilation covers...

Right, encoding...

3am

2006-12-14T04:09:00.000+01:00

Now this is more like the kind of thing I want to be doing. It took a combination of...a few things...but I've had a real go at loosening up and mark-making and being happy with the process as well as the finished product. Still got to explore the mess where making decisions and sacrificing freedom meet, but I hope you can tell that I really enjoyed making this one.

Soho personification

2006-12-07T14:39:00.000+01:00

Here's one of the final pieces for the Soho project. It's a personification of Soho (at least the aspect I saw whilst trawling Walkers Court). It's to do with what the people think they're like, what they're actually like and how they're perceived (thinking a lot about the transvestites). The plain black&white line drawing worked pretty well, but I wanted to add in the colours from some of the boutique-y shops around Soho. Turns out 'fill' works pretty well sometimes...

Life drawing

2006-12-04T20:29:00.000+01:00

We had a 'zany' guy with green Wolverine style hair (well, if Wolverine was mainly bald...) in for life drawing a couple of weeks ago. I was getting a bit bored of how I'm drawing so after a couple of pedestrian pictures I thought I'd try the trusty 'don't lift your pen off the page' trick. I'm quite pleased really...

And finally an idea I had when I was bored and looking through some of the texting options on my new phone. It doesn't quite work because most people think it's just a text I got rather than a menu for ways to start a text (most of them are real too...). Needs some work so I might have another go...

Should be back soon with more as I have to work madly for our project hand in on thursday. For the hundreds of people who are subscribed to my blog ;)

Soho

2006-12-04T20:12:00.000+01:00

Well it all worked out quite well in the end. I've had to sacrifice having a tablet (I'll be saving up for a while methinks...) but I've got a brand spanking new laptop with the insurance money. It's rather nice. So anyway, I'm back in business with a backlog of sketches.

These ones are from our map style project. Mine's on Soho so it's back to the transvestites...

First a little food though...

And here's the guy from the previous post...

...and then how I imagine he sees himself...

Then a transvestite dude and the photo below it...

And some pictures from...er...some Soho literature. The first one's vaguely disturbing.

And I couldn't help myself when I saw one of the headlines on the cover...

Transvestites

2006-11-21T16:32:00.000+01:00

So I was wandering Soho for the latest project, trying to 'immerse' myself in the atmosphere blah blah blah transvestite strip club blah blah blah.
I'll put some photos up when the insurance people get me my new computer (fingers crossed people!) because they look wicked in a sort of androgynous scary dream kind of way. Also been sketching lots, naturally. This is a drawing from a photo.

Also, London's pretty draining isn't it? S'probably the money (lack of) and the building a new life bit I suppose.

Bastards

2006-11-08T12:53:00.000+01:00

So I won't be posting any pictures for a bit (except maybe of me weeping) because someone stole my laptop and my tablet from the studio during one of our crits. Feel stupid because I saw the guy and kept checking my stuff, but then obviously didn't check enough and it was gone. It's a bit bum but there's nowt I can do that's productive except see what the insurance brings in. (Fingers crossed a brand new Macbook Pro, THEN I'll be happy.) Backup your stuff too people! It's the main thing that's making me feel alright...that and the gin ;)

Big red

2006-11-07T02:38:00.000+01:00

Right. I'm finally getting somewhere. Moved myself out of the 'only one sketchbook' rut and going towards 'scraps of paper on the train' way. Or something like that. Entropy. It's the future. No really. Well, unless the universe collapses again. Or something. But that's a different matter.
Marker and tippex. Sorry about the bellends.

This is the sb cover...

(I drew the hands with my tongue. Blindfolded. And they were meant to be his hands. All in all, not a success.)

This was the first success of the day. No tippex. (Oh except the eyes of course). The gold pen doesn't show up on the scanner unfortunately. It was shiny.

Some more demon wardrobe scary stuff. Really think demon wardrobes could go somewhere if i took the time butI'm lazy and the project's in tomorrow so I guess they'll never blossom... :(

Then I did some batman because of our lecture on comics. There's some crumb influence and general comic-y thought influencing me too. The first one's just the second with the previous page overlaid and a batman shaped bit cut out...

and

and

Now here's Derek. I like this one.

And finally a wary boy who lives in a wardrobe. No I don't know why he's naked. Maybe he gets off on wood.

And now I'm gonna go to bed. Long day. Bye x

The Royal College of Surgeons

2006-11-04T15:26:00.000+01:00

These are sketches from my day at the Royal College of Surgeons. There was SO much stuff I should've drawn there, but I got caught up with a few bits 'n' pieces. I really need to get on the whole drawing quickly and gesturally thing. This first one took a couple of hours I think (lost track) and it's nowhere near finished. The whole skull was pretty dark...

I decided I'd be well arty and draw in my Diary of Samuel Pepys. The pen I was using only really worked well for the first one (big ol' Charles) and they don't look quite as good as in the book, but I'm pretty pleased with them. It'll be cool to have a whole book of drawings in there.

Then I found this freaky little guy and did him straight into pen. His head was bigger than I did it originally, so the actual sketch has got two sets of lines. Deleted the bad ones in photoshop tho. Probably wouldn't please my tutors that but hey ho.
Also chucked in a bit of photoshop colour burn to give it a slight 'parchment feel' just cause it seemed appropriate.

And finally, use a condom kids...
Oh yeah, and this guy's skull was labelled Mr Norris. Evidently the brute actually succumbed to syphilis in 1811 and the one we see now is an android.

Wardrobes

2006-11-03T03:38:00.000+01:00

Right, I suppose I really ought to put stuff I'm not sure about up too. I fiddled with this illustration for the story about wardrobes (which is honestly more interesting than it sounds) for a while, but the only thing i was really satisfied with was when I put a light blue four lettered obscenity in the bottom right hand corner. It just looked better. But wasn't entirely relevant so I'm left just unsure. Ahwell. I made the doll in a box too. E's well sinisturr...

Mewithamustache

2006-10-29T18:53:00.000+01:00

Oh and this is a picture of me. With a mustache.

And by the medium of time-travel, this is something I'll need later...wow kids :)

My first time

2006-10-29T18:29:00.000+01:00

Right, this is my first post on my freshly birthed blogging page. Gonna use it for posting sketches unless anything particularly exciting happens that doesn't involve me drawing. Some of it'll probably be from the illustration course I'm doing at Camberwell College of Arts up in London. Right, just gonna put some recent stuff up 'cause I'm off bowling with my flatmates at the world famous Elephant & Castle Bowling lanes. In no particular order...
...this is a picture for one of twelve stories we had to illustrate, this one called 'walking pneumonia' about a massive puk guy. The blue was only meant to be a light wash, but I did it too heavy and so I had to go over the background characters with pen. It doesn't look so good as it did in pencil but what can ya do eh?
...our life model didn't turn up on friday so we had to draw a skeleton.
...and this is a picture of some cupboards for a story about scary wardrobes.
...and this is a picture of me and my girlfriend Sara, who's miles away in Bristol unfortunately :(
...this is for the third story i'm illustrating, about a big weirdo called Derek who lived (or may not have) in a woman's attic. His head is a fly eating plant i saw at Kew Gardens, cause I just figured a guy who lived in an attic would eat flies.