A drawing of a chicken.

Because sometimes, there is nothing better to do.

Might colour it the next time I feel the urge.

Illustration Set

My set of train based illustrations for final major project is eventually complete! So here's the end results in order of production, because I think you can see me getting better as I go through each image.

In this first image you can see the idea for the theme developed into an end result which is much plainer than the other two pieces, so I may have to add in a couple of signs or something to fill some of the negative space, but for now i'm going to leave it as it is, until I have a better idea of what the picture needs.

"Ladies Sign Illustration"

In this piece my illustrations were becoming very focused on a certain style, using the cutout filter on original photography pieces which were cut and pasted into appropriate sections, mostly in posters but also in the piece below to fill the background with shops. (I'm aware that my wee man still hasn't got a hand, don't panic! I'm giving him one today, or maybe a hook, keep him trendy like.)

"Mind the Gap Illustration"

For this one I decided not to use the outline of the homeless man because I like how he sort of fades into the background. The ceiling may still be coloured red but for the moment I wanted to leave it as a blank outline to leave some extra space in the piece, balancing the format of the three pieces.

"Information Illustration"

 Thanks for keeping up to date with my work, my developed photography work will now be posted on Thursday to give me time to get a couple more pieces done. Tutorials for this work is available on request like always, just send me an e-mail and i'll send you the work. Laters alligators.

Still Life and Sillyness.

So a couple of Saturdays ago I nicked 5 mannequins from college and went out to the old Limavady junction with my mum. Decided it would be nice to create a few relevant pieces of photography for my project instead of just using the media for research. So me and mum got to work, battling the wind and rain to get 5 hollow bodies to stand up on their own all at once. Not an easy task as we discovered, but i'm super happy with the results, i'll put up a post of the developed film on monday. Here's a few of the nice ones.

 

"Pimpin' with the 'quins."

"Travel, transport, and general noseyness"

Evening all, little update anyone?

I have all of a sudden become aware of the pure epicness of inky pens and the line drawings they produce. Been getting a little enthusiastic with them, but here's one of my favourites, taken from a photography session out at Bellarena train station (sorry, there's a bit of glare from the camera on that one). Some of those photos can be seen below.

As part of the project i'm aiming to complete four illustrative pieces which collage different pieces of imagery and research together to create an image which creates a bit more depth that just a flat illustration. In this one below i'm playing with the design of the train ticket, pieces of the original photograph, textures and composition, to get something which really catches the eye. When I saw the sign for the Ladies pointing towards the girl it gave me a theme for the illustration pieces. I'm going to use other signs collected from the stations to create comical pieces featuring other people that I saw in the stations. Stay tuned for the rest of the collection. They should hopefully be completed by next week, let me know what you think and e-mail me if you're in need of tutorials, as ever.

The Beginnings of Final Major Project....

As promised, with a uni place confirmed the work for final major is now properly underway! Thought i'd give you a little peek into my sketchbook tonight and give you an idea of what's to come.

The project is based on the view from a train window, which sounds a bit boring I know, but it all began on the train to Falmouth (on which I was becoming gradually more bored) and I noticed that when the train pulled into the station, I could get a little man-made view through the window, into the lives of the other people travelling that day. It makes it all the more special that because of the blacked out windows, they can't actually see you looking at them (and it makes it much less embarassing to be a bit of a stalker artist). So I decided this would make an epic illustration project.

(Some of the images that became my inspiration below)

 

 

After a while (and a bit more boredom) instead of taking individual shots I decided to do a continuous ream of photos in order to create a sort of basic animation of the journey through each platform. Here's a bit of the experimentation for that. The idea is that will develop into a conceptual video with black space in between each piece, during which I will play noise recorded from train stations, many research trips needed...

 And now to the illustration section of the project. For the next few weeks i'll be experimenting with different combinations of media to produce a collage of people standing on a platform, using photography (both black/white and full colour), collography, etching, drawing, painting and a bit of textiles. So stay tuned for that. Here's a few sketchbook pages with ideas and sketches to keep you going. More soon!

Another wee bit of photography

It may be just because i'm preparing to abandon it for uni soon (to Falmouth by the way!), but i'm starting to take my camera everywhere with me to record all the pretty little bits and bobs that I see, i've recently realised how amazingly beautiful my hometown is, and i'm trying to take advantage of it if I can. I'm planning to create a huge archive of imagery which can be edited and added into illustration pieces when necessary. Here's a few more from the Roe Valley Country park, during the day this time.

I'm working on a few drawings at the moment so they'll be up (hopefully) before my Easter holidays finish.

Over and out.

Portfolio Submission for Bournemouth Art College

Project 1. Still Life

For this project I was set the task of choosing a subject and creating a variety of still life pieces. I choose to study toys and began my experimenting a variety of basic materials to create some A3 pieces such as the elephant below.

("Elephant" in biro with charcoal and colouring pencil (A3)

(3D piece based on a doll that I own, focused on abuse of the body by smoking)

I then began to expand my idea slightly, using still images of human life to inspire the layout and themes within each piece, focusing mainly on abuse of the body and also violence.

("Alco-Teddy" in pencil (A3)

In the piece below I used the Terracotta Army as a contextual reference, using the image repitition to highlight the threatening nature of teenage gangs, but keeping the piece comical with the use of a Power Ranger toy. At this stage in my foundation course I also began to experiment with the use of relevant media, so I used the spray paint to link the connection between the toy and the youth gang culture.

("Terracotta Power Ranger Army" in spray paint)

This Barbie installation piece was a conceptual piece, designed to hang on a wall as a normal piece of decoration, to highlight the normality of violence in our society.

(Barbie Installation Piece)

Some sketchbook work from this project

Project 2. Choose an artist, research them thoroughly and experiment using their techniques to create a unique project of your own.

For this project I choose the artist Lucian Freud because I admire his ability to put expression into his work and I decided that it would be an interesting experiment to bring a fine art influence into my work. The piece below is based on one of Freuds self portraits but instead of using paint I studied how he uses his brush strokes to accentuate the facial structure and tried to replicate this using a biro.

("Lucian Freud in Biro") (A2)

I decided to use what I had learned from Freud to create a conceptual artists book based on "Alice in Wonderland" as I thought the graphic portraiture style would work well with the sinister undertones of the story. Below you can see a few samples of my print experimentation influenced by themes in the book.

("Why is a raven like a writing desk?" press print piece (A2)

(Etching print, based on "The Painter's Mother" by L. Freud,
used as a reference for the design of the Queen of Hearts)

These images below are a collection of wallpapers (created on Adobe Photoshop) for the page backgrounds of my book. I studied the repeat pattern designs of William Morris to bring the book into a Victorian context. I used some of my bird print designs to make the pages for the Mad Hatter and March Hare and read the book to get inspiration for the additional pages.

 

Project 3 : Decide on a suitable project title to explore your chosen specialism (Illustration)

Chosen title : "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll" (an advertising campaign for Sonisphere heavy metal festival)

I began this project by collecting imagery from alternative magazine to put myself inside the heads of my target market. I collaged this imagery together to produced the large scale poster that can be seen below (aimed at the raver-type audience of the festival).

(Photoshopped A2 collage for Sonisphere advertisement campaign,
featuring the three main themes sex, drugs and rock 'n roll)

I decided to create a focus point on tattoo designs, a popular decoration amongst the alternative culture, in order to create another large scale poster for the metalhead audience. I worked along the main features of a typical asian style tattoo, adding in the tongue-in-cheek snake to attract the eye and add a bit of humour to the piece. The main image was hand drawn and then coloured using Adobe Photoshop.

(A2 Poster focused on the Metalhead market)

As part of this project we were required to do a scale drawing with a 20 hour limit, so I decided to use this biro piece to create a couple of souvenir postcards.

("My friend Ash" in biro") (A2)

I liked the idea of the souvenir postcards, plus they gave me a fabulous oppertunity to stretch my illustration experience. So I decided to create a few additional pieces to produce a full series. As part of the work for this mini project I made a collection of mud monsters, inspired by the muddy fields of Glastonbury, scanned them into the computer and used them to create the squelchy demons seen in the third postcard.

Samples of my life drawing work

Sample of my personal photography work

I also do a lot of stop motion animation work in my spare time, one of my videos can be seen here if you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2NqH3svr2o