Menageire

I seem to spend all my time apologizing on this blog, but I've sorry these are so over due. This is what I exhibited for the last project a couple of weeks. Again, you can see the rest of the photos here.

If anyone would like any of the original paintings, get in touch coz there's tonnes and I have no space in my flat. Cheap cheap cheap.

So Far Exhibition

Apologies for the awful photos, reflections and blurs and crappy colours etc. This what I exhibited. You can see the rest of the photos (of equally terrible quality) here.

Framing bits up

I think I'm finished. This is a cut out section of a bigger painting I did earlier today, in a frame I forgot I had. I'm planning to exhibit this, a smaller version of it and one of the landscapes I've done, under some pretentious title I'm yet to decide upon. I love putting things in frames, everything looks so much nicer in a frame. Especially when the frames cost 50p and are a bit battered.

The show opens on Friday and will be running for a week. So if anyone is in Edinburgh do try to pop along to the gallery and have a look. Should be dead dead dead good.

Splodge

I'm thinking of exhibiting the landscape I posted about last, along two sections of a more abstract painting, like the one above. I've been toying with some more narrative based paintings but I don't think what I'm trying to paint is figurative at all and they've not been having the same impact as the stranger ones.

Three Weeks

This is something I've been working on today. I've been having a good think about what it is I want to say and I've decided that it's less about making the viewer feel uncomfortable and awkward and more just about putting them in a thoughtful kind of reflective, mellow place (which is at the same time a little unnerving.)

I noticed around the three week mark of last project and what was for most people their third week of living in a new place and not knowing anyone, that everyone kind of got a touch less enthusiastic and a bit quieter. I was no exception. I think it was the excitement wearing off and I was faced with the fact that as nice as all these new things and new people were, I kind of missed the comfort of home. I'm going to carry on working around that idea I think.

So Far

I have been slacking majorly with this blog recently. I've done a whole project, doing new work every day, an exhibition and not one sign of a blog post. I'm very sorry and I'm going to say I'm going to try to update a bit more regularly.

I'm currently working on a new project titled 'So Far', the end result of which will be exhibited along with all the other first year's work at a gallery in Edinburgh on the 12th of November. It's going to dead good.

I'm focusing my work on how awkward and kind of lost I've felt at various points over the past couple of months. University has been a lot more difficult than I had anticipated and I think being put in an unexpected and sort of uncomfortable position is really interesting place to be. So I'm trying to do a painting of that, which turns out is really difficult to get down on paper.

My motive for the landscapes is sort of about feeling lost and overwhelmed, not in terms of being in a bustling crowd; It's felt much more thoughtful and reflective than that. I think it's been a bit like a misty bleak moor. The shapeless dark shapes in the corner are intended to make you feel slightly uncomfortable - this unrecognizable form that you can't say what it is. But I'm not sure it's getting that across too well really.

Vogelkop

We were given our first uni project last week and I have been pretty busy with it over the past few days. I'm trying to get across the story of the Vogelkop Bowerbird, something I was toying with ages ago but never really finished. These are just a couple of experiments.

Hello England my old friend

Hello! I am very glad to be back on English shores once more. Many apologies for the long absence, I did plan to post a few bits and bobs whilst I was away but I never found the time or the scanners.

I didn't draw anywhere near as much as I'd have liked to, but here are a few of the few scrappy sketches I did. I am looking forward to settling into a new painting tomorrow and getting back into my familiar drawing routines.

In other news, I'm moving to Edinburgh on Saturday to study at the Edinburgh College of Art. I must admit, I'm very excited. I've missed having proper projects set for me and art teachers and other students and free paint so it'll be lovely to get back to.

Above are some drawings of 2 elderly women from the villages around Sapa, North Vietnam. They had proper gnarled skin. The palm leaf bits are creations of our boat driver and the glasses are just there because they're really cool.

Pipe Smoke

Here is a quick drawing I've just finished. It's based on a film trailer I've been asked to do some paintings for. I'd like to be cool and mysterious and say I can't tell you too much about it, but in reality you know as much as I do. Nearly.

I'll try to do some more tomorrow in between packing for my imminent adventure to Vietnam and Cambodia, which I'm super excited about.

In other news, this song is brilliant.

Minor Man

Here are the paintings I promised. I thoroughly enjoyed working with such a strong narrative and mood, it made my job pretty easy and I'd like to think that these have a bit more depth to them than usual.

You can hear the music here. We recorded it all in my bedroom, very lo-tech with the help from another friend. Alex wrote and performed all of the songs and we just added the extra instrumentation. She also has a facebook page.

Frosty Discipline

I always think it's really interesting when people post up photos of where they work and of their sketchbooks. Unfortunately this isn't really where I'd usually work and it's not my sketchbook. So it wouldn't be fair to judge. Potentially interesting all the same?

I've been working on some possible covers for my friend Alex's E.P which I have just helped her to record. I will post proper scans and a link to the music when I get home later this week. I'm sure you will love it. The music that is.

In other news, the weather is perfect at the moment and I'm hoping that the weekend will be spent by the rivers and lakes and filled with barbecues and beer gardens.

Rust House

Buildings are a bugger. Straight lines and perspective and logic don't like me I think. Jenny Smith nails buildings beautifully, as is the same with everything else she draws.

Sam Bosma

Sam Bosma is bloody marvelous. I love everything about his work at the moment. He's got such a knack for full environments and scenes, the detail is immense. He works digitally, which isn't usually something I'm all that into, but he manages to pull it off so well and give it a really organic, natural finish. His recent Hobbit stuff for the Picture Book Report is really excellent. Look out for the posts about his process, they're fascinating.

Walthamstow Marshes

Not to say that I'm tired of drawing people, I just think I spend too much time doing it, so I've decided to work on some landscapes for a change. I worked from a screen shot of a Temper Trap video. I'm not really a fan of the band, but the video (aside from the awful CGI crow) is excellent.

I think I might go for a drive next time the sky is gloomy to do some drawings of the moors round my way. They're much more interesting than these marshes in London. Very Wuthering Heights, I promise.

Workshop for Children

Atelier pour enfants is a blog I've been meaning to talk about for a while. I can't remember where I found it, but I'm extremely glad I did. It's full of the most amazing children's book illustrations in the world. Like these by Leonard Weisgard.

It's very much in french and I don't understand a word of what's going on, or anything about who runs it etc.. But nevertheless it is a constant source of inspiration. 

 

"The Dead Bird" by Remy Charlip.

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Another similar looking portrait. I need to do something differrrrrent!

In the woods

As you may have guessed, I'm back! I have had a spectacularly good month but am very glad to be home at last. It's especially nice to come back to such glorious weather, I think I must have brought the sun home from Croatia with me. I always find it funny when people moan about coming home from holidays and getting back into familiarity, I love it! I have missed painting and tea and toast and ribena and cows and green green fields. But most of all I have missed Doctor Who and Gene Hunt.

Today has been my first proper drawing day, it's been spent painting this, listening to radio 4 and eating ice lollies. I initially just wanted to do something as a quick warm up to get back into the swing of things so I copied this photo but I got really stuck into it and it consumed a bit more time than I'd planned. Really sorry to the photographer, I have no idea who you are, I found your image on flickr ages ago and never noted who took it, but the credit goes to you.

T.T.F.N

Tomorrow I'm off on an adventure! I'm going with a friend to Eastern Europe for a month, traveling on the trains. We were supposed to have flown out to Krakow today but a certain Icelandic Volcano stopped us in our tracks, so instead we are heading to Dover to get a ferry tomorrow morning.

I can't wait!

Which means, unfortunately I won't be on here for 3-4 weeksish, so I thought I'd leave you with a scrappy drawing of a particularly English looking fellow.

Car Boot Loot

I don't intend to fill my blog with non-drawingy things regularly but this calls for an exception.

Today me and Emily went to a huge car boot sale in Hexham, just out of Carlisle and have returned with lots of treasures. As you can see.

It was full of very weird people and very weird things but it was good fun.  Best bargains of the day - the trunk cost a fiver and the camera £2! Avit

Thank you very much to Damien from Ruby Blue for the recommendation.

Wolf Mill

I'm pleased with parts of this and frustrated by others, namely the mill. It's rubbish. I think I will definitely redo it.

Sub Studio

Sub studio was the first blog I ever read and was pretty much my main source of inspiration for a long time. I'm going to say that it was one of the main reasons I got into illustration. So being featured on it is pretty special.

I've also been asked to take part in their Follow The Leader project. Excellent!

The She Wolf sketches

Here are some rough paintings I did last night based on a folk story I was reading a few months ago. The story is about a wolf woman who terrorizes a small village in the forest only to be tricked into marrying a soilder. Painting like this is fun fun fun.

Blanket Magazine

I hope that everyone has had a nice easter and is enjoying a relaxing bank holiday monday. It's cold and grey and windy here, which has provided me with an excuse to finish another page of my book.

I have been featured in the new issue of Blanket Magazine. It's only £1.35 and a very good read indeed.

Ronny

Good morning! I was asked last week by Chris at Annalemma magazine to produce him an image based on a short story by Stephen Leonard, which you can read here. This is probably the coolest thing that has ever happened it me.

I really enjoyed thinking about how to convey the narrative in the piece, it was hard, but I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Wolf Suit

I've wanted to try working without pencil outlines for a while now, but just never got round to doing it. Which is a really rubbish excuse.
I might have a word with this fella and tell him to tone down the eye liner a bit, gothic wolf suits are never a good look.

I Made You a Beard

I have been featured on the I Made You a Beard blog by the very lovely Erin Dollar! This is very exciting as it's the first time I have ever been posted about. Woop woop!

Jon McNaught

I really love these drawings from Pebble Island by Jon McNaught. Makes me want to screen print.

Fox Puppet

I made a puppet! In other news, I think my interest in foxes is verging on obsessive.

Subterranean

I think the past few Illustration Friday topics have been pretty difficult and open, maybe it's something I need to work on, but I like having something a bit more specific. 2 word topics would be great.

Here is my entry, a painting which took a refreshingly short amount of time. It's a fox checking out a hole.

Underdog

I originally intended so submit this to Beautiful/Decay magazine. They asked for drawings on the subject of "Underdog" to be published in their new issue. So there was me, beavering away on the painting only to find the deadline was in December. Whoops.

He is quietly smug about his achievements. He is the tortoise.

Washing Lady

To much going on in the background?

The Fox and The Crow pt2

I'm not going to post up every page I do I promise, but I have slaved over this this evening and I am quite pleased with it.