blow out the blog cobwebs...

They say a change is as good as a rest so I've decided to open the windows wide, blow off the dust on the old blog and go for a new look. It's nigh on impossible to sum up everything you want to convey on a single blog header but I've opted to stick with my idea from the last header and reuse bits and bobs from past pieces of work. It's fun and surprising to take existing elements and throw them all together to see what you end up with. That said I'm curiously attached to a few pieces of old work, my sad old wonky donkey, my ink splattered hyena and my precarious yet poised pachyderm so I worked them up into headers too. I don't think they are really indicative of how I generally work, but I liked revisting them nevertheless. OK... now I've only got my website to spruce up...

Tough commute...

Torrential rain and a puncture... happy, happy, joy, joy! Still I got a drawing out of it. Every cloud has a silver lining :-)

Dodo screen print post mortem.

So I did my fast track screen print workshop sessions last week with my revised dodo screen print design, but I have to say I'm more than a little disappointed with the results. It's only my second attempt at screen printing so I know I shouldn't be expecting too much. That said I'd hoped to produce some better, perhaps saleable prints. A bad workman blames his tools so I won't dwell on some of the problems I had with ghost images on screens and scratchy squeegees. It's all a learning curve after all. One big plus was that my revised design was, as I'd hoped, much better than my first attempt with regard to being more forgiving of slipped registration during printing. In fact I'd designed in purposefully misregistered elements. All I had to try and nail were the eye and feet while the rest of the image could, largely, take care of itself. So that gives me something to work with for future designs. My colour mix was better too. Not the same colours as my digital, but a pleasant outcome. I also learnt some more details about the whole process which should come in handy later on. For this print I got to use a larger printing press with a single arm and a vacuum bed, which was interesting. I think however, on balance, I prefered the simpler hand bench press I used for my first print attempt. OK, it might have it's pitfalls but I think it feels like you are more hands on and closer to the work. I really hope to try again soon, although the logistics of how I'm going to set about cost effectively screen printing are a challenge...  I'd love to print on a hand bench set up in my own good time at home rather than working to a course's tight schedule (and courses are expensive)... if only I had a shed or garage... ho hum... Still, no one said it'd be easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it!

If Asleep, now with a dash of colour.

Couldn't resist adding a wee splash of colour to the previous post. I really like the contrast it gives between the pallid greys of the vampire and the glowing sandy beach. Amps up the gag a bit more. I've also posted some doodles I did after finishing the illustration friday picture. I guess I had vampires on the brain! They are based on the intensely spooky Nosferatu film from 1922. I don't know about you but, even now, Max Schreck's performance in that gives me the heebie jeebies.  I think the skippy frame rate and disjointed effects in silent films create a weird, unnerving feel even before you get onto the vampire subject matter. It really goes to show you don't need all the CGI Hollywood bells and whistles (or even dialogue) so long as the story and performances are top notch. And as for 3D movies... don't get me started!!! The Fast Show did a pretty fine take on Nosferatu too :-) Sleep tight... don't let the vampires bite!

Illustration Friday - "Asleep"

It's been far too long since I last did an Illustration Friday topic. This weeks is "asleep"... a great subject for a bit of whimsy. Like all night shift workers Vampires need to catch some shut eye during the day. I suspect this guy is more interested in the night life of the resort.

flamingo ... flamingoing ... flamingone

Pinch, punch first of the month as they say. Over on A.L.B.B is my take on this months creature "flamingo". Here's a sneaky peakette :-)

flamingo sketching.

This months A.L.B.B is Flamingo so I'm just trying to get my eye in with some quick sketches. They sure do have weird beaks!

Dodo screen print revisited

At the risk of repeating myself I'm taking a look at my dodo screen print design ready for another screen print class I'm taking in a couple of weeks time. For this session I've decided to keep things simpler if at all possible so I've limited the number of screens to two and I've also trapped my colours in critical areas of the illustration (face, feet...) so any misregistration should hopefully be less damaging to the final outcome. In fact I've purposefully misregistered elements in the feathers because I kinda like the colour effect it gives. I've spent long enough on it for one day though... time to unplug at look at it afresh tomorrow.

Lebowski and the mug...

I've had this illustration hanging around for a few weeks now but since it was for a printed mug surprise for a good friend's birthday, and since I then forgot all about it, it hasn't seen the light of day... I don't usually feel comfortable with caricatures but this is my answer to Kev Levell's superb birthday Lebowski caricature for me. For those fans of the most excellent Coen bros The Big Lebowski film no explanation is required I hope... for everyone else this should illustrate what I was getting at.

"Blue(s) Whale" over on A.L.B.B

No... ... a whole month has gone by ...? Surely not...?! Well here's this months teaser for my post over on a little bit bunny. I only have some very loose doodles as the process on this piece. Once I hit on my basic treatment for the blue whale and the general composition of things everything else came together on the screen. As usual different computer monitors variously show the posted image as OK to gloomy to unreadable. I have to trust my own imac... and my own tired peepers... Maybe my light blues are a tad too light and my darks are a tad to dark. I was referencing some Blue Note album sleeve images I'd seen. If cool, groovy, hip and stylish album artwork is your bag daddio you might want to check out a couple of sites: project 33 has some glorious retro graphics on show while LP Cover Lover has a comprehensive collection of all that is cool right through to the very odd! RIGHT, now to get cracking on things for THIS blog! TTFN... ...