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... ...

Poop Poop !

A bit behind on posting but here's a sneak peak at my process and contribution to the a little bit bunny blog. The topic this month is toad so I naturally couldn't resist having a crack at one of my favourite characters from one of my very favourite books!

I'm really enjoying approaching illustrations from a screen printed mix of limited colours approach. I'm also drawing my stuff with just the 3 colour layers in photoshop. It can slow things down a little but it helps to make you think about your choices. It's a great way to free up my colour thinking a little and fly by the seat of my pants more. I think the best aspect is that a limited palette of (in this case 3) colours, either against white or overlayed over each other to give darker hues, really confines your choices on how to approach the illustration. Sometimes too much choice makes me dither and fiddle with things so having a tightly defined palette as a framework on which to build forces me to try and make something look balanced and exciting with fewer components. Make the best of what you have.

And yes, the close up detail I've shown here really does show that Mr. Toad's scarf is missing a bit. I was desperate to have him in silk scarf and flying goggles but I didn't want the scarf bisecting his body. Heck, I'm playing my artistic license card on this one. It's like that because it just is! Poop Poop to all :-)

glass half full...

Just a positive thought based on a little doodle. Also harks back to an old post of mine...

Dodo by night...

Truth be told I've probably been putting off posting images of my Dodo screen print from last weeks introductory workshop. I screwed up on my colour mixing for the background grey and the foreground greens (why did I end up going so dark for the grey and too light on the green... I'm still not sure...call it a moment of chroma madness...) and my registration of the screens was always a little off, no matter how I wrestled with it. Sill, in line with the positive attitude I'm determined to keep from here on in the day was all about learning and I really did get a great overview on things. I just love the screen printing process and hope to do more as soon as possible. I also cannot recommend enough the excellent folks at Snap studio in Bristol. If you get the chance to, you must stop by and buy. The print work they sell is absolutely fantastic! Many thanks in particular go to the hardworking and inspirational screenprinting wonder that is Emma Peacock who showed us all the ropes on the workshop.

Disassembled Dodo...

"Disassembled Dodo"...now there's a great name for a band...?! Thanks so much to all those who gave positive feedback on my last Dodo post. I feel happy to continue with the little chap...wait, that should be chapess as she has just laid an egg! So the dodo is the one I'll try for print on. I did the colour separations for it yesterday, including a minor change to the bum shape to make it more Dodoesque. The last ass wasn't quite right. It's interesting to see the whole image emerge from just 3 colour layers set to multiply in photoshop. Yes, I know It'd be easier to do the whole thing as vectors in illustrator but I just cannot be as loose and spontaneous creating stuff by dragging vector nodes as I can wacomming pixels. Big positives and negatives with both ways of doing things... So I hope to have a genuine, bona fide A3 screen print to post next week... fingers crossed. Should be fun.

On an unrelated note I watched the animated version of Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing from iTunes last night. If you're a fan of the original book you really won't be disappointed and, if you don't know what I'm on about go have a shufty! The animation captures the disjointed, otherworldly yet familiar antipodean distopia feel from the book perfectly. The character and environment design, colour design, animation, narration (the marvelous Tim Minchin) are all glorious! Go on, treat yourself.

The last Dodo...

Well my screen print thing is next saturday and I cannot help but keep trying out various ideas on what to print. Still with the bird theme for some reason (I do find some birds seemingly preposterous legs set too far back for their centre of gravity stance endlessly amusing...) I'm trying out a Dodo design which has a more decorative, retro, patterned graphic look.

I think the humble Dodo makes an interesting subject as it has a number of themes going on. It's humorous character (thanks in part to Lewis Carroll, Tenniel and also the many and varied engravings, drawings and paintings made from accounts while it was still around), the obvious message of conservation verses extinction of species and also an almost mythic quality. Despite having had existed, I don't know about you but, for me it's almost as if the Dodo is a fictitious creature that has been conjured up to teach us a worthy lesson...

Ducking around...

I'm still batting a few ideas around ready for my screen print taster class. It's very silly I know, but I think there's something worth pursuing with the ducking duck... Not sure I can be 100% sure of pulling off the screen separations as I have them in this, especially with the fragmented textures in the body, but I like the contrasts and interplay of the limited colours. It's fun just ducking around.