I made a painting today, I had this idea in my head for months, so I woke up with the motivation to get on it. I have a vision for a second piece. At the pace I'm going it will be eons before I get around to doing it. It was more of a fun project because it resulted in a random mish-mash of blobs and sprays. Very messy business!

Lovely day for a picnic!

Spring has nearly arrived. The weather is getting warmer, warm enough to take a kip on the terrace and a hike up to the highest point in Hampstead Heath Park, one of Yunnie's fave spots in the city. Unfortunately, we forgot about one of the great joys of spring - mud!


Not sure why I was so drawn to this ugly mat underneath the water...

This muddy fellow's greeting left Yunnie and I a bit mucky.

Botching book design

I really dislike the short stories we have to design this 28-page book based upon. The stories were about an old lady being forcible removed from her home and dying, a blind woman who gets attacked and her head booted in, a girl killing a pet bird and the author going to a book signing and chickening out from handing over his manuscript.

Here are two of my cover ideas, which I am less than pleased about.
I went forth with the second.


The final result: Catherine, the tutor preferred the back cover and suggested I use it as the front and scrap the business at the front altogether.

Pick N Mix Part 1 - Design

I have been hard at work on our first Pick N Mix project - we chose a brief that we like the sound of between animation, interactive design, illustration, photography and design and have 2 weeks to complete it. Emilia and I did not realize it was a timely matter and there were limited spots for each brief, so we took our time deciding and ended up having to do the design brief due to immense popularity of the others. I explained the brief and my concept already on here, but alas this is the final product.





You will notice I have addressed them to a Mr. D. Johns in Aussieland.. wonder where I came up with that one...


What do you think?

What's in your sketchbook?

I have joined our program's sketchbook club and we had our first meeting last week. We were asked to bring in our sketchbooks as well as some work by our favourite designers. Prior to this course I had never bothered to keep an sb but thought I might get a head start on mine before the meeting. This is something I have been working on on top of the Hugo Boss competition and Pick + Mix project mentioned in the previous post.

The meeting was fantastic. I thought there was a definitive line between good and bad drawers but the meeting absolutely changed my point of view. Art is completely subjective. Not everyone will appreciate your work, but that doesn't mean it stinks. It also changed my perception on what a sketchbook is. I always considered it was just a bunch of pencil/charcoal drawn images. Our tutor, Rachel really encouraged us to let go and get personal in our sketchbook.

Rachel also mentioned trying to organize some industry members to come in and speak to us as well as some field trips and nights out. She talked about giving us a brief for an album design and having the gallery show in a record shop. I'm quite excited!

Anyway, my mum wanted to see what I've been working manically on, so I decided to post some pages from my sketchbook. I was inspired by this book that Emilia brought back from Finland containing excerpts out of students sb's at an art college in Helsinki.

Project Workshop

Emilia and I had a very productive day. There is nothing more fun and inspiring than doing homework with others. I finally got a handle on my design book brief and came up with the layout for my stationary. My concept is a series of envelopes containing letters/poems documenting the course of a relationship from the beginning to the demise.

As the letters/poems progress, the flower illustration will slowly wilt. Illustration is certainly not my strong point, so I'm sort of biting the bullet and giving it a go.


Another drawing I was considering for stationary.

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVE

Whilst working on the photo brief for my hero/heroine I have taken many photos. I am not sure which I prefer so I was hoping maybe you have an opinion. My concept is basically an amalgamation of vegan chef Sarah Kramer (http://govegan.net/splash.html) and my mum. I also did a few shots that I wasn't overly pleased with as the musical genius that is Jenny Lewis (http://www.jennylewis.com/). My motto is generally silly over serious. But please, send me some feedback!!!

See comment option below post.


I really dig this one (below), but I forgot to change the ISO and therefore enlarged it's rather grainy. I tried to recreate it, but it's impossible to replicate that face!!

The one below is from the second round of shots.. much better quality, no grain... but crap faces!


Round 3 may be the charm ?? Are any of these (below) better? HELP!