Mixing it up

 

Remember mix tapes? They were cool eh? I remember making mix cds in school quite a bit, they were usually for myself because at that point I never had the patience to listen to full albums, but a couple of times me and my geeky pals would swap some, or I’d make one for the odd (yet to be weirded out) girl.

Well I miss them, I really do. So I was all too up for it when a close friend suggested we do a mix tape swap, not with each other but organising it to go round the Scottish music blog scene. And so far it’s going great! I got sent mine yesterday and after a few listens I’ve already found some new favourite songs and bands I’ll be checking out, in fact come to think of it I probably wouldn’t know a couple of my favourite bands if it wasnt for mix tapes.

Anyways here’s what mines looks like!

So yea, if you’re feeling inspired why not make one yourself, and give it to a friend, it might even count as a christmas present if you’re feeling cheap :P

take care nx

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The End of an Era

As many of you may know music is and has been a huge part of my life, especially for the past 10 years or so that I’ve been playing in bands, mainly Anavris.

The band has been a huge part of my day-to-day life for the past 7 years (or maybe even longer) but unfortunately as of earlier this month it has come to an end.

On the plus side I’d like to stress that this was in fact a mutual decision, there was no big arguments, no fisty cuffs or rehab clinics and to tell you the honest truth it was a long time coming.

There was no single deciding incident or event, what happened was spread over the course of the last 6 months or so where I guess we all starting feeling a bit like we were stuck in a rut. The band itself wasn’t getting any bigger or smaller, we were under a lot of pressure to write an album which just wasn’t coming out and there was an undeniable feeling that we all wanted to be somewhere else. So after a big hearty chat we decided to call it a day.
This isn’t to say we won’t be working together in the future, the two Chrises are starting another band with a more epic sound in mind and Ben is continuing with his solo project which is gearing up to be pretty awesome.

I myself am still a bit undecided as what to do with myself now, obviously I’ll do my best to help out both projects but for the most part I feel like I should have a wee break from music, after all it’s been fairly non stop since I left school. So I might try to focus on my art a bit more, maybe write a book or a comic, and who knows maybe after a wee break I might get back on the band wagon (ho ho!)

Starting our first tour,with our lovely big red van (which lasted 6 months) taken somewhere in England 2006

But yea to sum up I had some of the best times of my life with the band, I made some of my best friends and got to travel loads and see some really cool places while I was at it.

Playing the Glasgow ABC, one of our biggest gigs.

I hope this clears up any queries or questions anyone had regarding the breakup, please stay tuned for news on future stuff as we’ll be back with some really cool music in one form or another.

Thanks for reading!

nx

Sailing the Clockwork Sea

Hello! Hope you’re all doing well, I’ve been fairly busy this week, mostly with trying to balance my new job, my social life(if you’d call it that) and some commissions, one of which took me basically all week!
And that’s what I’d like to show off today.

It was for my good friend Campbell(Shambles)Miller’s new e.p entitled ‘Shambles Sails the Clockwork Sea’ and basically the brief was “I want to be sailing over a sea clocks” so I thought to myself  ‘ok, I’m no stranger to bizarre requests so I’ll give it a bash.’ and a week later this popped out.

I’m actually pretty chuffed with it, as with most pieces there were points I just felt like scrapping it but I stuck it through and Campbell was very happy with it so I’m glad I saw it to the end.

The e.p itself won’t be out till October but in the meantime you can check out his stuff here.

until next time spacefans!

nx

Finding Inspiration:5 tips from me to you

Hello there!

Today I’d like to talk about inspiration and where it can come from.

As a creative, I continuously run into walls and blocks where my mind just gets stuck and won’t work, but as someone who depends on their creativity to generate an income I have no choice but to do my best to overcome them.

So I’ve made a short list, with details, of some of my methods of sparking imagination, I hope this’ll be useful not just for artists but for other creatives too.

1.Getting outside the box


We all have our comfort zones, we all know what we’re good at and what we’re not good at but it’s when we take a little jump out of these zones that we can sometimes find other things we’re good at.

I don’t necessarily mean try totally different things, I think it’s more important to experiment with different approaches to what you’re already doing, for example In an artistic context it’s good to try or mix mediums you wouldn’t usually use, subjects you’ve never studied before and colours you wouldn’t normally think of using.

A little trick I sometimes try is drawing something with my left hand, which gives a little wake up call to right side of my brain which often goes into auto pilot after a while.

2. Research the competition


It’s a well known rule of life that there’s always going to be someone better than you, doing what you want to do just that little bit better. Of course this isn’t a bad thing, it’s good to know the competition and it also can be inspiring whilst giving you a good sense of direction.

This is something I quite often do, be it buying magazines and books, keeping tabs on my favourite artists, checking blogs or even just googling ‘robot painting’ to see Eric Joyner pop up and place a firm boot to my back side.

3. Carry a sketchbook/note taking

Some of our best ideas are forgotten about, this was what my last exhibition was solely based on.

Keeping a sketchbook, pad or note taking device is essential for creatives because lets face it, do you remember every idea you had today?

Even if you are 100% sure that you’ll remember a certain idea by the time you get home or wake up the next day make sure you take note anyways. sometimes when I’m having a block I’ll look into old sketchbooks and find great ideas that I’d totally forgotten about, after a while they turn into little idea banks!

On another note I always get ideas just as I’m falling asleep so keep a pad and pencil next to my bed just incase, although most of the time I wake up to find random babbling.

4. Go for a walk
Sounds simple enough? personally most of my blocks occur in the house, getting out and getting a bit of air and space to think is sometimes all you need, that said it also pays to not whap in the headphones and listen to your head for a while instead of drowning it out.

5.  Write and reflect

If like me, your work is inspired by life and its events this can be a really helpful practice. Basically it involves writing loosely about anything, your day, you’re weekend, you’re relationship with someone, (it doesn’t have to be incredibly important) and in most cases you’ll come across something you’ve forgotten about that’s worth making something of.

It can sometimes even be as simple as having a little reminisce of past events until something pops.

Well Thats all I have to offer, I hope you enjoyed my little tips and hope that one or two comes in handy one day.

If you have any of your own please let me know!

nx

A thought for today

Do you think robots would like music? or even understand it? I was thinking this earlier, also today, as I put  my shopping through the self service checkout I had a think about the aspects of robots in our society getting closer and closer.

Maybe in about 10 years or so I’ll be able to have a robot companion to help me about, do the shopping, walk herman and basically be my personal assistant, that would be amazing!

Anyways thats my nonsense for the day.

take care!

nx

Doodles of the day

Hello hope everyone’s well!

yes,I’m doing ok thanks, I’ve just been getting my head down and drawing my face off for this exhibition.

I’d just like to point out that although I haven’t been putting much new stuff up recently It’s because I’ve not been working on new stuff, oh no no no, It’s mainly because I don’t want my exhibition to be like one of those films where all the best bits are in the trailer!

so understandably I’m trying to hold back on putting a lot of new stuff up before the exhibition, but for those who can’t make it don’t worry I’ll be uploading everything after it’s finished :)

anyways here’s a couple for being so patient.

have a lovely day!

nx

A Busy Week

Hello! hope everyone’s well!

Just a wee update on what I’ve been up to this week, unfortunately I haven’t been able to find the time to do any new paintings etc as I’ve had a bit of band work on and was also celebrating my 23rd birthday for most of the week!
Anyways, I made a little hoodie design which I think turned out quite well!

My initial idea was do something with rorschach prints, but as i started making them a few of them turned out like pairs of lungs so from that i decided to go for a medical illustration approach.
As well as that i also got to work on a cover for the new single, which basically i tried to make as quickly and as cheaply as possible, it looks like this!

There was only a limited run of 100, and each one was that little bit different from the next, unfortunately they’re all gone now :(

In other news i got a fancy new printer for my birthday :) so ill be able to make my own art prints and maybe even little books!

stay tuned!

nx

Ok so William Fitzsimmons messaged me..

When i got home from work today (yup,got a part time job,bloody credit crunch.) I had a check through myspace mail and what do i find but a message from one my favourite songwriters William Fitzsimmons! It looked like this…

Amazing! prior to that message, like a total fanboy, I had sent him some art that he inspired, not really thinking he’d reply but why not eh? now I don’t really know what to say back!

I get quite alot of ideas from music actually, sometimes lyrics or phrases pop pictures in my noggin, this was one of them…

I got the idea from William song ‘Please forgive me(Song of the Crow)’ where the first line is “My demons walk with me…”  It’s a really nice song actually, one of my favs :)

Anyways, I’m going to get myself together and reply to this most unexpected message, for a peep at Williams music and my favourite song try his myspace.

In other news by band will be in rock sound magazine on wednesday so fingers crossed we get a good reveiw!

in the meantime have a good weekend!

nx

A Bit Of A Shambles

No im not referring to my dress sense, I am of course talking about my latest artistic project for my friend Campbell (shambles) miller.

What was interesting about this was everything was done completely by hand,with the exception of the cover art.
In a way this was very time consuming and a bit tedious but on the other hand it was more than worth it as every cd is unique and has its own special little doodle inside!

If thats not made with love i dont know what is! also if anyone’s interested i play double bass on a couple of songs and do some backing vocals on one too!

for more about shambles visit his myspace or have a peek at his blog!

and if you fancy a cd they’re available through his big cartel store at a very reasonable price!

thanks for reading,take care!

nx

Start a Boycott!

Hey peeps, hope everyone’s doing well!

Last night(so many good stories start with ‘last night’ don’t they?) I went to see a band in town, It was their e.p launch actually, but what was special about this was i had actually designed the artwork for their e.p as well as posters,tshirts etc.

It was a great gig,and i even got a free copy of the e.p!

awesome!

They also had the poster i made about town,i never saw any but i kept getting calls ect from people going ‘someones using your art!’ to which i usually replied ‘its ok, they’re allowed!’

here’s the poster,i had a a lot of fun making this.

Anyhoo if you fancy checking out the boycotts check out their myspace, i highly recommend a listen!

Take care!

nx