Sketchbook Entry 5/12/10

 

A wee doodle for today!
I do crack myself up sometimes.

nx

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A Stab at Screen Printing

I’ve always been interested in screen printing, I love the idea of putting my stuff onto bags and t-shirts or even making art prints so for the past 3 weeks I’ve been taking a wee screen printing class and I’d like to share my progress!

Ok first of all here’s one of my designs on the screen, It’s a dinosaur and it got there by placing the design over the light-sensitive paper to make a stencil in the mesh. This can also be done with light-sensitive emulsion.

Now I’ve got my screen ready it gets clamped to a machine with an arm (real technical terms here). Then I get my squeegee and ink ready.

So now we’re ready to go. With both hands I take the squeegee and swipe the ink down the screen, the action makes a very satisfying noise (like sweeeeeeeesh).

I lift up my screen and there it is, my first screen printed tshirt. I feel like a proud parent.

Pleased with my result, I try a different colour scheme.

I then decide to screen print my sketchbook, just cos.

Swish! So to conclude, I’m having loads of fun and will hopefully make up some (better) tshirts and bags etc for people to wear about once I’ve had a bit more practice.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!

Take care!

nx

Sketchbook Entry 12/11/10

 

So I got home from work today feeling a bit creative, but only having an hour or so to spare before I went back out. I thought to myself ‘maybe instead of doing my usual faffing about with computers or flicking through tv channels I’ll set myself a little challenge?’ like making and finishing something within the hour.

It was originally made of 2 or 3 different pictures but I ended up cropping it lots as I like this composition better. Anyways, It’s about me fancying someone.

In other news I have recently acquired a new robot, I think he looks like a Percy, wouldn’t you say?

As always, any feedback on my work is more than welcome!

take care nx

This Week’s Books

Hello! I apologise for it being over a week since my last post, I have been working hard on some secret little projects as well as some things of my own that I’m not quite ready to show yet.

So with an absence of original material, I’d like to talk about my shopping. Since the daylight is increasingly growing shorter up here I’ve been going on little book buying sprees, mostly art and comic books mind you but still worth talking about none the less.

Ok first on the list is ‘Lost Constellations’ which is the 2nd art book by Tara McPherson, one of my favourite artists.

In this volume you can clearly see how Tara’s work has progressed and matured since the last book whilst keeping her signature style and pallete perfectly intact. I’d definitely recommend this book to people who are interested in artists of today although one thing I would say is that if you own the first volume a lot of the same art appears.

Next on the list is the’ Juxtapoz Poster Art’ book,  as a big fan on the Juxtapoz art magazines when I heard they were releasing a poster art book I couldn’t help but scoop it up.

The book features art and interviews from hundreds of artists and illustrators and even from flicking through the first few pages I was left with a strong feeling that poster art is an amazing art form with great possibilities and shouldn’t be overlooked as just another form of advertising.

Ok, almost there, 3rd on the list is a comic by spanish illustrator Gabriella Giandelli entitled ‘Interiorae’. This is one of my ‘random’ finds, basically I don’t know where to start with comics so my usual approach is to flick through some things in the shop and see which pictures I like best, this one won.

It tells the story of a little old lady on a journey to her final resting place, and if not a bit sad I found it really beautiful, mostly because of the astounding artwork which has such a natural feel to it, top marks!

Right I’m almost done, Last on my list is Shaun Tans ‘The Arrival’ I’ve always been a huge fan of this guy ever since I read ‘The Red Tree’ which inspired me immensely.

What’s interesting about this is that it’s a story about immigration and about all the people in history who have journeyed to the unknown in search of a better life, it also has no words or text whatsoever, as if to help you relate with the books characters. But as usual what appeals to me most is the simply oustanding and painstakingly detailed artwork.

Well I hope you enjoyed that nosey into my shopping, I’ll be back soon with some new pictures!

Take care!

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

Sketchbook Entry 24/9/10

I was thinking about this on the bus earlier, I think the hardest task for an artist of any type is to get out what’s exactly in their head. It’s something I definitely aspire to, to be able to put onto paper the exact imagine I’m imagining is my ultimate goal and it’s why I try to keep learning and try different approaches and mediums whenever I can.

Having that said, I did this with my new tablet earlier.

take care

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

Running on Empty

Robots,my favourite vehicles of expression.

As you can maybe guess I’ve been feeling a bit run down recently, mainly because I’ve been out and about so much and it’s starting to take a toll on my sleeping pattern and work ethic, im getting back to normal though I just need a good nights sleep and that’ll be me!

In other news, I’ve updated my shop, I’ll be sticking up a lot more stuff once my new prints arrive, which im quite excited about.

take care!

nx

‘Shut up about comics Neil’

Nup, I’m gonna talk about comics for eeeeever, or at least for this post then i’ll be done for a wee while.

As many of you know, I love getting Mail, especially from real people. Well today I received a comic! It’s called ‘The Lobster King’ and it’s written and drawn swedish illustrator Clara Bessijelle .

Reading through the comic is like being transported to a surrealist painting where things are just that little bit darker and stranger yet still retaining a dream like quality.I actually had the pleasure of meeting Clara last year, she was living next door for a wee while and I got to show her around Glasgow, as well as showing her some of my naff pictures. The whole experience was quite expiring actually and since then I’ve gotten more into indie comics, to the extend I’ve started working on one myself but shhh it’s a secret.

Anyhoo for more about Clara check out her blog.

oop before I go,I did another zelda picture!

well that’s me for today, take care!

nx

Then I’ll Dig a Tunnel

Hello everyone!

Hope you’re all enjoying the summer, I just have a few bits and pieces to share today, Firstly a little drawing.

This was actually a commission for a friend, It’s actually one of favourite kind of  jobs because I was only given a lyric and then had the freedom to interpret it any way I wanted, anyways that’s what came out and I was very pleased with it and so were they(yay!).

In other news I’ve been spending most of my free time preparing for the Made In The Shade Summertime Hop which will be in Edinburgh in the Roxy Art House this saturday!

I’ll be there setting up shop with some new pictures and prints as well as almost 30 other indie designer crafty vintage people, If you’re around that area It’s definitely worth a peep!

Oh a poster!

For more about Made In The Shade check their site or facebook!

Tarra!

nx