Retro Sunday: 7

like a graceful dance...

crimbo

cheesy? yes! but I'm allowed a fat cheesy Christmas doodle today, surely.

Have a good one, folks!

♥


psst! hundredth post!

smudged

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Hot Chip

I'm going to practise with Photoshop more with some quick illustrations like these to get myself to stop mourning the loss of my beloved openCanvas4.03

I like Hot Chip.


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SEQUENCE Magazine

Micky and Nikki of Nematode in Space glory have started a new comics magazine called SEQUENCE. And it looks rather promising.

image by *PowFlip

"SEQUENCE is an independent zine focused on informing, instructing, and connecting the comics community; no invitation necessary!
Do you wanna see your works in print? Have something you've been dying to share with a larger audience? A review? Preview of your latest comic? Oneshot? Helpful tutorial? Please CONTRIBUTE!
We're in desperate need of contributors, so fill out our CONTRIBUTE form or contact [~bunkun], ~Meeleena, or ~jknozmo with ideas, questions, opinions, whatev and we'll HOOK YOU UP."

lolage by ~jknozmo

And there are loads of ways to contribute; not just entering comics and articles!
You can also help kickstart SEQUENCE by helping fund the printing costs. Click here to see other ways to help with the production of SEQUENCE.

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The Wolfman...

click to fullview and unscrunch the image!

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sticks and birds

I've been wondering... if something is good, but personal, should you show/expose/post it? What if it isn't personal at all but it looks like it is? People always seem to want to make connections that sometimes aren't even there. I don't think work should suffer/be hidden for that kind of reason... but some things are not so simple.

The makings of a project maybe...

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Retro Sunday: 6

Floating Ideas

While moaning about having nothing worth posting I had the thought "I usually enjoy seeing people's sketchbook pages. Why not post some more stuff from my sketchbooks?" So, for now, that is precisely what I'm going to do! :)

These are the ideas floating in my head at the moment, each described in one word.

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Retro Sunday: 5

sketchbook sequential scribbles and stuff

Hiya!

I've been focussing on dissertation work recently so, while the practical work hasn't stopped by any means, I've not been doing as much finished stuff. Not to mention I've been battling with some creative frustrations and people frustrations that seem to be keeping me from getting on with things...
A few wee (A6) sketchbook pages follow. Some things are plans for current pieces, others are just floating ideas...

and I've recently gotten back into posemaniacs.

♥

Retro Sunday: 4

Sorry for the one week delay!

My mum has a classic Volkswagen Beetle. They are gorgeous cars...

Shadow Play Illustration Symposium

Last week from Tuesday to Thursday was the Cardiff School of Art and Design Illustration Symposium: Shadow Play. Many of the papers were relevant to my dissertation and it was an enjoyable evening overall. I should have blogged about it beforehand, but I was so busy it totally slipped my mind.
I only managed to attend Wednesday afternoon's talks, but it was so worth it. I wish I'd been able to go to all the talks over the full three days and I hope to get the chance to go to more events like it.

You can find photos of the event at the Illustration Research blog.

Photos from the Big Draw with which I assisted, Postcards from the Future, to come soon!

♥

Retro Sunday: 3

As I mentioned in like my first blog entry, I would love to try my hand at boxing. I can only hope that I have the physical prowess needed. I tend to be good with technique and positioning things, but I do lack strength... siiigh.

Anyway, this entry is unapologetically twice as long. Enjoy :)

Why Don't You...

This is the beginning of my new project (part of my FMP)! I won't go into too much detail about it all now (for the sake of brevity), but I'll post more about my FMP and the thinking that goes behind it as I go along.

I'm really excited about these!

The purple print works very well (much better in person) and feels a little more 'weighty' than the yellow print...

...but the yellow one is more ironically fitting.

If you're interested in the meaning behind this particular print, I suggest you look into the song "Start Wearing Purple" - Gogol Bordello.

Incidentally, does anyone know what the non-English part of that song is saying?? Is that Slovak? Ukranian?? Internet translators have been useless :/

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Griffins: 4-colour print

And here we have the new set of Griffin prints. Four of them are 3-colour prints (as shown in the previous post), but the other six are, as initially intended, 4-colour prints (photos below)!

(forgive the dodgy photos as always...)

Get in contact if you want one. I think I'll scan one of the 3-colour prints in and add text to that for the crit group poster and put the rest up for sale.

And hopefully I'll have photos of the first prints for my FMP posted before the weekend!

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Mad Griffins

So much has been going on this week! We got really busy with the two weeks worth of events for the Cardiff Design Festival. If you didn't get to go this time round, you should definitely try to make it for next year!
And despite all the hubbub, I finally got some screen prints done! WOO!

Unfortunately I only got three done due to limited time.. siiigh. But I'm going to get back in there to do a whole new batch of them next week! Here are a few close-ups (forgive the poor quality photos):

3-colour print

This print is my poster design proposal (sans text) for the uni crit group that Helen and I are continuing from last year's third years. But if anyone is interested in buying any prints of it, just let me know! :)

I'm also working on a print of an apparently confused purple man with an ace 'tache and an ushanka who is part of a new project for my FMP (final major project), and I am SO excited about it! I'll post more on that once a few of those prints are made, but here's a peek at something else from that project...

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Retro Sunday: 2

On 9th September 2010, Dan taught me how to ride a bike! :)
(photos and/or doodles to come later..? maybe....)

recession revisit

I had posted one of the recession pieces on dA and got some really good feedback from another Nicole (Nicoles must just know 'DA BIZ'! 'cause she knows 'DA BIZ'.....and..um.. I know 'DA BIZ' too, right!??....totally rhetorical!). She helped me out with some ideas on how to make the text POP more and just be funkier overall! I really liked the mock up example she did of it, so I did this and I think it works too:

What do you think? Too dramatic? Surely it's an improvement over the last version..? :/
click here to see the original (and to read the rationale)

♥

By the way, a little reminder, some entries (like the previous Retro Sunday post) require you to click "Read more" at the bottom of the entry to see the rest of the post.

Retro Sunday: 1

Sundays are so pleasantly laid back. I've just updated my CVs (general and art), floated around looking at new blogs and the like, and I've decided to add a feature to this blog that will (hopefully) make me post even more regularly. It's called...

and in this corner...

I was doing this illustration when my Photoshop CRASHED and refused to save!

glorified doodle

And so now all I have left of it is this teeny tiny (partly unfinished) screen-capped version of it. I just hope whatever the problem was with Photoshop isn't a recurring one.


I'm going to be quite a busy bee today as I've got a lot to be working on at the moment. Competitions and exhibitions to enter as well as Cardiff's Monthly Boutique Market Day to prepare for and I'm actually really excited about starting third year!
I haven't been able to comment on as many other blogs and things as I'd have liked to recently. There's just so much exciting work coming from people these days. It's very inspiring! And it makes me want to be part of that :)

But it can be a little overwhelming as well...

P.S. don't forget to visit the new shop page!

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Milgi, Northcote Lane

I have been preparing for Cardiff's Monthly Boutique Market Day!

The next one is 3rd October and I will be there with a whole slew of new purses AND (hopefully!) fresh new screen prints! Dan Hamilton will also be there with some goodies, as well as Helen Murdoch and Daf Jones. So if you can make it out, that'd be great!

However, if you can't make it and you want a purse or one of my (currently mysterious) screen prints, no problem. I'm also selling them online*! Screen prints won't be available until October, but purses are ready and waiting to be loved. SO if you want a purse, just scoot on over to the brand new page I made just for them.

*they will be sold at a discounted/promotional price at the market, though!

*click for shop

And I don't know if any of you remember that lovely Toyota sewing machine I wanted so badly, but my cousin and her husband decided to be super awesome and buy it for me for my birthday and it is so good! It just sails through everything(!) and is just generally a joy to be around.

And it looks so at home amongst all my clutter! haha

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Sacrifice in a Time of Recessions

I had a summer brief to do a few posters about the recession. Here's a peek at one of them at 20% original size.

Yes. They are all pirate themed.

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Rationale (boring thinking-behind-the-piece bit)

To me, the more enjoyable a poster – whether that is due to a narrative element, skilful graphics or clever poster concept – the more effective it is. The very idea of the recession is so commonly (and understandably) centred on money, business and general unhappiness; none of which are particularly uplifting. So with seemingly tenuous links, I infused the recession-influenced posters with pirates; fun and adventurous and spontaneous!

Foregoing what could have possibly been an arguably more poignant and serious angle with Somalian pirates or focussing on information piracy, I chose to keep it light-hearted as that type of recession poster seems rare and challenging: speaking about such a topic in such a manner without being inappropriate. Not to mention, doom and gloom is not the best hook for people (particularly not young people).

None of the posters directly reference the recession as I don't think using buzz words (which "recession" has become) is very effective. And each poster has very few words to allow the viewer to concentrate on the image and grasp a big idea in one concise sentence.

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Painfully relevant to my poor self at the moment. Siiigh. Someone find me a job. Or buy stuff from me... Or just give me free money...

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Another year gone by...

'tis my birthday today :)
21 on the 21st. cool.

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apparently I have the same birthdate as Disney animator Bobby Chiu and French illustrator Elodie Vermeulen (aka Lost Fish/Rusty)

Swashbuckling Summer Tales!

I've got a summer brief to work on for uni and am having difficulty getting into it. I have some sketchy ideas, but nothing solid. Then on Tuesday I was doodling one of my characters (my alter-ego, perhaps) as a pirate as a drawing exercise and decided to try to make it fit the brief! Not just because it means less work on my part, but because I'm rather fond of the character and the drawing and haven't really done much in this looser style for uni. This is what I came up with:

I went through several versions trying out different fonts and text positions. I may ad a stamp or something in the top right (to balance it out) saying "Save your doubloons!" or something, but I think this is more or less the final poster to be submitted.

Other than that, I've been trying to get some reading done for my dissertation research. The following books are among those I've been looking at:

Can you guess what my dissertation is about from these books!? (that is to be said in a Dora-the-Explorer-like voice)

But I'm so easily distracted and I don't like wasting my time reading irrelevant things. I just hope I get a decent amount of reading done before uni starts!


edit:

distractions

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Pour les Francais

Fear not, art is coming soon. And here ends the English as this is a message for Francophones.

Hé!
Récemment (ben, pendant les deux années derniers) je n'ai pas eu vraiment l'occasion d'utiliser mon français et ça me dérange. Comme les plus de gens qui apprennent une langue, mon écriture et ma lecture sont probablement comme d'avant (ou proche), mais je sens que ma compétence en parlant et écoutant ont souffert.
Je veux y rectifier! J'avais eu regardant un peu des films et lisant un peu des blogs et écoutant un peu des chansons, tous Français. Alors, si on en* a à recommander, dis-moi les, s'il te plait!
Et, bien sur, si on parle français, je l'apprécierais beaucoup si on ferait des commentaires sur mon blog en français.

*aussi des livres et des series TV

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Strange Beautiful Things

La Jetée

This is the beautiful short film (26.20 mins) that inspired the feature length film 12 Monkeys (below) which I also very highly recommended!


I decided that this clip was better promotion for the film than the trailer (official or otherwise).

Also, I found this curiously beautiful. I don't know precisely why, but I think it has to do with its unabashed realness and innocence.

click the picture to see the entire 9-photo shoot

Selected by me. Brought to you by Vice Style :)

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Things with Stitching!

I've been going crazy with the sewing machine making many many little purses (which are totally for sale if you want any, by the way! But I'm going on vacation for a month and a half on Thursday...).

Of course, this new addiction could not be kept simply to purses. I have made myself a cute little polka dot dress!

I made it from start to finish! As you can see, it started with humble beginnings...

...they grow up so fast :')

 Must say, this is probably one of my proudest moments! haha

 I can't wait to wear it out! :)

Comrade Orlan

Do you remember Jules Verne, my entry to the Mimobot contest? Well, Dan and I have designed an awesome little cosmonaut sporting a variation of the lovely new Russian Orlan space suit!

So please go vote him some love!!

I did the faces and the little replica patch on the left! (Yes, the patch you totally can't see because it's so tiny now, lol! But you better believe it's got epic detail! haha!) And Dan did all the actual work! lol!

And remember: you don't need to be a member of infectious. If you have facebook or twitter, you can also vote!

* * *

If you didn't realise, by the way (because some people didn't), the previous entry had more to it. You have to click "Read more" to see the full entry with review! The full entry will allow you to see the YouTube videos I posted as well (as they don't seem to be showing up on the main page.. Odd.

Also, I hope you all have noticed the nifty little "reactions" I've added to the bottom of each entry! If you can't be bothered to comment, just click one of the three little buttons instead.☺
Feedback is always good. But I know what it's like to be short on time (...or lazy lol).

♥