NYC, Bahamas, Pink sketchbook

The past three weeks have been SO great! I got to visit some super lovely friends in New York and go to the American Illustration 32 party. It was a blast. Plus I got to go back home to The Bahamas for the first time in two years! Well overdue. Wish I'd taken photos of everything, though!

I don't have any finished work I'm allowed to show right now, but I have a few pics* of my current sketchbook. It's a bound sketchbook which I usually sort of hate, but actually I like this one. More on my tumblr.

*pics from my (new! yay!)phone because I still need to install my scanner/printer on my new laptop

Rolemodels: The Battle For Vyk'Tornaahl Artist Deck Sneak Peek

Oh my! Who is that at 11:04?? I'll tell you who! It's Nyarai the Nomad!

I'm so excited about this! When you order a deck you get the 100 card deck (obviously), a booklet of information (about artists and gameplay and so on), a shiny well-designed box (oooh!) AND a m*f*in' 20-sided die! IN YO FACE! Also check out the gallery! If anything strikes your fancy, why not pick up a print?!

Nyarai the Nomad

Voila! My contribution to Light Grey Art Lab's Rolemodels show: Nyarai the Nomad.

I've been sitting on this since June and now I'm finally able to show it. I had a lot of different ideas at first, but eventually settled on this design. The concept behind the show is that the roleplay characters created for the game cards represent the artist who designed the card. So how is this character at all like me (other than her obvious preference for warm/hot climes)?

Nyarai the Nomad: Desert Dweller & Voice of the Unheard

"Nyarai is now a solitary desert dweller. She has never been particularly gregarious, as she makes her voice heard not with words, but by action. At fourteen, she first realised the power of her actions as she led a herd of wild camels through her city to overthrow the mad empress. The citizens were liberated, but the downfall of the empress was not the end of their problems."

Take from that what you will. If you fancy it, pick up a print!

And, just because I thought my initial attempts at drawing a camel were funny, here are some of the sketches for the above.

All the contributing artists have made phenomenal work so if you're in the area, definitely check out the show (and go in costume)! Or if you can't make it down (like me :( boo!), you can at least pre-order a deck and admire all the work while trouncing your friends in a rousing game of Rolemodels:The Battle for Vyk'Tornaahl!

Neighbours Zine

Clips from a zine I was working on about my neighbours.

Just a silly little thing.

Interview

I was interviewed recently by my alma mater, Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Kids' Game

I did this a while ago and only getting around to posting it now.

Office Chit Chat

This was fun and rather cathartic :)

Freckles

Here is a piece of a thing that is going much better than the previous piece of a thing I posted last week.

I'm trying to get used filling in backgrounds a bit more and I'm playing with all sorts of new(for me) stuff so this was a really fun learning exercise. I've still been a little sloppy/lazy in places, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I'll post the whole thing tomorrow once I've finished it.
And now I'm off to see a man about a building. Ta ra!

Impatient

Amidst a slew of meetings and plans during a big transition period, I've started a new project this week and I'm experimenting with what to do with it. Got a little frustrated/impatient early on in the process with the image below and it just wasn't going any further than this today :(

I feel a strange compulsion to do away with digital for a while and get my hands dirty... but I also sometimes despise traditional materials (despite their beauty) because they're often messy and/or inconvenient. Sometimes they're super convenient, though, in that they feel so immediate. We'll see where this ends up later.

Just something quick for the weekend

Avocado Patterns

Yesterday I designed a funky avocado pattern in Illustrator! Today I made two colourful versions of it :)

I might go buy an avocado today.

A Rainy Season

Here's a book cover I worked on for a friend and a quick (shoddily put together) mockup of what the back cover might look like!

edit: it's actually been printed now (forgive my awful photography 'skills')

Hunter 2

I tried revisiting this piece, but it's still not quite right.

I don't want to do it more harm than good or take away from the time I have to work on new pieces going round in circles with old ones, so I think I'm going to leave it for good now.

But I do still like the figure.

Empty Lolita

I actually didn't expect to make another Illustrator post so soon, but I am still pluggin' away at it.

Today I was doodling lots of little things and one was a little book cover/poster for a book I will probably never read (no offence, Vladimir Nabokov...also sorry I forgot to slap your name on the doodle). I quite liked the sketch so I did a version in Illustrator.

I don't know if the Illustrator doodle is as clear as the pencil sketch (she is sitting at a desk), but  I'm thinking maybe I'll do more of these quick book-inspired illustrations just for fun and practice.

However, that's not ALL I did with my week! Yesterday I sat down and taught myself some InDesign by revamping my illustration CV. I'm still not totally pleased with it yet, but it's not bad for a first try. I hope to be able to use these newfound skills I'm cultivating to help me realise more of my ideas because I've got a lot of 'em! (And too many only half-baked...!)

Growing Illustrator

Here are a few sketches I did in Illustrator. It does seem like quite a nifty, fun tool even if I don't quite know how to make the best use of it or how to use it to make beautiful text yet...

Blobby Brush Tool

colours added using the Pen Tool

pencil tool

And more practice with the Pen Tool (excuse the rudeness)!

It seems weird to "sketch" this way because everything is so super clean and doesn't resemble what I consider to be a sketch at all. It has certainly helped me expand my understanding of what a sketch can be and to think about my process in a different way.

Armchairs

A selection of armchairs.

Also...

Sam

I don't know if you remember Sam, but I've been revisiting her character a lot lately. Here's a younger, slightly fluffier version of her (still grumpy as ever).

I'm trying to put together ideas for a short...something or other, but don't know how this will pan out as I'm not well versed in plotting stories. Hmmm!

Foray into the World of Illustrator CS5

This year was the first year that I made any serious New Year's resolutions and, halfway through the year, I'm pleased to say I am slowly but steadily making my way through my list.*
*For illustration goals anyway. My personal NYR list is ongoing and includes exponentially more difficult things like 'stressing less'.

One of my goals was to tackle a new programme (preferably Illustrator or InDesign...or maybe both. The year is young!) and last night I took the plunge and started exploring Illustrator.

Here are the fruits of my (equal parts fun, frustrating and taxing) labour.

This mess of graffiti may not look like much to you, but it was great playing around with the look of the letters after the basic structure was set up and watching my freehand lines become instantly smooth.

edit 5/7/13: speaking of "playing around" I just found this post which I think is super relevant! : )

Uke Me

I feel like it would make me happy to learn to play the ukulele, but even after 6 years of guitar I would hardly call myself a guitarist (I'm not a particularly gifted musician). So maybe it would be a wasted investment...

But I can still dream, can't I?

Light Grey Art Lab: Fundraiser & Rolemodels Show sneak peak

Light Grey Art Lab has so much great stuff going on. Go check out their Summer Fundraiser and support them by brightening up your life with wonderful prints, card decks, paper sculptures and more. (It's a win/win situation really!)

Speaking of, here is a sneak peak of a piece I did for an upcoming LGAL show! They're so great to work with and always have super fun shows. I hope I get to work with them more in future.

Coming soon.

Also, if you want to keep abreast what folks are up to in my studio at Morgan Arcade Studios check out...

There should be monthly instalments at the end of every month with a summary of what people are doing. I drew Marc!

Sketchbook excerpts

Some character design (plotting stories). Let's see where this goes...