Friday 11 March 2011

This is a post about an ex-girlfriend.

Well, actually, it isn't.

It's nice to have fans. Having fans was something I've never really considered would happen to me, but since starting this blog there's been a certain individual who compliments my work almost every time he sees me, often before a "hello". Great feedback to have, and I guess it makes me want to treat my work as something for others, rather than just myself.

Anyway, before this becomes some kind of acceptance speech I'll cut to the chase.


Above is a sketch I took at a recent acoustic evening, hosted in the SU. Do I sound odd if I say it's a moving experience to draw whilst listening to your subject play music? Probably, but it's true - must be a weird arty-brain thing. Anyway, if you haven't already guessed, the sketch is of the person I mentioned earlier, as he happened to be playing on the same night I decided to take my sketchbook.

I took the image, blew it up, and traced over with Promarkers, before adding detail with black fineliners.


It's a far from perfect image, I still struggle with people - but if it was 100% accurate then it may as well be a photograph. I enjoyed producing this - drawing was made easier by the fact that I appreciate Ellis' work the same as he appreciates mine (even if a great deal of his songs use "This is a song about an ex-girlfriend" by way of introduction).

Anyway, leaving behind the mutual appreciations and the imperfections, I'm pleased with the results here - a character appears on the page, and I may be finding an artistic niche in which to use Promarkers.

Friday 4 March 2011

Keeping busy

Recently I have been fortunate enough to have had real projects to be getting on with, in the form of publicity for a couple of events.


Firstly, I was asked by my mum and dad to design a flyer inviting friends and family for a joint celebration of their 50th birthdays, a party which took place last weekend. "Aha!", I thought, rubbing my hands at the prospect of caricaturing them... I wasn't too mean, it's not really my bag.




These are the two designs I sent them, and they plumped for the top one. The party was a strange idea (Dad was 50 last summer, Mum this), so it was important to communicate this in a way which was simple, yet interesting, something I believe was achieved quite well through the "nearly" and "and a bit" comments. The tag-line "Celebrating a Century of Life" helps add to this interest in a light-hearted way. The whole look had a digital look to it, with the characters almost avatar-like in appearance, so a digital, squared face seemed apt for the wording.

The second was a simple job, and one I didn't really have to do much work on - I'll post it anyway...

 


My flatmate's girlfriend graduated from Wolves last year from doing Fine Art, and is involved with this show, going on in London at the start of June. She provided me with the text, and the layout for the text - I was required to provide a backdrop, choose a typeface, and to draw attention to both the "Platform C" and "Emergent art show 2011" being a separate, more important ideas.

I went for an arty style by including a wash of pastels - this allows the text to be read clearly, but also allows for depth in tone. I suppose whilst I'm posting I should probably plug the thing - the website's www.platformc2011.com (ignore the poster address, we had to get that changed) if you want to know anything about that.

I suppose I should crack on with some work I'm going to be graded on... Hmmm.