what a lovely singing voice you must have

Off for a bit, as you can tell. Please hold.

The state of things today.

Good afternoon all. A few things i should probably mention that are happening in my corner of the world right now.

Solipsistic pop! I haven't mentioned this yet because I am rubbish. But my sometimes-drinking-buddy and all-round Lovely Fellow Tom Humberstone is releasing an anthology of beautiful comics and ramblings from various creators. It's going to be really good. I have submitted a little copy of my nose zine to go in the back of each issue (there's another one too, but that one goes in the front cover. So yeah), but the artists and writers who have contributed to the rest of the book are very talented, so you should definitely take a look. Previews and news about the publication are up on its website.

Animation stuff is still poddling along nicely. Have been looking for work experience over the last few weeks (lots of suggestions of contacts, etc. from people so hopefully something will come of it soon). I still have a long way to go before I'm good at making things move, but I enjoy it, and I'm getting better every day, so hooray for that. Anyway, here's another lipsynch test (I managed to kick the tripod whilst taking the pictures ... so it's a bit crap. But it's up because youtube is being used as my moving sketchbook at the moment ... and the mask thing interests me [/excuse]) and a short, crude showreel showing the results of various bits and bobs I have been doing over the last year. A better showreel when there is more footage.






Apart from test animations, I've been keeping my hand-in with the drawing side of stuff by filling my sketchbook with various daubs and doodles. I've been trying to stay away from my more conventional methods of designing characters/stuff by focusing - at least initially - on a more loose, playful line in my work (kind of like with the beard book faces) ... taking a shape and then squishing a character to fit it, or just quickly roughing out variations on a theme, etc. It's been kind of fun, and it's helping me accept a more playful aesthetic into my work. Trying to take a leaf out of Saul Steinberg's metaphorical book.

Er. Yeah. Anyway. Pictures:




The last two are the result of a ridiculous spooky stuff and Sally Cruikshank binge I have been having recently.

Sally is an animator whose work was featured rather a lot in the sesame street of the late eighties/nineties (when I was watching it the first time around). She has uploaded quite a lot of her work to youtube and her channel is worth having a look at:




Other than that, I am officially back in university as of Monday.

Brain Farts.

Some excerpts of things that I have been doing with my time recently. Not much to say. More of an update to prove there is progression happening back here somewhere.



Discovered a liking for typography.

(paper mask/shadow project project idea)





An early lip synching test. More on this subject soon I daresay.

More on the animation front in the works.

Trying to learn after effects right now. Going quite nicely.


things I have found that I like:






this one I've known about for ages. Lasse Gjertsen and I briefly went to the same university, and both left for similar reasons (though we've never met, and obviously he's far better at what he does than I am. So the parallel ends there). Funny old world. Anyway. He's best known for things like Hyperactive and Amateur on youtube ... but I infinitely prefer this piece. Specifically the layering of the cellist's arms. Of course it helps that I really like the cellist the video is for. But never mind that. It's been on my mind a lot lately.

And here is where I am going to trail off whilst I continue thinking about things....

Website

Goodness. I never mentioned that I now have a mini site, did I? Well, I do, and you can go there by clicking the text below.



It's only small right now, i.e it links to my flickr account, here and a poorly thought through blurb that can only reflect badly on my character as a human being. But it's there, and it will be growing/changing in the near future. So now you know.

More beards, more noses

Hi there.

Hey guess what? Since I last posted I've been very busy. But that can wait for another post. First off I am going to show you some quick stuff that I had already done but hadn't bothered to talk about. It is to do with zines.

So, I made a new cover for the nose zine I posted here a month or three ago:





Each one is slightly different and at £2 a piece they're an essential addition to any zine fanatic's collection. So if you come and find me at a zine fair over the next few months be sure to pick one up!

I also made a small run of beard books. The main thing about them for me is that they give you facial hair whilst you read them. Observe:



Isn't that nice? I certainly think so. Lots of little pictures of beards await you within, with some very wise quotes that no beard afficionado should be without.

Here are some of the beards that didn't make it in:




Don't feel too bad for them, though. They look lovely on my wall. And they're up here in glorious high resolution. Much better than their zine-bound brethren, I'm sure.

More on more recent work soon.

beards beards beards

Please have some sketches of some men with some beards.





Also I am sort of casually on internet hiatus right now whilst I try and sort my life out and work out what on earth it is I want to do and generally get on with some shit. Things have gone a bit wobbly lately and I just need to sort myself out. Soooo I'll update when I've got something a bit larger on the boil and it's worth talking about.


See you later
xxxx

Face up.

Long time no post.

Lots has been happening, like the end of term, etc.

I'm also cutting out a website at the moment. So hopefully that should be along soon. Here are some photos that have resulted from construction so far:







They probably won't get used, you understand*. This is just what happens when me, a load of scrap paper and a pair of scissors get together**.


Ummm. What else? Oh. Yes. I tried screen printing for the first time ever. This happened:


Only a very simple, half an hour go at the whole thing, you see. But I like it. I think I'll be in the screen rooms more often come October. In the mean time I am looking into making some kind of kitchen-table-top screen printing system. We shall see.

Lots more to say, but it's long and boring, so I won't. A more regular and devoted version of this blog should be along soon. In the mean time, please have some heads from a recent sketchbook exercise (where I wandered around the internet and my postcard collection, finding photos of people heads I like, and blind drawing them onto sheets of paper, which I then cut into head shapes, much to my own amusement). These are the nicer ones.

(this one is Harold Bishop.
Thought you might like to know.)

Done!

xxx



*Well, this is kind of a lie. One probably will get used. And it's all loosely linked to an animation I'm working on. But it's easy to be flippant and hey, it's summer.

**Lie or not, this statement still (unfortunately?) holds true .

couple of prints

Just been rooting around in my image banks as I am currently in the throes of organising my third year proposal presentation (outlining and pitching the projects I am going to be working on next year. There are three of them, in my case, although some have opted to do more, others less) and am trying to tease out the aspects of my work that I think are interesting and worth pursuing.

My printmaking is one of these areas. These were a couple of litho prints that I was working on before Easter, which were loosely tied in with some work on folk tales and penny dreadfuls I was doing. But they also work quite nicely as standalone pieces, don'tcha think?

Litho is a fun process. Well. Print in general is fun. You get to play with sharp objects in woodcut & relief, etching gives you acid baths and carcenogenic substances to muck about with, whilst litho has this long and relatively complex set of chemical treatments in order to make the ink stick to the printing plate.

Magic.

A picture and two films (not by me)

And here are a couple of things I have seen and liked recently:




Never actually watched this particular Lynch short before. Pleasantly surprising.

The Colouring from Dan Britt on Vimeo.

"Me [Dan Britt] and Joe Pelling made this, every frame is coloured in pencil by hand. The sound is from The Shining."
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Sound bite.

Hi.

Quick post to inform you I am :

1. not dead
2. actually working on something
3. uploading a couple of rough pages for your perusal.

(click me, and my brethren and we all get bigger. But especially me.)

More about this once it's done.


Work on this book is kind of ... well. Frustrating. It's slow, because I'm still in a bit of a rut with my work. Sort of aiming for a level of quality, but struggling to reach that level AND keep it fresh and inventive. Sort of feels like building on sand, or trying to run but tripping over my shoelaces because I haven't learned to tie them yet.

Was going to hand this in for macmillan but, although it's a bit further on than the spread you see there, it's still a mile and a half off, so I'm just going to keep plugging at it for now. I'd rather have something I'm happy with, than a competition entry that I hate.

Other than that, there's a couple of things for me to do. something little and new for the Zine Symposium on May 3rd, another book competition with waterstones, and some animation work. I also need to find some kind of work/placement/internship/something to do with all of this over the summer so suggestions are welcome if you have any ideas, but obviously not expected or indeed mandatory.



Now. Sketchbook:





And also now. Things I have seen that are worth a watch:












If you only watch one of these, watch cup of brown joy, if you haven't already seen it. It makes me thirsty for Earl Grey. It also had its birthday about a week ago. Happy birthday, CoBJ!

That'll do for now.