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.

Misery Monster

Some days it feels like all your troubles are breathing down the back of your neck.

sketchings

Trying to get on with some college work ... failing. So eating an ice lolly and scanning shit, yo.

Learning Experience

It was cold. It was dark. It was drizzling and I had my bottom out.

Worst of all I think I had splashback on my shoe.

ALLEY PEEING = NO.

Headstand

(click it to full view it.)

Still thinking. Thinking. Dangerous passtime, I know.

Something else with reference to that thing the yellowy eyebally monsters were to do with. Because monsters are often creepy buggers.

Other than that, this is a vague attempt at making something mildly macabre. Not overly. But a little. Not really sure if I've succeeded, but it's going up anyway.

pure, unadulterated sketch dump

Hello!

Er, please have some sketches from the 'Thing' and beyond. I'm aware that this kind of sketch uploading is the digital equivalent of flashing your knickers at someone, but you might find it interesting nonetheless (I don't know where that analogy was going, sorry).




Phil Spence of Ninja Bunny tosses his hair about like a naughty shetland pony. He also has more hair than both me and Julia (fellow words and pictures artist) put together. I also put one too many 'l' shaped letters in that thing up thar, Phil. Sorryyy.






This might be a touch too much information about the inside of my head. To even the score, you may know that I am wearing green knickers with frogs on them today. They're horrible. Wearing them is a bit like listening to a really bad, godawful cheesy song on the bus ... and relishing the fact that no one else knows just how much fun you're having.






these last two are from an ongoing/upcoming project I'm circling around at the moment. But also because I like monsters.


xxxx

New zine thingermajigger

So. Next weekend, on the 28th of March, I will be attending the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing at Queen Mary University in Mile End. I am there selling the old Robot Zine that me and my associates Julia Scheele and Matt Sheret put together last November, as well as a new little zine all about the perils of nose picking:







(Obviously you're just going to have to turn up on the day to see the exciting conclusion of this clearly very epic and special piece of literature.)

Nose zines will be going for £1.50 on the day. Any left over afterwards I will put up for sale over here if anyone is interested.

Yes. x x x x x