Cross Pathways

I have spent the last 3 weeks or so working alongside a graphic designer on a cross pathways project to create a fictional event and attempt to make it believable or as close to as possible, in short.
I teamed up with a graphics student who is also a friend of mine, thinking, in my infinite wisdom that that would be a positive thing and would help the process.
It was not a complete failure and was not all bad but it was surely an eye opener and an educating experience, I learnt a lot and took may lessons from it, and I shall attempt to explain what they are.
Firstly me and my team mate sat and discussed possible ideas through text, face to face meetings and via email.

We were flying through and the ideas we had were starting to excite us as a team and we began to expand the idea of faking a UFO crash landing in a local forest.
As we began to build on our initial ideas we started to lack direction and have difference of opinions in what we should do next and with the delegation of jobs.
The work didn't suffer from our bickering and tired eye rolling as we managed to work past our problems but I feel that with a little more compromise from both sides would have seen our project flourish.
The problems, in my opinion stemmed from us both being strong willed and confident people who like to lead, with neither really wanting to step back and allow the other to take control.
Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does not help when working in a team.
The work was coming along, we had some good ideas and some others that just felt like a waste of time in the end as we scrapped them, and felt it was time we could have used doing other things.
We mocked up newspaper headlines and 'top secret' documents from 'eye witnesses' each with a back story and biography.

We also had a lot of fun with the project I don't want to push the idea that we spent the whole time disagreeing, as we had agreed while writing our team manifesto at the start of the project that the main thing we wanted to do was have fun with the project.

Filming Witness interviews in a spoof manner allowed us to really open up and just behave like a pair of clowns, and during the presentations to the rest of our group, the videos (which were one of the ideas we scrapped) the interviews proved quite popular and made 95% of the group laugh, which was what we wanted more than anything, thats the reason we had chosen such a far out idea with no imagination barriers.

In the end, we had some good ideas but due to the lack of direction and maybe due to us being so familiar with each other we did not have a big a body of work that we would have liked but the work we did have, we both felt was good and we were happy with.

A lot of the work we ended up with though, was not work we could physically show but was more mental, we found out a lot about each other and ourselves.

I for one found out what it must be like to work with me in a team, and so on the next available opportunity to work in a team I will make a conscious decision to sit back and allow somebody else to lead unless asked or nominated, just to see if the outcome is any different.

So in hind sight it was not a bad experience but a rather valuable one, with many important lessons learned about myself and about the ethics and compromise involved with team work, which personally speaking I think was what the brief was about more so than the final outcome.

Upping the Output

Again, I have left it way too long since my last post.
There is no real excuse for this except I am struggling for motivation and content at the minute!
I have been on the look out for something new, something that really strikes me, something that does not just attract me but jumps out, slaps my face, ruffles my hair and says HERE I AM!.
So far...nothing, but i will keep searching and hopefully find this Holy Grail of inspiration and then my blog will explode and it wont be six weeks between posts!
In the mean time, I am just going to have to give myself a kick in the rear and just work a bit harder I suppose,
So what have I been doing when not looking for the ultimate inspiration!?...
Looking at Banksy, that's what *sigh*... personally Banksy's work does not tickle my fancy or make me sit up thinking WOW!!.
Granted, Banksy has found a way of expressing his political views and opinions to the masses while keeping his anonymity, I cannot understand the simple fact his work is seen as art and yet other pieces of Graffiti or Street Art which even at the slightest glance or to the least artistic eye are a hundred times more complicated and time consuming are considered mere vandalism.
Anyway my tangent there is taking me off point, I was looking at his work not as an admirer but as somebody looking for examples of protest art, and love it or hate it, this is something that Banksy does very well.
The satire and wit found within Banksy's work appeals to me, the fun and cheek of certain pieces really stands out as something i can relate to.
I played with the idea of some cross over work, perhaps stencils and photography, (also using Ben Heine as inspiration) to produce some protest art of my own.
Then comes the personal conflict, should I? or do I continue to forage and scrap around my own mind in an attempt to come up with something entirely original? Is there anything left to be considered original!?
(I would normally include a link to her website here but i struggled to find one)
So... I continued looking.... onto Gillian Wearing, and her 'Confessions' works, this gave me an idea surrounding people, and their opinions, because how can you protest without people!?.
That leads me to where I am today really!... a head full of half ideas and a few large scruffy sheets of rough doodles!
Hopefully in the next blog, I will have had a brain wave, a superfluous idea or just plain old struck by lightning and in that case probably wont care about protest art!
Either way it wont be six weeks until the next post!!
Ill leave you with some of the images that I found lit small fires of inspiration under me to at least get me to this point.

Above are a couple of examples of Ben Heine's camera vs pencil works, I chose these Images because i felt they carried underlying messages about society today, religion and other such topics, below is another link to the artists website

http://www.benheine.com/ (actually a really nice website, I sat, just watching the homepage for ten  minutes!)

Above is Bankys's work, I dont think they need much of an explaination really, his work speaks for itself and always works better when the viewer is drawing his/her own conclusions on it.

Again a link to his website... http://www.banksy.co.uk/

And finally two exmples of Gillian Wearings 'Confessions', id like to provide a link to her website but cant seem to find one that isnt sourced by that pesky wikipedia.

Chimps, Prints and Presentations

So...In my last blog, I said how I had missed a part of the summer brief based around my animal spirit, so in the time since my last blog I have been trying to put this right.
To do this,... I have taken a long hard look at myself, and my personality and eventually coming to the conclusion that if I was an animal, I would be a Chimpanzee....with a Mancunian accent.
Right then, off I went researching Chimps, which in parts was actually really fun!.
Taking my kids to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay and taking photos of the troop of Chimps that reside there.
Also reading about them and looking for photos of them in their natural environment and learning about their behaviours...and after a while it was clear I'm actually more like a Chimpanzee than I even initially figured.
They are a notoriously territorial species and protective of their young, but also intelligent and fun loving as well.
These were not the only factors in my choosing the chimpanzee as my animal spirit but they were probably the main ones.
Here's a few of the Photos I took while at the Zoo, apologies for the quality but it was a bad day and they were taken through fairly thick glass.

After my research I wrote my animal memoirs, I can honestly say that I have never had so much fun while writing a piece of creative writing, I pretty much laughed the whole time I was writing it, As I was writing in entirely in a Mancunian accent, this led to my comic strip which I also had so much fun drawing! 

Here it is...

From this I began creating hybrids of the Chimps and my Pulp Fiction drawings from my previous blog, or basically turning the movies characters into Chimpanzees. Here are some of them....

I thinks its fairly obvious that I also had a lot of fun creating these!.

These images also became the 1st step along in the 3-D model aspect of the 1st brief I was given for the 2nd year of my course.

Chimpanzee's also take a central role in my repeating pattern for the wall paper aspect of my new brief as well, the image below is going to be the key element within the pattern, wether it will work or not remains to be seen but I suppose experimenting is all part of the course and procedure.

Well I think that's all I have in the way of monkeys until my screen print and 3-D model are completed but as soon as they are I shall share them and what i think of the outcomes.

That leads me onto the pod cast presentations that the group started to do on Friday afternoons...

The pod cast titled The State Of Illustration which if I'm honest i still have not heard, due to catching up with my Monkey related work, was well covered by the three classmates and brought up some good arguments for the rest of the group to discuss, even though we did not go into too much depth with it being the last thing on a Friday! 

I will listen to the pod cast and draw my own conclusions in my next post.

No time wasted!

Again, I have left it way too long since I last updated this, my apologies for that,
I put it down to trying to balance so many aspects of my personal life.
Anyway now that's out the way Ill attempt to explain and show exactly what I have been doing with my time.
Firstly, I accidentally stumbled across the Generation Gallery in Manchester, It is situated on New York St behind the Piccadilly plaza for those interested.
It specialises in Urban, Contemporary and Modern art, I spent the best part of an hour walking round looking at the works the exhibit and sell, some of it is mind blowing and similar to the paintings I do and sell (examples of which will be further down).
Its the kind of place that appeals to both the Illustrator and the child in me, an inspiring place!
http://www.generationgallery.com/
Take a look for yourself, the staff in there are very helpful and approachable too
Now onto more pressing matters, my own work!. Because I'm an idiot and didn't read the summer brief properly I missed a whole section (something I'm putting right at the moment),
so due to the fact Id missed the section, I figured I had lots of spare time, in which I painted some canvasses Id been commissioned to do, here's a few of them...

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry

Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction

This is actually a reproduction I was asked to do, since the original was by an artist I admire and respect, Ben Wachenje, I naturally jumped at the chance

Marlon Brando as Don Corleone

Another project I have gotten involved in is designing logo's and ideas for a friend of mine who is bringing our a line of clothes based on Manchester, its people, towns and connections.

Since a lot of them are still in production I cant really post too much, but i will show this one as its a little too advanced at the current time...

Keep your eyes peeled for 'Manni' clothes in shops and on the streets!

Right onto the work I did manage to do after reading SOME of the brief,

The film I eventually chose to draw from after some serious deliberation was Pulp Fiction, I concentrated on the 'innovation in pace' aspect of the brief coupled with the diverse camera angles Tarantino used in the film.

I came up with some sketches that I was personally very pleased with, some not so and some i felt were entirely ropey! but using the ethos of last year, embrace mistakes I kept the ropey ones, the examples below are naturally, the ones I felt I had done well.

These images make up my sequential film screen shots part of the summer assignment we were given, I was really quite excited to get going with them as faces and characters make up alot of the work I do and are something else that i find massive amounts of inspiration in.

So, that's where I'm up to now and my next instalment should contain some of the animal spirit section I completely missed!









Story Boards and Charity

After deciding to take on the 'Story Board' brief given to me at the end of my first year at university, I figured the logical place to start would be researching story boards.
My initial idea of story boards was one of wild and rough sketches to fall back on if the project they were being used for ran into trouble, and have since had my eyes opened.
Story boards seem to me to be the foundation of any animation or motion picture project as well as comic books and many other artistic genres.
I began looking for story boards on a subject I like, comic strips and graphic novels.
the first thing that struck me was the depth and detail within the story boards thus blowing 'wild and rough sketch' notion, clean out of the water.
After spending some time looking at the comic book boards I could find, i decided that, In all they are pretty much the same as the final comic minus the text and colour and so decided to look elsewhere.
It was then I came across the name Federico D'Alessandro, A Uruguayan born story board artist that has worked on some of the most imaginative projects to come out of Hollywood in recent years, Where The Wild Things Are and The Chronicles of Narnia to name but two
Below is a link to an interview I found with him along with some examples of his 'Wild Things' story boards

http://www.smashboxstudios.com/yello/2009/10/where-the-wild-things-are-an-interview-with-federico-dalessandro/

and also here is a link to D'Alessandro's personal website, its well worth a look some of his portfolio is amazing.

http://thefilmartist.com/portfolio/film-storyboards/


Also during my search of story boards I found another page that made me realise that sometimes the story board itself can be deemed more exciting than the actual result of the project they had been intended for, in this case commercial advertising..

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/storyboard-central-is-fabulous-showcase.html

clicking on the images within the above page, can take you to other story board related blogs that are well worth a look.

So with these examples and many many others I have plenty of inspiration and ideas to work with and utilise within my own work on the upcoming images for my brief.

In between the time I spent looking for inspiration for my story boards, I have continued to paint my portraits.
One in particular, of Ian Brown, lead singer of the Stone Roses, that I painted to tap into the hype of the recent concert in Manchester, led me down a entirely new path.
Charity.
Instead of selling the painting, a friend and I decided, to put it to better use, between us we have contacted the Ian Brown's P.R, to enquire about having the painting signed so we can auction it off and donate the proceeds to charity in honour and memory of Chris Braheny, the young man who sadly went missing and was later found dead in Salford.
Chris was due to do a charity event himself but lost his life before he had chance, so doing this feels like helping fulfil something even though he is no longer here.
Below is a picture of the painting we hope to get signed,

I will keep the blog updated on the progress of the painting and also my story boards

My Mojo's Back

Well its been three weeks since  my first post, and ts been a hectic to say the least!
 To say I have got the bit back between my teeth and found my 'mojo' is some thing of an understatement.
The painting I had finished and posted on my last blog, got some fantastic feedback via facebook and word of mouth, so much so that I have had five additional commisions and much more in the way of interest and enquiries! even using a painting as method of payment to get my laptop repaired!!
I decided to put together a 'catalogue' style portfolio for potential clients and commisioners to look over and see what my work is about and what to expect from my if they do decide they would like to commision me.
There is something extremely satisfying about being payed to do something you actually enjoy doing, and the level of  'job' satisfaction, when I step back and look at a finished peice, is quite unreal and spurs you onto the next peice like nothing else.

My catalogue, at the minute consists of small portraits of iconic People, from sports, film and music as well historical figures, ready to be transferred onto canvas.
From George Best to Malcolm X, I am slowly adding to the list all the time so any suggestions would be welcome!

Below are a few examples that I am personally proud of.

I chose these examples as they recieved the most acclaim and praise, so, for now its literally back to the drawing board (or easel), and  will try not to leave it so long before my next blog,

And so it begins....

O.k, so here it is, the debut installment of my first ever blog.
Bare with me if it is tedious but im sure it will get better as I get used to doing it!.
Anyway, since the last day of uni, I have had limited time for much art based activity so im going to talk about the bits that I have done or come across in the past few weeks.
Firstly, while browsing Google, I tripped over images like these...

At first glance, they look like nice photos of confectionary, it was not until I read that they are actually 'Hyper-realistic' oil paintings by a Spanish artist named Pedro Campos.
I was completely mind blown by the talent and detail in the art, to the point even after reading it was a painting, i was sceptical, I have since accepted that the images are paintings and the artist must just be 'hyper talented'.
there is an emerging abundance of 'Hyper-real' painters and artists out there that can easily be found via google, more of Pedro Campos' work can be found here on his website. http://www.pedrocampos.net/.
Onto my second 'discovery', I stumbled across this by chance via Facebook.
This is a man I will take inspiration from and one I feel is a little more realistic to aspire towards is an artist named Ben Heine, he is an artist that uses pencil and photography to create unique and sometimes witty images and optical illusions using pencil drawings incorperated into a real world enviroment. Ben Heine also does paintwork and digital media to create celebrity portraits and other peices. He is an artist that seems to enjoy experimenting and it was this that struck a chord with me as that is something i have embraced during the first year of my course at uni.

these images are just a few examples of his work, i actually struggled in choosing which images use here in my blog, but there are hundreds of examples on line via google, and the artists Facebook page and here within his own website http://www.benheine.com/.

Finally this is just me, showing what I have done art wise since the last day of the first year, its a painting that I was commisioned to do by a friend of mine of his father who passed away when my friend was a baby, its a style i have been using and evolving for some years now, and each painting seems better than the last.