research: Carl Kleiner

A friend of mine pointed me to this photography blog, him being a film student (thankyou Dave I KNOW YOU READ THIS). There is some awesome stuff on there! Not the typical photography.
Being, typically, an illustrator, I dug hugely this stuff by Carl Kleiner which is not strictly photography really exactly I guess.




































I prefer this second image because, I think, of the quality of paper. The guy clearly has an eye for colour. The eye of a killer.

LOOK AT HIS WEBSITE. Mostly it features photography, but that's not a shame since alot of it is cool as hell.

ain't gonna hang no picture

Screwing around ripping off Rodchenko and Couceiro, in that order.
Want everything to be BOLD! Want to punch a horse to DEATH!

Also: some Christmas advice:
If you can't think of a present for someone just break something they already own and buy them a replacement! I suggest mugs.

first rough of magazine cover

A friend of mine has just finished or is just finishing a masters in Creative Writing at Man Uni, taught by the illustrious Martin Amis. Ok fine.
She and a few other students are putting together a magazine, Bewilderbliss, to exhibit the writing of the students on the course and she asked me to do the cover.

Here is my mainest one:













I don't think I am breaking any big secrets or anything by posting this.

The idea is each issue will have a theme and the stories inside reflect said them. I was working with the same theme also.
Initially the theme was going to be chosen by Amis but he took goddamn forever and for about two weeks he was personally stopping me doing any work by not chosing it. Sort of cool that Martin Amis was a goddamn obstacle in my life but at the same time I AM COMING FOR YOU AMIS.

Ok, the theme was eventually chosen by M.J. Hyland, another tutor on the course, and the theme is The Guilty.

The idea here is guilt is a mental thing, something centered around your own values and sense of right and wrong.
So you've got that red streak uncomfortably wedged into a brain linking to these little broadhead prison uniform arrows. Guilt is something you do to yourself is what I mean here I guess.
The darker shapes are to hold the image together.

As for the title, the texture in the background - the top is a Manchester skyline from a photo I took. Not too clear, and unrecognisable as Manchester, but what the hell.
Plus the type is yet to find a rightful place on there. Maybe I'll even make it black.

From looking at the covers of the other magazines where this will be on sale I wanted something bold and structured to counter all the minimal hand drawn things on display. But I think this still might sink into the background.

Also I might change it completely because I am that kind of guy.

i know what everyone needs

reserach: Yulia Brodskaya

Look, then, at this. It is by someone called Yulia Brodskaya and I found it on Drawn! as I do anything I ever find that is remotely good because I am a boring fool.

REGARDLESS it is done with strips of paper and it is nice. It makes me want to be nice to people around me which makes you incredibly lucky.

Have a better look at their website.
This stuff is in the illustration section.
Does anyone even know what illustration is?

Penguin Cover

Hi Roland,
I was thinking last night, that with this Penguin cover, you need to return to the methods you used in the last two projects. You have some ideas that you want to convey; those of isolation, and elitism etc. You have also started to collect and generate elements that might be of use in the image (obviously you need more of these) But the one stage you have missed out is using/sourcing shapes and structures to hold or contain the elements. Start to look through your archive of these and look for new ones also or get into illustrator and create some shapes/compositional devices that might work. Also consider that you might need to include a more human element (hand, head, eye what ever) so that you image doesn't seem too inhuman or abstract.

Look at Alvin Lustig

Also another good blog is Grain Edit

CHRISTMAS VIDEO

ok yeah so i found this on DRAWN.CA because it's JUST A GREAT BLOG but this video is pretty great HAVE A LOOK:

All I Want For Christmas Is ... from Paul Rayment on Vimeo.

Normally I hate this kind of character based graffiti style stuff but there're lots of subtle little touches in this video that make it worthwhile.
Such as how his arm stretches when he opens the door and the way the door rolls away and etc etc. Plus it's just pretty funny. Simple idea. Pretty funny. Well animated. Christmas theme.

still waiting

Another illustrator from that AOI book I thought was ok is Tom Burns.





[edit: going over this recently it seems like the image links have changed. Rather than fix this i have opted to ignore it. So long, suckers!]



















These two images are cool, but I really dislike maybe 70% of his work.

I guess this is all done with photoshop? Maybe some screen printing?
I feel better about it if it is screen printed. However he's done it, piling the textures over each other gives the images this weird quality. I'd like to mess around with something like that, but not sure how to apply it really. Up with printing! PRINTING FOREVER!!

website here. Can you dig it?

research: Jackie Parsons

I was going through the most recent AOI book, found a handful of illustrators I really liked.
ONE of them was Jackie Parsons whose work reminds me of Michelle Thompson and Caroline Tomlinson....but maybe I prefer it to both????

















Pretty swell huh? Yeah!
Love the colours and the kind of non specific people. Also all the texture and etc etc. Is it all photoshop filters? Maybe I'll send her a dang e-mail.
Also what is it with me liking primarily female illustrators? It's not a thing I assure you.

her portfolio, it is here.

research: Lesley Halliwell

So Minacha mentioned to me today, in passing, someone called Lesley Halliwell.
So just now I thought I'd casually check her out, not thinking it would be a big deal.
Minacha had mentioned her because I'd used a spirograph in something and said how Lesley Halliwell used them also and JESUS CHRIST.
I feel like I can never use a spirograph again, basically.

















Here is another, goddamnit.


















I think this all looks really nice, but it evokes a weird sense of dread in me for whatever reason.
Is she actually really famous, or what? Are people keeping big secrets from me?
Should life be easier than it seems????

Also I'm conscious that I'm just posting alot of trash on this blog and I'm going to try and post less, less and less.

spanish stuff pt 2

This feels almost completely pointless but here are the final pieces for the Ghosts of Spain brief.

the cover

















First subsequent image












second whatever whatever














Can't wait until all my critical studies stuff is done.

Spanish stuff pt 1

It was obvious what i was going to do with this. AND HERE IT IS.


















And here is my first inner. Feels like it's missing something though.













SECOND INNER. Also feels patchy.














I will hopefully sort these out on Wednesday and move on to etc etc

thing relating to spanish brief

Here I am, at home, messing around on this Spain brief etc etc and I blah blah blah until I something something and realise I've made this:


If only it had anything to do with Catalonia.

right look here is some done up right stuff for Ghosts of Spain

First idea. Trying, as simply as possible to sum up the article which, I thought, was about how Catalan recognises itself through culture and wants to be seperate from Spain.



















Obviously it needs more of structure to it, but in doing that I took a step away from whatever this is going on here and made this:




















Ok so. I sort of like this, but I think it also looks dumb as hell. So I shrank it down to this:


















And then, with me trying to steal the structure from this old poster it became this:

Do I like it? I don't know.

I think I need to try out more structures and play around but I am also conscious of the other two images I have to do (both of which I've started and sort of have ideas for) and all this critical studies blah blah blah etc etc.

Presumably final for Harvest pieces

I know there have been alot. I don't know exactly why I'm even posting this. It feels tired now in a way.


















Definitely feel like I learned alot doing these pieces I guess.

Amy Hempel if you find yourself looking at these please don't hate me for making them all. That goes for you too, Mark Richard. Thanks a million.

this right here

Here is a note I made to myself on how to change the layout of one of my Strays pictures:

















And here is what the image became:

















Incidentally I made this with one hand whilst eating a sandwich (which i'd also made myself). Beat that, Michelle Thompson.
(also i might put that match back in, we'll see)

sick of typing the word "harvest"

Went into college today and made a bunch of more or less randomn shapes on illustrator. I am currently throwing them around in photoshop and making more random shapes with photoshop also. So here then are some pictures. The bottom one is my favourite but it feels like a very cheap Christiana Couceiro (because it is). I quite like the first one but the shapes are starting to say more than the car or the girl. I will make some more tonight and then tomorrow come swinging in through the fourth floor windows, printed pictures and USB drives flying everywhere, blast out the most ultimate book and ride off into the sun on a fucking griffin. Oo ra.

cool thing

Back once again with more stuff for Strays

Did these more than a week ago. It's me going over the pieces for Strays and adding little extras and throwaway things.


I think I prefer this one without all the extras on it, to be honest.















This one works ok though I think.

Happiness of the garden variety

Here are some pieces I did today. Came into college especially since my computer is devolving, or something, and is barely able to save a file inside of five minutes.

These are for another story called Happiness of the Garden Variety about these two guys who accidentally allow a horse, named Buster, to eat these vegetables covered in some kind of toxic spray. The horse dies and they try to dump the body in the sea. It's funny and well written and it's just a great story.













































































I showed my work in progress to Gary P who very kindly spared some time and gave some instruction. He got me to take out the black horse illustrator shape and to mess around with the blue block at the bottom again. I knew the image needed some kind of horizon to ground it but couldn't make it work with those weird black lines from the top image.
Also Aquamarine is a colour mentioned many times in the story, hence its presence in this image.
That spirograph shape thing is taken (almost directly) from one of these old posters Ian was showing me, trying to get me to get these structures and shapes into my work. AND HERE IT IS.

harvest piece

My intention was to create a bunch more pieces before I uploaded anything. But last night I ended up just reading for critical studies and didn't even post this one image on the blog.
So then I was going to do some more today, but haven't yet and whilst I'm going to hopefully do some later I'm not sure exactly what to do. So whatever, I'm just posting it.


















Anyway I did this at college yesterday first thing in the morning, then did more or less nothing else all day.

Harvest resource

Have a look at this in terms of dividing the page up for your Harvest image.

Cristiana Couceiro

Have a look at Cristiana Couceiros interesting for you in terms of the combination of the graphic and the incidental scribbles and asides, intelligent use of space also.

http://setediasete.blogspot.com/

work for the harvest

I'm going to check those links out in a minute, but first i'm going to post these very works in progress for the stuff I'm doing for that other story, The Harvest by Amy Hempel.

In a nutshell the story is about a girl who is in a car accident, where her leg is damaged, and has to spend some time in the hospital. But the story is so much more than the sum of its parts. I love it, frankly.

I've been trying to work quite loosely with the backgrounds and things here. I was looking at some of Gary P's stuff, on his blog, and wanted to try and knock together these nice abstract backgrounds. I started these images by trying to get the cast working well together and then throwing in a fun background, but one that's a bit more restrained. I don't know how I feel about them really and I'm not explaining myself entirely well right now.
































































































I have presented these in the order they were developed. Some stages have been neglected, but you get the idea.

Links

Hey Roland some interesting (possibly ) links for you to follow up:

HORT
CABINET

the legs i made for this thing with Kingston

Really pleased with them actually.
Better than my bodies, which were crap.

this is what you get....

...when you start working on a project with fuck all resource.

Here are some more of me working on that Strays piece. I've hit that point where, because I have basically no resource for this, I'm just pushing at the thing without getting any traction.

In my defense I started working on these pieces kind of idly whilst taking a break from working on the pieces for The Harvest. I actually started by trying to make a flaming dog (on photoshop) and then this all kind of ran away with me. So it's not like I planned to gather a load of crap and failed to do so. But yeah since then I should probably have tried to gather some sort of resource.
































this last one was my favourite but i think now I hate it? I'm not sure. I've been messing around with it since posting this, moving everything in it closer and such. I was trying to express the basic twist of the story as simply as possible, for what that's worth.