Hello Summer!

Hello again! I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted! Excited to have just graduated and over the moon with my results. Going to really miss being a student though..

I've just come back from Brick Lane where we had our week long Free Range exhibition: "BRINK", at the Old Truman Brewery. Couldn't have asked for a better location! The space was huge, but after a lot of hard work from all involved we managed to fill it up nicely. Thanks to all who came to see our work and support us, it was a very busy week and the opening night was definately one to remember!

Major Project

Some interesting developments in my Major Project lately.. completed a mock up book for the Macmillan Children's Prize 2011, consisting of 4 finished spreads and 10 rough spreads. The project is based around my proposal for a picture book called "The Boy Who Drew Cats", based on a Japanese folktale, updated for a modern day audience and telling the story of a boy whose drawings come to life.

I've been working in a new way in this project, building on the experience of the Negotiated Practice unit, this time creating little sets and models in a range of different media and then photographing them and bringing it all together on Photoshop. I think the print based outcomes still demonstrate my hand made aesthetic and the three dimensional model making side of my practice without looking overly digital, although it does take a very long time to build up the layers and bring the photographed imagery together to a finished quality.

Expect to see the picture book proposal plus promotional material to take away at the show!

Free Range / Brink

Excited to be exhibiting at the illustration show 'BRINK' as part of this year's Free Range!

http://www.free-range.org.uk/cgi-bin/portfolio.pl?memberID=19207

Here's a link to the details of the show, 7th July 2011

Negotiated Practice

Entry for the Puffin Children's design award - click to enlarge. I designed this cover for James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, which was a lot of fun as the story is full of wonderful imagery. It is exciting to be developing my own style which explores the relationship between hand generated type, drawing and three dimensional elements. This image-making method has evolved from the flat papercut work I have been producing and I feel that now I have found a way of combining the two different focuses of my practice.

The peach sculpture is made from Sculpey, carving into the surface and building up the design in relief. The sculpture tells the story of James and the Giant Peach from each different side, inspired by Grayson Perry's narrative ceramics.

A Recipe For...

'A recipe to mend a broken heart' piece for the fundraising 'Recipe For...' Illustration magazine. Paper-cut out, hand-cut with scalpel. Improving my scalpel skills, but the blade does go blunt a lot when doing delicate text like this, nightmare! Some of the words are taken from a song called "Unhappy Anniversary" by Loudon Wainwright III, one of my favourites. I changed them around and added to them to make this verse which fit the working title. As I've been working a lot with papercut and paper sculpture I built on this work in my Negotiated Practice project to incorporate the intricacy of the papercut drawing with my 3-D sculptural/model-making work. More of that to come.

Silent Auction

Festive AUCB Illustration silent auction in December, sold this papercut based on some Beatles lyrics! Hand-cut with a scalpel and mounted. Really enjoying my papercutting at the moment, although it is very tricky and time consuming, especially where text is involved. Thank you Krister Selin for the photograph of my work in the auction!

Día de los Muertos

Personal project, inspired by Dia de los Muertos and candy skulls. Wire, plaster paris and acryllic.

Animation project - Divergence

Animation project experimental work based on the theme of divergence.. take a peep on youtube by clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnA9C-3How&feature=related

Narrative final images

1/4. Mixed paper collage and cut-out on board.

Narrative

Some prep for the Narrative project - based on the themes of fragility and innocence. Paper cut outs were interesting, need to work on my scalpel skills though!

Change

A working flip book I made to accompany my Flash animation for the Visual Explanation project.

Visual Explanation

For this unit I had to visually explain the concept of change. I was looking at changing moods and expressions. I also made this model of a bird although I didn't use it as it didn't fit in with the rest of the work I produced.

More Interpretation of Text

Front cover design from the Interpretation of Text unit. Based on the Aztec creation myth. The top image is a wrap-around cover.

Models

Some models from the Interpretation of Text unit.. The one at the top is based on the Shinto creation myth. She never made it into my final images but I like her creepy face!

Interpretation of Text

These are my final images from the Interpretation of Text unit at the start of the year based on creation myths from different cultures. I want to work on my photography skills further but I feel that my outcomes from this project better reflect the sort of work I want to be making, and I've learnt about the potentials of model making. I'm really interested in contemporary children's picture book illustration that challenges the traditional conventions.

Aulos!

This is an album cover design idea for Hereford based prog/electro/rock band Aulos. It still needs developing further, but this has been a fun personal project! Check out the band because they're awesome.

Muzo Records

This is a commission I worked on in summer 2009 for Muzo Records store in Hereford. I designed the logo using Adobe Illustrator. It's really amazing to see it in use! Thanks to Tim Prince & Muzo records for this photo of my sign in context. I'm going to get round to taking some more photos myself very soon.

Beatles Project

Here's one of my final designs from the Word and Image project at the end of the first year based on lyrics from the Beatles song Sexy Sadie. This project really opened my eyes to typography as a form of illustration.