Wednesday 25 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week8 part 1

This week we looked at creating fantasy art,...and well, just creating. The process of creating from imagination. How to use one's imagination.
I know this is daunting when approached for the first time but it's a necessary process to engage with. We imagine things. We do it every day.
All the tutorials used in class have imagery that you could imagine yourself.
As I revealed in class, some of the imagery is not that outlandish, it's just the execution and composition that hoodwinked you.
The important thing to remember is to loose the fear of experimentation with drawing. The fear of failure. The fear of it not being as good as that artist in the book you like. If we all thought like this, nobody would be creating anything.

Lose the fear and over expectation and have fun.

Some good work this week.

by Andy
Nice composition and lighting.
Nice use of perspective


by Amaya 
Nice imagery coming from you, Amaya. Please try to finish some of your work if possible. It will be worth your while.
Good work


by Aimee

This is probably your best work so far. Keep it up.

I will post and review more work later in the week.




My doodle. No plan, I just let it flow out to see what happened.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week7 part3

Continuing from the earlier post regarding music and inspiration, here is another example, this time , something that more resembles merchandise design.
The band is Radkey.
Here is a track from (I think) their first EP

Here is my response
When I drew this, was listening to  Cat and Mouse and also their début album , Dark Black Make up.
Their lyrics  are quite dark and in some cases would fit a comic book adaptation, which is hardly surprising, as the band are also heavily into comic books .
In my head I had images  US punk scene tour posters , comic books and horror.


Wednesday 18 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week7 part 2

Here is a photo of the finished piece for this week. I hope you all had fun with it.


For those of you who liked the Bill Sienkiewicz ( pronounced sin-kev-itch) drawings, here are some of those images.










Here is something rather amazing by Becky Cloonan 



 I'm a big fan of Kelley Jones, and here's why

Remember, I am only introducing you to all this  nice work to inspire you, to show you what is possible. Don't be thinking you have to measure up to it.
Don't copy. Be original. Be authentic. Be yourself. 

Tuesday 17 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week7

As promised, I will elaborate on the subject I touched upon in class, regarding music and drawing.
I don't why exactly but music and drawing has been entwined for such a long time.
It  began in 1982 with the rock band The Stranglers commissioning me to design and illustrate a t-shirt which led to designing t-shirts and merchandise for Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Damned, The Cramps, Echo And The Bunnymen among others, and then later illustrations for music magazines, NME, Melody Maker, Smash Hits, Hot Press, and Record Mirror.
I have always loved music and comics. I never set out to  chase music related work, but it just seemed to happen.
in 2002, I was asked to illustrate a graphic Novel about the life Of Kurt Cobain, written by Barnaby Legg and Jim Macarthy. This led to more music related graphic novels. In 2010 I produced drawing for animation for BBC's I'm In A Rock 'n' Roll Band and  a hand full of of other music related tv series based on rock and pop music.

It's just the way things happened. Kind of like falling on my lap.
I am not complaining.
So when I decided to rise to the challenge of inktober this year, without even thinking about it for more than a couple of seconds, I drew a sketch of Elvis Presley
When Elvis died in1977, it was pronounced that the king of rock 'n' roll was dead. Whether you believe Elvis to be the king of rock 'n' roll is irrelevant. That's how he is remembered by many. I liked Elvis Presley's recordings but I don't think he was the king of anything. Anyhow, I drew Elvis and the idea for the next was to be another Elvis sketch with a demonic twist.
However, instead, I considered all the  casualties of rock 'n' roll excess and that idea inspired me to fill inktober  with 31 Dead musicians.
Rock 'n' roll is DEAD!
 Here are just a handful of those submissions. You can find the entire 31 submissions on the blog.


Keith Richards isn't dead but he probably should be.
I was also just having a bit of fun with this. As tragic as the many casualties there have been to rock 'n' roll excess, I find many of these artists larger than life and sometimes almost cartoon like in their flamboyance, and so I played on that and the rock 'n' roll myths and legends.



In between paid work I sometimes let of steam by listening to music and drawing anything that comes into my head inspired by the music.
Here are some sketches I produced just for my own amusement and the music and videos that inspired them .

1. The Gathering - Leaves

My response

2. Siouxsie and The Banshees - Fireworks
 This isn't a particularly good example of a Banshees video , I was more inspired by the song and Siouxie's live performance

My responce



3.Mazzy Star - Blue Light



My response


Whatever you are inspired by, don't be afraid e to respond and produce something, whatever it is. Creativity inspires creativity. Don'y deny yourself to be part of it.

Thursday 12 November 2015

Wednesday 11 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week 6

This weeks flip chart sketch  was pretty much a make it up as you go along exercise.
I didn't have a plan but just an idea. We will finish this off next week.

I was very impressed with Andy's recent work.
Apart from the shadow cast from the structure (although, I can see why it was added as part of the design)the lighting is pretty much spot on. 
Avery interesting piece.

 Artist of the week
DEAN CORNWELL


I can't claim to know a great deal about Cornwell but you can read more about him that has been written by those who are more knowledgeable.
















Tuesday 10 November 2015

Toni Justamante Jacobs

Those of you who are into World Of Warcraft will probably be familiar with the name Toni Justamante Jacobs. If you are not into Warcraft then you might not but he is definitely worth checking out.

http://artofjustaman.deviantart.com/











Monday 9 November 2015

SAMURAI JACK




As promised , albeit a tad late , here are the images discussed in class relating to interpretations of an idea or character.
In this case,  Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack.
These were  mostly found of Deviant Art . Some are clearly a copy or homage to Tartakovsky's design and some  take it to the levels of realism.
Where possible, I have attached links to the original source.

by Phil Davis

by Ijul

by Mandryk


by Uzi91

by mybeans

by Dream-Echo

Can You Make A Living in Comics?

I saw this today  on facebook . I thought it was good and the words have a lot  of truth, so I thought I would share this with you.
http://www.adistantsoil.com/2015/11/08/can-you-make-a-living-in-comics/

"No matter what you do or how much money you make at art, it’s going to be “wrong” to somebody. So make art anyway."

Sunday 8 November 2015

September-November 2015 Week 4 and 5

Unfortunately, I have not been able to document everyone's progress this past two weeks , so please bring in all work next week so I can photograph it.
In the meantime, here is  the current project