Donkey

I recently talked to Jonny and showed him my sketchbook (mainly to show I've been doing work) and a certain image caught his eye. It was this donkey digestive system drawing I did that, although I liked the idea, didn't feel the outcome was too great.




Later that night I got passed on a rather cryptic text from no-one other than Pete Lloyd. He wanted to to come in the studio the next day and bring the donkey image. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty damn scared.

So the next day rolled around, and it turns out Jonny told Pete about the image. They've been looking for an image to represent Solent at the D&AD show, and they wanted me to recreate my donkey image for the show, but using the various stomachs and guts to visualise the illustration course :)

It's pretty exciting, Though rather daunting too. The hardest part will be balancing humour with relevance (and not being too cutting with my humour)




Here's a sketchbook page I did recently. It's following in the 'breakfast' idea and is a recipe for making fantastic beans on toast. Although I like the idea of pictorial recipes, they're quite difficult and not very visually rewarding.

More like Easter Funday!!

I found myself watching some of Mary Poppins on Easter. Unlike many people this film wasn't a big part of my childhood, I've still never seen it all the way through from start to finish. It was interesting to watch though, and I started doing some little doodles on the table (we have paper on there so we can draw)

I was thinking it would be fun to do 'reviews' of movies by sitting down with a sketchbook and drawing stuff that appealed to me. Perhaps I'd have rules like I could only pause it so many times so I don't spent too long on an image. It could be fun, I'd like to do it with older films.

As a closing note, Mary Poppins is totally a babe.

Getting my head together

I did my biggest problem with this project is dealing with my spontaneity; I'll get an idea, push towards it then abandon it for another idea. I'll get an idea for a comic, but it always happens at a bad time, either at the gym or right before I'm about to fall asleep. By the next day the idea isn't that great anymore, or I've got a new idea and wanna work on that. I need to step back and sort out my ideas, write them down and keep to them. Here's a start:

Final things:

A book, made at blurb.com. Accompanying merchandise of sorts.

Comics:

Famous feasts.

Ghost party

Tea

Sushi

British food

Other

Packaging: little food type packaging for goods. Possibly screenprinted.

Possibility of vending machine or or something for at final show.

Acrylic charms of characters

Tote bags.

Badges: done.

Stickers: done.

I'm sure theres more but I'll have to get to it as I remember it. The important thing Is I've got the basics down.

The beautification of the studio and identity

This is the last year illustration will spend in the jm building studio. Next year the studio will be in a brand new building at the bottom end of town. Because of this, we've been told we can pretty much do what we want; draw on the walls, the tables. And so we have.




True love among the madness.




El Peter




Beautiful ghost princess




To honour the studio we decided to incorporate it as our theme for the degree show this year. I suggested a wall where third years could draw to create a mishmash of images that would become our visual identity. Unfortunately my idea didn't translate too well from what I had in mind to what other people thought.




Despite being an illustration course, drawing is not a forte for most people, it's not something that grips them, that controls them as it were. When I was younger I went on holiday abroad with my family; I made the mistake of not bringing any pens or paper. I remember feeling myself going mad, wanting so badly to draw and going insane at not being able to. I imagine it's how addicts feel when away from their vice of choice, be it drugs, alcohol or what have you. I knew from that moment, that I was addicted to drawing. That would forever be my drug. Luckily I got hold of a pen, and then would draw on any napkins and bits of paper I could find.

It seems most people, not even those on an illustration course, feel like that. Many don't even like drawing, which I find difficult to understand. And so the wall became something quite different. It was a pasted wall of already made things. It's nice, but not as... Organic as I had envisioned it in my mind

To vend

Before our fmp ( I think) we had a rather fantastic guest speaker come in and give us a talk about his work: Stuart Kolokavic. it was one of the rare occasions where I was familiar with the artist's work before the lecture. His work is quite simply, stylish and beautiful. Inspired by his family's Eastern European roots it has a folkish feel about it, which a gorgeous contemporary twist. And what's more, as some sort of fantastic bonus, he was a cool guy. Just a few years out of uni, it was good to see how far a student could evolve into an artist. But before I ramble too far, I shall get to my point; at his final show, Stuart sold mini screen-printed comics from a refurbished vending machine.



How simple, innovative, and utterly fantastic an idea. I was inspired. I've always found 'merchandise' important as an artist, for me, art is something that goes beyond media on paper. My first thought was to try and find a cheap gumball/capsule machine to sell items for the show. But eBay didn't yield anything right for my specifications; I needed something that vended at least £1, and even that would be cutting my options short. It was difficult to find a machine like this for cheap. After a few feverish days of searching, I gave up.

About a month later, I resumed the search. I decided to look for small wall mounted machines, cigarettes, stamps or similar.

I often found machines that would be adequate, but there always seemed to be a catch; either they were in America and so shipping was extortionate, they were collection only, or as the machines were old they only accepted old coins. (some took sixpence pieces, and I considered that I could buy one plus buy some old coins, and sell the coins like tokens. However I feared that would involve faffing around, would take time and possibly detract from sales. I wanted it to be simple and straightforward, and a 6d machine didn't seem the way forward.

I came across a small cadburys snack machine. At first glance it was obviously in the toy category, but it seemed more advanced than the standard faire. At £17 buy it now (including postage) I decided to go for it. When it arrived however, I realised it really was too toy for my needs. It would be difficult to have more than one item in each compartment, it would need some sort of case to be kept in and secured to the wall, and theft prevention would probably be nigh impossible. Alas, it was a waste.



The search continued.

Finally, Fiiinalllly, I found the perfect thing. A unicorn self serve vending machine. Aka this:



I also received my limited edition Pusheen (pusheen.tumblr.com) plush. It was a good day :D



And so now begins my vending machine pimping up adventure, stay tuned!!!