Thursday 31 March 2011

Disassembled Dodo...


"Disassembled Dodo"...now there's a great name for a band...?! Thanks so much to all those who gave positive feedback on my last Dodo post. I feel happy to continue with the little chap...wait, that should be chapess as she has just laid an egg! So the dodo is the one I'll try for print on. I did the colour separations for it yesterday, including a minor change to the bum shape to make it more Dodoesque. The last ass wasn't quite right. It's interesting to see the whole image emerge from just 3 colour layers set to multiply in photoshop. Yes, I know It'd be easier to do the whole thing as vectors in illustrator but I just cannot be as loose and spontaneous creating stuff by dragging vector nodes as I can wacomming pixels. Big positives and negatives with both ways of doing things... So I hope to have a genuine, bona fide A3 screen print to post next week... fingers crossed. Should be fun.

On an unrelated note I watched the animated version of Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing from iTunes last night. If you're a fan of the original book you really won't be disappointed and, if you don't know what I'm on about go have a shufty! The animation captures the disjointed, otherworldly yet familiar antipodean distopia feel from the book perfectly. The character and environment design, colour design, animation, narration (the marvelous Tim Minchin) are all glorious! Go on, treat yourself.

Sunday 27 March 2011

The last Dodo...



Well my screen print thing is next saturday and I cannot help but keep trying out various ideas on what to print. Still with the bird theme for some reason (I do find some birds seemingly preposterous legs set too far back for their centre of gravity stance endlessly amusing...) I'm trying out a Dodo design which has a more decorative, retro, patterned graphic look.

I think the humble Dodo makes an interesting subject as it has a number of themes going on. It's humorous character (thanks in part to Lewis Carroll, Tenniel and also the many and varied engravings, drawings and paintings made from accounts while it was still around), the obvious message of conservation verses extinction of species and also an almost mythic quality. Despite having had existed, I don't know about you but, for me it's almost as if the Dodo is a fictitious creature that has been conjured up to teach us a worthy lesson...

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Ducking around...



I'm still batting a few ideas around ready for my screen print taster class. It's very silly I know, but I think there's something worth pursuing with the ducking duck... Not sure I can be 100% sure of pulling off the screen separations as I have them in this, especially with the fragmented textures in the body, but I like the contrasts and interplay of the limited colours. It's fun just ducking around.

Sunday 20 March 2011

warm up sketch - my old nikon


Here's a warm up sketch I did today...don't know that I really 'came to the boil' after it. Still, it was fun to do. I do miss using my old film cameras. Digital photography is great in so many ways but there's something solid and more considered about photographing with film.

Purple birthday gorilla...


A mate's daughter has her birthday today. She seemed amused at an earlier pic of mine... She's likes purple... Nuff said... :-) Happy Birthady Cora!

Thursday 17 March 2011

Sunday 13 March 2011

magpie logo 'smorgasbord'





Well I just cannot seem to get away from magpies... Over the last two years I had 7 requests for Magpie logo designs. I'm thinking of changing my name... And just what is the collective noun for magpies...? I see wikipedia says it's a 'tiding' of magpies... but is it glad tidings I wonder...? It's great to have any enquiries for work of course, and I don't wish to look a gift magpie in the mouth...er beak... but truth be told I'm pretty sick of the black and white buggers for today. Earlier on I decided to have a break and go make a cuppa and stare out the kitchen window to rest my eyes... ... but there's no escape...tree...magpie...AAAARGH! What do they say...one for sorrow isn't it...! I'm beginning to feel like a bit part actor in a Hitchcock film. Y'know that bit when the climbing frame get covered in birds... I'm imagining that's my car tomorrow morning. Magpies...thousands of 'em! Try calling the AA out for that problem! Anyhoo, here's a small selection of the the latest batch of logo designs plus my warm up sketch study sheets. I'm off to rest my eyes and stare at the wall until the black and white after image leaves my retinas :-)

Tuesday 1 March 2011

"Bat" over on A.L.B.B



Well it's a brand spanking new month so that means a fresh crop of the weird and wonderful over on A Little Bit Bunny Blog. Here's my take on bat. Maybe not the most original angle to head along but I was a big reader of Batman comics as a nipper and it's fun to do my take on the guy...although I must say for illustration the Adam West camp T.V. version offers more quirky visual possibilities... big 'bat' pants and a belly assisted by a 'bat girdle'. Only a sneak view here, pop over to A.L.B.B. for the whole spandex effect... .. BLAM, SOCK, KAPOW !!!