Double

A nice coincidence word today, given that I'm in the middle of making a second edition (double) of my George and the Dragon russian dolls. The brass band set is now complete and the varnish is drying and images of them will be uploaded over the weekend.

Pig on a Bird Hunt

I think its going to be Mr. Hunter who is in for a big surprise.

Hmm for some reason Illustration Friday wouldn't let me add a thumbnail so hope people still find the image without one.

Blur

Fast

Hmmm funny how fast made me think of a tortoise. That story about them versus the hare has really done wonders for their PR. The second thing I thought of, which could also do with a bit of PR, was the postal service, currently on strike. I think if I had a choice I'd use tortoise mail. Not quite as fast but far more reliable.

[For IF]

This play stinks

Children can be the harshest of critics and also the most truthful. I said in my preivous post that I was going to be altering styles for a while but I just keep finding myself sketching out little scenes with these wee animal guys. Guess its because they are so quick and simple to draw. I reckon the one above took less that a minute. Maybe I should set myself the task one day of trying to see how many scenes I can draw in an hour.

Ok - this time I really am going to try and start doing proper work again instead of doodles of silly animals.

Currently waiting to hear if I've to complete all the posters, brochures, maps and other graphics for the Southside Festival. I made them five posters for free for various events over the last few weeks and they are currently going out to tender for all the other design work. Would be nice to help them out. As a local resident I really want the festival to be a big success and I think getting all the graphics right this year will be a big step in the right direction and give the Festival a big more validity.

The below are the posters I mocked up for some of the small local community events. The main festival posters will hopefully be out soon. Anyone in Glasgow should come along on the 23 and 24 May. For more info see the website that Ann has made for them.

http://www.southsidefestival.co.uk/

Theatre

Well good news since my last post Stereohype have been in touch and although I sadly came runner up in the badge design competition they have asked if instead I'd like to be one of their comissioned designers instead - so that should be fun.

Pearsons DIY

Pig in a sweet machine

Happy Easter

[EDIT: I just didn't really like the colours of the previous attempt at this so have reprinted it. Think this simplified version is a lot easier to look at. Too much going on in the first one. Still don't think it really works though. The original is at the bottom of this post.]

I love when you overhear just fractions of a conversation as people wander past and you are left going - what on earth are they talking about. Like when I heard a couple of old men chatting about having been to the moon! I wanted to capture a sense of this fleeting audio and also something eastery and so was born the above.

Rabbit's foot

Made it to number four on the list for Illustration Friday this week - one day I shall reach number one. I always try to draw a fresh image for each week - does everyone else do that too? Sometimes seems that people use old random images that have very little if anything to do with the specific subject - but that might just be my little brain not able to spot the links.

Subtract

The annual picnic was legendary

[Might need to click on image to see it bigger. ]

Pleasent day so far - tended to the plants on the roof and watched some squirrels chasing each other in the park. Need to fly to London this afternoon but I think I'd like to get working on some new ice cream flavours and my ideas for the book design project.

Ah well, should find out on Monday if my badges have made it through to the next round - fingers crossed.

happy new year

Everyone happy to be back at work?

lunch

Snail Scale

Happy 100th post today.

Good news I've been asked to make another wee film for Channel 4 so will need to get planning on that this week.

When i grow up

I've always been suspicous of people who say they can read your fortune.

Firstly because I don't believe they actually can. (For if they can see the future, why are none of them millionaires on the lottery.)

My second concern is that if it does works, and they really can see what is going to happen to me, do I really want to know anyway, or would knowing what the future holds take all the fun out of it?

I need to start making some proper pictures. These little doodles are just not real work.

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek (Click to view larger image)

Busy weekend, running errands, sanding wood and visiting an exhibiton (designed by a friend) of work by two artists at the Tramway in Glasgow. Was an interesting show, think my three favourite items were, a big black wall dividing the space, a video of colour blobs moving about to music and the strange light on a couple of paintings that made them look holy.

I did, as always, struggle to understand the explanation handout or why none of the works had titles. The handout contained lots of phrases about "the viewer creating the work in the moment of experience" which I tend to think is a cop out for art, when it's really just abstract non-sense and is pretending to have some kind of deeper meaning. That being said, I did enjoy the show.

This weekend I also had nice chats with; an old man on the bus who used to drive tanks, a balding man who collects antique mechanical devices and a slightly drunk lady who was taking photos of the moon eqlipse, with her flash so "it will come out brighter".