Bye Bye Blogger

Hello Tumblr.
http://thisisdc.tumblr.com/

Tumblr.

Tumblr. I want one.

Will be ditching Blogspot soon.






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Taste of Home

Had an absolute blitz of a week since finishing Viscom Year One! First highlight is seeing Maybeshewill live at the Packhorse. They were being supported by 'These Furrows' and 'Worriedaboutsatan'. All three were phenomenal.

Then it was hometime for a few days for my Girlfriends Birthday. I'm bollocksed. Thorpe Park, Barbeques, Alcohol and Goodtimes. After all of it though, I'm dying to be back in Leeds for one last stretch. Will miss it loads over Summer.

Got a bit of peace today and so have been listening to some 'Worriedaboutsatan'. Proper chill and this video is pretty awesome considering it cost them £40 to make... They must have some mates in the know! Plus the fact that they're local to Leeds is awesome;




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World Cup!

YES!


...Hairdresser Cheetah;

Thomas Key

This guy is a friend of a friend of mine here in Leeds, who I know from back home. Good lad, awesome work. Makes me want to be so much better than I am right now, seeing him doing so well here in Leeds.



His whole Facebook profile does him most justice;

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Thomas-Key-Illustration/112434418770308


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Havin' a Mooch.

Admittedly, I've had a cheeky browse through others Blogs to see some good stuff. That's what they're there for right? :)

Came across this guy's stuff, which I love. I was obsessed with Lego as a kid (but actual miniture models and train sets etc were too complex for my attention span) and I think thats where my liking for detail and downsizing started. I loved looking at the Mini Models and stuff in shops, but cba when building 'em.

Miklos Gaal;









And then there's just the awesome photography that makes it all look so realistic at the first few glances.

I had this book for a while off a tutor back at College prior to Uni. I didn't wanna give it him back...



Slinkachu;







Best thing about Slinkachu is that he's anonomous, so he does all this setup as no one see's him.

http://little-people.blogspot.com/

Avatar!

Watched it on Blu Ray, at last, after avoiding the buzz. To be fair I thought it was toss at first, just REALLY good to look at. But then it turned out a proper decent film.

Best bit about it is that the same technology will be used in future films. Awesome.

The Initiative of Volkswagon

My Girlfriend sent me this. There's always something ace about quirky public experiements.

Different Attempt. Fail.

Just bought some different types of paper to print my Zine out with. Turns out I'm not allowed to use any in the Photocopiers as the paper may 'jam' them. Gutted. If I had the time I'd be scanning my Zine in and printing it the old fashioned way. But considering it's an hour till deadline and everyone else is in the same position it can't be done.

FMP Bibliography;

- http://www.wikipedia.org
- http://www.toffs.com
- http://www.skysports.com
- http://www.facebook.com
- http://www.surveymonkey.com

- Various Artists, stated in my blog posts.

- Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (In game Kit Editor allowed me to look into the kit designs brilliantly, being able to rotate and zoom)

"24 Hour Zine" (Included in hand in)

No One Gives a Toss About the Midlands Evaluation

The outcome of my FMP is pretty much nowhere near what I had imagined it to be once getting our initial brief. The process of my project has been really helped due to very useful Crits and Tutorials as well as pure development work in my sketchbook.

However, my time with the project has been consistently hindered by ongoing financial problems and (other) work extensions. It's annoying that I have had to mention this excuse for the majority of my first year on Viscom.

I set out to get my teeth into Illusration after many 'side tracking' projects. I really wanted to improve the quality of my Illustration. Thankfully, I believe I have achieved this and that it is evident throughout my backup work. Through others opinions as well as my own, the standard of my drawings for the Zine are definately the strongest, standout point.

During my final crit it was suggested that I choose to handwrite the text within the zine. I did just that, but in honesty after producing some final print outs I would have still preferred some use of a typeface. Perhaps this is down to me generally being unfazed by my own handwriting which I see everyday.

I am generally satisfied with the final outcome of my Zine. Colour printouts work very well seeing as my Illustrations are very colour orientated in order to represent the certain Footballs clubs well with their Shirts. Zines have a raw and authentic appeal when mass printed in Black and White, so it's a shame that my B&W versions couldn't fit that standard as none of the colours could be represented properly.

An overbearing thought whilst producing my Zine was that perhaps I should have produced a book. I felt that, sometimes, my presentation would have been more suited to a book rather than a 'raw' Zine. However given the topic of my FMP (football) a Zine is quite suited if one was to imagine a pile of them being handed out on a Matchday.

With this in mind, with more time I would have preferred the freedom to have been able to change the direction of my project towards producing a book. Also during my first tutorial we covered a lot of interesting material to do with the Midlands (other than Football) which would have been nice to incorporate. In my final Zine I only really touched upon the other material by playing with the 'Brummie Brickie' stereotype.

I'm not convinced this is my best work but I am very satisfied as even I can notice an improvement in my Image making skills and so overall, considering I wanted this project to improve these areas, I consider this a successful project.

Going home soon...

Deadline a week today and shit is sinking in. I'm hyped to do this project though but really gutted about the first year coming to an end. Saying bye to some Met Uni mates is weird.

Well, hopefully there's more of this to come for me during Summer;

Chinese Song

God bless Steve Coogan. The result of awesome voice acting and quirky collage animation-thingy.

Surveyz & Zine

Put up a DIY survey on Facebook for all the footy fans. Getting some nice responses already! Guess the lads just can't resist having a say when it come to footy!

I've got some text boxes on the go and encourage them to write whatever they want about the Midlands clubs, whilst stating what team they support. I wanna' use the responses in my Zine to add that bit of 'factual' banter alongside my illustrations.

Oh yeah, Im doing a Zine(s) for my FMP.

The idea is to use the Zine as a way to collaborate my drawings and be able to include some text, my own and collective opinions from friends and fans.


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HVXKBYH

Iceland

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Just. Amazing. I love stuff like this anyway, but when your flatmate is an avid Video lover you begin to really appreciate stuff like this.

Twentyfuckingtwo on the twentyfuckingsecond

Birthday, 2 days before deadline. Sucks.

MONEH

Finally got some breathing space with money! Not a lot but today managed to blow £20 on artist pens and a sketchbook. Time to get down!

No one gives a toss about the Midlands.

The "Big Four" being Birms, Villa, Wolves and West Brom (Tesco carrier bags).

Minus The Bear

http://www.myspace.com/minusthebear

Menos El Oso. I'm obsessed with Music yet there's very few albums/bands that I can sit an work to. Minus the Bear are spot on for me though, I love having them on in the background as I sketch away.

Check this out for an acoustic chill tune;

toffs.com

Oldskool replica shirts. Love 'em!

Tim Vyner

Official Illustrator for the FA for a few of the International footie tournaments like World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004. What a job!



http://www.timvyner.com/exhibition/world_cup02.html

Major Project

Major Project - Brief
BA Visual Communication

Major Project

Name

Dan Carey

Brief

"No one gives a toss about the Midlands"

Context

The idea of this project is to develop my skills and personal interests in the area of Illustration.
The subject of Illustration is integral to modern advertising and other aesthetic purposes, but it is also an are which Artists can use for pure creative output.
I wish to construct a body of work, developing and learning the techniques and skills required to become an established Illustrator, whilst exploring my own personal style and creativity.

I am going to communicate the idea of how the Midlands (UK) is often, comically, overlooked. Particuarly in the world of football. There are many successful football clubs in the Midlands and their rivalries are often heated and "completely necessary". I wish to deal with the ideas of fan rivalry and how everyone is nonchalant to it compared to the likes of London clubs and the famous Liverpool and Manchester rivalry (expanding beyond football). Playing with the stereotype of Brummies/Midlanders being slow, my aim is to communicate these points with humorous Illustration(s).

Written work to support project

"The development of art diaries, journals or sketchbooks are extremely important in developing your arts practice – it also gives insights into the thinking and working behind your works. It also gives you the opportunity to document mistakes, the learning and hopefully moving forward in ability.

http://soulsongart.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/making-mistakes-in-artworksdrawing-involves-practise-to-succeed/

Research

I'll begin with simple drawing practise, using familiar techniques and drawing rsearch. My aim is to go beyond the difficult nature of football, being a male orientated 'love or hate' subject. My focus is on the fans, 'Midlander' lifestyle, stereotypes and rivalries.

I shall be researching various artists for inspiration, including looking at existing Illustrative attempts on Football. I shall construct a visual diary and blog the whole process. From the work in my Visual Diary, I then aim to produce a set of Illustrations based on "No one gives a toss about the Midlands" using the Material that I have developed thoughout the project.


Think that settles for a decent Brief. Had a wicked one and one with my personal tutor Matt. Before I had no focus on where to 'end' this project. However, after a bit of banter about my interests (one being football) I came up with the idea of basing my work on the subject of Midlands football clubs, how they're overlooked compared to others and in general how people outside the Midlands seem to recognise a 'North and South' divide and never really taking the Midlands into account. I basically want to take the piss big time. As always.

Wicked interview with Jamie Lenman found online.

JAMIE LENMAN INTERVIEW
February 08, 2010, 0 comments

Written by Kate Bradley

Experience as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, illustrator and graphic designer is not something everyone can put on their CV, especially not before they reach thirty. Jamie Lenman, former frontman of the rock band Reuben, is currently illustrating for The Guardian, as well as working on additional projects, such as cartoon strips in Rocksound and Doctor Who magazine, and being the voice of the fireman on a children’s educational website. Jamie lives and works in London.


The 405 got in contact with Jamie for an email interview; we asked him questions about his illustration job, album artwork, Reuben, the Queen and Christmas, and he gave us some interesting answers.

Okay, just a general question to start off with - how's life?

Life is pretty good. I'm sorry that's a boring answer - what can I say? If you bang on about the great things it sounds like you're boasting and if you list all your complaints you sound like an arse. I'd say I have a good mix going on. Does that make me a boastful arse?


As an illustrator and designer who spent ten years in rock 'n' roll, which do you identify with more?

Well it's funny, I was drawing way before I was playing music, I was always 'the guy who draws the cartoons' and only recently became 'the guy with the band', so I think I've always really felt like an illustrator. Now that I've stopped rock and rolling for a while, I almost forget I even did it. It seems like a ten year side-step.


Centrefold illustration for Very Fast Very Dangerous, the second Reuben album
What do you enjoy most about your job now?

I enjoy the company best. I work with a really great team of people, all a similar age, all geeks. Most people complain about their bosses giving them a hard time - my boss gives me chocolates and even the occasional cuddle. It's a bizarre environment, no one has any hang-ups.

What inspires you most - musically and artistically?

That's a difficult question because these things are difficult to get a grip on but I think it's attention to detail, in both areas. I love to see a drawing of a figure with a few cursory hairs on the arms or a bead of sweat on the forehead, I love to hear songs where that little riff from the beginning winds its way back in at the end in a slightly different form...but at the same time, I also love slap-dash, totally spur-of the moment stuff.

If you had to rewrite one Reuben track in retrospect, which would it be and why?

I think if I have any regrets about Reuben tracks it's usually in the way we recorded them, rather than how they were written. You know, could have sung better there, should have dropped the strings out here, etc etc. Although I did make a little change to 'Stuck In My Throat' when we played it live, to build it up a bit more and make it more exciting. You can see that version on the Download set (video below). We had a song called 'Push' which wound up on a B-side, but I wrote it when I was fifteen and the chorus goes 'I killed Kurt Cobain' which I thought was clever and shocking at the time, whereas later I cringed a bit about it. (Writer’s note: I love that song). When we recorded it, I considered changing the lyrics cos I was worried what people would think, but in the end I thought it was better to stand by what I thought when I was fifteen, who I was when I wrote the song, and just went ahead with it. I think you have to honour the choices you make, good or bad. So...ah! That's a story about me NOT changing things! To sum up then, I suppose...I don't believe in correcting things. I think your mistakes are as important as your successes.

Stuck in my Throat, Reuben - Download 2007


What is your favourite film and band around at the moment?

I'm currently listening a lot to band called 'Nostromo' who are fucking intensely heavy but I'm not sure if they're all that recent..it takes ages for stuff to filter down to me and I'm not that impressed with anything happening at the mo...as for films, I saw 'Precious' the other day and I thought that was brilliant. Heavy going.

In Nothing We Trust, cover of Reuben’s third studio album, by Ashley Wood
What is your favourite album artwork ever, and why?

The first one that springs to mind is White Zombie's 'Astro Creep 2000', cos there's so much going on. I loved the fact that the singer Rob drew it all and the way that there's a little tableau dedicated to each song. I love the cover for 'Pinkerton' by Weezer, and I have to say I loved the artwork for Reuben's third album cos they're all paintings by one of my favourite artists, Ashley Wood.



Pinkerton, Weezer
Which is most important in music - talent, originality, attitude, image, or something else?

I think it's attitude, really. You can make great music if you're not particularly talented, and great music doesn't always have to be original, although it helps. I think all you need is the desire to make great music instead of the desire to get groupies or be in magazines, and then you're on the right track.

Illustration for the now defunct Hideous Records website
When did you first discover you could sing/draw and how did you develop?

Well my mum is both musical and 'artistic' so that helped a lot. Both my parents, even though my dad wasn't artistic at all, persuaded me to get lessons on piano, euphonium, saxophone etc, and eventually guitar stuck cos it was easy.

My Uncle John had a loft full of old Snoopy books and I read all of them, which is probably when I started drawing cartoons all the time. Then I got a dodgy cassette tape copy of Queen's Greatest Hits from a market in Bulgaria when I was about 9, so that's when that took off.

When I was at school I got into trouble for drumming on the desks and drawing all over my books. I often think how funny it is that I've ended up making a career out of those two things instead of all the maths or science I was supposed to be learning.


If you had to design something for the Queen, what would it be? Why?

This is easily the oddest question I've ever had in an interview. Funnily enough one of the tasks in my graphics GSCE was to design a logo for her 50th Jubilee, and I remember being pretty pleased with that. I got an A* so it must have been quite good.

Where do you see yourself going from here? Are you going to keep making music?

Honestly I have no idea where I'm going. There are so many things I want to do and so little time...I'm sure it's the same for everyone. I'll probably finish the songs in my head at some point and put them on an album, but not just yet. Watch this space!

Finally... was Christmas awesome?

Christmas was awesome, Christmas is awesome, Christmas will always be awesome.

Jamie Lenman’s website can be found here, complete with many more examples of his work. While Reuben are on indefinite hiatus , the website is still functional at www.wordsfromreuben.com, with an incomparably cool ‘Time Machine’ option so you can see all of Reuben’s past websites. It makes for brilliant boredom browsing, Reuben fan or not – and if we're on general advice, you should be. I'm definitely 'watching that space'.





He never did reply to an email from me. But this Interview was pretty inspirational as it was a good insight into being an Illustrator.

Major Project - Brief Draft

BA Visual Communication

Major Project


Name

Dan Carey


Brief

Produce a body of visual work based on my own development and personal style.


Context

The idea of this project is to develop my skills and personal interests in the area of Illustration.
The subject of Illustration is integral to modern advertising and other aesthetic purposes, but it is also an are which Artists can use for pure creative output.
I wish to construct a body of work, developing and learning the techniques and skills required to become an established Illustrator, whilst exploring my own personal style and creativity.



Written work to support project

"The development of art diaries, journals or sketchbooks are extremely important in developing your arts practice – it also gives insights into the thinking and working behind your works. It also gives you the opportunity to document mistakes, the learning and hopefully moving forward in ability."


http://soulsongart.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/making-mistakes-in-artworksdrawing-involves-practise-to-succeed/



Research


- I want to develop my understanding of visual practices, techniques, equipment and software with Illustration.

- Exploring the use of Adobe programs, gaining familiarity

- Book or Exhibition pieces (relating to one another?)

£££

I need a fucking Scanner.

Doodlefest!

Well up for this event on Friday 23rd! Blank Canvas walls, markers and booze. It'll also be a good step towards progression with my final major. Even if I don't manage to draw anything, photographing other artists improvision'll be wicked.


http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=110729688958263&ref=ts

Maybeshewill

Big band I'm into at the moment. Primarily instrumental. Always have these guys on the go as I'm working/smoking/partying ;)

http://www.myspace.com/maybeshewont

Yoji Shinkawa

Yoji is a Japanese Illustrator/Character Designer/Concept Artist


I'm not big on Anime at all but I remember seeing this guys' artwork in the instruction booklet of Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation when I was about 12. Even then I loved it. Over the last 10 years his work has been used in many Games from the same developers in Japan.

Shame he doesn't have an official website, but his work is everywhere via Google.

T O B I A S

This guy has hit a big bout of popularity over the last couple of years thanks to Album Covers, Event Posters and Magazine art.

http://tobiasjones.co.uk/

Ashley Wood

One of my favourite Artists. I could never replicate the quality of his work!

http://www.ashleywoodartist.com/

Major Project and that and stuff and the like.

Been utterly bogged down with project extensions but for the sake of my sanity I have to get on with this last hurdle before the end of year one!

I'm doing it along the lines of an Illustrative Diary. Whether my final pieces end up as displays for an exhibition or maybe a book, isn't something I've figured out yet. I have gotta' write the Brief up for Monday and I'm procrastinating like a bastard.

So I'm gonna start with the basics and look into as many artists for now. I have, however, emailed Jamie Lenman. One of my favourite Artists I mentioned in an earlier post. Hope he replies!

Oktapodi

Animated shorts are awesome. Something about them has that bit more charm compared to real life actors or even cartoons, especially if there's hardly any voicework and just expressions.

Beach Art!

http://www.jimdenevan.com/