Arts Iconic launch

Tonight we are holding a launch party (that's yours truly along with friends and colleagues Nick Newman and Elanor Parker) for our new live arts and theatre company - Arts Iconic. We're busy preparing for the evening right now, so I thought I'd post a couple of images... The design process board for our logo design, and a quick peek at one of the little design models for an upcoming project that will be on display at the launch event tonight.

To find out more, you can visit the company's website here:
www.artsiconic.co.uk

Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer

Quirksome Theatre will shortly be putting on a production of Anthony Shaffer's hilarious two-hander Sleuth at the Hopkinson Vintage Gallery on Station St in Nottingham.

Below is the poster I have designed for the marketing of the show. I got a bit carried away again but it was fun. Further info can be found in the magnifying glass - do come! Tickets can be purchased online HERE.

Movie Poster Design Competition

Well, the Movie Preview Network's State of the Art Film Poster Design Competition (...phew!) was brought to my attention by my friend Elanor some time before the deadline and was a great opportunity to enter a poster design competition for one of two possible films- very exciting, I'm rather into designing posters after all!

In the end, life and work got in the way, things got busy and I ended up with a grand total of about 1 hr 15mins left to create my design in Photoshop (from a bit of a rough doodle I had stored in my head) and submit it online!

So suffice to say I'm not best pleased with the result as there is a lot more I'd have liked to have done - making the text pop out a bit more in certain areas where it is getting a little lost, filling up some of the matte black areas with texture or provided visual materials from the film, and just generally neatening the idea up a bit. But I wanted to enter it in time for the deadline so I had to send in what I would normally have considered the 'first draft' and you can see the result by clicking HERE.

There are 3 other entries currently up in the gallery so, I'll just have to wait and see! *fingers crossed*

(More poster design news of the theatre variety coming shortly...)

God of Carnage

Yasmina Reza's sharply-observed comedy of modern manners - God of Carnage - begins at the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham tonight and runs all through this week with shows beginning at 7:30pm. It closes on Saturday 19th October (Two shows on the Saturday, beginning at 2:30pm and 7:30pm). Click here for more information and to book tickets.

Below is a little peak at my final set design in model form:

Women of Troy interview

This was 3 or 4 months ago now, but better late than never eh! Here is an interview with director Cynthia Marsh at the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham about the recent staging of Women of Troy by Euripides. In the background you can see Carole Philip's set which transformed the Lace Market stage into a striking temple, and you can also glimpse the large mycenian mask painted on the back wall of the stage by yours truly ;-)
 

Dystopian Future?

I've not posted in a while so I thought I'd put up my entry for the BBC What If? competition, which I sent in for last friday's deadline. The brief was very open, saying only: What if you had a vision of the future? You could interpret this in any way you wished, and produce a piece of animation or still art to respond to this question. I decided to give it a go and this is what I came up with.

The entries have to be entirely pictoral, with no text element whatsoever as it is an open world-wide competition and the images should tell the story by themselves. But this was my thinking behind the image:

I imagined a future world where high-rise buildings are prevalent and people have retreated underground, living in faux-traditional housing under glass domes which still expose them to, yet protect them from, the sun's rays. The views of idyllic countryside out of town exist only as a digital rendition of what 'used to be' as people lose control over what they know to be real and what is purely manufactured imagery, whilst the real 'outside' landscape comprises decaying heaps of landfill: A definite case of "Out of sight, out of mind."

Wyrd Sisters interview

I've just located the video interview with director Andrew Nash, filmed on the Lace Market stage during the set build for Wyrd Sisters. I remember this being filmed but hadn't yet discovered it on youtube until tonight. Behind Andrew, you can see one of the cogs I painted on the back wall, along with some of my illustrative Discworld graphics that appeared in the video art shown when Granny Weatherwax did her big spell to move Lancre 15 years into the future, at the end of Act I - ooh, exciting that some of my humble brushwork and illustration efforts are on youtube!

It brings back fond memories of the show too, check it out below!

The Postcard Project

Last autumn I sent off a postcard I'd designed (using one of my Battersea doodles, entitled 'Toast Battersea') to a company called Advertising Exhibitions, who had put a call out on a job site for artists working in any discipline to design a standard sized postcard showing a piece of their work, and write a little about their work or working process on the back. It then asked you to mail your postcard to the company's base in surrey and they would scan all the cards they received for their constantly updated online gallery. The original would then be sent on to a relevant arts company or be available for purchase at a future exhibition, thus gaining the artist some exposure. So I had sent off my postcard a few months ago and, if I'm honest, forgotten all about it! Then my mum happened to be googling me to look up any new doodles I'd put on this blog and she found a search result which took her to this online gallery and - there was my postcard!

You can check it out here: http://advertisingexhibitions.co.uk/blog/?p=44
...and there are lots of other interesting designs up there too.

I like the added texture in this image as I made my postcard using thick watercolour paper. I produced a few other postcard designs at the time, based on my Battersea Doodles, cropping some of the images and using the full versions of some others and quite liked them. I'm thinking of producing some postcards or using my doodles on other media for sale so, watch this space!!

Thanks To His Sister

Earlier this week I had fun creating a poster for Quirksome Theatre's upcoming production of Thanks To His Sister by Robin Acland. The shows will be on in Spring and you can read more details, including a plot synopsis, here. I was able to catch their last production - Joe Orton's The Erpingham Camp - which was a fantastically funny dark comedy, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one!

I had the idea for the poster (directly below) before I produced the thumbnail version to be used as a holding image (below, bottom) and wanted to base it around a theme of paper and daffodils because the play's central character, Brian, is a student struggling with his final dissertation on the poet William Wordsworth.

As his deadline nears, he becomes stressed and obsessed and begins experiencing visions of the historical figures who roam the pages of his thesis. I thought I would illustrate this scatterbrained student on the verge of a breakdown by having the paper stacks which adorn his room (or floor-based filing system, with which I personally am sadly more than familiar) morph themselves into daffodils which start to grow and creep up out of his tatty jumper and threaten to take over.

Good plan?
I thought so, then realised I'd never done any origami before and a daffodil is not exactly the easiest thing to start with. So I went straight to trusty old youtube and found a brilliant tutorial. After a couple of attempts and deciding to combine photography and illustration, I think I got away with it!

Happy New Year!

I can't quite believe it's halfway through January already - or that I haven't posted in over a month! Things got busier toward Christmas, I had some fun helping out with a play in Nottingham and then of course spent time with family over the festive period. But now, January's here, and it is unapologetically freezing. I am working on more Battersea doodle ideas and an Unfortunate Dragon project, but, for now, here's a quick doodle I did today, not related to anything in particular. It just popped into my head earlier when I glanced out of the window at the remaining snow, and I sketched it quickly whilst the image was still fresh in my mind.

Poor little robin, he has no friends in the whole world (...wide web)

Wyrd Sisters

Recently I did a little illustrative project in the shape of a flyer for the upcoming production of Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters at the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham directed by Andrew Nash. I'm also getting the paintbrushes out to do some set painting which is great!

The production's design, by Mark James, is in a Steampunk style which is very exciting and it will definitely be a fun family show for the run up to Christmas! Show dates are on the flyer image below, and you can book tickets here.

Battersea doodle #24

I decided to do something unseasonal, so it would make me feel a bit warmer during this winter weather!

A Christmas Carol

To add to my artwork in the previous post, I thought I'd post a picture of the production to show the artwork as it was incorporated on the set. I also had fun with a little bit of painting and prop-making in the shape of those burgundy lampshades. New Perspective's production of A Christmas Carol continues to tour through December, see here for the full tour schedule, and definitely go along if you like the look of it!

Credit to Pamela Raith Photography for the wonderful production shots below:

Watch the trailer for the show here!

And now for something Victorian...

It's been a shocking amount of time since my last post, due to being a little busier of late (hurrah!) so I'm posting something a little different this time.

After going to sit in on rehearsals for New Perspective Theatre Company's one-man production of A Christmas Carol a few weeks back, I ended up producing some Victorian magician/entertainer -style poster art for the set and foyers during the tour which you can see below. The artwork also appears in the play's programme in which I was very excited to see I was credited as Scenic Artist!

Working on this was a great experience and I also got to help out a bit with preparing the set and went along for the first day of the tour. It is a fantastic production, really getting you into the spirit of Christmas as the nights draw in and there's a chill in the air. So if you're anywhere near the East Midlands before mid-December, do catch it if you can!

Battersea doodle #23

Swinging Battersea

Battersea doodle #22

Another 'in the style of Artist x'. Can you guess who inspired this one?

And the answer is... M. C. Escher !

Battersea doodle #21

Remember Battersea.

As well as all the forget-me-nots (myosotis), there's a knot in one chimney because people used to tie a knot in their handkerchief to remember.

Battersea doodle #20

Battersea Kaleidoscope.
Lately I've been having more fun with the repeated motif idea. I started on a kaleidoscopic image a couple of days ago, making a small section of it (probably just under a quarter of this image). I came back to it today and added some colour and then it kept on growing! I particularly like the centre, which came about a little by accident after I copied the central group and happened to rotate it on top of what was already there. I like how detailed it became once I'd accidentally doubled it up, so I left it like that, and for some reason that little section reminds me of the sort of ornate patterns of the Victorian age. Or maybe even a little of Art Nouveau, despite the individual elements being composed almost entirely of straight lines. :)

Battersea doodle #19

I've been playing around with using the power station as a repeated motif for a while now, and this is the first 'wallpaper' style image I've created that I'm quite happy with. I'd love to test this sort of thing as a fabric print to make accessories with, so maybe I'll look into that. Anyway, for now here's an example of my Battersea Wallpaper...

Battersea doodle #18

As it's monday, I'll be nice and give you an easy one to guess:

And the answer is... Andy Warhol !

Battersea doodle #17

Another 'Battersea in the style of Artist x' doodle. Solve for x. [for answer see below - no cheating!]

 

And the answer is... Rene Magritte !

Battersea doodle #16

I started doing a little series of jokey 'Battersea in the style of Artist X' doodles which were quite fun, so I'll post a few up. Here's the first one I did. I'm sure you can guess the artist, but if not, it says beneath the doodle.

 

 And the answer is... Piet Mondrian !

Battersea doodle #15

"Save Battersea!"

This is a bit of a doodled pun. It just started as the power station as a piggy bank, but then I thought about how I desperately hope something happens with the power station before it becomes too dilapidated to save... and as for the little Battersea power station balloon flying between the legs of the piggy bank - that's a sort of back-to-front reference to the pig balloon flying over the power station on Pink Floyd's famous album cover for Animals.

Battersea stop-motion #1

Hello everyone! (I know you're out there because I just checked my stats... followers welcome!)

So now that little shameless plug for someone to join the blog and make me feel a little less like a lemon (or is it gooseberry?!) is out of the way, I mentioned in a previous post that I'd attempted a bit of stop motion animation a little while ago, featuring (you've guessed it) my favourite power station and thought I'd try posting it up on here so that I don't just forget about it buried in the depths of my computing machine. Being reminded of it more often may indeed encourage me to try again and get a little better.

Disclaimer: In my defense, it is my first ever attempt at a stop motion animation, and with lack of good lighting, a decent digital camera or even a tripod (I do have a teensy 10cm one somewhere but it is hiding from me) the result isn't exactly going to get me fast-tracked to a career at Aardman Animations. However, I was quite excited about it, and it gave me lots of overly-ambitious ideas of what I could do next, perhaps after I've sorted the tripod, lights and camera issues, and spent a little longer on it! 

So here goes ...[ please don't judge too harshly ;-) ]

Battersea doodle #14

Saint Battersea