Post 71

I've decided to start at last drawing out roughs for alternative images for the Guardian. I might make this a weekly project...could speed it up into a next day thing. Anyway, this weeks article is titled 'how to be high'. I'll include some of the extract...

Feeling up or down is largely due to our relationship with the great and ancient god of gravity, once space travel becomes the norm, it will be inadvisable for the depressed to travel to large planets because their hearts will feel even heavier. A breath of fresh air always makes you feel slightly better because it increases your natural buoyancy. Sighing, on the other hand, is nature's way of discharging your ballast tanks like a submarine to make you sink lower. we all carry the world on our shoulders: it's called our head and it, too, is round, continually turning and teeming with life. when you've got the world on your shoulders, just be glad it's not on your foot. Drug taking is another way of getting as high as a kite. Kite flying itself is equally effective, with similar ups and downs but markedly less long term paranoia....

Post 70

'To dream of volcanoes usually signifies violent disputes'.

The word signifies made me consider signifiers, semiotics. I'm thinking about this relationship between the text and the image. The words 'volcano' and 'violent' would seem to be the key words if trying to put the message across to a wider audience. How much does the illustrator have to hand the concept onto the plate of the viewer? Again, I feel that there is some kind of dual going on between the fine art me and illustration me.

Those volcanoes don't look particularly violent, savage, beast, animal....and then you begin to trawl the dictionary in search of connections and connotations in search of 'the' most effective solution to the short text. How do I extract meaning from the passage. Where do I get the images? I then look on google image search to find a credible volcano. I feel reluctant to pick something on the first 3 pages as perhaps it will have been used already, reproduced...but why shouldn't I do the same? Is there a fear of committing a crime? Stealing images from others? I want to produce 'original' work but isn't it the job of the artist and illustrator the take from the proliferation of images and signs, the mass of depthlessness, and search for an original voice.

So, everything is acceptable, good for the mix, everything is valid...so I'll be crude and draw a volcano when the text is volcano...I'll produce images the way that I produce images...and I'll keep on looking at the work of others.

I noticed at a recent visit to the illustration degree show that many of these issues apply in contemporary practice. Although appreciating the 'technical skill of the illustration show, there is always the temptation to say 'yeah man, what a great show,' but I must confess to being left to feel hollow. was that the sentimentalist in me looking for some 'depth?' I then went to look at the degree show for fine art and felt a comforting arm around my shoulder...'home at last'. But is there really a home to go to?

Post 69

...more sketches of figures, hands etc. I've found it useful to use the 0.5mm pencil in my quest to find a 'style'.

I've been thinking quite a bit about 'signs' and differance. How is it possible to produce 'literal' or narrative illustration living in a postmodern era? This has been something I've questioned a lot as well as trying to find my own style - currently concentrating on hands, faces etc.

I've found my initial drawing for the dream book to be really quite restricting, but feel that a concentrated spell drawing figures will be of great benefit to me prior to embarking on the final project.

I think the time element of the MA is frustrating to say the very least, but know it will provide me with quite a comprehensive framework on which to develop my practice in the future. I guess I've always had a tendency to try walking before the crawl, so I'll stay on my hands and knees for a while.

Post 68

Since the degree show last week I've been thinking some more about building up layers. I decided to use this in a half term kids workshop and got the youngies to think of building their pictures like making layers on a pizza - quite a good analogy. The theme of the project was loosely titled Safari and here is my example.

I produced both these images on framing backing board which I think is an approach I'll use for future collages. The 2nd pic of the plane is loosely suggesting travel. If I may be so bold as to suggest that I think working in this way is (as an MA student) ... well good.

The final image is my latest submission to 'Article.' There is some art in the park event going to take place in June...forgive my excessive use of the magical wand tool.

Post 67

'To dream of the dead is usually a dream of a warning.'

I've started to utilize the benefits of the scanner with this image, and am trying to get my head around how some of the 3rd year stuuudents make the pictures look compelling...

Post 66: clickety click

The bank holidays seem to come round all too quickly these days. Anyway, I took another trip to the coast in search of divine inspiration armed with a camera to the delightful Bridlington.
Its not quite Newquay where under milk wood is set, but one still gets the sense of a certain strangeness at the seaside resort. As mentioned earlier, I'm going to spend a few months really looking at the figure - especially faces and hands and feel that using my own photography is preferable to scanning the Guardian/google images for interesting imagery.

Post 65

I'm going to spend the next few months doing figures, faces and hands. I've been thinking loosely about what I'm going to do for the final project and feel drawn to 'Under Milkwood' by Dylan Thomas. I think It would provide me with a challenge and will have to deal with the figure directly.

I created the posted images on newsprint copying photo's and illustration that I've been collecting in my 'morgue.' I'm not sure about that term myself, but if its cool with the kids....

Post 64

I've spent a couple of weeks compiling work for the last two modules and will post up some sketchbook images drawn over the practice and practise/negotiated studies 1 units.

Still at a point where I'm unsure about the progress I've made to date. I think this has again been highlighted whilst viewing 3rd year final show work and something missing for me is the real practical help in producing quality illustration. I just ain't pleased with the end product at the moment. Should have stuck with fine art. I guess that I see a lot of illustration that simply doesn't move me, looks too polished. However, the actual presentation of the work I saw today was of a quality that is superior to what I'm producing at the present time. How do people get their work to look so polished? Am I missing something? Why aren't I getting a few tips here? I'd never intended this to make me unhappy but I'm losing a lot of confidence in my output lately.

I'll never be a great academic

Post 63

It's the bank holiday weekend and I thought it would be a good idea to take a trip to Whitby. El's mum brought a sat nav along which somehow seemed to take us around in circles. It was ironic then, that I decided to illustrate an article out of the Guardian about a new program 'the tunnel of love' downloadable for the sat nav that cracks funny gags at various points along the 230 mile stretch.

I've started using a refillable pencil to draw out my roughs, I think it gives me more opportunities to explore than pen directly onto paper, and it's cheaper. I feel it will be useful for me to start doing this as part of my prof dev on a regular basis...perhaps getting others to select articles for me...

It's great to be able to scan pencil drawing at long last...

Post 62

Sometimes I find that when working on illustrations with either loose or tight brief, it has been useful to draw for drawings sake. I feel that I've pulled out a little gem with this guy. It is really difficult to strike a balance between an intuitive approach and a more conceptual one. I think the key is to keep reading, looking and experimenting.

Post 61

Now I'm onto another image...used an envelope as the base and collaged a sketchbook drawing on top...this new scanner sure is moving things forward...

Post 60

I'm still just getting used to the novelty of the scanner...hence the choice of choosing black and white again. This is a sketchbook image drawn with my favourite Rotring art pen. I'm probably going to go a bit scanner crazy over the next few postings. I will be really good to display images in their earlier stages before they finally, usually succumb to the spectre that is photoshop.

So back to the wheelbarrow image. I started playing around with the £ symbol...perhaps in a crude attempt to make my work a bit more commercial, although I seem to remember that there was more to it than that...

I'd been looking through the yellow pages at design to see what type of image gets commissioned...be it design, photography or illustration. I tend to go for the safe bet, the main image with a minimal background...perhaps I could try some illustration with more happening? The recent trip to Amsterdam gave me the opportunity to explore this further through observational drawing on the bus, but also drawing from photographs taken whilst I was there...