David Shrigley Life Drawing

First post in a while, I've been a bit slack over summer. It's the start of my final year now so I hope to be updating the blog with bits and pieces regularly. None to show at the moment though as work is still in the early idea stages. I have however some photos from a drop-in David Shrigley life drawing class I attended earlier today. It's part of his HOW ARE YOU FEELING? exhibition at the Corner House in Manchester, visitors were encouraged to pick pencils and paper and sketch their own interpretations of THE LIFE MODEL which was a larger life animatronic figure. It had a great atmosphere with people of all ages participating in the fun, I really enjoyed getting involved and making a few sketches.

The Swimmer Progress

Here are a few double page spreads from a 32 page book I'm currently working on that illustrates 'The Swimmer' a short story by John Cheever.

Pick Me Up

Yesterday I travelled to London to visit Pick Me Up, the contemporary graphic arts fair. It is held at Somerset House on the banks of the river Thames and showcases many of the best new illustrators and designers from across the world. One of the main exhibits this year was 'Pick Me Up Selects', a collection of 20 international aspiring artists that together cover a broad spectrum of styles. As well as this the fair also hosts many collectives and galleries that are given spaces to exhibit, make and sell work plus there are loads of events and workshops for visitors to get involved with.

Having loved what Pick Me Up has put on show last year and the year before it was nice to return and see what's on show this year and how it has improved. It's really great to see so much amazing illustration and design all in one place, I'd recommend any one to go if they ever get chance.

The Tower of Babel

This is the completed concertina book I made that wordlessly illustrates the Tower of Babel from the Bible's old testament. The aim of this project was to create a short narrative which conveys a story using images alone.

I tried to experiment with the format and design of the book so that the illustrations could work together as continuous whole and also be read as a conventional pages. I am fairly pleased with the outcome of this project and I believe it has helped me gain a better understanding of how to build narrative.

Learn to Love the Rectangle

This was short project I was given in which the task was to produce 40 illustrations of two chosen objects I found interesting. I then had to choose six of the illustrations and caption them with a description of the emotion/feeling the images generated. Here are the six I chose...

1. Together

2. Superior

3. Submissive

4. Dominant

5. Arriving

6. Affectionate

Abstract Book Project

Here are three images from a concertina book I recently made illustrating the Tower of Babel, a text from the old testament. This was a three week project in which the aim was to consider the problem of illustrating a text by building a visual dialogue and experimenting with the design and editing process. This is in preparation for a larger brief in which the aim is create a 32 page 'dummy book' by the summer. I aim to put more images of the finished concertina later but for now here are some quick scans.

Family Tree

This work was done for a self directed project in which the aim was to visually represent my family tree. I experimented with different ways of representing my heritage and settled on a circular shaped diagram showing the bloodlines within three generations of my family. It extends outwards from my grandparents in the middle, out to my parents, aunties and uncles and then out to me, my siblings and cousins. The linear pattern within each section represents each members inherited traits and their bloodlines.

I like how the work turned out, the diagram was laser cut into a disc of tree trunk I acquired and the effect is really nice. I would like to try this again in the future with some different designs.

To present this piece of work I also made two posters (below), one of the diagram itself and the other an image made up from each individual pattern in the family tree. There was also a small hand drawn booklet accompanying the work which served as a key for the diagram, I don't have any pictures of it yet but will upload them when I do.

Thanks to Nick Bailey, the tree surgeon.

Bookbinding

I attended a bookbinding workshop the other day and made an A5 hardback sketchbook. It was really informative and I enjoyed the making process. I think it's a really useful skill to learn and will undoubtedly come in handy in my working practice. Here are the results anyway, which I'm pretty pleased with.

The Smell of Chlorine

This is a book I made for another project in the experimental unit. This time the brief expected you to visually explore the notions of memory and culminate a finished piece of work in two or three dimensions. The work I did for the project eventually became a series of illustrations drawn from memory of the swimming pool where I work when home in Bradford. The work is meant to aesthetically encapture the occasional boring and mundane nature of the job in its clean, black and white, linear form.

Thanks to Big Money Davis.

Telepathy Book

Here is a book I made for an experimental unit. The brief was to create an experimental book that would visually explore either a form of communication or a moment in time. I chose to represent telepathy, the method of communicating via thoughts. The idea behind the book is that it represents the connection of two minds. It does this similarly to a flip book, by beginning with a brain on the left side of the page and then having it gradually fade onto the right side of the page over the course of 50 pages. The book has a hard cover with tracing paper pages and is bound with brass bolts. The idea was for the book to have the look and feel of an anatomical/medical journal whilst still being experimental. Here are some other sketches of brains and the cranial region I made during the project to try and illustrate the idea of telepathy.