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.