I've always been a bit of a digital junkie. In my years at college I mainly did most of my work using photoshop and illustrator, until I found out how much I enjoyed using the printmaking facilities. One of the choices that i'm trying to decide at the moment is whether I want to go back and pursue my digital roots, or if I should keep up with the hand rendered styles i'm developing at the moment. Obviously, depending on the brief that i'm set will depend on the outcome, but i'd like to develop my digital skills along with my traditional ones.
Anyway, on with the post. I've been trying out a program called Sketchbook Pro, which I found out through Stephen Silver's blog (Artist from Ren & Stimpy). I've only done a few images using it, but to be honest it's brilliant. The pencil and pen effects are much better than most of the photoshop or illustrator defaults, and when using a graphics tablet it feels much more like traditional drawing on paper rather than digital. Here's an experiment i've done on this using layers, and copying from a photo. I think this program is something i'm going to explore more with my work, as I find it so useful and simple to draw with.
I've been trying to come up with different techniques with my drawing, and to make a theme in my current personal sketchbook that I can explore. I suppose I should explain what i'm doing in my sketch books......well, I have 2 sketchbooks at the moment that are, I suppose, a place to escape from projects and work on things I need to improve on, and styles i'd like to work in. One of them is involving collage, and the other one that i'm focusing on is one in which I only draw faces and people in. Most of the pages that i'll be putting on here and flickr are in this latter sketchbook, as the collage one is a bit more personal and so i'd like to keep that one under wraps until it is nearly finished. That said, here's a page I did literally about 3 minutes before I wrote this blog, just a quick self portrait in a style that i'm enjoying at the moment, with the thin and thick pens on a roughly painted background. Oh, and I never use yellow, so this is interesting in that respect. As always, check out my flickr page (accessed through the links section) and have a look around my work.
I've been on a bit of a music binge the past two weeks, listening to a lot of the older records i've got in my collection. I'm really getting back into Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, and seeing as their album Dazzle Ships has just been re-released with bonus tracks I think that will be the next cd i'll add to my collection.
Another band i've been listening to greatly is Be-Bop Deluxe. I have to thank my Dad for getting me into them, as he is a big fan and has most of their albums that i've copied for my listening pleasure. There's something about the guitar style of Bill Nelson that makes me wish I was better in my own attempt at playing, but it's just so nice to listen to. A mixture of rock and roll, reggae, and low tempo numbers shows their diversity, and I never tire of listening to them. Here's a video of them playing the fantastic 'Ships in the Night':
Listening to this music has made me quite interested in the 1970's, plus my obsession with the tv series Life on Mars, and recently Ashes to Ashes, has made me think of some personal projects that I may undertake soon.
So i've got a couple of sketchbooks that I like to do work in that's not related to my uni work, to try and work on things that I need to improve on. One of these sketchbooks I use to mainly draw faces and portraits from images/films, and I thought i'd share a few of the images from it. These are ongoing projects that I plan to continue until the sketchbooks are filled up, or I lose interest, but i'm quite happy with what i'm producing in these books. Remember, all these images and more can be found through my Flickr account, which you can get to through the links section.
Blogs. Whatever. I'm an illustration student currently studying in the 2nd year at The Norwich School of Art & Design. I've set up this blog to put up some work, write down my ideas and theories, and to have a bit of fun I guess. I'm going to try and keep this updated pretty regularly with work and such, just to see where my work takes me, and hopefully to show some people what I am working on at the moment. To start, here's a self portrait that I drew for a project quite a while ago. New work shall follow soon.
