This blog has now moved!

I've finally got round to migrating some of the posts from this blog over to my website, which I will be updating from now on. Therefore, this blog will no longer be updated. If you want to keep up with my work and any news, please visit my site at tomcolmans.com where you can find all of my work, along with the new blog section.

Gig posters

I've uploaded some more gig poster designs to my portfolio. Check them out here!

Musics!

A quick little update (as it's been about 5 months since the last one......sorry!). I've made a website for my band, and you can find it here: recklesscaution.co.uk

2015

So, it's that time again whereby I write a blog at the beginning of the new year, and put down a list of all the things I want to do (but never get around to finishing). Not this time!

Looking at what I wrote down last year, it seems like I have actually carried out some of the things on there, but not finished (duh). I'm still in the process of looking at my website, and bringing it in line with some of my other sites, but that's not too much of a problem until I've got some more work to put up.

I'm more concentrating on music at the moment, and that's taking up most of my creativity, but I've got some plans for the near future that will mean I will be posting more frequently.

Signing off!

Quick clean

Just an FYI really, I've just updated my theme and colours on the blog as I noticed they were slightly out of date. Swapped the neon blue for a nice shade of orange, and set all of the fonts to standard Arial to aid in cross platform reading.

I've also fixed a few issues with some of my Society6 prints, and I'm looking at what to keep, and what to remove. I've already taken one artwork down, and I've added some new products for others.

Society6 final call

So, I was looking through my old work up on Society6, and decided it's time for a clear out! So, in the next few weeks I'll be removing some of my old work, and I'm preparing to put some new stuff up there. This will be the last chance to pick up anything that's currently on there, if you were thinking of getting anything. Link is in the sidebar!

I'll have some more updates soon, I've been working on something quite exciting, and a bit of a departure from my usual projects

Short update: Music, art & more

Hi all, sorry for the silence recently but I've been very unproductive and have had a lot of things on. Nonetheless, here's a quick roundup of some news.

Music

I've been working with a few others on a band recently, and it's now coming to fruition! We're called Reckless Caution, and we've recently set up a Facebook page. It would be great if you'd check us out and let me know what you think (also like our page, if you want!). We're also planning to start gigging soon, so more information on that will follow.

We've put up a couple of videos from our practice sessions on there, as well as some pictures of us galavanting about. You can find us on Facebook at the following link: Reckless Caution on Facebook

Illustration

I've been pretty slack with drawing recently. I'm working on a new style which I'm going to concentrate on under a different imprint. I'm pretty excited to see where it will go, and I'm looking to do more regular work to get back into the rhythm of things so expect some more things soon.

General

I'm getting back into coding on my new website, which is very slowly taking shape. I'm going to be leaving my main website as it is for the time being (although I may have a look at some of the gallery pages to give them a bit of a refresh). I'm still trying to decide what the best option for selling some of my stockpiled work is, I'm moving towards Etsy due to ease of use and the size of the site rather than setting up my own thing.

Anyway, that's probably enough blathering on for now. As always, stay in touch!

2014

Oh hello there.....

A new year, a fresh start

So, it's now 2014. Insert generic "where is my jetpack/hoverboard/food pills" comment here. It's been an interesting year of development and creating art and design, so why not continue the trend?

Plans are for the organised ones

This year I have a number of goals in relation to art and illustration in general. In no particular order, I'm planning to:

• start drawing more, utilising my collection of various sized moleskine notebooks
• create more lino prints, thanks to receiving more professional quality tools
• sort out my ugly beast of a website
• set up a new online store to sell some of my handmade prints

I'm not setting myself any arbitrary time limits, as I always seem to break them. Anyway, hopefully some of the above will be ongoing work, so I'll be sure to try and focus on it!

Music and lyrical goodness

 Well, I'm in a band now, so I'll be sharing some more information on that as and when it is ready. For now, all I can say is that it's sounding pretty good so far.

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. Regular updates will resume shortly.

Quick post

Alright people? 2014 is here, so just a quick little update to say I've tidied up this blog a bit, and changed a couple of the fonts and colours to give it a slight freshen up. Standard "2014" update post coming soon (when I find some time!)

Update: Clutter City, online shop and new music!

Sorry for my lack of updates recently. Thought I'd just post a quick catch-up of things that has happened/is going to happen.

Clutter City

So, I took part in Clutter City at the Norwich Arts Centre on Saturday. I had a good time, and sold a few pieces of art to follow. I had a quick look at what other people were selling, to get a general idea of what products I should be making, and spoke to some people about their work and stalls. I've still got a fair amount of prints and such left over, which brings me on to my next comment...

Online Shop

Since I've got a nice selection of work to sell, and it's not the digital artwork sold through Society6 and Artflakes, I thought it would be a good idea to set up an online shop to sell some prints. I've not decided on the best way to do this yet (either a self hosted site, Etsy or such) but I'm getting the ball rolling with some photography and preliminary setup work. Once it's all in place, I'll be sure to post some information on it!

Music

And now, as I made the EP for Clutter City, it's time to start pushing my new musical project. It's called Laika Goes to Space and i've already written a few new songs for it. The first EP is out now, and you can find it at laikagoestospace.bandcamp.com. I've attached the artwork below, and it is avaliable as a digital download, or as a limited edition handmade cd. Go and have a listen and let me know what you think (and buy it if you'd like, of course!). I think this will be a bit more of a personal project, as I don't envision getting a band together to perform the material, but you never know what might happen.

Finally

So, that's about it for the moment. I'll start posting more pictures of some of the artwork I will be selling soon, as well as any other updates. I also need to get back into the regular Inspiration Round-up posts, which shall return shortly.

Clutter City Autumnal Market 2013

So guys, here it is! I will be taking part in this year's Clutter City at the Norwich Arts Centre. I'll have my little stall of prints, postcards and such, alongside 30 other people with some excellent things for sale! There's also live music and food to cater to your tastes, so why not pop along?

I'll be posting some images of the work i'll have for sale fairly shortly (once all of it is finished, of course!), but it would be great to see some of you guys and gals there!

Short update

Hi there!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but I've been recently doing a lot of work for an upcoming fair, hoping to sell some work! Sorting out files with printers, coming up with concepts and actually making some prints!

I'll have some further info once everything is sorted out, and post some pictures of the finished products, but for now, here's a sneak peek at a print i've been working on.

Music, and stuff

So, I've been working on doing a lot of recordings and such since the E.P I made for a gig last year, culminating in a full album. It's going pretty well, and I've been experimenting a bit with different websites to spread the music out. I've previously only really used soundcloud to release free music (click here to listen) but as I'm looking to release paid for content, I'm moving across to bandcamp (click here to listen) for my commercial releases.

There's 2 singles available for free up there (or you can donate per download, if you'd like!) as well asa digital and physical E.P for purchase. So, you know, take a look and buy one if you'd like.

The album is coming along well. Currently finalising the track listing, which is forever growing. The artwork is getting totally re-done, with a few illustrations coming my way which look amazing. Not sure on a release date yet, maybe a month or two. I will be looking at getting physical copies made as well, which should be nice.

Anyway, check out some of my tunes and buy something if you'd like. Here's the artwork for the 2 single. I seem to have a bit of an animal obsession with the artwork:

2013

Dear Blog,

I have been neglecting you haven't I? 3 posts in 2012? That simply won't do at all.

Looking at the list of things I aimed to do in my 2012 post, not really much has progressed with those. I've got a new job at work ad a Marketing Technical Assistant, so most of my creativity has been funnelled into that, rather than my personal work.

On the plus side, the demo went down well, and I'm currently working on a full album as we speak. I've got most of the tracks written, and provisional artwork created, but there's still a hell of a lot of work that needs to go into it.

So, to try and motivate myself, here's a list of my suggested aims in the coming year:
- Try and finish the musicians portrait project I've been working on
- Complete the album, play some gigs, do more with music
- Rebuild my website (I did do this last year, but it's looking a bit clunky now)
- Sort my act together

I'm aiming to actually do more illustration and update a bit more, so hopefully I can progress with maybe, oh I don't know, 4 posts this year?

To leave you with, a song I have been listening to a lot by the fantastic Future of the Left

2012: A prosperous year

Well, 2011 is dead and buried, 2012 is here all new and smelling as fresh as newly cut grass.

I have been neglecting this Blog a great deal, and as a matter of fact illustration as a whole. I can only apologise to myself, as I need to motivate myself to create some work.

I'm still working on my main project, portraits of musicians that have influenced me and other artists. I'm aiming to get a lot more created and finished, at least aiming for a new portrait once a week. Once there's a good selection I have plans for an exhibition or two, plus possibly a book. It's all being worked on as we speak but I don't want to go into too much detail at the moment. Suffice to say, hopefully it will be a success.

I'm also working on some new music and I'm looking to record a better quality demo sometime this year. I'll be putting some stuff up on the internet once it's written to get some feedback, so look out for that at some point. I'm also working on some music reviews, I'm unsure what format they will take, either written or video, but I'd like to share music I love which some of you may not have heard before. Either that, or some awful music!

What else? Well, there's a trip to Japan to come around March time once that's booked. Also quitting smoking is up on the list, started today and will be updating on here with my progress as a sort of motivational tool.

I have a few other goals I'm working towards this year, but I'm keeping tight lipped about them as they are all very personal things I need to work on.

On a side note, I haven't really mentioned much about moving back to Norwich much. All I can say is that it has worked out better than I had expected so far, and it's been great reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. I need to work on my personal life to make it exactly where I want to be, but I think coming back here has been one of the best decisions I have made so far.

Well, that was a bit of a brain offload. To finish off, a great song.

I wish anyone reading this a happy and prosperous new year to come.

Artwork now for sale on Artflakes.com

Long time no blog. I'm sorry, I've been neglecting you, but all shall change!

In illustration news, I now have some of my prints up for sale at artflakes.com which you can find at the following link:

http://www.artflakes.com/en/shop/tom-colmans

Have a look around, it's a good website and there's some neat work being posted by other members for sale there!

I'll have some more work for upload soon, and will be doing a few more music related posts in a short while, so look out for those!

Czech Republic: Illustration Rally Part 2

Image for Illustration Rally's European Countries Feature

Check the full blog out here,
illustrationrally.blogspot.com/

A Little Bit of Spring Cleaning....

Just re-vamped the look of my blog, went from that horrid to read white text on black, to a nice cleaner black text on white. Also gave the whole blog a nice new template which seems to be working for the time being.

Some updates are forthcoming.

Be prepared!

Favourites @ Perfect Pad Exhibition

I will be displaying these two pieces of work at an exhibition in Norwich at the perfect pad.

Favourites: An Exhibitition

A mixed arts exhibition featuring upcoming artists.
Each contributing artist has submitted work based around their favourite film, book & song

PRIVATE VIEW : THURSDAY JUNE 3RD 6PM

I have had a few prints done of these, as well as a couple of framed ones available to buy from the perfect pad. If they run out, they can also be boughts through Society6 here: www.society6.com/studio/tomcolmans/store

I'm sorry for the lack of updates at the moment, but I have some exciting new projects coming up that need to be finalised before I leak any details

Products Now Available!

And here we go! Laptop skins, Iphone/Ipod Skins, T-shirts & Prints are available now!

http://www.society6.com/shop/product/23977/phone-skins?cl=3

http://www.society6.com/shop/product/24038/tshirts?cl=3

http://www.society6.com/shop/product/33148/phone-skins?cl=3

Click each link to find a selection products featuring each design