Aine Cassidy - illustration blog

Green Economy and Sustainable Development

2012-02-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

I was approached by Stinging Hornet Films to create some animations for use in a documentary about the green economy commissioned by UNRISD. You can view the film here.

Inspiring Animation

2011-07-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of amazing animation over the past few days which I thought I'd share.

This is a sand animation by Caroline Leaf which is featured in the Watch me Move exhibition at the Barbican gallery. It's astonishing to think that this was entirely created by drawing with sand on a lightbox. The exhibition is beautifully designed and well worth a visit.

There is a lot of interesting things happening at the folly for a flyover in Hackney Wick over the summer. This weird and wonderful animation The Centaurs' (1921) by Winsor McCay was shown alongside a selection of other early animations.

And finally I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 recently and was really impressed by the beautiful animation sequence of the The Tale of the Three Brothers. The animation was directed by Ben Hibon who produced it in association with framestore. Check it out for yourself here

Some pictures from the private view

2011-07-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all that came along last Monday. It was a really fun evening. The exhibition continues at the Medcalf until 20 August.

INSIDE A BUBBLE exhibition

2011-06-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

I'm taking part an exhibition - INSIDE A BUBBLE with Liz Miller, Howard Miller and Welmoet Wartena at the Medcalf Gallery from now until 21 August. The private view is on Monday 4 July, 6.00 - 9.00 pm so do drop in and say hello if you're in the area.

Here is a little bit about the exhibition:
In a transient and turbulent world, we try to create order out of the chaos by constructing our own individual realities. In this exhibition, three visual narratives explore the coping mechanisms and behavioural patterns of people sensitive to their current surroundings. Ideas about isolation, reconstruction and adaption within these constructed environments are expressed in the work.

Open City - Festival Programme

2011-06-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is the last OPEN CITY related post as the job is finally finished! Here are some pictures of the festival programme I designed which listed details of the 140 films on show. There were 8 strands to the festival - City Scope, Crime & Punishment, World Visions, Science Fictions, Still Lives, Field & Factory, Exhibition Format and Obsessions. I created an illustration to accompany each of the strands.

Open City animation by Craig Murray

2011-06-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

THE LONDON DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL IDENT (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

My illustrations for the Open City Documentary have been brought to life by the animator Craig Murray. I think the hand-made, cut out quality of the animation fit very nicely with the illustrations. Amazingly, he made the whole thing using an A4 scanner!

Open City Documentary Festival at large in London

2011-06-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Open City - Graphics

2011-05-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the individual graphics which make up the composite image appearing on the poster and programme.

Open City - London Documentary Film Festival

2011-04-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I've been busy working on illustration and design for a new London Documentary Film Festival - OPEN CITY. The project has involved creating a whole series of illustrations which represent the different aspects of the festival. For the poster the different elements were collaged together to create a composite image suggestive of the festival bursting out of the city. There were a few different iterations of design (images below) before reaching the finalised design (image above). It's been a really fun job to work on so far and there is still a lot more work to do!

Women's Health and Family Services

2011-03-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

I've just completed this commission from women's health and family services. The subject of all of the illustrations in this little book are the different locations in Tower Hamlets where breast feeding is welcome.

PES

2011-03-24T02:34:00.001-07:00

Silhouettes and Shadows

2011-03-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

I find myself drawn to silhouette imagery. I've been watching lots of Lotte Reiniger's cut-paper stop motion animations recently. The images above are from her 1922 animation of the classic fairy tale "Cinderella". I've become a big fan of hers since I saw a screening of 'The adventures of Prince Achmed" in the Barbican a couple of years ago. It's astonishing to think this was made over 80 years ago. It still looks so fresh and inventive. The visual economy imposed by this form of animation accentuates the charm and elegance of her figures.

The shadow's and silhouettes in Reiniger's work reminded me of the Shadow Catchers Exhibition I saw last month at the V&A. Floris Neusüss' life sized photograms were my personal highlight from the show. His figures are ethereal beings which inhabit a dream world somewhere between waking and sleeping. There are so many wonderful textures in these images with some areas of the figure appearing pin sharp whilst other parts are corrupted and abraded.

Howl (a blast from the past)

2011-03-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

I went to see the film Howl in the cinema a couple of nights ago. The poem is so powerful I was interested to see how it would be portrayed visually. The movie was a combination of film and animation. Personally I wasn't super keen on the animation. I guess when you read a poem or a piece of prose you build a picture in your own mind of how it looks. Often when written work is translated into another form it doesn't look how you'd imagined.

A couple of year ago I'd did this series of illustrations based on Howl as a personal project. The images refer mainly to the first few lines of the poem:

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by

madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn

looking for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly

connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat

up smoking in the supernatural darkness of

cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities

contemplating jazz..."

Inspiring stuff - Joanna Neborsky & Demetrios Psillos

2011-03-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

I was recently gifted a beautifully designed book entitled 'Three Line Novels' written by Felix Feneon and fantastically illustrated by Joanna Neborsky. I love her work, it's so lively and free with a really nice mix of collage and drawing.

Demetrios Psillos is another illustrator I recently came across who's work I admire, in particular his portraits.

Physical Apps

2011-02-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

I thought this was a really charming piece of animation by a group of second year BA design students at Goldsmiths - Henry Flitton, Harriet McDougall, Chris Thomas and Ben Redford. They've physically illustrated the virtual applications of Twitter, Facebook and Spotify.

Physical Apps. from Harriet McDougall on Vimeo.

Umbrella

2011-02-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

I've entered this image in Lloyds Art of Nurture Competition. The theme of the illustration is 'We Act Wisely'. I’ve represented the simple act of bringing an umbrella in case of rain to illustrate this concept. I wished to show that a wise decision does not have to be a grand gesture but can also be a very simple everyday action. The everyday choices we make can have a positive effect on not just ourselves but also on those around us.

The Outsider

2011-01-11T01:57:00.000-08:00

This is my submission for the House of Illustration/Folio Society competition. The brief was to illustrate a cover and 3 scenes from 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus.

Design for front cover

Part 1 - Chapter 5

"I was crouched on my bed and Salamano had sat down on a chair by the table. He was facing me with both is his hands on his knees. He still had his old felt hat on. He was mumbling half-finished sentences into his yellowing moustache."

Part 2 - Chapter 1

"He was leaning right across the table, waving his crucifix almost directly over me. To tell the truth, I hadn't followed his argument at all well, firstly because I was hot and his office was full of huge flies which kept landing on my face, and also because he frightened me a bit."

Part 2 - Chapter 3

"They were all looking at me: I realized that they were the jury. But I couldn't make any distinctions between them. I just had one impression: I was in a tram and all these anonymous passengers on the opposite seat were scrutinizing the new arrival to find his peculiarities."

Spreading Christmas cheer

2010-12-14T06:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the Christmas card I created and will be sending out (provided it arrives back form the printers in time!). I've also created a special festive home page for my website to get into the spirit of the season.

Xmas card for the Medcalf

2010-12-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

I was approached by the Medcalf restaurant and gallery to design their Christmas card. The only criteria (apart from it being in some way Christmas related) was that it should include the building somewhere in the design. Inspired by the snowy weather of the past few weeks I created this festive collage.

Fearghal's Book

2010-12-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

I have a new(ish) nephew! He's a dote and also happens to be my Godchild. I recently made him a present which is a book about his short life so far. The book includes details of his family tree, the day he was born and other famous folk he shares his birthday with. There's also spaces throughout the book for his parents to fill in as he grows up.

The portraits in the book are a mixture of mono-print and watercolour. The line quality of the mono-print combined with the subtle pastel water colours enabled me to achieve the softness I was after in the drawings. It was a slightly different way for me to work but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Some of the other spreads are more design based where I collaged different photos and graphics together. The pages are french folded and hand bound using a single sheet bind technique.

Scope Magazine

2010-11-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

I recently completed this illustration for the current issue of 'Scope' magazine. The article is about the bombing of Bari during World War 2.

Musicians

2010-10-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

This illustration is inspired by some street musicians I recently saw in Dublin. I like the idea of making an entire band of paper musicians.

UPside Private View

2010-09-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Here are a view photos from the 'UPside' private view which took place on tuesday night. It was really well attended and a fun evening.

UPside is UP!

2010-09-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

The group show that I'm involved in 'UPside' is now on view at the Medcalf Gallery at Exmouth market. There's 14 of us involved in the show, each presenting their own little reason to be cheerful. It's on until November 6 with the private view happening next Tuesday (21st September) so come along if you can!

The first two images are my contribution to the exhibition along with another piece (which I posted on the blog a couple of entries ago). Throughout this series of work, I wanted to get across a sense of intimacy and celebrate the valueless preciousness of the personal souvenirs we collect and treasure throughout our lives.

The third piece didn't make it in! This image is a visual of the kind of object I wanted to create - but I had a few lasertran issues so the final piece didn't turn out how I had hoped. All the same, I enjoyed the process and it's an idea I'd like to experiment with and develop a bit further.

Dave McKean @ the Pumphouse

2010-08-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

I attended the Comica festival on Sunday at Battersea park. There was a nice mix of work on display and it gave an interesting overview on what's going on in the world of self-publishing...it seems to be quite an established sub-culture here in London.

The adjacent Pumphouse gallery is showing an exhibition entitled 'Hypercomics' which includes amongst others the work of Dave McKean. The artist himself was present on Sunday and did a short Q&A explaining a little about the concept behind the installation piece 'The Rut'. The artist uses the room itself to unfold the narrative and combines drawings, digital work and sculpture to unfold and extrude the story. I'm a big fan of Dave McKean's work so this was really a very special treat! The exhibition runs until Sept 26.

AOI Blog

2010-08-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

This illustration of mine is currently being used on the AOI blog as a call out for volunteers for the forthcoming Images 34 exhibition next month.

UPside

2010-08-06T13:36:00.001-07:00

I'm involved in a forthcoming group exhibition entitled 'UPside' which will be taking place at the Medcalf Gallery from September 13th - November 6th. The concept for 'UPside' is the simple little things in life which make you cheerful - your reasons not to be miserable!

There's 13 artists in total taking part in the show and in the spirit of collaboration, we've set up a blog to share our ideas and keep an eye on how everyone work is developing. This is my work in progress for the exhibition. My ‘UPside’ is inspired by the ephemera we keep throughout our lives as souvenirs of happy events. These old postcards, receipts, photographs and ornaments serve as memory triggers, transporting us back to these occasions. I want to make a series of small works which explore the concepts of memory, nostalgia and sentimental value.

British Library

2010-08-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

This blog and my website have been invited to be archived by the British Library as part of their web archiving programme. Through this programme The British Library selects and archives sites which represent aspects of UK documentary heritage. As a result, a historical record is made of the websites and they will remain available to researchers in the future. The archive can be seen at www.webarchive.org.uk

OWN LABEL

2010-06-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

This is a project that I'd been working on for a long time which has finally come to fruition :) The illustrations are for a online fashion business called OWN LABEL. The idea behind the site is to give up-coming fashion designers a new platform to gain exposure and have their designs put into production with their name on the label. OWN LABEL runs a number of fashion competitions which designers can enter by simply uploading some visuals of their mocked up garments. Their designs are published on the website to be voted for by the public. At the end of the competition the most popular garments are manufactured and sold through the online store with the designers name on the label. I also designed the site - www.own-label.com Have a look to find out more.

BEARDfest

2010-05-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

I have an exhibition at the moment in the window of the bookartsbookshop near old street station. It's mainly beard related work and some more recent pieces. There are some bits and bobs for sale including badges and fridge magnets. The work will be on dispaly until May 20 so if you're in the area please drop by for a nosey :)

Medical myths article

2010-03-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here are the spreads for an article I illustrated in this months 'Scope' - an Irish medical magazine. The subject of the article was debunking medical myths so it was not only a fun job to work on, but also quite educational :) I learned that for instance, drinking 8 glasses of water a day is really not necessary, the size of a man's feet bears no relation to his other body parts, and swallowed chewing gum doesn't really remain in your system for years.

7 sins

2010-03-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've created some new works for the 7 sins contest. The concept of 7 deadly sins seems rather archaic to me so I was keen to interpret them in a way that was contemporarily relevant.

I decided to create a series of landscapes which represented the sins Wrath, Greed and Gluttony.

I interpreted gluttony as excessive consumption to the point of waste and depicted a mound of e-waste to represent this concept. Much of the western world's obsolete electronic devices are exported to developing countries for recycling where labour is cheaper. But because of lax regulations in the procedures for this recycling, the process is often extremely polluting and hazardous.

I've got a sort of a fascination with cranes and they're a recurring image in my work. I suppose this may stem from spending so many years living in Dublin during the days of the Celtic tiger economy. They were a regular fixture in the city, appearing like mechanical dinosaurs in the landscape. I've always had mixed feelings about cranes. In one way, the sight of them is comforting - a symbol of prosperity, yet in another way they have an almost spectral presence. The 'renewal' process so often results in the destruction of interesting old parts of the city and their replacement by yet another indentikit block of 'luxury' apartments. Much of this sort of development is short-sighted and entirely motivated by greed. Many of these dwellings now lie abandoned and uninhabited since the recession hit.

I wanted to express wrath in terms of frustration, a sort of simmering rage. When people feel disenfranchised they get angry and if this anger has no constructive outlet it will find a destructive one.

I had some ideas for the other remaining 4 sins - Sloth, Pride, Lust and Envy so will perhaps continue to develop this project.

a tangent

2010-03-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

This post isn't particularly to do with illustration but since I made the beard book, I've acquired a bit of a reputation as a pogonologist (hmmm..maybe I could that on my CV?) And thus friends, acquaintances and sometimes random strangers have taken to arbitrarily emailing me beard related trivia (which is happily of interest to me :). Here is something that was recently featured in the Guardian that my friend Maria kindly sent to me which I thought I'd share.

Freaky horoscopes

2010-03-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is a personal project I've been working on lately, it's a zodiac. I didn't want it to be too traditional so some of the references are perhaps a bit of a stretch but overall I'm happy with this freaky assortment.

Dazed and Confused

2010-02-15T00:49:00.000-08:00

This is my submission for the Dazed Decade Drawn Out competition. It's mono-printed and finished off in photoshop.

bookartsbookshop

2010-02-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to say that the beard book is now available at bookartbookshop near old street tube station. Also, the shop has kindly requested to display the book along with some prints and other beard related paraphernalia in the front window for two weeks in May (7 - 21) in celebration of all things pogonological! I'd better get sewing :)

A book for my mother

2010-02-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit of a hermit this past week as I've been working on this book as a surprise present for my mother. She's a primary school teacher and has just retired. She worked for 34 years in St. Clare's N.S. in Ballyjamesduff, mainly teaching junior and senior infants - she even taught me!

The book is a souvenir of her time working at the school and captures the highlights of her career there. Over the years the school has changed and grown from being a 4 teacher convent school attended by only Irish children, to a multi-cultural 20 teacher school. I collected lots of old pictures and stories from staff and former pupils at the school and made the illustrations based on this material. Here are some of the spreads - it's 50 pages in total.

It was great fun to make and I hope she enjoys her retirement - she deserves a rest after all that teaching!

Jotta - featured artist

2010-01-22T10:10:00.001-08:00

This week I'm a featured artist on the jotta website :)

Illustration Friday - Wilderness

2010-01-20T16:03:00.001-08:00

This is my first submission to Illustration Friday which I'd been meaning to join for about a year! The theme is 'wilderness' but I suppose my illustration is more of a domestic wilderness.

EARTH

2010-01-20T15:36:00.001-08:00

I recently attended the 'Earth: Art of a changing world' exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The theme of the show was the way in which human activity is affecting the natural balance and physical cycles of our planet. I found it particularly interesting because a lot of the ideas were similar to what I'd been reading up on and looking at for my MA paper last year. I was especially thrilled to see the work of Edward Burtynsky whom I'd written about in the paper. His photographs represent the landscapes of oil - from extraction, to how we use it, to it's entrophic end.

The above image 'Spring in the City' by Chinese artist Yao Lu was my favourite work in the exhibition. At first glance it looks like a traditional Chinese painting but when you look more closely you see that it's something different entirely.

Wemakegreatthings

2010-01-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

I've started a collabarative project with my good friend and fellow illustrator Lizzie. We met at college in Camberwell but now she has abandoned the northern hemisphere for the sunnier climes of her homeland, Australia. It's all very sad here in London without her (sniff), but thanks to the wonders of modern technology we can continue work together in a cross-continental collaborative way (yah!).

Wemakegreatthings is the title of our joint blog. We picked the name because we both have a strong craft element to our work and we share an appreciation for hand-made processes. We both approach illustration in a mixed-media kind of way, employing lots of different techniques including print-making, collage, sewing and (more in Lizzie's case) 3d elements.

I'm really excited about our collaboration!

Sherlock Holmes - end credits

2010-01-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

I recently saw the Sherlock Holmes movie (which I thoroughly enjoyed) but my favourite part of the whole film was the end credits. It's a really nice mix of live action footage and hand drawn illustration made by Prologue.

Scope

2009-12-10T06:12:00.000-08:00

This illustration is published in the December issue of 'Scope' - an Irish medical magazine. The article is about boyhood and the challenges faced by boys on their journey to adulthood.

Frametastic

2009-11-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

I've recently updated my website www.ainecassidy.com. I've refreshed some elements and introduced a new motion section. It's always a bit of an arduous task updating the site because I originally built it using frames (the website developers out there are no doubt scoffing at my old skool methods). I wanted to have a horizontal scroll (as a lot of my work is landscape format) so decided when I designed the site last year this would be the best way to achieve it without using anything more fancy than HTML. Because essentially each page you see is actually 3 pages (3 frames) it means 3 times as much work when it comes to making edits :(

Four Seasons

2009-11-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

I like experimenting with materials and mixing media in my illustrations. These pictures are of the four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Urban canvases

2009-11-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

I'm interested in the textures of cities and and am always on the look out for interesting urban 'canvases'. Here are some pictures I took recently in Dublin (near the U2 recording studios). I'm interested in the combination of the hand drawn (or hand sprayed) with more formal graphical elements such as signage. Within the urban landscape there are two levels of expression taking place simultaneously - the formal communication of official signage, and the informal, personal proclamations in the graffiti type.

Showreel

2009-10-14T04:30:00.000-07:00

After navigating the choppy waters of Final Cut Pro over the past couple of weeks I'm pleased to have completed my showreel. It's a mixture of mostly recent work made in AfterEffects and Flash. The music is Boards of Canada 'An eagle in your mind'.

Spinning Tongues exhibition

2009-09-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

My animation 'neCessITY, capaCITY, toxiCITY' will be shown alongside a host of other films and video art pieces as part of an exhibition entitled 'Spinning Tongues'. The exhibition is organised by Rotareliefs and takes place from 11th - 16th October at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane. Here's a little bit about the event:

"Derived from the formal idea of ‘multidisciplinary’, the work commissioned by Rotoreliefs has the objective of creating a platform for the exchange of the different languages that exist between disciplines and cultures, with the aim of enriching all of the arts by means of the influence and exchange of each with the others. It is not just a question of promoting one discipline with artists from one country, but rather to create a network of connections between other cultures and disciplines to encourage, enrich and fuel art in all of its senses."

The video arts, films and live performances will take place at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane on Sunday October 11th from 11am to 5pm with the gallery exhibition taking place until October 16th. The opening day event will cost 5 pounds and 80% of the earnings from the door will go to the artists.

Playhouse

2009-09-27T02:08:00.000-07:00

As part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, Dublin's tallest building Liberty Hall is being turned into a giant canvass.

“Powering the display are 100,000 low-energy LED lights, installed into 330 windows on the south and west faces of the building. These lights can illuminate each window as a solid colour turning it into a tiny pixel that’s part of a giant display.”

PLAYHOUSE is currently running from dusk till dawn for 18 nights since the 24th of September until the 11th of October. Using the tools on the site you can design and submit your animations. Here's the clip of my animation 'take off' which was displayed in the wee hours of Friday morning in Dublin's fair city.

Drawing

2009-09-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some drawings I did in the Victoria and Albert museum last Sunday. I'm relieved to be getting back into the habit of drawing after working mainly on the computer over the past few months. It's basically looking and thinking, but it's something that requires constant practice.

Thames festival

2009-09-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

I'm involved in the 'Play Room' collective and this weekend we'll be selling our wares at the Thames festival on the southbank. This is the flyer I designed for the event. For more information visit the Play Room blog .

Web Updates

2009-08-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

I've finally managed to give my website a good spring cleaning! I've taken down a lot of my older work to make way for the shiny new stuff. Have a look here.

Big in Japan

2009-08-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

I've got some work in a group show currently taking place in Japan until 31st August. Check out the funky website for the show.

MA Show

2009-08-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the MA show last month.

neCessITY, capaCITY, toxiCITY

2009-07-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

neCessITY, capaCITY, toxiCITY from Aine Cassidy on Vimeo.

Show Time

2009-06-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Our MA show is just around the corner! eeeeek. Here is the group invitation designed by me and my good friend Lizzie. You can also check out the rest of my talented classmates on the lovely blog www.camberwellmaillustration.blogspot.com

My other life

2009-06-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've been leading a bit of a double life over the past couple of months! Coinciding with my MA I've been doing an additional course in called 'New Creative Ventures' which is a joint venture between the University of the Arts and the London Business School. Over the 10 weeks of the course our team of 6 (some art students, some MBAs) have worked together to write a business plan for 'Own Label' - a new channel for up and coming fashion designers. Taking the course was a challenging but rewarding and I've learned some things which will hopefully stand to me in the future. To find out more about Own Label click here.

Crazy Bird Girl

2009-06-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on the sound for my animation. I want to use quite subtle, ambient noises so I set out on Friday to collect some sounds of the city. I felt a bit conspicuous at first walking round with all of the kit - headphones, furry microphone, the recorder and a mess of cables, but I soon got over the embarrassment. I started near London bridge and recorded some traffic, building site and train noises and then recorded some sounds on the underground. I wanted to record some crow sounds too so I went to a park near college. At this stage I really did look like a crazy - chasing crows around the park with a furry microphone!

One thing I noticed, especially in the park was that these sounds are around us constantly but I never hear them because I never listen to them. This everyday 'soundtrack' is made up of a cacophony of noises some of which are natural, but most of which are man-made. The crow sounds I was trying to capture kept being swallowed up by the sound of over head planes. But it was the constant interruption by human voices which proved the most troublesome. Even in quiet places it was near impossible to get more than a few seconds of ambient sound before the interruption of human activity - talking, shuffling past, chatting on the phone. The whole experience made me think about how population dense large cities like London are and how we live all tightly packed into this grid. As the world continues to urbanise, this phenomenon becomes more and more prevalent.

Rotascoping fun!

2009-06-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

I've been working solidly over the past few weeks on a moving image piece for my final MA show in July. I've been working in AfterEffects which was a new software for me so the initial learning curve was more of a learning vertical! It took me a while to get my head around the concept of the 'z' space, the third dimension as it were. I've gotten a handle on it now and it's all coming together. Now that I've got the basic structure and movement of the animation I've been investigating ways of adding detail and interest by introducing other techniques. The animation is primarily illustrated but I'm keen to overlay elements of video into the piece. When I'm mixing media in this way it's important that two elements gel together and there isn't an obvious clash. I used rotascoping to better integrate the video into the illustrated environment. I found this process extremely time consuming and rather tedious. It involved exporting the 12 seconds of video as a film strip at 15 frames per second. This essentially created a stop motion animation (of 180 frames) in photoshop which were each drawn over individually. I was surprised i didn't have repetitive strain after it! This image is a section of the film strip. Despite the labour intensiveness it was useful technique to learn for future reference.

You-Me Artists

2009-06-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

There's a bunch of us taking part in an exhibition in Osaka, Japan in a couple of weeks time. The title of the show is 'You-Me Artists'. Here are a couple of images I submitted to the show.

Future scenarios

2009-05-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

The idea behind these four illustrations are possible future scenarios dependent upon the actions we take today.

Crows

2009-04-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Birds are a recurring theme in my work and I want to bring some birds into my animation. I was doing some research into the symbolic significance of crows when I came across this TED talk about the amazing intelligence of crows. We are very aware of all the species that are becoming extinct but aren't paying attention to the ones that are living. Crows in particular are adapting really well to our increasingly urbanised world and are actually thriving.

Man-made landscapes

2009-04-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

This is a scene from the project I'm working on at the moment for my final show. Throughout this year I've been working on ideas about man-made landscapes and and exploring the human imprint on the natural environment. I've been keen to bring these landscapes to life through animation and have recently started using After Effects to achieve this. I'm really enjoying the process though it is a steep learning curve.

New Sugar

2009-04-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

I'm in this issue, click here to have a look.

Bristol Artists' Book Fair

2009-04-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

A group of us from the Camberwell Illustration MA had a stall at the Bristol Artists Book fair last weekend. It was a fantastic weekend, lots of great work to see and interesting people to talk to. I also sold some work too which was a bonus including a copy of 'The Book of Pogonology' to The National Irish Visual Arts Library.

Myself and Lizzie certainly didn't come home from the weekend empty handed! We met a very nice man named Bob who virtually sold us his whole stall including an Adana printing press and an entire case of Baskerville 10pt type. It was quite a struggle getting everything back to London on the train but we just about managed. I'm really excited to test it all out.

A - Z of Beards and Moustaches

2009-04-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

And here is the final book! 'The book of Pogonology (A - Z of Beards and Moustaches)'. It's printed in an edition of 15. I'm delighted to have completed it :>

Pogonology in progress

2009-04-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that things take approximately four times longer to do than I think they will! Producing this book has been a very labour intensive process and involved a lot of planning. It was a step by step process - Screen printing the illustrations, aligning and overprinting the letterpress, trimming down to size, folding the sheets, embroidering each page, binding the sheets and attaching the cover. Each stage posed different challenges to be overcome and I've learned a lot about hand-made processes.

Upscaling

2009-03-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

I find my work is getting larger and larger as the MA continues. This is image is a current work in progress. The actual size is approx 180 x 42 cm but I can envision this growing some more! I recently made some screen prints on the largest bed in the print studio so now I'm tempted to make something really massive. I want to create a continuous landscape/cityscape using printed and hand made techniques, and use digital animation techniques to unfold some sort of narrative within the panorama.

Book binding

2009-03-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've just completed an evening course in book binding at the London College of Communication. Over the 10 weeks we learned 7 different styles of binding.

Lock and Load

2009-03-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been working over the past couple of months on a limited edition hand-made alphabet book about different types of beards. I've developed a real appreciation for hand-made things over the years and I've been striving to strengthen the craft element in my illustration and design work.

I think I underestimated the work and precision involved when I started this project. As I designer I'm very used to using InDesign. This makes it easy to make changes and edits to the layout and typography right up until the job is printed. Creating something that is entirely hand-made is a very different process. It's definitely more restrictive but it forces you to really think and plan and make definite decisions before you start. It's a lot more labour intensive but that's what inevitably makes it more satisfying.

The job is well on it's way now. I've screen printed all of the illustrations and have almost finished printing all of the letterpress. Setting the press to align the letterpress with the screen prints was quite an exacting process (I'll never take InDesign for granted again!). Once all of the printing is completed I intend to embroider over the prints and then hand bind the pages.

Sense of Place

2009-03-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Much of my work has to do with the man-made environment and how this landscape is our autobiography. What we build represents who we are, our architecture is our language. Oftentimes the message that this language gives is different from our personal experience of a place. This image is about how memories and experiences of a place colour our opinion of the place.

Playroom exhibition

2009-03-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy over the past couple of weeks helping to organise a group exhibition entitled 'Play room'. There's 21 different artists and illustrators taking part in the exhibition which in on in the Dreamspace Gallery in East London from March 10 - 24. It's been really interesting if a little stressful at times getting involved in this project. This is the flyer for the event which I designed and this is the webpage created by Tom. I've submitted some screen prints into the exhibition.

Urban Renewal

2009-02-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

How I work is quite a meandering process. I never really know how something is going to turn out when I start out. I've always been a big fan of collage - it's flexible, you can position and reposition all the elements until it starts to feel right.

Screen printing

2009-02-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

These are some screen prints I've recently made. I'm trying to move away from black, grey and silver and introduce some new colours. I've also been experimenting with different transparencies to create more depth and texture.

Cities of the future

2009-02-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a lot lately about the future of urbanism and sustainable cities and this image is to do with that theme.

Abraded figures

2009-02-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

Now that the research paper is almost finished I can concentrate again on my studio work. Here are some experiments I intent to develop further through screen printing. The original images are come photographs I took through a foggy window. I like the way the textures distort and corrupt the figures, it captures a certain moody atmosphere.

Public vs Private space

2009-01-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

I noticed this partially demolished building near Camberwell last week. It reminded me of a Gordon Matta-Clark building cut. The removal of the exterior wall on this block of flats has exposed the interior spaces to the public gaze. The sight of this building made me think about what is considered a private versus what is considered a public space. The exposed wallpaper in each of the different flats invokes the sedimentation of the former occupant's lives. It's quite disorientating to see these private details so publicly available.

'Egg, nest, house, country and universe' exhibition

2009-01-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

'Egg, nest, house, country and universe' was the title of the MA Drawing and Designer-Maker curated exhibition taking place this week at college. I wanted to convey the idea of homeliness. This image represents a slightly different style of working that I'm developing in tandem with the screen printing.

'Disappearing' exhibition

2009-01-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

I submitted this print to the 'Disappearing' Exhibition which is taking place this week at college. The image is similar in the theme and style to what I've been doing over the past couple of months though I think the tone is more hopeful than previous works.

Thomas hicks

2009-01-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Gravenhurst - I turn my face to the forest floor from Thomas Hicks on Vimeo.

I intend to bring a animation into my work and my friend Lizzie suggested I take a look at Thomas Hicks.

I really like his work. I love the scratchy lines and jerky movements and the way he uses monotone to create a sort of sinister atmosphere. See more of his inspiring work here.

'Wave 2008' exhibition

2009-01-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

This print that is currently being exhibited in the WAVE 2008 Exhibition in Canada. The theme of the exhibition is 'Blurring Boundaries' and the title of my piece is 'Let's make everywhere the same'.

The concept for this piece is the loss of cultural identity which occurs in the redevelopment of cities and traditional urban areas. Some photographs from the exhibition can be viewed here.

(Work in) Progress?

2009-01-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

I've been further developing the relationship between the man-made and natural worlds through the medium of screen printing. These images explore not only ideas about 'urban nature' but also ideas about the effect of urbanisation on the environment. Screen print is a technique which suits this theme and style of working as it enables elements of the picture to be layered and repeated. Through layering and mechanical repetition the image become more complex and dense. This process echoes the process of urbanisation and how cities become more complex and built-up as they develop. In these images I've combined hand drawn elements with photography and more gestural mark making. More can be viewed here on my website.

'Nature Bandaid'

2008-12-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

A theme developing in my work is the relationship between nature and the man-made in the urban environment. I'm collecting 'evidence' of nature's resilience in neglected urban setting, and comparing and contrasting this with more 'landscaped' urban nature.

Here are some photographs I recently took of Trellick Tower. This 31-storey block of flats was designed in the Brutalist style by architect Erno Goldfinger in 1966 (completed in 1972). In these pictures I've tried to fuse the sparse vegetation with the raw concrete of the building.

The term 'nature bandaid' sprang to mind observing this austere scene. I've borrowed this term from the author and social critic James Howard Kunstler. In this clip: The tragedy of suburbia he talks about how suburbia was proposed initially as an antidote to the industrial life and thus how the concept of 'countryside' became commodified.

Thames barrier and Docklands

2008-12-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

I took a trip on Monday to see the Thames Barrier. I find the whole docklands area of London really interesting. The tension between old and new can definitely be sensed here. The vestiges of the historic industrial past stand side by side with the signs and symbols of the future. The way in which these neglected places are 'regenerated' provides an insight into society's value system - what is retained and preserved, what is demolished and replaced, how is it replaced. These dilapidated areas the provide visual clues to a bygone era. The abandoned warehouses and factories are legacy of the the last century. The luxury apartment blocks and offices which will soon replace these buildings will be our legacy.

'Almost an Island' exhibition

2008-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

This exhibition was curated by the Print MA. All the artwork was based on the poem 'The Drunken Boat' by Arthur Rimbaud. The 100 line poem is arranged in 25 quatrains. These were the lines I had to illustrate:

I have followed, for whole months on end, the swells Battering the reefs like hysterical herds of cows, Never dreaming that the luminous feet of the Marys Could force back the muzzles of snorting Oceans!

'Colouring in time' exhibition

2008-12-02T02:50:00.000-08:00

'Colour in time, Colouring in time, Colouring time’ was the theme of this week’s student lead exhibition at Wilson Road organised by the Book Arts MA. Time, and how environments and objects change with it’s passing was the inspiration for my piece. The illustration is one from a series I’m undertaking which has to do with my grandmother’s house. This house has been uninhabited for many years, yet despite it’s abandonment it still retains many clues or signposts to it’s previous incarnation as a family home. The atmosphere and personality of the previous occupants is still traceable within the house. I find these sort of abandoned human spaces really interesting. They contain ‘evidence’, and reveal the hidden histories. Their dereliction illustrates a sort of tension between the man-made and natural environments, demonstrating the contrast between man’s efforts to maintain, structure and preserve, and the natural worlds propensity to constantly renew and change. Lack of human maintenance allows nature to take over and reclaim. Combining materials, paint, photography and drawing, helps me to create atmosphere and enables me to convey the concept memory.

Southpaw

2008-11-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

I attend life-drawing classes in Bethnal Green on Monday evenings. Last week at the class the tutor asked us to make a few quick sketches with the hand you don't regularly use (for me that's the left). I was initially dubious about the idea but was really pleasantly surprised by the results. In many ways this technique helped me to draw more honestly, forcing me to record the forms I could see, not the forms that I thought I should see.

'Drawing a lecture' exhibition

2008-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

This exhibition, curated by the Digital Arts students, is currently taking place at Wilson Road. The works I submitted are based on doodles I've made during the lectures. I thought it was a clever theme as looking round the hall on Wednesday mornings, it's what most people seem to be up to. There was actually someone knitting this morning!

F is for...

2008-11-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

...Fabulous!

This is my submission for the 'C is for Camberwell' alphabet project organised in college. The entire alphabet can be viewed online:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31776447@N05/sets/72157608391066165/

Greenwich

2008-11-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of shots I took along the Thames path in Greenwich last week. I'm really interested how the silhouettes of the man-made and natural world mingle and combine. It's a pretty fascinating part of the city, with many signposts to London's industrial past. Traveling through Canary Wharf on my way home seemed to heighten this sense of a disappearing past. Taking the DLR from Greenwich felt a bit like fast-forwarding into the future.

'Cover' exhibition

2008-11-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

This exhibition was curated by the illustration students and is the first in a series of MA pathway exhibitions at Wilson Road. The theme of the exhibition was 'cover'. This could be interpreted as literally or as loosely as one wished. I picked beards (covering the face) as a theme for my submission. After some online research I learned that there are quite a lot of different types of weird and wonderful beards out there! The final pieces are a combination of letterpress, drawing and embroidery.

Hello World

2008-11-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

Eeek...where to start? I'm new to the world of blogging, so it'll take me a bit of time to get warmed up. I've sort have cajoled into starting this blog at college. So after much mental arm-twisting I've decided to give it a go. Nobody really reads these things anyway! (do they?) It's going to be a sort of virtual drawer where I can collect and store things which I find interesting, influential or relevant to my illustration work and research.