Nude Dude

A test image for a technique I wanted to try - creating blocks of colour over a dark background, rather than drawing lines over the top of the colour as I usually do. It took me more than a few hours at the wacom tablet to create all of the individual shapes (621 objects with 3466 points in case you were wondering) but I think that it was worth it in the end.

And come on now, I know you're wondering - how come he's wearing his birthday suit? Well the nude portraits by Lucien Freud were one of my main inspirations for this image so I thought that I would put my prudishness aside and just go with it.

Inshallah Surfboards

Surfboards with beautiful, intricate islamic designs. What's not to like - I have always thought that boards were a perfect canvas and a great way to get art out of the galleries and into the real world.

More interestingly are the artist's motivations - in response to aggression he has reacted with collaboration. Can his constructive art go some way to repairing the partisanship and animosity expressed in the Cronulla riots? Visit the Australia Art Guide for some description and analysis.

----Links-----

• BBC News:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7769028.stm
• Art Guide Australia:http://www.artguide.com.au/features/borderlands-phillip-george-nsw/

Obey Obama!

Barack Obama and Shepard Fairey... good names, great combo! Follow this link for a Guardian newspaper video (3mins 11sec) about a recent exhibition of iconic Obama art.

I'm a long time fan of Obey Giant, so head over there for plenty more o' the good stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/aug/26/manifest.hope.obama
http://obeygiant.com/

West Coast Thank You Card.

Me and the missus went on a grand tour of the West Coast of the United States recently. We had a super time, in part because of our six super hosts. I designed this image as a thank you card to them. If you look closely you can see several significant items including:-

- Five keys for the five houses we stayed in.
- Three stars for the three states we visited.
- The three dogs, a pelican, a snake and a squirrel that we saw.
- A Longhorn for our favorite Texan tourguide.
- The logos of the baseball teams we saw.

I'll let you work out what the rest of the symbols represent.

Paint & Bricks

At first glance this looks like a piece of Daim graffiti, but look closer.

This is the Birbeck College Film Centre, winner of the 2008 RIBA award. Never before have I seen a piece of architecture that blurs the lines between artistic disciplines so completely. I don't know about you, but I think that it's stunning.

• http://www.daimgallery.com/
• http://cyanatrendland.com/2009/01/03/surface-architects-bring-a-graphic-revival-to-birbeck-college-for-film-media/

'Grain Edit' Retro Design Blog

A big pat on the back for the fellers at 'Grain Edit' who run an excellent blog of graphic art inspired by the style of the 50s-70s. They post consistently enjoyable work, so head over there and take a look!

www.grainedit.com

First Class With Honours

With great joy, jubilation and satisfaction I can announce that I have achieved a first class degree with honors in Illustration. Many thanks to all my friends and family who helped along the way.

When people ask me "What's next?" I reply "I don't know." But this isn't quite true. I should really answer "There's so much i want to do, I just have to decide what to do first". It's an exciting time and I have lot to look forward to.

Lifetime membership of the Students' Union

I was recently awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Coventry University Students' Union in recognition of my contribution to the Source Newspaper over the past two years.

I did a full-colour editorial illustration for them every month and gained a huge amount of practical experience in the process. The certificate is a great souvenir of my time with the Source so many thanks to president Tom Wood, editor Rich Hayward and former editor Jack Lowman.

YouTube Debut

I have just uploaded my first ever YouTube video, if you follow the link at the bottom you can give it a watch.

'Photocopied' tells the story of a man who must escape from an office using only a photocopier and his wits. I created it for my final Animation module at Coventry University. It took around 300 sheets of individually printed A3 paper and a lot of patience, but I'm really pleased with the results. Let me know what you reckon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRDwLsn3YCQ

The Book Project

One of my final major University assignments was to create a 32 page illustrated book. I chose to write a concise history of Slavery in England, with the added challenge that everything had to be hand written, hand coloured and hand laid-out. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

Jenny

'Photocopied' Process Diagram

An illustrated diagram to explain the process I am currently using to make an animation entitled 'photocopied'.

Volunteering for 'The Source'

An illustration to accompany an article I wrote encouraging people to illustrate, photograph and write for our university newspaper.

Paper toys

May I direct you to a post on my brother's blog which links you to some very cool paper toy sites. He has to make some for his final project this year. I'm jealous.

'The Source' Newspaper - April

An Illustration commissioned to accompany the article 'Students sleep on pavement to avoid being homeless' for the April edition of 'The Source' newspaper.

Drawn whilst listening to Frank Zappa's 'Over-nite Sensation' so many thanks to him!

Steam Power

What I Wore