Do Not Abandon Me

On the other hand the new Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin show at Hauser and Wirth is stunningly beautiful. It's a simple collaboration where Bourgeois (before she died last May) painted male/female nudes with water and gouache before literally passing them onto Emin. By themselves the initial paintings are gorgeous reds and blues.

The space where they are exhibited is also simple if not plain - it's on Old Bond Street amongst Tiffiny & Co and De Beers. I came to Louise Bourgeois late when she exhibited at Tate Modern, but enjoyed her expansiveness. However I love Tracey Emin. Always have done. There is something simplistic about the way she takes everyday life and emotion and places it in her work. If you want to see her life choices, her heart, it's there on the wall.

As with everything, Emin has taken the paintings and added life and realism. They work as a group in the room and confront various themes from sexuality and loss to abandonment and possession. She adds a narrative to the work that makes you realise the fragility of life. It's stunning.

Radiohead Love

One aspect of my Radiohead love is the artwork that accompanies their music. So I was really looking forward to seeing Stanley Donwood's 'Work on Paper' from their new  The King of Limbs album. It's at The Outsiders Gallery on Greek Street in Soho, a small, bare venue which on a sunny day in late February made a nice change.

Donwood's pieces are a heady mix of illustration, text, paint and hand drawn work. Vivid and thoughtful (he creates alongside the group as they make an album) they make you look at the music and art as one piece.

To be honest, albeit a small collection, it was disappointing. It feels a bit all over the place with no real connection to what's gone before. There wasn't enough of the new work either. What was available from the new album was four or five lovely atmospheric pencil drawings of woods and trees. It's as if you've been stranded alone, desolate in a deep dark and windy forest late at night. Very Tim Burton.

Things on my desk

I've been making a lot of lists recently. These are just a few of the things on my desk over the last couple of days.

Joy Division - Playmobil Transmission

Dance, dance, dance to the radio..

Ashes to Ashes..

But only on weekends. Obviously..

Save your Library!

Today is 'Save Our Libraries' Day!!

There's so much being hit at the moment in the name of 'justified cuts' but communities losing their local libraries has got slightly lost. Maybe in this digital and internet age they are an easy target. When I was younger I'd be down the library all the time, borrowing books and enjoying the peace and quiet. People watching. You forget that not everyone can afford to just head out and buy that new book or surf the net when they choose.

Time to take a stand for those that cannot. Time to be inspired.

New ideas

Daily events unfolding in Egypt make the (worthy) student demonstrations look a little self-absorbed.

A re-working of my unfinished 'Illustration 101' Dementia project. More fruit and education help fight it. I'm not so sure this works to be honest, but I like the 'head' outline. It would make a useful starting point for a book cover I think with the right wording.

I might make this into a t-shirt for myself.

Have tablet, will draw..

Say hello to my Wacom Tablet. It's like posh Etch-a-sketch with a pen as opposed to tweaky dials. It doesn't have a name..but that's good, right?

Anyway, I've been off a month now and it's a strange sensation not actually having to get up and head into work. No tube, no buses. Just the short walk from the kitchen to my desk with podcasts, iTunes and the temptation to watch 30 Rock while 'having lunch'.

Mostly though I've been drawing and teaching myself Photoshop/Illustrator. Some of my 'projects' have come off (posts to follow) and some have travelled by first class air direct to the bin. I'm determined to have another couple of months off to get a portfolio together.

I'll try and post a bit more frequently over the next couple of weeks.

Wanna be Illustrator sells print..

Last week one of my housemates paid for a print of my "Busy Girls Buy Beauty.."drawing for his girlfriend. A small step, but you have to start somewhere. What's more it looked wicked in a frame. Rather cool.

Christmas Cards

After six weeks without the t'internet at home, I'm back online. There's a lot to be excited about in 2011. Back in March last year, the thought of actually finding myself in early January with the plans I have, appeared a million miles away.

And with everything happening at work before Christmas I never really got around to designing and printing a few festive card ideas. In the end, at the last minute I drew these for a few friends. This Christmas I'll be more prepared.

J.

Jason, ipod wearer and the dude of hook ups from S.A.

The next step..

So here we are. I said back when I started writing this blog that the aim was to make the move from a suit to a creative. That was in March and as we approach Christmas I'm about to take that next step. I've taken voluntary redundancy at work and I'm about to run headlong into the New Year with the aim of pulling a portfolio together and becoming a freelance illustrator.

It's both a scary and exciting idea. A cunning plan..hopefully as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University..

Wallpaper - Just for Fun

So I'm sat at my desk and the editor of Wallpaper calls and says "will you design this month's front cover?" And I'm like, "Yeah, why not..".

Reportage Project

This is my final (three illustrations around the same subject) CSM project. I headed back up to Manchester the day after the course, so City seemed the ideal opportunity.

Illustration Class 101

Here's an illustration I've been working on as apart of the CSM course. It's from a newspaper article (last Saturday's individual project) about how eating fruit, mainly apples, and studying helps fight off dementia. Then it's a case of taking our ideas, drawings, scanning them, create various backgrounds, and use layers within Photoshop to get the finished illustration. This is my take. 

The first is my rough idea sketch (the one I had to get initially approved as you would with a newspaper) and the second is where I'm currently at in Photoshop. I need to add the extra drawn scans for the speech bubble and apple = 2+2 and work on them. But I'm happy with the progress. Working in layers and having the ability to change, adapt an idea is making my ideas/illustrations more three dimensional.

I'm also really enjoying the course. My drawing/painting style is definitely working for me. The guest illustrators are inspiring, offering advice and real life illustration work. Exactly what I was hoping to get out of the course. It's also cool to be in a space with other wanna-be-illustrators, seeing their style and sharing ideas. Sounds a bit wanky I know, but there you go. Next step is to look at getting a scanner.

Illustration Friday: Transportation

This is how I spent my half hour lunch break today. More fun than working.

Thailand sketchbook

Just a couple of small quick sketches from Thailand. The first one is the view from the Tonsai bungalow in semi darkness during a mini monsoon. The second is from the beach.

Thailand Chang

Time flies when you're the driver of a train. So three weeks chilling in gorgeous Thailand with the Chang gang is..so..like yesterday.

Still, important things to note. Bangkok is full on crazy wild, especially the side streets and the food markets; suits are easy to buy down the Khao San Road; Tut tut taxi's are hilarious even when they dump you in the middle of nowhere on your first day; also they have three wheels, so going round corners at 2am on two is interesting; never stop to pick anyone up in the jungle; iPhones don't cope so well with monsoons; riding a scooter can easily make you think you are Paul Weller; falling off said scooter quickly dispels this myth; ping pong balls won't look the same again; neither will the phrase "all around the world"; wandering from beach to beach; snorkelling with the fishes; sitting in warm seas at 3am with mates; watching the sunset..again; street chang, beach, train, scooter, ping pong, pool chang is the name of the game. Hook it up!

Illustration Courses

I'm finally booked onto two courses at Central Saint Martins between now and March. I've been looking around for a while but they've either been too expensive or have been cancelled at the last minute.

CSM has a great reputation and the first one Enhanced Illustration - Pencil, Pen, Paint And Pixels, starts in early October on five consecutive Saturdays. The second one, Illustrating With The Mac is between February and March next year. I'm looking forward to them. They will be good purely at a technical level, and being in a classroom sharing ideas with people should be fun. 

Illustration Friday: Immovable

Three weeks on the bounce. This is starting to become a regular occurrence. Last time I looked rainbows were pretty immovable.

Illustration Friday: Atmosphere

I've been listening to a lot of Doves and The Black Keys recently. It's a good thing, honest.

Illustration Friday: Star gazing

Illustration Friday has a different subject each week. Thought I'd have a quick go for the first time.

Refait (Remade)

I love this remake of the penalty shoot out between Germany and France in the '82 World Cup.

It reminds me of growing up, particularly this game. A French team full of flair and quality with Michel Platini and Alain Giresse against the goal-scoring machine that was Germany's Karl-Heine Rummenigge. Jumpers for goalposts, concrete pitches, basically just playing football with mates anywhere I could.

Room with a view

Skateboarding Hip Hop

The idea of a Grizzly Bear listening to Jay Z just got me thinking.

Burqa Banning

I like David Mitchell's column in The Observer. Not only is he funny and intelligent, but he appears to be successfully carrying off the kind of mid 80's haircut that made my first year at sixth form a nightmare. Talking to girls just didn't happen. I played a LOT of football.

Combine it with a pair of large glasses and you really can see how much fun I was having.

I've never been one to wrap myself in the flag, even during the World Cup. It's always been from my left of centre perspective, something I associate with the right wing. Fashion and faith are among a number of things that help identify your personality. Underneath everything we are still French, British, Iraqi, Catholic, Muslim. Anyway, it got me thinking, especially after France partially banned the burqa about how some people's perceptions might change if rather than just coming in plain black, burqa's came in the Union Jack.

Who Cooked The Planet?

A prime example of the previous post. A simple and a very quick drawing from a New York Times article about climate change. Not the best laid out idea but it does what it says on the tin.

Busy Girls Buy..

So. It's been a while. How have you all been?

I've been playing around with a few ideas over the last month. Some have worked and others have been well, terrible if I'm honest. The thing I've realised is that I've got so caught up in making everything perfect I started self policing, second guessing and judging what to upload. In the long run, it's stifling creatively and not what I had in mind as the aim of this blog. So with that out of the way, I'm back on track. This is a Billy Bragg song, an early classic about shopping commercialism, and way before all the glossy magazines.

Brokeback Poetry

Another idea, this time about Elko's annual Cowboy Poetry gathering. I've tried to make the last couple of posts a little more illustrative in that they reflect an idea, however basic, that relates to something I've read. Almost like a commission, and yet, not quite.

Budget 2010

I guess you reap what you sow. Or in this case, vote for.

Bafana Bafana

Just a simple drawing of the lead singer from Bloc Party that I've fooled around with so it starts to resemble something that might look like an illustration.

Dr Who

I'm starting to find a bit of a niche that is working for me at the moment, which is mainly pencil and watercolour. Maybe it's the way forward, who knows, but I'm going to stick with it for a while. I saw Marco Klefisch's work on the Carhartt ads a while back and thought they were really vivid, striking, awesome.  Anje Jager has a similar style that I love. Thing is, I'm not that great at drawing faces so this drawing of Matt Smith was meant to be a quick attempt that ended up becoming something more. My geekiness has already been exposed earlier on this blog, so my Dr Who thing shouldn't be a surprise either.

Northern boys rock

Having spent part of the weekend fooling around with collages, my floor looks like the alphabet zoo from Sesame Street.

Affectionately referred to as 'the Pout', amongst other things by the majority of my girlfriends, I'm not ashamed to declare my thing for Keira. She looks stunning in this photo.

Day 5: Delays expected on..

It’s been just over a week and I’m still not quite sure if I should be gutted that despite my best efforts, there’s a coalition government with a Tory PM or happy that Labour didn’t get completely mashed at the polls. Common sense tells me that a Lab-Lib government didn’t have enough votes to make it work, but a CON-DEM-NATION still leaves me distinctly unfulfilled and disappointed.

I've been annoyed and frustrated with Labour, but there's certain values that I'll always believe in. So unless I vote tatically, I'll be in that side of the box if you ever need to find me. Unfortunately the first actual opportunity to change the system and get real electoral reform, is I think, dead in the water. My only hope is that Labour under a new leader brings it to the table with some imagination rather than seeing it as a death bed conversion.

Day 4: Stop me if you think you've heard this one before

Okay so I stretched the idea of a Post-it a little today. Online dating is the new way of finding someone. Love it or loathe it’s out there. Every time you join up or place your details you open yourself up. Share information about yourself, your personailty. What your favourite colour is, what you like to do at the weekend, which movie you want to share with someone. All your likes and dislikes. In it's basic form you leave pieces of yourself out in the ether. On the keyboard. Online. A fingerprint. It’s as simple as that.

Day 3: Mix Tape

Side A:

1. Take Me I'm Yours - New Young Pony Club

2. Kiss of Life - Friendly Fires

3. Revelry - Kings Of Leon

4. Ready For The Floor - Hot Chip

5. Only If You Run - Julian Plenti

Side B:

1. Black Cherry - Goldfrapp

2. A New England - Jamie T

3. Things Ain't Like They Used To Be- The Black Keys

4. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem

5. The Cave - Mumford & Sons

Bonus Extra Track:

2 Atoms In A Molecule - Noah and The Whale

Day 2: The Angels wanna wear my red shoes

There’s something about red shoes, but that could be because it's one of my fave Elvis Costello songs. It's certainly very Dorothy, very Wizard of Oz, and yet, we're-not-in-Kansas anymore. Especially since I was on the Victoria line to Finsbury Park. Anyway, I saw a girl in red shoes on the tube yesterday, dressed all in black but with her clickable heels to keep her happy. It made me smile. Of course you have to nick them off the Wicked Witch of the East first.

Day 1: The Clark Kent look

There’s something about life that involves looking but not actually seeing. Every day brings its own "constants" that you become attuned to, ignorant or just plain forgetful off. In the same way I noticed over the weekend how my face has altered and changed. Subtle lines are no longer, well subtle. I've got used to seeing it on a daily basis.
 
Glasses are my big thing; I just don’t like wearing them. Never have really. They tend to make me feel a bit geeky, not in itself a bad thing because at times I’m definitely a geek. Glasses wear me rather than the other way around. Anyways, for the next few days my glasses and I are as one, hence the introspection. The thing is..they make me feel thirteen again. 1981, Ashes to Ashes style. If I had to choose a year to go back too, well, it wouldn’t be that one. They also make me act differently. Without my contacts, I tend to be more introvert, nervous, shy. It’s like everyone is looking at me, my very own Truman show.

And yet, on the super plus side they seem to be the Superhero disguise of choice. Peter Parker = Spiderman. Superman = Clark Kent. Anyway, this is my Superhero moment.