Day 36: King of Limbs

Check out the King of Limbs Newspaper showcasing Stanley Donwood's artwork. Just awesome.

Now if the exhibition I went to the other month had looked half as great as this...

Day 35: Come with me let's be..

I think I'm gonna use this as my day to day philosophy...

Day 34: Normal service will continue..however..

Once again I've missed a couple of blog days. I've just been so busy with the course. As such I've decided to temporarily stop trying to blog every day for fifty days on the bounce.

The pace of the course has stepped up in the last week. It's too important to me and I need the time in the evening to really study and practice what I'm learning in the day.

I'll carry on blogging until I get to the 50 but it's not going to be every single day.

Day 33: Black Sheep

Day 32: Cool Girl

Thirty Two days on the bounce. Eighteen to go. Almost there. It's been a struggle but fun to try and get something worthwhile to post here each day. Have to admit, there's been a couple of things from my sketchbook. This is one of them..

Day 31: Captain America

I heard something about Marvel Comics being fifty years old on the tube. 

Day 30: Bridget Riley

There's a free exhibition of Bridget Riley on at the National Gallery. I saw it today and it begs the question..is art there just to be enjoyed on a visual, emotional level or create debate. I think it's role is to fulfil both in whatever way works for you.  

The exhibition is more an introduction to Riley's work and having been introduced I'm not sure I'd pay to see more. There were a couple of paintings that I enjoyed, but it was purely visual. She certainly didn't rock my boat on an emotional level like Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso or Mark Rothko. 

In fact I think I agree with Will Self's take on her art. 

Day 29: E=MC2

You just can't keep a good man down. Looks like Einstein was right after all. 

Day 28: Tiger balm..

The side effects of using too much Tiger Balm made Paul realise the error of his ways..

Day 27: Randoms..

Randoms from my iphone..

Day 26: Theatre Brief

We spent most of today (when not getting a lecture on Colour Theory) working on these typography briefs. The aim was to create a 'family' of typography posters for an Oz theatre company.

I think I got these critiqued three times in all as I worked though various ideas and options. As we all did. These are my 'final' versions. The last two weeks of the course are set aside for us to revisit these briefs, select a few and re-work them for our portfolios. 

Tomorrow I will mostly be...working on my first 'colour' brief. 

Day 25: Vote Yes..

The electoral reform issue is back with us this week. My distaste for the weakness showed by the Com-Dem-Nation coalition continues to grow. Every day is another example of why we need a fairer, more equitable method of making sure our vote counts.

Canada woke up yesterday to a conservative government with 39 percent of the vote making promises not to follow a right wing agenda. Heard that one before?

Jonathan Freedland nails it here and if you haven't figured it yet, I'll be voting Yes to AV.

Day 24: Computer Love

Day 23: Arcade Fire

Here's one I made earlier.. a press ad for Time Out, New York for the brilliance that is Arcade Fire.

Day 22: Say WHAT one more time..I double dare you..

I'm away for a few days so will forward post for Saturday and Sunday.

I love this. Old skool for most people possibly but I spent yesterday completing Typography briefs.

Day 21: Oreo anyone..

Dead or Alive anyone? Classic 80's pop, tacky video's. Awesome.

We're still working in black and white at the moment which is good as I get to grips with InDesign. The brief was the lyrics, be creative for a bottom right hand page spot in the Metro - product shot if you can.

Oh and my thumbnail ideas.

Day 20: This side of the afterlife

A couple of ideas I had for a short film dvd cover.

Day 19: 11 Trees

The world's 10 most threatened forests..

Day 18: The People who grinned themselves to death..

I can't wait for the Royal wedding. Like, seriously can't wait so I'm blogging this today.

Love this for so many reasons. Simple design and funny. Of course these are the luxury versions. Well, you'd have to, wouldn't you.

Day 17: Rear window

Day 16: Hot air

Day 15: Houses

Day 14: Oopps Infographic

Everything has a consequence, so the 'let's have a cheeky one' with the design course crew ended up in my missing posting on Friday. So this is the first of two today as a way of catch up.

Day 13: Scarramooush

Day 12: Here's one I made earlier..

The course is excellent. Well structured and informative even if it's only the second day. Today's been about Indesign. Here's my first ever press ad. Tomorrow it's type-type-o-graphy.

Day 11: Mornington Crescent

Day 10: Vinyl exchange

Day 9: Wemberleeee

As FA Cup semi finals against that lot from the Death Star go this was a bit special. Last time I watched City at Wembley was in 1986. We lost 5-4 to Chelsea in the Full Members Cup, a inglorious competition that no one remembers. With five minutes to go we were losing 5-1, so the final result tells you everything you need to know about being a City fan. It's not the despair, I can cope with that..it's the hope that kills me.

Is this the start of something? Let's freaking well hope so. "Yaya, Yaya, Yaya, Yaya Tooooure" scores the winner. The team and Mancini 'do the Poznan'. Days don't really get much better.

Unless of course you have your first cup final since 1981 around the corner..

Day 8: Blah, Blah, Blah..

Day 7: Four fingers, one thumb

Day 6: Islamophobia

Banning the niqab..

Day 5: First Orbit

It's fifty years since Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. First Orbit tracks his space flight as it happened 50 years ago. It's an amazing real time recreation, shot entirely in space on board the International Space Station.

When did we stop being explorers?

Day 4: Jay-Z

Day 3: Sunshiiine

Sunday sunshiiiine, as we say up north. Sweet.

Day 2: Japan

Day 1: All my words are stars

50 days, 50 blogs

Just to make things interesting I've decided to blog (a drawing, sketch, photo, video) at least once every day for the next fifty days.

It's a random number and everything is up for grabs. If anyone wants to make a suggestion for an idea, fire away..

Two for one

In the meantime I've been teaching myself Illustrator. More to follow..

Shillington

Well, the illustration course at CSM was a bit of a car crash.

It was meant to last five Saturdays but in fact barely lasted one. So for the time being I've given up on short courses and enrolled at Shillington College to do their full time (for three months) Graphic Design course from mid April - July.

I've toyed with this before but now it feels right. Yes I still want to be an illustrator, but having had the last couple of months drawing at home I've come to realise I need more structure and depth of knowledge.

Shillington offer a really intensive programme with a number of real life projects (book covers, web design, product packaging et al) where I can utilise illustration and learn a range of important tools and gather experience. Alongside this I've also talked to a couple of illustrators who studied there and been reassured that it's the right move for me.

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.