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Testing blogpress
Not been blogging for a while and wanted to boost it a bit, so trying some stuff out
This could be a better way to talk about stuff than Twitter
Finally got round to finishing my collaboration with LovelyGravy, probably not in time for my jollies, but i'm mighty proud of it nonetheless.
You can buy it at the link above, though I clearly don't expect anyone to purchase it.
All change since my last blog - I've now finished edumacation and am in the 'real' world.
Not nearly as scary as it sounded a few months ago.
Loving my new job, loving not having to be financially supported by the wifey and loving my night times and weekends of freedom!
Well not quite freedom, because in an attempt to keep my creative juices flowing i've set myself some briefs that should keep me going over the summer and beyond.
I've been neglecting this blog for two reasons; 1) because i don't have to do it for college, and 2) because i've been twatting my remarks on twitter with sketches being posted up on twitpic, which is quick, easy and all that, but it doesn't give me a chance to talk about what I've been doing, my influences and all that bollocks.
Anyhoo, as part of one of my briefs, i've been doing a collaboration with Leroy, to create a couple of t-shirts designs, where we do a doodle, share it with each other & then finish them off.
As part of this doodling, i've been messing about with monsters, and came up with the rather ace MancZilla.
Possibly the best version of MancZilla came about whilst pissed with the lovely boys and girl that make up Soft Toy Emergency at the recent Glastonbury festival, where I drew this on myself:
As such i came to love the little dude and in messing about with the rather ace MySoti website i thought i'd create a quick tee shirt with the little critter on, before Leroy messes about with him.
You can look at, admire and buy the teeshirt here:
In the next few weeks there will be a couple more t-shirt designs here, as well as some digital prints. Most of which will be adorning my walls and lithe body no doubt.
Went to the latest exhibition at Urbis last week, with hungover friend and fellow videogame dork Leroy.
Going during the week whilst kids are at school is a genius move and I suggest that if you want to go, take half a day off work, or go on the rock 'n' roll to get the most out of your £3 entry fee.
Entering the exhibition is an 80's child's dream, a wall featuring the seminal Sinclair Spectrum 48k and an NES is enough for any male of a certain age to get misty eyed. I immediately started pointing out games I had and shouting "AAAAAAAAHHHH! I USED TO HAVE THAT!" at the top of my voice.
So the exhibition starts with playable, and not so playable due to the machines hanging, games such as Jet Set Willy and those rather tedious text based adventures, as immortalised in Tom Hanks' Big.
Moving round the exhibition are some better things such as Micro Machines on the NES (I beat Leroy at that), the incredibly difficult Ghosts 'n' Goblins and a few other bits n bobs.
Also in this area is a very interesting part about Manchester's own video game industry history. Ocean were a huge company back in the 80s and early 90s, they used to do a lot of arcade conversions (Chase HQ springs to mind) and film tie-ins. Reading the copy for Platoon is excellent and quaint; mentioning how the game 'immerses the player in the scenes in the film' which is laughable when you see the restricted colour palette and blocky textures used in the Spectrum version (I was a total Speccy kid in the 80s before I got consoles).
The football video game section was also v.cool, with the classic Sensible Soccer, as well as my old favourite Kick Off to play, whilst sat in the old Citeh box seats, very well presented, though I could feel the bitterness of the seats seeping through the seats and into my jeans.
After the walk down memory lane, the main amount of time spent was on the contemporary platforms. There was precious little I saw of Wii games, which is curious, seeing as it's by far the biggest selling platform of the current generation (and the fastest selling of all time). Maybe because of its ubiquity, or its unusual control system, or the fact that the games aren't good enough (with a few exceptions), either way I wasn't too fussed - I have one and have hardly had time to play it since being back in education.
I was here for the George Formby grill-like PS3 and the Xbox 360. There's not much chance of me spending the exorbitant amounts required for the Playstation any time soon, so £3 to play the latest games is a bit of a bargain. I spent a good 15 minutes on the new Indiana Jones Lego game, really good fun, much in the same vein as the Lego Star Wars games i'd played previously - very easy and cute. Can't fault it really for the casual gamer that I now find myself being.
By far the most time spent was on Little Big Planet, arguably the PS3's 'killer' game, at least from what i'd been told. In essence it's just a run of the mill platform game, there's no real difference between this and, say Yoshi's Story (as pointed out by a friend), but what it does is present it so well, and adds little touches that I don't think anybody could play this and not be enchanted. The fact that you and a friend can play at the same time, whilst customising your characters and generally buggering about is delightful and rounded off by the patriarchal tones of Stephen Fry.
I'll be going back for another bash at this game, next time Leroy better not be hungover, or I'll be on my own.
For the first time in a loooooOong time I attempted to do a real sketch of something in real life.
It's of little interest to anyone, just my view from the lovely Art Of Tea in Didsbury today, somewhere I go to get away from the interwebs in order to try and do some sketching (i'm easily distracted).
I'm pleased with it because I actually attempted to do a real sketch and I also did it freehand, instead of starting in pencil and drawing over it.
Actually I did start in pencil, but after the first pillar I stopped and continued to draw solely in pen, it was oddly liberating, pushing myself away from my usual conservative use of pencil.
Other than that it's fairly rubbish, but i'm glad I had a go.
Another sketch, for the self directed album artwork for Soft Toy Emergency.
I just wanted to absolutely spack ones' eyes out with a doodle. There's a Volcom POS light box in Subvert which is taken from a piece of Bridget Riley work, I spend more time than I should looking at it.
I took the idea of the Fibonnaci type spiral and thought i'd throw some other geometry into it.
Late of the Pier utilise optical illusionary art in their work and there's a lot of geometric shapes featured in the genre that both bands fall into.
A modified version of this sketch made it into some of the final piece. It's confusing. I like it, you may not, I don't care.
Another sketch, for the self directed album artwork for Soft Toy Emergency.
This idea takes two of STE's song titles, so in this case its more for single artwork the campaign.
Another experimental typography piece, in this case using a microphone lead and an old cassete ribbon, but there's tons of additional scenes that could be played out with this style.
I had the idea of either going with my hand drawn style to create that loose feel to the work, a style I really like, mainly because its what comes natural to me probably.
An alternative way of realising these ideas would be from heavily stylised photography. My photography knowledge hovers somewhere above zero, so I think I'd have been setting myself quite the challenge to get something looking as polished as would have been required.
This concept felt a bit obvious, like I'd seen it somewhere before (though I can't think where) which is maybe why I didn't go with it, though I do like the idea.
Sketch, this time for a brief.
My final college brief was a self directed piece, to create album artwork for the band Soft Toy Emergency.
This idea was inspired by the work of Luke Ramsey, as seen in the excellent book 'Handjob' (be careful searching for it). Hope Luke isn't too annoyed at me biting his style :S
The words OK!OK! are one of Soft Toy Emergency's singles, I filled the words with symbols that I felt related to the band, the music, the genre and then some stuff I like (such as robots and monsters).
I rejected this idea for a couple of reasons, partly because I felt it was too close to Luke Ramsey's style of work and because it was too cutesy and childish for the band, who want to portray themselves in a more cutting edge way.
I will definitely revisit this style of typography in the future though, so many possibilities.
Sketchbook work, again could be used in a collaborative piece.
I find myself drawing sasquatch(es?) quite a bit, this one is the cutest i've done, once i'd done the face, he had to be made a bit sillier, hence the tutu.
Yet more sketchbook work.
An idea for the basis of a collaborative piece of work, though maybe a bit too cutesy.
