.slowly.back.on.track.

So lately I've been focusing more on the book I'm making, it's taking a lot of organising and sorting out as well as putting together and adding information but I'll keep you all updated as it progresses.

In the meantime I've been occasionally having a break from it and adding more and more to a painting I'm doing. It's quiet a big image and will have a lot of detail but I'm only going to give you a small peek of the progress.

.GNOME.Comp.

An idea that I started drawing a while back and I thought would work well as a design for the GNOME 3.0 t-shirt design competition. Being a bit psychedelic and crazy but also fun, I thought it was a good way of representing being able to be creative and fun whilst using the GNOME program to simplify and keep your files safe without any worry.
There are many variations of this design which can be used on different coloured t-shirts, obviously the original design would be the most expensive to make as it has lots of colours but I think it looks just as good in one or two colours. Below are a few examples of the different ways it could look and simplified sections of the design.

.Advice.

..So true. Bur like Alice 'I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it'

...Sparks, Plans and Fire...

Still the days drag on when I have nobody prodding me in the back with a big stick and telling me to get on with stuff. It's very much my own fault for not prodding myself with the big stick, but if I did how would I draw with a hand full of tree?

As my doodles lessen and my blogs become less frequent, I have been thinking over plans that I sparked to life a long while back but are not yet on fire. The end of the year draws closer and I am going to stick by my saying of 'Starting Fresh' on new years day, all the 2010 and before illustrations and work are going on to hard drive never to be seen again unless I am in dire illustration starvation.

One of the bigger plans I am kindling is an almost biographical book of all the illustrations/art I have done before and up to 2010. All sorted in order by date and accompanied on pages by descriptions, explanations and comments of each piece. Once this book is complete (which will take a long time) I will purchase only one which I can then take around and show people as I need to, and make available to anyone who wants a copy.

Then a blank canvas, new page, fresh coat of paint and a mesmerizing, dazzling plain shimmers of new ideas will come flooding in and create a new, better and more productive me in 2011!

Wish me luck in my search for fire!!!!!

.Being.Festive.

Being creative can be difficult sometimes, especially when you try to be creative everyday so today I took a break and made some fragrant tree ornaments for Christmas. They smell gorgeous and are simple to make so try it yourself!

What you will need.

- 1 orange/tangerine/clementine (the smaller the better)

- whole cloves

- cinnamon sticks

What to do.

If the oranges have no stalks, use a needle to thread some cotton/string through parts of the skin to make the hanger, but before you tie the end off also thread it through a small bit of cinnamon stick, tie it off now.

Next stick the whole cloves in to the orange by pushing them through the skin they should stay there by themselves.

Then hang on the tree!

The should last about a week sometimes just over depending on how fresh the oranges are.

They smell gorgeous and add a festive touch to your x-mas tree.

.Illogical.

After going back to basics and taking up good old fashioned pencil drawing once again, it has inspired me to start working on another picture book. Usually I write the story, research elements, re-write and work parts THEN do the illustration. This technique seems the logical way of doing things and most people would take this route, but I'm not most people and love to be illogical :) so I'm doing it backwards..

The plan is, continue drawing pencil sketches relating each one to the previous drawing there for creating a story line by letting it fall in to it's own path. Once I think the images have reached an end i will organise them in to a story line and add text if necessary and see what the end product looks like!

Here are a few of the drawings and doodles I've done in the last few days...

.Back.To.Basics.

After a long time of no inspiration I decided to go back to the basics and have another go at simple pencil drawings, here are a few I've done recently.

.Tatoo's 2.

..and more variables on tattoo ideas.

.Doodles.&.Dithers.

Recently art based projects have been very slow and inspiration has been in short supply. Still I continue searching the net and the wide world for stuff that could inspire me, still I carry on doodling in hope that one extra special doodle may lead to something more.

I've been continuously plowing on with the huge 'people picture' that is forever growing more and more crowded, and my latest attempts at creative inductance is tattoo's. When at a total loss it's the one thing I always go back to and it sometimes gives me the push I need to get going with other creative stuff.

Here are a few idea's/doodles I have come up with so far...

.Hugo.Mixed.Tape.

The latest competitions I've been working on, the deadline is at the end of the week and I managed to get these designs done before then so yey! The aim was to pick a list of mixed songs from the hugocreate.com site and draw an album cover inspired by the music, also it had to include the Hugo bottle image somewhere. These are the three ideas i came up with, i tried to make them all very different to give voters a bit of variation to chose from.

Feel free to pick and vote by clicking on the links below...
http://www.hugocreate.com/gallery#art_4653
http://www.hugocreate.com/gallery#art_4644
http://www.hugocreate.com/gallery#art_4631

.people.picture.colour.

Finally! I've finished colouring the image! this has been one grueling piece of work and has taken just over a week to complete, that is me working on it about 3 1/2 to 4 hours a day. In the end I'm glad I've complete it but am now in a dilemma as to whether or not I like it best with a plain background of textured one, so comments appreciated!

.anything.goes.

Now that the 'This is not a sketchbook' has been send back to america, it felt a bit empty with out having it to doodle in..SO! I made another one of my own 'The Anything Goes Book' which will as is suggests on the cover be filled with random things. Watch this space to see how it turns out!

.people.gathering.

All that talk of people drawing was not exaggerated one bit, here are the line drawings of all the random people in the basics of my plan. I'm going to experiment with colour to see what works best then maybe add texture.

.people.people.people.

Yet another competition under way with the theme 'Embracing Our Differences' with the goal of creating a billboard sized image with lots of detail. My idea is many many many drawings of many people from many nationalities all merged in to one big drawing to reveal another drawing if you get my drift. Here are a few simple line drawings which I've started with, much more people drawing is on the agenda as I want to get as many as possible in to the big picture.

.In.A.Nutshell.

Lately I've been working on stuff for competitions and wish to continue creating more images, well at least one new image a day. I seemed to have come to the point where I feel I have lots of creativity and ideas that are just bursting to be drawn, painted and made in various other forms but i can't seem to see them clearly.

They are all stuck in the back of my mind just beyond the reach of my pencil and this is really annoying me. So expect a short term of silence followed by an explosion of blogs and creative ideas!

.NEoN.

After many doodles and brain scratching idea's I finally decided I'd designed enough characters for the NEoN character t-shirt design competition. Here are a few doodle stages and final images for you to feast your eyes on.

..zombies.continued..

These are the final two images of the zombies that I managed to get finished, so I've ended up sending all of them off to the competition.

..Zombie..

Last minute project I thought I'd have a go at, for an online magazine asking for zombie images. I've never drawn zombies before so it was something new and very fun to do I thought. I managed to get 3 images drawn up in one day but only one coloured so far, and as the time span between me finding out about the competition to when the competition ended was 3 days I think I've done well to get even this far. Here is the stage of the first zombie, already send off to the competition, if I get the others done in time I will also send them.

.Mini.Prints.

Inspired by the idea of mini prints I have created these two images that are 8cm by 8cm in true size, was fun trying to get all the small details in. Entierly water color and fine liner.

.Line.Work.

More pattern ideas, I am thinking of using this as some sort of packaging, wrapping paper, or even simple card designs. I am currently creating more washing line images and will mic them all together when I have more.

.socks.

As a side project i've been messing about with the idea of wrapping paper and simple pattern making, this is my first idea.

.Clown.Painting.Stages.

Half way through creating a circus themed image I was informed that the live painting gig had been canceled. Still I decided to continue and finish the image anyway, so here is the stages of creation and the final image. In all it took at least 5 hours from start to finish, it's all done in acrylics.

.Circus.

Shortly I will be taking part in a live painting event in Queens Gardens Hull, the theme is 'circus'. I wanted to make my image slightly dark rather then happy and funny, so I spend the day watching Cirque Du Soleil performances and sketching like crazy the body shapes, costumes and colours. Below are a few pages of my doodles and working outs, plus the single clown image which I may be using on my live painting image. I am going to continue trying out different materials and sketching out alternative clown costumes in case I have time to create more then one image.

.Continue.

Been working on another image which brings a load of characters together, it's somthign to keep my painting going when i have nothing else on the go. With all the fine details it's very time consuming and relaxing to do and also looks good when it all comes together. this is what it looks like so far.

.Shampoo.

I've had a break from art for a while, finally started to get creating again and the first images i draw looked like they should be on shampoo bottles, so that's what I did! here they are.

.Calender.

The time has come yet again to think of idea's for a calender, this year I've come up with two themes one of which is inspired by a nameless individual. The idea i have NOT shown here is slightly disturbed and may offend some people. This idea below is a calender based on my 'Hoodie' character in themes suited for each month either based on the weather or holidays which happen. These are just quick line drawings for the first four months (they are not in order) and they will continue to be digitally coloured later on.