SELF PUBLISHED!!!!

I am so excited to announce my first self published book!

I did a project on the struggles I faced when I injured my knee (I've torn my meniscus and require an operation). I have been on crutches since early September and during the running of this project I have struggled a lot giving up my independence and asking for help. Channelling my emotion into these drawings, which I don't usually do, has really helped and made me look at the positive of the situation.

So here is my book and a few of the illustrations please do go and have a look. This is also a huge thank you to everyone who has kept reading my blog and seeing what I am up to. I love signing in and seeing people have dropped by if I could offer you tea and cookies for visiting I would!

My negotiated brief 2nd year.

As I have previously said in my last blog post I am uploading some more work from last year (academic). This project was really quite special to me because I had set myself really high goals and I was determined to produce this final and manage my time well. 

This was the first time I had been strict with myself and confident in my own idea. This was towards the end of the year as was the lie project and I had come leaps and bounds in the space of a few months with my confidence in my self. I have always struggled with it but I was proud of this project. (I still to this day hate showcasing my artwork but the joys of being behind a screen)

It's not perfect but it never is the day after let alone a few months! 

The basis of this project was to do create my own brief and execute it. I chose to do a recipe for children. As I want to become a teacher, I wanted to experiment with learning materials and instruction. I thought the recipe would be a really easy place to start and I could choose whatever is best visually as well. I wanted it to be colourful and bright so I chose the rainbow cupcakes which are simple enough. The final format was to be double sided A3 and then laminated for a wipe clean surface. 

I was also determined to hand draw absolutely everything in this project and I am pleased I did. The only thing that wasn't was the type for the instructions and the arrows for direction. I went all out and spend a lot of time making sure everything made sense. The only thing I completely forgot to take into consideration when placing on photoshop was to leave a few millimetres for bleed and the final print had taken a little bit off of the side to right. The biggest rookie mistake and I made it after all these years. I am glad I did though because next time I will give myself even more extra time towards print to make sure it is correct so if there is a problem I can tweak it. 

During the interim crit quite a few people commented on how they liked the drawing of the Vanilla extract I did and to be honest it was my favourite one to draw. 

We make mistakes to learn from them and for this project I had made plenty before during and after. 

Tell a lie collaborative project.

I haven't uploaded a lot of my work from last year as I felt really overwhelmed. I was pushed so far out of my comfort zone i wasn't sure at all how to feel about the work i produced and whether or not it was good enough or not. 

I have been sitting here tapping away looking through a lot of my artwork, old and new,  I have seen the good the bad and the ugly and to be honest last year had helped me evolve into the artist I want to be and that is free and confident in my own work. 

I had to collaborate with a few of my fellow illustrators in class and we decided to do a project on telling lies. We wanted to see whether or not the general public would expose their dirty little secrets to us and then we could present a visual representation of their lie. The project was based on national tell a lie day and we jump straight in and got to work, bouncing ideas off of each other and working as a team. 

We had some wonderful lies and I think in total we ended up collecting over 100 lies in a lie box we had left in a small boutique tea room in a small town called Puckeridge just west of Bishops Stortford. The incentive to submit a lie was a free piece of home made tiffin. 

If you're interested in visiting this beautiful little Tea Room head over to their Facebook page and show some support to the lovely ladies. 

https://www.facebook.com/Somethinglovelytearoom?fref=ts

My chosen lies did make me laugh but that was what we were aiming for.

“I ran over my neighbours cat. I can’t tell them what happened, they would be devastated. I buried it in the garden under the lavender bush. I was called Whitney. I told my neighbours I hadn’t seen their cat”

“I gave birth to a unicorn”

“When I was little I would eat any chocolate in sight like most children would, but I got caught one day and said it wasn’t me only for my dad to point out that I had chocolate all over my face. Whoops :P”

A messy desk is a productive one!

I know I usually post about my artwork or teaching but I thought I'd share an insight into my bedroom made studio. Whenever anyone comes in in the middle of me working on a project or anything creative it is like a minefield. My Bedroom/Studio starts off beautifully tidy and clean but then I get into it and the whole desk is overtaken with bits, materials and paper which then overflows onto the bed.

This is my passion and if I don't create chaos I'm not having a good time. Don't let anybody tell you how you should be working, it comes naturally to me to work in madness and I've tried for years to curb it but it's my most comfortable. 

Also it does help to have a study buddy. Sadly mine isn't as motivating as most. 

Shark Culling FINISHED!

I know I posted about this originally ages ago I stumbled on the finished item and realised I hadn't uploaded! Just watched the full thing and it's quite funny to see my silly little doodles floating about in a video :)

http://www.joestanden.com/portfolio/shark-culling/

Please visit the page and support my fellow creative, Joe Standen.

The journey of being on crutches.. sketchbook bits

I hurt my knee over the holidays and I have been on crutches for two months. The latest project at uni is "do something you've never done before" I played about with a few things but they were more interested in my journey and how I can illustrate the everyday irritants of being on crutches. So here are just a few doodles. watch this space for some finals. :)

Workshops

This summer I worked with a lot of young artists at my university. I was getting quite stuck with my own artwork and I found myself in a bit of a rut and scratching to get out. Working with these guys and girls was a breath of fresh air. They are so inspiring but frustrating at the same time. It is a blast! They lack confidence in what they produce and restrict themselves so tightly because they may be trying to impress their peers or even myself and the other teacher.

The truth in it all is they all have their own visual identity and a way of working. Not one piece was the same. Some people needed more encouragement than others to just go for it but in the end they all produced some awesome artwork. The task at hand was grid painting, I hadn't done this for years because I guess being a creative we are expected to free hand everything. The group were given photographic reference of famous people and had to draw and then use whatever medium of their choice to colour their drawings. The age range was between 11 and 16 and just looking at the pieces you cannot tell the difference in ages.

They were a very inquisitive bunch and asked a lot about what I do and what my work is. I decided to sit and draw with them as I felt we would both benefit from the experience. I was so inspired, I just wanted to get stuck in and get going with it. This encouraged them to try different things swell because they are so used to just pencils and paint. I introduced Ink into the equation and they went nuts. They used every possible material and gave it a go. I was so pleased because I know personally I grew as a creative by trying new mediums with a teacher and my peers so why shouldn't I sit there and level with them?

This was what I produced. I have since worked into it and it is still a work in progress, I noticed I became precious over it and I want to come back to it with fresh eyes in the near future and just let loose so watch this space and we shall see how it develops.

Bobby Kennedy.