A month on a page

Hello my loyal and faithful (cough.. fictional) readers! Yes I am losing weight, how nice of you to notice and very sweet of you to mention the fact..

I did fully intend to post for Halloween, excuse my lateness but i've always been bad at showing up at the right time and organising my own thoughts (I am, however, very good at critisizing and organising other peoples lives!) So you can enjoy this now and look forward to a Christmas update sometime in early March.

Carving a pumpkin is such a cliché, so this year I decided to draw one instead! Unfortunately though, i didn't decide to take a decent, non-mobile-phone-photograph before it rotted into nothingness!

 

Next year I have decided that I am definitely going to design a Pimp-kin complete with feather velvet hat and cane (has it been done? google images says no!).. Lil' pumpkin ho's would be fun, too.

I also turned up to work in full costume as my manager had told me to, only to realise that nobody else had bothered and I was the only wanker dressed up as a creep!

Luckily the bar was dead (ba-dum, tish!), making it both not worth the effort and much less embarassing..

So what else have I been up to? Well I have been getting alot of emails requesting that I  recap my nightbus reading list in a kind of book review-esque post (Jk, noone ever emails me..) So here's a crappy picture and my dumb thoughts on each book!

World war Z, Max Brooks

This was a pretty interesting book. Like most men I love the idea of a Zombie Apocalypse, although unlike most men I have no fantasies that I would be the one to survive.. even though i've been going to the gym alot recently I still think I would be run down by an asthmatic grandma with an axe in her hip!
Overall I thought this was a good read. Again most men would probably love this book possibly because of, (more likely in spite of) all the military talk- weapons, tanks etc. but I did love the way it jumped very quickly all around the world to give you accounts of various survivors who managed to survive in a castle, a house and even a fish tank! (Ok, the last one I made up)
Read it if you have alot of short tube/train/bus journeys to make, you're not going to get sucked in and fall asleep with the light on but it will pass the time and give you a bit of a buzz.

 I'm going to lump these all together purely because they are all books written by Terry Pratchett (If you missed the huge gold letters on each cover then the detective stories, Snuff and Dodger, probably aren't for you)  Having said that, they were all very different stories written in the same often hilarious Pratchett style (yes I said it, books can be hilarious too, i'm serious..) I found them hard to read at first, but i've quickly learned to love it. I actually read Snuff first, which was a mistake because I then realised it's the most recent book in a series of 39! I ordered 'The colour of magic' which is book #1 and i'm now planning to work my way through that series.. (39 f*%^*ing books!) Read them, you'll love them. And if you don't.. well I couldn't care less, this isn't what I do! I'm not a book reviewer!

I just remembered that i'm late for that thing, you know.. well I have an apointment.. it's far too late to be writing things for noone to read, so until next time (don't hold your breath) goodnight and thanks for giving me the impression that you read this!

Your friend, 

Buddy Holly

My thoughts on modern art

As you may have noticed, the title for this article (which may be very unaptly chosen) is 'My thoughts on modern art' and as I sit down to write with a cup of tea at my side on the back of an interesting day visiting the Tate Modern and The Photographers Gallery, i find my brain surprisingly numb!

What did I think? I didn't think, flickering between boredom and anger (which was all the exhibitions managed to evoke) I couldn't even muster the effort to write down the names of the artists and exhibitions that I wanted to write about. Lucky for you, my valued readers, i'm sure I can just about manage to condense into words the sheer genius and talent that I witnessed.

What did I see? Well there was some mannequins covered in fiberglass (?) that looked like brown sticky tape, which some pretentious wanker, as I observed, chanced to enlighten his children about with his bold insights into the artists motivations (''They look like humans, yes.. but.. unformed, it's almost as if they haven't had chance to experience life'' not as stupid as it sounds, of course, when you consider that he's technically right. They are manuiqins after all..) I also saw what was essentially a small brick wall on it's side, minus the mortar/concrete. It's amazing that the work of an unqualified bricklayer would be considered worthy of exhibition.  

Image from The Independant

Another fantastic piece took me by surprise as I asked my companion "Oh.. wait, is this an actual piece? I thought they had taken the ventilation shafts out of the ceiling'' No prizes for guessing what it was (although if you really want to know it was venilation shafts!..)

Now I know that taking the piss out of modern art is a cliché, but for anyone reading this thinking 'oh he just doesn't 'get' it', it has to stop! I admit i'm uncultured, I don't know much about art, art history, art techniques (*I do know piling bricks isn't an 'art technique') but from my point of view, anyone who says they do 'get it' just wants to be part of the club, it's mindless- and for me very reminiscent of religious fanatics who are so much 'holier than thou' (I once had an experience with a gentleman older than myself who had found god who told me very matter-of-factly that I was just an ignorant young lad and i'd see one day what i've been too ignorant to see up to now)

 Admittedly, I was excited at seeing Picasso, Braques and Dali pieces in person, having written so much about them for art class in school. But this was art that was groundbreaking (as opposed to shoddy 'ground building', a la 'The Bricks') and i'm ashamed to say that Modern art has come to mean wanker fuel for people in turtle necks with ironic beards (not that i wouldn't grow one if i wasn't so folically challenged!)

It wasn't all that bad.. not really, I just like having a cynical chip on my shoulder as I assume it makes for funnier reading than a 'diary entry' blog.
The surrealist exhibition was actually very cool, i'm not going to post any Dali or anything- instead here's a couple artists I liked that I hadn't heard of, more for myself for future referance but feel free to check them out -

Ibrahim El-Salahi

Alberto Giacometti

and from the Photographers gallery, i thought that the Tom Wood exhibition was interesting and worth a look!


Good night folks!

Summer time, when the living's easy

Hello and welcome my loyal readers! 'Where have you been?!' I can hear you screaming at me, as I glance over your shoulder to the depressing dimmed candles and cold food, indicating that I should have been home hours ago...
and my response, ladies and gentlemen, (before you start smashing vases and throwing my clothes out the top floor window) is that ''The train was late, we've been hectic at work and they needed me there''.
This poor metaphorical situation is of course supposed to excuse my lack of posts and general creativity for the entire summer- and it is a very good excuse.. if you ignore the lipstick on my work shirt collar.

So what HAVE I been doing?

I've been working full time (often more than full time) hours in a bar in central london, which has been very interesting in spite of the 1-3 hour travel time each way. I've had good times and bad times there, but the most important thing is that i've lost alot of weight working there and having my arse physically kicked.
Unfortunately I also realised how much I really hate sitting at a computer day in, day out.. (Hence my summer technology rebellion) and how much better it feels to just be active, busy and PHYSICALLY tired out rather than mentally drained every night!

and what else?

Well I turned 21 in May- I've never really done alot on my birthday but this year it felt like loads of people made an effort which was a great surprise :-) (See the picture below, I got a bag of cool shit from some friends I really haven't known all that long! It was very nice)

Time to start being an adult, I guess..

(JK JK here's a pic of me bangin' a statue)

I have been keeping a sketchbook, though! Most of it is very rough and you're not likely to see it unless I clean up/develop any ideas (or you steal my backpack on the central line)

p.s I saw this in Tesco. It made me giggle so I thought it would be worth sharing.

Now I'm fuly aware that noone actually reads this thing and noone has been dissapointed or outraged by my brief dissapearance but I wanted to get back into the swing of writing down my thoughts and deepest inner emotions so I can one day be a real artist and pretentiously bullshit my way through exhibitions (it's all good practice)

Smell ya later, here's a picture of the shard!

R.I.P Edd Gould

This is very sad- I didn't know him but i had hoped to meet him at the newgrounds 2010 meetup and always enjoyed his cartoons. Rest in peace Edd!

Mumps!

Luckily pulling faces in the mirror kept it's novelty for the best part of 2 weeks!

Mumps.. who even thought it was a possibility? My sister assures me that I was immunised as a kid but apparantly alot of people get 'top ups' before they head off to university..
I'm now pretty much over it, and very lucky by all accounts because my testicles didn't swell up to the size of tennis balls! It's amazing how paranoid you can feel after doing a bit of reading online.. Permanent hearing loss, Impotence, Meningitis.. and all I got was a bit of pain and a hamsters face! :-)
In between feverish dreams (Which were awesome, by the way) I managed to finish part one of the third 'Song of Ice and Fire' book

I can't recommend these books enough! the second season of the tv series will also be starting April first! (either that or it was a very cruel april fools joke)

I've now got a hell of alot of work to catch up on, so no plans to leave the house and enjoy the sunshine!

Guess hue..

Good evening one and all, I am writing this as a very happy chappy having just received my copy of 'Dream worlds' by Hans Bacher! (As well as the first two 'song of ice and fire' books.. didn't realise quite how big they are but I can't wait for the rest of Game of thrones...) Flicking through I saw that there is a very useful section about colour;
'Color should be used to create specific moods. Of course our cultural background plays a significant role in that. Countries closer to the equator are more colorful in all ways than countries in the northern parts. Yet nearly everywhere around the world the same rules can be applied. Certain cool colours calm down the emotions, while hot colours create aggression in emotions.'
I can tell that this book is going to very useful in the pre-production of my film, as well as taking care of a couple colour theory blog posts (Thank you, Hans!) so let's get into it!

'The color in our films corresponds with specific events in the story, and just as there is an ''emotion/action curve'' there should be a ''color mood curve.'' '...For example, a love scene will need different colors than a suspense scene. At the end of the film, the color is especially important to build up the climax.'

So how can you use this? Well you could gradually transition the colours to follow the mood of the film or you could suddenly contrast the colour/mood to match the dramatic changes in the story.
I think that Bambi has a few very good examples of 'color mood curve' and also dramatic uses of colours/hues.

For example, above on the left- in the top panel when Bambi's mother dies the colours are very bleak- mostly blue hues and dark silhouettes. The mood is exactly what you would expect; depressing or sad. Whereas in the panel below, the forest fire scene, lots of red/purple hues are used which cause an alert or 'dangerous' mood.

I think that Bambi has excellent examples of dramatic colour change to emphasise the story arc. In the panels above the colours go from very regular and bright to sudden bright hues and lots of colour, which almost 'wake us up' and help to exaggerate the panic of the fight scene.

That's all for now, I hope you learned something!

Books! Pre production!

Hello readers!

I have finished the term at university and just finished putting together a showreel for submission. It's a work in progress, there's alot i'd like to clean up/take out/put in but take a look if you'd like!

Click here!

I've also just ordered a couple of books to add to my ever growing collection-

Dream worlds by Hans Bacher, i've had a quick skim through this before and it seems like a very useful book- even more so because I am about to start pre production for my 2nd year film

 

And Timing for Animation which I have heard good things about

I can't wait to unwrap these presents for myself! Prepare for a fair few updates as I have plenty of work to be getting on with!

Comicon, new vinyl, postcards

I've been very busy the last couple of days, yesterday I went to the MCM comicon expo in London which was... interesting to say the least! I'm not a big fan of cosplay but we did have alot of 'oh my god look it's _____!' moments bursting out from our nerdy younger selves. Again i've never been massively into comics though obviously I can appreciate the design and characters, but there was some really, really awesome stuff around!

Particularly Richard Starkings and co. who were really top guys. They gave us a free issue and a signed sketch! Apparantly the comic is about to be made into a major motion picture, so throw a google search their way!

 

In other news I bought myself a couple more blank toys, I can't wait to get started on these! Keep your eyes peeled for a giveaway of some sort!

I  also picked up a couple things at 60% off from the Kidrobot sale that many people missed out on,
My first Kozik Smorkin Labbit (10'') and a kid robot dealy also by Kozik!

 I think this is my favourite dunny to date, it's an Amanda Visell from the 2010 series!

That's all for today but there's alot to come- the summer has just begun and I am as motivated as ever!

Postcards

I am really pushing these free postcards, I have no idea how long i'll be doing this so if you haven't already, click the postcards tab above and check it out!
I've finally finished my first year at university! It went so unbelievably quick, so I'm not going to waste any time this summer.
You can expect;
More postcards,
Some possible T-shirt designs for Stay dead clothing
Pre-production for my 2nd year film
more custom munnys
and loads of things I haven't even conceived yet!

Look who just walked in...

I found this waiting for me at the door today..
It's a Jon Burgerman dunny!

I've been working on a bit of animation for the title credits of my friends slovenian film, which is due on the 24th- so that's my next few days planned :-)

Zoo Times, DUNNYS!

I went to London Zoo on saturday, and saw my good friend Jamie from the isle o' man, which was good (considering we both live so close together and have barely made an effort before)
We got some strange looks in the petting zoo, probably because the main demographic was 4 year old girls

And we also saw more than enough monkey masturbation.. it's not as funny as it sounds after 20 minutes!
(Though we did catch a bird going poopy on another ones head)

In other news I have far too many dunnys now (all for dirt cheap/next to nothing!)
and just today Kidrobot had a 60% off deal so I treated myself to a late birthday present (thanks to my sister for the cash! :-))

My college friend Jade is also working on a little custom owl plush for me in exchange for a couple spare dunnys :-) (Kinda like the one pictured here)

What am I up to now? Working towards my final deadline on the 24th, I also have a personal animation project for my friends brother, who is studying film in Slovenia :)
Looking forward to the summer, and hopefully big things to come!!

Burgered part 2

I am dying from lack of sleep (can that actually happen? or do you just eventually pass out) so I'm going to keep this short and sweet!!
In between deadlines I burgered Jon Burgerman, just to return the favour :)

All nighter, Gots me Burgered

So after an all nighter preparing for two deadlines it really cheered me up to see that Jon Burgerman had sketched a terrible photo of me haha

How awesome is that?
I can't sleep now though, not by choice, but because I finished a little earlier than I anticipated and now I can't hand my work in for 4 hours..
If I sleep I know I wont wake up, this really is some sick kind of purgatory!
It's my birthday on thursday, and summer is on the way! So I really hope to fill this blog with all kinds of personal projects..
Maybe..
Ok it's not likely, I'm a lazy bastard!

Get yo'self Burgered

A long time favourite doodler of mine Jon Burgerman has started a facebook page where you can submit pictures of yourselves and he *might* sketch you :-) (good odds considering he normally gets paid for this sort of thing) I've already put in, I suggest you guys head over and do the same!
Clicky Clicky

Dunny 2010

Say hello to my awesome new friends :-)

Designed by Sneakyracoon (in the black) and the supposedly rare chase by DamaraktheDestroyer, in the clear neon green :-)
I've always been a fan of the kidrobot vinyl toys particularly the dunnys, so I treated myself to a few.. It's dangerous because I already want more :-)
I'll have to subdue the urge at least until the summer, I don't have the money right now..
Other than finding a place to house these guys i've had buckets of work to do (to do being the phrase.. it's definitely not getting done)
6.05am, time to throw on some Red bar radio and get some sleep!
Smell you later

So it begins..

I've had a million blogs and websites and i've never updated them consistently.. don't stick around, it'll be a waste of your time..
maybe.