In Yorkshire We Trust
A short while ago, I was contacted by Isla Brown concerning a project she was involved with called Retail Ready People, a programme set up for young people to give them the experience of setting up and running a high street shop.
These group of fresh-faced youngsters are setting up a temporary shop which will be a social creative space as well as selling products from local artists and designers. Isla really liked my “In Yorkshire We Trust” design and we decided on creating some screenprints to sell in the shop, with some one colour A5 mini-prints and two colour A3 posters available. Here’s some pictures of the printing process:
First off are the A5 mini prints. These are relatively simple to print, being only one colour, in this case black.
Once those were complete, it was time to move on to the more challenging A3 prints.
The positive used to burn the image onto the screen is being used here to help register the paper to the screen, so all the prints end up looking the same.
Our first colour is a blue grey colour, with a little bit of pearlescence in the ink, which should give this layer a nice shimmer.
Once those have been printed and left to dry we can crack on with colour number 2. Again we use the positive to help register this layer to our prints so the two colours play nice and don’t end up looking funky (in a bad way).
And there we have it! Once all the prints are printed they are left to dry, have any rough, unsightly edges trimmed off them and are packed up to be delivered to their destination. There are initially a limited run of both these prints, which will be available in the Retail Ready People shop in Leeds, but more might be made in the future, so keep your eyes peeled.
Scotland, Skulls and Coffee
Hello there chums. It’s been a while since I last had chance to write up a blog post. Partly to blame is my short visit to Edinburgh, where I was very inspired by some of the great stuff I saw in the galleries, museums and around the city. I was also inspired by some of the many cafes, bars and pubs, but that’s another story
Before I left I was working on a drawing for a project, which sadly never really came to much. These things happen sometimes. Regardless, I thought I might as well show the finished result of that drawing, which could perhaps become a print or something someday. It’s definitely a style I’m going to explore again in the future, so I definitely got something out of it.
I also got some renewed interest in my on going Leeds Landmarks project thanks primarily to Leeds Love Affair mentioning it on twitter. After a bit of discussion of which place I should illustrate next, Laynes Espresso was mentioned.
I’m a big fan of Laynes, and thought it would be a great subject for me to turn my hand to, the result of which you can see below.
Thankfully, the people at Laynes really liked my illustration, and I’m in the process of sorting out getting some screen prints made, which will be available from the online store and hopefully from Laynes itself, which is pretty exciting for me. Keep your eyes peeled, more news will be arriving soon on my facebook page and twitter.
I’ve been feeling a bit un-inspired by working digitally recently. Vectors were feeling less than fresh, so I decided to get my hands dirty and brush up on some analogue picture making.
These are work in progress shots of a pen drawing I’m undertaking for an upcoming project. I’ve never tried my hand at stipple shading before, and I’m feeling quite pleased with the results so far, even if it does cause some minor hand ache.
Hello readers from all internet corners. I recently finished a poster design for the Ben Manning Music Foundation, a charity concerned with the advancement of music education within Leeds and surrounding areas, which you have to agree is a worthy endeavour.
After some time sketching out concepts that would communicate Resurrection Day which would still be light hearted enough for a rock poster, I became inspired by the paintings of saints and other religious figures.
I decided it might be a fun idea to emulate this sort of iconography and put my own spin on it, the results of which you can see here.
Quick turn around projects like this one with a limited time are fun to do, as it requires creative thinking and fast decision making. Sometimes when there’s more time available it’s difficult to commit to ideas because the possibility of something better might be around the corner. It’s good to have to come up with a concept and make choices quickly, so you still have time to make the thing.
I was really pleased to be asked back by the guys at Silver Screen Society to contribute a design for their two year anniversary special. To mark the occasion they teamed up with the How Did This Get Made? podcast. The podcast focuses on terrible films, which seem uniquely watchable in their awfulness. You know the type.
I was given the downright insane and actually physical draining Jason Statham vehicle “Crank 2: High Voltage” to play with.
Given how funny this film is (hard to tell sometimes how much is on purpose) I wanted to try and get some of that humour across, and to me distilling the plot of the film down to a guy with a huge battery slapped into his chest seemed pretty funny.
The poster is also inspired by the high voltage, danger of death signs, and that is ACTUALLY a silhouette of Jason Statham, albeit a Frankenstein’s monster Jason Statham painstakingly pieced together from various source images.
I urge you to both check out the film itself and the rest of the great work on the Silver Screen site. Both will keep you thoroughly entertained for many hours.
I guess this makes the dream job list
Screen full of work
More Leeds landmarks progress. Colour change and more detail. This is nearly complete, will be up on the site soon!
New Leeds Landmark illustration underway. Any guesses? #workinprogress
Hello friends. I’ve had a busy old time of late with some exciting things coming up for the new year, prophecies that the world will end tomorrow not withstanding.
One of those exciting things that I can talk about now, is the official launch of Not Everything is Black & White, a photobook I recently finished the design for.
The event is being held at Leeds’ very own White Cloth Gallery on 18th January next year and will feature projections of the photos in the book, live music from Eve May Rowlands and the soundtrack of the book performed live by DJ essdee.
It’s very much free so please come along!
