iamanoctopus

New Blog Location...

2011-07-14T19:35:00.002+01:00

Well, I have reverted to WordPress off my own server for a bit, see how it turns out. You may find me at the link below, but this place will still be alive should I ever decide to come back to blogger. Thank you bloggers. : )

http://iamanoctopus.co.uk/wp/?cat=3

Moving soon.

2011-06-29T21:24:00.002+01:00

I know I've neglected my blog in recent times, but it's all set to be moving to a brand new site. So you'll have to re-arrange your bookmarks when the word is out :)

Arsene WHO!?

2011-05-23T20:33:00.000+01:00

Deaf Not Dumb

2011-05-16T14:16:00.000+01:00

Also, on a final note for now, a project I were briefly involved with at work, which WON the Adobe Youth Voices competition. Deaf Not Dumb is a motion graphics piece aiming to empower young deaf people (as well as the rest of the deaf community) to make us hearing folk aware that BSL exists, and hopefully goes some way to showing the difficulties the non-hearing community face everyday.

Cut Me Up @ New Gallery Jumble!

2011-05-16T14:07:00.000+01:00

Cut Me Up will be at the New Gallery Jumble this coming Saturday, 21st May 2011. Feel free to pop down and say hi to us and even purchase some of our lovely goods! : ) That'll be all for today I should think, more to follow this week!

Ballad Of... Lola-Bacon!

2011-05-16T14:00:00.000+01:00

Also, recently, I have completed another issue for the lovely ladies at Ballad Of Magazine. Lola-Bacon will officially be on sale from ...err, wait, when? Oh, TODAY. Yes, you'll do yourselves a great service to head over to double u, ballad of dot co dot uk and purchase yourselves a brand spanking new copy!

Tommy K

2011-05-16T13:53:00.000+01:00

T'was me sisters birthday recently. Well not that recently, unless you count two months ago as recently? Nar mind, here's the small print I made for her.

Awful Beginnings!

2011-05-16T13:49:00.000+01:00

This summer at some point, I shall be producing an entirely pointless (but very relevant one day in the future) book about awful, awful, zombie flamingos. A glimpse of one of the pre-liminary sketches, below.

Hoax Abuse

2011-05-16T13:45:00.000+01:00

A wonderful way to kill sometime at work, usually, is by creating hoaxes and getting the whole studio to believe we placed an ad for a fellow co-worker in the Metro. Mr. Rajul heals all.

Been a while!

2011-05-16T13:41:00.000+01:00

Hello friendly followers of this octopus-like germ. How are you? It's been a longtime since I've updated my blog. Purely because life has been a million miles a minute, with lots of projects to update about. I shall be posting various posts in a row, and a few more in the following week. So, let's get started with this mass-ketchup [catch up]. We begin with the Zine Symposium, which myslef and Kraggy had great success at, launching Cut Me Up!

More photographs from the day available via Fever Zine & Cut Me Up!

London Zine Symposium

2011-04-12T18:32:00.000+01:00

Myself & Kraggy shall be part taking at this event on Sunday. We hope to see you there, there shall be lots of goodies on sale. : )

Favourite Sauces sans Mayo.

2011-04-05T22:07:00.002+01:00

Coming Soon

2011-04-04T16:38:00.000+01:00

There's a lot going on at the moment, hence lack of updates and new imagery on the web presence. Currently, I am working on the next issue of Ballad Of... as well as a collaborative project with illustrator friend, Kraggy. We shall be selling our outcome at an up and coming zine type, place. Details to come nearer the time. For now though, sneak peak.

Miniature Atrocities Issue 1.0

2011-03-17T22:00:00.000Z

Purchase here.

Atrocities 1.0

2011-03-16T18:13:00.000Z

Another New Pattern

2011-03-14T17:04:00.002Z

Accidental Yeltsin

2011-03-13T20:48:00.001Z

Melon Shrub Poster

2011-03-09T00:52:00.000Z

Along with other talented peoples, a poster I have created will be exhibiting at the Melon Shrub zine launch. Get yourselves down there on said date below:

Round 2: Live Art for Ballad Of

2011-03-07T15:11:00.000Z

Again, myself, Sandra Dieckmann, Jamie Mills, Murray Mangoose & Natsuki Otani joined forces to create some more live art for Ballad Of... Magazine. Images are stolen from the Ballad site, and are not my own. : )

Rubbish Speed Drawing

2011-03-07T14:42:00.000Z

Yesterday morning I challenged myself to 10 minutes of quick drawing to draw birds. This is the result, it's quite poor, but I need to get my hand into practice more often to IMPROVE tenfold.

Valentines Day

2011-02-27T20:02:00.002Z

Tidbits of News!

2011-02-25T22:59:00.001Z

I've been terrible updating this year haven't I? Well, I'm going to be even more terrible now that I have a new job. A new job as a graphic designer/illustrator for a deaf charity! Alongside all the regular freelancing (when it comes me way.) This is keeping me busy, so I will try and update every so often. There are some new bits and pieces of work that I shall post when I get home, also, there is ANOTHER lovely Ballad Of... event next week. I shall be joined by the lovely illustrative folk from the last party, illustrating live on tee's FOR YOU!

When I get home on Sunday, there shall be pictures of all the latest developments concerning octopus related matters.

Also, if you like, please purchase this. : )

A Study of Facial Features

2011-02-15T23:44:00.000Z

Updates!

2011-02-06T12:13:00.001Z

Ola, there are some updates to come soon, before I head north at end of next week. Am currently collaborating on a new zine with Kraggy! As well as still organising the next Ballad Of events happenings with the usual gang!

'Til there, ta-raaa.

Memories of Rotherham's Finest

2011-01-28T16:14:00.000Z

Featured!

2011-01-27T21:05:00.000Z

Forgot to put this up last week as things were rather busy. A feature by Alessandro Barbieri, on Kraggy, Colourboxonline & moi. There's an EN button on there somewhere, so read it in English or if you're capable of reading Italian, be my guest sunshine! Article can be read here!

Let's All Laugh at Moi!

2011-01-26T19:23:00.000Z

Well, so much for updating everyday! That's a laughable offence, for the next 30 seconds I permit you to laugh at me, but no longer! If you laugh longer, you're a god damn jezebel. All I have to say is, I am keeping things very hush, hush at the moment. Some exciting developments have happened over the last week and a half regarding career. Just waiting on a few things, see how it goes, hopefully it pans out well!

Also, expect to see us lot from the Nanny Floff party re-united for another live art event soon! We shall be planning for two events in March, all which details will be around various ethers. I will be posting some newish work soon, so keep your eyes peeled. Apologies Octopi public, I've failed you with posting everyday! Forlorn! :(

New Pattern!

2011-01-11T15:18:00.000Z

Free to download for everybody, one and all, a pattern of talking heads ...inside all the latest handheld devices. Just drag and drop to your desktop and make sure you switch tile mode on.

Consumed by Coding

2011-01-06T13:49:00.000Z

This week, out of the blue, I have been consumed by learning jQuery Masonry and coding it from scratch for what I hope will be an easy to manage portfolio site. All I want is an easy to access, does what it says on tin site that I can update when there's new work. Without all the CMS stuff, so I feel like I've built something. So far this is all built from scratch! Hope to improve it in near future and get content & info on it.

Frustration!

2011-01-03T21:35:00.000Z

Today has been one of those frustrating days when you have an idea, get excited, start doing it and then think "oh, I'm not so fond of that idea now - onto the next thing." To get my creative juices flowing for the year, I decided to start producing a little zine, but today's just ended up with me playing with fineliners, printers and Ross Kemp. It's not been the best day creatively, the bin's full of discarded ideas and doodles. However, these three minor bits of work have made me giggle and were fun. Bit frustrated for the time being, best plan ideas and things to do tomorrow.

Dry Your Eyes Mate...

2011-01-02T22:02:00.000Z

Fucking Mike Skinner. Never liked that dodgy fella, tried to sell me a tele once, but copped out when I offered two shoes and some piano wire for it. True story! Anywho, the main point of this post is to commemorate the first year of this blog! So let's look back at it behind teary eyes. I tried to make the image below look like it was behind teary eyes, I'm not sure it does. Nevermind.

Hello 2011!

2010-12-30T16:17:00.000Z

Having recapped the previous year, I think it's time to set out some goals and 'new years resolutions'. Don't particularly like that phrase too much, because when you place too much of an importance on them, you always, most always subconsciously don't try. So, this post will mainly be about things I want to achieve in the new year, in no particular order and things I think I should be improving on. In 2010, I've learnt so much, as the previous biopic post states and 2011 will look to be no different. I'm going to keep this one much briefer, describing what I'd like to achieve, what I'd like to improve on and possibly habits I'd like to shake.

First and foremost: DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY.

Things I'd like to achieve:

Update this blog regularly, especially with the work that's consuming at that period in time.
Continue to build a steady reputation (hopefully!)
Produce even more work than I do.
Get my online shop properly up and running.
Do a few more markets, gain more experience.
Become properly professional!
Work with people far greater than me and learn!
Gain more work experience.
Work and collaborate with even more creatives! Hopefully more live art!

Things I'd like to improve:

Etching and life drawing skills! The basics are vital!
Experience working amongst studio environments.
Personal discipline.
Time management, though who wouldn't like to improve this?
Push self harder in face of adversity! Like some Japanese anime.
That one tooth I haven't sorted out yet.
Portfolio.
Organisational skills, don't go into panic mode during a brief.
Bit out of shape over Christmas period, need to get fit again.

I'm sure when I publish this, there will be more things I wanted to add to the list, but for now it'll suffice. I'm struggling to think as I am a tad hungry, not fulfilled by the lunch I had. These past two posts have been quite 'writey' haven't they? Less of that in the next year and more images of work that is being produced on a regular basis. 'Til then, hope I haven't bored the pants off you the general octopi reading public and leave you with an image to celebrate the New Year! Happy New Year all.

Goodbye 2010!

2010-12-28T00:49:00.003Z

Evening all, it's quite late isn't it? 11:30PM, image that! The year is almost out with all but three or four days left. I'm not sure of numbers at the moment, turkey sandwiches have clogged up more pores and are obviously affecting my nervous system. Leftover turkey sandwich eater right elbow or something. So what's the real agenda of this post? Communism? No, no, no, you won't see me donning red and a beret demanding a bloody revolution over the way they make turkey sandwiches with too much mayonnaise. Mostly because I make them. The reason behind this post is to reminisce on the year that were 2010! It's been a good one with some mixed points scattered all over the place, but when I look back in years to come at 2010, it'll be one that (I hope) defined my creative path and career. This'll hopefully be a short post, though it could be a biopic of great magnitude. (I do talk some waffle sometimes).

The year I've accomplished things I thought impossible years ago. They might not be huge to others, but to me they were a big deal, no matter how menial and lame people may consider it. I'm going to recap the year month by month, but very briefly I hope - for your sake, and mine. It's late! We begin in January, the year began as cold as well, as it is now. Funny how things come round full circle, isn't it? January for the past three years has meant one thing and only one thing - RUSH TO FINISH EVERY BIT OF UNI WORK FOR THE END OF THE SEMESTER!!! This year was no different. Well, it was actually, I had the 'burden' of a dissertation in toe! At this point in time, I thought this was the hardest I'd worked on any uni projects throughout my time at said uni. It wasn't! It was in fact the second hardest I'd ever worked whilst at uni, but weren't to know, was I! Was I?! After spending an entire week to write the last 3000 words on dissertation and a full two weeks on the other three projects, I think it's fair to assume I was exhausted - but felt very accomplished! Good start to the year.

February was a bit of a sour month, well, not entirely sour, just didn't seem like much were happening at that point - although I wasn't to know that I had planted seeds for future projects. I mean, I did know, but not really the impact they'd have. This was the month my FMP began, if you troll all the way back into the archives of this blog, you'll see all the sweat that went into it! For a project that aced the FMP, it didn't exactly start off with a bang. My proposal was criticized to mind my language (Timothy), to shit. I bounced back though, much like Mel B in Bo Selecta tends to and came back singing "I've still gorrit." I also agreed to take over the production of the layout for Ballad Of... Magazine! This leads us into March! This were a month full of research, early stages of laying out a magazine for mass production (for the first time in my short career at least) and more research. It also seemed like my FMP wasn't going to go anywhere, but that was to be proved wrong!

April was a month that completely trumped January! I mean, I thought I worked my balls off in January and then April happened. I delved into the mind of Francis E. Dec and was quite surprised at the potential outcome I had come out with. I thought it was pretty good, nothing special, but I knew, just knew the tutors would hate it! I was wrong, for the first time in three years, they loved something I did. Shock horror. By the end of April a PROPER FINAL FINAL hand in came and that went even better. I'd killed my sleeping pattern for about the 80th time in one year. The whole sleeping pattern thing doesn't please my lovely lady, but if it gets the work done, it gets the work done! Moving onto May! So with a fairly good result for FMP and the course in general (2:1 if you were wondering, probably not thoug.. zzz) ANYWAYS, again, throughout May, I worked hard to help put on our final exhibition, oddly titled, Treadmill. Thank you BA Graphic Design faculty at LMU for that stroke of genius name, concept. That bit was sarcastic by the way. Listen to me, I sound reight (how northerners say 'right') ungrateful.

May went swimmingly, with various accomplishments. Three years of university complete and obtaining a degree, check! Ballad Of Bailey 'Busta' Button a 100% finished and published, check! Walking straight into a freelance graphic design job, check! That's right, to my surprised, I managed to walk into a job related to my degree. In retrospect, things were going quite swimmingly at this point of the year, but then post-uni uncertainty definitely hit me and it hit me hard. As June and July raced on, days at work racked up in the blistering heat and an odd escape to Southend, I began to get slightly agitated with the work I was entrusted to do. This is something I've learned about myself, which I am grateful for, because it could mean bad things for attitude and reputation. Whilst the work for said client got repetitive and annoying, it was still work and worth getting out of bed to do! Especially if there's a paid invoice at the end of it.

Roll on the latter part of the year! In August I was contacted by the lovely people at Digital Artist magazine, who decided they wanted to give my rather short (maybe even pre-mature) career a feature in their Artist Retrospective! I was quite delighted at how things were working out at this point, and how my reputation as a creative is slowly growing, not too fast, not too slow - but just right for now. Still freelancing it at this point and beginning to work out some things, like eventually selling work online (still getting to grips with that one) and learning to get professional. There was a brief but great excursion to Norfolk in-between August and September, which were rather nice. Ta Winners and family! However, by the end of September, I decided to leave said job, where I had by my own admission, learnt things that I hope may keep me in proper stead in the future. I'm grateful to the lovely people at Laden Showroom.

OCTOBER! Other than being the Octopus' birth month, it was a month some other nice things came together. Over the previous months I had worked my balls off (with two lovely editors prodding me and asking for predictions, what with being an octopus) on Ballad Of Nanny Floff! Personally, I'd put so much work into this from pre-planning stages to hopefully getting everything laid out perfect and to a quality standard. Only those who've purchased or seen a copy can be my judge! Coinciding with this Nanny Floff release was a launch party! For this party, I was put in charge of putting together some live art! Like a good football coach, transfers were made wisely by the Ballad team and along with Jamie Mills, Sandra Dieckmann, Natsuki Otani, Murray Somerville & Thomas Bates, I had an absolute blast drawing live during a top notch launch party! Great start to November indeed. Hope to do something in the future with that lot!

So finally, we've reached the end of the year. It's been a brief recap, so let's keep December short and sweet, eh? In short, I walked down that red carpet and officially graduated, as well as ceased the opportunity to sell handmade goods at a market! My first ever time doing something like this (as you can see in previous blog posts) and it was a great experience. Had much fun with the likes of Colourboxonline, Kraggy and Kerry Hyndman! In short, I made my stall money back for three weeks, but not an incredible amount of profit, oh well, learning curb! Thank you to those guys for making a wonderful experience happen. More in the future! Before I summarize this, I've left a dodgy work experience from the middle of November out on purpose, because it's no longer a time to dwell on mistakes, but a time to focus on the positive.

So, our summary! 2010 has been an eye opening year creatively. I feel I've worked harder than I have ever worked before, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Personally, coming from way behind my contemporaries, I like to think I've made a mini-stride into closing that huge gap to the top up. It might only be a centimeter to most, but to me it was a great leap! When I look back at 2010, even though there were points where life seemed like it was against me or wanted to kick me down, the accomplishments outweigh that. That and the love of a lovely Northern girl. I think it's time to wrap this up, I've simply rambled for a length of time that's probably put most to sleep (including me). Apologies if most of this comes across self-indulgent, it's mostly for self-reflection. It's good to look back, then plan ahead, which is what the next post will be. Guess the title? Guessed it yet? That's right, 'Hello 2011!' So until then, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, thank you for reading and have a fantastic New Year.

NOTE TO SELF: If you've forgotten anything, list it in the 2011 post for the octopus republics reading misery.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T00:00:00.003Z

Shop Shop Shop!

2010-12-22T16:48:00.000Z

Hello all, I'm trying to sell remaining stock from market online. Before I produce a ton of new purchasing goods for your pleasure next year, it's time to get rid of the old by selling them at reduced prices PLUS a 10% discount code - 'TALKTOME2010' Anything purchased now will be shipped out after Boxing Day. Zines, prints and cards all must go go go! :D

You may purchase here.

Christmas Market @ Truman Brewery

2010-12-20T17:18:00.000Z

This year, I shared a stall with a few other really talented and fantastic creatives at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. This included the likes of @Colourboxonline, @Kraggy & @KerryHyndman. Had an incredibly fun time learning to do something like this, as well as meeting a few more fantastic people - thank you to all who came and purchased something. Hope to do more events like this in the new year!

Also, if anybody would still like to purchase anything from me, it is all available online, here.

Images courtesy of Kraggy

INTERMISSION PT II

2010-12-19T01:00:00.000Z

INTERMISSION PT I

2010-12-19T00:58:00.002Z

THIS BLOG IS CHANGING

2010-12-19T00:42:00.003Z

'Til further notice, here's a picture of a young Poppy.

a rarity, a post!

2010-11-29T18:57:00.001Z

finally free from the shackels of hp!

2010-11-08T20:47:00.000Z

more colour...

2010-10-31T22:45:00.001Z

Well, well, more than a month and I haven't updated. I've become awful at keeping a blog, guess that can be a new years resolution eh? Really, I'm only posting to say I've added some colour to my site for some weeks now. I promise November will be a more productive month.

hazy days!

2010-09-29T19:33:00.000+01:00

I seem to be in a mess an awful lot lately, especially with my work. However, it's all currently on the back burner as I am in the middle of compiling the next issue of Ballad Of... magazine. The lovely ladies have given me the chance once more (after the success of Bailey 'Busta' Button) to compile your work together and make it look stunning amongst other amazing creatives. In other news, I've taken the plunge and joined the AOI, it's time to get professional, serious and continue putting together a new and (hopefully competitive) portfolio. There's a lot of changes coming in the next month or so and this adjustment period searching for new work and whatever else post-uni is proving difficult, but a challenge I want to come out on top of. For now, that is all.

digital artist feature!

2010-09-12T12:15:00.000+01:00

The lovely people at Digital Artist were kind enough to give me a feautre in their latest issue! They asked me to look back over my short career (and it don't stretch beyond a year or two ago) and I hope everyone else likes it!

zombie holland

2010-09-07T20:29:00.001+01:00

I always thought this toff was dead behind the eyes ...I was right. (As always.)

getting bad at this.

2010-09-05T22:32:00.000+01:00

As the title says, I'm getting bad at updating my blog often. There's a lot going on at the moment, especially with Ballad Of... but I shall do my best to update y'all with what's going on. The deadline for the next issue of Ballad in print has passed and we're currently working on it! I am still working here and there with Laden Showroom, albeit boring work, but work nontheless. I'm slowly building my online shop, I have a few copies of a limited edition zine left, which can be bought here. You can see a couple of images below, there will be more issues in the future when I have found time to doodle more Shoreditch fodder. In other news, I have been featured on the wonderful Illustration Rally! You can see that, here. Apparently, I'm also featured in this coming months Digital Artist magazine, in the artist retrospective section. I was much honoured to be interviewed by them, so ta very much to the lovely people there. The magazine is out on the 9th of this month. What else? Oh I've been on holiday with the lovely Winners, to Norfolk, only got back Friday - already miss Poppy & Paco. (Only the best Daschund's alive, but you didn't hear it from me!) So, til the next time, which might be next month, this month, next millenium, when Craig David makes a comeback ...again, when Stevie G is no longer the name of a footballer, but a subpar cockney popstar ...take care.

shoreditch suicide

2010-08-16T13:40:00.001+01:00

I don't tend to update a lot anymore and when I do I most likely tend to utter a statement like that. Either way, below is a quick experiment of a future project I am planning on about 'lovely East End' types. Gross.

new look site!

2010-08-08T15:37:00.000+01:00

I'm currently in the process of revamping my web presence. Site has taken a bit of a dark turn, still some things to sort out on it, before I move onto completely revamping this blog too.

editorial for amelia's magazine!

2010-07-21T18:24:00.003+01:00

Some editorial work I recently did for Amelia's Magazine, featured in the reviews of Latitude on her blog.

featured post-it of the week - tamsin wilson

2010-07-19T19:33:00.000+01:00

So, post-it of the week is back this week after a week off - been a tad bit busy - and it's Tamsin Wilson's turn! I promise I will get back to doing my vulgar post-it's soon, but for now enjoy this lovely glitzy effort from Tamsin, which is 'mazing. There was a nice series of these including Charlie Chaplin, good stuff! P.S. check her amazing etching style out ...wait for it ...here.

dot does the east end

2010-07-19T19:20:00.001+01:00

mr. octopus

2010-07-07T15:28:00.000+01:00

Mr. Garrison has Mr. Hat and now I have Mr. Octopus (via Winners, from her trip to Amsterdam) THANK YOU!!!

featured post-it of the week - stupendous!

2010-07-05T13:39:00.001+01:00

This week, our featured post-it comes from a fellow LMU sufferer, James Tuitt. He is an illustrator, artist extraordinaire who helps out the likes of Ben Eine in his spare time. Check his work out ... here.

featured on if i was you project!

2010-07-02T22:35:00.001+01:00

I've been featured on Sandra Dieckmann's If I Was You project and for my entry, I got to be Junesee's!

luxembourg! a voyage into the unknown

2010-07-01T11:31:00.001+01:00

This is my entry for the current Illustration Rally project 'European Countries'. It shall appear on their site whenever to project reaches 'L'.

featured post-it of the week - junesees

2010-06-28T10:53:00.000+01:00

The post-it of the week returns for it's second week, with a colourful explosion from June Chanpoomidole who has had work featured in the likes of Amelia's Magazine! Enjoy this weeks effort and stay tuned next week for another guest post-it of the week, which shall be running all summer long on this blog.

southend

2010-06-27T14:35:00.000+01:00

work on laden.co.uk

2010-06-27T14:01:00.000+01:00

Some of my handwritten type and illustrations are appearing on laden.co.uk : )

francis e. dec: on the fringes

2010-06-27T13:26:00.000+01:00

A few snaps via here, of the final piece from the degree show, with thanks to Peter Branting @ the Official Francis E. Dec fan club for the broadened view of Dec and to everyone that helped put the piece together.

eastend collective

2010-06-22T19:43:00.000+01:00

featured post-it of the week - natsuki otani

2010-06-21T12:16:00.001+01:00

This weeks post-it comes via London based Japanese illustrator Natsuki Otani - besides being a great little illustrator, she's also the ring leader of Illustration Rally and this weeks post-it! Stay tuned next week for more guest post-it notes!

treadmill - private view!

2010-06-16T19:40:00.003+01:00

Thank you to all those who attended, here are a couple snaps the girls from Ballad took last night!

Images via here.

treadmill: summer show - 15th - 29th june!

2010-06-14T00:21:00.001+01:00

(Image via John Henry Newton)

So, I've approached the end of my uni life and my final show begins on Tuesday (15th) and lasts until the 29th. We're only a five minute walk away from the D&AD New Blood, which will be at the Truman Brewery. So if you are in the area, please come down and check out the drawers, check out other peoples amazing work - most notably @Jamesypooh's work. If you cannot make the PV on Tuesday, come and check it out when you have some spare time as the show wont disappoint. You can find out more information via the following link - HERE.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

setting up the show!

2010-06-10T19:46:00.001+01:00

Okay, so my final show is next Tuesday (15th) at the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media & Design. If you're by Commercial Road/Brick Lane throughout the 15th and 29th of this month, please come down and have a look! There's only two and a bit real days left before everything has to fall into place and it's only just started coming together now. Spent all day putting viynl and wallpaper on the wall as it was recommended I make the wallpaper thing 3D. Tomorrow, I shall be finishing the suspended picture frames/illustrations, plus fixing one of the drawers. Hopefully Monday at latest, it will have all fallen into place. Here are a few snaps from today...

and the winner of britains got talent is...

2010-05-31T22:40:00.001+01:00

...not Olivia Archbald.

going underground

2010-05-26T21:36:00.001+01:00

Seems Ballad is now at Angel Tube, Northbound platform! Be sure to check it out if you're passing through!

happy birthday dad!

2010-05-19T14:33:00.000+01:00

b is for ballad...

2010-05-16T01:09:00.002+01:00

B is for Ballad... from iamanoctopus on Vimeo.

new ballad is finally here...

2010-05-12T13:14:00.000+01:00

So, earlier this year, I had the pleasure of designing the latest issue of Ballad Of. It's the first thing I've ever designed that's been printed for mass consumption. Thank you to the ladies @ Ballad for letting me have freedom with most of the look.

creepy!

2010-05-11T21:44:00.000+01:00

another.

2010-05-11T14:54:00.000+01:00

Two drawers down, although I should prehaps mention I haven't put these together properly yet, simply because between hand-in and final show I want to work on the front panels and some of the illustrations. Really need to sand the dates and patterns down, but oak is a hard mistress.

it's crooked...

2010-05-10T20:56:00.003+01:00

...but I still like it. Esstentially it's looking like a heap of junk that STILL needs a lot of work, but I like it. And yes, I know the dates upside down.

yes!

2010-05-10T14:44:00.001+01:00

By all means, I am no craftsman ...well, not in the sense of a woodworker. If we're talking craft here, abled in other areas yes, but for this. This for my FMP has truely been a challenge and after putting together first drawer, it's coming to light. Providing *fingers crossed, balls crossed, though that one hurts* nothing goes wrong in the next three days. I shall have a final piece that although I'm not a 100% happy with how it looks, a final piece that I'm extremely pleased with the effort gone into it. Albeit for this handin there will be one teeny problem, in that, it seems the first drawers patterns and date were cut out upside down. My own fault really, however it's time to leave little things like this to be fixed before the show, post-handin. I've still one more illustration to complete and still to touch up the first and second one with intricate details also, but that's been the fun part. Anyways, here's this mornings work, the first run of a lit drawer. Fitted these really nice flourescent lights I found in IKEA to the top of the drawer and they light it up rather nicely. Maybe too bright, might have to block them out with tracing paper. Either way, I'm babbeling now. This last week of uni is proving EXCITING (if not somewhat disappointing with things that ALWAYS go wrong before a deadline.)

Apologies for awful amateur photographs.

almost a reality!

2010-05-04T22:56:00.001+01:00

I couldn't resist putting together the first drawer, even though the illustration still have a teeny bit to go and the front of the drawers need to be finished being cut out and stripped of the guides. Either way, I took a few pictures of presumably what it would look like 'lit'.

fathers for justice against oak

2010-05-03T23:04:00.001+01:00

You know when you're little, and you think "wow my dad can do anything!" - well, most dads grow up and turn out to be bums. Not mine though, he can still do anything. As well as teaching Chuck Norris everything he knows, he's also rather handy with demolishing his way through oak. All he does is stare at it and it melts off.

...

Anyways, with me pa's help today, I've been thawing my way through these drawers. Well, only the first one thus far and it's starting to take shape. It still looks awful, unsanded down and rough, but to my eyes this is progress that wasn't happening weeks ago. As well as that, the illustrations for the first drawer are coming to a climax. I've got a few bits left to tidy and that's one drawer almost complete, only two to go with just less than two weeks left now. So below, I've provided a few pictures of how todays work has gone (it's still going mind.) We have, three pictures of what it's looking like and a picture of the base of the first drawer about half illustrated a couple of hours ago.

update on the drawers...

2010-04-29T22:01:00.003+01:00

Although at the moment, it may look like I'm wrecking a vintage pair of drawers ...the installation is going 'well' if not SLOW. So far, obtaining the drawers, gaining some knowledge on woodwork from a very kind tutor and attempting to cut things is proving difficult, but atleast I've also kick started the illustration side tonight. With 16 or so days to go, I'm fairly confident I can get it done, just maybe not to the standard I hoped, but still I'm going to push it all the way until it looks fantastic. I'm hoping to have the first drawer, (1926, Dec's birth date) finished by this coming Tuesday. The illustrations for these drawers are the fun part, which aren't quite as time consuming as working out how to drill through things, cut through things and light things. I've a lot of cutting, fileing, sanding and rebuilding to do over the next two weeks, but I think it's MORE THAN possible with all my attentive attention facing it with ferocity. Yes.

Below, I've attached images of a) what the drawers look like at the moment, empty. b) the three panels in question, which need cutting. c) basic layout of the patterns that will be getting cut out and finally d) the relief holes drilled in today so I can begin sawing it down.

big girls shoes

2010-04-27T20:28:00.000+01:00

hammer = progress!

2010-04-22T19:32:00.001+01:00

As some people may know, I have been absolutely stressing about this installation piece I am doing. Today, I finally made some progress. After racking my brains about how to remove the front of the drawers, it was made to look ridiculously easy by a rather kind tutor (& a hammer.) Now that, that mystery has been solved, it's a case of getting the patterns cutout. It's looking rather incresingly like I'll have to do it by myself, by hand. So, here's to hoping I don't fuck them up! Anyways, this is what progress looks like for now...

work in progress... the dutchess

2010-04-20T18:55:00.003+01:00

ballad of exclusive! ...& other things.

2010-04-16T20:55:00.000+01:00

Right, so lately, uni has been mega stressful. I've not been putting up much of what I'm producing, because quite frankly I'm not impressed with it at all and the things I want to do are proving imposible due to inadequate facilities at that awful uni. ANYWAYS, for those of you who are fans of Ballad Of and those who love all things pretty, below I have a sneak at a few spreads and the cover of the next issue. This issue has been more fun to design than anything I've done for uni this year (and it's also a wonderful opportunity the ladies at Ballad gave me.) So below, are the cover and a couple of my favourite spreads. The magazine is out in the near future. Enjoy.

'Tara chuck.

the week in post-it's #14

2010-04-11T20:13:00.000+01:00

more for sale!

2010-04-09T15:39:00.000+01:00

I've updated my Folksy store, please have a ganders. : )

fmp excitement!

2010-04-09T14:32:00.001+01:00

Okay, so now that I'm starting to put together the final show stopper (hopefully), it's getting all exciting and literally, not more than 20 minutes ago, this arrived. I shall be turning this into an illustrative light feature of sorts. Hopefully all goes to plan and this does Mr. Dec justice.

all hands on dec!

2010-04-06T18:36:00.001+01:00

The beginnings of a huge fineliner illustration I'm currently doing, which I plan to illuminate. I look at it now and think, there's so much of it left to do, how am I going to complete all 3 in time for FMP hand in?

For more information on Fancis E. Dec, please check out zer0's fantastic official fanpage!

the devil makes hands out of idle owls...

2010-04-04T16:24:00.001+01:00

Prints & postcards available soon, on my Folksy.

the week in post-it's #13

2010-04-04T13:42:00.000+01:00

play him off keyboard ...owl!?

2010-03-31T23:51:00.000+01:00

first ever sold item!

2010-03-30T13:59:00.002+01:00

the week in post-it's #12

2010-03-28T13:00:00.000+01:00

final major anxiety.

2010-03-26T17:49:00.003Z

My desk is starting to depress me, I really want to enjoy this project, but the closer it gets to the half way hand in, the more anxious I'm getting that I've not done something right or it's all wrong and with ungloriously fail. I feel quite lost with this project, which is really not where I want to be with it, I want to be enjoying it ...and to an extent I do for a couple of hours on end each time, but I'm not getting that spark I get when I'm drawing or making irrelivant work to ...anything. Either way, with this run in over the next six weeks, I can only hope that spark is on constant fire and I get everything done. The finishing line is almost in sight! Either way, ho hum.

worldwide as a frankenstein slave...

2010-03-24T23:05:00.003Z

Been doing these illustrations as experiments as a part of my FMP, where I've been taking paragraphs from Dec's infamous rants and illustrating them for practice and to get a flow that eventually leads to greatly detailed final outcomes. Here's one of the illustrations from today.

making use of holes in your shoes...

2010-03-24T16:44:00.001Z

...as well as stretching your arms out for today's sun. That and wasting your time when you've tons to catch up on. Ta.

the post-its featured on balladof.co.uk blog!

2010-03-22T10:52:00.004Z

Much love to the wonderful ladies @ Ballad Of.

the week in post-it's #11

2010-03-22T10:45:00.002Z

it was this big!

2010-03-19T16:56:00.001Z

So after starting both an etsy and a Folksy and a lost my mindsy, I've decided to sell my very low brow drawings. First on sale is our bear friend, you may purchase from here if you wish (there is afterall, only ONE!)

why don't you do me a favour...

2010-03-18T13:54:00.001Z

monday productivity

2010-03-15T18:14:00.002Z

hat wanker

2010-03-15T16:33:00.000Z

the week in post-it's #10

2010-03-14T19:22:00.000Z

birth by polish immigrant, 1926.

2010-03-10T19:06:00.001Z