Pixelsynthesis

On Saturday I took part in a live art event called Pixelsynthesis the brain child of Glen Millington (Pictographik) a derby based Graphic Designer.

This involved me and another artist, Laura Vann, creating a piece of digital artwork live accompanied by music by Andy McAllister at Derby Quad

We were given the word 'Organic' to work from and were able to plan for the piece at home beforehand and do preliminary sketches (all the digital stuff happened on the night) Then we had 3 hours to get the piece finished in front of an audience. Me and Laura didn't discuss it before hand, but both ended up creating pieces that were similar, though in our own different styles.

I was quite nervous before hand, but managed to just about zone out and concentrate on the work, I was told my facial expression was pretty intense! The top image is the completed piece. Both of the pieces were available to buy on the night on a limited basis. The event looks like becoming a regular event, and I had great fun doing it, I'm looking forward to being in the audience for another one.

ups and downs

 Last week was a week of ups and downs, as many are when you are trying to carve out a creative career for yourself! I had a great time visiting 2 youth groups in the Birmingham area, and delivering workshops for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Although it is difficult when a lot of the people who you are leading look older than you! (for those that don't know, I am actually 24, but am small in stature and constantly get told I look 18) I met some real characters, who I am looking forward to meeting again next week.

I also had to interviews for Creative Practitioner jobs, one at a primary and one at a secondary. Unfortunately I didn't get either, but had fun delivering the taster workshops. So time to dust myself down, and keep applying and keep working on my own practice. The scary thing is that these jobs will probably not exist next year, as it's quite obvious that whoever wins the election next week, it is going to be initiatives like the Creative Partnership projects that get their funding cut. Which will be a real shame, but I am afraid it is probably inevitable.

But on to happier things, I have begun a small project with a confectionary company, and have also created some new characters, and also created some new sketches of one of my favourite characters, which will be getting the digital treatment any time soon.

Expect to see more from these four friends in the future!

I have decided to do a series of Millie with a pin-up girl style slant. I love the old pin-up girl illustrations. They truly do depict 'glamour' girls! really it is an insult that people like Jordan, or sorry should I say Katie Price get described as glamourous when that couldn't be further from the truth. 

Images such as the one above by Alberto Vargas. They depict a glamour of a by-gone era, and the images are normally sexy and teasing, rather than in-your-face and brainless, like the fodder seen on the likes of delights such as 'nuts' and 'zoo' magazine!

The set is complete

Hey everyone, I know it's been a little while since my last post.

You have already seen glimpses of these guys, but now they each have a proper image of themselves.
Really quite pleased with how they turned out!

Some of the colours are slightly off on here, as I forgot to save it to RGB mode.

Opinions are welcome!

Which character do people like the best?

Many more characters are in the pipeline for other things. But these are the core characters for the 'Mush-noo' series, with guest appearances from tinman Trevor who has appeared before.

As you may have seen my artwork tends to jump around a bit, but I think that this is what I will mostly be concentrating on for now. Creating cute little characters makes me very happy!

I am also working on creating some more actual physical paintings, rather than just digital work.

                       

you still can't quite beat the feel of a paintbrush as it slaps the canvas! Is very difficult getting a finish as smooth as in illustrator though! Well frankly it is obviously impossible!