The return of MOLECULAR!

Hello folks, remember this from a year and a half ago? Well, sometime this summer I was contacted by the people over at Spanish magazine NEO2 to ask whether they could publish my font on their 'molecular' themed October issue ... and these came in the mail for me just the other day:

See it says 'EXPLOSION MOLECULAR' on the bottom left.

Basically I re-made and re-photographed the original alphabet set; and I also did a photograph (the 'M' with the lab stuff in the background) to be used inside the magazine (seen above).

If you want the font set (as a folder of small jpegs - not actual 'fonts'), they can be downloaded from the NEO2 website. On the bottom left of the site you'll find a link to "CLUB DOWNLOADS". You'll get a pop-up from which you can choose the 'Molecular' font from a drop-down menu.

You'll then need to enter the downloading code (which is printed in the paper magazine):
M542TH852RTLP54GFWTRPB98325

If you can't be bothered by the code, the type gets archived at the end of the month here (have a look around - there's some fun stuff there! I especially like the Wash and Lego fonts), from where you can download without any codes once the month is up.

Happy Birthday Tiara!

Today is my lovely little sis's birthday and I made her a little sleeping batty (because she really loves bats!). I'm sorry it still hasn't arrived in the post (its been more than a week - from UK to Australia...). I wasn't going to post these pictures till you'd received it, but now I'm concerned that it may have gone missing in the post - so I though I'd at least let you see what she looks like (and she squeaks too!):



She's based on Miss Lucy's Sleeping Babies. I spent a bit of time with Lucy over the summer helping out in the studio; and in return she taught me how to make a sleeping baby, and gave me some supplies. I must say the first one I made was a bit wonky, but this one has turned out much better (complete with batty wings!)

Thank you Miss Lucy!

Also, Happy Anniversary Abbu & Ammu!

Typewriter

Hmmm.... I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to draw a typewriter ...
I guess I've always enjoyed drawing 'things'...

Camp

I mean, why WOULDN'T you take your multicoloured towel camping with you ???

Experimenting...

Just an idea I'm playing with at the moment .... hmmmm...

(thats my 'engagement tempora-ring')

Big Top

Doodling

Travel drawing

I'm back, and here are some drawings I did while I was away...

Guy asleep on the train

Two patients at an eye-doctors (both had eye drops in and hence were sitting there quietly with their eyes shut - perfect drawing fodder!).

Head-scarfed Aunty Laila - mum's friend

Changi airport Singapore has all manner of wildlife to keep the passengers amused!

At the Art House Co-op

JohnEllis_20080822-2372, originally uploaded by arthousecoop.

This is just a quicky to say thanks to all the people at Art House Co-op - my book got there and here it is on their gallery wall. See more photos of the opening night here.

I'm still out in Malaysia enjoying being at home with the folks and not really doing much ;) Will be back in good 'ol Blighty at the end of the week!

How to save the world

Art House Coop Sketchbook Project 2008

"How would you save the world?"

"With Love Compassion and Respect"

"Watching" photomontage

In response to this brief for Miss Stacey's Summer School.

And Craft Magazine Blog too!

Remember me and Whip Up yesterday?


Well it appears the story's filtered through to the Craft Mag blog too ... (Thank you lil'sis Tiara for spotting that!)

Bizarrely, this project was the one that I got the lowest marks for this year!!!

Cornwall (and Whip Up!)

Sorry for the lack of updates, came back from London and then went off on the loveliest camping holiday to Cornwall. Didn't do much drawing - took a lot of photos instead. Here's some drawings I DID do ...

(click on images for larger view)

Also, got back to lots of comments on this post ... Then worked out that I'd been featured on one of my favourite craft blogs, WhipUp ... hooray!

Next month and a half will also be quiet as I'm in and out of the country. Hope everyone is having a good summer ... :)

Mendhi

Just something I painted for a couple of birthdays and a wedding coming up. Have been really into hands lately and so did this henna one in guache, then scanned it in and tweaked the colours a bit to make it clearer and more vibrant; then printed them out on hot-pressed watercolour paper. The printing-on-watercolour-paper works a treat!

Also, I'm setting this up on Monday to publish itself on Tuesday evening (as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the print recipients). I'll be in London by the time this appears ... hope this works ...

Guache portrait

Of Sunshine for Miss Stacey's summer school project 1. Almost didn't make it ... having been feeling ill since Friday ... but painting was actually a good way to distract myself from being ill. Not as happy with this as with my skin tone experiments, but hey ... onwards for the next project!

Post 200! Photo 100! and Summer School!

Exclamation Marks!!!

Yes, its post number 200!!!

And to celebrate you get 100 days of project 365!!!

Time has flown by this year - my 100th post (also the blog's 1st Birthday) was just after we moved to Bristol so that I could start on my new life, and here we are, 10 months later, having finished a whole academic year of being an illustration student; having gotten engaged; having started a 365 photography project; and having thoroughly enjoyed life :)

Today too it finally feels like summer - after the last few weeks being mad busy doing stuff, and all of last week spring/summer cleaning of the house, I finally managed to sit myself down and get on with some summer projects; namely Miss Stacey's Summer School. The first project involves playing round with paint, and then painting a portrait. Well, one of my aims for this summer has been to learn how to paint skin tones, so I've been practicing by doing paintings of my foot and hand :



Guache in Moleskine Sketchbook

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have done a portrait too ... yay :)

Happy Summer everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

UWE Illustration '08 graduating class

As promised, some links to this year's graduating class (this is not an exhaustive list - I've tried to put in people who actually have some internet presence, ie active blogs/websites, and especially those I've made friends with in the last year). If you want to see the show (and trust me its FAB!) above is the college show details although Illustration are also exhibiting at the D&AD New Blood (23rd to 25th June 2008, London) and the Coningsby Gallery ( 8th to 11th July 2008,London).

ZARA PICKEN Blog Website
JOSH ATACK Blog Website
SAM USHER Blog Website
GEORGE SANDER-JACKSON Blog Website
FEMKE DE JUNG Blog Website
HATTIE NEWMAN Website
AMY BUTLER Blog
NADIA CHALABI Blog
EMMA LEVEY Blog
MIKE O'SHEA Blog Website
HOLLY CLIFTON BROWN Blog
RICHARD COLLINGRIDGE Website
SARAH DENNIS Blog
RUSS HENRY Website
LOU BLACKSHAW Blog
VICTORIA TOPPING Blog Website
KA FAI MAK Website
HELEN BOOTE Blog
CARLY OLIVER Website
ADAM FOSTER-FAHY Blog
ELLIE FOREMAN-PECK Website

I can't even BEGIN to express how overwhelmed I felt by the quality of the show ... and they expect US to get this good in the next 2 years??? You gotta be joking!

Missed ...

Just tidying up this last semester's work when I realised that there's a few bits I hadn't managed to upload to the blog:

Did another one of these (so theres five in the set)

Also, as some homework for the life painting sessions, we had to take a photo, and using a black and white version of it as tonal reference, do a high key and low key version of it.

Low key

High key

The idea being that after that we could black and white photocopy the two paintings to see if we managed to get the tones right - I didn't get them exactly (especially the background area) but did better on the hands. This is what the two look like (left low key, right high key):

I think this is the last of this year's work (apart from some random sketches)... Phew! What a year of learning ... and my 198th post! Maybe I should do something special for the 200th .... hmmm....

Look out for a feature on this year's graduating class from UWE illustration in the next few days :)

Summer here already???

... and where's LittleMithi gone???

Just to say, I'm still here - awfully busy (since the last hand ins). I handed in the last of the Image and Obs stuff on Monday the 2nd and since then have:

Been to London
1 Doing Pulse with my sister-in-law (blog here)
2 Seeing several degree shows
3 Done a day long AOI symposium

And since I've been back
1 Clearing out all my stuff for the year from the studios
2 Helping the 3rd years putting on their degree show (starts Friday!) [event details on facebook]
3 Visited Sunshine's students' degree show

And will be in the next couple of days
1 Doing student ambassadoring at the college open day
2 Doing student ambassadoring at my college degree show - COME COME!
3 Possibly helping out at the Bristol Design Festival (as its run by some of Sunshine's students)

Haven't been doing much art - but have got a summer brief, and also looking forward to taking part in this: Miss Stacey's Summer School by lovely Milla ... JOIN UP IF YOU'RE INTERESTED!!!

Will be back soon with a feature on the graduating students, so you can get a sense of the quality of the course (and the kind of stuff I might be producing in two years!) ... See you all soon!

Image and Obs update 2

I also did a set of embroidery hoops as my 'body of work' for this module:













I contemplated some sewn text and also cutting the fabric so only the bit IN the hoop was there - but was advised against it by a couple of people who saw them ... I still think there's something missing, but I'm handing them in this way - and will think about how to make them better over summer ...

Edit July 08 - Hello to everyone who's come here via Whip up and Craft Mag's Blog and have been leaving lovely comments :) If you follow the "embroidery" label, you'll get to see a couple more sewing based things...
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!