new geometric drawings

I have a thing for geometry and have been recently going back to exploring how it is used in artistic applications and there is no end to it, of course Islamic art has presice geometic patterns and these are beautiful, however I tend to like the more random ways it can be applied. I have been playing around with some drawings on paper and in illustrator using the Delauney triangulation and Voronoi diagram ideas, I can not see this ending any time soon. Anyway, here are two drawings I did recently in illustrator based on these idea. If you like this sort of thing and want to see the absolute master of geometric drawing, look no further than this guy 

as finished as it's going to get.

here's another one, a work in progress with a long way to go

Work in progress , expanding on the simple on above

a bit more progress

and a few hours later.....

 these type of drawings take on a life of their own, they go where they want, that's fine by me.

A photo essay at JPG magazine

Many people in Manchester and Salford fondly remember the blue cargo cranes the once stood proudly at the edge of the water front, myself among them. I loved to sit and look and photograph them so the day before and day they were being demolished a took a load of photos and decided to do a little story on JPG magazine, you can read it here if you are interested.  http://jpgmag.com/stories/19776 

inspirational project

This project just came up on my FB feed and I felt the need to put it somewhere, brag or something... mobile showers for the homeless in San Fransisco... what a simple and incredibly smart idea, one the world needs. They used a piece of my icon design ( the transgender or unisex icon I created) that I am very pleased to see in such a context, it was a really heartwarming thing to see so, there that is. Check out their amazing project here

End of year show

It is mind boggling to believe that this year is at an end... it has flown by.  We are having our end of year exhibition in a couple of weeks, I am showing the work I have been doing on my final major project  and we'd love a big turnout of fellow art lovers. Come along, bring your friends.. check the event page on facebook for updates and such.  There's some pretty exciting work coming together for this!

 

Upcoming Exhibition

My class is having a little exhibition of our etchings at The Mechanics Institute in Manchester. 7pm Friday evening.

Postcard design brief

Postcard and bookmark designs for a fictional poetry festival.
I decided to create two identities based on lines from the poem, "Of Mutability" by Jo Shapcott.

Most of the work was done by initially creating a load of collage and mixed media pieces in response to the poem then working out ways of creating a postcard and bookmark with them using all or part of the original artwork. I did a bit of both and came up with a few different design ideas and concepts, here are a few of the ones I have picked for the final presentation.

The Flying Fish:

I scanned an abstract painting done on a book page then blew it up and pixelated it for the background.

 And the Spring Chill:

this was another abstract book page painting I scanned then blew up and pixelated for the background

 I did these little paintings and then scanned and blew them up and used pixelated portions for some of the
postcards.

 there are some more here on my Coroflot page

Wrong handed drawings

I have had an out of action right/drawing hand for a while now and today I had life drawing class so I thought I would try it with my wrong/other hand. I am pleasantly surprised with the results and think I will push it further and keep drawing with my left hand even when my right one is useable again, can't hurt! I am curious to see how well I can do with it.

Mixed media piece" St Sebastian Of Our Times"

These are some shots of a mixed media piece titled "St Sebastian of our Times" it is a commentary of sorts on the destructive nature of the world we live in, we wage war not only on each other but on ourselves. We are self destructive sometimes unknowingly in a quest to be perfect, to fit in, to matter and for this quest we torture ourselves and those around us.
I did this piece a couple of years ago in follow up to another similar piece called "what has become of the God of Love?" again, commenting on why we destroy that which we covet and claim to love.
black background, gold circle, red blood on body and from behind body, green army men.

Collages

This has been a tricky one really, having only the use of one arm since a shoulder operation all art is proving difficult and it is quite frustrating.. these are workshop pieces for a postcard design assignment, the red ones I am not happy with at all ( which is why I am only posting three) I did about 6 of these and they just show the frustration, pain and whatnot and are perhaps a little too harsh.. I don't know, I am just not happy with them anyway.

might redo this one alltogether

the black and white ones I made up at home. I also feel that not having the time constraints of class make it easier to work in a more relaxed way.. of course, and this is true for everyone I would think.
Anyway, here are a few collages, not my finest hour but, then again I am the one armed bandit and here they are.

Life Drawing

I had never done life drawing before this year and am enjoying it very much, here are two of my drawings. Before starting this course I am sad to say that I have not drawn for too many years but it is coming back to me quite well I think, I am making decent progress and can only get better.

More Photo Brief work

Here are some more final images from the recent photo brief where I was looking at the places I am daily, some of these are over the course of a day and some are over the course of a week or more. I have used no effects on these just layer property changes, some of them were harder than they look to get the blend right. There are 18 images in the series in total but here are just a few to have a look at. It is a really fun technique and I am playing around with it some more with different concepts, stay tuned.