We actually made it up to the Culture Night in the end. My Lara Croft piece was up & lots more top class illustration was on show too. My favourites were definitely by Julie Turkington, Mark Reihill & Matthew Knight on the night. The second Belfast Culture Night seemed to be in full swing when we left. I'll try & come up sans kids next year to get the full effect of the evening. Prams can be a nightmare at these big events.
I'm leaving the house tonight (a rare occurrence these days) to pop out to Belfast Culture Night, where I'm taking part in Bag of Bees' Gamer Culture Exhibition Should be a blast, I'll take the camera up to get a few snaps to upload in due course. In the meantime, here's my entry up close…
The Kinks prints from my last post sold really well (sold out in fact) and I've been beavering away on some new print designs to release by the end of summer. This one is actually for Planet Pulp's August submission (the theme is fictional travel posters). I've researched my old, childhood favourite Dan Dare and created a Space Cruise Poster based on an old Frank Hampson strip from the 50s called Terra Nova. I've not printed it yet – I'll let you know when it's available though
So it's August and it's time to step on the gas and get some new work up and out of the new studio. This is a new 50x70cm (19.5x27.5 inches) print I've produced at my local printworks, printed on Fabriano cream 220gsm. This typographic study using Avant Garde and Trade Gothic is inspired by an old design/slogan used in USA promotion for the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society LP. I've been a big Kinks fan all my life (I even moved to Muswell Hill on the strength of Ray Davies coming from there). I'm releasing 15 of these prints at £30 each in the next few weeks (just waiting for a delivery of postal tubes). Each one is hand pulled by myself, and as such, no one print is visually perfect, but that's what I love about screenprinting – all the little shifts and imperfections make each print a true original.
I had a pretty busy weekend at the Sea Bangor maritime festival in my role as a Wacom Evangelist. Two solid days of showing the general public all the Wacom tricks I know whilst simultaneously creating an original illustration to commemorate the event. Good fun but hard work, I'm still reeling from it and it's now Tuesday!
I'm going to work further on this piece – there was a lot of glare in the marquee over the weekend, so I couldn't really get a great view of what I was actually drawing. But given all the chatting to interested parties and mini tutorials, I don't think this was too bad for a few days work…
It took a little while but they're finally here. My illustrations of Madmen's Betty Draper and Gundam's Princess have finally broken free into the world of print by way of Belfast's Northside Graphics. I've invested a few quid in this print release, using a fine textured paper (Nettuno Bianco Artico 140gsm).
Both these illustrations have been doing the rounds recently – "Princess" is now the most viewed image on the glorious Planet Pulp website, whilst "Betty" has been featured on the Madmen Recap podcast
Both these Prints are now available to purchase at the Hand Drawn Creative Store for $30. Remember, there are only 20 copies of each print available.
Just a New Year's reminder that the good old Hand Drawn Creative Store still has a couple of super limited edition screenprints up for sale. My Ulysses 31design went up for sale in early December, with a limited run of 20 available (as of today, I've got 8 left for sale). So, if you still have some pocket money left over from Christmas why not follow this link and take a closer look.
Here's my latest print – a bonus from my new membership of Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor. I've called it The Daydreamer and it's on sale now on the Hand Drawn Creative Store. There are limited supplies I'm afraid, but other new prints will follow shortly. Take a closer look here
It's messy work – but great fun
Time to Dry!
All Done!
Here's a great little corporate identity job I've finally found time to work on. Sockedelic is a fantastic little venture specialising in custom-made sock monkeys & plush toys.
It's great to see local creativity flourish & it's no surprise that Sockedelic hit the ground running with their quirky take on the sock monkey. I'm so pleased to see their success continue on an upward curve throughout 2010. You can buy your very own Sockedelic creation at their awesome Etsy Store now.
These posters & flyers are at the printers now, but keep an eye for them around Belfast's many hipster joints real soon. This is my 2nd time designing for Pigeon & Plums Christmas show. By all accounts – last year's shows were a sellout success – with this year promising even more festive, Victorian style fun & frolics.