Heart your head :: Co:Lab/MindYourHead join forces

My latest screenprints for a Co:Lab/MindYourHead fundraiser project.

Read all about it HERE
and support the charity aka buy the prints HERE

De seis maneras diferentes - Chapter 9 out now

De seis maneras diferentes - Chapter 9, a photo by silkeybeto on Flickr.

As Dj Malhumor starts closing his first novel - only one more chapter to go! - the main characters have to brave a "season of lucky deaths". Read all here and keep an eye on www.encerradosafuera.com

The drama of Democracy

Click to see larger size

Alfabeto - May 2005, a photo by silkeybeto on Flickr.

April's gone and never did I post once. Bad, bad, bad!
So since we are all getting a chance to have our say on May 5th, here is a comic strip from the Alfabeto series. First published in May 2005 in Shetland Life magazine. Written by master wordsmith Newt and drawn by lousy blogger Beto. Now go rock the nearest polling station, you know you want to.

Sketchbook finally opened

What happens in the sketchbook stays in the sketchbook.
Well, not anymore. After having a look at a few of my sketchbooks from the past couple of years I finally came to the conclusion that (at least) some of it is worth looking at it again and even share it.
So I open this new Flickr room with sketchbook lost gems and doodles.
Have a look

        

Travelling exhibition

Since October 2010 a couple of drawings I made are touring Shetland.  It all started with a very kind invitation by local artist Paul Bloomer to share an exhibition sponsored by Shetland Arts, purely developed using the iPod Touch and the application Brushes. Paul tends to create outdoors, braving the local weather every all year round. I used a short trip to Orkney to produce most of the pieces for this exhibition as I find travelling a great moment for sketching in general. To reflect the medium in which the drawings were created we decided to print them in the size of an iPod touch screen.

First stop for the touring exhibition was the Departures lounge at Sumburgh Airport, this meant that only people flying away from Shetland was able to see the prints.
Since February Brushes is at the Peerie Shop Cafe in Lerwicktown, and I promise to post whenever they move to a new location. Meantime I leave you with a few animations of some of the pieces and how hey came about, click the images on the left to view on full definition.

Doodle Week 2

Joined Co:Lab's second Doodle week of 2011 after missing the first one while being away.
Read all about it at the Co:Lab blog and see my entries on my Flickr. To check out the first Doodle week clik here

Back volunteering!

No time to settle after the holidays really and back in front of the screen trying to meet the first deadline of 2011.
Out this week Shetland Befriending Scheme is back recruiting volunteers for their project. Since 2008 I have been producing the images for their campaigns and I can proudly announce I have been doing it again. Designed, drawn and finalized during the space of a week, the new poster was conceived using the ideas provided by the SBS's staff. For the last 3 campaigns they have agreed to graciously take part in a brain storming session where I try to gather as much info as possible. Ground rules for the brainstorm are minimal and basically all ideas in any shape or form count: words, thoughts, stories, images, colours and anything else I can write, draw or collect to have with me in the following stage.
Have a look and see what you think triggered this new addition to my befriending work

Great start for twenty-eleven

Back blogging after a long break. Came back home after 5 weeks away and amongst the pile of mail found a copy of This is Central Station's book!
One of my screenprints - the Sea Song Set -was chosen between some 35,000+ images uploaded to the site in their first year and it features in page 102.
Feel free to check out the book online via the ISUU link below (page 53) or if you want to buy it online click here
Many thanks to the TICS team

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Lego snowflakes at North Rock Gallery!

Following my previous post on the yule exhibition at North Rock Gallery (NRG) here is a pretty bad foto of the print. Hopefully Santa will remember to leave a scanner in my stockings this year. Read more about the show here and if you are about Lerwick make sure you make it upstairs to see the Co:Lab contribution

Dj Malhumor finds it hard to leave Frankfurt

Just finished another illustration for an article in Encerrados Afuera by Dj Malhumor (Dj Grumpy). The article finds Malhumor having a hard time leaving Frankfurt thanks to the presence of a troubled soul, who unwillingly turns our writer's trip to the airport into a kafkian happening. A good chance to practice some of those Photoshop skills I never knew I had, and stop depending so much on Illustrator to turn my sketches into a final piece. Blog had a bit of a makeover while I prepare for the last Arts&Craft fair of the year -read about it here-

North Rock Gallery - Yule exhibition now open

And so posting resumes. The members of Co:Lab were recently invited by North Rock Gallery for their X-mas exhibition. As is now customary the 3 of us approached the subject in completly diffent ways and the result are hanging on the gallery walls since yesterday night.
Silke took a few fotos you can see clicking on the pics below
Many thanks to North rock Gallery for the invitation to take part, and the yumtastic mulled drinks and bakes :-)

Dj Malhumor visits the Jaguar House

New this month in Encerrados Afuera is another collaboration with Dj Malhumor (Dj Grumpy). The writer travels through an area where pumas are not a rare sight and this triggers some memories of Murakami and the film Tropical Malady. The illustration tries to capture the spirit of the piece, picturing the traveller and the encounter with a man/tiger. Click on the image for larger size

69 cuadros de amor/ 69 love pictures - Exhibition

Earlier I wrote about a collective exhibition in Buenos Aires inspired/celebrating the triple album 69 love songs by The Magnetic Fields - read the post here
Thanks to my friend BIO who was able to attend and kindly allow me to share them, and please check out her new gorgeous website launched only a few days ago (I should almost have a post for that)
I must say I love the idea of having albums/songs hanging from a wall. Music is always around visual artists while working and I have fond memories of a section in the once revolutionary Raygun magazine, back in the 90's with a song being turn into an image by a different artist on every issue.
Special thanks to the organizer

New befriending campaign

 



The teaser for the Shetland Befriending Scheme's new recruitment campaign is out!
This week the Adult Learning's booklet 2010/11 landed in every single household in Shetland and in page 95(right next to the Booking forms!) is the design I made for the voluntary organization.
The final version should hit the streets in two weeks time!

Meantime I'll be trying my luck with Starcraft II, because a spot of mindless videogaming can sometimes trigger a wave of creativity. I've been a fan of Blizzard games for nearly 15 years and I love their attention to detail and superb artwork.

De seis maneras diferentes - Chapter 8 hits the web

CEO for encerrados afuera Mr J, is back from his tour of Europe and top of his To do list was updating the novel I mentioned in an earlier post - read here - 

This week's slow reading is Kirby: King of Comics. Artwork is nothing short of awesome and it arrived at a time when I'm researching into old comics imagery for a future project.
Over and out

Square Circle Triangle - The latest Co:Lab project

With thanks to Andrew for the text!
Produced over the course of a month for exhibition at this year's VunkFest Music and Arts extravaganza, co:lab's latest project is a six colour, cross pollinated, geometric delight.

Recalling the overprint collaboration of co:lab's debut outing, each of the three final pieces in the SC&T project bare the creative stamp of all three co:lab members.

The prints are built up from a simple geometric template – a triangle within a circle within a square. In week one we each tackled the square (leaving a space for a subsequent circle to occupy). At this point Jono, Beto and Andrew all chose two colour as a signature to carry through the project and ensure some kind of continuity through the set.

At the end of the first week we came together with the fruit of our labour and left with each other's as a stimulus for week two – the circle. Both this and the triangular element of the project differ slightly from step one in that we each, from that point on, had the freedom to bleed one of our chosen colours out into the preceding shape and through the artwork of our fellow co:labbers.

We moved up a print size with this project and following week three's triangle we were faced with finding a new source for acetates. Up until now we have been printing these out on Jono's A4 printer but with SC&T's maximum working size of 350mm x 350mm we had to look for outside assistance. Fortunately Beto happened upon a recommendation for www.copyexpress.co.uk who were extremely helpful and provided A3 acetate we could patch together with amazing next day deliverly!

Jono cunningly managed to bypass the acetate stage by producing his contribution in cut paper which could be placed straight onto the coated screen when exposing.

SC&T was hanging in The Shetland Museum's Learning Room between the 9th and the 11th July alongside many other artists contributing to this year's VunkFest. The museum also played host to a series of short films on the Sunday and of course you can read about all the great bands playing that fantastic weekend here. For more information on all the going on check out www.myspace.com/vunkventures

 

New cards arrived

Encouraged by the wise words of Jedi masters Andrew & Jono, I have finally produced a set of self promotional cards.
Using the services of Moo.com I put together a series of 8 cards with a selection of my favourite pieces from the past 2 years on the back. Thanks Rachel for the info!
So next time I see you remind me to give you one.

Another welcomed arrival this week was Wilson by Daniel Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World, David Boring). Silke and I have been laughing a bit and enjoying Wilson's awesome sense of meaninglessness. Click on the image to access the podcast with Clowes discussing the creation of Wilson and make the Amazon guys happier.

Red and Blue - Co:Lab Screenprint

As mentioned HERE the latest Co:Lab print was unveiled at the Vunk Fest Pop-up shop last month. The brief was to produce an A6 piece using only Red & Blue that would be put together with the other team members work in an A4 print. You can see all 3 prints HERE
After getting the brief I decided to use material form my sketchpads and as I had sometime to play a bit I drew some different images I liked, before deciding for the final one.

Once I've decided for the office man carrying the elephant, I went into Illustrator to work the layers for the screenprint and add the halftone for the background. Below is the final piece and you can see the slight defferences between the mock image and the final print.

Vunk Fest Pop-up Shop last day! thanks everyone

The Pop-up shop's last day has come and gone and a huge thanks goes to everyone that turned up over the past two weeks.

As a little extra today we launched a new set of miniature prints - read here -
The Co:lab team brief was red & blue. Each member of the team produced an A6 piece to be printed together with the others work in an A4 sheet and the fourth space was a Co:Lab promotional card containing the 3 typographies produced for the previous brief - read here -

On the right you can see a test image for my mini-print and on the left is me signing each copy - only a hundred of them
Silke was about in the morming and took some photos that you can see HERE
Thanks to Karen and the Vunk people for the opportunity and thanks to all of you who walked home with a Co:lab print! These 2 weeks had been a great incentive to continue working on something we really enjoy doing. Cheers!

De seis maneras diferentes - Chapter 8

Between the Co:Lab activity and a hectic couple of weeks I have managed to finish another illustration for encerrados afuera, an Argentinian website I collaborate with. As mentioned in a previous post, I concentrate on one element of the narrative for each chapter to come up with the final picture. Sometimes this takes many reads and sometimes is a first read snap. With this one it took many reads, and as with some other ones, it was a single sentence that finally sparkled the concept.
The main character talks about his first album and the first CD he ever bought, these being Rush's Moving Pictures and the Stone Roses first album. The writer describes the Stone Roses's album as a sunny valley separating two mountain ranges, one being The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy and the other one My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. After some initial doodling where I concentrated on things like vinyl, Rush and the Roses, I had a re-read and the idea that if there was such valley then a postcard could be send from there!
I tried to keep the aesthetics somewhere between the late 80's and early 90's, just like the albums mentioned and the actual storyline of the novel.
As the CEO for encerrados afuera is on a tour of Europe, this will do as a sneak preview until the chapter officially appears in its on-line form. You can see the first sketch and the final result next to this lines and below.