Friday 9th September 2011 - Artsfest Supplies

All of these will be available from Stall 14 of 'Art on the Railings', at Brimingham's Artsfest on the weekend of the 10th of September. Any stock left will probably be sold off through this blog, on a first come first serve basis.

Size: 25mm Pin badges 
There will be approxomately 60 badges sold singularly at £1 each, if they go particularly well there will be some more ready for the Sunday.

Size: 25mm Pin badges
As well as singularly, they will also be sold in sets of four for £3.50, they have been printed in batches ranging from 2 to 7, so they're pretty limited.

Size: Roughly A5 (145x210mm)
Stock: Cover: 275gsm Oil Stencil Card
Pages: 180gsm Fabriano vanilla paper stock
Hand registered, bound, stitched and designed sketchbooks. There are 15 of these, all have 16 sheets (32 pages), 11 of them have a quote on the inside cover, and the remaining 4 have a quote plus an original sketch. The cover is wax treated card, so is slightly showerproof, and the paper is 180gsm Fabriano vanilla stock. These are £4.

Size: Roughly 150mm^2
Stock: 260gsm Fabriano Artistico Watercolour Paper
I have, in total, roughly 80 etchings for sale, broken down into various individual styles, each running for a series of inbetween 10 and 20, so once again are pretty limited. Each etching was hand engraved onto 2mm perspex, hand printed in a 2 gear press and then adorned with inks. These are also, £4 each.
Disclaimer: As each etching is fully prepared by hand, there are differences and anomalies between each individual print, making each, technically, unique, not to mention how different the ink splashes are on each - there could be more or less than the ones depicted.

Size: A4 (210x297mm)

Stock: 300gsm cotton rag matte paper

These 2 prints are part of a series of 10, printed on 300gsm cotton rag card, so have a very nice matte texture, and are extremely thick. They are both £4 each.

Size: A4 (210x297mm)

Stock: 280gsm uncoated digital photo paper

280gsm uncoated card prints. These are semi glossy, semi matte, so have a nice feel to them, without being too thin or shiny. They're prints of digital works, so are as close to an original as you can get with them, these are part of a series of 50, and so are quite numerous. Due to the costs of printing such quantities on such stock, these are also, £4 each.

Size: A4 (210x297mm)
Stock: 280gsm uncoated digital photo paper
280gsm uncoated card prints, this time of traditional pieces. The way they were scanned meant they retained some of the initial texture of the paper they were painted on, as well as picking up some of the texture of the print stock, and the combination looks quite nice. These are yet again, £4 each.

Clearance Stock!

Size: A4 (210x297mm)
Stock: 140gsm glossy photo paper
These were printed way back before christmas, on 140gsm glossy paper. Due to the lower quality of both the image and the stock, these are only £2.50

 n.b: This is a photo of the print, rather than a digital copy; I've misplaced the .psd of the file.

Size(s): A5 (145x210mm)
Stock: 140gsm glossy photo paper
These are the same as above, a glossy, low weight paper print, and are only £1.50 each.


I will also be drawing non-stop whilst there; making a start on my uni work, and doing the closest thing possible to 'con-sketches', which will also be sold off!

Saturday 23rd July 2011 - Handmade Badges

Yeeeaah, some handmade badges for peddling at artsfest this coming September. There will hopefully be 10 - 15 different sets, to cover many tastes, all will be like this, packed in sets of 4 for £2.

This set is just some pictures of etchings which I will also be selling as original pieces.

These particular ones are robotic creations from Al.Chemy (see a previous post).

And these personally I really like, they're all the warning signs dotted around test chambers in Portal. I'm apprehensive to sell these, as they're not my creation, but, well, they look so awesome! If the reception is positive enough, I may do a small run of them... Business is business!

Thursday 16th June 2011 - Series of Etchings

Before I left uni I spent something silly like 10 hours straight in the print room, etching. These I all made to sell at Artsfest, although, I may peddle a couple away before then, seeing as though I have over 100 of them. Currently there are 9 different styles, 7 of which are here, some of which I'm still waiting to tidy up.

They are all standard Mars Black etching ink on either Seawhite or Fabriano watercolour paper. Then, to give them all some life and originality, I've added quick, loose passes of colour over them, harkening back to my final etchings for a uni assignment (see previous post). The colours are chose pretty much at random, although, with pre-orders I could probably accomodate a requested colour scheme.

To show what I mean: Here's the same etching with a different colour pass:

Raven Etch #1. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

Raven Etch #2. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

As well as hand 'coloured', I will also hand highlight areas with white ink, giving some areas some much needed contrast.

Solitary Angel. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

Creative Angel. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

Succubus #1. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

Succubus #2. Series of 10, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

As you can see, they're all numbered and hand signed, making them a series of original pieces (the joys of traditional printing techniques).

An Ode to Dali. Series of 20, price: £5 (Hand coloured, signed and numbered)

This will also be £5, but is larger, and of a larger print run: An ode to Salvador Dali; personally this is my favourite of them all.

Wednesday 4th May 2011 - Premature Ebadgeulation

Yeah, I went ahead and bought myself a badge machine, silly thing to do what with 2 weeks left at uni, and 3 assignments to tie off, with personal paintings to finish and print for my portfolio. But what the hell.

The plan (eventually) is to sell my own designs, in sets of 4, for £2. But for now, i'm sustaining myself with peddling premade or open source imagery to friends down the pub.

And a few more, it's a 25mm die, and, for the moment, that is what i'll be sticking to.

And that's that for the moment. As soon as I have time to sit down and collect myself for what i'm doing over the summer, more original and fun designs should come to light.

Oh, and a new digital painting:

From: http://narcotic-nightmares.deviantart.com/

Narcotic Nightmares - Montage of Current Works

This is a montage of traditional works completed over the last 4 months. Although I don't plan on many of these going anywhere now, they offer a decent insight into my plans for further progression.

1) This is an image I made for Mannequin at The Rainbow Pub in Digbeth, a loose painterly image focussing more on suggested detail than actual rendered details.
2) Same as #1
3) An attempt at some Typography, personally I quite like this, as they are two of the most influential aspects of my life. It's quite typical of how I use inks
4) My most recent piece in Graphic Markers. I used to use them in a very tight style, although now i'm at uni, i've been led to loosen up a little more, and this was the result of that; using the markers and refusing to hide the marks they make. This was an important lesson for me, and it's how i'm going to progress to develop my style.
5) Possibly the best piece to portray how i'm going to develop my style. The subject matter isn't of concern here. The way that all detail is merely suggested, and how an attempt has been made to make it look effortless, with no attention to hiding the marks made is what is driving me forward at the moment. Exploiting the media I use, and using their inherent qualities to add extra dimensions to my work will hopefully increase their marketability
6) An exmaple of intaglio pressing, using the ability to layer colour underneath line and using them to enforce one another creates an interesting and lively image from what is in essence a line drawing. I will produce as many etchings as possible and do print runs of 10 - 20, the originals having a lucrative distressed style.
7) A very recent pen and ink illustration, the dialogue between media and canvas adds another dimension to images, and consciously choosing colours, gsm of paper, and media can drastically change how an image is perceived.
8) Another, more detailed etching, smaller scale, detail is accentuated and the ability to draw the viewer in is increased, things this scale work well as bookmarks or having select areas as a badge.
9) A watercolour landscape, example of how detail is sacrificed for a greater sense of fluidity, and how the saturated style of watercolours may add or detract from an image.
10) Robots and science-fiction inspired mechanical constructs are a recurring theme in my works, this being a cover illustration for one of my persoal sketchbooks, giving me the idea of binding blank sketchbooks with a hand illustrated cover...
11) Another example of the loose watercolour and ink style I enjoy employing alongside a quite tightly rendered piece of line art, the juxtaposition hopefully creating some interesting forms that will appeal to a wide audience.

This montage is of Digital works, as is obvious, I still prefer traditional works for the entropic quality, and the inherent organic quality.

1) A coloured version of my sketchbook cover illustration, this is already printed, it's one of the things i sold at Mannequin.
2) Same again, a digitally coloured line drawing, printed and sold at Mannequin.
3) Attempting a more chaotic digital process, another design which I think could be well presented as a 25mm pin badge.
4 & 5) Digitally coloured panels. These are representative of what I like to do personally, and what I wish to combine with #5 on the first montage to create a lush, rhythmic overall image, with fantasy/sci-fi elements.
6) An image created with the same mind set as #3, once again, select elements would work well as a pin badge, or as an internal illustration on a hand bound sketchbook.