ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

This weeks illustration Friday topic is ASLEEP. Which from the look of my blog updates of late seems to be all I was doing.....I was doing stuff though....I WAS!
I had a ton of ideas for this weeks subject which while i didn't have time to finish this week (its my wedding anniversary, thanks for asking) I think I will be using in other projects.
The above picture was a lot of fun to do and the first thought i had....There is something too damn cute about it though that always bugs me so I quickly just did the following little sketch reminding people that it isn't always good to fall ASLEEP.

Oooh, Big Projects. Part 2 - The February/March "Secret Tomodachi/Munny/This-is-why-my-other-projects-were-on-hold" Project

Since February I have been working on commissioned pieces for Tomodachi store in Rosedale Mall, MN. Using the Do-it-yourself vinyl toy from Kidrobot named MUNNY six of my designs were chosen for a project coming in April. I stuck in my comfort zone of air dry clay and Citadel Paints (which include, blood red, chaos black, snot green and the always colourful, vomit brown, in their colour chart....these are the actual names) but tried to add a different media in each one. Of the following six complete Munnys now on show at the Tomodachi store, I also used model grass, paper, string, wood, glass and rice.

The beginning - One down

Devil Munny

Sushi Munny -
based on a the first Mini Munny I made for Tomodachi back in 2009
(made with real rice that can still be found in every nook and cranny of our apartment)

"Believe" Munny"

Fishing Munny

In the Dragon's Keep

(A knight riding on the body, a dragon for the head guarding the Princess in the tower)

(Wicked Witch on the back)


Red Fire Tiki Munny
(from my previous "Blue Ice Tiki" Mini Munny design)

6 finished Munny...and one more to come.

Get to the best store in Minnesota to see a whole load more Munny done by different Minnesotan artists.

Tomodachi Store
156 Rosedale center #655
Roseville, MN 55113
(651) 631-1777

On show until April when they are moved to a new location to be posted later.

Oooh, Big Projects. Part 1 - The January "I asked you to do this ages ago, whatevs" Project

So in the 2011s my plate started to get full up with all sort of Art Gubbins which is great because I have all these cool projects to be getting on with and then not great because it showed how ridiculously unorganized I am in my real life.


The first project was actually penned in late last year for the "information architects" at London company and META. At first they simply requested a canvas painting of three of the employees for the meeting room. I sketched these out in ink attaching a few images of acrylic work to reference the style. One of these images was of my Devil character, Heaven's Little Reject, playing Poker. The big boss man over at META liked this character so much that he scrapped the original idea in favour of the devil......on a laptop.

This was to go with the tag line "The Devils in the detail" - A few more acrylic on canvas tests later and a new idea was hatched. This time the aim was to have binary code (the guys at META work with figures all the live-ling day y'see?) with the devil hidden within one of the zeros.

A few "try-not-to-be-too-much-like-the-film-"the MATRIX"-and-pretend-you've-seen-binary-code-in-places-other-than-the-film-"The MATRIX", and we finally hit on some final drafts...........then the final piece...........



That was January.

I actually have BIG (yeah, capital letters!) projects every month up until April. So there. I really need to get more organized.......

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Illustration Friday topic: WARNING

"That's new"

FANBOI

My three pieces "3G" are now hanging within the Fanboi show at Altered Esthetics gallery in NE Minneapolis. Hopefully the three "G" movies are obvious...otherwise, for shame. For shame.


I was there tonight for the opening (the show is on for the whole of March) and it is pretty damn fine actually! Not only is there the biggest painting of the living Picasso, Steve Buscemi you could ever wish for (you know you wish for that) but an awesome Battle Royale homage in the coolest frame by Matthew Kriske (that'll make you wish you brought your DVD of the movie with you when you moved to Minnesota) but also some inspired work by Lupi Loops O'Fureigh who seems to have this knack of always creating work that has that "Ah, I wish I'd thought of that" aspect to it. Her pieces in the Fanboi show combine Indiana Jones with Star Wars and (Best Trilogy ever!) Back To The Future within her two works. What? Those three movies within TWO pieces? But How? Through genius thats how. I wish I had thought of it!

On Until the end of March

Altered Esthetics - 1224 Quincy St NE, Mpls MN 55413
• 612.378.8888 • contact-at-alteredesthetics.org

Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 1pm–7pm, Saturdays 1pm–5pm

LAYER? It's my party and I'll draw Leia if I want to.

Illustration Friday's topic this week is LAYER. I often just try to sketch the first thing that comes into my head and then evolve that into a final piece. Well, it is my birthday today (Happy Birthday Me!) and I might not have time this weekend to post anything. As it was I did this at 1am last night after cleaning for a party today. I then fell asleep before any "layer" pictures were born.

Having said that my wife noticed that the word LAYER and the Star Wars character's name (Princess) LEIA are quite similar ("exactly the same") to her American ears when I say them to her in my British accent.

So here is Princess Layer......um, sounds a bit wrong. Stick with Princess Leia. Sorry.

Little Big Tank

I always try to post at lest one thing in between Illustration Friday posts and realised that I didn't post this previously. I actually did a whole bunch of cartoons entitled "people i should have stayed in better contact with" at the start of the new year. This one is of my good friend and athlete/adventurer/developer, Alex Mccormick. You can thank him for the Baby Monkey riding backwards on a pig video I posted a few weeks ago and check out his blog Little Big Tank for more of the same genius and stories.

Alex just quite his job to go traveling around South America probably for the sole purpose of being able to take more photos of him posing in his "STRONG" stance and take some more snaps of fire hydrants. no, really.

Happy travels Mr Alex!