Antifreeze / Trade City

I'm taking part in Manchester's first 'art car boot sale', Antifreeze, this Saturday (4 July 2009), as part of Trade City and the Manchester International Festival. If you're quick, you should be able to pick up one of my masterpieces for £1 or £2 at the 'She Laughs' stand (organised by Nexus Art Cafe).

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it up there, so please take a photo of the stand for me if you do go!


Saturday 4th July 2009
12-7pm
Free entry

CHIPS Building, Upper Kirby Street, off Old Mill Street, New Islington, Manchester, M4 6EB

http://www.multimap.com/s/M7wfs331

Further details, including directions:

http://www.citylife.co.uk/arts/news/13628_antifreeze__the_alternative_art_car_boot_sale

http://antifreeze2009.blogspot.com/

Life Drawing

I've just attempted to tidy my room, and instead ended up trawling through some old drawings and scanning them in. Here are a couple of sketches from a life drawing class in late 2007.


Sitting man, 2007


Man with quiff! 2007

Morocco

A couple of drawings from Essaouira, Morocco done in April last year.


Doorway, 2008


Boat, 2008

Kuniyoshi - behind the scenes

Kuniyoshi

Having really enjoyed the Kuniyoshi exhibition at the Royal Academy (which ended a couple of weeks ago) and also having promised myself for some time that I'd have a go at using watercolours (rather than Photoshop), I decided to have a go at copying a Kuniyoshi print and then ruining it with watercolours. Results (badly photographed, just to make things worse), below:


Kuniyoshi woman, black and white, 2009


Kuniyoshi woman, colour, 2009

Illustreeous

Some experimentation in Illustrator last year that I'd forgotten about. I can't find the original files, only printouts that were buried in a folder I was looking through yesterday. I drew the bare tree image, and then played around with Illustrator's brushes by creating different leaf images and setting the colours to vary as I painted with them.

I've photoshopped these images to clean them up a bit post-scanning, but quite liked the paper image of the second one, so I've left that relatively untouched.


Illustreeous 1, 2008


Illustreeous 2, 2008


Illustreeous 3, 2008


Illustreeous 4, 2008

Shockingly bad iPhone art #1

I read this article yesterday, whereby an artist by the name of Jorge Colombo managed to get a gig doing the cover for New Yorker magazine using his iPhone. Naturally I was intrigued to see how his images were made, which turned out to be done using the Brushes app (£2.99), so I immediately downloaded this to have a go myself.


Lozenge of Love, 2009

It's not easy drawing on such a tiny screen, although Brushes makes it easier than you'd think by allowing you to zoom in by 800%, and my favourite function is that of 'undo', which is probably the one I've been using the most. It doesn't have layers, which I've become accustomed to using in every other piece of graphics software, so drawing (painting?) something requires quite a different thought process. Namely, having to start with the background and work upwards. Much like a real painter might, I suppose.

I've just figured out that Brushes stores every brush stroke you produce, so you can get it to produce a video of the creation of the drawing. Pretty clever!

Not the greatest image I've ever produced, or subject matter (it was 1am, I was in bed and just grabbed something nearby to draw), but a worthy experiment and I'll possibly add some more 'Shockingly bad iPhone art' using Brushes in the near future. It would probably look cool with the New Yorker logo at the top, if anyone from that particular publication wants to run an add for a popular sore throat lozenge brand, using the latest technology?

P.S. this blog is not sponsored by Brushes, Strepsils or Apple. If anyone from those companies is reading this, I'm willing to accept your cash provided you can convince the other two companies to do the same, in the interests of fairness for all parties.

Le Marche Des Enfants Rouges - Finished version

I've tidied up my original sketch, and coloured it as best I could from memory (so it could be completely wrong). Presenting the finished version...


Le Marche Des Enfants Rouges, 2009

Le Marche des Enfants Rouges

Another good Parisian tip I was given was to visit the Enfants Rouges organic market on Rue de Bretagne. It's a relatively small market with a good choice of things to eat, e.g. sushi, falafel, Italian, etc. all under one roof. I drew this while eating a falafel sandwich and waiting for my girlfriend to get some sushi.

She came back with a falafel sandwich.

I may add a bit of colour to this drawing at some point if I remember.


Le Marche des Enfants Rouges, 2009

I recently came back from a five day jaunt to Paris. Due to the terrible exchange rate at the moment, I spent most of the trip wandering around like a zombie having had no sleep in the cheap (£90 a night - not sure if it gets much cheaper than that in Paris) hotel room which had built-in amplifiers in the walls with surround sound toilet, shower and building-work noises.

A top tip if you're heading there soon is to visit the Rodin museum, avoiding the museum itself (which was about 8 euros to see) and just heading to the garden, which was only 1 euro and contained some amazing sculptures. One of which was a little old thing called 'Le Pensuer' ('The Thinker', to you and I). I spent 20 minutes trying to draw it and messed it up (particularly the head) due to the pressure of too many people looking at what I was doing.

Interesting that there seemed to be three stock reactions to seeing one of the world's most famous sculptures:

1) To reenact the pose for a photograph
2) Complete indifference (mainly seen amongst younger people)
3) To say "Ah...Le Penseur!" in a wise and knowing voice (seen exclusively amongst Dads)



Le Penseur

Idea Planted

I was playing about in Illustrator with some shapes, and this appeared.

I'm Only Sleeping - available as a limited edition print

'I'm Only Sleeping' is now available as a limited edition print.

The print is A2 in size, and comes on fine art paper. Edition of 10, £150 each (not including postage & packing). If you'd like to purchase one, please contact me on: info (at) microsketch (dot) com.

I'm pleased to be able to display photos of this print without the clichéd use of bulldog clips or people holding them up.


I'm Only Sleeping, 2009


I'm Only Sleeping, 2009

So Far Gone

So Far Gone, 2008-9

Blanket Coverage

Last night's snowfall may have caused havoc for UK businesses, with the BBC reporting that this may have cost them about £1bn, but it's not all bad news. I've done this drawing of how it looked out of my window at 1am this morning, for example.


Blanket Coverage, 2009

Bathroom

I was commissioned to draw this bathroom, which was built recently in a converted attic. It's a great room and feels rather like a posh health spa (but without the inconvenience for the owners of having random strangers wandering around).




Bathroom, 2008

Punch the air!

...like Spike

Stoke Newington School flyer

A recent flyer for Stoke Newington School, featuring some of the drawings I've highlighted here previously.

Brussels

Waiting in a cafe in Brussels over the weekend for a lift to Rotterdam.

That Sinking Feeling

I've been meaning to do something with this drawing for a while, and just had a very quick attempt at colouring it. I don't think this is finished, but you never know.

Seizure - Roger Hiorns

Last weekend I visited the Roger Hiorns installation, Seizure, which is just off Borough High Street in SE1. If you've not heard about it, Mr Hiorns sealed the windows and doors of a soon-to-be demolished flat, poured copper sulphate through the roof, left it there for two and a half weeks, and then drained the liquid out. What you're left with is brilliant blue crystals covering every surface of the flat.

The flat itself had been almost entirely stripped, save for a bathtub and some lightbulbs, none of which escaped the crystallisation process. The bulbs look particularly interesting as they still function, and in some areas the heat of the bulbs has burnt the adjacent crystals to a chalky white colour.

I recommend visiting this fun and atmospheric exhibition (I believe it's been extended to 30 Nov), and they lend you gloves and wellies so that you don't stab yourself on anything. Just make sure you don't spend ages taking photos of one of the lightbulbs, only to bash your head on it the second you move away.

Below are a few of my photos, along with a drawing I've messed around with.


Seizure 1



Seizure 2




Seizure 3



Close-up of one of the walls



One of the cystallised lightbulbs



Walls and lightbulbs covered in copper sulphate crystals

Under the microscope

There's no 'l' in home

A work in progress..I'll explain once it's finished

Things I'm scared of

Music Mayhem and Monsters

A booklet I recently designed and illustrated for Stoke Newington School. Oh, most of the photos featured within are mine too.


Music, Mayhem and Monsters Booklet - Outer


Music, Mayhem and Monsters Booklet - Inner

Portait, again

Guess what? Another portrait!

Portrait - Basim

Another new portrait.

New animation: Sandbag

I've created an animation for a new charity being launched next week, by the name of Sandbag (http://sandbag.org.uk/). Their aim is to reduce the number of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and this is done by...well, you'll have to watch my animation to find out!



If you happen to be reading the Guardian or listening to Radio 4 tomorrow (Sat 13 Sept) you may well see/hear mention of them.

Conspiracy theory corner

I wanted to keep this blog strictly illustrations, but couldn't resist pointing this out:



The top-left highlight on the logo for Google's new browser, Chrome, looks mighty familiar, don't you think?

Portraits

A couple of recent portraits. I'm a lot happier with the girl than the boy; I'll keep practising...

I'm Only Sleeping

This is another one from the life drawing sessions I went to earlier this year, which I've just finished colouring.


Sleeping, 2008

London Plane 2

I had another go at drawing a London Plane and got more carried away this time, finding it hard to stop adding more and more branches. The dangling things look a bit like musical notes.

(NB: you can view larger versions of the images by clicking them)


London Plane


London Plane (Detail)

Life Drawing: John

Taken from a life drawing session on 18.02.08

John

W.C. (Weird Commission)

I was recently commissioned to paint* someone's bathroom. As I scoffed at the idea of manual labour, I realised I'd misunderstood the instruction and promptly** produced the image below (work in progress)



* A lie. I was actually asked to draw it, but then the joke doesn't work.
** Another lie. It's taken me about a year to get round to doing this.

Woman with cloth

Self portrait

This is a drawing of me drawing this drawing (I've flipped it upside down as I thought it looked better this way). As you can see, I've ended up with rather an odd perspective, and the thought of drawing my own head just became too Escher-esque, so I gave up at that point.
(drawn on 25.02.08)

Easel

A doodle done during a break at a recent life drawing session at the Prince's Drawing School (see if you can spot their initials).



Easel


Easel (Detail)

Newton

A pencil sketch of Eduardo Paolozzi's bronze sculpture of Newton (based on William Blake's original study), which lives outside the British Library. This is from January 2007, around the time I signed up as a member of the library (I'm not sure how I managed this as I think the reader rooms are for academic research, whereas I just wanted to read my own book in there). I managed to get a membership card but I actually think the cafe's a nicer place to sit so I wouldn't bother if I were you.

San Francisco

This is the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco, which I drew in April 2006. It's a rather striking building, and I drew it from a very cool outdoor vegan cafe run by monk-like people. The top floor gives good views of the city; even better after a few cocktails.

Life Drawing: Maggie

I've just returned from a life drawing session and managed to draw the worst I have done in weeks. It spurred me on to finish this drawing from a couple of weeks ago (11th Feb) which I'm quite pleased with.



Maggie

Bear

I have no idea what I was thinking when I drew this, or why I'm up so late for that matter.

Hampstead Heath

I took advantage of the freakily nice weather last Sunday and visited Hampstead Heath, which seemed not to have been the most original idea judging by the number of other people there.

On my way out, I spotted some very interesting trees (no idea what they were - probably something really obvious like oaks), and took lots of photos of them. This drawing was done from one such photo. What really looked odd about them was that the little balls (conkers? I don't know) were hanging from branches that had created almost perfect right-angles. These shapes seemed to go against the otherwise typically organic shapes you would expect from a tree.

TREE UPDATE: It sounds like this is a 'London plane' (thanks Jeff)


London plane

Dodgy weeds in the Netherlands

I drew this plant at Keukenhof in the Netherlands (a short bus ride from Amsterdam), which is a big flower garden that everyone tells you to visit if you're there in April. It was a bit of a disappointment as it was so pristine and organised that it felt like a giant garden centre.

Interesting(?) fact: if you visit Amsterdam in April, when all the tulips are out, thinking that some tulip bulbs (as sold by almost every market stall) would make a nice present...STOP! For the precise reason that it's the very time of year that tulips are looking their best, the bulbs you're buying won't do anything. Otherwise they'd already be...tulips! (fact garnered from the Tulip Museum, which explained why they had bulbs for every flower other than tulips on sale. I just thought they were really stupid.)

If anyone knows what this plant is, I'd be interested to know. Hint: I had completely forgotten what colours it really was by the time I coloured it.

Media Tedia

I can't remember how many years ago I drew this (2005 perhaps?) or even why. Maybe it was a comment on the annoyance at the ever-increasing and overwhelming number of media formats available. Or maybe it's just that it rhymed.

British Museum Artifacts

Items drawn while wandering around the British Museum - a great place to go for inspiration. Be warned - even if you think you've found the perfect quiet spot to draw at there, there is still the chance you'll be set upon by a bunch of rowdy schoolgirls who throw tampons at you (not used, thankfully).

Amsterdam

Some illustrations from a trip to Amsterdam in April 2007. A great place to spend a week; I could have spent the whole time peering through the windows of the canal-side homes. There seem to be far more people in that part of the world showing off their stylish taste in home décor rather than their bodies through their windows than you'd think!


Bridge 124
(While I was drawing this one, a bird pooed on me. Presumably it was wishing me luck )



Store



Apart

UVA / UVB

This is an old drawing from 2003, which I've just given a fresh coat of paint to (i.e. added colour). I'd already shaded it in grey, so I've added colour in a way that will still show this texture underneath. It was from an advert for sunglasses in case you can't guess (which ones, I'm not sure).

Furcateboard

This was the first illustration I decided to spend some serious time and effort on (which ended up being around 3 months in my spare time during 2005). The main reason for this was my choice of pen, namely a Rotring Rapidograph with 0.1mm nib. Despite the hardship, this is still my pen of choice!


Furcateboard, 2005



Furcateboard (detail), 2005

Women and Nanotechnology

This illustration juxtaposes scantily-clad women with real and imagined pieces of nanotechnology. Will future technologies continue to advance alongside pornography, such as they already have on the internet and in print?


Women and Nanotechnology

Wilde Thing

This was the first illustration I submitted to Le Gun magazine, and also the first failed attempt at having an illustration published in Le Gun magazine. The theme was 'France', so I drew Oscar Wilde's tomb from the Pere Lachaise cemetery (also final resting place to Jim Morrison). The text at the bottom relates a story I heard when I visited.


Wilde Thing

Hirst in Reverse

My second attempt at getting something published in the illustration magazine Le Gun (my first being Wilde Thing). The theme for the issue was 'The Sea', hence my witty attempt at reversing the scene from Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (or The Shark in the Tank, as most people know it). It didn't get published.


Hirst in Reverse