Cracking on with the Shaw Academy course

I haven't done any work on my Game of Thrones characters this week, as the only day I could go to buy paper was yesterday... and I spent it at the seaside with my boyfriend! We had a lovely meal (he had jumbo cod and chips, of course. I had a crab salad, which I think is one of the best salads I have ever eaten). If you go to Whitby it's worth going for a meal at The Fisherman's Wife. It's not the cheapest place for food, but it's really good. I've only ever been to Whitby twice, and both times I've eaten here. They have unrivalled views of the sea from their restaurant, which was the reason I was drawn to this restaurant.

Anyway, I've been working on the Shaw Academy Graphic Design course still, and was tasked the challenge to produce a logo for an animal shelter, this is what I came up with:

They also showcased my photo merge from last week, which I was pretty stoked about! I've not totally forgotten about doing some art though; I quite fancied painting a watercolour painting today, so I painted my back yard, although this is the first time I've done a proper watercolour painting, it's not great:

I could've picked a nicer landscape...

I also had my first proper yoga class last week, still loving it. I found it harder work than what I was expecting though! I think I'll keep it up for now, also term finishes in a few weeks for the summer holidays, ready to pick up again in September.

Anyway, I have a pretty action-packed week ahead of me: Monday & Tuesday I'm out with work visiting a supplier, I have the last week of my Shaw Academy course to finish, yoga (if there's room for me to book into class), Thursday weather permitting is a team build after work playing rounders and BBQ, and then i's Friday and the weekend all over again! Saturday I'm out in Derby visiting family, so not much time for art, though I'll try to fit some in somewhere.

So, I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week, I love the elegance of this illustration, and wiht the bird cage featuring both as an actual cage and in the clothing it makes me wonder if the girl feels like a trapped bird too? https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355206991875/

Portfolio work, and one of the greatest gigs I've been to!

After the shameful 2 weeks where I haven't produced any art I went straight to the briefbox site and picked a logo project to do:

I haven't done a logo design before, so thought I'd flesh out some ideas, but I ended up picking the first one I had done:

On Saturday I went to see AC/DC live at Wembley! It's the first time I've been to Wembley, and the first time I've seen AC/DC, and I was not disappointed! On the Friday before I decided to do a quick hand sketch before bedtime...

It did seem to take them a few songs to warm up, but once they were going it was an awesome show. So loud too, it's been 24 hours now since we saw them and my ears are still ringing...

Brian Johnson

Angus Young

Thunderstruck

Hells Bells

Intro

Panorama of Wembley Stadium

Anyhoo, I'm not sure what art I will get done this week, as we're getting ready to go on holiday. There might also be a break on my blog for a couple of weeks, unless I can get somewhere with a decent internet signal to send an update. So just in case I don't update while on my holidays have a good July!

30 days of lacking!!

Well, I've had a better stab at drawing more this week:

Random lamp study

Quick ornament study

Another hand study

30 days of graphic design. Redesign the nearest shop's logo. This is only a quick sketchy idea

30 days of graphic design. Pick 3 designers and make a new design mixing their styles. I chose Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister & Paula Scher 

I've also watched a film, Inside the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci, which I've found immensely interesting. For example he was an illegitimate child, and because of this received no formal education during his childhood, yet to look at his sketches you'd think he'd completed an engineering degree at university! It's another proven point to me that you don't need to be educated to a higher standard for something in this industry (although I'm sure it helps of course).

I'm not sure if I'll carry on with this particular 30 days of art/graphic design, as I feel it's not drawing. While I enjoy making the initial sketches I don't have the time in the day to make a fully refined drawing every day. After coming home from work, eating dinner, etc I'm lucky to squeeze in an hour to sketch (and most days I don't!). There's loads of other '30 days of art' out there, so I'll find one that will give me the motivation to finish it!

Anyhow, not long now until the first holiday of the year, but first we have AC/DC to see before that in a few weeks! I only have 1.5 weeks left at my current job, it's all happening at the moment!

30 day challenge, logo completion and an annoucement!

Hey all, I've done a little more art this week, although I've had a headache pretty much all week.
I've watched a random video on Photoshop on how to draw smooth lines, and it pretty much boils down to doing it quick, and drawing from the elbow, not the wrist. I knew this before (the wrist thing), but never really applied it, so I've been practising with the motion today and guess what? My lines are better :)

The kickstarter campaign for Schoolism has finished, I think I'm starting mine in October. I've been watching a few of Bobby Chiu's vids on youtube this week, so talented!!

On twitter I noticed in my feed a behance page called The Pocketbook of 120 tips from featured creative from the design world. I'm not far into it but there's a pretty decent 30 day drawing challenge. So day 1 is to tell you I've started. Let's call that yesterday. Day 2 is today, and although I kind of started it yesterday I've done most of the work today:

Make a logo of your face with your name which describes your personality - smiley and bright! I did want to use bright purple text, but it was lost in my brown hair

So for the week ahead (it'll be interesting to see if I do all of these!)
Day 3: Make an illustration of your favourite number
Day 4: Choose 3 awesome graphic designers and try to make a new design mixing their styles.
Day 5: Redesign the logo of the nearest shop.
Day 6: Choose 2 objects. Mix them.
Day 7: Make a logo for an astronaut's umbrella shop.
Day 8: Draw something with your left hand.

The link for The Pocketbook can be found here:
www.behance.net/gallery/24768773/The-Pocketbook
And it's on a Creative Commons license :)

Oh, and I think I've finally finalised a design for my logo!! Although I'm torn between 2, so please see both below, let me know if you prefer one over the other!

I was eating dinner yesterday and heard something fall over in our bedroom. My canvas I've been working on had fallen over. There's no damage to the canvas or the frame, but I've now put the canvas away as I have no motivation to finish it right now.

The London MCM Comic Con was last weekend, and I really wish I had gone. I've not been to the one in London, but I've been to the Birmingham one, and Collectormania in Milton Keynes. Both have not been great. There's a really good convention on when I'm on holiday, there are so many Game of Thrones stars there, and we'll be nowhere close to go :( I've even looked into getting a little flight from where we're holidaying to London, but there only do 2 flights a day, one there and one back, so it's not worth it. Oh well, there will be more cons in the future.

The trailer tent is coming on nicely, we picked up a bottle of gas from our town, hooked it up to the little oven that came with the trailer tent and it works fine! The lights don't work though, I think we'll need to buy a light board to make the trailer road-legal. While I was at the shop buying gas they also sell a small range of tools, so I managed to get a drill bit for drilling a 30mm hole for my brewing buckets so I can get a bitter and a lager kit brewing. Although to be honest since I started Slimming World in Feb I haven't been drunk since then, so 2 beer kits will probably last us into next year!! We're supposed to be having a heatwave next weekend, I've asked the other half to get the summer clothes out of the loft, I wonder what clothes will be too big on me now?! That's the nice thing about losing weight (I've been overweight for 10 years), I can buy clothes that actually look good now rather than fit for funtionality, and I get a massive confidence boost to boot!

Anyway, I have an announcement to make (which I can't make until tomorrow, all will become clear). It's probably not a big deal for anyone reading this blog, but it's a huge deal for me. I don't know who reads this blog from my twitter feed, as I have friends and colleagues on there, so I need to keep it secret until tomorrow. And for anyone wondering (and for the people that know me), I'm not pregnant!!

Art expo, hands and general doodling

So, I'm feeling a lot better! Although I managed to shake off my sore throat from last weekend it was promptly replaced with a cold, which I didn't start to shift until Thursday, but then by Thursday evening it was like I had never been ill.

I've been trying to get more daily sketching in, even though I haven't done it every day I've at least done more than what I would normally. On my tablet (which has a stylus so I can draw on it like a Wacom Cintiq) I've downloaded a free app called Graphiter, which is a great little program for sketching on without having to load Photoshop all the time with all of its fancy gadgets. I've been focussing on hands this week, and initially I was just copying pictures from Google using the Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain techniques, which looked pretty OK. However (I had an 'ah-ha!' moment), I realised if I wanted to progress with my art I would need to work out the mechanics of what I'm drawing, not just copy, otherwise if I want to draw something in the future I'll struggle as I wouldn't have learned anything:

Top-left & top-middle are the ones I copied direct from Google Images. Bottom middle is my hand with the fingers foreshortened, that was harder to work out the mechanics

I've also done a bit of general doodling this week, the first was quickly sketching my partner close-up as he's playing a video game, although when he's concentrating he sticks his tongue out and moves it around, so I struggled to get the lips right:

The other doodle I did made up a character while my fella and I were taking turns playing games, I've no idea where it was going at the time, not bad for 10 minutes though huh?

Also I've noticed there's a new Wacom Cintiq that +CreativeBloq have reviewed. It's their most affordable yet, although to be honest if I had a bit more cash I would probably get the Surface Pro 3.

I managed to get to the art expo this weekend, I really enjoyed it, and it's nice having something like that in my hometown, where it's a small town and nothing much really happens. I was quite inspired by a few pieces I've seen, and I thought the art being sold was very affordable, although we weren't looking to buy. Some were ridiculously overpriced though, but I guess that's just my opinion. There was a range of art for sale, all different subjects and mediums, quite a lot of watercolours which, while I think looks pretty, is not my medium of choice. 
It was also my gateway to see what our local Art Society did, and while I enjoyed the art I don't think joining the society is for me. They do have life drawing sessions every Wednesday which is open to non-members, so I may pop along to one of those in the future. I've looked up other art groups in my area, and they're either not for me (ie ceramics) or closed groups. I think if I want to do a collaboration in the future I'll need to do one online. I keep meaning to join a Hangout on Google+ on the Sycra forums but I always seem to miss them (I think because they're over in the states and me being in the UK it's always the time difference).

Anyway, not many plans for next week, will just try to keep up the sketching, and maybe finish my logo, and might try to get a BriefBox done this weekend too.

Being ill and not doing much art, more research

I've been lazy again this week and not done any art except a small logo mock-up for my freelancing (which I will post at a later date). I've also been ill since Friday (nothing serious, just a sore throat but it knocks me for six...), and usually most of my art time is on the weekend, and I've just not felt up to it :( I have been doing some browsing and researching instead though, which I will share with you :)

A few months ago I downloaded the Freelancing Handbook by +Creativebloqq, which is immensely hepful. I've printed my own version and scribbled and highlighted all over it, and this is what properly kickstarted my interest is going freelance. Now there is a new book, although I've not downloaded it yet: Pay Me or Else free e-book at http://thenuschool.com/pay-me-or-else/ I'm not affiliated with CreativeBloq at all, but I follow them on twitter and they usually have something of interest for me to look at every day.

I've been toying with the idea of doing an art collaboration after inspiration in my home town where someone has opened a venue for this kind of thing (although it seems to be for sculptors). I've also been toying with the idea of joining the local art community. They have a free exhibition at a church where I live, I was going to go this weekend but I really don't have the energy to talk to people with me being ill right now. Hopefully I'll get down there this coming weekend.

I've also decided I don't draw enough AT ALL, so I am going to try and make drawing a daily habit, even if it's only 10 minutes. I've found a community on DeviantArt which seems cool, so I'll give them a go: http://improvementdaily.deviantart.com/

Also I know my library do free magazines, but they've never had a good selection. However I checked again this weekend, and they now have Artist's & Illustrator's, and Imagine FX :) So I can now read these magazines for free, happy days!

Anyway, last week I forgot to show you my WIP of my Rainbow Art & Design logo, please see below, enjoy!

Well, that's all for this week, I was contemplating sorting out my greenhouse, but I haven't got the energy to do much at all today (it's taken me 3 attempts over the day to get this blog entry written!), so I'm going to watch the re-run of Britain's Got Talent, have a bath and have an early night, hopefully I'll be better next weekend, have a good week!

No internet!

We've had no Internet since Friday! So this will be a quick post as in writing it on my mobile.

I haven't done anything in the way of art this week, except do a ton of research for going freelance.

I did buy an artists' easel, of which my blank canvas now sits on :) Now I won't get backache when I paint!

Anyway, I've thought of another name to trade by,  but no designs yet. We should have Internet for next week,  so I'll post pictures of design process of creating my initial logo. I'll also be researching more still for going freelance, but I'm getting itchy fingers again to do more art, so i should have something to show you next week!

Have a fantastic week!

Logo design, imbalance in work life, and competitions

This week during my lunch breaks I've been working on a logo for my brand if I ever decide to go freelance. However just in case people try to plagiarise it I've decided not to add it on here just yet. When the time is right I will. All I will say is for the logo I seemed to finish it very quickly, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing. I did 4 sketches for variety. chose one design to run with, mocked it up, changed it some more, and now I'm happy with it. Luckily I hid the text layer which has the same on just in time for when the office manager interrupted my lunch break! :) But I'm guessing the process above is similar to having a paying client: mock up designs, finish a rough, make amends and finalize design.

Also my partner and myself have talked of going into the mobile catering business. We've both agreed the company name needs to be witty, but I'm not happy with what we've come up with yet, so I've yet to start any work on the logo design for that. At least if I go freelance I can start that whenever, but I'm loathe to start up the mobile catering business until we've bought a house. If we are self-employed it will be very difficult to get a mortgage, but we can do our research in the meantime.

I'm pretty jaded with work at the moment, I don't feel like I'm ever going to get anywhere than where I'm at now. Just to explain my current situation:

• I left a floundering company in my home town to work out-of-town at a company that is doing well for itself. I was hoping to side-step into the same job, but I knew I had to start in a menial job in customer service.
• Despite numerous efforts to get back into a studio environment I've pretty much been ignored by everyone who would help me achieve this. I've been stuck in limbo like this for the past 3.5 years.
• A new person has been appointed to create a new studio, and even though it sounds promising the new studio will be a 1.5hr drive away (or 50mins on the train), and even though they want me to be the 'middle man' between customer service and the new studio I honestly don't think it's going in the right direction for me (or even a change of job for that matter).

The new person wants me to be the go-between, but I already do that, so I don't know if my job role would change at all, and I'm getting very frustrated not getting anywhere in a creative role. My manager has washed her hands of the situation (she has told me herself), and I feel the only way I'll get to do what I'm passionate about in life is to go freelance. I've even put myself through a home-distance learning course and put myself through exams for Adobe, all at my own cost and time, and it feels like it has been for nothing. It's not changed anything in my job role, and it hasn't garnered any more attention for new jobs. So I will persevere in going freelance.

When I went to stop with my nan last month she handed me an article out of the paper on drawing. It was on how to draw in perspective, and how to colour with coloured pencils. Even though I didn't find it much help I did notice a competition to draw either a place or a portrait in coloured pencil, so I've decided to enter it.

The subject is my best friend's little boy, and he's quite hard to draw as he's so cute! I couldn't find a brilliant photo of him, so I've gone with the best one I could find. The ones I like of him are where he takes selfies with his mum's phones, but they're very badly focussed and lit :) I finished the pencil sketch today, and intend to colour it in:

Apologies for the awful lighting, I've tried my best to make it look OK. I haven't done much with the hair as it's blonde and curly, so I just wanted the general shape on paper

The competition doesn't end until April. After chalk my favourite medium (in school) was coloured pencils, so I hope this turns out good! I asked my partner for his opinion, and I phrased it like this 'Did you look at my drawing and think 'that looks like X', or did you look at my drawing and think 'that's X!'. He said he thought the second options, which is good, although I don't think it looks anything like my subject!

I've not played Tropico since last weekend now, but I haven't done much in the way of art either, oops!

And just on a side note I had my family over for a roast dinner today (Sunday dinners are an institution), and I had to take a photo of this massive potato:

This bad boy made enough roast potatoes for 5 people! The photo doesn't do the size justice, it would've made a wicked jacket potato!

So going to my usual theme of tasks I set myself for the week and usually fail:

Critique at least one piece of artwork - didn't suceed, I did look but didn't critique anything.

Contribute to an active art forum - I still don't think I've joined one yet, any suggestions? Was thinking Conceptart.org, or the Sycra forums, but I'm quite intimidated by the high standard of work on both of those forums. I'm not keen on DeviantArt, even though I have an account on there.

Start work on a logo - done, and even finished it!

Drawing for the competition - started

So tasks for this week are to carry on with the coloured sketch, and join an art forum. I'll try to critique too, but I get to this time of the day (9.37pm) and I'm usually pretty tired so I'm off to bed.