Now located...

Over @ iamanoctopus.co.uk. I shall still be using this blog from time to time, but a majority of work as I get organized throughout the following year and more 'profesh' will all go on there. Ta.

Current Project: HAIR.

Based upon a true story, check me out over @ Concrete Hermit!

Subject to change...

I will be changing this piece of shit blog very soon. Keep an eye out, though not too far out.

apples

A direction maybe?

All new CV ready.

It's still very much a work in progress, but my CV is starting to take shape. Something still bugs me about it, oh well, any comments on composition, content etc leave me a comment with feedback or something, if anyone reads this anymore. Thanks. I hate the poor quality of ImageShack. Oh well.

I've nearly...

...killed myself, due to uni work. Extreme. : )

A quiet storm (in the space of a week.)

Okay, so lately, I've probably not been pulling my weight like I should be with all the uni work coming in my direction. I mean, it is my second year, I should be pushing on much harder and regain that form towards the end of last semester and put in all the hours of work that is needed to gain skills and truely become successful and not be another 'could have been'. However, for those of you who know, recent events were difficult at the time - however now it's all good and dandy again. : ) As much as I haven't been pulling my weight, this does not mean I've been doing nothing, so thanks to the wonders of 'officials' and 'board rooms' at the 'powers that be' I have a reading week. Enough time to catch up on all modules and be ready to go from next Monday onwards and hopefully boost my hopes of getting higher grades, higher hopes and better work. It's one thing to talk about it, but to do is another - and of course the most important.

So far today I have put all my efforts in my illustration module and it's coming along well. Taking a short break to write this and I will get back to the pages and pages of doodling and idea experimentations. I'm quite happy to have settled with the idea I have. For now, the consumption of hair is all I will say. Hopefully as this progresses in the next few weeks and even when it gets to the book binding stage it'll be a strong representation of a journey that works on every level. As I progress throughout my modules, I'll try to update this place with work to possibly showcase skills to onlookers who may need some work.

Returning to the point of my ridiculous post title, 'A quiet storm (in the space of week.)' - it's now or never really, all my modules have to be that step further to proving that I want to do this and that I will do this. With or without the help of anyone. So, before I shoot back to doing work like a good little boy, here's a very quick doodle to do with my illustration project that made me smile after I drew it, mainly 'cos of the simplicity and it was a probable accident. Low detail, effective message? I don't know.

Slewdem Stickorzzz.

Well, I've got my first set of stickers as a part of some promotional stuff that I thought I should eventually get round to doing. It's kinda uni related for once. These are just some first drafts, I think slowly as time goes on I would like to get some more thought provoked, better looking ones out there. For now though, it'll do.

Uni work underway.

Back to uni...

Well, first week back is over... I've got four quite hefty, but very free modules. Best get a move on!

force by numbers

One of my new sketchbooks, page makes me feel 'hyped' for some reason...

Animate TV

So Channel 4's 2008 edition of Animate TV was just on and there was one really beautiful and charming animation by Michael Aubtin Madadi. It's called 'Tear Drops of Blossom' and it was bloody marvelous so if you're reading this, click the link and go watch! It really is a magical piece of animation and has a really pretty story behind it.

'Tear Drops of Blossom'

the elderly

Stars of the Search Party Unsigned Act '08 - VOTE!

Stars of the Search Party are entering Orange unsignedAct this year, vote for them! : )

Vote, vote, vote.

SOTSP My Space has gone live!

Well after a while, their My Space has gone live, also if you're in Epsom, check them out later this month, details to follow:

My Space click click click!

The Quality of Work...

...will soon be improving greatly when university resumes for the second war of three.

SOTSP: My Space...

Resumed work on SOTSP My Space today, here's a preview of it, most things still need to be tweaked, but it's safe to say it's at least 40% of the way there, here's a preview shot.

for my bubby...

Armstrong & Miller.

Right, at first, I didn't particularly find this show very funny, it's very... slapstick, obviously BBC edited material for a family kind of thing, but there's a few sketches in it that won me over. Especially this one, I recommend watching all of them on YouTube.

Foux du Fa Fa...

BOEUF! I'm back from Paris and I have to say I had an amazing week with my amazing lady. :) Here are some bits for now...

Cheekyness at work :)

I decided to place some silly little bits of 'advertising' in the shop at work to see if anyone would notice... it's still there. xD

JOKES

Taken from failblog.org :)

i am an octopus. baah.

Some more updates to come, including SOTSP. :)

appliance alliance

A few things;

Okay, so this past month has been hectic with work and I've not updated as much as I would have liked, now that I am almost setup back at home, I will look to post more and more over the following month. To keep 'followers' updated, in the past month I have worked quite a bit at FTM (some good monies coming my way), done some freelance work for a company and earned quite a bit. My MacBook also decided to go bust, hence me losing a lot of things (especially all of Andrew Loomis' drawing books, may as well buy them now.) I've also acquired a new iMac, which is set up and running now and I have also began to produce some work that will be of some quality (unlike most of my stuff.) In the past month I have also produced some work that has made me laugh, I will post some of this in future posts. The last two most important, no three most important, the last being the most important of them all are the following - I discovered that a Watchmen movie is being made and it looks fucking amazing, the second, Batman aaah, as most friends know, I am a Batman fanatic, so to see a movie almost close to The Killing Joke & Jeykll & Hyde had to be one of the most amazing experiences in a while. However, not so, this past month, me and my special lady (Leannnnnnnnne) celebrated our one year by going to London Zoo on Sunday, we now have a little baby gorilla as a symbol of our love, she gave birth in the form of cash to a cash register at around four or so pm on Sunday. She made me the happiest guy in the world. xD

'Til next time, swoosh.

iPod mock up.

Well here's an image of one paper mock up I did of a potential design I will paint over the actual case.

Back!

Right so I have returned, brand new iMac, almost there with everything. There are going to be a lot more updates as I have some canvas work I shall be beginning, the iPod customization, Stars of the Search Party and everything else, including a lot of scraps like I usually do on this blog. Just for now, a couple of scraps over the past year, which were all pretty quick and dull, but they make me giggle.



Also, before I sign off, a photograph of my lovely girlfriend of one year (love you bubby) by Karina (Caesium Cupcake), really very very nice.

Up and running ...almost.

Tonight, oh yes. Some new work will be posted on the blog also and some new developments with SOTSP as soon as possible. :)

Coming Back Soon!

Okay, so I should have a brand new iMac, which will get work done A LOT quicker as well as my old machine repaired. It's fair to say, I will be versatile now ...and quick, it will no longer take me a million years to do something on my Mac. There's only so much you can do with 512mb and a program that uses 512mb.

Also, WATCHMEN! The best comic/graphic novel I have ever read has come to life on the big screen and the trailer looks as though every scene has been taken out of the graphic novel, it's fucking fantastic. I hope it lives up to the trailer, I mean I know Alan Moore hates having his name put on movies, but if this one turns out amazing, then his loss I guess. Although I can see why he didn't want his name on V for Vendetta... with all the alternate choices they made in the script. You can view a high quality trailer over at Empire Online...

Official Watchmen Trailer (Empire Online)

R.I.P. 2006 - 2008

Seems my Mac decided to pass away today. HD just froze up and died. I may have lost some client work and my external is stupidly only one format so I can't even check on PC's. So if I'm quiet for the next week or so that's why.

'Old Print, New Sale.'

Yeah, work that one out. I want to sell this if I can shift it, will go up on bigcartel or etsy or something soon.

missangeljane

SOTSP: Rainbow Explosions Upon The Stars!

I know the band like a colourful look, so I added some burst of colour to what I came up with yesterday. :)

SOTSP: Stars Exploding In The Sky!

"...and I want her to be funny you see!?"

Hi everybody, how are you? Things have been a bit hectic lately, being back at the musuem is quite time consuming. So lately, I've decided upon a few things, I want to master life drawing, I want to sell a few canvas pieces and I want to do some sort of collaboration. At the moment, everything with Stars of the Search Party is going well, so that's grand. There will be more updates concerning them soon, I have ideas that are just incomplete and will be worked on more and more as the usual process goes. So, seeing as I've not got much constructive to say, I will leave you with this video - forwarded to me by a friend. Being of Turkish descent, Husam is my new rolemodel.

SOTSP: Developments...

So, the band originally asked for a t-shirt where a torch shone and displayed their name. After much sketching in my sketchbook and thinking about what I could do with this idea, I've decided to produce something a little different from that, whilst sticking to the original request. I've stuck to the lineart style I used for the previous t-shirt design. Hope the band like it (thus far)...

I guess the general theme is...

...big birds and fucking them. Not sure what's been going through my sketchbook lately, but I just end up doing utter crap whilst working at the musuem. Thought I'd post these two pages because they're just the pinicle of bordom captured at the moment of bordom and sleep deprivation. I know what I'm trying to so, no matter.

SOTSP: LOOK! NO HANDS!

Ah the clever variety of this post. Another to come in black... more and more ideas are being worked on, hopefully the band will like.

SOTSP: T-Shirt Design Ideas...

I've completed a first draft of a first idea for a t-shirt design, there are several others being worked on, but I produced this one the quickest out of the lot for some reason. More experimenting to be done with this design if the band like it of course!

This video is wicked.

SOTSP: Complete first typeface!

The Tree People ...in progress.

More Stars of The Search Party...

Hard at work!

New Client: Stars of The Search Party!

Hullo everybody, it's been a good week or so since I've updated, but it's been a hectic week at that! First of all, shame Switzerland (2-1). Second of all, I have some new guys I am working with and producing 'artwork' and other stuff for. They're Stars of The Search Party, a six piece from Guildford in Surrey and you can hear their music at the following link.

Stars of The Search Party MySpace

I've begun experimenting with type/typefaces and a custom feel for the band, I'm not even 1% there yet, but this is an evenings play with one of the styles I came up with. There are loads more to come, of course. This is just an early, early attempt, it will all come down to the bands taste most likely and hopefully something nice will be produced on both my end and theirs to create a nice piece of collaborative fun.

"Comin' 'ere takin' all our jobs!"

So, as I've previously posted, I will be customising my old iPod mini. In commemoration of the 'ol heap of junk, I did a quick little doodle. From now on I will be sporting an iPod nano all the way from 5th avenue, NYC.

In business!

Late Night Doodles

owlfury!

bigOCTOPUS Summer Project: iOctopus - Day One

Right, so, I've recently acquired a brand new iPod nano [8gb] as a gift. It's one of those lovely video - music blaring things - quite nice really. However, my current iPod, which is quite an elderly first generation 4gb iPod mini. It was about time the thing stepped down as my number one mp3 player really. It's near enough dead, the battery doesn't even last a single bus journey and let me tell you bus journey's in London are horrible.

So, the project? Well, my plan is to blow dry the shell open, slide everything out in hope that nothing damages. [Not that it matters if it does with the pathetic excuse of a battery, although that can be replaced.] So back to the plan, I will then spray paint the shell white, give it a nice glossy 'Shock White' coat and then I will follow this up by customising with some nice acrylic pens. I will then gloss over the casing and slot and glue back on. Hopefully it will look nice and I will keep track of the project via this blog.

I think it could go well and the bloody thing, if I can afford to replace the battery will increase in intrinsic value at least. Below are the two iPod's in comparison, I don't know, they're both nice.

A conspiracy in conjunction with the BBC!

This morning, I shot up as soon as the alarm went off at nine... the first one was at eight. I woke Leanne up as well as she promised she would come to uni with me to pick up my results. She had sleepy eyes, she was really cute. Well, yes, as you can guess by now, we made our way to my lovely (I use that term very loosely) university, where I began a dig for my folders underneath the piles of work. I managed to seek out my result sheets though, and they read as follows...

Visual Research: Illustration - 68% - B
Design for Persuasion - 65% - B
Design for Change - 58 % - C

Seems I missed out on a B in Design for Change (where I expected the lowest grade anyways) and by two percent on a first/A in Illustration. I'm happy though, it's a significant improvement from the last semester. I have one more module to come and that's the essay [Thinking Design]. I hope that I did well on that, I devoted days on it last week trying to perfect it and I got a bit lazy towards the end I hope I equal the contextual subjects mark from last semester and get another B or even better... I did miss out on an A by two percent on it last time. Stupid grading system, it's a conspiracy. No matter, C and above in this final module, which I assume I collect next Friday as we had a weeks extension on it. Either way, it'll have been a rather successful first year, passing everything despite it being difficult, especially at the beginning and the middle. Glad it's ending on a somber high... though isn't that a juxtaposition of two moods? Hmm. I don't know, I know what I meant, I think. Well, 'til next time folks, keep it 'massive'.

All 'octopussy' things to come!

Well, the title... it isn't big and it isn't clever. I guess I should say, 'hello'. Weclome ...hang on, weclome? Welcome! Welcome, to my blog. I will most likely keep track of anything 'artistic' or 'creative' I do. You see, I have just completed the first year of my BA in Graphic Design, so I thought I should finally get professional about things, seeing as the next two years are degree years and that the industry is fucking competitive. Basically, this whole short paragraph or composite of words is just to welcome you to the blog.

So, how are you today? I am good, thanks for asking myself that. Like I said, it's not big, it's not clever ...it might be a little funny. Listen, very little food and lack of smarts is something not to be desired on a Thursday afternoon, it is Thursday yes? Yes, yes... thought so. Wow, this is turning out to be more thoughts than stuff? Wicked. Look, I'm sure I will post something constructive and even nice soon. For now it's just words, I will try to keep this thing updated over the summer to keep myself busy 'creatively'.

 Over the past weekend, I decided to contribute to one of my sketchbooks and I didn't quite know what would come out of my hand as I started drawing, but it seems, it's an elderly vision of me from the future (thanks for noticing that Leanne) - I guess this is what I will [half] look like when I am older. You be the judge.