Creative Project #16: Song lyrics

Creative Project is a Facebook group set up by my friend Cathy as a way of getting people to communicate their ideas, sketches, and creative process out in the open. Each month a quote, theme or word is posted with the aim to create something in response, be it photography, drawings, sketches, videos, music... literally anything creative!

This month's theme was to produce a visual representation of a song lyric. After a bit of thinking, I decided to do something based on the lyrics to Björk's song Hyperballad...


(click to enlarge)

A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Creative Project #15: Self-Portrait)

My friend Cathy set up the Facebook group Creative Project as "a way to start getting people on facebook to communicate their ideas, sketches, and creative process out in the open". Each month Cathy posts a Quote/Theme/Word as a starting point for members to create something - photography, drawings, sketches, videos, beats, music, ...anything creative!

This month's them was Self-Portrait, and I used my laptop camera to bring up an image of myself onscreen that I could draw from. I also decided to draw myself as I appear in my comic strips...

Creative Project Catch-Up

My friend Cathy set up a Facebook group called Creative Project as a way of getting people to communicate their ideas, sketches, and creative process out in the open. Each month a quote, theme or word is posted with the aim to create something in response, be it photography, drawings, sketches, videos, music... literally anything creative!

I've been a bit slack on posting stuff to my blog recently, so I have a few previous submissions to share...

April's word was CLOWNS (tying in with April Fool's Day) and I decided to subvert the jolly clown image with a picture of an angry clown quoting Joe Pesci in Goodfellas...



Last month's topic was SPACE INVADERS. I had been planning to go and photograph some of the Space Invader street art around London, but then someone else beat me to it, doing the same thing in Melbourne, and after having to get the London Underground during the Rush Hour for the first time in ages and being crammed in amongst lots of angry, sweaty people, I decided on this sketch of (Personal) Space Invaders...

Creative Project #5: Destroy

So I missed out on doing last month's Creative Project theme which was Euphoria, but this month's theme is Destroy and I decided to draw the one action figure that could definitely destroy a load of LEGO houses...



I did a few sketches trying to work out a narrative scene for this image, but in the end decided to go with this more iconic approach, and really make the green pop from the page.

Creative Project #3: Superstition

The latest Creative Project theme is Superstition, which immediately made me think of the Stevie Wonder song of the same name, and I ended up drawing this Peanuts-inspired picture...

Creative Project #2: Lost & Found

The latest theme for the Creative Project group is Lost & Found, and I came up with the following comic...

Creative Project #1: Genesis

My friend Cathy recently restarted the Facebook group she set up a few years ago called Creative Project. Each month a word/phrase/quote/theme is posted online for members to submit a creative interpretation. It can be photography, drawing, sketches, videos, music... anything as long as it's creative!

The first monthly brief, rather appropriately, was Genesis...

(click on the comic to enlarge)

Colour Me Totem

Here is my submission to Inkygoodness' Colour Me Totem creative project to create your own Character Totem.

My creation is called Totem-Khamun. This poor wooden totem doesn't look too happy to see that hungry woodpecker though...

If you want to create your own, you can view the template and submission details here.

Creative Project: City

Here's my submission for the latest Creative Project theme which is City. Cities are springing up everywhere these days. Even on the back of this poor tortoise while he was having a sleep on the beach...

Super Massive Blog Update part 1: Creative Project

Okay, so we had a talk this morning about blogs, which got me thinking, "I should really update my blog!", so here we are...

I've got stuff I've been doing for my MA course which I'll post in a moment, but first I thought I'd stick up my entries for Creative Project. For anyone that doesn't know, Creative Project is a Facebook Group set up by my friend Cathy Sison, where every 2 weeks, she posts a new subject with the aim being for everyone to post their own creative responses. It's good for giving my creativity an (often much needed) adrenaline boost, as well as producing some new work for my portfolio. 

Ghosts:

For this one, I decided to draw the Ghosts of Rock: Cobain, Morrison, and Hendrix (who all died at the age of 27!). I drew the figures using a blue biro from reference images, and then scanned them and added an 10% white layer in Photoshop, before dropping in a stage background that I found online and desaturated.

Magic:

I did this one quite quickly, as I was a bit stuck for time. Fairly straight-forward: what's more magical than a pulling a rabbit from your hat? How about lots of rabbits! 

Superheroes:

I actually went back to a drawing I'd done while I was doing my BA for this one. I'd drawn a cartoon for a student magazine to illustrate an article about the glut of movie sequels being released (Men In Black 2, Spider-man 2, Scooby Doo 2, Stuart-freakin'-Little 2!!!). I took the image of Spider-man I'd drawn, and scanned it, added colour to the black & white original, then drew Doctor Octopus in the same style, and ta-da! 

...In search of a sunrise:

I wanted to do something different from all the (admittedly very beautiful) photographs of sunrises submitted by other people. I opted for a small boy, having a nightmare featuring ghosts in a forest, and searching for a sunrise so that he can wake up. I sketched out the image, scanned it, and then – in a slight change from my normal way of working – traced over the drawn lines in Photoshop using the brush tool. I did this to try and get a shakier line to my drawing, to give the drawing a slight dream-like quality. I created the ghosts in Illustrator using anchor points to create a curved appearance (...and because I'd just had an Illustrator workshop that morning). 

You are what you eat...:

I took a slightly different approach to this topic, creating a comic strip. Taking my cue from those people that look like their dogs (you know the ones!), I thought of people literally looking like their food. Poor Pizza-face!

More updates very soon...

Creative Project (week 3)

"Someday... I will fly away"

This latest quote has really got my mind racing! So many thoughts and ideas going around in my head. I might actually do more than one entry for this one (if that doesn't make me look too greedy). For now, I've done a piece called When I Grow Up, I Want To Be..., with a baby penguin who longs to be able to fly and head for sunnier surroundings.

I drew the penguins quite quickly using a black felt tip, and then scanned and coloured the image in Photoshop, adding the background scenery. The airplane was from a stock image that I reduced in size and added to give a collage effect.

Creative Project Week 2

I'm loving this! This week's starting point was a lyric:

"Dust gathers on my stereo... cause I can't bear to hear the radio" (one Google search later, I can tell you that this is from I'm Scared by Duffy)

This struck me as quite a melancholic rhyme, and I imagined a once loved radio now discarded. Perhaps usurped by the latest MP3 player. Funnily enough, it kind of tied in with my Radiohead character from the CD artwork I'd recently produced (see my earlier blog, below), and I jotted down a quick sketch on my notepad at work while it was still fresh in my mind...

When I got home, I worked on the final piece based on my sketch. I decided to draw using a charcoal pencil to give a rougher, harsher appearance to the line work. I worked on the various elements separately and then scanned them in and developed the final composition in Photoshop. I then coloured the image using various layers...



However, while I was happy with the drawing and the composition, I felt the colour didn't really help the mood of the image. I converted the picture to greyscale, removing the colour information, and changed the text colour to white with a slight drop shadow. I feel happier with this as a finished piece...