The Wilde Hipster

Work in progress.

Roller Derby Attempt 2

Having done the first image I became painfully aware that it didn't really communicate the whole roller derby theme so I did another with a more direct approach. I might add more to this later depending on the feedback I get from the editor.

Roller Derby

I got asked to do a piece about Roller Derby a week ago, so having done some research I thought a portrait with a really battered, tough looking woman would be the way to go.
The article's about South Korea's first ever Roller Derby team. I was actually going to try using a Korean image for the piece, but then I found out that the demographic was totally western so I dropped that idea pretty quickly.

Moebius (Jean Giraud).

Just wanted to mention something I noticed the other day.
I absolutely love the work of Jean Giraud, who is easily one of the greatest living French illustrators and I'm pretty keen to get my hands on a copy of the complete Arzak.
Arzak is a wordless narrative that was published in several volumes during the 70's.
The protagonist moves across a vast empty landscape in a lonely future and the use of vibrant colour and space is really unique.
The main thing I really wanted to mention which is startling to me as a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's work is the resemblance between Arzak's bird and Nausicaa's Mehve, the machine she flies. I'm sure it's undeniable from the images I've posted alongside my writing here. I'm aware that Giraud and Miyazaki are friends. Did he take his inspiration from Arzak? Also, if I'm examining Nausicaa as a whole, the style, the insects and the 'organic dystopian future' apparent in the film does seem akin to the French science fiction often shown in Heavy Metal magazine and the other works of Giraud. I dunno, it's hypothesis. But if anyone wants to reassure me that they've noticed the same thing an email would be great.
On a side note I also love Panzer Dragoon, and Giraud designed the concept art for the original game which blew my mind when I was 11.


Arzak

Nausicaa


The original Panzer Dragoon. Don't get me started on Azel (the third game in the series), it's easily one of the best games ever made.
What an absolute legend.

Crystal Castles

I'm seeing Crystal Castles in Seoul in January. It's going to be their first time playing in Korea. They're easily one of my favourite bands. They flawlessly mix nihilism, synth pop and 8 bit samples which is more or less everything I love combined.
I'm really excited about going so I thought I'd do some portraits of them.
The vocalist is Alice Glass and Ethan Kath produces. Their energy is contagious and I've got most of their back catalog bar some demos I listened to on Youtube the other day.

STRUT! Typeface

Here's an updated filled out version of the typeface I designed for Almost Famous in Kyeongsung Busan. Providing everything is ready on time this should be going on a banner in just over a week. This is probably the most thorough typeface I've ever made, especially considering I have no formal training in typography. Took me a while. I stuck with a typically post-modern layout, keeping it minimal. I incorporated the logo that I designed into the exclamation mark that's part of the second T.

The plight of the moon bear

Some new work for Groove magazine, this time about the ever decreasing numbers of moon bears across Asia.
Many are hunted for their bile, and often they are imprisoned in cages they can't move in so the bile can be harvested. It's absolutely disgusting. Due to this ongoing problem their numbers have diminished massively and there's thought to be less than 30 left in Korea.
I produced this image in response to that, with the numbered bears acting as a kind of counter showing how the numbers in Korea are going down.
In China they are slowly becoming endangered, and up until recently their numbers spread all the way from Asia to as far as France, so it really goes to show just how profound an effect we're having on everything around us.

STRUT! Poster 2

Working on this for the next upcoming STRUT! night in Kyungsung Busan. I'm actually DJing this time, which will be my first ever. I'm doing the opening set so hopefully that means I can't embarrass myself for too long before the other guys come on.

Can't really get past how homoerotic these posters are, so good thing we're not advertising for an English club otherwise people would just assume it was a gay bar.

It's pretty much finished now. I gave a variety of colour choices for the group to decide on. Looks like blue's been chosen.

Razorback Gunwerks

Just did a full logo design for a friend who's leaving Korea soon. He's setting up a Gunsmiths in Arkansas so it's been a pretty unusual project. Had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to go about it.
The state mascot is the razorback (general term for wild boar) so that's the centerpiece he wanted in the logo.

IU - Attempt 3

So I've been drawing IU for 2 weeks now. I've lost count of the number of times I've drawn her, but given the quality of Jong-Eun's work I want to make sure I do a good job.
I still haven't captured her adequately, so I'll do one more. I'm happy with the layout of the image though and I think this works well.

IU

Here's the first half of a piece in the collaborative project I'm doing with Jong-Eun Lee. Last week I posted an image I'd done of IU, one of the biggest Korean pop stars, and I've done it again with a bit more precision this time. I might add to it later. We'll be doing one musician each and then combining the results. Can't wait to see what Jong-Eun comes up with.
IU's trademark is the guitar, which I've tried to reproduce faithfully. It's labelled with some Astro Boy stickers so presumably she's a fan of Tezuka Osamu's work.

Invitation in Paris

I got asked last week if my work could be used for a fashion show in Paris, I was pretty excited because it's my Steve Strange image and Steve Strange is actually playing at this thing. Unfortunately they got my name wrong on the flyer, but on the plus side they said they'd change it for the press release and they got my URL right. Either way the flyer looks great. Good design, nice and crisp.

STRUT! Preparation and printed cards

So last night was the first night of our new collective's club night at Almost Famous in Kyungsung, Busan. I got to see my posters stuck up around the neighborhood and the flyers I made being put to use. Here's some photos of the speech bubble sign I made, we attached it to a mop head so people could pose with it in the club. Had a great time, totally wiped out now.

Collaborative project with Jong-Eun Lee

I'm well excited to announce that I'm doing some work with Korean artist Jong-Eun Lee who's had a long running manwha series for the last 10 years. I've never had an opportunity like this before, and hopefully it will lead to some really interesting results.
Her work can be viewed here:
http://www.thewing.co.kr/

Here's the first piece I've produced so far, but I'm redoing it from scratch using a completely different photo so the end result won't resemble this at all. It's just a test really.
I'm going to examine Korean pop culture, and hopefully use what I've learned in the last year to add some social satire as well.
The girl in this image is IU, one of the most famous current K-pop stars. I don't know too much about K-pop stars, but I can say that they generally have an extremely short life span and go out of fashion within a couple of years. From what I've observed I think I can honestly say that it's more about fashion than music, and many have plastic surgery to maintain their looks. IU is only 18, and most K-pop stars are in the 17-24 category, usually being replaced with younger versions as they age.

Ajima article - Groove magazine

Just completed another image for Groove magazine, this time on a westerner who married a Korean but then had to suffer the blow of having her mother move in with them. Rather him than me like.
I did two versions, if I was going to critique myself I'd say I should probably have aged the hand a lot more, but this isn't so much an issue on the version where the arm with the rolling pin is small.

STRUT! - Business Card Designs

New designs to advertise STRUT! at Almost Famous, Busan. Our opening night is Saturday 15th October, Busan. Come down if you just happen to be in South Korea.
I'm now a member of Double Think, a new collective of DJ's, designers and writers based in South Korea. See the Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Double-Think/226790237378132.

Eugene Sandow

Here's the portrait I used for the poster on it's own.

STRUT!

Some new design work for the club night my mate is setting up in Busan. Part of this new 'Double Think' collective we're forming. This piece is almost finished.
We took the idea from the old stereotype of the Victorian men posing in their leotards. After a bit of research I found the man who actually institutionalized this practice, Eugene Sandow, who was the first ever 'body builder'. Pretty insightful stuff. I used him as the subject for the poster, a lot of fun to draw.

'Double Think'

Here's some more developments I've been working on today. I reworked the typeface and added some translucent objects in the back.

Club Night Logo

I've got a friend in the process of setting up a club night in Busan. I'm handling the design side and this is what I've come up with so far based on his suggestions.

Messing around

About to try a collaborative project with a photographer friend so I've given him this to play around with. Should be interesting to see how he interprets it.
I've been wiped out the last couple of weeks so it's been a battle trying to produce new work, I'm going to return to my observation drawing so I should have more of it coming soon.

Update

More progress.

Groove Travel and Food section

I got asked to do an image for Groove magazine's travel and food section relating to a 'Korean themed' Oktoberfest. Bit out there I know. Here's where I'm up to with it.

More C.V

Here are some more designs I did today with examples of the translucency effect I'm thinking about for this creative C.V. The portrait is the top layer and will have a fade out effect to show the information underneath.

Design C.V

I remember being told in University about the importance of having a 'design c.v'. It's debatable whether or not they're really that helpful for illustration as the individual's ability really should be judged on their portfolio rather than the till assistant job they've had at Mcdonald's since 6th Form, but having one is probably better than nothing.
I contacted yet another British based design agency about an internship and sure enough got no reply (although being in Korea probably didn't help my odds too much) but sending them my C.V as just a text file wasn't the most pro-active approach I could've taken. Considering this I decided I'd go nuts and make a painfully minimal, unique C.V that utilizes Photoshop, Flash and In design.
If I'm lucky this might take the odds of me being ignored from a whopping 90% down to maybe 60.

Anyway, all the stuff about me slots into the sections of the head, and I'm going to have a self portrait covering the top that has a level of translucency which disappears as you move the cursor over it, revealing all the self important garbage underneath talking about how awesome I think I am.

Coming Home

Got a 48 hour deadline from Novel, thankfully with me having no elementary kids to teach this week it wasn't murder trying to get this done.
The article 'coming home' discusses the issues my generation in particular are facing with too much choice but also a general lack of money alongside difficulties finding work.

This is paired with the ongoing need to return home, which in the writer's case is Newcastle. It's also the case with me as well, so this need to return home after living abroad (the case with me as well) or between jobs is particularly common with people from my area. I imagine it's largely the case everywhere as well, but like the writer and other locals I can't help but get the feeling I'll always be returning to the north east of England for one reason or another.

The section I decided to go with relates to a government statistic she mentions referred to as 'kippers'. Another fadish government acronym, kipper's means 'kids in their parent's pockets' and refers to a certain demographic of young people who purposely choose to stay at home because of the ideal conditions and the fact that they can't find work or face squalor elsewhere.

Are you in there, Wes?

Latest work for Groove magazine, coming out in September's issue.

'In for a Tweet'

I did some more work for Novel magazine over the weekend, this time on an article about the effects of social networking.
Apparently there's someone on twitter who pretends to be capitalism (on the right) and also someone who comes out with Chinese proverbs everyday (on the left) and then you've got the idiots who just spout mundane garbage about their daily lives that no one cares about (center). So yeah, that pretty much sums this image up. Should be going to print soon.