Mandala rose mandala rose...

A tattoo design for George, incorporating dot work mandala sections and traditional style roses. 

...can I have my tattoo apprenticeship now please? 

Something different?

Here's an a3 piece I just completed using posca and micron. It was my first time using ink/posca on bristol board. I think we can safely say I'm never drawing in anything else again. I've been digging a bit of a tribal-esque thing recently. Been seeing quite a lot of body mods on the web taking inspiration from such things. Thought I'd try out some mandalas and dot work. Would really love to screen print this. 

Tattoo Design Commission for Rachel

Print Club London Deluxe Workshop.

Last week I did a two day workshop at the print club London studio in Dalston. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I've had a little experience with screen printing but as I hadn't done it in so long, I thought the workshop would be a nice refresher. It definitely was. A small group of 5 over a two day period going through all the basics of screen printing including preparing images in photoshop, preparing screens with light sensitive emulsion, exposing and finally printing and washing out screens. It all came rushing back. I also emailed Print club London about an internship as I'd love to learn more about screen printing professionally and technician work, I'm just in love with the process. They replied pretty swiftly and I have a trial day helping out with a workshop on Thursday. Here's hoping it goes well! Have a look at some piccies from the workshop. Think my print looks pretty bangin' actually.

More arrows and DPS thoughts.

Here is another little one from the water colour moleskine. This time only using black posca pen and fineliners, with a touch of colour balancing in photoshop. Again with the arrows, girl. As this year at uni has ended and I'm about to embark on a year out for my Diploma in professional studies course, I need to start getting organised, getting a good portfolio together is crucial. I've never thought of myself as a designer, but with some words from my dps tutor, I need to start thinking about how my work translates onto objects and other surfaces other than just a piece of paper or digital file. I'd really like to start doing some larger scale pieces to help free myself up from the constraints of a sketch book. Maybe some more wall and window drawings. Or start thinking about products I can slap my illustrations on. There are so many things I want to experiment with and achieve in the next year, so I thought it best to write a list of things I can hopefully cross off throughout the course. Some things may be easily achievable, but others not so much and will need some serious time and work put in and some may not be achievable in a year but can be ongoing. 

So what the hell do I want to do? Here's a couple...

1. Work on branding. Make myself a logo and a website with domain name. 

2. Contact Illustration companies in london and Berlin and try an bag those amazing internships that will get me relevant and helpful experience. 

3. Get a separate portfolio together and Look for a Tattooing apprenticeship. 

4. Learn enough German (to not come across as an ignorant English douche) and go to Berlin and intern, but most importantly enjoy time away from London away, from home and away from my comfort zone and little bubble I've made for myself. 

5. Go to New york again on my own. 

6. Get a big body of work together, apply for funding and put on a few solo or collaborative exhibitions. 

7. Start my own or a collaborative online shop, with tshirts, prints and jewellery.

8. Learn Taxidermy to use in my work. I adore Taxidermy, traditional and Rogue and would love to try   combining it with my illustrative style. 

9. Create a zine, comic. 

10. Have some fucking fun and don't worry so much. Do amazing things. Make some great art. 

A nice selection of things to work my way towards during the next year. 

I am the arrow, these are the targets. Aim. 

CHIP MONKS logo for the London Log company.

I was asked to do a logo for the London log company who supply kentish wood for a range of uses such as meat smoking and the likes, in a tattoo-esque style with inspirations from traditional wood cuts. The latin means 'Smoke, wood, brotherhood' and the piece also took inspiration from Edward Bawdenn. 

GOD DAMN IT. Get me out of this funk.

This summer has been incredibly uneventful. It's the end of August I have a month left before I begin my illustration degree and I literally have bollocky-cunting-shit all to show for this last 6 months. Every day seems to be -

1. Wake up, look at the time and realise it's already mid-afternoon so there's probably no point in actually doing anything constructive.

2. Potter around the kitchen entertaining the idea of making food or tea, but don't, or more to the point, don't because of the possibility of breaking a kitchen appliance or burning something. So go back downstairs to bed.

3. Watch endless amounts of-
a. How I met your mother
b. Battlestar Galactica
c. Futurama
d. Ugly Americans
e. Gilmore Girls
f. Whatever the fuck is on.

3. Pick up sketch book. Put down sketchbook because you just can't be arsed.

4. It's probably about 2am by now so decided to go to sleep (when I said 'endless amounts of' I bloody meant it)

End of day - Repeat tomorrow.


So yeah pretty damn bland. I just feel really tired and BLARGHHHHH all of the time I am so fucking boring when I have no responsibilities.

Though I do say this but out of the 6 months I have had off I have done a COUPLE of cool things.

Me and Ad got twin bird skull tattoos. Yes It's fucking gay and soppy as shit but I quite like having a little dead avian head behind my ear and it's not as if I got his name buzzed into my forehead or scrawled across my vagina or something. It's more like I have a tattoo and he just so happens to have the same one....plus mine looks better.

Actually fuck it I've done quite a few cool things this summer in amongst the boring 'sit on my fat arse and do nothing' days. I also went to Paris with my mum which was fun (ish). Word to the wise, don't go on a 4 day city break to try and relax, I say this because this was my mothers incentive for going there. To relax. I don't think Paris and relaxation go together very well, especially when you're a teenager with a fresh batch of IHATEYOU hormones to deal with due to the contraceptive implant and you're in close proximity with a menopausal parent. That sounded catty, I love my mum, but when we fight it's like every other mother and daughter. WITHDRAW TO AT LEAST A 50 FOOT DISTANCE OR YOU WILL BE HIT BY A BOOK OR A CUP and maybe wear some ear muffs because we crack out the dictionary of obscenities on the regs.

I have a bad case of fat face here but i'm in front of the Moulin Rouge so I doesn't matter. I went to the show as well.  So many boobs.