taking a deep breath

i did not wake up this early on a sunday for no reason

omd. my eyes ache.

new direction, well slightly new, slightly the same

I am trying to make it better. setting myself little tasks in drawing and trying to achieve it in it. that probably does not make sense, but it does to me. here i am tackling an issue i have with neglected space. i dont know whether it is necessarily a bad thing but i am just trying a different way of working. it gives each image a direction as well which is a new thing for me, this summer i have been neglecting this blog slightly a lot so i am going to get back on it.

another image coming soon!!! definitely going to finish it today on my break.

long overdue progress. well slight progression.

twitter

follow me please, and if you don't have twitter already you should get it!!! it's joyful. either that or it has brainwashed me but it's all good.

http://twitter.com/stephkirchem

thanks lots
xxx

Post 'The Big Ink Event' wilderness

turns out i have been focusing SO much on this one event i now feel a bit lost, i think this blog will be integral to my work and progression over summer. i intend to use it more like a journal and a point of reference than i have been doing, making my life so much easier. while cramming for the last assessment i realized i have been making more work for myself by NOT maintaining this properly. so, here goes.

lightbox night

lightbox day

animation?

just finished 57 owl/cat cards, took a ridiculously long time. after i had drawn eash one it went onto a pile, meaning i could only see the last one i had done and none of the drawings preceding it. this inevitably lead to alot of similarities and repetition within the images but this was intentional and i really like the way certain images and styles correspond. flicking back and forth between images it seemed a natural progression to try and make a rough animation from them and see what happens. it is quite exciting stuff, will be at the lightbox all tomorrow.

repetition. the same but different

pack of drawings

i dont know how but this is becoming a pack of drawings based on the 'owl and the pussycat' by edward lear. i am not going to try and force it into a book just yet and i am not sure what form it will end up in but it is definitely picking up pace now and is gaining direction. for so long it seemed a little aimless but i think this was mainly due to my not giving it my full attention and focusing completely on 'The Big Ink' project. not advisable but i feel it was necessary, only now that is off the ground and has momentum do i feel that i can step away from it a little to get on with this. i really need to learn how to multitask successfully, i tend to get obsessed by one thing at a time completely

the drawings are getting smaller

and it is getting slightly worrying. even if i start on the biggest clearest space my drawing will be suspended in the smallest part. it is not a conscious decision but maybe i need to concentrate on the image to page ratio a little more. it is almost as if it is necessary to leave a blank space, i know if i started on a small piece of paper i would feel the drawing would be overcrowded and almost stifled? It might be interesting to try and force this and see what happens. the worst it can be is bad.

Colour

in a tutorial recently the issue of colour (and lack of it in my work) has come up. Believe it or not i have been trying to address this within my drawings but it has yet to become a subconscious decision, and until it does i fear any work with colour will look a bit forced? or awkward. In my work i rely quite heavily on spontaneity and quick lines and it can be seen in previous drawings that they straight away become alot stiller, not that this is a bad thing i just need to find a way for it to work for me. At the moment anything coloured is stuck between anything, apparently floating in this sort of uncomfortable abyss. but, i will keep trying and post up images on here soon to show my (if any) progress.

Fact and Fiction Exhibition

End of March 2009 2nd year BA illustration had a show at the arts bar in camberwell, Fact and Fiction.

"Fact is truth, reality, actuality. Fiction is invention and imagination. The two are opposing categories of idea."



















Into this exhibition i entered a bird drawing i had previously done for FACT, a quick ink drawing that was intended to capture the bird in the simplest most essential way. I don't know how successful i was in achieving this but someone actually bought it. I had not intended to sell it but to be honest i couldn't believe someone wanted it enough to pay for it. It would have been rude not to.

The Owl and the Pussycat

The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.


I have started drawing owls and cats primarily, to get an idea of how to go about this. There is loads of imagery in this already so i think it could be quite interesting to focus on the two lead characters.




































***

Publish

I really did not like this project, i had the best intentions but it never really came together and i am aware all the illustrations for it are extremely laboured. I have put a selection up here but i do not really like any of them at all. It's possibly that i was trying too hard to work in a different way and it started to become fragmented and alien, didn't really flow as a project.