I hope one day to do a proper American road trip. When I was a foolhardy student, I set off on my own mini version ( Boston > NYC > Phily > D.C > Atlanta > Memphis > Miami > St Louis > Chicago ) but lack of time and mostly money, meant that I never made it to the WEST coast. I recently found the travel journal from this trip which made some pretty interesting reading.. its a bewildering insight into 19 year old Linzie. I don't remember a lot of what I'd written about and it felt strangely like reading someone else's diary.
Anyways, I guess quirky and kitschy tourist attractions have also held my interest. Heres a little map project I set myself... I've probably employed a fair bit of artistic license and taken the odd liberty or two. I still feel the urge to teak, change and correct a few things but I've put it to one side as yesterday all the text and pixel-pushing gave me a cracking migraine...
A couple of months ago I did this sketch for a kids publisher which never got past the roughs stage due to contractual issues (e.g. I wasn't prepared to part with copyright for the fee offered)
To be fair, they did honour the rejection/cancellation fee clause and I was happy to walk away with my drawing.
A 'tuck shop' for those not familiar with the phrase is basically a hole-in-the-wall affair where schools (or youth clubs) sell snacks and unhealthy crap to their pupils. I remember my own schools 'tucky' very well .... and the excitement every year at Christmas when kids would scan their purchase with Willy Wonka style enthusiasm for a lucky sticker meaning that you'd won an even larger box of chocolate.
I'm sure since the healthy eating reforms in schools here, this sort of things is probably very much a thing of the past.
adventures in halftones!
I'd quite enjoyed doing it so rather than resigning it to my "things to file away one day" folder on my desktop, I decided to play around with it a bit. The original brief called for a mixture of healthy and unhealthy snacks, so being my own AD now I was able to leave the healthy stuff out!
now in duo-color!
the tuck shop that took over the world.
I'm still very much a novice when it comes to screen printing and still find my sessions at the print studio a slightly stressful affair... but thought I'd give it a pop...
When I was at uni I took a whole semester of Greek Art of which I have absolutely no recollection. While having a clear out the other day I found a pile of old art history essays which I don't remember writing either. Hmmm... Gothic Art & Architecture and Colonial American Art are pretty blurry memories too.
Anyways, after flicking through an old Greek Art book (did I buy that?) these funny little terracotta sculptures caught my eye...
And 'inspired' me...
I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it, but it was a good challenge working in only a few colours.
I was sad to discover that I look less 'sexy librarian' and more 'thelma from scooby doo'.
March was a funny month for me. I'd been struggling with working at computer for a while as I began to notice there was something not quite right with my vision. Its partly the reason I haven't posted anything in a while as typing for any length of time has been giving me bad headaches.
At first I just put it down to eye strain but as things weren't getting any better I booked myself in for an eye test, and discovered that I have one eye mildly shortsighted and one mildly longsighted. And basically its confusing my brain. Hardly a superhero skill, is it?
Anyways, I have new specs now though my brain still hasn't adapted...
suddenly everyones wearing glasses
Excuses for not blogging aside, heres a rush job I did last week for an education supplement with The Guardian
It was sort of a complicated brief. I had to illustrate the ideas laid out in an flowchart type infographic created by the QCA regarding reform to the school curriculum... basically about a broader types of subjects, flexible teaching for each student, and more involvement within the community, etc
I think originally the flowchart was going to be printed then pulled, hence the 24 hour deadline. With this amount of detail it would have been handy to have a little more time, but sometimes it's good just to get your head down and get on with it.
It's all different then when I was a school and I had to double check all the subject abbreviations... there was no 'D&T' or 'Citizenship' when I was at high school and French was just French and not 'Modern Foriegn Languages'. Apparently Mandarin is the MFL of choice these days.
At my school there was just a lot of metalwork and home economics...oh and secretarial studies. I still have no idea where the home keys are though.
