Kathryn Corlett // Illustration and Design

I bloody l♥ve noodles

2012-02-07T09:45:00.001Z

I made this ages ago and totally forgot to post it. I meant to do a series and get them made into badges. The best made plans ...

It's true. I really do.

Foxes! // Amelia's Magazine

2012-02-01T16:16:00.000Z

I did another drawing earlier this week for Amelia's Magazine, this time to accompany an article about the Brighton based bank Foxes! Who are actually well good, sort of Belle and Sebastian gone a bit electronic. Check out the article over here, it also features a drawing by my lovely colleague Gemma Cotterell have a look at her blog. If you want to google the band make sure you include the ! there are so many bands called Fox or something related to that.

To Dry For // Tea Towel Competition // DRINK COFFEE

2012-01-31T10:06:00.000Z

Competiton time again. This time run by the makers of the world's most informative, cute, stylish and funny tea towels To Dry For. I entered this competition last year also, sadly to no avail but then the tea towel that won was well good and mine was a admittedly a bit strange. To be honest this years entry is pretty weird too (IMHO) but hey ho, that is obviously how my mind works. I don't even like tea not sure why I want to save it from being scalded to death. I hope it's funny to some and not just odd. DRINK COFFEE! cos it really is possibly my favourite thing in the world and I'm ace so you should listen to me :)

Colorado State Lottery (banner adverts)

2012-01-25T11:53:00.000Z

Before Christmas I did some work for Cactus advertising agency on their new campaign for the Colorado State Lottery for the Powerball draw. The slogan of which being "Huge is better than big". These drawing are now animated and I would assume being displayed to the people of Colorado as they browse the internet. I will link the animations when I can, however in brief the action of the three ads is:

Smaller (bit still pretty large) sumo wrestler walks into wrestling ring dances about a bit and then a huge belly comes alongs and boshes him out of the ring. BIFF!

The setting is a monster truck arena, the lights flash, a car drives in and a monster truck falls down from the left on top of it crushing it, the from the right an even larger monster truck falls down on top of that monster truck crushing it. BAM!

Underwater setting with bubbles and rays of light beaming through the water a little fish swims along and floats in the middle of the frame. Suddenly from the right a larger fish comes along and gobbles its up. Then from the left a whale comes along and eats the larger fish, but then from the right a larger whale come and noshes down on the lot. Bit like the was an old lady who swallowed a spider, kinda. BOOM!

I'm most pleased with my whale. He's a happy and ever so slightly evil little chap.

Ohh Deer - Stuck on Repeat Stationery Competition

2012-01-19T13:32:00.000Z

And so the never-ending competition entering mission that seems to be becoming my life continues. This one is being run by the purveyors of lovely design and illustration products Ohh Deer . The competition is to design the cover for a new sketch/note book with the theme being Stuck on Repeat.

I doodled these little cassette tape dudes and thought they might make a nice repeat pattern (they have different faces depending on which way up they are, thought that was kinda cute, je suie une dork).

If you have to time to click this link and give me a like on Facebook or a tweet about my design, that would be most splendid of you.

Fanks
K
xx

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter // House of Illustration & Folio Society Competition

2012-01-10T21:09:00.000Z

It's that time of year again when the lovely folks over at The House of Illustration (champions of fine illustration) & the Folio Society (purveyors of fine books) run a competition to illustrate a new title. This year the chosen book was Angela Carters, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. A selection of short stories based upon classic fairytales but more 'grown up' versions basically more blood, violence and sex. This presented an awesome topic to illustrate, after much procrastination I finally finished my entries today and *drum roll* here they are. Wish me luck!!

COVER DESIGN

THE BLOODY CHAMBER

You never saw a wild thing as my mother, her hat seized by the winds and blown out to sea so that her hair was her white mane, her black lisle legs exposed to the thigh, her skirts tucked round her waist, one hand on the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my fathers service revolver and, behind her the breakers of the savage, indifferent sea, like the witnesses of a furious justice.

PUSS IN BOOTS

A-hunting we shall go! Loyal to the last I play catch as catch can with Tab's dead rats, giving the dying coup de grace and baying with resonant vigour to drown the extravagant screeches that break forth from that (who would have suspected?) more passionate woman as she comes off in fine style. (Full marks, Master.)

THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

What big arms you have.

All the better to hug you with.

Every wolf howled a prothalamion outside the window as she freely gave the kiss she owed him.

What big teeth you have.

The Miserable Rich & Lush Perfume // Amelia's Magazine

2011-10-24T09:52:00.000+01:00

I have done a couple of illustrations recently for articles on Amelia's Magazine.

The first one was for an article and interview with the band The Miserable Rich and the release of their new single "On a Certain Night" the video featured a creepy house and ghostly figures plus tarot cards. You can read the interview here.

The second illustration was to accompany an article about a new Lush perfume that is made up of three layers of scent inspired by stories of freedom from around the world and constructed by Simon Constantine. I was asked to illustrate the layer of scent entitles Old Delhi Station about his trip to Tibet to meet a monk, you can read all about it here. Due to my extreme over sensitivity to smell I can't walk past a Lush shop without feeling a bit sick and entering one is bluerghh tastic (sorry Lush I know you make lovely things tis just all a bit overpowering when experienced together).

A new range of cards (in development)

2011-10-20T22:18:00.000+01:00

These ones still need a spot of tweaking and I'm thinking of doing a range of general celebration cards and a range of Christmas cards, tis (getting toward) the season afterall. So more to come!! But they should all be available to buy from my etsy shop or me in person (at a various fairs) by mid November. Yeah!

Ghosts of Gone Birds // All Tropical Comp (Part Three)

2011-09-28T11:54:00.000+01:00

Last but by no means least this is the Mauritius Blue Pigeon native to (rather obviously) Mauritius, they became extinct in the 1830's. It would seem that we are not so responsible for this one – although habitat destruction and hunting are factors – with the blame for their extinction largely goes to Macaques. I wish all pigeons looked like this, Trafalgar Square sure would be a more interesting place if it were so.

Ghosts of Gone Birds // All Tropical Competition (Part Two)

2011-09-26T21:52:00.000+01:00

I liked it so much I decided to enter it twice. This happy little fella is the Pink Headed Duck thought to have been extinct in the wild since the 1950's orginally hailing from India. I might try to fit in another bird before the end of the week but I need to find another one which has a good but limited selection of colours in it's plumage, in order for it to work with the design and limits of the competition. Any suggestions??

South East London Zine Fest is coming!!!

2011-09-23T20:25:00.000+01:00

The Dinosaurs of Crystal Palace park wanted to let you know so the Megalosaurus posed for this illustration for me. It's at the Amersham Arms in New Cross on the 12 November and Monster Emporium Press are helping to organise it.

You can apply for a table here and follow the plans as the come to fruition here.

Ghosts of Gone Birds // All Tropical Competition

2011-09-21T11:07:00.000+01:00

Ghost of Gone Birds is a really interesting project that commissions a variety of artists to create responses to extinct bird species on order to promote conservation of endangered species and to "breathe artistic life back into" those already lost. The following from the All Tropical website explains in more detail:

The organisers of the Ghosts of Gone Birds project are raising a creative army for conservation through a series of multimedia exhibitions that breathe artistic life back into extinct bird species, celebrating their diversity through paintings & sculpture, talks & poetry, installations & live music.

The project presents a unique collection of originally commissioned artworks, literature and music from some of the UK’s leading contemporary artists, writers and performers including - Ralph Steadman, Sir Peter Blake, Rob Ryan, Billy Childish, Desmond Morris, Pete Fowler, Charming Baker, Jamie Hewlett, Kai and Sunny, Rebecca Jewell, Bruce Pearson, Olly and Suzi, Robert Gillmor, Dafila Scott and Jimi Goodwin - each one of them has adopted an extinct species and breathed life back into it through their creative talents (Jamie Hewlett from Gorillaz has a Hawaiian crow; Rob Ryan has the Stephen's Island wren; Holly Johnson went for liver birds, and Billy Childish the Reunion owl).

There is going to be an exhibition of the work at the Rochelle School, Shoreditch from the 2-23 November at which the T-Shirt that wins this competition will be sold.

There will be voting from the 7 October so I shall be calling on you all again when that comes around.

I chose to illustrate the Glaucous Macaw, this little guy isn't officially recognised as extinct – although Wikipedia has the species listed in it's extinct birds page. The species originates from South America but hasn't been spotted in the wild since 1960 and expeditions since then to try to find it have all failed. I felt it was a good choice to highlight the work of BirdLife's Preventing Extinctions Programme. Two very close relations of the Glaucous Macaw are the Lear's Macaw and the Hyacinth Macaw are endangered and likely to go the same way as their cousin if something isn't done about the variety of threats to their survival. I love the subtle gradient of colour of this parrot from head to tail, but it's a shame to be only able to draw it from approximations and illustrations, it is particularly sad to see so many photographs of dead birds turn up in a search, when alive their faces are beautiful and full of so much character and charm.

Vote CORLETT!! Don't Panic / Laurence King 20th Anniversary Poster Design Competition

2011-09-07T12:34:00.000+01:00

2011 will forever be known as the year of competitions.

Here's another one for you. The challenged to create a poster to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Laurence King publishers of a fine selection of creative arts books. Please if you have a chance could you vote for me, i think if you are logged into Facebook you just have to hit the like button :). Thanks! xx

Gogol Bordello // Amelia's Magazine // Wilderness Festival 2011

2011-08-17T14:43:00.000+01:00

This illustration was commissioned by Amelia Gregory of Amelia's Magazine for her review of Wilderness Festival 2011. Gogol Bordello headlined the Saturday night you can read Amelia's review here. I'd actually never heard them before Monday but the brand of crazy gypsy punk they are peddling is pretty awesome and I reckon they are rather exciting live as the eight piece band appear to have boundless energy. You can hear some of their music here. Loving that fiddle. Gone a bit clash-tastic with the colour scheme. What ya reckon? I think it might be a bit of a love it or hate it scenario ...

Here we go again! // All Tropical Competition // VOTE KATHRYN!!

2011-08-16T11:09:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately I never heard back from the Picture This! peeps about my submission to their competition :( and it seems a shame to never use this image for anything (especially as I was eventually really really pleased with the outcome). So I am entering the design into All Tropical's weekly competition, another chance for one of my illustrations to be printed as a T-shirt and to win £150. Your support would as always be greatly appreciated.

CLICK ME & VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!

Upstairs at the Ritzy // Flyer // Parakeets of Brixton!!

2011-08-15T20:28:00.001+01:00

This illustration is for the back of the Upstairs at the Ritzy flyer, which lists the upcoming events for the bar above the Ritzy Picturehouse Cinema in Brixton (tis my favourite cinema in London but I might be a bit bias).

The brief was to produce something Music or Brixton related. In the wake of a week of rather depressing events throughout the whole of London I decided to make an illustration that is positive and colourful, something that would reflect the diverse and rich culture of the area in which the cinema is located. I've also been thinking about drawing these birds for a while, this little guy is the Alexandrine Parakeet, a character that has taken up residence in South London.

Creature ABC // Undulate Ray // Endangered Creature Alphabet

2011-07-18T11:51:00.000+01:00

It was way back in May that Creature Mag put a call out to contribute to this endangered animal themed project and in fact some of my suggestions for animals made it through to the final cut. Most significantly the Kakapo which I first came across in the TV series 'Last Chance to See' feat. Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine a return to the radio series produced back in the 80's by Mark and Douglas Adams. Revisiting the endangered animals from that show to see how they were doing now (unfortunately some are in fact extinct). The Kakapo is an idiot of evolution, a bird that became so comfortable with its environment and lack of predators that it lost the ability to fly. This seemed particularly significant to me, here was a creature that was getting along perfectly fine until we came along and introduced a bunch of predators into it's environment. It seems just that we are doing something to make a mends for the situation.

Anyway relevant tho this is I didn't actually get to draw this bird, I was assigned this little dude (above), the Undulate Ray. Initially my reaction being, how the crap am I gonna draw that??!!!?!?! I had no idea how a creature like this might move, and I really don't think you can draw something correctly without having a feel for its movement, this being such an intrinsic part of what makes each animal unique (epecially fish right?). Thank fully I found a video of one swimming along the bottom of the sea bed – as is their way. It is really quite a beautiful little thing you gotta love how it errmmm undulates. You can see all the other contributions in the final e-book below. Enjoy! (Also after that why not enjoy a small rant from me about the sea and the threat to the Undulate Ray).

Open publication

Endangered-ness wise this is probably the one creature in this book that we can all (well those of us in the UK) directly have an impact on as it lives round our shores. If you see Skate for sale make sure it isn't Undulate Ray and if you can't be sure don't buy it, it is a protected species and has been banned from commercial fishing since 2009.

If you want to know more about the utter all round devastation we are causing in our seas can I recommend you watch the Horizon: Death of the Ocean series available here on youtube (this is about the results of the recent marine census), Hugh's Fish Fight over on 4OD (and sign his petition to change EU legislation in regard to fish quotas) and End of the Line a very revealing documentary that will make you think twice about which fish you buy. If you want there to still be fish in the seas in 50 years time you'd better start paying some attention to this situation.

Fair Ohs // Flamingo Magazine

2011-07-16T11:48:00.002+01:00

Having only discovered Flamingo Magazine last week I replied to a twitter request for artists to illustrate an interview with Fair Ohs (who sound a bit like Foals crossed with Paul Simon and a sitar i.e. good) this is the result.

The video for their new single features a very fat man wearing a Batman mask and a young guy jumping around dressed as Robin (think Adam West not Micheal Keaton, George Clooney, Val Kilmer or Christian Bale). Its quite pretty, really tho I guess it doesn't sound like it's going to be from that description. Anyway this image is inspired by that video (which it turns out is apparently some sort of revenge in joke) and their eclectic musical influences. You can read the full interview and see the image in context here.

SPACE Exhibition // Cardiff Design Festival

2011-07-11T15:08:00.001+01:00

This an image created for submission to the SPACE Exhibition which will be happening at some point during Cardiff Design week 2011. It's open submissions and the final show will be curated by Ben Cox, Managing Director of The Central Illustration Agency. Hopefully I will make it to the print stage of the show. The theme is space and here is a little explanation of how this image came to be ...

As an Science Fiction fan this seemed like the perfect exhibition for me to create a piece for. However when it came to conceiving of a image to draw all I could think of were my experiences with friends, on still clear nights in various country side locations looking up at the stars. I haven't travelled a huge amount but one of the places I have had the pleasure of visiting is Yosemite National Park in California, it was pretty darn amazing. I hope to return one day and perhaps it will look something like this.

Picture This // Part Two // Finished Spread

2011-07-06T14:34:00.000+01:00

So this is what that should have looked like when I handed it in on Monday (if only I had been more organised). I was going to just leave it and be annoyed with myself for messing up but I thought it best to finish it otherwise I would never be able to look at it again (see previous post for original). Over dramatic? Perhaps, but true.

I hate people who ask themselves questions and answer them in the same sentence (its massively over done in the comedy documentary format 'ironically' I'm sure – see Parks and Recreation, which incidentally is actually pretty good)

Beauty & the Beast // Picture This // Waterstones Competition

2011-07-04T21:17:00.000+01:00

Picture This is a competition run by Waterstone's in partnership with the Telegraph and Harper Collins Childrens Books. This year Michael Morpurgo is rewriting the nations favourite fairytale (as voted by the public) and they are looking for an unpublished illustrator to work with him on this exciting project.

So I only found out about this last week which has meant it's all been a bit rushed (I haven't really finished the double page spread to a degree that I am happy with), the deadline was today and this saw me rush across London to Kew to hand it in to the Waterstone's offices in person literally just in time to meet the deadline. All a bit nerve racking. I am very pleased with my character designs and I think this competition has made me realise that this is a illustrative direction that I particularly enjoy. Investigating style across a variety of eras and drawing from all kinds of source material in order to create an impression of a personality, tis definitely enjoyable to me.

Time for you guys to get those fingers crossed again

A couple of projects ...

2011-06-28T21:04:00.000+01:00

.. that I forgot to blog about.

Back in May Attitude is Everything asked me to produce them a poster for their Glastonbury showcase, obviously the week after Glastonbury is not the ideal time to be blogging about this, anyway here it is. After much faffing about with trumpet hands I eventually dropped that idea and came up with this. It incorporate elements of my camel drawing. By all accounts it was a great success, there are photos of the fun on Facebook.

The beginning of June saw a new project from the most excellent Emergency Exit Arts to the epic pain of my little macbook they asked me to produce a exhibition banner that comes in at about 2 and a half metres tall. But making big things is fun and I am well pleased with the result as are they! Hopefully this will be the start of a beautiful working partnership.

The Big Draw at City of London Festival // 7-10 July

2011-06-28T16:58:00.000+01:00

These events sound really really good, gonna try to head along to some of them. You should too. Here is a link to more info about the awesomeness that is The Big Draw.

All Tropical Competition // Part Two // VOTE KATHRYN!!

2011-06-28T11:35:00.000+01:00

I am through to the second round of judging for the Shoreditch Festival T-Shirt Competition SCHWING! Should hear about that later this week. However I need your help again! I am entering another design for the weekly competition over at All Tropical I would really appreciate some feedback and votes for it.

VOTE KATHRYN!!

Shoreditch Festival T-Shirt Competition // VOTE FOR ME!!!

2011-06-16T13:01:00.000+01:00

This is my entry to the All Tropical Shoreditch Festival T-Shirt Competition. Please head over there and give me a vote. I've gotta win a competition eventually!

Polish Book Cover Contest (50 Watt) // To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2011-05-17T17:16:00.001+01:00

This is a contest from my new favourite blog 50 Watts it's basically an archive of some of the most awesome design I have ever seen.

The competition brief is simple "Design the Polish edition of your favorite book". I have chose To Kill A Mockingbird – or in Polish Zabić Drozda - by Harper Lee, it's a seriously fantastic book, if you haven't read it then you should, now, right now in fact.

Wish me luck! I will let you know how I get on.

If Camels Could Sing ...

2011-05-16T20:35:00.000+01:00

"Hi, I'm a camel. When I open my mouth this crazy shit comes out. It's pretty, pretty, right? Yeah I thought so too."

I watched the deserts Human Planet the other day, it had camels in it. Camels are cool, like fezs and stetsons. Fish fingers and custard. Ahem.

Walrus-Hare-Lizard-Sloth Monster

2011-05-16T15:41:00.001+01:00

I'd be hard pushed to explain exactly what this is about or why I drew it. It is the product of me and my friend Tom and our drawing club*, plus a book about monsters and another about animals. He also brought round a box of twisters ... so i guess that explains that part. It's silly and I like it.

*This is really just an excuse for us to hang out and make work like we did before when we lived together.

Butcher the Bar // Creaturemag

2011-05-11T09:56:00.001+01:00

I did this illustration for a creaturemag interview with the lovely singer songwriter Butcher the Bar a while back, you can now read the interview and listen to some of his songs over here.

PAAAAKKKKKARRRPPPPPP!!!!!!

2011-05-10T19:03:00.000+01:00

Koo-Koo-Ka-Cha!!

Girls Who Fight 3 // Monster Emporium Press

2011-05-02T14:27:00.001+01:00

As you probably already know I am one of three that make up Monster Emporium Press a small press based in South London. Wepublish zines, artists book and small works of fiction. The most recent addition to this collection being Issue 3 of Girls Who Fight zine, a zine for all publishing contributions from those female persuasion, designed and edited by myself and Mira Mattar. Cover Illustration by everyones favourite Australia based artist Mimi Leung.

My contribution to this issue, in a salute to my long standing TV series obsession, is a drawing of my favourite female TV characters - lo brow tastic - you may notice a strong Joss Whedon influence. See if you can name all the shows/actresses.

GWF3 is available for the bargain price of £3, if you wish to purchase a copy of the zine please email hive@monsteremporiumpress.org.uk or come visit us at the International Alternative Press Festival at Conway Hall, London on the 28th May. Alternatively you can view a pdf here.

Greetings Cards!

2011-04-27T15:04:00.000+01:00

I now have a range of greetings card which are available from my brand spanking new Etsy shop.

They are printed on 340gsm FSC certified stock, satin coated on the outside and uncoated inside so you can add your own personal message. Each card comes with a lovely red envelope. Why not take a look!

Tea Towel Design

2011-04-15T14:06:00.000+01:00

I entered a competition a few weeks ago with the lovely To Dry For folks just found out that unfortunately I didn't win, oh well one of these days victory shall be mine. What is does mean though is that I am now allowed to post my entry. So here it is.

What are you gonna do? Eh?

Mammoth Repeat

2011-04-05T17:53:00.000+01:00

The other day me and my friend Tom did this tutorial on the Design Sponge website in order to make repeat pattern drawings, its a really cool tutorial and really effective, i managed to mess mine up somehow so that the left hand and right hand sides don't quite line up so it needs manual tweaking to make the tile work. Next time I will get it right. Think I might get this made up as wrapping paper, if I can find somewhere cheap to do it. Anyway this is set up so it can be used as yer desktop wallpaper (screen resolution 1280 x 800) if you happen to fancy finding it really hard to see your icons :) enjoy

Submission for Illustration Rally - Portraits // Part 3

2011-03-16T23:06:00.000Z

This week the theme of the portrait rally is Science Fiction, potentially my favourite theme of anything ever. I was going to draw Isaac Asimov as he has epic sideburns and i may well still do that tomorrow evening but today i was compelled by a keyring i have to draw E.T. This film was made in the year i was born, i think that's partly why i like it so much, but it's undeniably great, right? Well, i think it is.

Submission for Illustration Rally - Portraits // Part 2

2011-03-09T16:19:00.000Z

I couldn't resist drawing David Lynch's hair, its truly awe inspiring. I have a theory that Charlie Brooker is attempting to slowly turn himself into David Lynch (in appearance alone), i tweeted at him about it but he didn't reply, i take this an admission of it being the truth.

I think David Lynch would be a pretty cool dinner guest unless he started ranting about Transcendental Meditation and making unintentionally offensive statements about the Third Reich.

Submission for Illustration Rally - Portraits // Part 1

2011-03-07T20:41:00.000Z

This month the magnificent blog illustrationrally has the theme Portraits, with different sub-theme for each week to denote exactly who these portraits are of. This week it's ideal dinner party guests with a choice to draw one of these guys/gals .... David Lynch, Nick Cave, Björk or Marianne Faithfull. I gone done me a drawing of the lovely Björk, might do Mr Cave or Lynch tomorrow too. Whoop!

Some things, some people said about books. That i like.

2011-03-07T12:48:00.000Z

"Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the music to someone who can play it, releasing it into the air where it can once more be heard. And the black alphabet marks on the page represent words that were once spoken, if only in the writer’s head. They lie there inert until a reader comes along and transforms the letters into living sounds. The reader is the musician of the book: each reader may read the same text, just as each violinist plays the same piece, but each interpretation is different."

Margaret Atwood, 2011 (excerpt from this article).

"If you only read books that everyone else is reading you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

Nagasawa. Norweigan Wood, Haruki Murakami.

A sketch for Gatsby

2011-02-04T14:48:00.000Z

Whilst designing 'The Great Gatsby' cover below i did another sketch which i eventually moved away from for the final design but i thought seeing as i had done it i should probably finish it. So here it is! She was going to be crying in to a cocktail glass but i never finished drawing the glass, thereby making the image pretty irrelevant to the book but nonetheless a nice image, though she could definitely do with looking a bit sadder.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

2011-01-26T15:07:00.001Z

This is an illustration for a competition over on The Fox is Black website.

Bit un-nerving to be able to see all the other entries there already. Have been wanting to do book covers for a while, this an The Outsider are hopefully the start of something bigger. Not submitted yet, think it might need an additional colour, but i need a break from looking at it ...

********** UPDATE **********

From Kathryn Corlett

So I kinda had just shoved the authors name in there in a font that i had considered using for the title before deciding to do it by hand. Following the original post this was called into question and i decided i had been lazy, i have therefore redone this bit of text and am much happier with it now. Thanks to Mr Velky for the constructive criticism xx

p.s. blogger is driving me crazy i may have to switch, where is the compatibility between picasa and blogger??? they are both made by google for christs sake!!

House of Illustration/Folio Society - The Outsider, Albert Camus // COMPETITION

2011-01-10T23:24:00.001Z

WAHHHHOOOO!!! Just finished my drawings and entered! To be quite honest I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. They should probably be a bit darker but if I win the other scenes i have picked will be. Wish me luck.

I made a comic ... entered it in a competition ...

2010-10-07T21:45:00.000+01:00

innit. fingers crossed.

what they could do, they did // forest cafe, edinburgh // 6th aug (THIS FRIDAY!!!!) // 9pm - 3am

2010-08-03T14:50:00.001+01:00

its gonna be fan-blimmin-tastic. come celebrate 10 years of joy at the forest with us! xxxx

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Attitude at Glastonbury

2010-06-28T22:56:00.000+01:00

Bit late posting this as its just happened but this is the flyer i did for this years Attitude showcase in the Shangri La Zone at Glastonbury (wish i coulda been there, dagnabbit!) and they finally got through a year without it didn't pissing it down. Was a bit of a drugstore fan back in the day, glad to see they've reformed. Here is the flyer on the glasto website, apparently it was on the front page for a while :) xx

Something a drew ages ago during jury duty ...

2010-06-18T13:09:00.001+01:00

stack-o-birds

The Adventures of Allerbmu III

2010-05-04T20:59:00.000+01:00

A little something me and Amy rustled up a few summers ago.

Buy my T-Shirts!

2010-05-01T20:35:00.000+01:00

here available in a range of colours, t-shirt types and sizes

you can also buy the new attitude t-shirts (see below post for the design) here.

T-shirtarama!!

This is just the beginning.

And the whole which they became ... Plus Darren Haymen at Cargo 25th March

2010-03-19T22:05:00.000Z

This night is gonna be aces, a fine selection of performers plus its free before 9!! and you can buy t-shirts with my design on them which is really the best reason for you to come along!!!

Parts of what will become a whole

2010-02-20T12:59:00.000Z

Weekend of work! I am a drawing machine.

2010-02-03T23:54:00.000Z

January started off bad with a sick ridden welcoming in of the new year and a whole new years day of pain, oh wine why do i keep hurting myself with you???

Other things that immediately made up for this and made January great are:

snow, glorious snow which resulted in me smiling uncontrollably at uncontrollable snow disruption, why this made me so happy i don't know, i guess its the act of accepting that there is nothing you can do about a situation (no annoyance just strange joy). falling over on bum, ice skating along pavements generally great.

still not smoking but not even thinking about it at all on many days, this is even better.

starting to run after work, pain but progress

walking through the park in the winter sun on the way to brixton (park was way better than brixton, busy, people money bah!). walking stanley through the snow with LC and making him chase after snowballs which then vanished in the snow and confused the hell out of him.

there has been alot of uncontrollable random smiling in the past couple of weeks, i can only attribute this to the reappearance of the sun and the fact that i am slowly slowly becoming not an unfit boozy smoky bastard. (still doing the boozy bit tho :) .. )

overtime pay from december came through, whoop whoop. saving account looking pretty aces.

the blight on all this joy is the fact that i drew absolutely nada in January, i made myself feel bad about this almost every day, but still, feeling cold and guilty i crawled into bed with several more episodes of 30 rock and drew nothing every night for several weeks. but no more oh no! no more. deadlines shall be set and work shall be finished and all round well being will exist.

These are doodles, the two on the right were drawn with a barclays free black biro proclaiming to be made out of recycled paper plates. the other is the first of hopefully many ventures into the world of drawing directly into my 'puter with my wacom tablet. not as easy as i had first anticipated but definitely getting better ...

oh and to prove to mel that the tattoo shall be forthcoming

2009-10-12T21:38:00.001+01:00

i started drawing swallows today. btw if you google the word 'swallow' you get more than you bargained for ...

drawing people so the look like the people you are trying to draw is really really hard

2009-10-12T21:00:00.000+01:00

my attempts at janeane garafolo, for inclusion in the next issue of girls who fight (hopefully out by the end of this month) ...

IN AGREEMENT - YEAH!! MEP has a logo

2009-10-03T17:26:00.001+01:00

and soon it shall have a website too which will look something like the image below ...

POLITICIANS by TOM MOORE published by MONSTER EMPORIUM PRESS

2009-09-30T21:17:00.000+01:00

Blood, Sweat but thankfully no tears. Don't worry i didn't get these things actually on the book. Available from your favourite unfortunately acronymed publishing company now for £7 + postage (or collection/hand delivery next time i see you), contact me if you want one!!! we have not mastered any sort of ordering system or calculated any postage.

See whats in it on Toms blog.

Features red lino printed sleeve and cover, plus all hand sewn and cut by these fair hands.

oh oh look at how pretty it is ...

disclaimer: these crappy images were taken with my phone, hopefully a professional will be improving on them asap.

ahhh quick quick post before we run out of september!!

2009-09-30T20:58:00.001+01:00

one week two posts WTF!!

it became ever so unbelievable clear that we needed a company identity when we turned up to publish and be damned last weekend with nothing that explained who we are whatsoever. we laid our lovely zines out and our table looked aces but i bet you not one person knew what we were called. i wrote it in pink pen on a scrap of paper i stole from the lobby of oxford house but that just looked shit, and aesthetic shitness is not something i am at all at ease with. as you will know if you have ever met me.

i always knew the concept of branding might cause slightly issues between myself and a certain member of Monster Emporium Press and as we get further embroiled in this issue it becomes more and more apparent than previously that design by consensus is a frickin bad idea. but we shall persevere and eventually there will be a logo and there will be business cards and there will be a beautiful beautiful website. i have been working on designs, here is a selection of ideas in the making:

Birthday Octopus!!!

2009-09-29T22:18:00.000+01:00

This was originally drawn for the 1 year anniversary of WTCDTD doing monthly nights at Escape bar, sadly this event never occurred due to unforeseen planning issues. The drawing lay half finished on my desk for many months until i decided it needed to be finished and so it is.

This is well old but was never finished ...

2009-09-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

until today

Merton Hall and The Pictures Zine and Humongous September

2009-09-03T21:59:00.000+01:00

So i have finally finished my parents website. Whoop whoop!!! It has pictures and everything. Go stay with these lovely people. I may be a little bit biased but i think they're ace :).

In other news Monster Emporium Press has acquired a new publication, this addition is The Pictures Zine - Issue 2 produced in association with the monthly film night of the same name (minus the zine bit) and by the illustrious Garry Sykes. I personally recently nearly caused my hands to fall off by hand trimming 40 copies for the launch night of said zine at Bardens Boudoir. You can see more of Garry at Graven Images.

Girls Who Fight 2 is also in the works (you can see the first issue here) and should hopefully be ready for Publish and Be Damned 2009 on the 27th September as should a book collecting the works of one Tom Moore some of which can be seen on his blog. Phew! and also a selection of greetings cards, stickers and posters produced by my own fair hands (well maybe the hands of some printers also). September is gonna be a big one.
x

Something i've been working on for toms mum

2009-07-28T22:09:00.000+01:00

i've been well lax and this has taken me ages but it is finally

***DRUMMM ROLLLLL***

FINISHED!!

the brief i was given for this was quite simply, tap dancing flamingo with the words 'fabulous creature' on it somewhere.

now, i was being rather indecisive about the arrangement of the dancers (tho not til i had almost finished it) this one ....

is the original arrangement. this one ...

is another possibility, the tail bit of the main bird was making me unhappy about the way the left side was working compositionally, now this might point to me being rather a perfectionist (who knows). which one do you prefer??

in the end it is really up to mandy which will be the final one but i'd like other opinions on them nonetheless.

soon there will be greetings cards, stickers and (fingers crossed) temporary tattoos available of my stuff. in the meantime, me and michael will be selling our wares under the new guise of monster emporium press at collaborama in london bridge this weekend. keep us in mind for all your publishing needs!

Opps i forgot to post this

2009-07-28T21:54:00.000+01:00

poor poor neglected blog, i missed you ... did you miss me???
attitude flyer for glastonbury

Sail/Swordfish or is it a Marlin and Sword-Bill Hummingbird

2009-05-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

are they in love or are they fighting, no one will ever know.

come to escape tomorrow biatches maybe i will tell you
x

And eight hours solid eye destroying later ...

2009-04-24T00:31:00.000+01:00

Here it is finished and coloured, please come along its gonna be great.

Almost a month between posts ...

2009-04-23T00:43:00.000+01:00

In this time i have discovered that 4OD is now available on macs and it is destroying my life. Need to get out in that there sunshine. I have also built my parents a website which is temporarily online here, (until i finish it) it is for their lovely b and b in south west wales. Why not pay them a visit ... its ace. Also i just finished a drawing for the next escape which is next week, arghh my goddamn slackness, i shall colour it tomorrow and it will be printed and splashed all over herne hill by saturday. oh bye gum it will. watch this space for more info, or rather maybe this space. There are more projects in the mix and soon i shall be pursuing that freelance career like a mo fo. Also They Did 3 is now finished and ace and what not, we shall be selling it from our very own stall at the London Zine Symposium, please come say hi, its at the rag factory just off brick lane on the 3rd of May, we'll be there all day.

A drawing for you:

k out
x

4/4 - more tired than relieved

2009-03-25T02:14:00.001Z

not so sure about this on ... may edit it slightly tomorrow

3/4 - there is almost relief

2009-03-23T23:30:00.000Z

2/4 - there is no relief

2009-03-22T21:22:00.000Z

1/4 - so it begins, hopefully it will end on sunday and there will be much relief

2009-03-21T17:36:00.000Z

fire breathing birds are the way forward!

2009-03-19T10:12:00.000Z

Attitude, WTCDTD - THEY DID, zine making & comic procrastination

2009-03-16T22:26:00.000Z

So tho it may not seem like it judging by my extreme lack of posting i have been uber busy, firstly i have been working on the design for the flyer for the next attitude is everything club night. pretty pleased with how it turned out. Come along it will be ace!

Also the new zine is coming along well, after a 6 month delay it is almost there, i posted the front cover for it a while back this has changed slightly and the content is look awesome, will post a link to the pdf when its up and if you want to buy a copy why not come along to the next escape night curated by the editors and a celebratory launch of said publication. Here is a flyer for your perusal. As ever free and fabulous come along and find out for yourself, its next thursday.

The next WTCDTD flyer is gonna feature a crazy phoenix like bird breathing fire (instead of being made of fire). Been doodling alot of birds in my 'spare time' la la la (see below).

What else, well there was the WTCDTD freakeasy at Shunt vaults at which i badgered my face up for to finally make use of the amazing badger hat that mimi gave me, this was literally the best night ever. Shunt is fantastic, shame it has the most gigantic queue known to man every weekend.

Also working on a website for my parents new b&b in Wales, and i'm gonna go visit them after escape when all the 'they did' work is done

A selection of birds ...

As far as the comic poem which is going to be in the zine, please refer to title of this post. I am having serious issues starting this, must sort out the zine layout first and then i have absolutely no excuses.

gigposters.com

2009-02-16T20:25:00.000Z

me on gigposters.com whoop whoop. for some reason they rejected a bunch of stuff i sent them a while ago, hence all the other posters i have on here are rather out of date, something which i shall remedy post haste. i should point out that it is not really a huge achievement to get on this website, but its still quite cool seeing my stuff on the front page of a site that i really like.

YEAHHHHH!!!

2009-02-12T23:07:00.000Z

I really really really thought i was gonna hate this flyer, turns out i quite like it. come along everyone! next thursday, t'will be ace as always

Progress Report ...

2009-02-11T00:38:00.001Z

time for bed

Flyer by Friday oh yeah!

2009-02-09T23:49:00.001Z

i am the speed flyer creator, mwhahahahaha

he looks a bit less mean than originally intended, does the medusa thing actually work? maybe not but that caterpillar is the best thing in the world.

First Capital Connect

2009-02-09T19:32:00.000Z

so i've been talking about this drawing for a while.

first capital connect/southwest trains today helped me to break my creative block, who would have thought not reading a book and taking a pencil with me on my way to work was really all i needed to do. really need to find a way to stop this happening all the time ... i think maybe i might be a bit naive in thinking that trains are the solution.

right anyway now i shall turn these into a flyer for What They Could Do, They Did: a+b=c a collaboration with the Beatabet collective, here i go ...

What they could doodle ....

2009-01-19T21:53:00.000Z

.. whilst at work (have been thinking about making a doodle project for ages, maybe i will do it ... everyone doodles, right?). Been trying to work on different ways of drawing eyes; reporters notebooks do not make ideal sketchbooks.

I went to the V&A on Saturday, therefore i am currently thinking about Samurai Warriors, Chinese and Hindu mythology and for some reason Medusa, it think the latter is related to watching the film Teeth the other week and nothing to do with the V&A, this film is amazing but disturbing in many many ways, the bit with the dog actually made me feel a bit sick. You should still watch it. There is the potential for a Medusa related drawing at some point in the coming weeks, tho it will probably combine some sort of chinese lion or dragon also.

FINISHED!!!!

2009-01-15T00:58:00.001Z

Yeah!! And the flyers are gonna be printed in colour too (not just the posters) whoop whoop!

Getting There ..

2009-01-13T00:47:00.000Z

Hopefully should be able to finish this tomorrow if Graham sorts out the rest of the copy and finds out what the other bands are gonna be called .... Hell Yeah!
p.s. the colours look way better in CMYK as they were intended to be, damn that light spectrum it is always my downfall

WHOOP WHOOP!

2009-01-07T23:39:00.001Z

Now what colours shall it be hmmmmm......

AH HA

2009-01-06T22:42:00.000Z

Think i might know what i'm gonna do for this flyer, had somewhat of a revelation. Just a sketch but i think it could be good, tomorrow i shall draw it properly.
Crazy monkey drum tongue thing i shall call it. Mwahahahaha.

A New Flyer for WTCDTD Escape is required ...

2009-01-06T21:46:00.000Z

I'm trying to think of ideas, this is one of several test, the others largely involved enormous tongues wrapped around beasts, they came out rather weird tho. Most of these have been scribbled on lined reporters notepads at my desk at work. Something may come of this, it may not, whatever happens it must happen soon.The next night WHAT THEY COULD DO THEY DID : UNDER THE COVERS happens on the 22nd of Jan at Escape Bar and Art in Herne Hill and is being curated by Mr Graham Griffiths, it will feature some fabulous acts all providing us with fabulous covers of some unexpected songs.

Front Cover for They Did 3 - Nearly FInished

2009-01-03T18:51:00.000Z

************************ UPDATE ************************

Finished all the colouring on the drawing so now just gotta sort out that darn back quote.

BTW this is a folded A4 front cover so only the right half of the image is techinically the front cover, the left half is the back.

Meat and Plastic in the Lost Hour

2009-01-03T14:13:00.000Z

Mr Shubhashish Golder was kind enough to many months ago compose a poem for me to turn into a comic, this is a task which i have for one reason or another postponed for along time, now I shall commence. Here is the poem plus some preliminary drawings

“Meat and Plastic in the Lost Hour”

A plastic hand to the right wrist,
The meat one buried by a fox,
Chewed fingers and a nibbled fist.

One special night, when the moon is bright and the sky is foggy
The clock ticks on the lost hour and
Both horrible hands come alive feeling drunk and groggy!

The meat hand wriggled out deep beneath the apple tree,
The plastic hand climbed from a bedside box,
Now both the hands were alive and free!

Into the house, up the stairs to his master's bedside
The meat hand returned, and would no longer be alone,
As he had found the plastic hand to be his bride!

Both hands rejoiced in each others palms
Together, they could travel here and afar
With very little matter that they had no arms!

Without eyes, tears could not be wept
Without a mouth words could not be spoken
Together they departed as their master slept.

The Meat hand lead his bride, now out of the grave
To the bathroom, down the stairs and led her to a razor
And with the foam she'd use to give him a shave

The stubble annoyed as he lay in a ditch
The blades trimmed the hair close to the skin and
Finally his Palm and fingers would no longer itch!

The turn of the Plastic hand had now come
And to the bedroom dresser, led the Meat
Towards a bottle of polish to paint her thumb

The meat hand painted each fingers' nail
And used the hair dryer to ensure they
Were smooth and shiny without fail.

The unwelcome clock chimed the passing of the hour,
The meat hand would return to his grave,
Without the Plastic hand, his precious little flower

The Meat and the Plastic hands were no longer near,
Sadly, the Plastic hand returned to her wooden box,
To await the Lost Hour, the following year.