Hangin' with Muse

Wayne's World  Meeting Alice Cooper : We're not worthy!

If you've read some of my previous posts (like this one) you might know that I'm a massive fan of Muse. That's why I was super-excited last week, not only because I saw them in concert but because I got to HANG OUT BACKSTAGE AND MEET THEM! It was completely surreal to be casually talking to the Muse guys after years of listening to their music, reading countless interviews and seeing them live so many times. But it was great because they were super-lovely and very down-to-earth, happily signing my guitar for me and chatting to me about the cricket. Going backstage reminded me a bit of the 'We're not worthy' scene in Wayne's World. My pal Sarah (who I've mentioned before here) heard my incessant talk about Muse and came up with a comic to describe my meeting with them. It's cute! You can view it here, and you can also check out her previous weekly Friday comics here.

Want

Yowsers! Anything with skulls and kustom graphics gets my attention and I have just found out about two very cool-looking books, both published by Korero Books. The first is called The Day of the Dead: Celebrating the Dia de Los Muertos in Pop Art, Graphics and Installations. But since it hasn't been released yet, I have only seen the awesome cover. The second image is a spread from the book 666 Photography.

Brass Monkey - That Funky Monkey

For the last couple of weeks, I've had the song Brass Monkey by The Beastie Boys stuck in my head as I prepared for the exhibition of my works at the Brass Monkey venue. And happily, everything worked out great. The illustrations filled the rooms really well and I was glad I put all that extra effort into finding nice frames. Got some positive feedback which was really encouraging. The only downer is that nearly all the photos I took that night turned out pretty blurry - gah!

Hot Shoe Shuffle

Wow, since I've been talking about online mags recently, I wanted to share another one I just stumbled across. It's called Shuffle Magazine and it is awesomely awesome - really great content and interviews as well as pretty pictures.

Rojo & Garabato

I love online design magazines (especially as they're free!) and Rojo & Garabato is definitely one of my faves. Its half in Spanish, half English, and features a real global mix of designers, photographers, illustrators... you name it. They featured an interview with me way back in Issue 6 and they were kind enough to feature my work again for the special commemorative Issue 10. I've posted a few pics below of some spreads in this issue, as it's worth checking out - they even have a section at the back where the designers were able to ask the magazine questions.

The Frame Game

Not long until the exhibition! Have never gotten so many papercuts in my life - an unfortunate result of the framing process. Sorry for the grainy photo.

Exhibitionist

Next Thursday I will be exhibiting some of my illustrations at The Brass Monkey hotel in the lounge area. I'm looking forward to it because in the past I've only ever contributed one or two illustrations to an exhibition, but this time I will have to fill a whole space with my creations. After the opening night I guess I will be a seasoned exhibitionist, but for now, I'm still agonizing over what frames to use. It opens on the 9th December and lasts for three months, so if you live in Perth why don't you stop by?

Mystery Guitar Man

Recently I've been working on a small video project, which is something I'm pretty clueless about. As a graphic designer and illustrator I'm so used to thinking about things as flat images, so this video project was a bit of a challenge at first. A friend suggested I check out the videos of Mystery Guitar Man for inspiration, and man, they are just amazing! Every week he comes up with a couple of short vids that combine sight and sound in a fun way. He even created a short film to propose to his girlfriend.
Check it out!

Prints

So the last week or so I've been busy organizing high quality prints of some of my illustrations. I was pretty picky originally when it came to choosing a paper stock and printer, but I'm so glad I took my time deciding, because I was so happy with how they turned out (yay!). The funny thing with creating new illustrations is that sometimes I don't even realize how many I've produced, since I don't really take the time to look back on everything I've done. That's why it was great this week to see everything printed as a collection - it helps me to identify new things I might like to try in the future.

Keep on Rollin'

Rolling Stone has to be one of my favourite magazines. For me, the best period was during 1990-2000 because they had so many memorable covers, amazing artists, interesting articles and awesome photography. These days, the overall design of RS just seems a bit bland compared to the 90s. I've been collecting old RS editions for the past few years now and although I love reading the old issues, space has become a bit of an issue since they take up a few boxes worth of space at home. But recently I bought a 4 disc set that has EVERY Rolling Stone issue from 1967 - 2007. It's possible to read articles, search for artists and save reading lists. Usually I'm not really into reading stuff on a computer screen, but there is no way I could store over 40 years worth of RS issues in my house! For a music and pop culture junkie like myself, this is a bit insane! Technology, eh?   :)

La Adelita

Here's a sneaky peek of an illo I just finished for a magazine. It's based on the legendary figure Adelita, who was a soldadera in the Mexican Revolution.

AMMO

A couple of months back, I was invited to do an illustration for a British magazine called AMMO. The brief was pretty open: create an illo to fit in with the theme of 'play.' Well, since I love music it was pretty obvious to me to do something relating to playing an instrument. So that's where the idea of the girl and her broken guitar comes from. Usually, my illustration style is to do all the linework and colour in a vector program, but this time I wanted to try something a bit different so I drew all the lines in pencil, scanned it, then coloured it digitally. Last week AMMO magazine was delivered to my mailbox, and I was so pleased to see how it turned out. No matter how long I spend looking/agonising over an illo when I'm drawing it, I never get tired of the feeling of seeing something in print!

Xpress

A few months ago I designed an ad for a competition held by Keep Australia Beautiful. The brief was to design a print ad which would encourage people to dispose of their trash thoughtfully. I created the message with actual pieces of trash that I picked up. The amazing thing I found out was, so much trash is littered NEAR a bin, when it would be just as easy to put it inside. Anyways, the ad was chosen as the winner, so last week it was published in Xpress. I read Xpress every week, so it was really cool to see my ad there - it made picking up all those yucky cigarette butts worthwhile!

Issues

I love finding out about new designers and illustrators, and while online blogs and websites are great for that, I still love buying magazines and checking out the work in 'real life.' Anyways, two cool mags I've seen recently are Sasquatch and Ferocious Quarterly.

(image http://sasquatchmag.com)

Sasquatch is a new Aussie mag about design/lifestyle/culture. Looks like so much effort has been put into every page! I think the only way to get your hands on it at the moment is through the website.

 (image http://fe.rocious.com/)

Ferocious Quarterly is another cool one that I stumbled across on the web the other day. It's an American mag, and what I like most is the type treatment - texture-y!

Patterns!

I've been looking at patterns for a while now, and it's something that I would like to have a go at, but sometimes it's so tricky getting your head around how to repeat the design. My friend Sarah does some amazing vector patterns, its the type of stuff I can imagine seeing on sneakers and notebook covers. Looking at it makes me want to try creating some! You can check out the rest of her stuff here.

Live wire

The Wire music liftout in last week's West Australian newspaper published my recent illustration of Paramore, plus a small blurb and a link to my website.

Look book

Brian Ewing is one of my fav designers, I first found out about him back in 2005 through the Art of Modern Rock book. He has done so many awesome gig posters, so I was very happy when he recently released a book of his work called Don't Hold Your Breath. It's so interesting to read his comments about each poster, and his work is just amazing. Definitely worth checking out!

Talkin' junk

I was so delighted when the guys at Trunk Junk Quarterly asked if they could ask me a few interview questions for their website. Honestly, I felt like a bit of a celebrity! Anyways, you can read the full transcript of the interview here. Also, while you're there check out the rest of the Trunk Junk site - their first issue will be out Sept 24.

Muse news

Ok, so I've been a huge fan of Muse since forever (yes, forever!), and last year I went to see them in concert in Glasgow. I was so surprised when recently I got an email from the people at Big Day Out, asking if they could use photos I took at that concert to promote their upcoming Australian tour in December. Could they ever! The pic here is taken from the BDO homepage http://www.bigdayout.com

Inkygoodness

How exciting! Last month I finished an illustration for AMMO Magazine (which is an awse publication) and the launch for issue 4 will be an exhibition at Inkygoodness in London on the 2nd of September. Unfortunately, being a million miles away in Perth, I'll just have to wait for the postie to deliver the magazine.

Blanket

I just found out today that Blanket magazine featured three of my illos in their latest edition. There's also some nice stuff about embroidery and lino printing. http://blanketmagazine.com/

My new blog!

Yay!! It looks like I have finally gotten around to creating a blog. I'm going to use this space for posting about any new illustration or design work, as well as behind-the-scenes stuff and what inspires me. Stay tuned...