Peculiar Bliss

Mark has known about Peculiar Bliss (an online zine) for a while and it's almost becoming a regular thing for him, but this time round myself and Ste decided to enter it alongside him.

Issue 7's brief was "Creatures"

Ste Brown:

Mark Mottershead:


Chris Howker:

this little bit made me laugh... as if i'm a name that will draw people in.. :P




Also got next issue to look forward to now and hopefully everyone else in the studio will join in on this one..

Update Oct.

this is a personal update as I havent been sent any new pics from the other members.. but these last few weeks I have spent working on a piece for Peculiar Bliss' brief of Creatures and the Manchester and Salford Illustrated project...


Masi:

Creature:

I also spent 1 afternoon tryin to put up curtain poles for that beaming sun we've had up north recently, some how dont think we'll be needing them anymore.. but we will be after some thicker ones to keep out the winter chill soon i reckon!





I now have a couple of other projects to work on that I need to spend time doing, I'm getting too distracted worrying about other bits of useless crap when I should be enjoying myself drawing and creating things that I like....

Mottershead Vs. Howker

these really made me laugh...



a battle/collab between myself and Mr.Mark Mottershead... it started as something completely different and ended up with doing caricatures of each other... i love days like that!

August sketches

Ste has finished 1 of his butterflies... James is making his way through his digital collages... Mark is busy out of the studio working and drawing... Dan is taking some R&R... and I'm sketching a hell of a lot before running away with making final images...

My Kozik vinyl toy is as big as our kettle...

Sketches...

the 3 projects I'm working on at this moment in time.. (i also have about 3 others I need to do too!)




Poster...

I see a lot of artists I like drawing over photos, magazines and posters.. so I thought I'd give it a go and let my imagination run free and not worry about metaphors etc etc etc..

from the original poster I've basically added phantom/ghost hands doing what I'd imagine ghosts would do on any normal day



Close ups...

August sketchy's

Mark and myself have been to the last 2 Dr.Sketchy's life drawing events in Manchester and for anyone remotely interested in wanting to start life drawing as a means of getting back into drawing or just to brush up on the skills, I would HIGHLY recommend it. At £7.50 a ticket (plus a booking fee online) you get a good few hours being able to draw the models in various poses spending anywhere from 1 minute to 10 on a piece and there is no pressure to do things "correctly"... they pride themselves as being Anti-Art school.. which basically means you have more fun! :)

I spent my time practicing getting proportions correct and trying to get a sense of how the models were positioned and the character/feeling of the pose etc... followed by sketching cartoons and caricatures in more my own particular style. I was a little scared to do so at first in case some one told me off but I then looked at Mark's work, he was doing close up portraits filling whole pages.. where I was doing tiny doodles of full length poses.. but neither of us were wrong which is what I loved! This isn't just a room full of silent student-y types staring at a naked model, there's a more relaxed atmosphere with suggestions of how to draw the models thrown in there - you dont have to if you dont want, but it is fun - such as use your opposite hand, focus on one area in high detail, draw the model and then pass it on for someone else to fill in the background... etc.. also... the models are always naked! Don't get me wrong, the addition of a Burlesque theme to the night/models is a lure but it also makes the evening more interesting and different from art school again... and its not just women... the next event not only boasts being in an interesting location (MoSI) but also a body building model (apparently he has a wicked sense of humour).

anyway.. enough of me rambling.. here's a few shots of the Sexy Scooby Doo - Velma Von Bon Bon night (taken from the Dr.Sketchy's facebook page) and then mainly my sketches from the last 2 nights... hopefully Mark will add some of his too.

Update... again

a few more pictures of the studio as we start to add our own mark on the place.. met more of our neighbours.. 1 in particular by accident (Mark knows why) but so far everyone in the building is friendly, talkative and approachable even though we are new to the building...

We've started adding pics to the walls to break up the mass of white.. some may recognise them from our work and uni studio.. but mainly we've tried getting some of the essentials in there.. e.g. the kettle, clock.. still need a bin .

everyone has started some form of work in the studio... myself i was playin with drawing over the Muc-Off poster.. Mark is working on zine submissions but also started his Darth mask inbetween this and James is working on his digital collages for book covers...