book shelf

nothing toooo interesting... but I GOT MY BOOKSHELF! hahah swapped the sofa around sorted a few other problems in the studio too... (the door always bein blown open by the draft... some other drafts sneaking in... good seein Dan in the studio working away... cleared some space for our 6th ;) ... and got other solutions set in motion...)

Cant do anything about that damn smell though!!! :s

My sofa did look like this...



couple of posters fell off, need RE-Upping.. and then rearranged my bookshelf.. awaiting a possible cofee table/stand to be added to my corner too!

Dan's first post!

Pozdrowienia, Dan posting here for the first time on the 310 blog. I spent some time in the studio today, primarily to go and give Chris the rent he has been waiting for forever, but also to do some work. I must admit a fair amount of time was spent talking and looking at tattoo mags but at least something got done. I did some sketches for the Peculiar Bliss "creatures" brief.

My starting point came from Chris emailing me a sketch he had done that was a homage to, or at least mainly influenced by the Leviathan creature from the Final Fantasy series. He basically said he thought a version of it done in Lino cut (which is the technique I am currently employing and learning at the moment) would be tops and so I thought I would use that sketch as a starting point and just run with it in my own way, hopefully to be submitted to the Peculiar Bliss comp.  Here are a few sketches of that. The first is only half of what I did, (I only have an A4 scanner), and was more of a doodle, haven't been drawing much so it was a bit of an indulgence, from what I know of lino cut, I would have trouble doing something so detailed. The second lot is more like what I know I can achieve with the process and I will be carrying these further.

One thing about using Lino is that really I haven't explored the technique very much at all, I have done my fair share last year at Uni but really I don't know what I can achieve properly yet, and haven't fully explored the possibilities of mixing the fine linework I enjoy doing with it through photoshop. That is what I am finding exciting about the process at the moment though, that I am constantly learning, and hopefully I always will be.

Dan H

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!

A Little Progress Piece

I've been getting my teeth in to my commission.
Lots of tasty figurative stuff to chomp on!

And also this for OWT's Chance brief.

They are Mayan masks & that is a Mayan calender.

August - September : Howker

Here is my update for the last month and whats happening this month.

My submission for OWTcreative's issue no.9 "Chance"

it's based on bad luck superstitions people believe in.. I'm all for believing in good luck but I find it difficult to see how any of these could cause your luck to change...

Im not overly happy with the salt shaker.. but its the better one of the 20 different versions I had drawn

Music

I was asked to submit a design based on a music track for use in an upcoming project... I'm happy to say that my preferred design was chosen and I successfully completed it today. As the website isn't 100% up and running yet, I'm keepin details and the main thing on the down-lo.. but here are a few sneaky shots I managed to take..



as soon as official details and the site is up and running then I will probably tweet the hell out of it





Glass is a very difficult surface to draw/paint on.. especially at a large scale and reversed! (I had to paint on the inside of the room rather than the outside so that it wasnt scratched easily etc etc.. ) Overall I'm more than happy with how it turned out but there are a load of little details that are niggling at me about it.. from my sketch, the design has altered a fair bit but I dont think I could've done any different in the same amount of time.



MASI

Manchester and Salford illustrated is a great exhibition idea that is happening this month.. but I'm some what daunted by the professional talent that is already submitting work for it.. I cant help but feel as if my stuff will look 'student'-like next to theirs.. anyway.. I've already shown this to a few people.. but this is my current work.. which I intend to finish in pencil and screenprint with 2 colours.. 1 being a light sky blue (Man City style) and the 2nd either black or a dark blue...

AND before anyone else says it.. (Mark keeps taking the piss out of me)... THERE WILL BE A GUITAR ADDED INTO NOEL'S HANDS!!!! hahahah





I keep thinking that Noel looks like an "accurate" caricature.. but Liam doesnt have the same "feel"... maybe because he doesnt have eyes... ?

Current Workspace

The next project I have started is the Creature brief for Peculiarbliss magazine. The creature I am illustrating is a goblin sat on a toadstool smoking a cig, having a break from work. Above is the sketch for the goblin.

 

Started adding the detail.

Workspace at the moment. 

Finished Butterfly Image

This is the final and finished version of the butterfly. I spend ages trying out different backgrounds but none of them were working. They over shadowed the butterfly. Afterwards I finally found a background that worked. 

Ste's Work In Progress

This is my finished watercolour butterfly. Seen as I haven’t painted for mouths, I think it’s turned out really well. Next thing to do is put into Photoshop. Below is a more zoomed in image, showing the detail on the butterfly's body

updates...

some shots of work that went on today

my own piece for OWT Creatives issue no.9 'Chance' brief... I like the idea of good luck and having lucky objects/symbols/signs but I find bad luck symbols a little silly for some reason... so i decided to create a piece that featured these superstitions...



and in his own words... some of Mark's doodles..



i hope he gets chance to post some sneak peeks of his current commission, but I think that needs to stay hush hush for now.. until then you'll have to make do with his sordid imagination

Also.. with summer being pretty much over now (cept for a few days of sun).. Winter will test our spirit I think as it may get rather cold. OWT are planning on a winter window solution.. and i think we may need some curtains soon also..