Tuesday 26 March 2013

Hey I made you a mixtape!



I always listen to music while I'm working. It really affects the work I produce and also helps me to block out whatever else is going on in the house (my studio is in the attic).
As a new post I thought I would share my playlists with you along with a drawing. I'm not sure yet how often I will be able to post but I will do my best to aim for once a week.
If you have any suggestions for good music to create to please let me know...

So I went a bit old school on this playlist and did a bit of throwback to the nineties. Here's some Brit Pop and Indie Rock. Enjoy! I'm off to get my Adidas Campus on and watch My So Called Life...

1.  Trash - Suede

2.  Do You Remember the First Time? - Pulp

3.  Sale of the Century - Sleeper

4.  Stupid Girl - Garbage

5.  I am the Resurrection - Stone Roses

6.  Spin Spin Sugar - Sneaker Pimps

7.  Girl From Mars - Ash

8.  Ladykiller - Lush

9.  Debaser - Pixies

10. Alright - Supergrass

Friday 22 March 2013

Inspiration: Tokyo

 
Apologies for not posting over the past few days. I've been working on some new drawings and embroideries which i'll share with you soon!
 
In the meantime, I thought I would share some snaps from my travels to Japan. To be honest I took over 600 photographs while we were in Tokyo so count yourself lucky I've edited it down for this post...
 
 
The images below are of the large, famous fish market in the middle of Tokyo. You have to go really early to visit since it opens at 4am. We headed along for 6am on the first day of our trip since we were trying to get over jet lag. It turned out it was a national holiday so the place was deserted. Although we went back a few days later when it was busy, I definitely preferred the photographs from this trip
 
 
 
 
 
 
The image below is from the main entrance to the shopping district in Harajuku. I was completely overwhelmed at the number of people in this area on a Tuesday morning! 
 
 
Despite all of the photographs I took on my trip I don't think I ever managed to capture how light the streets were at night time with neon signs. This is an image from the main street in Ginza. Ginza is an expensive shopping district where the shop window displays were a sight in themselves. 
 

Couldn't really go to Japan and not get a photograph in of some sushi. Definitely better than the supermarket packs i'm used to here in the UK!



This image was from a viewing tower in the centre of Tokyo- you can see 360 degrees around the city.


We visited a contemporary art gallery located on the top floor of a shopping centre. Some of the artworks on display were amazing and very interactive.


This Louise Bourgeois sculpture was located outside of the shopping centre which housed a contemporary art gallery. I loved the number of artworks in the city that were quite unexpected and also weren't tampered with in any way by the public.


This image made me laugh- dogs going wild in a pram! The number of dogs I seen in prams was astonishing.


This is an image from Asakusa. We got to this part of Tokyo by boat. It was much more touristy and tacky I felt than other districts. The tour groups with coloured hats was a regular sight during the holiday.

Friday 15 March 2013

Inspiring Reads: Ryan McGinness, Works



Ryan McGinness Works., 2009, 11 x 8.5 in., 4C, 296pp., hardcover, open ed.
ISBN: 978-0-8478-3196-8 / Published by Rizzoli
Catalogue of recent works with texts by David Byrne, Tom Greenwood,
Peter Halley, Greg Lindquist, and Jonathan T.D. Neil.
 
Despite being published in 2009, I have only recently purchased Works by Ryan McGinness. Ryan was part of an interview on Sky Arts and it reminded me how much I like his work so decided to make the purchase before I forgot about it!
 
The book is reasonably large with a clothbound cover embossed with the book's title in silver. I don't think the quality of the publication comes across in the images so you might be forgiven for thinking that the price tag wasn't reflective of what you are getting but it really is.
 
 
 
 
 
The first chapter contains an introduction by one of the artists' previous assistants. I found this really interesting because it gave an insight into how an art student was influenced by an established artist and also another view on the artist's process of working.
 
The book is packed with full colour images of individual works, installations along with details of process. There is also a bit of fun at the end of the book where Ryan has been asked 500 random questions.
 
 
 
For me, it was nice to read about how the artist manages to have a hands on approach with his work despite using a lot of digital manipulation to achieve the finished pieces. There is also a discussion about how he organises his studio and his time.
 
As someone who studied fine art in Art School, I always felt that I was never talk about the business side of being an artist. Ryan studied graphic design originally and this really shows in the way that he organises his business from his accounts to the way he uses business cards.
 
You can pick this book up from Amazon and Rizzoli . You can check out more of the artist's work at ryanmcginness.com

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Inspiring reads: Creatures, Orla Kiely


Since having a baby girl a few weeks ago I am loving the fact that I now have a legitimate excuse to buy kids books. There are so many books out there with some of them being of a pretty poor standard so its great to come across a book that has just as much visual enjoyment for adults as kids.



Orla Kiely's Creatures is a cloth bound hard back book. Each double page has an individual image of an animal on one page and the opposite page features the animal as part of a repeat pattern. As expected the colour palette is very retro/seventies inspired in keeping with the brand. The illustrations are easy to identify as the creature (maybe except from the turtle) but still have a graphic feel about them.



I highly recommend this book whether you have children or not. I'm now waiting on the shapes one to be delivered!

The books retail for £9.99 and can be purchased from waterstones, amazon and from oralkiely.com

Monday 11 March 2013

Paperfolk Screenprints!

I have been meaning to upload these for a while but I seem to have got pre-occupied with other things!

I have a small collection of 4 limited edition screenprints which will be available in my etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperFolkGlasgow?ref=ss_profile ) for a limited period. The number available of each print varies but there are no more than 10 editions of each one.

Each print started as an illustration which I then wanted to find a process that would give me the detail in the print. I opted for screenprinting in the end. At the time a lot of my drawings and collages were completed on graph paper so I wanted to try and print the background of the screenprints as graph paper as well. This turned out to be a bit harder than I had anticipated because of the strength of the ink colours- i.e. if the ink was too strong in colour it meant that you couldn't see the actual illustration.

If you have any questions you can contact me through my etsy shop or email info@paperfolk.co.uk.
As they say once they're gone, they're gone!

Ears For Sale
Legs and Teeth (Line only)
Legs and Teeth (Colour)


Bunny Boy





 

Saturday 9 March 2013

Inspiration: Nice Package!



I absolutely love Japanese gift wrap and packaging! I think that i'm drawn to the colours and graphics which may be a little busy and garish for some people but are right on the money for me. When I visited Japan I particularly loved the effort that was put into food packaging with some of it being very clever and innovative. Although each brand will have a target audience it seems that the same fun has been put into packaging for products aimed at adults as it has for those aimed at children. My collection of Japanese packaging is as much a source of inspiration for me as looking at other designers/artists work.

Here's a selection of some of my favourite packaging at the moment. ..