Gainsbourg revisited

I've just added a "tricolore" smoke effect to the Gainsbourg portrait. I think it gives it that little bit extra. Not sure the effect is right yet but I like the concept...

Another portrait...

... this time it's the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. It's not exactly "alternative", so probably not valid as part of my summer project, but I really enjoyed doing it and it's great Illustrator practice.

I may even get an A2 print to go on my wall.

An Alternative Portrait of Bath

Finally finished shooting and editing my short film portrait. There are some bits I like...

Don't worry... it's Bill Murray!

I got distracted from my film-making yesterday by Bill Murray. Don't know how he popped into my consciousness, although the fact he is the greatest actor of all time may have played a part.

Anyway, I knocked up this retro poster with 35 (count 'em) Murray heads...

I'm going to print it A2. Should look pretty nice.

More ideas for Summer Project

If I am to do an alternative portrait of an actual person, then I have decided it will be either Serge Gainsbourg or Woody Allen. Or Peter Griffin. Okay, probably not Peter Griffin. Hey, if I type Peter Griffin a few more times, could I perhaps lure unsuspecting Family Guy fans to my blog?

Not sure I really want to do something based on a specific person, so I have a few other ideas, like:

America - keywords racism, greed, religious (funda)mentalists, space exploration, stupidity, violence (specifically gun crime/gangs).

21st Century - focus on how shit it has been so far. Where are the flying cars and the domestic robot servants? All we got was reality TV.

The Ramones - a portrait using just icons representing the shapes of their hairstyles.

Bath - I am thinking of doing a photobook of the really shitty areas in Bath. Or maybe photos of all the well-known landmarks, out-of-focus in the background, with various crap in the foreground. Or photos of all the generic shops in Bath, that could be anywhere in the UK. How about a book of just descriptions of the photos, in a suitably Georgian font?

I am still toying with the idea of a jazz-scored Godardesque film of the dark side of Bath. Perhaps I should stop thinking and start doing...

Bummer in the Summer

I've really had it now with this summer project. Only two weeks before we go back and I have NOTHING! I was going to do a short film or perhaps a book showcasing the seedier side of Bath but that is such a literal "alternative portrait".

No, I think that what I need to do is pick a subject and then gather extensive data on it. Then take that data and reinterpret it in a visual way. The end result needs to be aesthetically pleasing but somewhat abstract, so that when I explain how the strange forms relate to the data the viewer will be blown away.

Okay so I understand the concept behind a great piece, shame I am shit at actually realising it.

Could be worse I suppose. There's a "designer" in Dartmouth who has a shop selling his awful prints. He appears to have been commissioned by the local council to do some "down wid da kids" grafitti-style signage all around the lovely town, including this abomination outside a church:

Another idea...

An Alternative Portrait of Amphetamine

This will be an A2 print with the text intentionally bleeding off all four edges. Click for larger (readable version).

A couple of ideas (at last!)

Both of these will be A1 posters. I need to tweak them a bit still but they might look pretty cool.

An Alternative Portrait of Ian Curtis (yeah, student cliche #2 after Che Guevara)

An Alternative Portrait of Drug Use

I'll probably hate both these ideas tomorrow... anyway, will get on with my third idea tomorrow, which is an exciting video project!

I give up!

Well, for now anyway. On the summer project I mean. This is a really important project for me, one that will influence the work I do in the second year, so I have to make sure it is great.

So I am taking my mind off it for a while and busying myself with tutorials for Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects. But I am also tired of those, so I started thinking about setting myself some limits for the coming year. You see, that's the problem with this damned summer project - there are practically no limitations, so I am finding it incredibly difficult to get started. You need to impose certain rules in order to create but you sure as hell had better get those right in the first place.

I have been thinking for some time about limiting my print-based work to a maximum of ten typefaces. This morning I allowed myself to indulge in some stream-of-consciousness bullshit, by the end of which I had my list.

Check it out if you can be arsed...

It's just not happening!

So I am now well into this extensive summer break and I have no idea what I am going to do for the summer project (see previous post). So far I have immersed myself in books about design and the incredibly cool movies of Jean-Luc Godard but to no avail.

Perhaps a visit to the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery next week will get things moving...

Summer Project

So we broke up about a week ago and I am starting to the think about the project they set us for over the summer:

An Alternative Portrait.

Over the summer break produce a piece of work that can be described as a portrait. Your work could be film, photographic, drawn, collage or purely typographic. Enjoy.

I am trying to come up with a list of worthy subjects. Some are cliched but this is intentional as I could do something very different to the portraits with which we are all too familiar...

Shortlist - People
Ian Curtis
Che Guevara
Robert de Niro
Joni Mitchell
Cary Grant
Michael Jackson
Bob Marley
Arthur Lee
The Beatles
Keith Richards
Gene Kelly

Shortlist - Places
New York
Bath
Paris

Shortlist - Events
9/11
2011 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final

For the Wimbledon Final, I was thinking of maybe producing a reversable flipbook - on one side you have Nadal scratching his ass and sniffing his fingers, flip it over and you get  Djokovic bouncing the ball endlessly before each serve. Just an idea...