Creative Postcards

I came across this post over on Creative Bloq (and subsequently followed it through to Akos Papp's Postcards From Above blog) and I was so impressed with the range of postcards that he's created that I thought I'd have a go at my own. I've only done two, of Newcastle upon Tyne and London, but in both cases I've tried to pick specific locations and an image treatment/font combination that 'ages' them.

In Newcastle's case, I've gone for a faded pink/red colour cast so typical of the Seventies, and I've gone for a retro font treatment to go with the colours. The view is from Google Maps and depicts the train line that runs through Newcastle, with the Castle Keep, Vermont Hotel and Moot Hall to its south, with the Black Gate, Milburn House and St Nicholas' Cathedral to the north.

In the case of London, I went for a more faded, vintage colour, and a Fifties style font to match the colour. The view is of Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the top centre of the image. It just goes to show that you can find source material in all sorts of places.

What do you think?

Illustrating Quotes

This piece came about after I encountered the title, 'Tomorrow has been cancelled due to lack of interest', in Last of England, directed by Derek Jarman (1988). The line itself is a reference to a 1969 book by Irene Kampen, called 'Due to Lack of Interest, Tomorrow has been Canceled'. Last of England is also the title of a painting by Ford Madox Brown (1855), which depicts a family of emigrants leaving for a new life in America.

I felt that there was a definite link between the quote, the title of the film, and the title of the painting. Madox Brown began the painting in 1852 after a close friend emigrated to Australia, while he himself spoke of moving to India. The family in the painting are leaving England, and the couple are based upon Madox Brown and his own wife. The white cliffs of Dover, usually seen as a welcome sight for those returning to England, are ignored in the background as the family leave, their eyes fixed on what they hope is a better tomorrow elsewhere. The theme is that of hope, but set within a harsh reality - by the time Jarman made his film, many people in a similar position had lost hope, which brings the line of thinking back to the quote in question.

I decided to choose a grunge aesthetic to link the piece with a 'typical' post-apocalyptic aesthetic that can be seen in films such as The Road, and I chose tower blocks due to their connotations with failed experiments in social engineering. The estates, built in the 1960s, were believed to answer housing shortages in the postwar years, but their architecture failed to solve the problems and instead created pockets of crime and vandalism, especially in inner city areas. I added an 'apocalyptic' sky, and a rusted colour palette to tie the piece together. I chose a strong, stencil font to underline the links with graffiti. 

Paintings

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to take up some form of painting again. It's been years since I did any proper painting, not since my art A Level, in fact, aside from some low level digital painting. I knew I wanted to try to master digital painting, but I also wanted to try a more traditional form. I was torn between oils and watercolours - I'd done oils at school but knew they were both messy and expensive, while watercolours were far more readily available. So far, I've just really been practicing with washes, colour mixing, and different techniques, but I did want to try and paint something recognisable, instead of just page after page of meaningless colour. This was one of my first attempts.

It was really rather simple. I began with a graded blue wash, simply adding more water to dilute the colour, to make the sky lighter as it approached the horizon, and then dried my brush in order to apply the blue paint for the water using the dry brush technique. The resulting white patches among the lines resemble light on water.

Once the sky and water were dry, I then used a much finer brush to sketch in the boat using dark brown. When it was dry, I added another layer to give a shadow and sense of depth to the hull and mast. Again I used the dry brush technique to add a reflection in the water.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with it - it's not exactly going to blow the minds of the art world but it's simple and recognisable!

As for my attempts at digital painting, I loaded up Photoshop CS5, plugged in a Wacom Bamboo, and had a go.

I started off by actually tracing the tree outline from a photograph, and just added shadow by going over the areas several times. Then I created several background layers, altered different brush settings in the Wet Media brush set, and created a graded sky by sampling colours from a photograph of a sunset. I was quite pleased with the stipling on the grass, and the blending of the sky, although the white cloud effect doesn't work. All in all, I think I may give digital painting another go!

Vinyl Design

It's staff development today at work, so I took advantage of a workshop being offered in using the vinyl cutter. The machine can cut into vinyl to be used for both window decals, and clothing applications. I've decided to show off both usages!

First off is my Billy Idol T-shirt. I've been after one for while but I never found one I liked. So I bought a blank white T-shirt from M&S and created this artwork using an album cover image in Photoshop. I brought it into Illustrator, used Live Trace, and then sent it to the vinyl cutter. I peeled away the parts now showing in white, and hot-pressed it onto the T-shirt. Cool, huh?

Next up is my vinyl window decal. I created this one using nothing but the Pen Tool and the Rotate Tool in Illustrator, and sent it to the vinyl cutter. I did actually get it slightly wrong as I wanted to have the outlines online, but I like how it turned out. I peeled away the inverse parts, added adhesive paper, and stuck it to the window of the print room. So simple!

Last but not least, I also had a go with the badge maker. I took an Illustrator design I'd done previously, of stylised cupcakes, and stripped the colour to leave behind only the outline. I printed this out and put it through the badge maker. If you like the pattern, you can find it at Spoonflower. I'm awaiting a test swatch and if it's good enough, I'll make it available for sale!