Oli.T Scrapbook

What I've been up to in the past month or so.

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:26:07 +0100

Oh hello. I thought I should let you know what I’ve been up to since the last update…

..where do I start?

Right - on the 30th July I drove down to Swindon with my girlfriend to check out Steve Rack’s Toe Fluff exhibition. I was one of the lucky artists to have their work selected for the show! After a bit of a chinwag with Steve, my girlfriend and I both purchased a toe fluff print each. So many talented artists out submitted work to this, it made it very difficult which to choose!

I’ve now got myself a new (and muchly needed) portfolio website. It’s running on something called Cargo, which basically means I don’t really need to mess around with the coding of a website to make it work. There is now quite a bit of my work on show there. Photos from the toe fluff exhibition can be found here.

Okay… what else? OH YES — I’ve recently sorted out the details of getting some of my art printed properly. On nice high quality paper and not printed out of my rubbish HP home printer. We’re talking proper Gliclee printing. I should have some more details on this in the future, so watch this space as I’m only going to get a small amount printed!!

Finally- I’ve recently finished work on a piece for a rather well known charity. Details of which I can’t really talk about now, but will post more details up when I can.

I’m currently busy with colouring in a black and white only illustration. It’s interesting working out how it’s going to turn out as I’m so used to colour!! I’m sure I’ll post some work in progress over the coming days to get some feedback.

Speak soon!

Work update

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:20:14 +0100

It’s been a whole month since I put anything up on my blog- appalling! If you’re a follower of me on twitter then todays update will be of no news to you, however, if you know nothing about be, or are just a casual follower of the blog then I have a couple of newish artworks to share.

The first being this:

My submission to the Toe Fluff exhibition by Steve Rack. I really enjoyed working on this drawing. The toe fluff character’s shape really lent itself to my style of artwork and I would say on the whole this has turned out quite nicely. The exhibition is going to take place from 27th July - 11th August at the post modern gallery in Swindon. I can’t wait! Due to the overwhelming amount of support and submissions, Steve is also looking for a London gallery interested in exhibiting the work. Let him know if you have any contacts!

My second bit of artwork to share with you is this:

Another submission piece, this time for a collaborative idea dreamt up by Uberkraaft (aka. Matt Williams) and Lesley Barnes- To design a character who will play in Colonel Windpipe’s Musical Brigade. The two criteria all artists must stick to is that their band member must be marching from right to left, and that their uniform matches the rest of the band’s.

It was great fun to work on something quick and simple for once. I’m so used to working on pieces that easily take a couple of weeks worth of evenings to complete that it felt weird actually having this done and not feeling like I never want to look at it again!

Both the toefluff exhibition and Colonel Windpipe’s marching band are still taking submissions as of writing this, so if you’re interested in getting your work included in either, it’s not too late!

That’s it on the ‘showing off artwork’ front. If you remember from my last update, I mentioned I was working on a poster. I would say to date it has definitely been one of the more complicated pieces I’ve worked on, maybe the most complex. I would like to say it’s finished, and in truth it is, but I’m sitting on it at the moment as I’m not 100% sure about the colour and composition (I know it’s a little late to worry about the latter now that the whole thing has been drawn).

I will get around to uploading it soon. The picture is massive. I originally sketched the idea on an A3 sheet of paper (usually I only ever stick to A4) so when displaying the image at a relatively small size doesn’t do the thing any justice. It has also taken up a huge amount of my time. It’s been something I’ve been going back to and working on in bits for easily the past 4 weeks. I work slowly I guess.

I’ll call a close on this blog post now. I’m starting to ramble again and that’s never good material for reading. Next update shall be the poster.

Talk to you later, sooner, looner, sater.

Poster - WIP

Sat, 29 May 2010 14:02:00 +0100

A work in progress on a poster I’m currently colouring. It’s probably the biggest canvas size I’ve worked on. Been very productive on this rainy saturday! Might post more later today dependent on how it all goes!

Toe fluff

Fri, 14 May 2010 10:04:59 +0100

Hello hello. I’ve long since finished my contribution to Steve Rack’s Toe Fluff project. All in all it took around a weeks worth of evenings cramming in some time here and there to get it complete.

Steve Rack has invited illustrators from all around the world to customize his Toe Fluff character as they see fit! Go and have a look at the website to see some amazing artwork from some very talented peeps. I’ve already discovered a few new favourite illustrators through browsing the gallery myself!

A select amount of the submissions will also be exhibited from late July until Early August in Swindon.

I shan’t go in to more details than that on here. If you want to find out more then you may do so by visiting the Toe Fluff website!

My toefluff has also been mentioned in this article too!

On a side-note. I do apologise for the general quietness on my blog as of recently. I don’t have much access to the interwebs outside of work at the moment so uploading new artwork to share has been a little troublesome. Internet access should be rectified soon so fear not (as I know you have been fearing lots), I shall supply the goods. Eventually.

Managed to colour this in so far today

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:00:50 +0100

Part of my toefluff submission -just finished colouring in this little fella.

Working on my #toefluff

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:44:48 +0100

This is a portion of the sketch I started yesterday morning for a project called Toe Fluff by Steve Rack. Check out his website for more information and for other contributing artists interpretations of his toe fluff character. There’s some really talented artists that have already submitted their take own take! Very exciting stuff.

I’ve finished the pencil sketch now and I’m currently in the process of cleaning it up on the computer! I’m guessing this is going to be a 3-4 night job so if I’m good I might be able to get this done by the end of the weekend.

Right, I better get on with this before I fall asleep at the keyboard.

Work in progress - Self portrait

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:43:03 +0100

dribbble

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:24:00 +0100

Hello! I now have a dribbble account that was kindly donated to me via a very kind person on twitter. The website is still in it’s early phase and is invite only at the moment but looks like a great way for me to expand my audience as well as show off little snippets of progress I make on my illustrations. At the moment there are two screen shots of sections of a piece I’m working on for a friend.

I’ll still update my tumblr account often, but any little “shots” of artwork will be uploaded on to my dribbble account as and when they’re done. It just keeps things on this page neater and allows me to share my work with more people, quicker! Hope you understand!

I don’t have any invites to hand out yet, but when (and if) I get given any, leave a comment below with a link to your work and I’ll send you a invite.

Body

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

From my basic calculations (ie. checking dates of posts on tumblr) I can tell you that it’s been 2 3 weeks since last finishing a picture! You might think 3 weeks is more than sufficient time to draw. I do too. I’m worried this blog is going to become a list of excuses interspersed by artwork, but I won’t let that happen, by simply not supply any excuses.

I still think I’m progressing and refining my style a little bit at a time. If anything, my confidence is constantly building. I’m starting to like what I draw a bit more and become satisfied with the final product. This gives me motivation to want to draw more so it’s a good thing!

Lunchtime reading - @jeremyville a good source of inspiration!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:07:31 +0000

Lunchtime reading - @jeremyville a good source of inspiration!

Latest illustration - preview

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:08:36 +0000

I am still drawing! See!

One more sketch - a little unplanned doodling that didn’t...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:20:00 +0000

One more sketch - a little unplanned doodling that didn’t seem to want to stop. My camera phone camera is pretty shitty, but I think you can make out the gist of this picture. I want to plan to do something like this on a much bigger scale so I can just keep going and going!

I really need to get back on the ‘puter at home and start drawing up some more sketches!!! Frustrating.

Lunchtime sketch at work

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:32:07 +0000

Lunchtime sketch at work

Sketch complete!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:28:37 +0000

Sketch complete!

Monday evening sketching

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:14:05 +0000

Monday evening sketching

Artwork giveaway!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:03:00 +0000

Above are two colour laser copies of ‘Aligned’. They were printed on glossy A4 paper and then trimmed to fit (so they’re a tiny bit smaller than A4 in height and width.

I’m giving away these two copies totally free to the first two people who post a comment on this news post. The first two people (basically, my 2 only readers)! Be quick!

You don’t have to leave a long message, but just something so I can identify you and sort out where to send the picture to. I’ll sign the back too if you like so that when I’m all famous, you can sell it and buy yourself and Ferrari F430.

Good luck!

Update - and they’re gone! That was quick! I might do this again some time. Who knows. Keep an eye out for future giveaways, and tell your friends!

Aligned

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:11:00 +0000

This has to be, without a doubt the most time consuming and complex piece I’ve done so far. It’s taken just under a week to finish.

I actually made myself a little bit ill yesterday forcing myself to stay awake and work for as long as I could. It’s amazing how quick the hours go when you really get in to something.

I never did manage to finish the picture that night, but I did manage to give myself a massive head, neck and back ache that wouldn’t go thus resulting in another bad nights sleep. Thankfully, I managed to complete it today. The amount of shading and layers I had to work with made colouring the artwork very laborious.

Although I complain about how long I’ve spent on this, I really enjoyed the process of creating the picture. My biggest problem this time round was dealing with colour. The artwork looked really nice as just a 2 tone outline, and halfway through colouring, the picture started to lose what I felt was it’s impact. Maybe I’m using too much colour, or mixing too many pastel colours with strong primary colours - I don’t know. I’m still experimenting. But what I do know is my next picture won’t be as time consuming as this. Simply because this one physically exhausted me!

I think out of the 3 most recent pictures I’ve done, this one really deserves being printed up big as shrinking it down really doesn’t do it justice (hah!- get a load of my modesty!). I’m going to see if I can get this printed professionally. Maybe just a few copies at the moment around A2/A3 size to give away.

Okay, well that’s me done for tonight. I hope you’re enjoying my artwork as much as I am enjoying it.

Speak soon.

First Try

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:14:00 +0000

I’m happy to let you know I’ve finished my latest drawing! It’s called First Try.

I would say that this is another example of how I’m still finding my feet in terms of how I like/prefer to draw. About 5 years ago, almost all my pictures were started and completed using a computer. At no point did I ever use a real pen, pencil, paper or paint. I’m now spending a lot of time sketching on paper to the point where I would say the actual line work I’ve drawn in my notepads will be 98% what is then brought through on to the computer.

I think the transition from not depending on the computer so much has definitely improved my drawings! It’s also really nice to get away from a screen and to just relax while drawing!

I really like the busyness of the image. I do wish that I had filled the rest of the artwork area more, but this is a step in the right direction and overall I’m still happy with what I’ve produced.

I’ve already started work on my next illustration. It’s going to be a lot busier with more going on!

Right. Better get on.

Update: Comments are now enabled on the site! YIPPIE!

Computer crash!

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:29:25 +0000

My computer decided to crash last night, taking away 2 of the 4 hours I had spare that day to colour in my latest illustration. I was angry, but I can’t be too mad as it could have been a lot worse. Losing the last save is one thing, file corruption or even, dare I say it, hard drive failure is another.

I’m usually really good at doing the old ALT-S save shortcut to avoid stuff like this, but I must have been really into what I was doing as it was the only time in the next 2 days I had to make some progress on the drawing.

I’m also forcing myself to get up earlier these days. At work, if we start at 8am (as opposed to 9am) we’re allowed to leave at 4pm (as opposed to 5). That extra hour when I get home to fit stuff in is crucial. Otherwise I’m never going to get any drawings done.

Lastly, in between the day job, and drawing at night, I’ve been borderline obsesses with a particular artist. I would say a lot of my recent inspiration has come from this persons work and attitude towards life. I’ll tell you more when I have time, but that’s going to have to wait for another day.

I’m hoping my next update on here will be me showing off my latest creation! If I’ve learnt one thing on writing blogs it’s not to promise anything within a specific timeframe as it will always take longer than you expect, so I promise nothing!!

Speak soon! BYE!

This is what I was working on over the latter end of last week...

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:58:00 +0000

This is what I was working on over the latter end of last week for my girlfriend. It started out (like a lot of my recent illustrations) as a pencil sketch that I added bits to over the span of a few days.

I spent quite a while on shading this image. You won’t notice at such a small size, but I tried out a more natural, subtle shading technique for the baby’s face.

In relation to some other pictures I’ve got in the works, this image is relatively small, but was good practice for me! I’m still playing around with colour, stroke weight, and other effects to see what works and won’t doesn’t.

It feels good to have something to show everyone as I know I havn’t been updating my TOLI blog in a good long time (July to be exact).

I hope you enjoy it, and please post comments and let me know what you think if you feel you want to!

Speak soon! BYE!