BENEATH THE ISLAND OF AUTISTK

More MUM

2009-08-28T13:11:00.001+12:00

Last two were made rather quickly. Getting the details for posters on Friday, that are due by Sunday = YAY! (Not really! HAHA)

I like the Bear Cat one though

STOKED

2009-08-22T18:41:00.001+12:00

42Unheard Illustration

2009-08-12T17:36:00.001+12:00

Hey cool dudes, here’s a thing I did about a month ago, and just now stumbled across the final image. Above is how it looked when it left my hands. See the final dealio below.

I knew they were going to change things, but not that drastically. Still, the cut-out aesthetic works pretty well. I don’t luuuuurve it, but it’s a definitely not what I was expecting, and it’s interesting to see. I like the hanging signs/clouds (too bad that url text block isn’t hung too.. blows the illusion a bit)

I am bummed to see feature elements from my original layout (the skull and balloons) recycled multiple times though… that’s one of my biggest personal design/illustration peeves that I try to avoid as much as possible, although time’s generally the deciding factor.

As per usual, no doubt saying all of this ( is woefully unprofessional, but for whatever reason (just not ruthless enough?), I don’t mind theoretically crippling my career by being honest. But just so it’s clear, I don’t hate it, and I’m not having a sook. I thought it might be interesting (I know there’s a few upcoming designers who sometimes read this blog) to give an example about how things can sometimes go. This is very very chilled out compared to some other experiences.

and just for kicks, cuz I really liked how it turned out, is my intial sketch for the general concept. this was using speakers in place of mouths with cut off wire tongues (disappointed they wussed out and went with a fully betongued version) but apparently it wasn’t clear enough. I dunno… Design by committee seems the swiftest way to completely suck the life and personality out of something. I’ll be more careful in future.

BEANS gig poster

2009-07-27T15:53:00.001+12:00

This was pretty fun to make. I’d never really tried graffiti style writing before… although it may have turned out more Day of the Tentacle than Wu-Tang Clan, but hey, that’s all good. I’ve been really enjoying drawing, from a probably over-analytical point of view. Just interesting looking at other peoples work or ways of drawing things, then mentally breaking them down and understanding how and why they work, and reinterpreting it as my own. Certainly learn a lot more than just straight up copying styles. In retrospect I probably should’ve made this a portrait poster rather than landscape. Ah well

MUM – Shocking Pinks

2009-07-27T02:45:00.001+12:00

MUM - Traps

2009-07-09T01:36:00.001+12:00

Was just playing around with text and textures and what not. I think this turned out pretty nicely… nice depth to it.

MUM – Motocade

2009-07-06T15:42:00.001+12:00

MUM – Brand New Math

2009-06-22T16:23:00.001+12:00

Aww hell naw, what’s up dog indeed. I pretty much traced a photo for this poster. I kinda hate doing that, but whatever, it works, and it doesn’t look particularly traced, so I probably should’ve just kept my mouth shut and let you all think I’d suddenly mastered anatomy and perspective and drawing dogs.

MEGAUPDATE(KINDOF)

2009-06-08T18:25:00.001+12:00

So, for whatever reason, I was super productive this weekend and got 3 posters started and finished. It was a good time. And they’re all totally different. I still struggle with that, as an artist… it seems like if you want to really get ahead you have to continually re-re-re-re-re-re-do the same thing, with minor variations. Which makes sense I suppose. I dunno, I guess I haven’t found that thing I want to do repeatedly yet. In the mean time, playing around and trying out whatever takes my fancy seems to be working out pretty well.

On with the show.

Handsome Furs

2009-06-02T23:18:00.001+12:00

CHEER!

2009-05-24T19:17:00.001+12:00

MUM – Coco Solid

2009-05-16T19:52:00.001+12:00

I’m pretty stoked on that Coco Solid illustration. Tittays! That’s a first for my work I think… I don’t recall drawing boobs on anything else. Exciting stuff.

In other news, I found out I made the finalists for AS Colours ‘Little Help Project’ T-shirt Label contest. Grand prize winners are announced in a week or so. Fingers crossed. Check the link for more info about the whole dealio.

I’ve never entered any sort of design contests before, so it was awesome to be a finalist the first time I throw my hat in the ring. I’m thinking of submitting a portfolio for the Young Guns awards too.. although they’re kind of expensive to register with… but looking at past winners, couldn’t hurt to try…

Tough Choice #435

2009-05-12T20:20:00.001+12:00

I'm considering turning off anonymous commenting. It's maddening not knowing exactly who thinks you're awesome. But on the other hand, would they write these things if they weren't anonymous? Probably not. Dammit.

presenting… My Worst Poster So Far

2009-05-12T00:44:00.001+12:00

This was, out of necessity, a little rushed. boo. Figured I may as well post it here just so people can see that yes, I’m only human. No sense hiding these things.

I have dreams that frighten me awake

2009-05-01T01:20:00.001+12:00

This poster took a long time to come to life. For whatever reason I struggled with it for a while. I came up with a concept I was happy with and I wrestled with it for a while, but it was time consuming. Then, joy of joys!! My computer had some issues and I lost a whole partition. The one that had all the files for that particular poster. Along with a bunch of other in progress projects. YAY! Anyway, it’s been about 8 years since I’ve had anything like that happen, so I freaked out for 5 minutes then shrugged my shoulders and let it go. Such is life.

Anyway, here’s the completed poster. It was done in one 10 hour or so sitting and I’m really pleased with it. There’s no major conceptual gimmick to this one, I was just shooting for something moody and spacey, which is what I get from listening to the band. Also, lose the show info and you’d have yourself a pretty sweet band t-shirt. Maybe I should run it by Bradford and co.

MUM – May 1 – BangBangEche

2009-04-27T02:50:00.001+12:00

Another quickie for MUM/Cassette #9. The font is a new one from Sparkytype/Very Good Fonts. I use David Bucks fonts all the time. A lot of them fit my vague aesthetic really well, and on the good for me/not as good for him side, they’re not ones you see around repeatedly.

Go check out his site though. He was telling me his sales of Chicken have increased a lot recently when some blogs incorrectly posted that it was the Twitter logo font.

People really are super super gay for twitter. I don’t get it. I mean, I have an account, but what the hell? I don’t understand why it’s SO exciting. Still, it’s like oh my god soooooo awesome that Ashton Kutcher’s the king of it all though. He Punk’d us all.

Vic Chesnutt + Victoria Williams Australia/New Zealand Tours

2009-04-23T18:27:00.001+12:00

MUM – Brain Slaves

2009-04-17T15:55:00.001+12:00

I’m not sure if this one totally worked as the reference might be a tad too obscure… anyway, that face is the robot body Krang used on Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles… hence… Brain Slave.. get it? cuz Krang was a brain sort of… HA HA yay. good work.

Matt and Kim

2009-03-21T12:55:00.001+13:00

Here's a new one. Did this in one (pretty long) sitting. I'm digging it though. I worked a little looser and tried not to get too pedantic about things and I think it worked. I suuuck at drawing hands though. Below is the original thumbnail sketch for it. As you can see it didn't change too dramatically.

Album of the Year?

2009-03-17T12:57:00.001+13:00

I hate when people say something they've only just heard is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR. But I'm going to tentatively put forward Screens by the Mint Chicks for consideration. I've never heard anything quite like this.

Kanye West wacked on about 808's and Heartbreak being 'a new kind of music' but honestly, maybe it is for him, but it wasn't THAT ground-breaking, although I do like it. This album is definitely something new. I can't even make a direct comparison. Best I can offer at the moment is, it sounds like the Mint Chicks.

And I'm not even being biased.. I was a little hesitant about this record cuz a couple of the demos they put out didn't really blow me away. But reworked for this record from there, they make perfectly imperfect sense.

so buy it.

Last MUM for March

2009-03-14T14:28:00.001+13:00

Been a hectic week. The stuff I was trying to draw for this weren't coming together and out of frustration and time running out, I tried something simpler. I reckon it worked pretty well... even thoguh it's really bright and colourful, something feels kinda dark about it. I'm such a texture abuser.

more MUM

2009-03-06T16:29:00.001+13:00

Here's another one. I was originally intending to keep this series using more or less the same layout, but this one went off on its own tangent.

In other news, I did some layout work for the Mint Chicks new album Screens. It was an interesting challenge. Not to mention incredibly flattering to be asked to do it in the first place. They're one of the most personally polarising bands I consider myself a fan of. Sometimes I think they suck only to later realise I was very wrong... I'm such a dick.

Ruban Nielson did all the artwork, as he does. Some really awesome drawings. The only section I did any design work on at all was the back cover. It was a bit of a challenge trying to fit everything into the spaces (and as tends to happen with album covers, the text and tracklist changed a fair few times, but it was all good. Sometimes it drives me insane but I was surprisingly patient this time), but I think I did a good job. When I first laid down that font, it just wasn't meshing with the artwork... it was too clean and looked like.. well, a font on a drawing. So I fiddled about for a bit and came up with a way to make the text look like it'd been stamped or printed on an old printer, but in a fairly subtle way. Oh yeah, and it's a Super Jewel Case release... hadn't had to layout anything for one of those yet. Those are the cases with the rounded hinges and stuff that look like those early DVD cases, but CD sized. aaaanyway... yeah. yay for me, it looks good and it's for the best, most interesting and constantly evolving band to come out of this country in a long long time.

The album is due out on March 16th. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I just realised that's the day before my birthday. neato.

new MUM poster

2009-03-01T21:52:00.001+13:00

Some other bits and pieces to post soon.

In other news, it's so weird when people come up to me at gigs and stuff and talk about my posters. It always kinda cracks me up and I feel like I end up accidentally coming off as a bit of a prick. It's very flattering, but I just react by being a bit of a knob I think. So yeah, if you read this, it's very much appreciated, and if I seemed like a dick.. well.. maybe I actually am, but I wasn't meaning to be. oh dear

now that's an... uh.. thing

2009-02-17T18:44:00.001+13:00

next year it'll be quicker to type 2010 than 2k10. Well, about the same anyway. But the k will become redundant. WOAH! But. Maybe it's just because I'm a dork and like to add things like 2k8 (2k9 now) to the end of phrases or objects. Only in an online text manner of course, I don't go round saying it out loud like some kind of guy who does occasionally say "lol". Ironically of course. But anyway yes, the 2k8 usage... like... umm.. superfalloutboyparty2k9!!#@% or something. this seemed vaguely interesting when I started writing it but now I realise I was wrong. It is retarded. Thanks for sticking with me thus far though. I means a lot. If you've read this far (well just a little farther), I instantly love you.

2009-02-17T12:55:00.001+13:00

neato

oh yeah

2009-02-13T11:03:00.001+13:00

girl whose name I forgot who kinda looked like Lily Allen when I was real drunk and was a big fan of my stuff apparently and had emailed me once but I couldn't remember, who had a crappy old boyfriend but had a new boyfriend who visibly wasn't too thrilled about you raving on to me, drop me a line.

Some recent capers

2009-02-12T18:51:00.001+13:00

Pretty straight forward, and self explanatory I guess. For a club night at Good Luck, called Bad Luck.

A couple of odd in-jokes were the influence for this. I'd never really tried to draw caricatures of anyone I knew before. Figured now was as good a time as any. Turned out pretty well... apparently they were recognisable from a thumbnail, but someone might've just been polite.

My design for Camp A Low Hum. Again, somewhat of an in-joke for anyone at last years Camp. A bunch of bongo playing bastards went pretty much 24/7 and were a major pain in the ear to a lot of people. Just in a something-to-grizzle-about way though. Anyway, I thought it'd be funny, and people did seem to appreciate it, so, mission accomplished.

Speaking of Camp, I'm still recovering from this years. I had an amazing time! Basically 4 days of hanging out with great friends, having a lot of laughs, a lot of drinks and a lot of party hard. Some bands played too. But yeah, mostly just had an awesome time with my friends. We may've had one of the most dero campsites in the whole place, but when you're having that much fun who has time to vigilantly bin beer bottles? WHO DAMMIT?!
We tidied it all up at the end anyway. Go team!

El Guincho

2009-01-26T05:50:00.001+13:00

A slight departure

2009-01-20T21:41:00.001+13:00

As you can see (if you're even vaguely familiar with my work anyway) this is pretty different from other recent stuff. This was borne partially out of feeling kinda stale on my usual methods, and partially I just wanted to hoon about in photoshop again. Plus I've realised designing stuff all the time to look like screenprints is kinda dumb if they're never going to be screenprinted so I may as well make the most of my tools. No doubt I'll get over this way of thinking by the time my next poster comes up.

Conceptually I'm really happy with this poster. Make of it what you will, but I think it works in both a glass half-full way, as well as the more pessismistic take. All depends on your outlook. Also, it should be noted the poster loosely includes all the old So So Modern costume colours (Red Blue Green Yellow). The other thing was, when I came up with that band-aid peace sign idea, I googled around a bunch trying to find an example of it. It seemed like one of those super obvious ideas that would've been done somewhere. And no doubt it has. but I couldn't find it. No doubt some bastard will go, re-do the idea even better and makes a billionty dollars off it and I will huff futilely on this here blog.

I'll make a process post shortly, including the initial sketches and scribbles that kicked it off, plus the aborted Flash-drawn version and the evolution of the final piece. Not that any of you even give a shit! Bastards.

Vomit! at My Disco

2009-01-14T15:12:00.001+13:00

I'm pretty stoked on this one. Best one I've done in a while I think.

2009 eh?

2009-01-08T16:57:00.001+13:00

Happy new year everybody.

NYE

2008-12-22T11:27:00.001+13:00

And another newie. I've been doing the posters for these MUM club nights in Auckland, but the first ones I did were going off the template the guys who run the Sydney nights created. I'm looking forward to doing more stuff for these guys though... posters every week, with fairly diverse headliners and the like. Should be a good challenge.

Comeback Kid

2008-12-20T19:00:00.001+13:00

This is kinda pretty different for me. Or at least I feel like it is. First time I've tried doing the 'picture of a chick' poster. This was at the promoters request pretty much, and I struggled with it for a while before I found my direction. I didn't agonise over the line work too much either and it worked out pretty well... doesn't look as loose as it is. Or something. Either way, I like this poster a lot. I like it more now than when I finished it a couple of nights ago too. I might rip the text off this and work on it a little more. Turn it into an art print. Could potentially be a good series. Give me an excuse to practice drawing faces anyway. I used photo references pretty heavily, but modified it all enough that hopefully no one sees themselves and gets offended. or stoked. haha. That just gave me an idea....

oh yeah, I own a couple of Brian Ewing's gig posters. His work definitely had an influence on this poster.

oh oh yeah, my camera was out of batteries on exhibition opening night so no photos I'm afraid. I'll take some photos when I go in next though. And anyone out of town who was interested in prints, hit me up. The opening was insane though! So many people. The free booze didn't last long at all, but people seemed to stick around for a while. It was a weird experience. I'm still processing it somewhat. I'll write more soon, and put up pics.

XmasX

2008-12-05T11:40:00.001+13:00

It feels like forever since I did a poster. Been so mad with exhibition planning and the like that actual work has been sidelined a little.

Anyway, here's a poster for a Xmas show. I was a bit stuck on this one conceptually, then after thinking about the name Antagonist, the Grinch seemed perfect. So that's what I did.

This one's notable for being the first time I've probably intentionally infringed on someones copyright somewhat. By which I mean, done an interpretation of an established character. I've never felt comfortable with my drawing style (for what its worth) enough to attempt it... but, well... I guess I do now. feel comfortable enough to do it I mean. for a finished piece o' work.

I'm very tired. Was up late, then couldn't get to sleep for some stupid reason, and when I DID sleep, it was pretty uneven. I'm sposed to be called up for a radio interview about my exhib, but they're 20 mins late so far. How wude! I imagine I'd be fairly low priority though.

Speaking of radio interviews, I'll be live on air at Radioactive on Tues night, and on VBC on Weds night. A regular man about town I am.

yo dawg, it's X to the E Exhibition

2008-11-27T23:22:00.001+13:00

Funny how slow I am in posting this on my blog, it's already most other places. I doubt anyone who follows this blog at all doesn't even know about this exhibition yet (hey, leave a comment and let me know if that's not the case! I'd be interested to know), but yes, finally after years of doing this stuff in near anonymity, I've decided it's time to get fuckin famous. Or at least, see all these posters up in one place at the same time in lovely frames. I hadn't actually considered that fact until someone pointed it out themselves... I've never seen all these things in one place at the same time. Or framed. or A2 sized. I'm pretty excited about it. I've seen a bunch of the final prints (some of 'em needed the colours fixed cuz I made a hash of it) but I didn't really stand and look at 'em properly, Sam Broad and I were picking the mouldings for the frames and concentrating on that more. Suffice to say, I'm really really excited. And nervous. Oh so very nervous. This is kind of the culmination of years of working hard as hell on what basically amounts to advertising with some of the shortest life spans ever. Although, apparently not so short after all.

Anyway, prints will be available for sale ($50), as well as the framed posters($ican'tremember.rightnow). Very limited editions (15-30 max, depending on the print and how much I underestimate how many people would want it). I honestly have no idea whether I'll sell a few, none or the whole lot. My certainty of any outcome changes constantly all day. Oh the stress!

Speaking of stress... this is the most organised I've been in a long time. It's been the kick up the bum I've needed, and it's pretty sweet. I have Jacki Condra at Rex Royale to thank for that. Years back she sold some of my skullbomb t-shirts through her store. Recently she realised I was the guy making all the posters and asked if I'd be interested in doing a show. It took me a little bit to set a date and lock it all down, due to being a bit of a pussy, but I did it. We set the date for Dec 4. That eventually got pushed back. Again, partly because of being a pussy, but also cuz I realised I'd need more time to promo (and try and score free booze for the opening. Who goes to dry art openings? no one. Hell, if there's no booze at mine, I'M not showing up). Anyway, yeah, I've always been pretty averse to self-promo and all that kinda stuff for whatever reason. I just wasn't comfortable with it... but I've realised I've done enough work now, that I'm very proud of (goeth before the fall? ruh-roh!) and I'll stand by it while people in a crowded room drinking free piss criticise it. So... I guess I'm comfortable with that now? We'll see.

Skip to the end. I'm having an exhibition. Go to it. Buy some prints. Hi Kylee.

one last thing: I just saw my flyer, and then a picture of Kanye West. I wondered "does the title of my show make me sound like an arrogant self aggrandizing dickhole?". I decided "No, of course no one will think that". Quickly followed by "Well they will now, stop writing!".

So SOOO Modern

2008-10-29T17:01:00.001+13:00

Logos! Yay! No offense (okay some) to sponsors, but you do realise no one even looks at your logos on poster besides other sponsors and promoters (who just wanna see who they can scam free stuff off). Mostly your logos just ruin posters. Orrrrr maybe I should just be less shit and get better at incorporating them into my designs.... or do what a lot of folks do and just slap them on really blatantly at the end in a white box so that the logos stand out so badly you know whoever added them hated them even more than I do.

!!! WIP

2008-10-26T01:18:00.001+13:00

I should probably add sketch scans to this one. but i'm tired so I'll sort those out later. hurrah!

Sora Shima Update

2008-10-23T14:48:00.001+13:00

This was a really gruelling project, and took a long long time. Far longer than I care to even estimate. I spent forever trying to get the band name looking right, with a mix of organic vineyness and illegible legibility. I haven't spent any time drawing logos for Black Metal Bands so it didn't come naturally. Anyway this project evolved a lot, from the inital style (I like frame 2 a lot) to where it wound up, which was somewhere far more intense than I'd originally planned, but ultimately more how it should've gone from the start.

anyway, here's a bunch of incremental saves through out the process of designing this album cover. I sometimes run into problems with clients seeing work in progress pics and not being overly happy. I'll readily admit that a lot of my stuff looks pretty ratshit til about the 75% completion, which is where all the detail and polishing goes in (see also Holy Fuck poster.. .same deal). The last 25% is time consuming as hell, but I have to do it to make myself happy ultimately.

I think I'll post up some more of these process gifs (if only to make myself realise how massively inefficient my workflow can be. This was definitely an extreme case though.) I tend to save incremental work files fairly frequently as I tend to make it up as I go along a bit, outside of having a general overall vision of how things are going. Depends on how paranoid I am about losing some sort of mid-project genius but overworking it and being able to dig it up again without too much trouble. I now realise that I have almost never gone back to an older file and they're just eating up harddisk space. I guess it's the hoarder in me.

Of Montreal flyer

2008-10-13T22:58:00.001+13:00

as far as poster goes, this isn't 100% complete as far as I'm concerned but the promoter needed a flyer to hand out at upcoming gigs. But I'll chuck it up anyway so friends of mine can have a looksee. Hi guys!

Cut Off Your Hands

2008-10-05T17:34:00.001+13:00

This has more in common with posters I was making a couple of years ago, and less of an illustrationfest than recent things. Was a nice break. This had more hand-done text but it started to look a little bit too over the top... to my eyes, it's got a bit of a movie poster vibe to it with that text.

Jeremy Jay

2008-09-29T17:12:00.001+13:00

this poster is notable for being pretty much the first time I've drawn a 'real' person in a poster or final piece of work.

it's also notable for being pretty choice. haha

HOLY FUCK

2008-09-23T12:11:00.001+12:00

Pretty different from the usual stuff.. just trying out some things. I contemplated attempting to do this pixel-art styles. I'm kinda glad I didn't, as it would've taken roughly a million years. give or take.

more posters in the works at the mo.. check back in a couple of days.

Sora Shima - Destroy Electronica

2008-09-19T16:21:00.001+12:00

Yeasayer

2008-09-05T23:14:00.001+12:00

There's an earlier alternate version of this. But then I had a sleep and decided it wasn't finished. But the other one was out in the wild for a while there. I'll post up a small process thread for this if anyone's interested. as a side note, drawing hands is HARD. They took forrrrever to get right.. and they're still not awesome.

freeview

2008-08-28T09:02:00.001+12:00

Magazine article illustration.

Was good to have a finished drawing. I changed the position of the face and coloured it in Photoshop, but other than that, that's the pencils. I am sleepy.

I've drawn quite a few things with flowy tentacles or lines... or it feels like I have. the FTS ep cover... umm.... oh, the Kristen Hersh poster.... whatever, time for sleep.

Groove Guide cover

2008-08-25T10:33:00.001+12:00

hurrah.

credit to Lydia for the suggestion of the speech bubble. I'd claim it as my own cuz it amuses me no end, but no, that's not how I roll. kudos Lydia.

I'm just as confused as I am

2008-08-11T13:25:00.001+12:00

It's a while since I've straight up drawn a poster. I mean, it was inked digitally and changed quite a bit once that was done, but I had it somewhat figured out on paper. Just for giggles, here's the initial sketch. I very rarely draw things that big... generally my sketchbook pages are crammed with tiny drawings. To illustrate my point (hurhur), look to the right of the picture on the left

I've been trying to draw more human characters lately.. or at least things with two eyes. I was drawing cyclops characters for a long time cuz I had trouble getting 'real' faces looking right. Felt like it was time to try and, I dunno.. improve? I feel like it's working thus far.

While I was working on this poster I had in mind that it was kinda like a companion piece to my first poster. As is my way, I didn't look at it for reference at all. I tend to work off how I remember things in my head rather than look at references as I tend to wind up getting way too particular. And things come out a little less derivative if I do things that way. Anyway, I looked at the first poster now and they're similar only a really base level. Anyway.. here's that poster for your old timey poster eyeballs

oh ha ha

2008-08-04T03:14:00.001+12:00

something by someone else

2008-07-28T17:51:00.001+12:00

I was poking about Drawn.ca last night and came across this post about artist Leesa Leva's new prints. the photo on the blog intrigued me so I did the usual internet thing and meandered my way to success. Success being spending money I probably shouldn't. But I spent it on this really impressive piece of work.

Now I'm not normally a big fan of the whole pictures-of-girls thing. You know what I mean, right? Hell, this piece features a few things I'm kind of sick of seeing... ornate wallpaper textures, really vibrant gradients... okay that many things. .. basically I'm just not that into stuff that's just a basically drawing of some girl. And it's not because I think they look shitty or anything, most of the artists doing 'em make really nice stuff, but it's never really spoken to me. But this one did. Exactly what it said, I'm unsure. "Buy me" probably. Whatever, it clicked with me. Got the same thing from other work on her site... I might not know exactly what the pictures are about but I can tell there's more depth to it than just "ooh pretty".

Anyway, I love this. A lot! The linework around her face reminds me of James Jeans work a little, and that hair is fantastic! But it just looks so complete, and has an iconic feel to it. I'm excited about acquiring it.

The other weird thing (I guess) is I don't even think the girl in the picture is hot haha.. pretty much the polar opposite of my "type". Perhaps I'm missing the point of pictures-of-girls.

Actually, it looks a bit like Jemina the singer from kickass band, Be Your Own Pet.

Brian Jonestown Massacre tour poster

2008-07-19T15:29:00.001+12:00

Tour poster. something a bit different again. Tried to mix psychedelic with my own style (whatever that is) into something vaguely movie poster-ish,

I think a fair bit of my near-obsessive love for The Venture Bros. found its way in there too. Season 3 is absolutely ridiculous so far. So good. Although for some reason no matter how often I recommend this show to people never seem to bother to check it out. Their loss I spose.

sk8b0r3d

2008-07-14T02:55:00.001+12:00

I was (not so recently) invited to be part of an exhibition being put together by the COCA gallery in Christchurch. An exhibition of skateboard decks all prettied up. And they'd send me a deck to ruin. Given I'm pretty intimidated by painting (or anything artwork related that lacks a Ctrl+Z) it took a while to suss out what and how I was gonna do this project. Got there in the end. lots of layers of paint, sanding and varnish. And woodworking. I hadn't done anything with woodworking tools since I was like fuckin 12. Somehow I managed to not make a complete hash of it. There's a few issues I have with the piece, but nothing major enough for me to feel apprehensive about it going in the show haha.

without further a blabber, here is the deck, titled.... uh.. I'll get back to you on that one. No wait, Monstroso! it's called Monstroso.

some day job stuff

2008-06-16T22:05:00.001+12:00

Here's some things I drew today. I'm a little surprised at them myself. They're a wee bit cutesy generic, but... I guess this is the first time I've really done things like this.... I mean, I draw a lot of cutesy shit, but usually just on paper. The main thing that surprised me was the shocking realisation that the buhjillion hours I spent on the !!! poster and the robot illustrations actually translated into increased skills. I believe people who play World of Warcraft refer to that as 'grinding'. Never played it myself, never plan to. Maybe World of World of Warcraft though. For now, I'm too busy drawing. Or watching the Venture Brothers endlessly.

BJM Flyer

2008-06-12T12:59:00.001+12:00

Promoter wanted something to hand out at some local shows. The real poster still in progress

Robits.

2008-06-09T14:25:00.001+12:00

Slightly sleep dep'd but I was determined to get these done and dusted today. Two full page illustrations for a magazine. I got suuuuuuuuper pedantic with these given the size they'll be vs distance they'll be viewed at.

all created in flash. I made some sweetass gradients. I might post a process thread of these images.. the evolved a lot over time.

(y)our band is over

2008-05-06T06:58:00.002+12:00

Two sweet bands, two final shows, two posters. I'm really glad we got to play with the Insurgents before they (and we) broke up.

Ideally the poster for our final show shoulda been more upbeat or just generally not so grim, but nothing was really working for me, and thus, that cheery image. I always struggle with designing stuff for FTS for some reason. Too close to it I guess. I didn't feel like expressly stating "FINAL SHOW" or words to that effect on the poster, but I'm assuming people will be able to get the general gist from the imagery at hand.

The guy in the Insurgents poster looks oddly familiar, no? I hate text. As I'm starting to enjoy drawing more and more, it seems directly proportional to how much I hate laying out text. Or at least doing posters that require a ton of text. Grr. GRR!

scribbledygook

2008-05-03T01:34:00.001+12:00

Today someone said "draw me a monster". so I did. and I liked it. Then someone else wanted one. Did one for them too, but didn't like it as much. Then the first person asked for another one later in the day. Since I've basically been procrastinating, I did another. It was better than the second one, but not as good as the first.

Anyway, they're below in chronological order. They were done fairly quickly... 10-20 mins~ roughly... which is real quick for me! I'm going to try and get into the habit of doing this regularly, as a means of playing around with drawing and just to generally sharpen up. They're all done in flash. and I'd just like to say that I dig the legs on the first one.

dear blog, sorry about the neglect. here's some pictures of recent things.

2008-04-17T15:07:00.007+12:00

This poster was a huge amount of work (that I made for myself really... no one asked me to be a tard and do multiple allnighters on it), but at least it kinda shows. Click on the pic to see it bigger. There's a lot of stuff going on in there. Some narrative too, but odds on you'll only pick up on it if you're massively sleep deprived. I hate logos.

Album cover for Flip Grater. Stack o' cups. Stacks! This one was a bit of a mission... part of the reason I haven't updated lately is because my personal life went to hell, taking all my creative drive along with it. I struggled for ages to even come up with a concept for this cover... actually I had an initial concept that'll find a new life in another form, but yeah. It got done in the end.

This was designed for a one-off LP cover for a compilation put together by Mr Jonathan Bree of The Brunettes. Sadly copyright and vinyl press issues seem to have killed the whole deal for the time being. I'm considering dropping the text off and just doing an art print. Any takers?

In Fighting the Shakes related news, we've been chosen to open for Against Me! at their Wellington show on May 6. New Wave was one of my favourite albums of 07 so I'm really stoked about it! We're also opening for the Mint Chicks at their next welly show on May 9th.
We shot a video for Your Life Is Over last weekend, which I've just begun to edit. No idea how it's gonna come together, but something'll go up on here when it's done.
and finally, we're breaking up at the end of May.

should have some more new stuff to lay on you in the next couple of weeks!

dang!

2008-01-27T23:44:00.000+13:00

A blog called You the Designer recently made a post titled '16 Sensational Poster Designs'. I was pretty amazed to see the recent poster I did for The National in there. Like really really pretty amazed. What's funny/sad is the poster wasn't used very extensively to promote the gig at all. But hey, now shitloads of people have gotten to see it.

so yeah, that's news.

Half-Handed Cloud

2008-01-14T08:59:00.000+13:00

Poster for a show that's pretty soon. This one was also pretty much all done in Flash, bar a couple of modifications at the end in photoshop.
This was sposed to just be a quick and dirty one, but I'm beginning to realise any time I agree to do a poster I can't bring myself to kinda phone it in. Orrr I go and do timeconsuming things like adjust all the types layout by hand to make it appear more random, less rigid.
Also, part of this poster is in part a tip of the hat to Little Friends of Printmaking... not that they'll care, but they're a huge inspiration to me, and I do my best not to rip 'em off where possible. I haven't seen anything new from them for a little while, but I think they transitioned from the gigposter pasture to the far more fertile land of uh.. doing something you'll actually get paid well for.

Anyway, I started this around midnight and finished at about 6:30-7 this morning. I should prrrobably go to bed.

awww yeah

2008-01-11T14:59:00.000+13:00

bang!bang!aids!

2008-01-03T01:13:00.000+13:00

click for embiggened versions. although there's still more detail you might not really see on that version. I like this umm... AIDS gun? Whatever it is. This was all created in Flash. It's also motivated me to get hold of a Wacom Cintiq 12WX... as much as I like drawing into the comp with my tablet, I have trouble with the whole look one place, draw another thing... stuff takes me far longer than it really should, and I think one of those new tablets would increase my productivity greatly. Will find out as soon as I can source one in NZ, or sort out how to ship one from the US. glee!

theNational

2007-12-20T17:46:00.000+13:00

These guys are rad. I still can't get over the fact I'm getting to do posters for these bands, much less the fact that they're all actually coming to New Zealand! doubleyew tee eff as.

2007-12-09T04:09:00.000+13:00

Anthems for a Twenty-Seven Year Old Boy

2007-12-03T19:12:00.000+13:00

Quick (by my standards anyway) flyer for the upcoming BSS gig. I'm really excited about this! I have a pretty intense poster in the works for this. I love BSS so I'm very very stoked to get to do a poster for them. So I'm doin' it up right.

In other news, I'm teetering on the brink of complete burnout. I've been so busy lately with contracting as well as all the other jobs I commit to that I've had bugger all downtime. Combine that with the usual energy draining relationship issues (or lack thereof) and everything else and yeah... feeling pretty run down and looking forward to having some time to chill out, sit in the sun drinking beer, sit inside all sunburnt due to prior outside sittage, play video games and generally just take it easy. Oh, and screenprint. A lot!

In other other news, I bought a MicroKorg synth yesterday. It's fun. bleepybloop. Not sure if it'll weasel its way into Fighting the Shakes in some capacity, but I wouldn't rule it out. Our new songs are sounding super super promising and awesome by the way. Very poppy (by our standards anyway)!

Okay, back to the grind.

All of a sudden I miss my weekend

2007-11-25T15:33:00.000+13:00

This ended up pretty different from what I had originally planned. The text style and things are the same but the eventual execution is significantly different. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked on this. I resisted the urge to do any kind of distressing. I plan on screenprinting a small run of these A2 on black card (minus the bloodly logos, bane of the poster maker).

Been so ridiculously busy that the only way I could get this stuff done was to forgoe much of a weekend. And I have new 360 games that demand to be played! Life's tough. Although at the moment all the contracting work should see me pretty well secure, financially, over the summer, which is inevitably dead as a doornail work wise... still about late Jan.

2007-11-23T10:21:00.000+13:00

Your Band's Poster Rocks
November 22 - December 10th
Opening Night: Thursday November 22nd 6pm
Up There Arts Gallery Space
145 Karangahape, Newton, Auckland

"Your Band's Poster Rocks!" a cry frequently overheard by the artists themselves as they stand at the back of the club.... A true test of any poster is found on the walls in university dorms, overcrowded flat living rooms or possibly even framed and hung by the clubs featured. Together with the artists involved, we’ve gathered the last remnants of gigs gone by and for the first time showcasing a New Zealand Artist Only Group Rock Art Show.

This show will contain a collection of New Zealand's continuing & emerging rock poster designers creating original images for national and international modern rock artists, with a sprinkling of "classic art prints" by the likes of Coop and Kozik from the Illicit Archives.

This exhibition will push to the forefront gig-art usually only seen in densely packed foot traffic areas, with limited wall space and posted under the cover of night by dark hoodie wearing vandals (the artists). These complex, handmade advertisements, as different as the creators, juxtapose aural/visual artistry found throughout fluxing city streets country-wide. Each designer is charged with conveying the difficult visual message coupled with a variety of musical styles to translate the idea that a band's street poster is the direct visual representation of how the gig should make the audience feel. This first in an ongoing exhibit will showcase the temporary posted works from Ruban Nielson, Bradley Fafejta, Ed Gains, Alan Holt, Autistk, Mat Scheurich, Heckman & Ben Thompson.

We make the posters because we love to.

Thanks to:
Up There Arts - Illicit Clothing - BFM - Cheese on Toast - Jagermeister

So, this exhibition opened in Auckland last night, with about 8 of my posters in it. I've been way too busy with contracting work to make it up there, which was really gutting considering it's the first real exhibition I've ever had work in. To make matters worse, I was getting txt's from Pete Heckman who put the show together saying people were wanting to buy stuff and did I have more of X poster and could they buy the ones I'd marked Not For Sale... which is awesome.
The NFS ones were digital prints I had done of posters I lacked big copies of (in this case, Kristin Hersh, the Fighting the Shakes that won Poster of the Week on Gigposters.com, and The Gossip).

but yeah.. if you're in auckland and read this blog, go check out the exhibition and tell me how it is!

Cleatis Preston

2007-11-01T23:21:00.001+13:00

I got approached a while back about doing some designs for a newish NZ t-shirt label. I ended up pillaging some of my poster designs, under the rationale that A) I made 'em so I can do what I want and B) they were on posters that were up in wellington for a fortnight at the most (one night in the case of the middle pic) and why the hell not.

Unfortunately, the shirts (and hoodie, also of the middle one) they sent me are a size too small for my fat ass. Hopefully I can switch 'em, cuz I'd def wear them like a big big dork. Maybe I should just set a goal to exercise more til I fit 'em..... nah, switching's easier.

Interesting side note, my favourite shirt, the yellow one (although it's also printed on red and black and some other colour I think), wasn't too popular with retailers. Go figure. Perhaps this was before everyone seemed to go apeshit for slogan tee's and shirts with crap printed huge all over them?

sorry about the crappy photos

strangers + fighting the shakes

2007-10-31T02:49:00.001+13:00

a quickie poster that turned into a slightly-longer-than-that poster.

2007-10-23T09:32:00.001+13:00

new poster. click to embiggen. more info eventually.

new stuff

2007-09-06T03:18:00.001+12:00

Here's the cover for my bands EP. it's titled All My Friends Are Electric. I'll post up the rest soon. We just got it back from the printers today. We head up north in the morning to play a show in Hamilton, and then 2 shows in auckland. hopefully we sell a couple of copies. I'll post up details here for the 1 person who reads this blog who might be interested in a copy.

And a new poster. I just just JUST finished this. had to get it out before bailing. It was looking pretty lame for a while but I managed to turn it into something I'm quite happy with. I suspect this might end up being an art print too.

anyway, I should pack. I'll report back

2007-08-13T19:07:00.000+12:00

No updates for a while. Slack! Anyway, I'll post a bunch of new stuff, starting with the most recent.
This is an illustration for Metro Magazine. An article about noisy neighbours. I'm pretty stoked with this actually. It came together fairly quickly. When I was colouring this the first time, photoshop died and I had to start over, which ended up working out a hell of a lot better than the first colour scheme I was working with. The same can't be said for the next one.

Time was pretty tight on this one, and while I quite like it, even now there's things I'm not that happy with. I can't draw hands! Amongst other things.

With the above drawings, I started them off in pencil with the intention of inking them. Due to time constraints this wasn't really possible, mainly because at this stage my inking is a terribly slow, frustrating experience. . Either way, the one directly above, the paper was pretty much destroyed in the area where the woman is, as well as a few other places that were just drawn and erased so many times the paper became useless. This image was pretty much drawn from scratch trying to work out how it was all going to work. I was using a 2H (I think) mechanical pencil. which is pretty forgiving in terms of sketching things out, but pretty rough on the crappy ZETA pad I swiped from work. They seem really nice to draw on until you try to go detailed. I actually find drawing on pretty generic laser printer paper to be the best. Not exactly archival quality, but it's easy. Oh yeah, it's also worth nothing that with both these two images, I made more of an attempt to draw things bigger on the page. I find it takes me a little longer to get the composition right, but once it's sorted the rest of the drawing process is pretty fun. Having more room to put in detail and what not. Basically I'm trying to get off the computer as much as possible for the actual drawing of stuff. Mainly because it's way faster/easier than with my tablet. Poor Intuous 1, so old, so imprecise.
ramble.

Pretty basic poster this... There was a tone of type so I laid it all out first, and, pressed for time , grabbed a bunch of photos from this years camp, from Partyphoto.com, put a halftone over them and yeah... there ya. Disappointed I didn't have more time, or less text. Still.. interested to see these up and about. I put a photo of me in there from camp, doing probably the best 'mouth open wooo yeaaah party!' PartyPhoto.

This poster is the first time I've really recycled quite this blatantly. See the posters below. Regardless, I quite like this layout.

Again, shitloads of text. I layed it all out first, then figured out what to draw in the gaps. In this case a vaguely Cheshire-ish cat. and a mouse flipping him the bird. I have copies of the Chch poster for sale, and should have copies of the Wellington one soon. It's worth (?) noting that I drew the characters for this in Flash, mainly because I had no idea what I was going to draw (I'd toyed around with a sailor with a spyglass but still don't have enough confidence in my human characters to go through with it). I dropped a screengrab of the text layout into flash and then scribbled around until something came out. Oh yeah, these posters are the first time I translated my halftone texture technique to Photoshop. Much less system intensive. Just as fiddly though.

I'm pretty sure there's more stuff, but I'm really tired. That'll do for now!

2007-06-06T01:34:00.000+12:00

forgot about this one... the street posters were 1/2 an A1 each.. so, in an ingenious move, they're printing both on one sheet and then somehow, perhaps using a cutting implement and agonising hours of surgery, separating them, much like a doctor separate siamese twins.
at a guess.
(time for bed)

The Shins

2007-06-04T21:44:00.001+12:00

Here are two pictures of the Shins NZ tour artwork.... the first is the 1/2 A1 sized street posters. Solid orange so, when you see 'em on the street the band name stands out from far off, but if you get up closer, there's something to look at. The version below is for the web/print/retail/tv advertising.. basically the same, just with a bit more tone in it.
I'll post a process thread if anyone's interested in seeing how this one came together?

2007-06-04T20:40:00.000+12:00

To anyone who actually read this blog, sorry about the delay in updates! I got ridiculously busy and somewhat loss the blogging bug. Rather than ramble on, I'll give you a quick update on what's been going on...
over the last month or so things have been really busy with my band, Fighting the Shakes. We played Auckland three weekends in a row, which was awesome fun, but hard work, travelwise.
Besides that, getting back, going to work, going to practices and then going back on the road again. madness!
the other big news is I was asked to design the gigposter for The Shins upcoming New Zealand shows!@%@$^ I'll post it up soon, and a process blog.

excuse the blah update, just feeling kinda jaded

something new, finally!

2007-05-04T13:42:00.000+12:00

I know it's been ages, and there's not a lot of excuses really... some personal stuff to deal with completely drained my inspiration. This poster was a major major struggle.. I felt like I'd totally lost my mojo. It all came together eventually though.

Anyway, my band Fighting the Shakes are playing a lot in May.... it happens to also be New Zealand Music Month, but I'd like to think that that's not the reason for all the gigs. But whatever... we're playing three weekends in a row in Auckland, which is going to be pretty brutal, travel-wise.

We're heading up next weekend (may 11th) to play with The Tutts and Motocade at the Kings Arms, and maybe a house party the night after, although that's all still being jacked up. Hopefully it happens though, as house parties are really really fun... with the added bonus of, if I get a bit drunker than I should before we play, odds on everyone else at the party is in much the same state and won't notice!

The weekend after we're doing the tour detailed on the poster above. This one I'm *really* looking forward to. We'll be travelling with some really great bands and some great friends. Sam and Pads who are behind the Mole Music label are awesome guys and a lot of fun to hang out with. White Birds and Lemons and the Vacants are excellent too... we've played with both bands in the past and I'm looking forward to seeing them on a nightly basis. Thankfully the last show of the mini-tour in Wellington, so we/I can party hard and not have to dread an 8+ hour drive the next day. Although all I have to do is sit there. I don't have my drivers license so it's up to Chet and Jayesh to do all the driving. I really should get my license...

The weekend after THAT one, we're back up to Auckland again, this time playing at an industry showcase thing that 95bFM are putting on called Fancy New Band. I'm not sure who else is on the lineup at this stage, but I'm sure there'll be tons of cool bands. A little nervy about this one as it's gonna be in front of a bunch of music industry folks... but it should give us a good indication of where the band stands in terms of anyone giving a crap. Actually, the two weekends prior should give us a fair idea on that front. Who knows... either way it's exciting to be asked to play all these things.

In other band related news, our EP is really really close to being finished. All the vocals are down now, barring a couple of retakes and overdubs, and might re-record bass for one of the songs, but other than that.... so nearly done! I need to get cranking on the artwork. We should have unmastered promo copies of it ready before we go away thoughee, so if by some chance you're reading this and will be at a show, hit me up and I'll fling you one.

One of the final tracks from the recording, People Would Say, is up on our myspace page. Check it out if you are so inclined.

I'll try to keep updating with a little more frequency now that things feel a little more stable and on track!

The Sneaks poster - process thread

2007-02-28T11:40:00.000+13:00

This is the final poster, in jpg form. I started this on Sunday 25th of Feb and worked on it all night and almost all the next day. It was quite hardout and tiring. I enjoyed it though.
This is the initial concept. The sketch is actually about 3 years old. I remembered it really vividly and had to trawl through my sketchbooks to find it after I was having major trouble drawing pretty much the same thing. There's about 3 pages of awful crappy sketches trying to capture something along those lines.
Started drawing it up, throwing in the text and general dickery, trying to figure out the layout of the laser beams.

A bit more playing around. I dropped the lines out while I worked on the character. The left hand took aaaaaaages to get right. Many many revisions.

Not exactly an indepth process thread, as we didn't take photos as we went, but here's a pile of the prints after we'd laid down the grey.

There's our vacuum table

Final prints. These were completed on Saturday afternoon. I had so little sleep during the week due to working on this and my own work that it blew me away a little think that it'd gone from not existing at all, to being a 3 colour print in under a week.

One of the final prints. It's not perfect (we had big problems exposing the screens, I think the emulsion was nearing expiration) and lost a bit of a detail in the text at the bottom. We patched it up with a small stencil afterwards. Some registration errors, but there were only about 2 prints that were so wildy out that they were trash. I'd worked a bit of mess and chum into the original design so anything that happened during printing wouldn't be too detrimental to the overall image. phew!

All up, this is our first successful print run, and I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out. They're up around town and the uni's now apparently. I'll have to go check it out before they're inevitably postered over with crappy A3 black and white xeroxed WordArt pieces of shit. I'm such a hater.

Either way, I'm really looking forward to playing this show. The Sneaks are awesome, and it's going to be Universe's first ever show. Should be a lot of fun!

2007-02-16T12:40:00.000+13:00

Another fauxposter for that magazine in Melbourne. I have enough saved images as this one evolved that I could probably post some sort of process thread about it if anyone is interested.
Might retrofit this for a Fighting the Shakes poster one day.

I've got a couple of *real* gigposter jobs coming up very shortly, finally. It's been a while.
Started a new job this week too, which is good cuz being poor suuuucks (no really).

GigPosters.com Playing Cards: Deck #3

2007-02-15T08:35:00.000+13:00

Earlier in the year I was stoked to be selected to do a card for the new GigPosters.com card deck. The last two have had some incredible artists involved.. as has this one. Anyway, here's my card. I decided to run with a variation of the poster that earned me Poster of the Week on the site last year. Seemed fitting.

2007-02-12T01:20:00.000+13:00

this is a companion graphic for a magazine interview of said band. The mag asked me to do faux gigposters for each of the interviews. This is the first. I like it a lot.. it's quite different from any other stuff I've done, as I'm usually resistant to using outside elements like photos or clipart or whatever. But I was digging around trying to scratch up some inspiration for this poster and stumbled across a photo of a young Joseph Stalin and it 'spoke' to me.
I like this image a lot and I'll rework it into either a proper gigposter or an art print. Kinda tempted to track down childhood images of other genocidal psychopaths through history and make a series.

kinda random...

2007-02-10T03:13:00.000+13:00

a friend of mine linked me to a site tonight that featured a photo of a stencil on Symonds St in auckland circa 2005 as seen here:

looks like someone liked the poster below enough to make stencil of it. Pretty weird and oddly flattering in a "why?" kind of way....... it looks kinda naff out of context of the rest of the poster...

incidentally, I have copies of this poster available for sale (a3 2 colour screen prints), as well as very limited art prints of it that look like this:

reject'd

2007-01-25T20:08:00.000+13:00

It's probably a bit sadguy to post something that got rejected, but I like it, so whatevs.
Meg got approached about doing some t-shirt concept designs for the Black Seeds, but passed the job off to me. This is one of the ones I did. I was kinda surpised it got the brush actually. I thought it suited them in a way that's a little different from their other stuff, and coulda potentially been a uni-sex print too. No biggie though, that's how these things go at times. Now that I think about it, I should try to get some feedback from 'em.

another scribble

2007-01-25T03:10:00.000+13:00

I'd been wanting to do something more with the characters I created for the So So Modern poster series... in amongst my sketchbook scribbles there was this. minor tidyup and colour in ps. the guns a bit boring lookin.

sketchbook sampler

2007-01-24T21:19:00.000+13:00

In lieu of posting something actually worthwhile, here's a page from my sketchbook. Lately I've just been drawing to draw, with no specific purpose in mind... just getting stuff down. Whatever that stuff may be. I like bits of this page though. Most of my sketchbooks look more or less like this. Clicking will embiggen the even the smallest picture.

2007-01-18T16:26:00.000+13:00

I saw a video over on Drawn.Ca yesterday and thought "goddamn, those pens look sweet!". Turns out it's a Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen. Went to visit my friend Bree who works at Gordon Harris (formerly Little Johns, as some of you may have known it) and while I poked around their pen selection, what should I find? Yep, the very same pen. Only $4 too, which was a lot cheaper than I expected. Anyway, got home and gave it a test run, doodling on the back of an envelope. Here's a thing, I added the grey tones in photoshop. I think this, in combination with the much thick and more brushlike Tria pen could result in some sexy uh.. results. Sexier results than this bland subject matter anyway. He kinda looks a bit like my sisters boyfriend. If he wasn't that well drawn... and angrier than usual. and by some trees and a cloud. and grey.

2007-01-17T17:17:00.000+13:00

I've been sketching random crap lately (as ever) and decided to scan and colour stuff up, just for the hell of it. So yeah... here's one of the things. linework was roughly drawn with a Letraset Tria pen filled with black ink. I'm still getting the hang of it. I'd really like a Pentel or Pitt brush pen though, their brush nibs are a lot finer and would suit how small I tend to draw. Still, using the Tria has been good practice working with something of normal brush-like sizes. I haven't tried painting since I've used it so I dunno if it'll improve my technique any. We'll see.

THIS LEG ARE SNAKE

Stream of conciousness sketching. Hipster lightning bolts! It's a shame I drew the guys head so jock-like, but I'm still a bit rubbish at drawing peoples faces, so it's generally not up to me how they end up looking. Practice practice!

2007-01-15T22:48:00.000+13:00

I realise this blog is incredibly dull (layoutwise.. the content is just incredible). I'm going to work on improving my incredibly lacklustre HTML skills and overhaul this, and my portfolio website and create a nice package of niceness.
At some stage
hopefully soon.
actually, I'd really like to get significantly better at coding, be it CSS, HTML or ActionScript. Another thing to add to the list of stuff to do!

Really? You want to know my best of 2006?

2007-01-15T21:20:00.000+13:00

Happy New Year everyone!
I never really write, much less give much thought to my favourite whatevers at the end of any given year, but I want to make an effort to write in this blog more often, so here goes:

Awesome stuff of the '06
1. Going to Melbourne to see Death Cab w/ Meg!
2. Fighting the Shakes playing This Night Creeps last ever show w/ the Mint Chicks (plus more or less everything else involved with the band... it all went far far better than I had ever anticipated)
3. Finding out I'd been awarded POSTER OF THE WEEK (for a Fighting the Shakes poster no less) on gigposters.com while i was in melbourne
4. Finally getting screenprinting gear, and beginning work on an exhibition with Meg
5. Managing to more or less support myself financially for another year.

Crap shits of 2006
1. The insane financial instability that comes with freelance contracting.
2. Feeling like I was gonna collapse and die in Melbourne after a hard night on illicit substances and no sleep.
3. Being an insecure dick.
4. Ummm... I dunno, last year was pretty sweet and nothing too awful is coming to mind. Hurrah!

Albums of 2006:
Last year was a pretty odd one for albums. Tons of albums that I'd classify as "really good" came out, but not a lot of stuff that really wowed me and ended up going into constant circulation. I'm not even sure I can pick 5, but here goes:

1. The Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
My opinion of the Mint Chicks has rollercoastered dramatically over the last couple of years. Initially stoked to hear a band playing the kind of music I wasn't expecting to hear from a NZ band with the Octagon Octagon Octagon EP, only to have them lose me with the F**K The Golden Youth album, and their somewhat arrogant standoffish attitude throughout this era (plus an unfortunate drunken run-in with Ruban Neilson after a gig at Indigo). I hadn't been looking forward to the new album much at all, outside vague curiosity. At least until I heard a crappy mp3 of You're Just as Confused as I Am. The punchy guitar riff, and poppy as hell vocal melody grabbed me and I had to hear more. I'd always preferred the more pop-driven side of the Mint Chicks as opposed to the spazzier artwank side of things, and this song hinted that perhaps they'd headed down the path I was hoping they would. In this day and age of every fucking album leaking weeks in advance, it was strange to have to wait for release day to actually hear an album. I went to Real Groovy the day it came out, picked it up and then cursed the fact that you can't just rub a CD against an ipod to transfer the songs.
On first listen the album seemed to be a non-stop sugar-rush (with some rather surprising almost nu-metal (in a good way... it's possible, they did it) riffs) for the first half and then peter out somewhat. Which isn't that far from the truth. The album definitely shifts gears 2/3 of the way through. But like all good albums, with time these songs became contenders. Kody's voice has always been really good and suited the music, but he's got some really good stuff going on here. Great memorable and infectiously catch melodies on a few tracks.
My band had the incredibly good fortune of playing with the Mint Chicks a few times this year, and it was really awesome to see and hear all these new songs played live. They've always been a strong live act, but things have really clicked into place. Highly recommend checking out their live show if you get the chance, and definitely check out this album. I could go on, but I'm hungry.

2. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Believe me, I know okay! I've heard more than enough about how much they suck and emo's gay and blah blah blah. This is an incredibly solid rock record, with more than its fair share of overblown theatrics, but hell, it works for me. I started going off on a rant about how somewhere along the line no one noticed that all the cliches they're throwing around in the mainstream press as to what 'emo' is, is exactly the same as 95% of all goth cliches. IT'S THE SAME THING PEOPLE, just a few less ankhs and whiny, rather than mopey music.
Uh.. okay, so I guess that counts as a rant.. either way it annoys me and I don't see why anyone cares. Including me. Also, I'm not emo. Although in saying that it instantly means I am so I guess I am emo. Does that mean I'm not now?
Anyway, this album = good as.

3. Cursive - Happy Hollow
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THE CELLO?!?! Horns? what?! *sob*" Initial reactions can be misleading. The Ugly Organ is definitely one of my top records of all time (that list in a future post), and a big part of what made that album so incredible was the addition of the cello. Happy Hollow ousts the cello and replaces it with a horn section. I'm a big fan of bands with horn sections (notably Rocket from the Crypt), but it just didn't seem like the right fit for Cursive. The dark atmosphere that the cello brought to Organ was all but absent on Hollow and I wasn't a happy man. Then I started to absorb the lyrics, and low and behold, a happy man I became.

4. Shaky Hands - Cut Off Your Hands EP
It wasn't much more than a year and a half ago (maybe less) that I saw Shaky Hands play Room 101 at Bodega to next to no one. Since then they've signed to a reputable indie label, toured Australia a bunch, toured with Steriogram and Deja Voodoo (okay, so crappy bands, but still, that's a big tour), and then one upping that by ending 2006 on a tour with Shihad and the Datsuns. All up I think I saw them play 6 times in 2006. FTS had the good fortune of playing with them too, towards the end of the year. Anyway, this EP rules. I managed to acquire it through nefarious means (aka soulseek) months before it was eventually released, but it's remained a mainstay in my playlist (this is more or less my main criteria for anything that's made it into this here list). Infectious basslines and vocals, sharp drumwork and hooky songs make a very tasty package indeed. If I had any gripe at all, it'd be that closing track Sorry has some kinda iffy lyrics. That, and the damn thing is too short and I want more more more!

5. .............
I'm kind of at a loss now... so here's a list of stuff I liked this year, but can't quite justify going in a 'BEST OF 2006' list.

TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
Thursday - City by the Light Divided
Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
the Matches - Decomposer

damn, even making this list is hard. There was definitely more than this, but I'm drawing a blank. Oh well.

I was gonna do a movies list, but I'm blanking out on that too. I'll have some dinner and maybe come back to it....
otherwise, that's all folks!

A Letter...

2006-08-07T16:36:00.000+12:00

Dear The Dishes,

I do not want to do you. However, if I don't do you soon you will
multiply by depressing amounts.
I hate you The Dishes.

regards,
Haddles

2006-06-12T02:54:00.000+12:00

Ian aka Blink who runs the whole A Low Hum empire offered me a full page advert in the upcoming issue of A Low Hum (for the tour I did the poster for... that I haven't posted here.... hrmm)... anyway, I threw this together fairly quickly but I think it looks okay and should hopefully generate some more work. Not holding my breath though.

As a random aside, Will, who runs the fledgling label Out of Kilter just informed me that while round at some guys place the other day, he saw he had a framed Pure Evil Trio poster on his wall. That's fucking CRAZY.... I don't even have framed copies of any of my posters! Stoked indeed!

oh yeah, and I'll figure out what font settings I want to use on here soon enough... until then, it's gonna all look a bit random.

A new purchase

2006-06-09T17:51:00.000+12:00

So, being the bass player in a band, it seemed high time I actually got my own bass. I'd been borrowing the bands former bassist's gear and I think he was kind of over that. So, while I had the cash, I went out and bought the beauty you see below. Nice 'vintage' Jazz bass... I removed the middle metal plate thing... while it looked cool it made the bass more or less functionless for me. It cost a little more than I'd planned on spending, but since I had the money I figured I should jump on it asap, as I have a bad habit of discovering I've frittered away money I put away for purchases such as this.

Fighting the Shakes 06/06/06 - Bar Bodega

2006-06-08T22:00:00.000+12:00

On Tuesday June the 6th, 2006 (or 6/6/6) my band Fighting the Shakes played Room 101 at Bar Bodega.

Frankly, I was a little nervous about playing. It was my first 'real' gig... I'd played plenty of times with my drunkass covers band The Regular Guys (or The Shut the Fuck Ups, depending on our mood)... the whole point of that band was to get incredibly boozed and then play our particular blend of Casio-keyboard drum-assisted idiocy. Good sloppily played fun, that seemed to get by more on sheer energy than say... musical competency. Hell, you can hear it for yourself if you want here!

Aaaanyway, back to the gig. I was nervous... oh yes indeed. Mostly due to singing in front of people... "singing" I should say.. it's more like semi-melodic yelling... or something. Anyway, I had utmost confidence that we as performers were okay, and the songs didn't suck and we could
play 'em tight.We got to the venue around 8ish and unloaded gear. We were playing with local band The Henderson, who'd arrived slightly earlier and were setting up their gear. Of which there was a veritable shitload. Pedals for miles, random other odds and sods. But Tim let me make use of his very nice 8x10" bass cabinet, so it's okay ;)
Anyway, they sound checked and were fuh-hucking loud... I had ear plugs in and it was still loud as shit. Then we sound checked... about 15
seconds into it, I popped the E string on the bass... the E string for fucks sake! And wouldn't you know it, the spare bass strings were at
Chets (drums/vocals) place. A swift mission there and back and the venue was starting to fill up a bit. Nervous pacing, catching up with some
friends, but feeling too distracted to be of much value, my girlfriend Meg arriving, and a couple of beers later and it was 10:30 and time for
us to play.And play we did.

Our set is pretty short. Just 6 songs, one of which is a cover of Suffragette City. I'd been mildly concerned our rendition of this song might upset the Bowie purists that may or may not have been in the crowd. It went fine, even with me singing verses. The whole set seemed to fly by and I don't have a hell of a lot to say about playing... Since I was singing a fair bit, I didn't have the luxury of
hiding from the crowd by way of staring at the bass the whole time... but it turns out it wasn't so bad... after going to so many gigs, it was
interesting to be on the other side of things.

There's no stage in Room 101 so we were on the floor and on the level with everyone else, in
quite a small space. But it was cool to look out and see people having an okay time. Plenty of blankish faces, which is to be expected at the
first gig of a virtually unknown band. Still, there was the odd grin here and there, and my mate Jonno was up the front having a bit of a
dance which was much appreciated.

Due to the restricted space set aside for bands, we couldn't move around too much... I nearly smacked Jayesh (guitar/vocals) with the bass neck
more than a few times. And then, it was all over. The room cleared out... that was it.. all up I think our set lasted somewhere between 15
and 20 mins... short indeed. But a good taster. Apparently we left people wanting more, so I guess that's a good thing. I felt completely
exhausted by the end.... all the nervous energy was gone, replaced with relief. I hadn't fucked up too many tiems in the set, and certainly not
in any major way the crowd would've noticed. All in all, things went well. People seemed to enjoy it, and when approached none of our friends
had difficultly looking us in the eye. Good sign that.

Unloaded, had some tequilas with Chet, watched The Henderson play (some of the guys were quite sick, and most of the crowd had left by the time they went on, which I felt stink for them about, but they didn't seem to
cut up) and left with Meg.

This was a bit a of a ramble, and I guess I was overcompensating for never writing in this damn thing. I'll try to find some middle ground in future.

2006-04-26T15:47:00.000+12:00

Well, here's an exciting first image post! A record label I'm doing some design work for asked if I could make up a logo for them. For some reason a guy with his brains exposed, looking a bit crazy, was the first thing that sprang to mind when I thought of "out of kilter". I sketched it up really quickly, and oddly, the label guy loved it. So they're using it. Go figure.
They're making t-shirts with it on next week.... raaandom.

another test

2006-04-25T13:17:00.000+12:00

So here we are... I made this blog over a year ago, and then promptly didn't bother to update it at all. It's not as if updating a Blogger is difficult! I was going to include a blog as part of my web-portfolio, but it seemed a little more straight forward to outsource it, if you will. I'm not entirely sure what I'll post in here, but no doubt it'll include a fair amount of rambling. I'd like things to be somewhat conversational, and talk about whatever is on my mind. I'll endevour to keep the angst to a bare minimum! No really.
talk soon
xoxo