a little experiment

Hello!

Here is another illustration that just finished. I guess you could call it a self portrait. Kind of.
I made the original sketch for it months ago and until now it had just been taped to my wall, sitting in the "future projects" bank - I'm sure lots of people have "future projects" or "things in the pipeline" or as the other list on my noticeboard says, "personal creative projects"...

This is something that tends to happen a lot while you're studying (or at least it happens to me a lot), you're always so busy with college briefs and assignments that you don't really have much time or energy to do carry through your own, personal projects.

This weekend was the first in a long time that I had no homework. Nothing due in. Or at least nothing immediate... So I jumped at the chance to do something with this sketch.

A pretty literal take on how I feel a lot of the time. Drained.

Okay okay, enough rambling!

Here is one of the original, 'planning' sketches.

badly drawn people

Some progress shots of the visual diary I submitted for the mid year assessment.
Please excuse the bad lighting, as these were all taken at late at night, as they were being drawn.

All of these are about mental illness and the stigma attached to psychiatric conditions.

Almost there, Vivien

A rough colour test for the Vivien Leigh portrait

we so hot we burn your eye

This is Steve and next to him is me. We are not so cool, but maybe if we were, we would look something like this! haha...

What the dickens?

Work in progress for Charles Dickens portrait... will hopefully be done by tomorrow!

Portraits

Charles Dickens

Vivien Leigh - ink

Vivien Leigh  - pencil

Some sketches for portraits of famous people who suffered from some kind of mental illness - will explain in more detail soon...

depression

Hot off the .... err... drawing board! Just finished this page, from the visual diary that we have to keep for the duration of the Sappi project. So all the drawings in here will be about mental illness. This one is about depression.

I tried to picture a really depressing background and eventually came up with old, mouldy, seventies style wallpaper with damp darkness creeping in towards the subject. Pretty melodramatic!

oblivious

Something from my new visual diary - a different take on mental illness

_________________________________

this city

imaginary album cover

_____________

Team photos

We're all busy working on a nine-week group project that basically involves creating a campaign for a Non Government Organisation (NGO) and then entering that campaign into the Sappi Ideas That Matter competition. Exciting stuff. I was in a mood to procrastinate last night, so I took pieces of each of our group's faces and mashed them up to create this thing! I'm calling him/her/it JAAR - Jared, Aimee, Arno and Renate. Ok, back to work!

Autumn Harvest

Some pages from last year's sketchbooks

wet ink

I found one of my old paint palettes in class today and it still had some nice designer's colours left in it from last time. So I had some fun in my new pocket sketchbook...

palette

drawing number 1

drawing number 2!

AIM logo

Something else I did this weekend - design a logo for myself. Something I've been meaning to do for a long long time. It happened very "naturally" (can you use that in a sentence about logo design?) - it still needs work, but so far I'm happy, which is a good thing since I've been pretty unhappy about a lot of my work lately...

Simple, hand-rendered and in black ink - my favourite elements of graphic design - which is why I think it works pretty well as a little logo for myself. Getting somewhere, Sawyer!

answering the calling

A quick ink sketch for something that I'm busy reworking.

 Going to forget about digital illustration for a little while and go back to my favourite medium - black ink.

goodbye, everything

where did it go?

Some drawings I did yesterday, using watercolour pencil crayon.

Heartbreak sucks, but might as well do something useful with it, 

like making some artwork...

Sangoma Illustration

final poster design

Colour study before doing the final one. I actually think I like this more than the final!

preliminary sketch

I just completed this A2 -sized poster illustration. 

I'm not so sure about the end result and am keen on making some changes.  

Any advice or comments here would be great!

The Ink-O-Matic

click for a larger and clearer view

This is a third year project that I just completed recently. The brief was for us to design a fantasy machine using four or more existing machine parts that wouldn't usually be found together, with the resulting invention being something really original and unconventional. 

So after spending days feeling incredibly stuck and uninspired, I suddenly came up with this little invention - it's a "Self Automated Tattoo Device" - I've included the design rationale just to explain things a little better...

                                                                                                                                                                        

This new invention is, as the name suggests, a self-automated tattoo device and is aimed at
image-conscious individuals with a fast-paced lifestyle, who generally prefer a more alternative and independent perspective when it comes to style and fashion, but it really could also be suited to anyone interested in getting a quick and convenient, but still permanent tattoo.
 

Someone who is considering a tattoo might be wary of conventional tattoo artists, due to the
unpredictable nature of the tattooing process - the finished piece is literally in the tattoo artist’s hands and if you happen to choose the wrong person for the job, then you will be stuck with an unsightly creation on your body for the rest of your life! But luckily the Ink-o-Matic solves this problem. Affordable and easy to use, nobody needs to risk having a botched tattoo ever again.
 

The Ink-o-Matic is a combination of many different mechanical entities, namely a tattoo
machine, a Chinese Suction Cup, a USB Port, a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery and various
Camera components, including the ON/OFF switch with shutter release button, which is typical in Nikon models, a knob for winding film (which in this case is used to adjust and control the suction pressure) and a customised preview screen for a final check before pressing the shutter release/ START button.
 

Instructions
1. Switch the device on via the ON/OFF switch on the exterior casing.
 

2. Have your desired image ready. If printed, hold it about 10 centimetres away from the Compact High Definition Image Scanner and wait for approximately 5 seconds until your image appears on the Preview Screen. If your image is in digital format, simply plug in your drive into the USB Port and wait for your image to appear on the Preview Screen.
 

3. Turn the Suction knob (located below the ON/OFF switch) until the suction pressure is firm, but not painful. The device should be completely stable, without any pain or discomfort to the dermal area.
 

4. Once the device is completely secure, hold down the START button for approximately two
seconds. The tattoo machine will now begin to render the image directly into the skin. The time will vary for each piece, so be patient.
 

5. Once the tattoo machine has finished, turn the suction knob to release pressure.
 

6. Remove the device and marvel at your perfect new tattoo!
Please note that when fully charged, the battery should be sufficient for 4 hours of tattooing
time. To recharge, simply plug the power cable into the USB Port and connect to a computer or any other power outlet.

This was probably the best part of the whole project - I had so much fun drawing the model/ before and after photos. I couldn't find any reference images with a guy in the right angle, so I just took reference from a photo of a girl applying body lotion!

See the resemblance?

with Pen and Ink

This is one of my favourite books, not just "favourite design books", but favourite, best, books in general. It actually belongs to my dad, but he's kind of given it to me, so now it lives in my little bookcase - which is in desperate need of an upgrade, getting way too small!

I'm a huge fine of line drawings and this book is just full of amazing ones. At the moment we're busy with a drawing project that involves doing lots of drawings of various machines and tools, so here are some of my weak attempts compared to this amazing book...

Just please bear in mind that I did all of these freehand, no rulers, no erasers, nothing!

closed book

open book!

Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash Camera

Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash Camera - detail

fire extinguisher

Iron - tonal drawing in pencil

Iron - detail

 very old iron

very old iron - detail

Artograph Super Lens AG100 projector

Artograph Super Lens AG100 projector - detail

sieve

sieve - detail

sieve - detail

video tape - this got a bit stretched though!