Just about the biggest compliment...

I am fairly well tattooed as it happens, don't worry this is going somewhere, and the reason I get tattooed is to act as a positive reminder of great things from my life. Many of them are to do with my band and music experiences, but I have yet to get my own artwork done.

I have a band I played with's CD cover art on my arm, because I had an awesome weekend with them and we got to support Sick of it All, ok I have their cover art and a Sick of it All dragon...so I guess I can identify with what I have been getting at

I got sent this photo earlier.



And I must confess, my mind was blown! To get a message from a friend, who had my artwork tattooed on him, was a truly humbling gesture. Mike Borgia, I am with you for life now sucker!

With a thankful heart (for great friends), I bid you good night.
Michael

Link
Mike Borgia's Website

Colouring stuff in....

AND not with crayons!

As I have mentioned (anyone who pays attention) my girlfriend is in a roller derby team, the team has 2 sub teams, The Merchants of Menance & The Bruise Birds, my other half is a Bird. (Great sentence)

There was some conversation, and someone sketched a logo, my girlfriend drew it up in Illustrator and she said she was going to colour it, but didn't get round to it, so I have spent an hour or two watching rubbish on BBC3 and colouring it.

Meet the outline:



Not bad, classic tattoo bird. So I did a stage one colour:



I wasn't sure if she wanted it shaded or not, I quite like it flat, but I thought I would shade it as well. Meet a shaded version:



Whilst shading it, I hit a few problems, I was torn between shading it in a light source style or a tattoo style. I went with a more tattoo style approach, as their were a few lines that didn't quite sit where I thought they should have been.

It was a strange experience to colour someone else's drawing, but not a bad one at all. In fact I rather enjoyed it!

Nearly time for bed...
Michael

Links
Tiger Bay Brawlers
Larger Versions

How do I class this?

I try to keep my tags well organised, I do, so anyone can see a specific aspect of what I do with ease, but 2 posts now that are tagless. Do I make one for 'hat' and 'magazine'? Who knows, there will be a few posts about this, so maybe I should give in on the magazine front...

I was put the challenge by Mike Borgia to make a magazine/booklet that was an alternative to releasing a CD. Great idea Mr. B! There were 5 songs and 5 artists/designers had generously offered/donated/create a piece for the magazine, it was my job to piece the whole thing together and make it look snazzy!

I have had to keep the files off my computer, because it is a massive folder, but I was sent a few pictures of the finished article the other day, which made me smile, so I thought I would share them with you.

















I am genuinely proud to have made that! I can't wait to get mine! A piece of mine that got reject a few years ago suited one of the songs so it is in there and it is tattooed on my left arm!

Night all.
Michael

Link
Mike Borgia's Website

A response!

One of my friends passed comment that some of my posters were a little samey, I have no problem with this as it would seem I am developing a style of some description! I mean who knew?

But I can't take something that sounds like a challenge and not do anything about it! So I designed a poster that was a little different to my...what am I saying...it still looks like my work to me!



The awkward thing about this poster is that it couldn't be drastically different as it is for a release show for the artwork I have already completed!

Right, time to go...
Michael

Link
Mike Borgia's Website
Largesr Version

Press sheet...

What do you do when you need to get a van for free to transport a Virtua Fighter arcade cabinet? Offer to do someone in a band a favour in exchange for some design work! Yeah! You can't beat bartering! Ok, I DO NOT condone not paying for services, but it is ok when they are your friends!

I was given a photo, a blurb, logo and told to get it on one sheet of paper looking tidy.

I did this!



It's not rocket science, but it is purposeful clean design.

Mythbusters is on, so I am going to make the next post quick!

Sweet
Michael

Links
Larger Version
They Walk Among US Myspace

Christmas Present!

I haven't been able to post this as soon as I wanted, but it was a surprise for my girlfriend so I couldn't really post a picture of my girlfriend's surprise Christmas present in the public domain for all the world to see could I? Obviously not!

My girlfriend is in a roller derby team, and she had mentioned that she wanted to have trucker hats made for the team but they couldn't afford to get them made, so it just seemed logical didn't it! They are called the Tiger Bay Brawlers, and if you don't know Tiger Bay is a part of Cardiff that has been rebranded as Cardiff Bay, long and the long and the short of it is, its Cardiff dock area and was know as Tiger Bay for a long old time, oh, many moons ago, so I made something that looked old and shippy!

Artwork:



On the hat:



What the hell do I tag this as?

More posts a coming...
Michael

Links
Tiger Bay Brawlers
Larger Version

A little different than usual

I saw someone screen printing onto old wallpaper recently, it was a cool effect! I don't have any wallpaper or any method of screen printing things, so I decided to cheat and make something that looked like it had been screen printed onto wall paper!



Again, its a poster for Dead Punk at The Croft, so I tried to keep it within the style they like, but mix it up a little.

Enjoy!
Michael

Link
Larger Version