The beginning stages...

I love it when clients come back to you! I really do. It means I must have done something right last time. So welcome to working with a great film maker called Suni Khan again! Woo!

This time Suni sent me an email and asked if I could make a title card for his new film "Goodbye Ivy", I was suitably excited.

I must confess at this point, I got a little carried away...I had what I thought was a great idea, I'll admit it was something I wanted try doing and as always I got carried away. Just so you know, this is the result of me getting carried away...



(worth looking at the larger version, link later, to see some of the detail)

...now, again I have to admit, this is my blog so I can say this. I like this, but after getting a few more emails from Suni about the plot and feel of the film, even I knew I was off the mark with this. Once again, it's my blog, I like this, I know it doesn't work for the plot and feel of the film, but I still think its a nice piece of type.

Right back on plot folks!

After a few more emails, where we talked about what the film was about, a few reference ideas and some general laughs about 4am emails (have a look at some of my instant album art) I had a great idea of what Suni wanted, and a few interesting ideas of my own!

There are several versions of this, but together we got to an end result that we both really like!



As always I like to go the extra mile for clients and decided to include this little taster poster for the future of the project.



The film is still in pre-production stages, but I am rather excited as I am going to be working on the credits for the film as well! This is going to be an awesome project!

Bring it on!
Michael

Links
Suni's Website
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Again...how do I categorise this?

An awesome piece that I totally forgot to post when I finished it!

I am grateful for regular clients, I am even more grateful for regular client who constantly turns up with interesting ideas and challenges me to do fun things!

I got an email asking for a playbill for a release show, it was an interesting idea that I had never consider being a cool thing to do, but when I started looking into playbills from the 1940's, this fast became one of the best ideas I have heard in ages!

I will admit, I went a little overboard on the idea, but for all the right reasons! I had no idea how much fun it would be incorporating elements from their album artwork into the design, whilst adding random details along the way....



This has to be one of my favourite pieces.

Thank Mike, Nathan and Brian for being amazing.
Michael

Link
Mike Borgia's Website

Something for a competition.

I am a bit of a message board lover, I love the inspiration, I love the dramas...with one I love dying soon (Emptees), there seems to be a movement to another, and the other is Bandjob. Great place, they love competitions as well, this particular one was for Glamour Kills.

The challenge was to take their logo and just go wild. So I started thinking, their logo is a flying pig, and the expression is "when pigs fly" and one pig isn't a plural, so I thought about a flock of pigs and went from their!



So I have decided that this is a flock of pigs trying to hide using a smoke machine. I added a bit of text and I like that, I wish I could fit it in clearer, maybe I should post that separately....

Yeah, I like this!
Michael

Link
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Contest on Bandjob

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
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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

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

It's amazing what Photoshop can do...

..with a little know how and a bright idea!

I get bored sometimes, more to the point I get a little distracted when I should probably be working...(Frazer, if you are reading this, expect an email soon)

I did a bit of generic stock hunting for a logo I'm working on right now, I wanted the buildings for a texture, but got a little distracted when I started playing with the levels.



So here we go folks generico stock imagio. Just a city skyline, nothing special.

This is almost a half assed tutorial, but tweak your levels, turn reds up, greens down, blues up, then just play some more. I noticed an almost complete change to the feel of the image, it felt different, it was warmer, more worn looking, the colours were washed out, I liked it more already.

I thought to myself this isn't enough, so added these...











all of these image layers were changed to overlay and then opacity jerked down to around the 30% mark.

And you are left with...



Which is far easier on the eyes don't you think?

NB: Some of these images are mine, some are from stock sites, some are from CD's from mags, I doubt anyone will notice or mind that I have uploaded them to my photobucket, however if you do have a problem, tell me and POOF they will be gone.

Time to send some emails....
Michael

Link
Larger Versions

Desktop design.

2 in quick succession, again.

I like doing it this way, again another f1 desktop design for this comp.

I was thinking about a version of the London Underground map that was done with squeezes of oil paint, I wanted to make it more relevant to the 21st century and the high speed, adrenaline charged nature of the sport. In case you don't know, this is Silverstone, you know the famous British race track? Yeah? Good.

I thought about doing this with spray paint, but I wasn't sure I would have the control, so I cheated and did it with spray paint brushes instead!



The interesting thing is, this could have more colours, be very different instead of just black and white, I might change it, who knows? There is also the possibility of a series that relate to different tracks...

Back to shows about heavy metal!
Michael

Links
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F1 Desktop

I saw a brief to design a desktop with an f1 theme. Now I don't know a lot about f1, infact the last time I was up on the motor sports world was when Damon Hill was still racing! So yes a few years.

I thought about it, trolled the sites I love for stock images and here we go....



I love how the tires look, so that was my inspiration. I have another idea that I want to follow through, so I might do that now.

Or I could go to bed...
Michael

Links
Larger Version

A tutorial turned film poster...

I did a photoshop tutorial, but I wasn't exactly following what the tutorial said as there was a lot of filtering and using the effects rather than doing it yourself using photos and other ways that I think are more personal.

If you want to see the original tutorial:

Click here

Its not a bad tutorial at all, there are some interesting using of brushes in there.

I also used this image:



Get it here

and



Get it here

And here is my final result!



So I added the text, because it reminded me of various film posters for awesome disaster movies. The end result isn't too far away from the tutorial, but it has certainly left me with some food for thought about future techniques!

Time to go shopping!
Michael

Links
Larger Version

Photo Manipulation

I decided to try a little more photo editing. I keep seeing images that would be really boring if they didn't have the professional tweak, and then they look the business. I am never quite sure what goes into it, however I keep trying to figure it all out.

Original:



Not a bad picture, not by any means, but it is just a little bland. So I played with the levels, tweaked the saturation, added some more white, added some more black, did some cutting out, added some texture, added some more texture, added EVEN more texture, a few animals and then bang.



Nothing mental, but I am happy with the tiny changes that took this from just a photo, to something a little extra.

Time to read some more Jack Keorauc and sleep.
Michael

Links
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Self Portrait

I've brought up design forums before, and my status as a bit of a post whore, but they have a monthly avatar theme. January was a self portrait. Despite having done a portrait in the past, I decided to go back to the same photo set and do another.

Last time did it using the pen tool in Illy and then just block coloured the details, having got a tablet for my birthday and not used it anything like enough I decided to do this by hand. Pencil tool in Illy for the outline and then the Shop for colour. Seriously I didn't use the fill tool once!

Some of the colours aren't perfect, but I tried to sample the colours from the photo rather than making them up.





OK, yes I ignored my tattoos.

This one goes out to Hulk Hogan!
Michael

Links
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Something involving a Hat!

So this is literally a nothing piece, well not nothing, but I certainly had no idea what the hell I was getting at when I started! I started with a picture of a hat and went from there...



Who knows? Playing with a image, brushes, texture....

Peace out.
Michael

Links
Larger Version

Something old...

This however is a revisiting, which might become a theme here, of something I started, honestly I have no memory why! But I saw it and thought I'd get it finished.

So here we go...



It was obviously supposed to be a banner for something, if I remember, I'll tell you.

Time to go.
Michael

Links
Larger Version

A new project!

Inspired by a thread on emptees and thread on Design Forums (check my links for both) I have been thinking about the idea of doing something unrelated, in a just for fun/learning/practicing sorta way.

Emptees thread was more of a challenge, but it offered the idea of using 5 unrelated free stock images to create something a little different, whilst the DF thread was more about doing something every day. I would like to think I had time every day to do something like what is going to follow, but I don't, I have work to do! So I decided that hopefully once a week I am going to do something, a stock mash up, a tutorial, you get the idea.

The point is really to spend an hour or 2 less faffing on the internet and do something productive (oh the irony as I post this on the net!).

Here is my first attemtpt:



Get it here



Get it here



Get it here



Get it here



Get it here

So these are my sample images and here is my result.



I have used all the above images, the cloud shapes are made from the sheep's wool, that makes me smile. General conscientious of opinion is that the building is from Blade 2.

I like this idea so expect more!

Last post of 2009, is a positive one!
Michael

Links
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Random moment of clarity.

I don't know about you, but every now and then when I'm working on something I see something in a form that is a total accident that I think looks amazing. Maybe its an extra layer you didn't modify from earlier? Maybe its change of blending? Could be anything really...

So here we have something that I have been working on (or half of it as you will see later) and I duplicated a layer, turned it off, then an hour later, trying to tidy up my layers, always get messy when I'm working, I turn it back on and the part of the image looked amazing. Or attleast I thought it did.

So here you go, part of something I am working on that happened totally by accident.



Embrace your mistakes.
Michael

Link
Larger Version

Self Portrait...

So this idea is actually for something bigger, than just this, maybe, I don't know yet, I haven't finished it, I just want to post it to see how I felt, if I posted it on the net and then went to bed, to mull it over and finish/come back to it later.

So here we have some hardwork on my part and the mad skills of Mei @ Mission Photographic, I'm not going to disclose too much detail yet, so I'll just say I wanted to look a bit silly, and we had a funny afternoon getting some photos!

Here is the original image...



and here is the result of several hours work...



Well I don't know if I'm barking up the wrong bush or should wait until its finished?

Episode of "The Wire" and bed.
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
Mission Photographic

Drawing...

Sadly not with a pen or pencil, but I have just done something fun with pens that I will post soon enough.

I am in the middle of a website design, and I needed some vector/outline drawings of a few thing relevant to the project, to be honest, I don't think they will end up getting used on the project I'm doing, so they are getting posted here instead!

I'm not going to lie, the reason I drew them is because I am to cheap to actually pay for a gomedia vector pack, but they do some awesome stuff, well worth a look, link at the end...

Plot...









It was rather weird doing these, because I did the ghetto blaster first, then carried on, upon finishing, I realised that I had put more and more detail in as I went along, so I had to go back over and add detail to make them all look similar...

It's nice to think they have a home. Look at the larger versions, check the cross-hatching detail! Go me!

Anyway, I have to go to bed, normal job to go to in the morning!

It's a nice to start to the new year!
Michael

Links
Larger Versions
GoMedia Arsenal

Uni project that I love!

Well I do love it!!  I think it is a really great idea, the brief was to create some form of promotional material that discourages people from dropping gum. It costs so much money to clean up!! It costs approximately, if memory serves, 17p to remove each piece from the ground!! And when you think a pack costs 30 something pence (don't know don't buy it) it is an insane amount of money being thrown at a problem.

I am really proud of this result as it was shear research that got me there, research into disposal methods, solutions that have been trailed, comparative solutions....and most of the solutions that were in effect were stupidly expensive, plastic pouches, some really disgusting posts/walls covered in gum...

I've always been aware that negative slogans/advertising don't have any effect whatsoever, look at the average smoker, you could put pictures of brutal deformed lungs fill with tar (wait they do that now) and it does nothing to stop them smoking, I found a completely random study done in Holland's public toilets where they printed a fly on a urinal. I won't repeat the statistic as I can't believe that they measured it, but it's safe to say it stopped people pissing on the floor as much because they were aiming for the fly! So here research said something funny...

Roll on the alternate uses for chewing gum, I knew full well that these would probably have to come with an idiot warning on them, but I love the idea. There was an abandoned idea involving superheroes. So I tried my best to come up with as many ideas as possible, I think I got to 20 something, but to be honest I was clutching at straws past 10.

So I focus on the few that would make the best visuals, and did my homework into instructional images, that usually come on planes and warning cards...

And this is what I came up with....













Somewhere in the final stages, this went from just being a postcard, to the idea that you could stick the gum on the postacrd, doubling its usefulness! This came up when I looked back at the research, realising that it would costs roughly 5p per card, thus saving 12p on cleaning costs.

Please don't judge the quality of some of the drawing to harshly, I wanted to learn how to use illustrator at the time and this was my baptism by fire, I can see things I'd change now, but I still think it is a great idea and that's what counts! I still think the back is a lovely combination of colours and style, it's formal enough to be a government thing, but funky enough (colours and logo) to be cool!

Other things to do...
Michael

Link
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