Containing a a thunderstorm

So, we've arrived at the major point in the book where Gemmy is captured and contained. As part of his imprisonment he's made to wear a containment suit that keeps his power from spinning out of control. The theory is it will need to be head to toe. The suit is designed to syphon any excess energy he generates at 'collection points' around major muscle groups. These points serve a two way function which can send a pulse that paralyses the major muscles to prevent escape. Here are some initial sketches for what the suit may look like.


Enjoy!
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We can be heroes!

I've recently been designing the posters for Edinburgh Showcase. Showcase is a great group that puts on a concert every year to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. This year's show is called 'Heroes' after the David Bowie Song.
Overall I want the posters to have that classic comic book 'noir' feel to them, so quite poppy and mysterious but exciting at the same time. Think 'The Incredibles' meets 'The Dark Knight'. Here are a few design sketches for ideas for the poster.
The first idea (which is my favourite) features two 'average joes' who are hidden heroes. The idea is the people who donate to Macmillan are the actual heroes.

The second sketch puts a Macmillan twist on Bowie's Ziggy Stardust make up but still has the 'BANG! ZIFF!' of old school Batman. I'd still like to play with placement, etc, but I think it's a very striking and iconic picture that people would stop and look at.

Burfday drawings

So, it's a the big 30 this year. I'm planning to have a bit of a shindig and, sadly, the thing I'm most excited about is designing an invitation! I've got several projects on all at once, so I won't be able to properly get stuck in until at least June. But, I had a crack at an illustration and I think I'm going to go for an Alphonse Mucka style image. Here's a first draft of Gemmy lounging reading a book.

Thebans and the Argoknots

So, I'm up against it as usual with getting the Thebans' 10th Anniversary booklet done so I've stopped toying with knots and have settled on the 3 major ones. They're not as fancy as the ancient Celts rocked out in the Book of Kells. But, pretty good for a novice. And, best part is I have something the Celts did not... Adobe Illustrator! The original drawing are scanned and then redrawn in illustrator. Best part about symmetrical knots is you only have to draw one half. Then you can copy it and do a mirror image and it links up properly! I'm also keeping the illumination simple and elegant because we're a modern people. If the Thebans' 10th Anniversary book was as illuminated as illuminated manuscripts it would look like an illuminated manuscript. Here are the knots I've come up with:

Thebans Knot

For use as a centre piece on pages. This is the only one completed in illustrator so far. It's in the shape of a rugby ball.

Text Knot

This will be used as a border in combination with the Thebans' knot and can also be used on its own to underline headers.

Corner Knot

This will be used as illumination in the corners of the pages. Can also be linked with digital ninjary to connect to the simple text knot.

What knot to do

I'm currently designing a 10th Anniversary booklet for my rugby team, Caledonian Thebans. I was very keen to come up with an some interesting graphics and theme to incorporate into the book's layout.

As we've branded ourselves as the Celtic version of the fabled 'band of brothers' I thought, 'What symbolic band holds our brotherhood together'?. Well, other than a love of rugby, there is plenty, including the group's Celtic roots. And, what better to illustrate that than through the symbolic 'Celtic knot'.

So, I set to studying good ol' fashioned illuminated manuscripts and the techniques of drawing Celtic knots. Besides being beautiful, they find a an almost mathematical precision to organic forms. They appeal very much to both my analytical and artistic sides.

The first thing I learned about knots is that they are plotted in a series of right hand crosses. There are various 'rules' for how to connect and cross at points as well as creating breaks and backwards loops that create the mind-blowingly intricate patterns.

So, I've set about creating a 'rugby' knots that are made up of 15 right crosses for the 15 players on a rugby team. I'm starting with very basic knots and then learning to embellish from there.

The first 'rugby' knot I've done I call 'the brotherhood' knot:


It's a square 'shield' knot and are said to offer protection. Perfect for a rugby team! I like that it incorporates 'rugby ball like' finishes at the corners, 'infinity' in the middle but also, there's the heart shape which implies our passion for the game.








The second rugby knot is a Theban cross:


I think it may be a bit to 'religious' looking as I wanted it to look like a 'T'. So I'm currently working to embellish it in different ways so that it might someday look good on a Theban's t-shirt (hint hint).

I'm currently attempting to make a rugby ball out of a knot, but this may be beyond my ken at this stage.

I'm staying away from the Triskelion patterns in my illumination at the moment because, geezo! they are crazy!

Emergency!

So, I spent the day at work today drawing ambulances for the cover of the magazine and it was great!!!

We found a great stock image of what looks like kid's drawing on notebook paper. The theme of the image was great and created the right mood for the February issue; light, fun, playful. However, the feature story is about the Ambulance Service (SAS)moving into our building. So, what was missing from the stock image was something directly related to our organisation.

So (cue music) enter an illustrator of skill renowed! Rather than scrap what we had it was just a matter of adding a few elements. In this case, it was an ambulance. So, I spent my afternoon sketching, scanning and redenring to create a suitably 'juvenile' looking ambulance. Move over Picasso. What do you think?




(For reasons of copyright I can't show you the image that the ambulance was dropped into)

Themo the Interrobang: An indefinable curious ball of energy

This Christmas my werdiness* was indulged. I not only received a copy of the book Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield, but I found a 4th edition pocket Oxford English dictionary in a used book shop for £1.50! I also received moveable print press blocks of my initials!

But, in true fashion of the typographically obsessed, the most incredible discovery this December was learning all about the interrobang (‽).
There are several reasons why the interrobang has secured itself as my favourite punctuation:

1) I'm a word fuser. By accident of nature I've always mashed up words. Since I was a kid when I get over-excited and can't decide which word to say to describe something both words try to come out at once. My brain then automatically combines them and produces a seemingly non-sensical word (e.g. awful + horriffic = awriffic).

As an adult (and hopeful OED contributor) I indulge this brain glitch and diliberately fuse words when there is not a word to describe what I mean and a combination of the two actually implies more than either one on its own (e.g. sneering smile = snile).

2) My previously preferred punctuation was always the exclamation point (!). I felt that it summed me up in many ways. It's definitive. It's exciting. It implies energy. This leads to my third point.

3) The interrobang kind of looks like my artist's mark which is a fusion of my initials TP and an '!'.







In situations where inserting a copy of my mark was not possible I would simply type it as 'T!P'. But now I can simply insert an interrobang

The interrobang is the ultimate punctative fusion; the emphatic question. In a lot of ways, it describes me to a tee. Like most artists I like to believe I have a unique perspective and this somehow classes me as 'other', extraordinary, a bit of an enigma. But, the other part of me that I define as 'me' is my enthusiasm. I'm an enthusiastic curiosity.

And so, I go forth now as Themo, an interrobang, an indefinable ball of energy.

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Tips: Want to interrobang in HTML? Just insert '& # 8253 ;' without spaces into your code.

*werdiness = the state of being a word nerd. Someone who has a fetish for all things associated with the written word, i.e. grammar, fonts, punctuation, learning new words, typography. This is different to a 'punctuazzi' a punctuation nazi who is someone that has a particularly accute understanding of and distaste for incorrect punctuation.