Mini Design Project pieces

Some New Xmas-ish pieces

Big news about a new project coming soon!

Pieces from the sketchbook

The Trafalgar pieces

These are the finalised images for this Trafalgar project, since the client was a pub, I wanted to include an element to reference the space where the illustration would be situated. I had a huge amount of fun preparing this illustration, playing with surrealist imagery is extremely freeing. although the image it's self is somewhat fatalistic, with the addition of the quote form Lord Nelson, the image takes on a patriotic theme.

Trafalgar "Neon" poster

Still working on this Trafalgar project, i'm finding the research interesting, along with the cultural aspects related to the event. looking into representing the visual change that Horatio Nelson went through, through out his naval career.

looking forward to seeing where this project goes

Work on a Admiral Lord Nelson piece

some experimentation with a piece thats going to be based around Lord Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar, attempting to get a classical feeling with a modern flavour to it, more development is needed here

An update on current projects

The Southsea Arts Fair went fantastic, we received a great turn out. It was great to meet such talented contemporaries as well as get a chance to sell sketches to the fair goers. My favourite part of events like this isn't only the chance to meet other artists and illustrators, but having an opportunity to talk with the people attending the fair whilst preparing their sketches, talking comics and animation is a great way to know who your drawing for. i'd love to do more events and conventions like this in the future.

  

here is a small piece from a current side project with the working title "Rodent Warriors", working on a short narrative using anthropomorphic rodents, something like "is Watership Down was a martial arts film", taking inspiration from graphic works such as Lone Wolf and Cub, i'm excited to see how this develops and what form it'll take.

Appearing at Southsea Arts Fair, drop on by!

If your in the Portsmouth area tomorrow from 1:00 to 6:00 PM drop on by the One Eyed Dog in Albert road, where i'll be exhibiting at the Southsea Arts Fair! I'll be selling prints, exclusive mini prints as well as doing sketches on the day. it's a great opportunity to see the young and independent talent from the Portsmouth area, as well as numerous other artists and illustrators there will also be live music at the venue. drop on by and say hello!

A selection of the exclusive mini prints for the Southsea Arts Fair

an example of some of the prints available for sale at the event 

for more information on the event check out their Facebook page here

We Chill Here: The first student art brand

I've had the pleasure to work with the extraordinary individuals at WeChillHere.com by creating the set "Tiger Skies" for their kickstarter campaign. The aim of their campaign is to raise enough money to get the first student art brand funded and off the ground, I am only one of the five illustrators who has created work for the campaign

I urge you to visit their Kickstarter page and give the campaign a look, they would appreciate the attention to their cause. as of writing this they have 15 days left, make them count!

Hanging out at TRIN STUDIO

Trin's Home Studio

Today through an interesting turn of events I got the chance to hang out, meet and interview Trin of TRIN STUDIO, a freelance illustrator and designer as well as a full time architect. Trin works out of Khon Kean, mostly producing sculpture and reliefs, for his 3D work his inspiration is his dedication to the Buddhist faith, with the majority of his work being images of deities, the Buddha or accomplished monks. Despite being extremely driven and, in a few weeks, leaving to become a monk for a short while, Trin is a very laid back and comfortable practitioner, besides sculpture Trin also work in digital medias for freelance logo, illustration and graphic design.

the back of Trin's plaster work shop

Meeting Trin and having the chance to talk to visual practitioners of other cultures is just what a journey like this is meant for, observing Trin's laid back approach to his practise and over all chilled nature was interesting and a stark contrast to some of the stress filled, deadline driven practitioners that are present in the west. Having gotten along with Trin as well as him showing me through some beautiful temples where his work is placed we decided to have something of a cultural exchange, we did a sketch swap.

I sketched out a somber Batman for Trin and he sketched me a traditional, fully garbed Buddha image

Full Trin interview possibly forthcoming 

an update on happenings in Thailand

some of the studies i've been doing around Khon Kaen

A little way through my time in Thailand, i'm continuing to do visual studies as well as capture some great photo reference. i've been experiencing a lot of the culture, tradition is a much bigger factor in day to day life than back in the UK. most of my time has been spent traveling around Chaing Mai before heading back to Khon Kaen, in both cities i've explored at least five different Buddhist temples and spirit houses, it's been interesting contrasting the traditional, eccentric design of the temples and villages with the bright, japanese influenced shopping complexes and city centres. I look forward to spending more time in the night market, grabbing some sketches and photos there.

working on comics during the down-time

during the rare opportunities I have for some downtime i'm still making some comics, some based in Thailand, some inspired by the design and culture i've seen during my trip so far.

Work from the latest sketch jam

Other pieces from the jam proved much harder to scan, I may continue the comic started that night, depending on the time I have between now and when I leave for Thailand. Sketch-Jams can be a blast, a fantastic way to meet other creators and get the creative blood flowing.

Heading to Thailand, and also a mech design.

So, fairly big news, I'll be traveling to Khon Kaen, Thailand to study the countries unique artistic and cultural background, visiting the Wats, street markets and seeing The University of Khon Kaen, which has became the pride of the city. I'll be uploading sketches and paintings of my journey and time in Khon Kaen as well as when I travel to Chiang Mai and experience a more urban side of Thailand when I go and spend some time in Bangkok. I'm excited to have the chance to experience a different culture and see their rich artistic history, as well as be able to see how their approach to the arts might have changed or matured. I'll be heading of for my flight mid-month, which is exciting in it's self, airports harbour a hugely diverse group of people who are always a blast to draw and observe.

trying to subtly capture the feeling of a puppy with this Mech design

also, heres a design for a Mech, not at all related to my trip to Thailand, but, when is a Mech really THAT inappropriate?

Introducing: Ring Master Baite's Catalogue of Curiosities

Now that we have this finalised I can announce the collaborative project that i've been involved in! over the last couple of weeks or so I've been working with six other illustrators to produce a zine visually commenting on human oddities, displaying satire by taking the form of a "modern-day freak show" (poking fun at many channel 4 and TLC documentaries that exhibit people as modern-day oddities). The zine features a varied aesthetic as it cycles through the six drastically different illustrators visual trademarks.

Cover by J.J Scott Illustration

If you, or anyone you know may be interested in purchasing the Catalogue of Curiosities, it will be available in limited quantity from Room 237, Albert Road, Portsmouth, depending on the response we get from the zine, a second printing is a possibility.

Artwork by J.J Scott Illustration & Rozelle Hawes

Artwork by Fiona Simpson & Meredith Phipps

If your in anyway interested in the six other illustrators who collaborated on the project you can find their respective websites below:

Rozelle Hawes: Rozelleillustration.tumblr.com

Fiona Simpson: Echoduste.weebly.com

Meredith Phipps: Meredithphipps.tumblr.com

Melissa Lihou: Melissalihou.blogspot.co.uk

Yada Subhadhira: Mongir.tumblr.com

Erin Hodgson: Erin.Hodgson.blogspot.com

A Kraken the surface

Heres a watercolour piece from an old T-shirt commission, the client wanted a design themed around falling into the unknown, I felt that using a sea theme fitted as it's commonly known that "we know more about space than we do about the ocean" wether that statement is true or not, I don't know, but I feel like the design works.

Tomorrow I should be able to shed more light on the latest project i'm involved in, and hopefully do it justice! 

Isotope work, as well as an update on whats to come

Work from a project where I used Isotope imagery as one of my starting points. The project involved me creating several info-posters for a fictional advertisement campaign, other themes in the project where germs and scare-mongouring. I felt that the use of mono printing worked well with the germ theme, leaving an imprint or residue resinated with me when it came to mark making.

 The reason for the seeming lack of content lately is because of a collaborative project i've been doing with six other illustrators, as excited about this project as I am, and believe me I am, unfortunately I can't talk a lot about this project until a little later, expect some news in the coming week!

She, Who Said No: Montgomery 1955

The completed book from my civil rights project, focusing on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. designed to suggest that this book could be passed between people in secret, I wanted to keep the format small and compact. This book is meant to remind the owner that it's always okay to say "no" to an oppressor.

Civil Rights Project; She, Who Said No

Sample pieces from the most recent project, which has a civil rights theme, more specifically, the actions of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. My primary textual research so far has been Voices of Freedom by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer, I highly recommend the book as it has oral accounts of the civil rights movement from those most involved, reading these first hand accounts of events is both interesting and sobering. With my research having a significant focus on first hand accounts I wanted to add a very distinct human element into the design, by using primarily brush and hand made ink prints to the piece I feel like i've achieved this, I also wanted to add an interesting spin on the fist iconography thats usually associated with the civil rights movement. The project is far from over so hopefully I can expand on more of the themes in a visual manor.

A quick update on project work (Communism and Space ships)

Three pieces from some current project work, the graphic Adobe Illustrator work is for a project about educating teens and young adults about communism history, having a really fun time working with graphic and simplified shapes as well as making hand made textures to incorporate into the pieces, with the "Communist Icons" pieces i'm focusing on a unity theme, graphically showing them being one part of a greater community. The Sputnik piece was interesting to work on because I wanted to make the piece less serious visually, by using a muted palette, bright colours and a aesthetic that suggests that the Earth and Sputnik are toys I feel like i've managed to add a lighter tone to the piece.

The space ship piece is part of an action sequence for another side project, working on capturing movement and action, hopefully the scene will come together once the sequence in complete and in an animatic.

LIfe drawing 4/2/14

Work from the most recent life drawing session, took me a little while to get these uploaded, with the project work lately it's been a little harder to find the time to add fixative and photograph life drawings.

Update on the new side project

A finalised design for the protagonist of the current side project (which has yet to get it's title set in stone) I feel like I've managed to achieve a good medium between a warrior who's seen her fair share of combat and a caring, lighthearted individual. I've also tried to keep her design "modest", I didn't want to create a female character who's visual characteristic is a steel bikini, instead of focusing the design on her sexual attributes I wanted to add a feminine factor to her design by using a lot of curves and arabesque lines in her clothing as well as adding lace and thrills to her design, but enough about Josette.

Now that I have the protagonist more or less nailed down I can start working on the environment and narrative elements of the project, starting with getting the environments nailed down, as well as the supporting characters. After that I can start on storyboarding and animatics.

Between now and a unforeseeable point in the future I might have to consider bringing on someone else onto the project, one man projects are time consuming.