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!