Thursday, March 26, 2009

Glass Monsters





Check my new beasts, these incredible life-size glass insects by DM Beard Glass in Devon.

My Hercules Beetle is just under 2 inches long, and the awesome Bird Eating Spider is a handsome 5" diameter. Just look at the tiny details! With everything perfect in every way, it's hard to believe these are made of glass.

Spider's poison sac glows amber in the sunlight and her iridescent black legs glitter darkly next to Beetle's breathtakingly tiny feet. And the shadows are something else. But the thing is ... they have weight. Hold the spider in your hand (her legs dangling over), and you get a sense of how the real insect must feel.

Bought from the Broadfield House Glass Museum, Dudley.

Friday, March 13, 2009

51st New York Society of Illustrators Show, New York City, March 6th 2009

- My friend Ed attended the opening of the Advertising show at this year's 51st New York Society of Illustrators Show in New York, in which I had two pieces for the first time ever. Ed had a vested interest in seeing the show, as he wrote the words for 'Sky High', one of the chosen illustrations, he also wrote the story inside this years Christmas cards.

Here is his report:

It was bright and hot in there at 6. As the two floors filled up and we milled around it became obvious that all the entries were extremely good. The soundtrack for the first hour went between dub and Bob Marley via some rowdy tunes skipped soon after they started by whoever was controlling the player, possibly so no-one started bouncing. The food, in a word, was Jesus. The bar, in a word, was free. Relaxed happy folk murmured and mingled until 7 when the gallery director introduced John Cuneo to the podium. John had appeared at the events for the other 2 categories earlier in the year and started with the line "I'm gonna say the same stuff I said last time only faster." He then babbled and blurted and stumbled and stuttered until everybody's ice was broken. We learned he was asked to do the Call For Entires posters only after R.Crumb refused. We learned his mother hasn't liked his stuff since he stopped drawing people with big feet. His people with big heads are just not enough for her. He told us how extraordinary a thing it is to be selected for the show, especially as the Advertising and Uncomissioned category was the largest this year. The jurors had stayed up until midnight deadline day deciding what made the selection and what didn't. It was, apparently, "a gruelling process".

The medals were then accepted by the artists with charming degrees of happiness, nerves and bemusement. Some didn't realise they had to speak. Some expressed relief at finally being able to crawl from their caves and meet their fellow illustrators. Sometimes the desk is a lonely place. Takahisa Hashimoto got the biggest laugh of the night by starting his speech with "Hello New York!".
After all the awards had been received and everyone had applauded everyone else, the mingle-chatter was louder and technical talk floated around on clouds of mutual respect. Eyeballs went up close to pictures. More drinks went down. The bar staff were great. And just before it was time to leave we were served trays of creamy apple crepes. Next year there should be a medal for the food. And maybe a medal for Best Entry featuring a Fictional Creature, which this year was certainly Michael Wandelmaier's "Harpooning The Wooly Whale". I'm not an illustrator but I'll be back there next year. I hope.


- Me too Ed. Thanks for going!









Michael Wandelmaier - Harpooning The Wooly Whale - Best Entry featuring a Fictional Creature medal

Rene Milot - Screaming Rabbit

Richard A. Goldberg - Bon Voyage




Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Routes

Recognise anything here?

(Click the image to play)

My 'Flamenco' illustration has been used as a poster in the set for Rachel's Bedroom, in Channel 4's online 'alternate reality game' called Routes. The poster was hurriedly emailed off to my friend Kim at Oil Productions, who designed and built the game, to be printed in a matter of minutes before filming began.

Routes is played online via spaces like YouTube and the Routes website, and is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, involving multiple media and game elements to tell a story that's affected by participants' ideas or actions.

It's all very clever, and if you want to read more, here's more on Alternate Reality. Something tells me this is the future of gaming...or should that be storytelling?

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