New Year Update

Last year was amazing -- got really stuck into illustrations for Amelia's Magazine, resulting in my inclusion in Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration, The Intercorstal really came on strong (and Collider was made as a little standalone), I fell back in love with using watercolours, and one of my favourite pictures was done, for the travelling Cut-Click mailart exhibition...

And this year's already off to a flyer:

• I'm currently working on a miniature version of The Intercorstal which will make a mini- mini-comic, and I'll post some of those as I scan them.
• I've got some more Fashion Illustration to do for Amelia's this week.
• I'm waiting to get started on my part of a cross-channel Comic Art exhibition (which is what Collider was made for)
• I've just started work on a new portrait for the Cut-Click exhibition, which opens on the 1st Feb in Cleethorpes...which I'll elaborate on in my NEXT POST...

Anyway, wishing everyone a very Happy 2011, hopefully it'll be at least as good as 2010.

Intercorstal On Show

It feels like a long time ago now, but on December 7th 2010 (it's the 20th as I write this) I got a chance to show off some of the work I've done on The Intercorstal in a new way -- rather than in a comic, it was hanging on banners.

It came about because my new department at work held a gig/DJ night for... well, nobody's really sure how it came about. But somehow it was decided that a gig/DJ night would be put on, and they arranged The Distillers bar to hold it in. And then the ringleader of effort said 'Gareth, you can display some of your art on the windows, it'll look good!' despite not really knowing what I've been working on.

Through a desperate creativve process which involved... again, I can't really remember how I got to where I did. But I decided that I'd hang pages from The Intercorstal on banners from the balconies in the pub. I won't go into the full banner-making process but at 5pm on the day, with doors open at 7pm, I started frantically combining lining paper, blown up Intercorstal pages and plastic dowling rods with staples. The plan was to make eight banners, which after an hour and a half was reduced to six, and after another half an hour reduced to four. At about 7-ish, with me very hot and bothered, receiving desperate looks from the head waitress because I was spread out across some of her dining area, myself and a colleague managed to get the banners hung.

Feedback on the night was surprisingly positive, although limited as barely anyone turned up...and everything was packed up at 9:30, so it took longer to set the display up than it was on show for. The bar staff were kind enough to take the banners off my hands at the end of the night, but that might be because the evening's compere told the assembled crowd that my work sold for great amounts of money (my work doesn't sell, let alone for a lot of money).

Having said that, I'm proud of what I managed to acheive with such limited resources -- total setup costs were £5 -- and know that if given the opportunity again, that I could replicate it. Apologies for the quality of the images, it was dark and I only had my phone on me.

This Week In Hopkins Towers

Cher Lloyd, from X Factor 2010, for Amelia's Magazine. [LINK]

I've been very, very lazy when it comes to updating this blog of late. As usual, that's because I've been very busy doing things elsewhere... For instance, in the past week I've had illustrations for three articles at the continually engaging Amelia's Magazine go up! And one of them is above, and the rest are below.

Also of particular not is that tomorrow (which will be Friday 16th December 2010) Amelia's Compendium Of Fashion Illustration is released! I'm really excited to see the finished product, as it looks like it'll be amazing. You should definitely go and buy a copy. Buy it NOW. Even if you have already...

Sue Timney, for Amelia's Magazine [LINK]

Wagbo, from TV Burp, from Amelia's Magazine overview of X Factor 2010 [LINK]

Image from Rapsodica Satanica, for Amelia's Magazine: LINK

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration -- 1st images of proofs posted

Anybody not swayed to purchase Amelia's Compendium Of Fashion Illustration by my earlier blog should have their stoicism shaken slightly by these photos, posted by Amelia on Twitter, of the proofs that have come back from her printer (the photos feature the work of Natsuki Otani, Abigail Wright and Bex Glover). Already the quality of this book is obvious -- I'm so excited to have been included in the book I'd go so far as to describe myself as 'hyped', which is something I've never done before.

If you've not already, order a copy now and make use of the pre-order deal.


We can see from this last image that I am featured on Page 194! 194 is now my favourite number.

The Intercorstal: Collider

A little while ago I compiled the first 32 pages of The Intercorstal as a standalone comic and gave away copies. One of those went to an amazing artist in The Netherlands called Ibrahim Ineke at the Baracca gallery, who a few months later he emailed me inviting to contribute to an exhibition that he was helping arrange -- I'll post more about that as and when it happens.

But for the exhibition, I was asked to come up with a new comic, and after a little experimentation and playing with some ideas, I've created The Intercorstal: Collider. It's a slender little 12-page wonder, combining six previously unpublished pages of The Intercorstal with six brand-new, unique pages, which I'm not going to explain because it would ruin them.

The whole thing was skillfully and professionally packaged for print by the ever-amazing anxietydecending, who I genuinely can't thank enough.

And, as before, I'm giving away copies to anyone who wants one, and probably also to people who don't. So, if you want one, email me at gareth@grthink.com with a postal address and I will get one in the post to you! (If you received a copy of The Intercorstal, don't assume I've still got your address, as I'm wildly disorganised)

Here's a couple of photos of this work of wonder to whet your wappetite.

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

A year ago, when I started this blog, I had no interest whatsoever with Fashion Illustration. I did what I did, and that was patterned black ink with bears and Appleheads and ghosts all over it, and I was kind of happy with that.

But over the past year I've been taking jobs at Amelia's Magazine for Fashion images, and have quickly built up a style I'm happy to work with, and have also developed a pretty healthy appetite for fashion illustration generally. I don't think I'll ever really get 'Fashion', but I love it when it's illustrated.

So it's with no small amount of pride that I've been included in Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration, which is available for pre-order now. My pages include a selection of images produced for Amelia's, as well as a couple of new ones which I'm really proud of, that I might share once the book's out, but certainly not until then. And there's a pretty long 'process' blog behind the new images... again, I'll save that for now.

Here's the official blurb for the book. Everyone should buy a copy, because it'll be awesome.

Amelia’s Magazine has become a must see website for upcoming independent and ethical fashion designers, all illustrated in wonderful technicolour by our talented team of illustrators.

Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration book brings together the best illustration from Amelia’s Magazine alongside the best new ethical fashion designers, all in a gorgeous coffee table book with a stunning pearlised cover designed by the Arizona based artist Andrea Peterson.

The book offers inspiration to aspiring fashion designers, illustrators, art directors and anyone who is interested in ethical fashion design. It features interviews on the design practice of the chosen 30 illustrators (who were chosen via this open brief) alongside nearly 50 boxout profiles of the very best in ethical fashion design, including clothing, footwear and jewellery.

Featured ethical designers include Ada Zanditon, Beautiful Soul, Christopher Raeburn, Dem Collective, Edun, Fifi Bijoux, From Somewhere, Goodone, Henrietta Ludgate, Joanna Cave, Lu Flux, Minna, Nina Dolcetti, Partimi, Prophetik, Romina Karamanea and Ute Decker to name but a few.

Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration comes as an eminently collectible limited edition softback with a pearlised front cover. Beautifully presented and entirely ethical in production, the book is printed in the UK using environmentally responsible vegetable inks on FSC approved paper.

Perfect for fashion designers, illustrators, artists and anyone interested in the world of ethical fashion design, this will make the perfect Christmas present for that creative person in your life. (read on for ordering information and some very special Christmas offers!)

MOVING

I've made a new website, which is a little shinier and portfolio-like and genrally spick-n-span, which is http://grthink.weebly.com, and that's what http://www.grthink.com will be from now on (as long as the web-settings, which I kind of don't really understand, work properly). This blog will live on, though...and hopefully I will find time to update it more often... my last post, before this was OVER A MONTH AGO.

That's rubbish.

There is a reason, or rather two reasons, which have been keeping me very, insanely sleep-deprivingly busy. Neither of which I can really go into right now, because they're both kind of secret. In time, though, I will tell all. And you might not even care. You bugger.

See that, up there? Good-looking banner type-thing? That's the banner I made for the new site. Go and look at the new site, it's awesome. And all the links work and everything. (N.B. If any links don't work, can you let me know? THANKS)