Some Recent Photos

Thought I would add this photo of me- Its taken from The 2011 Highlights of Solent Album and unfortunately, I can't remember the girls name who took my photo.  A few of us from my class were fortunate enough to be chosen to display some of our works in  the square cafe in Southampton and put them up for sale. I would have liked to have tried selling other drawings of mine I felt were better but my tutors seemed to be think very highly of my drawings in my A6 pocket sketchpad- this drawing was blown up to a bigger size and had a very simple colour background put behind it. If your ever in Southampton- I believe its still there if you wanted to check it out and I was even lucky enough to have two prints on display. 

My Tutor Jonny Hannah made some nice posters that used two of my small drawings  to advertise the Solent Illustration course. I 'm not sure if he chose this design as the final outcome but I'm hoping I can grab a few posters off him when I meet up with him again hopefully sometime next year. Jonny seems to be highly respected in the world of Illustration and I'm very grateful for all his support- it would be really nice to have one these for myself and show people  my small collaboration with him. 

Girl

Finally listened to Dereks advice and tried drawing a girl. Everyone seems to really like this drawing when  I actually didn't really consider it to be that great. Interesting how that always happens- I didn't think much of the Blue Hippo sequence I made yet it also seems to be quite successful. 

Just got me thinking about the drawings I don't feel are my best  are the ones that are liked the most.  This one seemed to be well liked by most of the staff at Walker Books and I didn't think it was my best at all- maybe I should try drawing something similiar to this again- I made it using a messy dip pen. ( I should also point out it was my dad who thought I should show this one to Walkers.)

Tom seemed okay with me using the images I've made for Hohum so I thought I'd just upload  another one  I made fairly recently. Please check out his site:

http://www.tom-masters.co.uk/

Sketchbooks

Things are still feeling a little slow lately but I've managed to keep drawing- I ended up finishing another one of my 50 page Sketch pads I bought from WhSmith. I think this will be the last A6 pad I'll buy from there, I've found some other pads with much nicer paper quality.

Another A6 drawing- I've still not given up on the idea of  a 'dinosaur  themed' project I have with a good friend of mine- hopefully something more complete will come of it soon. 

I'm also still drawing on napkins I've taken from cafes but I've become a little more obsessed in trying to fill up my pads at the moment.

I also started working in my unique 'square' shaped sketchpad,  a square shaped sketch pad just seemed to feel a bit different and unique to me.

This drawing is a character for my book idea. Its still in its very early stages and  as of yet, I only have one finished  page,  with a bunch of doodles and roughs as to how I want it to look like. I have no idea if it will ever be completed- I'm being highly critical of it and drawing the final outcomes normally take quite a long time to finish.

This drawing was a sort of commission for a friend who was after a  logo for  a catering company- which unfortunately  is still up in the air. They were at least pleased with it, and I suppose it did get me a little more recognition with a few people which is always a good thing, (its also another drawing from my Square shaped sketchpad.)

Dizzy and the Hungry Monster King

Things feel a little bit difficult lately but my christmas cards have been quite successful. (I've at least sold 200) and drawing at least a few times a day does seem to keep me going- I still have plenty of things I can work on at least like the Hohum drawings, my book project and I have a couple of other things to work on.

Not many people remember Dizzy but I mentioned it recently on my blog a while ago, I did start to recall again how I used to draw my own maps and monsters for my own Dizzy world.

I found Dizzy quite scary when I was younger- it was a very cute and cartoony world but also lethal- you could very easily die in some really frightening ways-my favourite being how you had to time your run across a certain section of the map before a hawk swoops down and instantly kills you. With that in mind, I just thought it might be fun to try imagining what a new Dizzy game would look like if I made it. (probably not my best drawing, but I had fun making it at least.)

Blue Hippo

Haven't updated my blog for a bit but I've still managed to keep doing a drawing a day. I've also tried applying to an art club in Leatherhead- I'm actually really interested to see what sort of things would go on there- it would be great to have somewhere to go to just work on my own stuff or maybe get involved in a few different projects. That is- if I get accepted into the club.

Anyway, for now, I'm still working on my storybook idea. I just wondered if I could re-draw the same character in different poses again (I suppose I should probably try facial expressions too at some point.)

Just tried revisiting some of the more popular character designs I made. The popular ones always seem to be the ones I least except- for this one, I just drew it and figured it to look a little bit like a Moomin knock-off. (but perhaps its better to be critical.)

And I just drew out a couple of the poses I wanted it to look like one afternoon in  Costa- all drawn on napkins- Just tried giving it a title on a small scrap tissue. 

My parents tried pitching me ideas- like where the character could go and what he would be taking photos of and I rather liked the idea of taking photographs underwater so I made another doodle- perhaps I'll finish it soon.  

Website

I drew this yesterday when I met up with Derek my old tutor yesterday, hes still being quite supportive of me and encouraging me to do well in my career.

No idea why I drew it but the conversation with Derek did eventually involve some sort of fish he saw on one of his holidays so I tried imagining what it looked like.

I have also been trying to upload a lot more images to my website- its been having a few major updates lately (thanks to abstractiondesign) and I'm feeling pretty satisfied with it at the moment. Please check it out:

www.ryanmedlock.co.uk

Thanks Fig~

Its been another week of positive feedback- especially when Fig Taylor says she wants you to succeed and wants you to be the next Shaun Tan- funny that shes should mention his name since I wrote my dissertation on his work at Solent. Anyway, I've hopefully made a good friend and a good ally!

Christmas Cards

I've tried making some christmas cards this year. There are 25 cards for each design all in plastic sleeves and with an envelope. (I found a good printer/gallery in Byfleet.) I was hoping to charge roughly about £1.50 for each one.

The little design on the back of each card.

The card quality isn't too bad. Theres no printed text inside any of the cards, its just all blank.

Anybody interested? I don't think I'll make much of a major profit but it would be interesting to see if anybody found these designs appealing for a christmas card. Maybe young children could colour them in for fun?

Inspiring Words

Felt like drawing this after seeing a comment on facebook:

Todays Update

Things feel a little bit difficult at the moment, although, it also feels slightly positive. Its not unbearable being at home, I have a few small comissions and my own personal projects to be working on and I've had plenty of interest and amazing feedback from some pretty well respected companies and agencies- I'm still managing to make at least a few small drawings a day (I've just been a bit lazy scanning them all.)

I'm looking forward to seeing how some of my christmas cards I made will turn out later this week!

Some scribbles

I've almost finished the hohum drawings and trying to give a magazine cover a try but my meeting with walker books pushed me a little more into wanting to start some of my other projects- things which I've been meaning to do. I don't know how well this works as a story.

Page 1:

I am struggling to sleep due to the bright and noisy stars outside my window.  I manage to cover the bright star which shines outside my window with my duvet and something unexpected happens.

Pirate Cats are in my bathroom. So impressed with my thieving skills of swiping up one of the ‘shiny gems that glitter in the sky’ they immedietly recruit me into their gang and we sail out into the ocean, taking away the stars from the sky, the stars will make us rich. Quite why nobody had stolen them before was a mystery to me. 

The ship is now too heavy, we sink beneath the ocean. I am separated from the cat pirates and I am sucked into a whirlpool. I must travel for seemingly hours before I finally end in a fancy fountain. I discover that I have ended up in a place called ‘Glad Town’ Though I am refused entry by an enormous gorilla who guards the entrance. 

But to my luck, the stars followed me. Like a faithful dog and I was their master. Stars were greatly sought after in Glad Town and I spent one to gain entrance into the city, an elevator slowly taking me through lower and lower through the town a variety of different places. I couldn’t help but resist on spending a few more.

I was now a rich and highly successful. I could afford to spend a few stars on enjoying the high life. I went to go see the newest show in town at the grand Sly Theatre ‘One Hundred Kings’

After the show had finished, I met one of the cat pirates who had survived. He was now dressed in prisoner garments and was quick to blame me for the theft of the stars- he had led several officers here to arrest me. I tried to outrun them. 

Eventually the hour came for when I was called to appear before the great hall of Justice. I stood atop an atlas globe where I was judged a guilty verdict. Since I was only a seemingly innocent young boy, the jury decided they must turn me into a much more monsterous looking figure, I was given the look of a ‘classic villain’ with top hat and a large twisting moustache.

The jury no longer had any reason to sentence me to my fate- to be eaten by an enormous dragon. I landed inside its stomach where I discovered several knights had turned the dragons stomach into a Jacuzzi and led a relaxing life. Fortunately, my Moustache spead out from my face like wings and I was able to escape from the dragon, landing in a dense forest. 

Portfolio meeting

I'm looking forward to my portfolio meeting with Walker Books tommorow, I'm not sure what to expect really... I hope I'm not bringing too much stuff.

Thats two A3 sketch pads, two 50 page a6 pads, one A5 pad, my portfollio, 60 or so little napkin drawings of character designs and two concertina books and two unpublished commision stories I've worked on...

A6 pads

I'm looking forward to my portfollio interview next thursday, I've been trying to get a few more drawings done before then:

Still drawing on napkins and I've got quite a large collection of them which I'm currently keeping in a  amazon cardboard box (hopefully I'll find something better to put it in soon.) I wrote Der Struwwelpeter because the drawing reminded me of the book of the same name. Don't know why.

I'm coming to the end of my 50 page A6 sketchpad I've had since the start of the year. I've been working on  and  off making up stuff like this since back in Jaunary. Its getting a bit difficult to draw in the last page because its starting to fall apart (I've been keeping it in my pocket.)

Another page from my pad... some sort of dragon guy? I don't know.  Feels like I was forcing myself to make drawings which probably isn't the best way, so I did stop drawing for a bit after I made this one.

Did try making a few colour versions of some  of my older drawings. I'm not really feeling this one though.  Maybe its just the paper type I'm using but I'm not really very satisfied with some of the colour drawings I've tried making in my pads. I've been trying to think what exactly I should be calling this recurring characters, its one of the regulars I seemed to keep re-drawing over and over (its fun making different poses for him.) and it has been called 'Jumping Jack' for now. I suppose theres been Samurai Jack and Jack & the Beanstalk, but Jumping Jack sounds a little bit boring to me... maybe I'll change my mind though.

I've started drawing in a much nicer A6 pad I  bought from Southampton a few  months ago. Got at least three  drawings so far and the paper quality does seem a lot better. Too bad its only 25 pages instead of 50 but maybe I'll keep using these for now.

My meeting is on thursday next week at 3pm! 

Fantasy World Napkins

I've been meaning to scan some of these in for a while now- some of my finished drawings I made just after looking at the original cover for Fantasy World Dizzy, I used to own it on my Atari ST.

I drew these all on little napkins I  stole from Costa Coffee.  Perhaps not the best drawings I've made (and one of them is based on a character design I made a long time ago.) but it is interesting to see that I can at least finish ten small drawings within a couple of days- theres still a few more I haven't quite finished yet so I'll post more maybe sometime later. 

And this is probably what inspired the last ten drawings I've posted. I grew up on this sort of thing. 

Roy Moss

Thought I should also mention that talented writer Roy Moss has updated his new website featuring some of my illustrations that I made for his Poem, the Owl tree.
http://royjamesmoss.com/

The Owl tree seems like a popular image. I've already sold a print and its also been featured in the 'Design Week' magazine. Check out the website if you have the time.

The Dizzy game

I've been told a couple of times how people think my style of drawing would lend itself well to a game, something similiar to the online downloadable releases on the newer consoles such as Braid.

To me, videogames are still inspiring. Honestly, I remember wanting to make videogames much more badly than wanting to draw for a career- (though I don't have a clue or any interest in programming.) and I did used to draw out tons of my own level designs and instruction booklets on how to play my imaginary games. I'm not uploading any of those of course- its embarassing.

Just ended up sitting in costas daydreaming about how I wanted to make my own 'Dizzy' videogame.

I still remember getting my dad to buy this for me on my Atari ST from Whsmiths in Staines. What I liked so much about videogames is the often absurd logic behind them and that the concept behind a lot of videogames could be about anything. Such as the main character being an egg- or uprooting a vegetable from the ground only to discover its a rocket that takes you to some distant castle in the sky.

Or just playing as a monkey who avoids landing into the lava pits below by jumping on top of crocodile heads who don't seem particularily bothered by lava at all.

Theres something a little bit more quirky and charming about the british made videogames (two of which are pictured above.) which seems to have been lost in todays games- at least for me. With that in mind, I just made a bunch of doodles for what I wanted to be in my game.

I've also found a pack of blank envelopes I found while clearing out my cupboard. Seems like a nice idea to draw on one and send it to someone.

also, I've been meaning to find a reason to post this. I recieved some great cards  for my birthday last month and some nice congratulation cards for my First award from finishing University- but I think this is the nicest one I've been given so far. Its all hand made from a friend of mine in indonesia- Its hard to throw away a nice hand made card like this (which is why I think I'll keep it.

Thank you!

Mini Projects

Have been feeling a frustrating mood of wanting to draw, but not really feeling like doing so lately. When I'm not whinging about it to my parents though (sorry), I have managed to keep going with my mini-projects which are almost done.

I've almost drawn on every paper napkin I've stolen from the Art House cafe in Southampton. It makes quite an impact if you bunch all the drawings together but heres the few I've been trying to work on lately.

Second mini project- Finish 50 small drawings like this. So far I'm up to 41. Thought I'd try another pose of the dancing boy character, only try adding colour to it this time.

I also drew something for my dads birthday.

And after drawing on napkins, I finally wondered if I could draw on  a canvas. Bought some really small canvas (smaller than a6 size) to see if I could perhaps give it a try. Not sure what to think of this just yet though- this is actually my second canvas attempt which turned out a little better than the first.