Radical, awesome...MEGA!!!

I think this might be best thing I've ever seen (apologies for the poor video rip)



I saw Coogan himself browsing in Urban Outfitters in Brighton last week but was too star struck to go up and say anything to him.....idiot.

Indesign

In a fairly weak attempt to get to grips with another part of the seemingly immense Adobe suite I recently set myself the task of learning how to use Indesign. The results are shown below.

More scribbly dibbles

No theme here whatsoever. Just a selection of recent-ish doodles from my fingers.

Angelos Epithemiou at Bestival?

Anyone else think that Marc Almond's keyboard player resembles Shooting Star's very own Angelos Epithemiou?

Fever Ray at Bestival 2010

Here are a selection of pics taken at the Fever Ray show on the final night of Bestival 2010. The stage was completely shrouded in dry ice for the whole set, the keyboard players all had full face masks on and Karin was almost invisible underneath her mental 'wicker-man' style costume. The stage was full of lamps which flickered on and off in time to the music, creating a suitably eerie effect. The show was great although I reckon the bass was whacked up too much, my ears were almost bleeding at one point and it kind of drowned out her singing at times. Still rad though!

New canvas

Above is a painting I did recently as a thank you for a good friend of mine. Below you can see how it looks in comparison to the digital sketch I did beforehand.

I've seen some mad stuff in my time....

Just recently quite a few of life's odd moments seem to have been happening while I am present. here are two that happened within a week of each other.

1. Sitting on the tube from brixton to Victoria I saw a boy (8yrs old maybe) walk onto the tube and watch as the doors close behind him, leaving his parents and younger brother on the platform. a look of panic crossed his face and he immediately started hammering on the doors and screaming 'OPEN! OPEN!' at the top of his lungs. It did no good and as the train smoothly pulled away he collapsed into a heap on the floor crying his eyes out. Suddenly the time honoured tradition of never making eye-contact or communicatiing with other people on the tube was forgotten about. Several adults who had witnessed the incident rushed to the boy's side and spent the next few minutes comforting him and telling him not to worry. At the next stop two of these adults, took the boy off the train to presumably wait for his parents to travel to the that same stop and pick up their son. A heartening display of community spirit in the middle of London. Who'd have thought it eh?

2. This next situation happened just 6 days later. We were cycling along the Trans Penine Way next to the River Aire, just outside of Leeds when I got a puncture and had to turn back. As we approached a series of abandoned warehouses on the other side of the river we heard some shouting and then saw a 'youth' dressed appropriately in a black hoody legging it as fast as he could with a police officer in pursuit. The lad disappeared into some bushes and the copper spent about 5 minutes searching around before he found him and dragged him out before hand-cuffing him. So far, so exciting.

At the other end of the line of bushes (about 30 metres away) another copper appeared and seemed to be still searching around for someone. Suddenly from the bushes in the middle of where the two coppers were positioned emerged another 'youth' dressed similarly to his mate. He began creeping towards copper number 2, who didn't see him at first because the bushes were obscuring his vision. This was really weird because from where we were stood on the other side we were positioned perfectly to see everything that was going on. Copper 2 wandered off, even though we'd tried to indicate to him that the lad was heading his way by pointing (I guess we should really have shouted to him but there you go) The lad got to the end of the line of bushes and was spotted by copper 2. he then had no-where to go apart from around the outside of a barbed wire fence with spikes which was positioned so it extended out over the river, presumably to prevent people from accessing the warehouse grounds from the path. The lad just about managed to climb round and jump to safety before taking off at top speed down the other side of the river away from the police. copper 2 didn't attempt to climb round the spiky fence.

By this point there was police dogs, helicopters and 3 squad cars on the case! we continued our way back which happened to be in the same direction as the lad was running on the other side of the river. By the time we reached the bridge to get back onto the south side the lad was running towards us in the opposite direction! He ran straight past us, not very fast as I guess he was probably exhausted from being chased, and I was tempted to try and take him down 'citizen's arrest' style, but I bottled it. Moments later the police came running after him over the bridge and briefly stopped to ask us which direction he'd gone. It turns out they'd been burgling the warehouses and lock-ups on the riverside which is something one copper told us happens quite frequently round there.

Digital sketch for painting idea

Mary-Anne Hobbs to leave to Radio One!

I was listening to BBC Radio One's 'Experimental' show on the iplayer yesterday and long time presenter Mary-Anne Hobbs slipped into the conversation that she would be presenting her last show in 3 weeks time!

This was news to me and, having been a long time follower of Ms Hobbs since the Breezeblock days I have to say that I'm absolutely gutted that she's leaving the station. Apparently she's been offered a job in her home town of Sheffield at the Uni mentoring/lecturing students. Click the pic for more details.

The Breezeblock and Radio 1 Experimental were/are easily my favourite shows and with Mary-Anne leaving where am I going to get my weekly fix of dubstep/electronica from now?

Good luck to Mary-Anne. She is an inspiration and, from my limited understanding, has been hugely influential in terms of breaking/promoting new and up-coming artists.

Long live the real Queen of England Ms Mary-Anne Hobbs.

New doodly-bobs

Below are some of the new doodles I've been working on along with some business card designs. Click any of the pics to have a closer look at these and a few other bits and bobs.

Plane in the frame.....

Taking photos at Kirkstall Abbey in north Leeds a few weeks ago I noticed the large number of planes coming into land at the nearby airport. I managed to snap one as it passed across the gap where I'm guessing a window used to be 600 years ago.

Football Crazy Crutches!

I was recently commissioned to produce a logo for a new company called Football Crazy Crutches who are going to be making crutches for kids in the colours of their favourite football teams. Here are 2 slightly different versions of the final design although I'm not sure which teams I had in mind when selecting the colours, Norwich and Man City maybe?

Temporary website online

I thought I should make use of Virgin Media's free 200mb of webspace so have been working on a temporary website to showcase photos and doodles . Click the screengrab to have a peek.

For One Night Only

I was recently asked to put together some artwork for a promotional campaign for a friend who is setting up a DJ night in Stavanger, Norway. Below are some early ideas for the night which will either be called 'For One Night Only' or 'Friday Night Fever'

This idiot never learns

Above is a screenshot from a skateboarding video filmed in 2000. You might be able to see a lovely 90 degree ankle tweak at the bottom there, the result of ollieing over the wall to the left and landing with the front foot too far forward.


This resulted in a great deal of pain followed by 4 weeks hobbling around and moaning. The injury almost caused the idiot in question (me) to miss amongst other things a camping trip to Cornwall, a month trekking in Peru and our first ever trip to Glastonbury.




The injury shown in the picture above was again the result of a skateboard-related accident. The photo was taken 3 days ago, shortly before a trip to hospital which confirmed that I'd somehow managed to avoid breaking my left ankle (again!)

10 years on and regardless of the fact that I suck...I still can't get enough of skateboarding!


Long live the ankle-egg!

Photography experiment.

A selection of photographs taken using both a digital camera (Olympus FE-5000 10mpx) and an SLR film camera (Minolta x300) using a black and white film. I tried to take the exact same shot with both cameras, I then desaturated the digital pics and compared them with the images from the developed black and white film . In each case the digital image is shown first.

To watch in better quality follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/OstownArmySpoon

Telford Boyz love their mums.

Shroppo represent. Taken with the Minolta x300 at Easter 2009 on the bank of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Red in a sea of blue

After a fairly depressing week in politics which saw the most revolting, least charismatic, party leader slime his way into number 10 I came across this breakdown of the regional voting patterns across the UK on May 6th. It's comforting to see that if all else fails we still have Telford, surrounded on all sides, resisting Cameron's advances.

Hot new T.

Quick snap of a new design I've trialled on a vest top for my lucky girlfriend!

Doodles.

More artwork.

Berlin pics.

Here's a few pics shot with the Minolta from our recent trip to Berlin.

Ghost in the glass.

I'm all for coincidences but here's one I found particularly odd. Supping a delicious pint of Sam Smiths Alpine Ale (£1.74!!!!) I noticed an unusual shape had formed in the foam on the side of the glass. It looked remarkably like a ghost, quite cool in itself, but not just any ghost. This one looked almost identical to a graphic I designed a while ago and have been putting on t-shirts and hoodys for the last few years....spooky.

Why can't I understand a kid's film?

Having just watched Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle I feel compelled to 'furiously blog' about how disappointed I was with it. Don't get me wrong, there is no way I would even pretend to be able to render turn-of-the-century Europe in such exqisite detail or create a world in which the simplest ideas e.g. flying are turned into something wonderful and exciting. However when I sit down to watch what is essentially a film for KIDS I expect to be able to follow what's going on! Of the many questions I bored my girlfriend with during the film here are but a few:

1. What the hell was the war about?
2. Who was fighting the war?
3. What was Howl doing each night when he went out, turned into a bird and flew about a bit?
4. Why is Sophie sometimes a little girl and sometimes a crone?
5. If the Witch of the waste is a witch why doesn't she fly up the palace stairs instead of walking?
6. Why is Howl such a wuss?
7. Who is the little kid that lives with him in the castle?
8. Why does the film end so suddenly with none of the storylines resolved?
9. How does Sophie's curse get broken?
10. What's up with the Prince's (aka Turnip Head's) hair at the end of the film?

Silly, petty questions maybe but unanswered questions they remain. I had no such problems with My Neighbour Totoro, Porco Rosso, Laputa, Nausicca or Spirited Away although I do remember being bored, annoyed and generally a bit irritated with how much everyone banged on about Princess Mononoke.

Maybe I'm just an idiot!

Vectorising....

Here's a pic I drew 5 years ago in a sketchbook. Suddenly by adding a few effects to it in Illustrator it looks vaugely decent....sort of.

I drew a picture.

I'm attempting to find the time/inclination to start painting again. Here's an idea of what my next 'masterpiece' might look like.

Re-inforcing the Wetherspoon patrons stereotype

11.30am. I am skateboarding around Lidl carpark which is situated close the the local Wetherspoons pub. From the far side of the carpark I hear a muffled shout ending with the words "f*****g skateboard..." I stop and look towards the source of the shouting. A fat bald man, holding a pint, is waving frantically in my direction from 60-70m away in the outdoor smoking area of the Wetherspoons. He shouts again "F**k off you c**t...It's a f**kin' carpark....F**k off or I'll wrap that skateboard round your f**kin' throat...."

I stopped for a moment and put my thumb up to him in what could only be interpreted as a sarcastic manner. This didn't help and he threw some more abuse my way, I decided not to antagonise him any further. Needless to say, my day was kind of spoiled after that. I picked up my board, got on my bike and very slowly cycled past this cardiac-in-waiting who was still leant on the wall, hoping he might have some more encouraging words for me. Strangely enough when I got near to him and smiled right in his sweaty, jowly face he looked away....weird.

The Adobe puzzle.

I have recently been attempting to sharpen my skills in all things Adobe. I foolishly thought I'd have a crack at Illustrator last week. Having never used the program before I had no idea just how much you can do with it and, more significantly, how complicated it is to get the hang of! The image above is the result of 2 hours work!

I have a long way to go.

Weather report 1898

Flicking through a sketchbook the other day I came across this page from the Manchester Evening Chronicle tucked in between two pages. I found it behind the glass in a smashed mirror in Hove about 2 years ago. Check the date..... 9th March 1898!

6 Music to close !!!

6 Music is to close at the end of 2011 due to political pressure to make cutbacks in spending. This must not be allowed to happen!

Make your feelings known: trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk

"Tummy Tuck at 12, Boob Job at 16"

I was, until recently, unfamiliar with the magazine 'Pick Me Up.' I now believe that it could be amongst the finest publications to ever grace our nation's shelves. The 3 headlines which were screaming out from the front cover when I recently nipped into the local cornershop were as follows:
"Tummy tuck at 12, boob job at 16, Uncle Darren stole my special legs" and my favourite "Family meltdown, paid by Mum to murder Dad."
Immediately several questions occured to me: Who are these people? Are these real stories? Why have I never met anyone like this? Is this simply The Jeremy Kyle Show in printed form?
and, looking at the image above, what's a delivery room GHOST?!!

"Do my hair...and paint eyelash..."

I can't stop listening to this album. 6 months on and it sounds better every time...

Je suis obsédé!

I can't quite work out what it is about Karin's voice but there's something about it, particularly on Now's the Only Time I Know, that makes it almost too much to bear. I even have the t-shirt of the image above, the first band t-shirt I've treated myself to since the classic Ramones t back in 2004!