Barry Purves: Animator Extraordinaire

This month's Creative Networks featured Barry Purves, a traditional stop motion animator who has worked on all sorts from Postman Pat and Wind In The Willows to Hollywood blockbusters like King Kong. His love for animating comes from the 'performance' though as he originally wanted to be an actor. Barry showed us some lovely examples of his own work and personal favourites by other artists. Take a look:

OverTime - by Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland and Damien Ferrie

John and Karen - by Matthew Walker

Related Links:
Animated Yorkshire

Underground Art School

Earlier this year I was reading through doodlage, a fantastic website about all things doodley, and came across this blog post about a new zine called Underground Art School. This isn't just any magazine though, it's made by some incredibly creative and friendly peeps and it's jam-packed with the most beautiful and inspiring artwork you've ever seen.


We were hooked immediately and planned on contacting them to ask about how we could contribute, they beat us to it though and messaged us to say hello after we befriended them on FaceBook.

You can befriend them too. Watch this video to learn more :D

With dancing skills like this we had no choice but to ask Racheal Anilyse (whose mind Underground Art School was envisioned within) if we could promote her work through the collective.

The Current Issue 'The SketchBook' is on sale now through MagCloud, you can preview the magazine on Issuu too. I just got all three copies in print last week as a birthday pressie from Johnny and they're SoOOooo good! I did have a sneeky peek pre-birthday, but only because they sang to me from inside the parcel!!

The first issue has tons of affirmation type in it too to make you feel positive and all warm inside, ahhh :)

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

and if that's not enough you can get that warm squiggly feeling all 365 days of the year with this cool calendar:

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

Entitled: 'Cultivating Community through the Creative Process' issue 2 is just as ace as the first and really has loads to get your artistic chompers into:

Open publication - Free publishing - More issue 2

SketchBooks! We love ours and have so many now that they've formed their own colony and are breeding in some far away galaxy. We call them the SketchBookonians...

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

We're both advocates of creative collaboration and community and Underground Art School Magazine is right up our street for this kind of stuff, we just love it. We read the UAS Blog regularly and so should you :D They also have a pool on Flickr, you can watch them on Vimeo or tweet at them on Twitter if you're into bird calls... tweet tweet ;)

The Scribble Project

I was reading the Doodlers Anonymous RSS Feed last week when I came across this blog post about a cool collaborative doodling project called 'Clubhouse Scribbles,' which is part of The Scribble Project. What's that? Well, it's "a playful community of doodlers who like to share our handiwork and collaborate in spontaneous art."

Johnny, me and Steve like to scribble socially, especially during a night out at Fab Cafe, so we thought this might be fun. We even had a small crowd (well two guys who were a bit pished) crowding round us eager to see our doodles. I took the opportunity to whip out the print-outs from this month's Clubhouse Scribbles - a groovy totem pole doodle that they're gonna link altogether to create one huge uber totem - so we each did two totem pole doodles and here they are!

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Steve O'Brien Super Nashwan

© Steve O'Brien Super Nashwan

If you fancy having a go doing your own totem pole doodle there's still time - the deadline is 31st July.

Check out the Website, Blog, Flickr Group, FaceBook Page, or Twitter.

Coming Soon

Hold on to your hats! The brand spanking new personal portfolios of Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss are heading your way. We've been beavering away on these two gems for what seems like eons now, but with a bit of luck (and a lot more elbow grease) we'll soon have these fantabulous extrapolations uploaded in their full glory. In the meantime, check out these beautious holding pages! Ahh, can't you just taste the chocolaty goodness!?

http://www.quantempus.co.uk

http://www.trumpetcleaner.co.uk

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

Patrick Burgoyne: Creative Review

Creative Networks had a very cool talk this month by Patrick Burgoyne, the Editor for Creative Review. Patrick's talk entitled 'Labels: and Where to Stick Them,' covered a range of projects including the creation of the cover for the January Issue by a letterpress studio called Gráfica Fidalga in São Paulo. This workshop keeps the tradition of letterpress alive by producing books and prints.

Image © Creative Review Magazine

Image © Creative Review Magazine

Check out this video which documents the project:



Another issue's cover was produced in Mumbai by photographing a taxi which was covered in specially made stickers all produced by hand:



Here's a cool quote taken from Patrick's blog post Everything and Nothing. It's something all graphic designers need to keep in mind when they work:

“To design is to create images which communicate specific ideas in purely visual terms and utter statements whose form graphically embodies or enhances the essential nature of the notions to be communicated.” This definition of graphic design comes from John Commander, the first chairman of D&AD and a noted art director.

There were some really great videos during the presentation including this one called 'Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better' which shows an installation led by Stefan Sagmeister:



Read more about this collaborative project here.

This one had us giggling. Would you trade in your FaceBook friends for a burger? I think I'm tempted:



A very cool 'Kinetic' (that means moving kiddies ;)) sculpture. Oooh! Pretty:



The emphasis on the hand-crafts was evident throughout Patrick's talk and was a real delight. There is a definite trend emerging in the return to the hand-made (which I absolutely LOVE!) and many skilled designers and artworkers are looking to traditional methods to produce their work. This can not only be seen in typography, but in type-setting, sign-writing, hand-lettering and many other trades. The perfect balance of the traditional and digital crafts is what's needed.

Patrick also gave his opinion on what the future may hold for the magazine itself (in the ongoing battle of the Hand Crafts versus New Media). Eventually the magazine may be accessible through digital means rather than mass distributed as hard-copies (the huge use of paper isn't exactly eco-friendly) - although this form of publication may be preferred as people tend to enjoy having something to read in their hands, so only time will tell.

The End of the Beginning

As courses end, careers start.

A showcase of over five hundred
young creatives at this pivotal point,
the end of the beginning.

From fabric to photos, art and
arm chairs, this is a chance to
see the new generation of talent,
at one of the few thriving independent
art Colleges in the country.

Image © Leeds College of Art and Design

This degree show at Leeds College of Art and Design was the best by far, so much so infact that we spent almost a whole day walking around all of the degree shows from all of the creative courses at both the Vernon Street and Blenheim Walk sites.

As we ran round all the exhibits we picked up lots of post-cards, business cards and flyers and took a TON of photos documenting all the best bits to see. Here are some extra spicy photos and links to cool portfolio sites that'll get your creative tastebuds tingling:

Image © Sammy Dowgill BA (Hons) Visual Communication

'From Little Acorns, Big Oaks Grow...' © Laura Jordan BA (Hons) Visual Communication

Johnny and I both attached 'acorns' to this tree with a small message on each about what our dreams and aspirations are. The responses will be used as inspiration for illustrations in the zine 'Raise Your Hand, Raise Your Voice.' The zine has a blog too, check it out.

'Class of 2008 - 2009 (Rogues Gallery)' © Peter Kesteven BA (Hons) Fine Art

Costume © Jessica Bull BA (Hons) Costume with Textiles

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

http://www.clairepullan.co.uk/
http://clairepullan.blogspot.com/

We both recognised Claire's art from last year's degree show and were really blown away by this piece of work. It's 3 metres by 1 metre and looks amazing! Be sure to check out her portfolio website and blog for lots more illustrative masterpieces.

Image © Ken McFarlane

http://kenneh.deviantart.com/

It was a nice suprise to come across Ken's work as it was one of so few examples of sequential art (or comic book art) appearing in exhibitions. We'd like to see much more of this kind of work on display at these events so cheers Ken and nice artwork!

'Kevin Bacon is the Centre of The Universe' Image © Vicky Smith

http://www.vickysmithisnice.co.uk/

Image © Aric Arthur

http://www.aricdesign.co.uk/
http://aricdesignpractice.blogspot.com/

Image © Steph Baxter

http://www.stephsayshello.co.uk/
http://stephsayshello.blogspot.com/

Steph is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer and also part of the Collective Custard Cream Creative. Yummy! We loved her work and will definitely keep checking back on her websites for updates. Take a look at her images on Flickr too!

Image © Joe Kelly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joekelly


Related Blog Posts:

Leeds College of Art and Design End of Year Show 2008: Blood, Sweat & Tears
http://koojicreative.blogspot.com/2008/06/blood-sweat-tears.html

Portfolio Websites: A collection of links found on business cards from the show

http://www.nataliapasquino.com/
http://www.mitashpatel.com/
http://delightfullybritish.blogspot.com/
http://www.leedsviscom2009.co.uk/
http://www.kylebibby.co.uk/
http://kylebibby.blogspot.com/
http://www.will-campbell.com/
http://thingswhatihaveconsumed.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogsndoodles/

Bradford Zine Fayre

Johnny and I have been getting into the Zine Scene of late, so we decided to head on over to the Treehouse Cafe in Bradford to check out the first ever 'Bradford Zine Fayre.' When we arrived we were treated to table after table (well 3 in total) filled to the brim with lovely self-published zines from all over the UK. We even spotted some itsy bitsy single-sheet zines too, just like this Free Doodles Zine on Super Duper which you can print out and make yourself. Neato!

Site (1) Arts Festival 2009

The Leeds School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design hold an annual end of year show celebrating their graduating student's achievements and we always make sure to get a look in on the artwork on display.


This year's degree show, Site (1), is part of the Leeds Met University's Arts Festival and is across 3 'Sites' from The Faculty of Arts & Society including the Leeds School of Architecture, Landscape & Design and the School of Film, Television & Performing Arts. There was plenty to see and lots of inspiring exhibits to get our creative juices flowing. Here is a selection of what we saw as we wandered around:

© Carine Brosse
© Carine Brosse
© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Nicholas Pierce, Centaur, Graphite on prepared board

© Laura Havenhand
© Laura Havenhand

LDS09 Fine Art Degree Show

Being greeted by a handshake, a "Thanks for coming" and then a very European 'Kiss Kiss' on either cheek was a surprise, but also quite a refreshing change at this year's Leeds University Fine Art Degree Show. We're not usually welcomed in this way to an exhibition, but we're not going to knock it either - it was very arty!

What was even artier was the 'Art of Queuing' installation. We headed up a staircase, found ourselves in a queue, someone whispered "they're letting two in at a time," so we patiently waited and made chit chat. When we were allowed in we were met by a long, dark corridor with a TV at the end. On the display screen was a live recording of all the other mugs patiently waiting in the queue - the small plaque read: 'The Art of Queuing (and Conversation).' Clever :D


© Emma Melton
'Fig. 8', Hysteric Beauty series, 2009
Oil, acrylic, make up, sweets and glass paint on canvas.


We found this on the way out. A pile of letters, part of which formed the word 'White ³.' I wonder what it means...

http://www.lds09.co.uk/

Drawing Day 2009

We only heard about this by chance today as it was being advertised through redbubble (the site where Dom Palmer, fellow artiste extraordinaire and recent addition to the Kooji Gang, sells his art wares). What a find! We need more events like this and it's always a joy when we come across them. Plus, any excuse to draw for the purpose of uniting with our fellow humans world-wide is as good an excuse as any! The aim is to create 1 million drawings, so we got cracking and here's the result:




As you can see Johnny and I had a My Little Pony theme running throughout, but I can only chalk that down to the small toy sat next to my Mac and our need for inspiration.

Check out the Drawing Day website, Flickr Group, YouTube Channel and FaceBook Group for more details and to see how you can join in with the frivolity :D Drawing Day is an annual event (hurray!) and it lasts all weekend too, so quick! Go get ya pens, pencils, paper, sketch-books and draw! Don't forget to share your drawings online too :)