Michal Cihlar

This is Michal Cihlar who is super amazing at lino printing:







My friend Petra who is a Graphic Designer on my course showed me him yesterday because I have been doing lino cut experimentations (see previous posts). He does loads of political illustrations:





But I really love his stuff for Praha Zoo:









For More Super Cool Stuff go to: http://www.gallery.cz/gallery/en/Vystava/2000_09/Ramec_V.html

Hey, what's the big deal? I'm an animal

I'm having a super fun time playing with drawing, lino prints and mac!
My Current Uni project is to create a catalogue of a collection that we supply. My collection is my very own zoo and so I spent the last two weeks drawing, painting, printing, inking and diffusing images of toy animals. I spent today doing these:









A mixture of Lino prints, photoshop layers and rough sketches I have found myself really having fun. It's a bit different to my previous post of Roy the Tiger but I like them both.
But now I must carry on and actually design a catalogue and not just experiment with different styles. Onwards towards a catalogue!

Oooo Linoleum

Lino cut printing is fun.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

I did lino cutting in school once and at the time it wasn't worth the injury but then I saw the lino cutter and choice of blades with a stack of linoleum and before I even knew it I had bought it. This is the result of my fun lino experimentation. More is probably going to appear, I very much enjoy Lino cutting. Probably because I haven't injured myself yet.

Fringe

New Project! How exciting! This one is another typographically based project but has more illustration to it. We are designing a leaflet/handout/mailer about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The leaflet is dance or music. By the powers dictated by short supply of printing credit I am doing Music. Now for the illustration part: all illustrations have to be done by us. It doesn't have to be drawing but I think I'll play to my strengths personally. And so yesterday I spent my time drawing musicians and here they are so far:













I'm really enjoying this I hope I still do later on in the project.

Pauline Baynes and Smith of Wootton Major

I'm a fan of JRR Tolkien, I admit it. Although I'll also admit that I never finished Lord of The Rings, I got bored of Frodo. But anyway, knowing my like of Tolkien, last year my parents came to visit me in Carlisle and went to the second hand book shop. My next birthday arrived and I unwrapped this book. This beautifully illustrated book.



The story is about a boy who swallows a Fay-star that was put into a great cake. When he grows up he then takes great adventures and sees a tree growing many different fruits, a red lake and he meets fairies and elves. It's a really good story (in my opinion) and it's enhanced by its lovely line drawn illustrations by Pauline Baynes.



Baynes was an English book illustrator who died only a few years ago in 2008. She did many collaborations with JJR Tolkien and also with CS Lewis. I really like her style and she's made this book even more special then if it was just pure text and a birthday present. Another favourite illustrator.

Grids, Spreads and Sneezing Cows

Second Year of Uni. Second Project - Grids. We have been learning about grids and spreads in magazines and books. Learning and then doing. We picked a name out of a tub/envelope and then created a double page spread upon our designer/illustrator.

I picked Jim Flora. An amazing illustrator who designed Album covers in the 1940s and 50s for jazz artists such as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa. Then went on to do freelance magazine illustrations and children's books, including titles such as: 'The Fabulous Firework Family', 'Charlie Yup' and 'The Day the Cow Sneezed'.


He was a brilliant designer, his work has real feeling in it and a great sense of animation. I admire it so much that I recently ordered 'The Day the Cow Sneezed' which was recently republished. It arrived yesterday and I've already read it twice.


I think I have found my new favourite illustrator. I love his work and expect it to influence me in future projects.

For more information on Jim Flora please go to: jimflora.com where you will find plenty more information and links to other websites.

So here it is; the end spread, complete with Sneezing Cow, and made with grids.

Pootle

pootle tootle chug.