Any Excuse.

And I mean literally ANY excuse to google Downton Abbey,
and I am there.

 So we're sitting in our 'Design in Context' lecture, and your man Nick's going on about jeans, (there was more, I took notes, it's not relevant to this post), and then he goes and says 'For this week everyone's going to be assigned a decade from 1920 up until 1990, and they've got to design a character from that decade', and all I can think is 'Bro I need 1920, I fucking love Downton Abbey' and so I'm sitting there, edge of seat style, praying for the 1920s thinking, 'I'm never going to get this.' and I'm sitting there and I'm like the 50th person on the list and the girl in front of me in the list gets called and Nick says '1990' and I know right there and then that I am getting the 1920s, don't worry though, I didn't squeal, I played it cool and was all like 'Oh 1920s? I suppose that's cool.'

Now as much as I love Anna and Mr. Bates their drab servant wear can in no way compete with the likes of Chanel and the Marcel wave, really it would be like setting a kitten on a rottweiler that hasn't be fed in 6 months, so I'm not even going to bother sticking picture of servants on here. And the men? Well a suit is a suit right?

But dude, check out the 20s goodness, now I am talking class, look at them. The hat's man, look at the hats, the dresses, the hair, it's all good.

The Marcel Wave

Chanel poster,
she thinks she's something like.

Also keep going down and you'll find the trailer for Downton Abbey series 3, now if anyone asks it's there for 'reference to costume', but really I just love Downton Abbey, seriously, it's on tonight at 9pm, check it out.

Old People know their shit.

Close call.

The only two horrible old people
I know, and they're fictional.

They rock.

Stealing wallets like.
Why Sidney? Why?

On Friday I got on the train home from university, finding a complete lack of seats I sat at a table opposite an elderly man who smiled at me. Having been up at 6:30am and 5:30am every other day that week I fell asleep quick sharp. When I woke up I felt like I was dying and after some severe baby dinosaur noises I look up to see the old man staring me right in the face, he smiled again at me and, I shit you not, said 'Life's tough some times', I thought, fuck that's deep, but I knew what I wanted to say back to him, I wanted to say 'Yes sir it is, it's tough, life's hard, you should know you're old, you've seen so much, you've done so much, you've loved, you've been loved, you've lost. You've probably got kids, you've watched them grow, you seen them laugh and seen them cry. You've felt heart break, pain, happiness. You've probably seen real beauty, you've looked into the eyes of someone who loves you, you've got regrets, you miss old friends. You've seen war, the first moon landings, the first female Prime Minister, the first black US president, you were there for the start of the NHS, the Labour Party, you saw the death of a King, the coronation of the new queen, you saw rock and roll first hand. You know more than anyone that life is tough.' That's what I wanted to say , but I didn't what I actually said was 'It is.' and rolled back over to sleep. My real point is though that, that old man didn't have to smile at me, he didn't have to watch me and my stuff as I slept, he didn't have to tell me that life was tough, but he did, all the hard stuff that people see, that makes them hard and bitter, that when you see a young person being a dick, the stuff would make you say 'Well they've had a hard time', all those things that this man had time to see plenty of , it hadn't made him horrible. Which got me thinking, old people are fucking awesome, they've seen it all, they've done it all, and still just keep it real.

All you need is love...

...love is all you need?

My friend Calvin asked me to paint him a picture of the Beatles, because he loves them, like too much, like no one should love the Beatles, or in fact any band that much. Especially seeing as the Beatles are the 5th most overrated band on the planet ( U2, One Direction, Foo Fighters and Coldplay, in that order). But he really loves them, I think they're just okay, but to him they're awesome, so does that make them awesome? Is one man's 5th most overrated another man's treasure? Does the ability to play your instruments perfectly define a good band? Or is it passion and your ability to make people love what you do? Same for artists, if you can't or just don't paint with photo-realism, is passion enough to get you through? And the risk of sounding like a cheesy bastard, is love really all you need?

I swear I will get it finished one of these days.

Lights in the North...

The Northern Lights

Click here to find out how the Northern Lights are formed.

I'm not going to try and write a funny passage because, lets be fair...these pictures speak for themselves.

George Karbus took these photographs of the Northern Lights from under the ice.

Photos from above the ice, taken by George Karbus.

If eyes are windows to the soul, then why do we look OUT of them?

My version of 'The Ice Bear' front cover.

Jackie Morris' 'The Ice Bear' front cover.

Jackie Morris

Click here for link to
Jackie Morris' website

Morris is an illustrator originally from Birmingham who now lives in Wales with her kids, but that's not the point. And her work is beyond good, but that's not the point I'm trying to make either...the real point that I'm trying to make is that although I do like her work the thing I like about Jackie Morris is the way she talks about her work, or in fact the way she talks about anything, back in the Sixth Form if I had to write an essay about my work in art, or any of my subjects, I would sit down with my pen and paper (not at my computer, I'm old school) and promptly shit my pants, because there is nothing I hated more than trying to write what I was thinking or feeling, especially about a piece of my own work, because I was always scared I'd get it wrong or end up looking like a dick, or both. But Jackie Morris is a brave sort of artist, where she doesn't give a shit, she pours her heart and soul into everything she does, from paintings, to blog posts, to captions for her Facebook photos, she's not scared of being judged or ridiculed for being exactly who she is, and let's face it, everyone can spout their 'I don't care what anyone thinks of me' bullshit, but we all know that true cases of that are rare.

Project One: Waiting at the bus stop...

Stagecoach Buses Logo.

 ...not waiting for a bus, just waiting at the stop.

For our first project we have to pick a location, visit it and 'record our experiences' there, using photography, drawing, words or any other way we wanted. Once we've done this we must create an ISSUU digital publication.

However, there were rules:

• Your chosen location must be at least 500m away from the Campus 
• Your chosen location must be at least 500m away from your place of residence

In my group of three we chose the market bus stop. We had lots of ideas on how to approach our topic including:

Alan Fletcher
Pirelli double decker bus 1961.
(Look out for a blog post all about this)

I quite liked the idea of instead of recording what we could see, recording what we could hear and putting it down as an image, like Alan Fletcher did in 1961 for a Pirelli tyre advert for the side of a double decker bus.

But you didn't...

I hate when people look at drawings and say 'Well I could have don't that', well guess what pal, you didn't, and more to the point you couldn't, because what, to you, looks like it's been drawn by a child has actually been put together and planned out by a a highly skilled individual who probably has some form of art degree, and the ability to rein in their realism to create a both simple and complex drawing perfect for the reader. No child wants to look at the Mona Lisa, the want drawings that look like the pictures they draw, they want childish and silly and fun, which makes drawings like this perfect for them.

KEEP CALM AND...you've gone and ruined it now.

 'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON'
It used to mean something, it was about not panicking, not fussing and just getting on with it. Visually, not much to look at, but that's the beauty of it, five words, two colours, one crown, and in being that way it did exactly what it said on the tin, it didn't panic and it didn't fuss, it kept it calm and it carried on. But now, you can stick any bullshit on a poster and pretend it's relevant, and in doing so we're losing the real meaning of what the design was all about, you might as well write 'I like eating candy floss' on a poster with a picture of a sword in the background, because lets be fair 'MONKEY SEE AND MONKEY DO' or 'EASY COME AND EASY GO' have nothing to do with the original meaning or the crown perched atop the lettering. And personally 'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON' has lost all meaning to me, because there is literally not an item or accessory that can't be purchased with that phrase on, and although the keyring would look pleasant with my keys, that's really not what it was designed for.

I fail to see the relevance to be honest.

Do nice guys really finish last?

 If you go on a treasure hunt, it's implied that there is some form of treasure involved, but if there's not, then why go...I'll tell you why, cos your course tutor has asked really nicely and when someone asks nice you'd probably give them anything, cos you just can't argue with puppy dog eyes and manners, so being nice gets you ahead, that being said I think all the girls in my group were pretty nice girls, we still finished last, well truth be told we didn't finish at all, so DO nice guys finish last? 

Really though, who cares? 

When you actually are wondering around with sore feet and sore heads, you tend not to care, it's only when you get back that you give a shit. I think the team did put in a good effort though, all things considered...

Also: I'd like you to know that there were originally 13 pictures in this particular set, but 13's an unlucky number, and I just can't be dealing with that, especially not in my first blog post.