PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL

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posters 4 palestine

late last year i reached out to a group that were making posters to put up around nottingham. they were asking for any last minuite submissions for printing before they went out around town. i quickly made a poster for this. i used felt tip markers in my sketchbook to draw the key text that i wanted to include alongside the assets.

the only thing i was sure on was the text. i wanted to include birds, symbolising freedom but also the olive leaves that are so prominent in palestine. i toyed around with different layouts and i rewrote the text in multiple layouts before i settled on the final version.

i used a lot of multiply layers alongside the lasso tool and previous textures that i had made and scanned in previously. rather than the cruelty of the genocide happening, i wanted to focus on the bright freedom that i pray will be around the corner. obviously the genocide has continued on throughout this year. it hurts me deeply, i have always been close to the palestinian cause.

their memorials are everywhere. it’s a phrase i borrowed i got from a tweet i saw responding to the destruction israel had caused in the gaza strip.

All because they want the coast, as if the sea will be a friend to them, and forget its caretakers. As if everything cannot be rebuilt. As if all souls won’t remain no matter what. All they tried to erase is now cemented. The memorials are everywhere because they’re in our hearts

– ladan

just last month, bo brindle had managed to get the book published with the poster in it as one of the fold outs. just last week i recieved the published book. although i made this poster in around two hours, i am glad that it has continued to resonate.

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ethnic minorities in creative industries talk at ntu

these are the notes/internal dialogue that i recorded from the session. i honestly think they speak for themelves. the talk was reassuring. i think i gained a lot from it.

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books i’ve read this year

this is hard to gauge accurately, so i will not attempt to. instead i will include the books that have actively impacted my work the most that i haven’t mentioned elsewhere:

> mysticism after modernity _by don cupitt

> a shout in the street _by peter jukes

> heart and mind _by Mary Midgley

> the politics of experience and the bird of paradise _by r.d. laing

i enjoy reading philosophy the most, it intrigues me immenseley and i always feel like i’ve gained a wider understanding after reading a book. of course, there are countless others but these four are the ones i got the most out of this year.

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illustrator index

i will attempt to compile all the artists that have influenced me siginificantly, or at the very least, the ones that linger in my mind.

i will highlight Natasha Allegri, manuhamu and Hiroshi Mishima as people i have taken more inspiration from than the others.

i especially could sing the praises of Natasha Allegri and manuhamu forever. i was always a fan of Natasha Allegri’s work on the show “bee and puppycat” but her spray paint art particularly drew me in. i love everything about it, and how her designs are simple and complex in the same breath. manuhamu has a particularly incredible way of illustrating envrionments as well as subjects, which i continue to take inspiration from.

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smidge

i do a whole host of work for smidge @smidgezz, who is a content creator, artist and fashion curator.

here’s what i did this year for them:

> lino cuts for limited handmade clothing line

> album cover and sticker sheets

the previous year, i worked on volume 1 of smidge’s project which included an album cover. this year i was commissioned again to do the album cover alongside a sticker sheet for the bundle release.

you can stream the album here:

there is a sticker for each song on the album. i listened to each song while sketching their corresponding sticker, and matched each to the vibe of the song

this sheet is definitely one of the things i’m most proud of making this year. i enjoyed every second of rendering it, and i love the pink, magenta and dark blue illustrations the most. these sticker designs were also used for the main images on the trading cards that come with the album bundle.

> character design

although i had drawn “smidge”‘s character multiple times, there was never an established design. smidge commissioned me to create a reference sheet, that would also be used as a merch design.

i am somewhat familiar with creating reference sheets as i have been commissioned to make them for personal use, but this was the first time that it would be used like this.

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bath trip

i would be remiss to not include this. heres a gallery of some of the most prominent photos i took while there (to me).

i was enthralled with the copy of remillia quarterly. i took a lot of photos of it. sometimes i feel like my art exists in a limbo, away from the mainstream of “illustration” due to the obvious “anime” influences on my style of drawing. seeing this book in a shop made me feel a little less alone.

sadly when i went back to magalleria later on that day to purchase it, the copy had been sold. since then i have been making my sister who lives in bath check in on the shop for the restock. the other book that i loved was china! by cfang et al. i am the proud owner of this book though.

i liked the almost nonsensical text on the pages, sometimes when i’m stressed i talk in the same sorts of tongues. and i also love to take photos with the exposure all the way up. and i love angels. it seemed like the perfect crossover that resonated with me in the right way.

the last three images are of a water mark on the wall, that me and my friend mel were discussing while we were waiting. we both saw dogs, but in different ways. we drew them out on my phone’s “markup” app. this sentiment stuck with me heavily.

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lakeside arts: Cosmic Titans: Art, Science and the Quantum Universe

i loved this exhibition, but especially the “an early universe” exhibit. the way you could feel the resonance of the water reverberate around the room with the visual accompaniment projected up on the screen was all-encompassing.

i hope to experience something like the feeling i felt in that room again.

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luv it symposium

i enjoyed the symposium a lot, and i think i got a lot out of it! i did the live drawing thing, which made me realise that i am short as hell and i find it hard to gauge the scale of large canvases. i also attended luke’s meditation workshop which was really nice. it was good to centre myself and let go of the little things.

obviously my amplify zine was on display which i just kinda.. hm. i guess i wasn’t that bothered with it. moreso probably because i was scared of seeing people misinterpret it. but i loved looking at everyone else’s work!!! especially the 3rd years’ stuff.

and as usual i bought a bunch of stuff.

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youth work

this year i have been working for nottingham county council as a youth support worker in beeston. this has taught me an immesurable amount, as working with kids does. the age range i worked with was 10 all the way to 16 on some days. this age range are notoriously swept up in social interactions and have near to no regard for art and creativity; they’ll only do something if one of their friends is doing it.

sometimes during sessions i encourage the kids to draw or paint or make bracelets or honestly any sort of activity that i can dig up out of the store cupboard. here’s a picture of the kids work that i resonated with, and the resulting aftermath.

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vocajams

i was invited to participate in a vocaloid zine called vocajams! this was a big project that was hosted by vocafest, a prominent vocaloid events group in the uk, with the main idea being that it would release in summer (soon!) and be solely european contributers. hence the tagline “summer roadtrip”.

i loved every second of participating in this. alongside the zine is an album that was created directly by vocaloid producers (vocalop) for this project.

here’s a process of creating my contributuion for the zine. i based it off photos that i had taken last summer when walking along the canals to kew gardens in london. my piece features kaito, roro v2 and the bonus illustration has gakupo as i ended up cutting him out of the final piece.

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spray painting

spray painted for the first time in years this april! i hope to get better at this hopefully this coming year. it’s a medium that lends itself easily to the values i tend to channel in my work, so i’m excited to follow it further.

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