New Work, Tools and Name
Hello dear reader,
I’m back with a long overdue blog post, because I have something to share with you today… I’ve had a (creative) itch for a while, the desire to try something new with my work. I love making cards (and will continue to do so, delivering up more pop culture/nostalgic content to your favourite indie card and gift shops later this year). I’ve also wanted to develop some new illustration work in addition to this, which relies less on cheeky quips for cards and a bit more time spent developing a drawing style and working with new tools, trying out some new paper/printing formats. It’s a new flavour and so naturally, I’ve decided to put the work out under a (yet another) new moniker…. GREY JON.
Under this new title, I’ll be revisiting some of my favourite characters from film for inspiration. It’s a very good excuse to bust out the greatest hits movie collection and under the cover of ‘research’, get amongst some new filmic content which has taken my interest in recent years…. like this one!
Bella Baxter
I only saw Poor Things recently, but immediately fell in love with the film. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and featuring Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, it is a wild ride of discovery as the film follows Bella through a hypnotic alternative world conjured up with amazing visuals, costumes, sets and locations and underpinned with the weirdly wonderful sound design of composer Jerskin Fendrix.
I’ve drawn Bella and one of her pets pretty straight here but Emma Stones incredible physical performance and the characters evolution in the film, combined with an array of bizarre and beautiful costumes, means I could quite happily revisit her character for more drawings in the future.
I’ve really enjoyed making these drawings and they’ve been put together using some old school methods, initially pencil, paper and plenty of sketching. Taking these early scribblings into Procreate to work with a combination of brushes to give a watercolour and inky effect. It’s been a breath of fresh air, being able to play with new tools and find ways of working digitally, whilst trying to retain some of the granular flavour of my more traditional work. It has been a puzzle I’ve enjoyed exploring and if you can get your hands on a copy of Procreate and something to run it on, I would encourage everyone to have a go. It’s got a very simple interface which suits my monkey brain, but has an array of amazing brushes and effects which can be easily applied. My kids love using it too, I often have to reserve a slot to get work done these days!
I LOVE The Royal Tenembaums. It’s my favourite Wes Anderson movie, which I stumbled upon during my student days at the brilliant DCA in Dundee.
The stylised nature of Anderson’s films sometimes verge on the theatrical but Tenenbaums always felt a bit more natural to me when compared to some of his later releases. I love the visual and aural tone of the movie, the soundtrack is so beautiful and features some of my favourite artists, Nico, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Ramones, Elliot Smith, Paul Simon and Nick Drake! Boooooom, what a line up.
….and the film has my favourite ever movie montage (everyone loves a montage right?!), with Gene Hackman playing the eccentric and mischievous, Royal Tenenbaum, teaching his Grandsons some valuable life/living lessons. From light fingered shoplifting to garbage truck riding, the shots blend so well with Paul Simon’s ‘me and julio down by the school yard’… it’s a peach.
“I’m talking about taking it out and chopping it up!” Grandad of the year contender.
Margot Tenenbaum
Margot Tenenbaum, played by Gwyneth Paltrow is effortlessly cool in this film…. And though I do not endorse smoking or the wearing of fur coats, she certainly makes it all pretty appealing! Her reunion with Richie off the Green Line bus is a lovely moment, cut beautifully with Nico’s finger picking, regret filled, folk tinged, ‘These days’….
I hadn’t seen Napoleon Dynamite for years, until a few weeks ago I dusted off a dvd copy I purchased many moons ago, settled back with a bottle of lamma milk and a bowl of tater tots, all in the name of research and I’m so glad I did….
It’s such an unusual film and I’m not even talking about the characters…the pacing, the dialogue, the locked in shots and the fact the plot essentially revolves around going to a school dance and competing in the student election, it defies all expectations of teen movies of it’s time by focussing on the ‘other kids’ and championing their collective and individual weirdness and quirks. If you haven’t seen it, you must, I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this and surely the flippin’ sweet dance moves alone are worth it.
I can’t wait to add to this collection of prints under the new guise of Grey Jon. If you’d like to keep up to speed with this new side of my work, make sure to give the dedicated instagram profile a follow….
All these drawings are available now as individual giclee prints or framed. I’m really happy with how they’ve turned out, maybe there are characters from your favourite films that you would like illustrating? Drop me a message if you have any suggestions, I’d love to add more unexpected characters as the collection grows.… and you can browse them all in the online shop right now, link below.
Thanks so much for reading friends. I’m very grateful for your support and being able to share with you all the creative developments in my work. It’s a real treat.
The big plan is to be more proactive on the blog front, but my track record isn’t great… so who knows?
See you for the next one!
