JAPAN MOLEY FREE ART EXCHANGE

JAPAN MOLEY
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

My first post in a ling time (a couple of months?)

This is a project I thought about combining two elements:

Free Art
Moleskine Exchange
A Moleskine Exchange usually works with a notebook, in this case a Japanese Folding Notebook between different artists, either in the local area, city, county or even between continents.

In this case, rather than have the finished book gathering dust the well travelled notebook will either be given away or auctioned for charity.

Southsea free art exhibition - Someone has me!

Southsea free art exhibition
Originally uploaded by my dog sighs

Yay!

Someone is the proud owner of one of my doodles.

Taken at the It's Yours - Take It event held last weekend in Southsea.
Looking on the Flickr group everyone who attended came away with something and being part of it is great! Kudos to My Dog Sighs for organising the event, I am pretty sure that the next one will be tip top as well.

Minotaur Dude

Minotaur Dude
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

This was created in response to DogTired's Flickr group 'Pimp My Dude'.

Basically DogTired Sent out some whistles/Ocarinas with the brief of Pimping them anyway we could then posting back to her.

Green Stuff was applied over the whistle before being painted.

Card Flame WIP - Waiting for the final piece to dry

The scan is pretty ropey but conveys what I have just done - the paint is barely dry, and could do with a few more coats to erase the marker outlines - The concept seems to have worked out okay in 3d so I just need to find an application for it.

Card Flame WIP - Not enough card to finish the job!

It's not exactly what I had planned but I found some free time in between ironing, searching for a new home and having a tasting for my upcoming wedding and have started the process of changing a Moleskine doodle to a full fledged piece of art.

My usual source of material, cat food boxes, was the place to start along with the trusty Sharpie. using the original Moley doodle as a rough guide I marked out the outline the cut around with a scalpel.

15/06/2008:
Updated Still no movement with this, With a wedding and a move on the horizon I am finding very little time to get anything completed.

The various pieces of card are then stacked in a 3D'ish manner - I am hoping that this turns out okay.

I just need to get my Cats some more food so I can pillage the packaging to complete this first stage. then I can look at painting, then sticking, the finished pieces together.

22/06/2008
Updated. Thanks to my extremely greedy cats I have all the pieces I need. Painting should start pretty soon, followed by assembly.

Moleskine 2 40 Things To Do

Moleskine 2 40
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

The arrangements of these shapes continue to interest me. This weekend I need to do the following:

Washing and ironing.
have a tidy round the house.
work on some scaled up artworks and manage some test pieces.

Hopefully I can get something meaningful out of my Moleskine and onto some card, canvas etc.

Moleskine 2 38 Made it!

Its funny how things turn out.

I like the imagery I have used here. Geometric blocks Isometric/vanishing point? and the lone, faceless character. I think my current move to brown pen has helped me - sounds funny - but the brown is less stark against the page softer... and less prone to smudging! The Pilot G-tec 4 is a bit fine but I have two so need to make use of them.

I am going to try working this image up in paint and in a slightly larger format:
2 block colours.
Stencil?
Block cut?

I will return to this once I have time to paint.

Moleskine 2 37 Doodling myself out of a block?

Something a tiny bit different from the norm. I normally try and doodle round or through blocks I guess I am just stressed at the minute, which is another reason why I try and doodle and sketch, just to find some tranquility.

I have found that my doodles and ideas aren't going any further than the page of my 'Skine. The tail end of last year and the beginning of this one found me with a fair amount of creative stuff to get on with but all is barren now.

Maybe I should do what I am already doing - putting pen to paper.

Moleskine 2 34 Clouds and Flame ?

Moleskine 2 34 Clouds and Flame ?
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

I was at a loss for something to doodle, no crazy characters popping into my head, no thoughts or ideas to put onto paper. I started doodling these cloud formations although they seem to have turned into smoke and fire.
I found it quite relaxing to doodle these, applying lots of ink to the paper was quite therapeutic and enjoyable.

Moleskine2 31

Moleskine2 31
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Finally had an upgrade to my system since my last two installs of Windows went bonkers. Windows wouldn't pick up my HP printer/scanner properly and started throwing fits if it picked it up at all.
Anyway I have now been pursuaded to convert to Linux, and am actually impressed. I can now use my printer and scanner without any issues.

Anyway another page from my current Moleskine, doodles as usual. I have really been struggling to put anything to paper this last week or so, mainly by being to busy and getting really stressed because of work, upcoming marriage and the looming possibility of moving house!

I just filled the left hand page trying to get something onto paper and then moved over to these oddball guys on the right. The cloud formations are something I am playing with.

Flow Colour From Way Back When

Flow Colour
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Actually only from 2007. I have just had a look through some old files and the back end of my Flickr account and found the on the very edge of going once I add some more files..

Tinkering around with Indian Ink and cleaned/Coloured In Photoshop.

It's a bit lazy to produce this in PS when I could just as easily contrived this with some 'real' media, so lazy that I produce quite a few in the space of a couple of hours. Useful, they act as tests and I am quite positive that I will transfer the idea over to canvas.

Moleskine2 30

Moleskine2 30
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

This character is cropping up pretty frequently in my scribbles.
Faceless, I think that it is difficult to see what emotions these guys portray.

Pencil Giraffe

Moleskine2 10
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Making a start on something I have casually been asked to get on with!

Does there have to be a giraffe in here? - No
What does Pencil Giraffe mean? - It's just random words that do sound pretty cool.

ARGH!!!

A Scrap of Card

Scrap of Card 03.05.2008
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Doodled over a piece of left over card.

Something else to add to the ever growing pile - I have no idea where to put these little scraps.

London Bookfair - I'm almost famous!

Thanks to Moleskine and their stand many many people had the chance to get their hands on my doodles.



I'm pretty pleased, getting my name up and having my moleskine out there for others to view. All buying types for the most part, but, it still feels good!

New Moleskine!

I have just started my second Moleksine of the year.....




Actually, this is a lie I have just stated my third Moleskine, a sketchpad. This, my second, was started at the begining of the month at the end of my holiday. This Moleskine should have MORE added value being that I am using coloured pens, which is a very large departure from my usual, anal, monochromatic self.

Is this departure reflecting a new found maturity and easing of insecurities? or just becuase I like some of the coloured Gel-pens that are around? It is probably a bit of both.

LOTS OF CARD

LOTS OF CARD
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

The great thing about having two hungry cats is that I have lots of cat food boxes on which I can paint and doodle. The downside is that, as a hoarder, I am fast running out of space to keep the material and then to keep my creations after I have finished. A lot has been dropped at various Birmingham City locations, and elsewhere, as Free Art but this still leaves a lot remaining. i will be distributing this little collection over the next few days and week, freeing up space for me to start on something else.

My Moleskines

I had always thought that Moleskine were too expensive for general jotting and doodling, an extravagance that could be left alone. After going through various sketchpads, notepads, jotters sometimes not even finishing a whole pad I now realise that I was wrong.

I have just finished my first Moleskine, a 9x14cm squared journal having filled almost every page with my doodles and jottings of ideas and have started on my second, of the same type. As stated in a previous post I have also completed a Japanese folding journal for Moleskine.

I am sure that there are other pads and journals which are equally as good, if not better, but at the moment thses journals are proving ideal to note and store ideas and doodles, they feel right in my hands and it is a pleasure to fill their blank pages.

At the moment I aim to fill two or three pages per day, somedays I wont touch it but on other days I can get a burst of creativity and fill up many, many pages. The act of putting pen to paper acts as a release and I can enjoy a few moments of really simple pleasure.

Free Art - Westbay, Bridport 2

Card Free Art
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

So, there I was at the launderette washing some clothes when it hit me.

Reaching into my bag I pulled out this freshly prepared face and stuck it in one of the dryers. I think that it was taken, I would like to think so, but it probably ended up in the bin, being on a holiday park I think that whoever was going to dry their clothes wouldnt be the sort of person to appreciate Guerrilla art in their whites!

I was there, so maybe.......

Free Art - Westbay, Bridport.

Card & Driftwood Free Art
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

During my week long holiday to Westbay, Bridport. I thought I might share some art goodness with the locals, and holidaymakers.

In the holiday park phonebox I put these two creations up. When I came back the cardboard had been taken but the driftwood guy was still hanging around.

So, to someone at Westbay near Bridport, Devon, thank-you and enjoy!

Stencil Attempt 2

After a period of reflection, contemplation and doing nothing really exciting except for doodling I thought I would try and stencil again.

Taking one of my previously doodled characters, itself taken from some previous sketches and scraps, I set about making the stencil in thin card before trying it out on a piece of scrap card. I'm not too sure what I think at the moment, I have lost a lot around the mouth and the cloud edges could be thinner. I think I will try again and define the mouth some more with a thin strip cut out from the top of the teeth. If it turns out well I will see what I can do next.

CARD SNAKE

CARD SNAKE
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

On reclaimed catfood box card, Gold Acrylic and Black Marker.

I wanted to test this and see what it would look like using different media and a different size. Proportionally it is wrong but still looks quite impressive.

Moleskine 2008 14

Moleskine 2008 14
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

LH: This guy is concerned at the amount of bugs crawling along the floor. Dunno what he is going to do about them though.

RH: A snakey character. He is going to bite his tail only because I couldn't think of anything else to draw at the top of the page.

I really like the snake but at the moment cannot think how to move this forwards. It is a good, simple idea and character, hopefully something will come to me.

London Bookfair Continued

Watch this space.

Moleskine just confirmed that they received the book I sent by DHL, they like it and as thanks they are sending me some free Moleskines.

I will also be receiving some photos of the display at the London Book Fair

My attempt for London Bookfair

On seeing my recent Moleskine scribblings on Flickr a lady called Marsida Shyti from Moleskine got in contact and asked if I would like to send my Moleskine to the company so they could display it at the London Bookfair. Being fairly cynical and unwilling to part with my Moleskine, mainly due to the fact that it wasnt complete I was reluctant to do anything more. After leaving a few mesages on various Flickr groups I found at that others had been asked the same question.

Could this be a hoax? I challenged Marsida and was rewarded with Japan notebook, with folding pages, FREE! And not only that, a return address to Moleskine in Italy with a DHL account number so I could send the completed notebook back FREE OF CHARGE!

I'm afraid that I cheated in the completion of the free notebook, copying pages from my current 'Skine and sticking them into the new one. I did add some other embellishments hoping that this will make the book unique.

I am hoping that my book will be displayed and that peropel will cast their eyes over it but maybe my cynicism and reluctance to part with my true Moleskine will cause me more harm than good.

CARD Character March 2008 2

CARD Character 2
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

From my Moleskine.

Staring eyed..things..waiting...just waiting.
Are they united?

Again, painted on card from a catfood box. These and dishwasher tablet boxes are a great source of heavy card ideal for painting on.

Free Art Friday

The name says it all.

Artists create pieces of art which they then spread around their town, city or neighbourhood in the hope that someone will pick it up and offer it a home.

The main aim is to place soemthing unexpected which will surprice, delight and make the finder feel good and maybe just to challenge the publics perception a little bit. A lot of the artists recycle materials or use found opbjects with which to embelish.

I have left a few pieces lying around for people to stumble upon, I hope that these found good homes, if not I still think it is a valuable idea as otherwise my home would start to overflow with work

Card Character March 2008

From the idea scribbled in my Moleskine.

Less the clouds, stars and Satellites. I am not sure what the character is doing. Is he crossing my viewpoint? or is he waving goodbye, going off on an adventure heading toward the hills?

He still looks quite jolly and I am sure he will pop up again and make another appearance.

The card is salvaged from A catfood pouch box.

Moleskine 2008 12

Moleskine 2008 12
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

LH: A little character I came up with, just waving at me in his little landscape with stars and satellites passing over his head.

RH: Some head thing with lightning bolts raining down on it. The large scribble was somthing I decided against continuing with.

Moleskine 2008 10 lacking inspiration

Moleskine 2008 10
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

LH: Some kind of tribal Crocodile thing. I whiled away a few minutes on this and the end result is pretty charming.

RH: 'Hairy Ball'. That sums it up really.

Not really the best of my Moleskines' pages not that the rest of the pages are full fledged masterpieces.

Moleskine 2008 8

I decieded to use the squares in my Moleskine. Its not a succesful attempt on either page but could be promising for the futue if I decide to go 'pixel'.

Moleskine 2008 7

The Long legged head is back and devouring those abundant rain drops. The cloud looks unhappy about the situation but wnat can it do? Where is that superhero?

Lots of worms on the other page, I was tired and bored and I just don't like em' I hope that hole hides something nasty for them!

Moleskine 2008 6

Another selection of pages from my Moleskine.

LH: A selection of characters past and present, dredged up from my imagination, the dark flying guy uis one of my favourites. He's kinda like a superhero, kinda.

RH: The dark hero, as I have named him, makes another appearance, saving the life of a raindrop. Its a pity he couldn't save them all, but its a big ask. Obviously, the other raindrops will be a bit miffed as will most of the clouds, even though their responsibility ended at the point of dropping the rain.

This is the first post in ages that I haven't 'blogged' from my Flickr account. Its simpler to blog from Flickr although you do loose control over the labeling and have to edit.

Moleskine 2008 2

Moleskine 2008 2
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Pages from my current Moleskine.
L/H: A bit S&M from an idea about S&M.

R/H: Admiring eyeballs or single eyed sperm? No, I have no idea, Sometimes the pen is is control, othertimes, I have a vague idea and set it down as quickly as possible.

I may go somewhere with the left hand doodle, possibly becuase I have continued the SM theme elsewhere.

Again, the photo is ropey, taken with my camera phone K800i.

Moleskine 2008 1

Moleskine 2008 1
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

I have changed over from the Paperchase pad that I was using previously. Mainly because the Moleskine folds flat and the paper is heavier.

I have already filled 60 or so pages with doodles and ideas and will use Flickr as a repository for the pages.

For my birthday I was given another moleskine, the sketchpad one, with heavy paper so I can use that for colour trials and artworks.

Oh, my PC is having issue at the moment so I am unable to scan, hence the dodgy photo and photos in particular - Blame HP and Gimp !.

Give-Away

Give-Away
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

From the Decorate the homeless shelter group on flickr.com.
Rabbit Dyptych, Makkie The Dino, Slob guy, three freaks and behind those a Hama bead creation.

I have sorted an envelope and they are now on their way.

Stencil Attempt

Attempted stencils 1
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Using my previously made stencils I have made a fairly worrying start. This dismall effort is the result of not liningg up the different stencil forms. I think I will scrounge some more card and make sure that I leave a guide so that I can line the three different stages up. This way I can better assess if I can move forward with this technique.

Assuming that this work pays off I can also utilise screen printing techniques.

Something I just googled is this: www.art-e-zine.co.uk/stentut2.html advising how to make stencils, not too sure if this is the best way, but there is a fair bit of info and should prove fairly useful if I decide to continue down this route

Cardboard Stencil Cutouts

Cardboard Burning Stencil cutouts
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Im going to have a bash at using stencils. Having cut these forms out of a cat food box I am now planning what other material that I need. Firstly Stencil brushes and good old acrylics will be fine to do a few trials then, if confident, I will be moving onto spray paints.

Mr Burning 2nd 7x9

Mr Burning 2nd 7x9 WIP
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

The second Mr Burning-Atomic Robot artwork, completed in record time as well.

I had to control some really strong impulses to splash the colour all over - I normally just have to get something like this done straight away - Its wasnt easy to thin the paints and layer the colour, especially for the sky/background. This has taken all afternoon and I am quiet pleased with the restraint that I have shown.

Like the original I have kept some yellow in the clouds, this is bringing them into the picture a bit more rather than keeping a sterile white, again, layers of colour were built up into the cloud shapes.

I will have to have a think over the atomic robot. Some colour pencil outlines are showing through and this is making me think I should build up layers of shade to pick out the edges.

Next, more 3D cutouts - they won't be on display so quickly this time though.

Cardboard Burnings

Cardboard Burnings
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

(Edited)

Slightly topsy turvey - These 2 Mr Burning Robots were cut out and painted before I started on the canvas, of course, they have more relevance now.

These were made by scavaging card from catfood and dishwasher tablet boxes. Sturdy and able to tale a lot of paint without warping too much, great for trials like these.

I am currently looking for card stock to make some 3D representations of the figure, hopefully when I find some I won't make too much of a mess of things.

Mr Burning 7x9

Mr Burning 7x9
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

I started with the intention of just sketching out ready for a session with acrylics sometime tomorrow but just carried on adding marks until I thought 'sod it' and carried on.
On the plus side this has made a dent in the Faber pencils that I have been 'saving' for 3 or so years.

I will try an acrylic variation and I am also eyeing up some stubby crayons that my two boys are using.

Basically this will be Febuarys project for me, taking my robotic space inavder character and trying to do different things with it. I have already started on some card cutouts which may be used for other projects and will put further work into the 3d/modelling aspect as well.

Glue Book WIP 10 Page 13/14

Glue Book WIP 10
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

The last two pages.

Naff wind effect - again - on page 13 but 14 has come out pretty much as anticipated.

I excpect the cover front and back to be completed very shortly. This will just entail placing block colours and some text.

Hopefully the finished article will be okay.

Glue Book 2008 WIP 9 Page 11/12

Glue Book 2008 WIP 9
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Almost there now.

I had a moment of madness and tried to show a gust of wind with black marker. The cold, hard, light of day shows that it looks a bit naff - I did the same on one of the follwing pages as well...too late to go back over now since I randomly mix paints.

Two more pages to go then I can start thinking about the cover - that will be a big test - and what I am thinking about for that may turn out better than the contents of thsi book!

Glue Book 2008 WIP 8 Pages 7-10

Glue Book 2008 WIP 8
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Page 10 has a glaringly unfinished quality about it. I will be posting another photo of the finished pages and I think it can wait until I do that.

I amy go back through and touch up areas where the black marker is showing through.

Glue Book WIP 7 Pages 5/6

Glue Book WIP 7
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

A bit of a delay on getting this pictures on here, sorry.
pages 5 and 6 - The journey is continuing although their have been some casualties and drop outs.
I like page 5 but page 6 leaves something to be desired. I am going to leave this as it is though rather than work too much on it.

Glue Book 2008 WIP 6

Glue Book 2008 WIP 6
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

The first four pages finished. Still very doodle like, which is what I wanted to achieve. The yellow creatures' journey is important and I wanted to try and translate that as quickly as possible.

There are many 'bare' spaces on these pages and on the pages that will follow. I think this is okay, I like the small creatures being almost lost in a large landscape.

The next two pages will be finished fairly quickly now.

Glue Book 2008 WIP5

Glue Book 2008 WIP5
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Getting there.
These two pages should be completed very shortly so I can move onto the next two. In between paint drying I am defacing another board book ready for something slightly different.

Hopefully this will all come together quite quickly and once completed I will be left with the task of what to do with this.

Glue Book 2008 WIP4

Glue Book 2008 WIP4
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Finally, some colour.
It's a bit rushed but as you will have seen before I am very impatient. The third page also has some colour brushed on so I am starting to get on quite nicely.

I would love to have the patience to mix paints and build up layers, especially when I am using block colours, a streak free finish is the dream but I cannot hold the impulsive compulsiosn in check. I am geting better but I really need to get this done.

Maybe, once I have finished I can start to go all out, plotting , planning and really taking my time on something.

Anyway - the blcok colouring is almost complete on these pages, just need to fill out the clouds. I will go through and block all the pages then add details at the end of this process.

Collaboration Mr.Burning and Silent 2007

Collab with Mr.Burning
Originally uploaded by Silent 2007

An awesome colloboration between myself and silent2007 (of flickr).

Acrylic and black marker over a red/gold background on a ready made canvas board around 7x9". This is my first collaborative effort and I think it is really fantastic Anna (silent 2007) has done a great job and should be well pleased with this.

Glue Book 2008 WIP3

Glue Book 2008 WIP3
Originally uploaded by Mr.Burning

Last 8 frames for my first new Gluebook project of 2008.

As i said before I can cut a couple of frames out since I will only be using sixteen pages so 5 and 6 look like they will be on their way out - I was struggling with these anyway.

It will all make sense when put together.

I am currently struggling with the book itself, the layers of paint I have added are too thin and opaque so I have had to go over with a thicker mixture, which I dont really like doing. I could continue with the thin layers - building up gradually - but I am geting impatient to get this book moving. I have other board books on their way and other ideas crying out to get done.