My YCN Online Contest Entries

So about a month ago, I entered a contest for YCN Online. I think it's obvious by now that i haven't won, so I think it's safe to post the entries I submitted online.

The brief I chose was to design some Xmas cards for the ICA museum in London. The designs had to be modern, but I wanted a sense of tradition in there too. So my idea was to draw out a scene for 4 cards, each one that looked traditional at first, but all had a quirky twist.
I drew the backgrounds in Illustrator to give the 'modern' look, and hand drew the characters, inked them in and painted over them before scanning them in and adding them to the scene.
And just to be a ponce about it, I gave them all names!


'Swapping Snowmen'


'That Time of Year Again'


'It's Gonna Be A Long Xmas'


'The Owl and the Night'

'Here it Goes'

The final picture from the 'music' series...for now, at least.
One of my favourite bands of all time is Jimmy Eat World, and there's an amazing song on their 'Chase This Light' album called 'Here It Goes', so that's what this is for!
The song's about being alienated by fame, but there's a line in the song that goes 'Robots might say your name, they only light the stage, nothing there to prove'- so this picture shows one of those robots admiring a band, hoping to aspire to be them.

New Header/Vampire Monkey

So, you may have noticed that I changed the header. That's because I want to make my name clearer whenever people visit this page.
So i've added the picture that was here before to this post. For those who missed the description the first time around, the Vampire Monkey thing was an idea for a potential cartoon about a monkey called Boris....who's a vampire, and lives in a castle with his sister Anika, and their pet furball, Epie. They live in a town full of monster/animal hybrids.

'Girls'

Following on with the music pictures, this is based on a Kids in Glass Houses song called 'Girls', which is my favourite of theirs, although i despise the fact it was used as the theme tune for 'Totally Calum Best.
Anyway, the song doesn't favour women too well, so this picture shows 2 of them domineering a poor man!

'The Sharpest Lives'

It's been a really long time since I painted a whole picture on one page, but even so, i had to make some alterations in Photoshop when i realised i missed a whole lot of stuff!

A few months ago, I came up with some ideas to take my favourite songs and turn them into pictures. This is the only one i've done so far 'cos i had my internship to deal with!
It's based on a My Chemical Romance song called 'The Sharpest Lives', where a mid-twenties female is looking back at her childhood with lament.

My Bloody Valentine Picture

No, not the film. I will only ever see that when my brain gets removed. Through my nose. With a pickaxe.

Anyway, this is the Animal Case Studies tribute to Valentine's Day. I don't like the day as i receive fewer cards than Bin Laden might've done, but out of all the Saint days, this is my favourite concept.

Valentine was a priest who performed Christian marriages in his town when Christianity was declared illegal. He was killed when he was discovered marrying young couples and tried to convert the Emperor who banned Christianity.
We now celebrate his honor by manufacturing tacky toys with cheap meaning that we buy for our loved ones because we are pressured into doing so by either the industry or said loved one. We have sold out on love and replaced it with a cheap substitute being held by a toy bear and stitched on a cushion.

And i have jumped on the bandwagon;

New Header

Hi, peeps!
This is just a quick note to say that i've finally added a proper header to my blog, to properly emphasis the 'Vampire Monkey' name!

There's actually a short story behind the name, and the drawings. Eagle eyed people will notice that 'vampire monkey' is in my email address, which actually came first.
The name gave me an idea for a cartoon, about 2 brother and sister monkeys, both of whom are vampires, who reside in a town of freak animals (zombies, superheroes, frankenstein-like hybrids etc) with their pet hairball, Eppie (see pic).
It's at this point i would like to point out that this counts as a form of copyright.

Anyhoo, the main story is that Boris, the brother and main character, wants to make it as an entertainer, preferably a magician, and goes through the series trying to find his talent and dream job.
His sister, Anika/Karina, often tries to help out, often being an assistant in his acts.

Seriously, MY idea!

Tribute to...Eric Carle

Right, this is the last of the 'Tributes' series, and this was the only one where the person in the picture asked to be done in a certain style.
Katie wants to go into designing children's books, so it's not a surprise that she asked me to do her in the style of Eric Carle, the guy best well known for 'The Hungry Caterpillar'.
I'm not sure I did him any justice, but i gave it a try (sorry it took so long, Katie!)

ERIC CARLE (featuring Katie);

Don't Panic poster- 'Luck'

This was the first poster i ever submitted to a Don't Panic contest, and I think it still remains as my favourite, aesthetically speaking anyway.
To show the theme of 'luck', I have gathered 3 icons of luck with their own lucky charms (the rabbit's foot, a 4 leaf clover and lucky pennies);

Don't Panic poster- 'Peace'

Yet another entry for Don't Panic, this time for 'peace'.
I chose to draw a dead/wounded dove dressed in a war uniform, but i put him in a spotlight to emphasise the cruelty of war, and the lack of peace within (the spotlight also reveals the red sky war).
If you look carefully in the black background, there are words to a poem. It's called 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, and is a significant WW1 poem;

Tribute to...Andy Warhol

I learned about Warhol back in 6th form, and that led me to learn about the Pop art scene.

ANDY WARHOL (featuring Ceri)

Mary Jane's Picnic

Not too long ago, I submitted some images that i hand drew to an illustration competition. Unfortunately, i didn't win, or even get shortlisted.
I drew a series of pictures called Mary Jane's Picnic, which portrays a 6 year old girl, Mary-Jane, whose toys keep killing themselves. It's an idea about exposing childhood ideas that your toys are alive, but how do they feel when you move on to another toy? Can they handle not being the favourite? Do they have feelings at all?
(note how each toy is alive in one picture, but dead in the next one).

I drew 7 images, coloured them in with marker pens and paints,all in black, white, grey and red (for contrast) and submitted 4 of them to the contest.

Teddy hangs himself

Kitty ties herself to tracks

Kangaroo shoots herself

Froggy jumps off a tower

Piggy drowns himself

Giraffe decapitates himself

Lion gasses himself

And finally, a group shot!

Basia Bulat

Back in February, I was shortlisted for a competition called The Ffres Awards. It's a student design contest held in Wales (i studied at the University of Wales, Newport) and my class was given a brief to complete in order to submit it to the Awards.

The brief was to redesign album artwork for a singer/songwriter called Basia Bulat, and produce 2 pieces of merchandise.

Because the lyrics were very deep, I chose to create a surrealist scene, with items made up of objects found in the lyrics, turning metaphors into a scene.
Her music was also described as a breath of fresh air, so i made the front cover bleak and depressing so that you'd open up the inside to reveal a happy, sunny scene!