Website revamp

As you may have noticed the Blog has had a little makeover today. All to coincide with an imminent (small) website makeover intended to freshen up the design a little. Main changes were to make the overall site a little cleaner in design and add new links to this here Blog and to test out a small store page. Both examples of the the new and old versions of the homepage posted for comparison. New website to go live in the next few days :-)

Perfume Cash in.

An interesting brief - to explore the subject of celebrity product endorsements, specifically the vast amounts paid for perfume / scent / fragrance cash ins. Fun doing something much more decorative than usual too, and I'm also quite fond of my grinning celebrity on a stick!

Terry Thomas - CadTastic!

Writing the previous entry reminded of me of one of my favoutite actors when I was growing up, a one Mr Terry Thomas. If I ever saw his name amongst the credits of any film scheduled to be on the TV, I'd always tune in and watch avidly. Even including the really poor movies as I knew his on screen presence as the typically upper class caddish persona he mostly portrayed would lift even the most tawdry of plots.

For the uninitiated (shame on you!), there's a detailed profile and write up at the Terry Thomas fellowship... http://www.terry-thomas.info/. He appeared in many British films, a couple that stick in the memory were 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' which is probably one of his most well known but he seemed to get a little less screen time (than I'd have liked) due to the sprawling cast. One of his movies I particularly like is 'School For Scoundrels' starring the equally talented Ian Carmichael and Alistair Sim. A superb biting satire exploring social position and 'advancement' in life by any means necessary, all studied at the fictional School of One Upmanship. Terry Thomas plays the cad with great aplomb and Ian Carmichael the hapless student who learns to 'out cad' the great Terry Thomas, all under Alistair Sim's guidance. Still makes me smile.

Doctrine

An quick experimental image that came about after playing with a series of one word themes.

Ronald Searle at 90

Just a few drawings, but how do you choose just a few!

One of the artists I admired as a student, encountering his work firstly as a child (unknowingly) when watching the credits of the movie 'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines' and being more fascinated by the credit drawings themselves rather than the film itself - except when Terry Thomas was on screen. Then later as a student at Brighton, where I discovered the sheer variety of work, from the very powerful prisoner of war drawings to the satirical editorial work. At that same time I was also inspired by Ralph Steadman and Gerald's Scarfes work. All you have to do is look at their early drawings to see the debt owed to Mr Searle while they were finding their own drawing language at the beginning of their careers. You can see more at the Ronald Searle tribute blog, at the Chris Beetle Gallery and there's also a Channel 4 News interview with the man himself over at Youtube. Fantastic to see the video of him raising a glass, in good health and still passionate about work.