Toys Toys Toys

This summer having a bit of time on my hands from been made redundant I thought I would do a couple of custom designer art toys. 8" Munny with Dunny ears and a couple of the new animal custom toys brought out by Kidrobot.

Winter Blues 2011

Been a long time since I have posted anything for DP so I'm kicking off with one of the latest art shows that I took part it. The show was at The Egg Cafe gallery in Liverpool. For this show I submitted two pieces that I did during the summer before. I thought i would dive in to the world of abstract art. I wanted to create a visual piece with out using a brush.

I would get the paper or the canvas I was using and spread layers of paint on them. I would take a screen printing swiper and swipe layers of paint away. I would use acrylic paints but I would also make my own medium of paint by watering down liquid latex and then add certain inks and tea. I came out with some amazing colours.

The show it self went really well. There was a big turn out and a lot of people to speak to. This was the first show that I attended by myself and not know any one. The two pieces were Matterhorn's Campfire (image above) and Largeman's abyss (Image below). Named after a book and a film.

I wrote what happened on my tumblr at the show : -

Last Thursday (24th November) was the opening night for the Winter blues art show. Tho this would of been the 4th art show I would of been in this year, it’ll be the first one that I would of bothered to attended to. Not that the other shows where not worth going to, I just had other things on the nights that they were opening on. So with this in mind I sent out the word about the show and tried to form a band of people to go with. But it seems they where all busy or they did the cool kid Hollywood thing of “get your people to call my people.” Bunch of phonies getting worse each day. Determined to go I set out in to the windy night armed with a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Hoped on the Liverpool train. Normally this ride is full of noisy people or theres at least one drunk. Tonight tho it was like a ghost train. No one in my carriage. Gave me time tho to start my book.

I arrived at the show a bit late. 15 Minutes, my thought was I don’t want to get there on the dot and no one else be there. Out side the building there was a couple smoking. “Well at least people turned up” I said in my head. Nothing worse then no one to turn up to a show that your part off. Climbed the spiral stair case the top floor where the show was taking part. I open the door and walk through.

I was greeted with a room full of people. Bit of a mixture of panic and excitement. What caught my eye tho was a woman pointing at a wall of paintings and been in a bit of a state. To make her worse she dropped her Iphone and cracked the glass screen. I seated myself a couple of tables down and sat in the middle of one of the big tables. Thought this way I could here what was going on with the woman but also I could over hear what other people thought about the show. After ordering some food and get a cup of tea in I came back to my seat and opened my book up again. But the woman was still going on. After doing a bit of ease dropping I over heard why she was going on to her husband. She was another artist taking part in the show. She had a problem with that her paintings had been split up on the wall which they were displayed on. Another painting had been put up in-between hers. I looked up and staring at the painting that had split hers up. It was one of mine. This actually made my night. Not that I’m a bad person… well I hope that I don’t come across as one but I thought “At least one of my paintings has made a impression on some one, good or bad I’ll take it.” At this point I was smirking away.

Food came and I was trying to do the hipster look of reading a old school sci-fi book whilst eating food and not giving a dam what other people thought of me. In my head I pulled it off. Finishing my food I had a walk around to see the other pieces of art in the show. I tend to get to be a critical bastard when it comes to other peoples art work. If it doesn’t interest me at all I’ll over look it or just think nothing of it. I guess thats a bastard thing to do and not in the spirit of things but what can you do? Some one who I did like was a piece by Hazel Mutch. She had painted blades of grass with inks. Impressed that she had used inks to a great effect. I have tried in the past countless times to use ink in my work. I just can’t seem to get blends right. So kudos to you I thought.

I never know how much to price my art work. With me still been a struggling artist still trying to make a name for myself you can’t really charge much for your paintings. If the painting is good enough people will pay. Well that’s what I’m told. Having a look around there was prints of peoples work. Nothing wrong with this but I always think you could put the original up for show but then have a note to say “prints on sale not original”. The prices that these people wanted tho was going in to the £££. So ridiculous to think your going to get that money for a print at a small art show. My paintings are only going for £50/60 each. I have only paid £95 for a Sam Flores print once, who is a well known artist in L.A. All other prints were around £40-60, but it’s there call on the price.

I returned to my seat and ordered another pot of tea. After sitting of for a while I over heard a woman say “Zephyrbaby thats a fancy name.” I tend not to say who I am when people mention me. I like to see what they say about me not knowing who I was. It seems for this show people enjoyed one of my paintings more then the other. I only entered two for this show. Largeman’s Abyss and Matterhorn Campfire. Largeman’s Abyss was named after the film “Garden state”. While Matterhorn Campfire was named after a chapter in the book “Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac. Matterhorn Campfire was the one pulling in the most people. I decided to get up and hover around it. There was other paintings near it so I decided to have a close look at them. What I could hear people liked the colours used and how it seemed to be painted (it was put in the description that i hadn’t used a brush and i guess people were trying to guess what i had used instead). I went over to the organisers of the show to have a chat. They said that my painting has got some good comments about it. I was pleased with this.. well who wouldn’t.

I finished off my cup of tea and decided to call it a night. Pretty successful I thought. Good comments and good food. Got the train back then called a taxi at the station for home. By this time the heavens had opened up and the walk home didn’t look to inviting.

19th March 2011

So its been a while any of the Dead pheasant crew have posted any thing and i guess thats because either we're all busy at work or blogger has decided to delete us as users so just to bring this post I had to reassign up to blogger. I don't know why this has happened but for a wild guess I could say we're not on it 24/7 so Google decided to start deleting users.

Work on White Western Eagle (solo project) Is still going on. I'm trying to master a art at the moment to give it a unique look. Its got many names but i picked it up with the name "Grey Toning." Its when you draw on a white surface but use different warmths and tones of grey to high light and shadow to bring out in the drawing.

I picked this technique up from a concept artist "Doug Chiang." He's worked on some big movies including Star Wars prequels, The polar express, Beowolf. He also wrote and illustrated the book "Robota." To me this technique is a brilliant way to bring your drawings to life but it does take time and work to get use to.

As you can see I have started using the style in sketches in my sketch books. I found it useful to use white paint to highlight areas that light would be.

What else have a I been up to? I guess I will start with my art swap with a art collector/ artist "Acrylic Pixie " Inga from Latvia.

We agreed that instead just sending one piece we will swap a package full of paintings and illustrations. I was pretty stuck on what to give her but as Inga has followed my work for a number of years now I had an idea of the things she liked and wanted.

I started with work I already had and I knew she wanted. I gave her my Scott Pilgrim paintings. Tho these were originals and I could of given her prints but to be honest I thought it was nicer to give her the originals as they were going to good home.

I then painted up a House of Lei vinyl toy for her. Only a basic design, didn't have time to think up a new design for the custom.

I then had a few prints of work that i did a couple of years ago on glossy premium paper. These were from my uni days. I gave her a selection of them.

Final pieces is in a style that I'm currently trying to master. The art of using Grey tones on white pieces with colour layed inks. These were my first pieces that i had tried using this technique but I think they had turned out well.

A couple days later of me sending my package off to Latvia I received this package in the post. It was my package from Inga. She has a lovely style for her drawings. My favorite piece that she sent me was a valentines card with a skull (picture above).

If any one else would like to do a art swap any time I'm always open to one. Just ask and I will see what i can do.

This was a flyer for the Winters Blue 5 Show that i was in December. I didn't sell my pieces but a lot of people said they liked my style and what I had to show. So its all good.

On other news I left the community art website Deviant Art. I actually decided this a long time. Tho i have a lot of watchers and followers I wasn't feeling it no more. If you don't draw manga or whore yourself out just to get views on your profile or anything like that you won't get the views on your art work that is needed to stay at the top. So I left, no regrets or anything.

But I did set up a Tumblr page. www.zephyrbaby.tumblr.com

I went with the minimal look, so no bright lights or any thing like that. Just plain and simple. My art work and my life style. What I do day to day. I'm updating it regularly on what I do during days and my art work. At the moment its going to be work on White Western Eagle but as well the trips I take. But please go check it out, as there are alot more images of my work that I have done lately. Blogger has a limit on what I can post.

On things to come? Well I have a trip next week to Nottingham. Going to see some art around the city but also going to party with some friends. A long deserved break I can tell you. As well I'm thinking of going to Switzerland in June for a art festival " Art Basel" 2011. It looks very interesting and with one just in Miami just gone you can't go wrong.

http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/

Anyway thats it more or less in a nut shell. More details on what i have done since December can be found on www.zephyrbaby.tumblr.com

JR aka Zephyrbaby

Time to Introduce myself

Zephyrbaby

So I've put this off as long as possible so the time as came to introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Robertson but if you ever come across any of my art work or films they would be labelled to Zephyrbaby. So I thought I'll so you some of my work but instead of just listing all my work for the last 5 years and competition work, thought I would show some work that got me somewhere in the last couple of years. This either work that has got me work or it has been shown at shows. Little bit of information on myself. By trade I'm a animator /Concept designer. I got my degree in animation and film but I was more in to the design back ground story then the finish product. I use to have the problem spending too much time on the back story and script then leaving enough time to draw up the animation it self, but this wasn't a bad thing. Because of this my design work improved to the point I was designing t-shirts for people in university. This is how I started to pursue as a designer after leaving university. At the moment I work as a designer at a surf company but I also work free lance for companies designing a range of products. This maybe clothing all the way coming up for conception images for up forth coming films or comics. Lets get this show started shall we?

White Western Eagle

The first set of images I have been working on for the last 3 years. The title of this project is called White Western Eagle. Its had many names in the past but this is one that I have settled on. I came up with this idea in the last year of university. It started as a small idea then it rapidly got out of hand. I remember pitching this idea to the animation tutors, film studies tutor and graphic design tutor. The first thing that left the mouth of the graphic design tutor was "I don't get it..." but to be honest I had no idea why she was there? The other tutors were really concerned that I was taking on too much understanding my pitch. Sadly it was not to be they wanted me to do something else. I agreed but kept this going. At first I had planned this to be a computer game. Realising that this is a big task by myself the easiest way to get it out to the public was to make it in to a Indie game... only problem I don't know how to program or make a computer game. With no real money I wasn't able to pay anybody to help me out. So I took on the task of it been a animated film.... so what is it about?

Well I will not be telling the storyline yet. But do keep watch on Dead Pheasant facebook page and on this page as I will be keeping updates. Hopefully I will be showing my 30 second trailer at the next Bradford Film festival. But until then here are some images of paintings and illustrations from my design work

Mother Nature

Mother Nature was the side project that started it all for me in the design world. I started Mother Nature in my spare time. All I set out to do was to design a couple of hoodies and a couple of T-shirts. I got one made up and wore it about and then before I knew it everyone wanted one from me. I went on to design a collection of Snowboards to go with the textiles. In all I designed a collection of 24 t-shirts and 24 hooded sweat shirts. As a side project Mother Nature is one of my success stories. With getting orders from all round the world I'm really happy. In 2009 I took a trip to New York. I decided to get 10 books of the Mother Nature collection in side them. I left them all around the city. Times square, Central park, Kid Robot NY, Forbidden Planet all over. I left my email address on the back if anybody wanted to see more work. As well there was links to my online portfolios. Two months pass by then I get an email. Somebody found one of my books out side the Kid Robot store and wanted to know if I was interested to take part in a textiles show in London? With emailing back and forth I sent four images to be in the show. The show was only on for a week but it was a start. From this one connection I found out about Jotta.com. Jotta (use to be named Fifzine) is a website that allows up forth coming artists in any field set up a online portfolio and show off their work. From this website companies post job vacancies and work experience placements. So its really useful to know about.

Zine fairs

I'm new to the zine fair scene. I can't say much as I have only done one. It was held at Preston university. At first I didn't get the idea of a zine. To me it was a copy of some ones sketch book and people would pay money to buy books of sketches. At first I thought this was stupid but after looking at a couple that my friend had made or collected in the past I was on board with it. I set out to get prints of some off my best drawings and digital work. I drew up 100 hand made stickers each one different. On the day though I didn't sell much only 1 print of some digital work and she only liked it because I had drew on the back off it. Its the experience that counts I guess.

Designer Toys

I'm a big collector of designer vinyl toys. A lot of them are from the company Kid Robot, been Munny's, Dunny's Tricky's and Raffy's. But I have get a lot of inspiration from these pieces of art work. I normally find new artists through them. Some big artists I have found through years of collecting is Jeff Soto, Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Mode 2, and Ashley Wood. Any work from these artist will give any one inspiration. From collecting these toys it makes you think of different ways to design something. I use to be all about digital work and pen drawings. But last couple of years I have started to paint more with acrylics and inks. Not just on paper too. Canvas, wood tiles are just some things have done work on before.

After looking at the company Kid Robot I have discovered other companies and places to gain information inspiration in my work. I have been featured twice as designer toy custom artist of the month on the website Plastic and Plush. First time was a set of Munny's that I had painted. Second time I had customised one of Flying Fortresses bears from his army. I was mentioned on Vinyl news for the set of Munny's I did as well. Before I move on another company that people should go look in too and buy their magazine is Juxtapoz. This magazine is amazing. It tells you what's happening in the art world.... well the art world that is worth knowing about none of this fine art rubbish. Theres always a good read and a good gander to be looked at in each issue published.

http://www.juxtapoz.com/

http://www.kidrobot.eu/

http://plasticandplush.com/

Animation work

Since leaving university I have not done any animating myself. I have designed and came up with ideas for films but not really taken any action on them. Its not a good sign but that's soon changing with White Western Eagle project. The sad truth if not most but all of my class mates have lost all interest in animation all together and all gone in to other professions. As well doing work experience at companies and the advice they use to tell us was to "Give up university" or " don't bother unless you can deal with not having a animation job for the first 5-10 years of pursuing don't bother at all." So any way here is some work that I did in university. None of it is great I warn you now.

So there you have it. I think its time for me to stop rambling on. Keep an watch out on here and the facebook page for updates from me and all the other guys from Dead Pheasant.

Check out my other pages as well. More Work there from the years.

http://www.jrobbo.deviantart.com/

www.jonathanrobertson.jotta.com

Zephyrbaby's new work

Hello thought I would get this ball rolling and start to post some art work up. All this work is recent stuff that I have done in the last month or two. I try and not limit myself to one format so there's some digital work here and some fine art stuff too. Just a side note on the pieces done on brown paper, they range from 4ft-6ft. They're drawn and painted on massive pieces of paper that I found at work. For my digital work I normally use photoshop or Brushes on my Ipad.

Hopefully I'll post new work up and images of my travels to various art parties and shows that I go to monthly. In the mean time check out my portfolios...

www.JonathanRobertson.jotta.com and www.jrobbo.deviantart.com