The Cordyceps Plague of Middle England, 1886. - Part 1

Fig 1.

I saw the programme Planet Earth on BBC1 a while back and was struck by these strange organisms named Cordyceps. These are a type of fungus that invade the body of an unfortunate living host and develop inside them. The utterly bizarre thing being that the organisms then kill the creature and break free by changing the behaviour of the host for its own benefit. The clip below shows a doomed ant forced to climb high into a tree to gain the best point for photosynthesis, where the Cordyceps then reveals itself. Pretty grim but fascinating at the same time. 

I know the idea has been explored that humans and animals could become infected with the same fungus, and I was inspired to create a series of images. This project is going to be a set of images inspired by Victorian medical textbooks, suggesting that there was an outbreak in Victorian England. 

I know that this will be an enjoyable project that I hope will look visually stunning :). I will be using found images from bric-a-brac shops to create these collages, so let the rummaging begin! 

Screen-cap from BBC1's Planet Earth

A is for Ankle

Hello Sunday (or blog day as it seems to have become!),

I have had a lovely weekend back home in Essex visiting museums and family. Was a welcome little change of scenery but it is good to be back in our little place by the sea. Dare I say it but I actually missed the shrieking seagulls in the morning! 

So the other week I was asked to create an image for a new zine. All I was told was that the theme was the letter 'A'. So I did a little brainstorming... and then some more... what do you do when a topic is so broad?! 

At university I often struggled with knowing I had to do something when it was allowed to be pretty much anything. At first this freedom feels great, after growing up being told precisely what to do by teachers, bosses or parents. I have found that not having any sort of restraints sends me in excited circles like a caged animal released into the wild (haha). So I give myself a box to work in and for this task I decided to focus in on the shoe shop where I work part time. Leading me the idea to focus in on a part of the body so often overlooked. The ankle. 

I have defined this by using the pattern of the sock to highlight my chosen feature subtly leaving the viewer to fathom the 'A' in the image. It's far more fun to be subliminal! 

This image was drawn by hand before being coloured digitally. My reference was an image from the wonderful blog They Call Me Redhead. 

Long Hair Cut Short.

Shock horror! Or hooray?

To those who know me, my hair was always my most distinguishable feature. I would get comments and questions on a daily basis about how long it was, how long I took to wash it and (bizarrely) if it got in the way when I went to the toilet. So yes, I have had very very long hair for as long as I can remember and it had always been hanging down the sides of my face, covering my back like some sort of security blanket.

Until last weekend when I cut it! Off!

The final straw came this winter when I couldn't wear a scarf without ending up with a matted nest at the back of my neck. Then having to spend half an hour trying to carefully tease the knots out every evening. Only to wake up in the morning and de-tangle it all over again!

I had fallen out of love with it completely. In fact more often than not I felt me and my barnet were at war with each other. It had been a long time coming, but I was totally chicken. The day I got it cut I was a ball of nerves, but as soon as the scissors sliced through the first section I felt fine. It didn't hurt, in fact it was extremely liberating. I walked out of the hairdressers suddenly feeling more confident, realising my hair represented a person I no longer was. It had been there throughout relationships, heartbreak,  university, teenage years, mistakes and awkward steps into adulthood. Now at 25 it was time to look towards the new.

I found the best local hair dresser I could by reading as many reviews as possible and settled upon Cuttlefish in Brighton's North Laines. Apart from the fact it was oozing cool from every orifice (my hairdresser looked like Robert Smith) with very good music taste, they did a very good haircut!

Happy Sunday!

Knot Rhyme.

Right over left and left over right,

Makes the knot neat and tidy and tight.

-Unknown Author

Original pencil drawing. I am really torn between each one!

A Stopgap and the Start of Something New.

Hello!

I come to you from what feels like the bottom of a big hill. These last three months in Brighton have taught me three things; the sound of the sea dissolves woes, hard times are hard and to make most of absolutely any situation. Although we have next to no money I really couldn't be happier and somehow I feel like we are finally getting somewhere. My only escape from the tiny little bedsit we call home is creating, dreaming and japanese food.

A Stopgap and the Start Of Something New

This is edited from the sketchbook that kept me going through the summer, I feel like we are looking through a window to the real world going by, but yet to really run along with it. This following image is our means to an end, the bedsit we share and will remember forever for it's miniature size and our big adventures.

New Beginnings

Friends Will Get Us Through

Hello!

To say the last two months has been eventful is a little bit of an understatement! I am writing this from my new place in Brighton just a few meters down the road from the good ol' English Channel. Moving always creates creative upset so I haven't been posting of late, but now I am settled in my new surroundings I am chomping at the bit to get going! University is officially through as I had my graduation on Friday which was inevitably enjoyable although tinged with sadness.  There are many that I will miss! 

The above illustration is part of a new series I am working on that will probably be loosely influenced by my new surroundings and experiences. I wanted to convey happiness, warmth and reassurance through my choice of material and colour.... I also think this image contains a definite subconscious nod to the abundance of facial hair in this town! 

Kookoovaya

Hello all!

I have recently done an album cover for the excellent Kookoovaya's first EP, Heart Box. Visit their Soundcloud > Here.

I mainly used vintage photography from an old flower arranging book, I love the bizarre quality that black and white film photography gives to flowers! My starting point for the wooden heart idea began by the organic feel they have encompassed in their music.

…. and that concludes the end of my degree too! Watch out for me at the Maidstone UCA stand of D+AD New Blood exhibition in Brick Lane, London. It is an amazing show full of brand new talent and is worth a visit for sure! 

A One.

An experimental illustration made for my own amusement. He is the only one. 

I am extremely excited to graduate in two months and do more of my own thing! Watch this space.

New.

A couple of rough new images. I am going to be illustrating the book "Cider With Rosie", an autobiographical story by Laurie Lee set in the cotswolds in the 1920's. In its very early stages my project looks like this….

Untitled.

An image I made when I was a little down last month. I think its kind of interesting, so here it is. Its based loosely around the notion of having far too many commitments and the stress caused by that. 

A Wallpaper Life

Final few images from my recent book about Ian Curtis; Why Is The Bedroom So Cold?. Was happy with the way it turned out but I am very eager to move onto my next project. I will post some pictures of the physical book soon. 

Its all boiling over.

Evening,

I am nearly done with this project and the stress is getting to a little too much. I hope all the (literal) blood, sweat and tears are going to be worth it when I print the book on Friday. It has been an awful few weeks with stress and being the victim of fraud but I have a feeling things are going to start getting better for me very soon!

Here are a few of my final images.

I hope everyone who is reading this had a wonderful christmas and new year, I certainly did despite my rotten luck :)

Album Cover Designs

I created individual playlists for my family as Christmas presents and created this very quick CD covers for each. It was a perfect excuse to use some of the photographs from my 1947 flower arranging book. I find the black and white photographs of flowers so atmospheric and unusual and they cry out to be used in collages!

When Routine Bites Hard.

Deborah refuses to understand that Ian is a jealous and controlling lover, and submits herself totally.

From my ongoing project: Why Is The Bedroom So Cold? About the relationship between the late Ian Curtis and wife Deborah.

My bed seems too big tonight.

I find myself alone for the night. My mind keeps me awake with its poisonous thoughts.

New illustration. Not sure what to make of it as it is so far from how I usually work. Which is both refreshing and scary.

Debbie and Ian

In fear every day, every evening,

He calls her aloud from above,

Carefully watched for a reason,

Painstaking devotion and love,

Surrendered to self preservation,

From others who care for themselves.

A blindness that touches perfection,

But hurts just like anything else.

-Ian Curtis

New image created at one in the morning thanks to my old friend insomnia. For my ongoing project about Ian Curtis called Why Is The Bedroom So Cold? It depicts his wife Debbie comforting Ian after an epileptic fit brought on by over indulging in wine, drugs and other women...

Typographic Experaments

It was time to play around with text… and this was the result! The text used was from a poem/lyrics by Ian Curtis. 

STILL

When you're looking at life,

In a strange new room,

Maybe drowning soon,

Is this the start of it all?,

Turn on your TV,

Turn down your pulse,

Turn away from it all,

It's all getting too much.

When you're looking at life,

Deciphering scars,

Just who fooled who,

Sit still in their cars,

The lights look bright,

When you reach outside,

Time for one last ride,

Before the end of it all.

September

September was a month of moving and reality checks…

My new bedroom has a cozy corner!

This is Sebastian. Hello

Gotta love flying.

Gotta love smiling.

A mini show one week into being back at uni. Slave drivers.

October sun in my new garden.

Swing in the sun.

Bambi

When I first read the 1929 novel ‘Bambi’ by Felix Salten, a flurry of images streamed through my mind. I was moved by the poetic and atmospheric world the author creates, where creatures rule the forest and live in fear of a mysterious creature they only know as ‘He’.

I chose not to include any deer in my final, as early on in the project I found myself in a rut of drawing deer repeatedly, which I easily became tiered of. I decided to cut deer from the illustrations all together and concentrate on depicting the atmosphere of select events in the book in order to create a narrative.


I chose to work mainly in monotone colours as this suited the atmosphere of the story perfectly, a few of the images have spot colouring of red to give a sense of heightened danger. Here are a few images from my final work:

Birth

“He came into the world in the middle of the thicket, in one of those little, hidden forest glades which seem to be entirely open, but are really screened in on all sides.”

Meadow

"Now he saw the whole heaven stretching far and wide and he rejoiced without knowing why. In the forest he had only seen a stray sunbeam now and then, or the tender, dappled light that played through the branches. Suddenly he was standing in the blinding hot sunlight whose boundless power was beaming upon him."

Storm

"When the raging storm broke through the woods so that the trees began to groan aloud, Bambi trembled with terror. And when the lightning flashed and the thunder growled, Bambi was numb with fear and thought the end of the world had come."

Hunter

"Bambi stared at the creature. It stood remarkably erect. It was extremely thin and had a pale face, entirely bare around the nose and the eyes. A kind of dread emanated from that face, a cold terror. That face had tremendous power over him. It was unbearably painful to look at that face and yet Bambi stood staring fixedly at it."

Winter

"Bambi knew that want and hardship had come. He saw how much the rain and wind had changed the world. There was no longer a leaf on tree or bush. But all stood there as though, violated, their bodies naked for all to see. And they lifted their bare brown limbs to the sky for pity."

Hunt

"All sorts of creatures were swarming past. The air was throbbing with repeated thunderclaps and the dull thuds of the fallen and the high piercing shrieks of those who had escaped."

 

Wounded

"Bambi felt a fearful blow that made him stagger. 

Mad with terror, he sprang back into the thicket and kept running. He did not understand what had happened. He could not grasp a single idea. He could only keep running on and on. Fear gripped his heart so that his breath failed as he rushed blindly on."

Fatal

"Bambi looked down at the prostrate form whose limbs and skin seemed so mysterious and terrible to him. He gazed at the dead eyes that stared up sightlessly at him. Bambi couldn’t understand it all. "