With 2012 being a new year I thought I would explore more photography this year. Obviously I’m not going to take a picture every day like my drawing project last year but I will definitely put myself out more to take photos. For this I recently created a Flickr page for all my pictures. You can find me at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graphicscove/

Follow me, add me as a friend, track my work or whatever Flickr users do, I would love feedback on my images, I’m not a professional but I would definitely appreciate some constructive criticism. I hope to get some photograph series’ going that I can perhaps post to my blog, but we’ll see what happens.

Below are a couple of images already uploaded to Flickr that have been hiding away on my hard drive for a while, keep an eye out for more soon.

- Steven

2011 has come to a close, and so has my daily drawing project. For those who don’t know, I set out to draw an animal once every day during 2011. This would keep me fresh in continually drawing and allow me to experiment with different styles, media and even the content. While I enjoyed each and every day, sometimes I didn’t have time and the most I could do was a quick squiggle, but even then it opened up new and interesting ways of doing things which I could tackle in the days following when I was less busy. I managed to use a variety of media, from the traditional pencil and paper, to chalk and ink, I even had a day where I drew with just my fingers on the touch screen of an iPhone. Overall the project has helped me to improve my drawing skills and there are a couple of things I want to do this year which has lead on from my daily drawing project, but that’s secret for now

I would definitely recommend a project such as this. It doesn’t have to be drawing, it could be writing a story, or taking a picture, or even a video, the choice is yours. But doing something once a day is a great way to improve yourself and when you put your mind to it you can achieve great things. A whole 365 days non stop of drawing once a day sounded very daunting to begin with but at the end of it I’m glad I pushed on and made it to the end. When I look back at my life one day this will be in one of the things that I really enjoyed and that I’m proud of.

I will get the last drawings posted to my DeviantART project folder in the next couple of days so the collection will be complete. I also have a physical collection too which I’ll need to finish off since I’ve only filed the first 6 months (I ran out of plastic folders for the rest).

Thanks to everyone who followed my project. You can view all my drawings in my DeviantART project folder at: http://graphicscove.deviantart.com/gallery/32582961

- Steven

Above is where we were in the hall, preparing to walk up on stage. Here I am bellow in my graduation robes

And now I am officially a graduate! This is going to be great.

- Steven

This is just a very quick post to let you know I’m still around and that I’ve received my certificate for my BA Hons degree in graphic design which officially means I’m a graphic designer! Well, not until I find a proper job, but it feels great!

Now all I need to do is look for a design studio to work with which would be ace! If you’re looking for a graduate graphic designer to join your team and you like my portfolio get in touch via the contact page, I’d love to hear from you.

- Steven

So I’m taking some time to blog again and reflect on my animal drawing project where I’m drawing one animal every day to improve my drawing skills.

First off I would like to just say the whole project is completely about developing ideas and trying something new. My first two or three drawings of this project were based on really good drawings I’ve done in the past and I felt I didn’t want to just draw the same things in the same style for the whole year. I know I can draw birds and snakes in the styles I know already, but I really wanted to explore and expand my drawing skills.

Over these first 4 months I’ve discovered some really interesting ways of drawing animals. I have even started to incorporate other media that I wouldn’t have previously thought about using. Even colouring pencils I wasn’t too sure about that as I had been so stuck in my ways of a black and white pencil drawing. Now I feel more confident in trying different media and new things. Even if I end up putting up a really bad drawing for that day (of which I have a few) I don’t feel bad about it. It was a trial that went wrong. I could make up all the excuses under the sun why it didn’t turn out right but the best thing I could do would be to pick up on where I think it went wrong and to try and improve that aspect in the next drawing.

Some interesting styles I quite like is drawing as an extension of a ripped picture. We all remember the child books where they asked ‘Draw the other half of the picture’ and it’s a great way to improve your anatomy drawing. Unfortunately I’ve only managed one picture like this on the project so far but with another 8 months left on this project there’s plenty of time to keep trying new things. A second style I really like is what I discovered with my coloured pencil pictures. I feel the crosshatching works really well as not just for shading but for colouring as a whole. It’s definitely a style I want to keep on doing. Lastly I’m really interested in this last style I’m working on using very small and minimal lines to create a full picture in the minds of the viewer. My self proposed animal project at university flowed in this direction and at the end of it I decided to carry on with looking at animals with minimal lines and how animals can blend into their surroundings. I never had time before but as I’m dedicated to this project I have enough time for anything.

Unfortunately there are not 365 different animals I can think of to do a different one every day so there are many duplicate animals in my projects, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While I would like to explore many different animals, sometimes practicing the same animal over and over again makes you better at that animal (Practice makes perfect!). Recently I’ve felt like moving away from large animals and moving to insects instead. This could be interesting so we’ll see how things go!

- Steven

(I was provoked to write this by the following reference, take a look, it’s interesting)
References: Smashing Magazine

A couple of weeks ago we were set our major project at university and so far it’s been going great! For my major project I have chosen to recreate how a plant works and its functions through a stop motion animation using Lego. This was based off my original one minute film where I replicated the human body with Lego bricks.

I have a blog dedicated to my major project (Which I can’t show at the moment) but I’ve been planning and filming quite a bit. I hope to be able to post the final outcome here on Graphics Cove when I complete the project in a few months (An excellent excuse to create a films section in my portfolio!). I will also be adding some of my past creative videos to the site as well so keep a look out.

- Steven

So it’s been a fair number of days since the start of the year when I proposed drawing one picture every day to help improve my skills. For the most part it’s been great, I’ve been able to develop in small ways, learning new techniques to make a piece overall better. Unfortunately there’s a lot I never accounted for when setting myself up for this project.

The second week of the year brought me down with the sickness, not good but I managed a few small sketches, and it seems that’s dragged me into making just small quick sketches. Of course I did say I was aloud to sketch but I feel like I’m forcing myself to do this and it’s just ending up as a quick sketch at the end of the day.

Salvation struck a few days ago when I received a desk! Yes that’s right, I got my own desk! No working off a board or on the floor! (Yes I’m deprived!). I have now set up the table to my laptop remains on one side and I have all my drawing equipment and space on the other. I am therefore making it mandatory for myself to sit down straight after breakfast and draw something. I’ve been leaving my drawings to the end of the day and so far they’re getting worse, not better. I always work better first thing in the morning so this should really help get things moving.

I never thought I’d stumble over something this early on in the project but it’s the little things that swing everything out! I’m over my illness now, all set up and ready to carry on and work harder.

As a final note I will be posting up additional works of art for sale as soon as I work out which server software is suitable for the job. I am not selling any of my project drawings but will be working on others outside of the project. I also take requests if anyone has a particular animal in mind they would like drawn, if you’ve seen a style I’ve done which you would like it in get in contact and I’ll be happy to discuss it further.

There are a couple of other personal projects I will blog about later this month, probably in the next week or two so keep a look out, I’ll be requesting assistance with them since there’s too much I want to do in this life and not enough time! I’d appreciate any help when the time comes but I’ll leave more information with the post.

Thanks for stopping by,
- Steven

I hope you all had a good Christmas and new year but it’s time to get down to business and do I have an exciting project I’m working on! As of yesterday (1st Jan 2011), I have tasked myself with drawing at least one picture a day. Call me mad but I want to do it. The main reason is to improve my skills and have fun at the same time doing what I love to do. I’ve put together it’s own portfolio page under traditional drawing which you can find here: http://www.graphicscove.com/portfolio/traditional-drawing/one-drawing-a-day-2011/ Although I may venture out into other traditional mediums this is where it’s going to stay.

Of course I may not have access to the internet to upload a picture to their every day but I will do one every day and batch upload them when I can.

Already on day 2 and I’m loving this personal project already. Look out for more work every day this year!

- Steven

In an effort to get back into my regular drawing I propose to myself that I will find one of these challenge lists and complete a picture of one word each day. Therefore this personal project should take me 100 days to complete. However I wish to use this as a prompt for me to carry on drawing even past the 100 days. Since I would have been doing it for so long I hope it would be part of my every day life after that time.

Obviously I have time constraints and wont be able to produce my best work like the bits in my gallery every day. So depending on my current workload I will do anything from a sketch style to the detailed drawings I do. Even a very simple drawing will provide me with practice to hopefully push me to my final goal.

As of now I don’t know when I will start. Maybe on the first of the new year, or before that if I feel the need. I will keep you all posted and leave the challenge list in a blog post when I have it.

- Steven

I recently posted here that I would be redesigning the site this month. Unfortunately since creating the site from scratch screwed the system I had to upload the site completely from my local development folder in order for it to work. Needless to say anything I did in the last couple of days was lost, but no matter.

Graphics Cove has been updated from the very core and I’m pleased with its outcome after nearly a month of work. If you would like to read more on the project take a look here: http://www.graphicscove.com/portfolio/webdesign/graphics-cove-redesign/

Currently I’m still updating the portfolio so please bare with me for the moment as I get that all in order.

- Steven,