Half a Century of Superstars

Well, I've done it! This is my final piece of all 43 men to hold the WWE Championship since its inception fifty years ago. I am very proud of this piece, and I think that all the differences in the characters and their appearances help the piece to stand out. If this piece were to represent me as an illustrator at the PCA Summer Show, I would be very proud.

Wrestling-themed Project

Over the past few years during the development of my artistic identity, I have become known for certain elements and traits in my work. One of the biggest traits is the use of my personal interests to produce ideas for pieces, including music, cartoons and humour, but I have never used my interest in professional wrestling as a creative influence in the past. At the same time, there aren't many other known illustrators that have produced wrestling-related briefs either. To quote one of my biggest influences in my artistic research, Rob Schamberger, "I felt that no artist had ever really approached this subject matter with any serious intent."(Source: http://robschamberger.com/wrestling-champions/)

For this project, I wanted to go all out because it's a part of my Final Major Project at Plymouth College of Art, so I've decided to produce a project depicting a history of the WWE Championship. Over the past fifty years, forty-three different people have held the WWE Championship and I plan on producing a possible poster design that features, yes, every single one of them.

Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Rock to Pedro Morales, Stan Stasiak, Ivan Koloff and even Vince McMahon himself.

I plan on uploading pictures of every single character here, so once again, watch this space!

Looking Professional

There are many benefits to spending nearly six years at an art college. One of the biggest, if not THE biggest benefit, is the different amount of people I have met studying different creative fields. A very good friend of mine, Lorien Matthews, is currently studying her 2nd year in Photography and, as part of her Work Based Learning, wanted to take photos of people connecting to their professional practices. I'm currently studying my Final Major Project, and one of the requirements is to think about self-promotion techniques post-degree. I thought it'd work really well to have some professional pictures of me and/or a piece of my work that I could use for this blog, my Facebook page and perhaps a new updated website.

After a range of shoots, in which I struggled to keep a straight face - I'm really NOT a serious person - I selected some of my favourite photos that Lorien took and she has just sent me the finished pieces, and I am VERY happy. So, without further ado... Ta-da!

Please feel free to check out Lorien's work:

Website: http://www.lorienmatthewsphotography.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LorienMatthewsPhotography/

Tumblr: http://l-a-m-photography.tumblr.com/

She's a damn good photographer, especially if she can make MY ugly mug look professional!

Projects in the Pipeline

Happy belated New Year to everyone!

Currently working on a number of self-initiated projects, some of which have potential to be strong poster designs, and working on this year's Puffin Children's Prize - The Wind In The Willows!

Also, I've produced a piece for this year's Design Against Fur Fashion brief, and will upload an image over the next few days.

Watch this space!

Army of Caterpillars

Apologies for the delay since my last post, folks. This is a recent piece produced for an animal project based on collective nouns, my chosen noun being an 'army of caterpillars'. I was inspired by the thought of a repeated image style, and would like to think there's potential for this to be used in mousepads and other products that could possibly be sold at the Summer Show, or possibly New Designers next year.

Rex Pistols

This is another final piece of mine from my Final Major Project, and it's one of the ones I'm the most proud of. I think it's worked out really well, there's a strong punk theme throughout the entire image and I'm proud of the how dinosaurs have turned out.

Bald Eagle

This is another piece of work I created for my Visual Pun theme for my Final Major Project. It's the idea of a self-conscious sensitive bald eagle in denial about his lack of hair.