Funston Parade: all the fun all the funston!

Funston Parade was my first ever Solo show. It ran from march 2006 to May 2006 at De Montfort Hall in Leicester. While it was on the main show at De Montfort Hall was Cats.
Im currently taking all pictures of my artwork of facebook because of the curfuffle about their rights to images, so I thought I'd put them up on here. there will be more to come.
Funston is not a place. It was rumoured in the press (I managed to a get in mentioned in The Metro, the Leicester Mercury and the Guardians's Guide magazine) that funston is the name of the world my drawings depict, but that is wrong. The things I draw are (unless specifically stated) set in our very own reality. Funston is just one of the words I like to use. I have a note book of drawings from summer 2002 called funston, and Richard Peel used to give me some space for my drawings in the first few issues of the fantastic (and sadly no longer produced) Magic Life zine, these pages where titled Super Funston. The Following images are from Funston Parade, they are all acrylic paint on flattened cardboard boxes, that i got from my old job at HMV (top dog for music, dvd and games). Cardboard is way better than canvas:

Here is a self-portrait. Its me. I did it. It wasn't actually a study using a mirror, I did it using a picture I found inside of my head. Pretty much all of Funston Parade was not drawn from life and came out of my head. It started off as a painting of a rabbit. I didnt fully cover the ears as some people called me Tommy Rabbit at the time I thought it wouldnt hurt. I nearly went for www.tommyrabbit.com for my website. Tommy rabbit is rhyming slang for pomegranite.

This is pretty much the first funston parade painting I actually did. I did it at the Dot Open Studios day in september 2005. Its actually two seperate boxes. It is now the property of a Mr Mark Brown.

This was the first painting I did after I'd been asked by Hugo from Leicester's City Gallery if I'd like to do a show in the space. Thanks Hugo. Hugo is a very nice guy. I got the news just before Christmas and it made me very happy. I'd actually failed to get some of them in the city gallery's annual open exhibition, but failed. While they were in the process of being denied entrance Hugo saw them. I didn't get into the open exhibition but got a solo show instead. Hooray!

This guy is one of my favourites, and its also one of the biggest paintings it was based on a sketchbook drawing I'd done in 2003 see below


This is my favourite Funston Parade painting, and it currently hangs in my livingroom. Its called Log, which is the name of the main guy. The background is based on the background of the Mona Lisa by an artist called Leonardo Da Vinci (see below). When I was doing my A levels we had to do a portrait painting about a famous painter, I spent ages recreating the background from the mona lisa to go behind Da Vinci (I made his face in 3d relief and painted the body, I remember it being quite good especually one of the hands but I think my memory of it is rose tinted). Ever since ive been really fond of the background hence my using of it here.
Da Vinci was popular in the old days for doing paintings and pretending to invent stuff like tanks and the helicopter. His work is still popular today despite being old fashioned and religious. Splinter named the turtle, Leonardo, after him. Da Vinci placed clues about the true history of Jesus Christ in the mona lisa (see the Da Vinci Code by historain Dan Brown)

This one makes me think of russian dolls and world war one. I always felt that people didnt like this one. I entered this one in the 2006 open exhibition. it didnt get in.

This one is nice and pink. I was happy to keep the cardborad box exposed in places and I think it works well on this one.

This ones painted a bit differently from the others. Its a flower head, which i used in one of my second year projects on my Fine Art Ba.


This painting is called Lampy Lamp. This was the painting the showed in the metro. I like it but felt it didnt represent the whole show. Log would have been my choice.


A little guy. This one is abit closer to my drawing style. With these paintings i was trying to connect the drawings I did with the kind of style I used to use in my life paintings. My drawings were always clear and precise. My paintings abit looser. All my paintings are done with the same fairly big brush. Its the only one I like to use.
This ones a bit wierd.
This one I'm still not sure on. It had a really colourful background, but I got rid of it.

Here are the paintings at De Montfort Hall. Hooray!

Finally here is the poster. At the time I put this up all over myspace.

Owls

Here are two quick pictures of owl what I've gone and done. The first one I did was the top more realistic one, I'd looked at some pictures of owls on google before drawing. The second picture was drawn in response to the first.

Me in the Kitchen doing some drawing (Final stages)

Here are the final stages of the picture of me in the kitchen (see last post)In this version I've added colour to me, and have coloured the lines of the sketch, it looked odd with the black lines. Still not happy with the lines though, I think line work will always be better done away from the computer, it always looks too computery.
In this version, which i'm happy to consider as the finished piece ive got rid of almost all the lines and I think it works fine. Im quiet happy with this little experiment, its quite good fun drawing from memory. It isn't a study, even though I was sat in the room I drew, I sat as depicted with my back to the room. Below is a picture of the reality of the scene, taken just after i finished. The only alteration I made was that I changed into a matching Tee-shirt. Can you spot the differences? Overall I think I did a pretty good job of representing the scene. This kitchen is my current studio (between meals). I wish I had a proper studio again.

Me in the Kitchen doing some drawing (in stages)

I thought it might be fun to show the stages of a drawing as I make it in illustrator. I'm not saying this is a how to, because I don't really know 'how to' properly anyway. It more of a how I did. If anything it might help me realize later the point where I started to over work it.

The picture is me in the kitchen in my house drawing. even though I was sat in that very position it was all drawn from memory, only occasionally looking round to see how close I got it. In this case I started with a line sketch drawn straight into the computer. I don't normally do this but its worked out okay. I normal just start by blocking in shapes and colours, I guess the main advantage of doing a bit of planing at the starts it helps get the layout right from the get go. Soon I'm going to start playing with bringing in sketches and doodles I've scanned in.

then in a layer under my sketch i put a wee bit of colour about. Just some rough blocks to help give a base to build on. A bit like how they used to do on 'Watercolour Challenge' on Channel 4.

This is what it looks like at this stage without the sketch on top.

I then work into this abit more to give it a bit of detail and hopefully make things look abit more solid. I've tried to get some sense of light as well. The windows on the door are north facing so light never comes in like this normally but that doesn't really matter. It was dark when I drew this anyway.
Again without the sketch on top.
Here it is again with the full sketch, me included this time.
Lastly here is the most finished picture so far. With me as a Drawing Boy rather than a real person. In its own way it kind of works, but eventually id like to get it working without any of the lines. Still need to do some work on the background, e.g. put some Cds on the CD rack, a load of stuff on the bottom shelf near the bin and make the bin look like a bin. So far though its going OK

Boy the Giant Robot and the Helicopter

Man with scarf

Here is another test (see "the Boy and the Rabbit Plant". Im also trying to show people of different ages. Below is another version, without the paper texture and slightly stronger colours.

The Boy and the Rabbit Plant

Here is a wee experiment. Firstly I'm keen to play with my characters a little. How I mainly draw people isn't working quite how I want in some of the pictures I've done lately, i think due to the different media I've been working with. The result is this boy, a slightly more realistic depiction. Its not a complete departure from my style and there was a point a few years ago where I'd draw people like this alot. I like him. The second part of the experiment is the use of a texture within the picture, in this case a wood texture. Ive not spent much time integrating it into the image but I think its going to be something worth playing with.

Boy the Giant Robot and the Orange and the Cloud

Boy the Giant Robot and the Tree

Boy is a Giant Robot. Boy is a machine. A machine is an object. Boy can talk. Boy thinks that all objects can talk. Boy is silly.

The Secret Film Society

This is a weird picture for me to have done. Its a logo I made for my friend Simon Hill. I decided to draw it all with the shapes you get in illustrator alongside other features I wouldn't normally use for my own work. Its a wee bit sinister and very much not part of my normal ouvre, I think I spelt that right.