James Shedden

I did the above image of the band Fireworks Night for...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:03:45 +0000

I did the above image of the band Fireworks Night for Amelia’s Magazine (see the blog post with my illustration here). Experimenting with the best way to incorporate people in my work - good and bad things about this attempt that I’ll be considering when working on new images.

Updates

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:35:00 +0000

A couple of things I should have mentioned a while ago. I was asked to contribute to ABC which I’ve blogged about before but I failed to mention that I’d received a copy of the book and attended the launch event where I got the chance to meet some of the other illustrators. Here’s the item in question:

It’s a lovely collection of images (if I do say so myself) and has been put together really well. As is stated on the cover it features the work of some really good illustrators. I was particularly proud to be featured in the same publication as Stanley Donwood who is one of my creative idols and a massive inspiration & influence. Hooray!

Another thing I failed to mention is that I recently updated my website. My aim is to let people know all the various things I’m up to so as not to second-guess or limit what twists and turns my career will take next. But I would really like more illustration work so I’ve tried to put an appropriate bias/focus on that. Click on the image below and have a look:

That’s all for now - cheers!

Blogging miscellany

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:31:00 +0100

Didn’t there used to be a video of me here? Yes - you can now check it out here. I’ve set up a new blog, stuff.jshedden.com, for more general, personal stuff that doesn’t directly relate to my professional art & design work.

I’d like it if people could visit this blog (the one we’re on right now) to get a quick idea of what I’m up to in the way of illustration/design etc without having to sift through long posts about my songwriting crises - visit stuff.jshedden.com for all that jazz.

Posting those animations reminded me that it’s fun to set...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:25:12 +0100

Posting those animations reminded me that it’s fun to set yourself the task of completing something in a day (I mentioned I had done this earlier in the year, for a small period, and the videos - as seen in my previous post - resulted). It also reminded me that it’s good to keep my blog moving. With that in mind, here’s something I conceived and finished today.

It feels quite different to my ‘normal’ stuff - I’ve been meaning to develop the ‘Poo John’ character for a while (see this animation & REM cover if you don’t know who Poo John is… although you may still have some pertinent questions after viewing) and for a long time I’ve wanted to experiment with sequential images (which I do incredibly rarely) - so here is a combination of both those desires. I’m fond of Poo John, and want to move the idea forward in a few directions, not least with some more music at some point - still deciding on songs which might go down as well as his YouTube debut. He could do with some more friends, so please go ‘Like’ him at his Facebook Page.

Videomusics

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:08:00 +0100

Greetings. No new illustration, but some original content which I haven’t posted before, in attempt to keep my blog from becoming completely stagnant.

Earlier in the year I set myself the task of finishing something musical or visual each day over a certain period of days, in an attempt to shake up my usual song-writing patterns (which had not been proving fruitful when it came to finishing anything or coming up with anything interesting at the time) and also to give me the opportunity to experiment with animation. Some of the days were just music - but here are two things I came up with that you can appreciate with your eyes as well as your ears:

They’re neither fully-formed animations nor fully-realised songs, so I never really did anything with them. But at this point, with little else to post, I thought it would be nice to share them, if only as a brief interlude to your Sunday evening (depending on where you live). Spare a moment to watch, then continue as normal…

Hooray, more work by me - another piece for Amelia’s...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:23:01 +0100

Hooray, more work by me - another piece for Amelia’s Magazine which you can see on her site here. I wasn’t as happy with it as my last one, but I do like it (don’t feel too unloved, image above).

Continuing to grapple with figuring figures into my illustrations. Where it’s important to recognise the faces (which I felt it was in this and the last piece for Amelia) I didn’t consider anything other than working with the original photos (and in addition I didn’t mess with the photos too much - just the bare minimum to get them to sit in the compositions sufficiently).

In future I’d like to experiment with less recognisable but more stylised figures along the lines of those featured in the work of Aude Van Ryn or Luke Best (two of my favourites, can you tell?).

Now, back to making websites for dosh - for a bit. I’m also trying quite hard to finalise a set of songs I’ve been working on to self-release as an EP. Haven’t properly finished one of my own songs (as opposed to stuff with Hoshal Patrick) in a very long time, and my collection of incomplete demos is growing frustratingly large. I mention it occasionally as a means of reminding myself that it’s something that I’m trying to do, in the hope that someone will say to me “Hey, what about those songs you mentioned?” to give me an extra kick in the right direction. Stay tuned (my second favourite phrase).

While you’re here, check this out, one of my favourite things at the moment:

Haven’t posted on anything on here for a shameful amount...

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:01:00 +0100

Haven’t posted on anything on here for a shameful amount of time - been busy trying to mould a jelly - I mean, career - for myself as a freelance web designer, amongst other things. It’s wobbly.

Actually, it’s going all right so far and I will be updating my whole site to reflect my recent activities. I’ll be going back to using WordPress to power my new design which might make this blog a bit superfluous. Not decided yet exactly how I will manage things, but this blog has served me well, and Tumblr is much more social (social? sociable…) than self-hosted WordPress… I’ll have to see what will and won’t work alongside each other.

Anyway, here is an image I did for Amelia’s Magazine. I’m happiest when busy so I thought despite having far too much else to do I should put myself forward for a few briefs to keep my illustration moving and to get in some more practice doing pictures with people in. Here’s one of ’I Break Horses’. There should be another one on the way soon, just waiting for it to go up on the Amelia’s Magazine blog.

Check out this one on Amelia’s site here.

I have fed my blog and must now return to the wilderness. Expect more updates soon (my new most-used phrase).

Here’s the finished image! Previous image dedicated to...

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:49:01 +0100

Here’s the finished image! Previous image dedicated to lunch, this is my ode to breakfast. I thought the noodles image was perhaps a little static so tried to make this one feel more alive and create a greater sense of movement. Click for larger version.

The amounts of ingredients might be a little unrepresentative and I know not everyone includes water in their porridge-making. But there you have it. Porridge. If porridge was a CD, this might be the album cover…

Also liked this ghostly version, just for fun:

Another work in progress, stay tuned. Keeping with the...

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:05:00 +0100

Another work in progress, stay tuned. Keeping with the kitchen/food preparation theme. There’s that pesky tap again…

This image is dedicated to my lunch the other day (a pack of...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:50:00 +0100

This image is dedicated to my lunch the other day (a pack of Chinese supermarket noodles), the place I made it (the kitchen) and the processes I used to prepare it (boiled some water in a kettle). Click above to view a larger version!

As mentioned below (and in other posts) I’m on a crusade to depict everyday things. Not sure if the kettle should have been so cardboard-block-ified as it’s possible that it doesn’t look much like a real kettle…

Long time no see. Continuing my quest to do illustrations of...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:37:58 +0100

Long time no see. Continuing my quest to do illustrations of Real Things, so that I can approach publications with a portfolio consisting of more than strange buildings in cardboard forests. Kitchen-themed image in progress, finished picture soon…

And so there emerged a finished image - it will be accompanying...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:54:41 +0000

And so there emerged a finished image - it will be accompanying some text written by me as part of this book project which I hope to tell you more about when it becomes available!

Making a picture for a book. Finished version soon!

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:51:56 +0000

Making a picture for a book. Finished version soon!

I must experience the highest levels of creativity and...

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:29:33 +0000

I must experience the highest levels of creativity and organisation in my day to day life when I’m most busy doing projects for other people - that can be the only explanation for why, with a graphic design/illustration/web design project for every day of the week, I’m still able to find time to spend on ridiculous things like this.

The pitchshifting and tempo adjustments made the voice sound strange and warbled, like it’s been autotuned, but it hasn’t - I am just part diva.

I call him Poo John, he’s my robo-soul alter-ego.

Here’s an image I worked on with Helen. She made the lion...

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:43:00 +0000

Here’s an image I worked on with Helen. She made the lion and came up with the text and I did the rest. It could be a little snapshot of a larger story (have fun imagining your own versions) or just a little moment without a greater context. We hope to make a series of similar images and have them for sale as posters soon. We’ve worked on a few things together and might be setting up an online space especially for our collaborations. We shall see…

Got a couple of illustrations in the pipeline for publications (one magazine and one book) - looking forward to sharing more info and images soon.

In the meantime, check out some of these illustrators (found on Illustrationmundo):

Eduardo Recife / Misprinted Type

Rodney Greenblat

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:53:00 +0000

It’s been a stupidly long time since I posted anything on here - and about the same amount of time has passed since I’ve done any decent illustration. I’ll put it down to a rather broken iMac (finally booked an Apple Store appointment, coming up on Sunday) and a fledgling career in freelance web design to pay the bills - and the pleasant distraction that is Christmas, the black hole that consumes time in exchange for delicious food, good wine & company, and a healthy amount of sitting down. Speaking of which, here are some Christmas cards I made this year:

One of my plans for 2011 is to establish a range of greetings cards to sell on Etsy - I must have my stuff together in time for next Christmas and I’m hoping to cater for every other card-giving occasion between now and then as well. Making cards should be fun, but I’ll also have to do some research on packaging solutions and get a clearer idea about the kind of thing that other sellers are offering on Etsy.

I’ve got some illustration/animation coming up and will post more on that soon. In the meantime, check out the Hoshal Patrick blog that I set up recently, and this site dedicated to American historical ephemera which I found a while ago.

Well it’s been over a month since I posted anything, mostly...

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:21:56 +0100

Well it’s been over a month since I posted anything, mostly thanks to the on-and-off relationship that’s developed between my computer and its internal hard drive. Plus me being illustration-lazy.

Here’s an image I made for Little Dragon (unofficially) just because I very much like their music.

Finished this today - some ghostly cars on a rainy drive...

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:32:00 +0100

Finished this today - some ghostly cars on a rainy drive home.

Tried out some new stuff mixed with some old stuff, pleased with how this one turned out. Available as a print in A5, A4 or A3 from jamesshedden.etsy.com - take a look!

A work in progress. Trying a few new things out, going well so...

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:13:00 +0100

A work in progress. Trying a few new things out, going well so far. Wait and see…

Watched Meeting People Is Easy today and Blade Runner (Director’s Cut) yesterday. Signed up for a Society6 profile - another place for me to network with other artists and hopefully sell some work :)

A new image today: journeying away from the world of starry...

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:49:00 +0100

A new image today: journeying away from the world of starry skies and spiky trees, and towards a kingdom of real things (as previously mentioned - people, sports, music, food, etc).

I’ll grapple with issues of culture and politics, but first, something a little more simple…

I included some typography as it’s another thing that I’m acutely aware is lacking from my portfolio. I was going to include “Have you drunk enough water?” as a dedication to my girlfriend who mocks my unshakeable belief in the curative power of water - it’s the first question I ask her whenever she’s feeling unwell. I went with something more simple in the end.

To water…