Lots of tiny cards ready to be configured into something bigger (made out of tiny cards (stuck to a plinth))

I have an exhibition in London next month.  It's an interesting one that I'm looking forward to as they are allowing me to exhibit work that I wouldn't normally be able to.  Most galleries only want to exhibit framed works they are able to sell and charge lots of commission but the work I want to make is either incredibly vast or incredibly small.  So what drew me to submit for this exhibition was that it was after work that didn't sit well in an ordinary gallery setting... so I submitted a proposal of exhibiting hundreds of tiny trading card sized images I've been making (see below) along with my 2012 Diary from last year.

These pictures are all going to be arranged stuck onto a large plinth.  They will be much better arranged than they are on here.  There are so many different combinations for how they can be arranged so I'll have fun finding the most interesting.  On this entry they are only arranged by how I put them into a scanner but I'm planning to make them much more compositionally placed at the exhibition.  I find that they take on different contexts dependent on their configuration.

Anyway updates are soon forthcoming regarding the exhibition.  I will obviously tweet it nearer the time and post about it on Facebook.  All four people I actually know in London have already been invited.

surface pattern design #3

So for the third week running I'm posting some images of constructions of surface pattern design.

Started with this - thought I could work in the piece of public art I made a while ago to give it an architectural feel rather than just being pure pattern.

And then I built something similar that would work as a branching off point - something to connect to. Everything even architecture needs to connect to something.  Even it is only connecting to itself upside down. You can probably do a lot worse.

And here they are connecting.   Shaped like a tadpole with huge biceps.

But what's this?  It's gone from strong studly tadpole into muscleman poseur amoeba.

I think the problem with my motivation for making surface patterns is I'm not sure what products they would be put on.  This might look brilliant on a pencil or a really good coat.... but at the moment all I think of when I look at this is an acid blotter.  I don't want to go underground.  I'm doing this in the attempt to be a massive sell out. Maybe I should put some owls on it.

surface pattern design #2

So with some jiggery pokery of old images I've been experimenting more with repeat patterns - but trying to make them less typical than usual.  So I seem to be more creating new distinct textures I can later mix in with other textures.  That way I can eventually overlay and intersplice lots of different patterns building up designs that are more and more dense.  The image above is derived entirely from a sold image of art I made but it's been altered so it works less like an artwork and even less like a surface pattern.  But it's a starting point.

I've then stripped away some layers and completely killed the colours making it entirely black and white and then put a thread of colour on the top of it.  A kind of flailing organism floating in the ether of meaningless sell out pattern.

So then I strip away the flailing organism and play it safe with a nice repeat pattern.  This is less typical of the repeat patterns I've done recently so it's reassuring that by playing it safe I've actually come up with something that does look almost unique.  That the previous steps were leading towards something usable.

So overlay a larger version of the image and trim away the edges then colour it in red.  A hot distinct column standing out all pollinated by the surrounding swarm.

Then zoom out and we have made another marvellously generic repeat pattern.  Just to show how easily it can be done.  Looking at this now it may be interesting to put something across the middle going horizontal. Some odd contrast with the rest of the pattern.  Then build on top of that again and see what happens.

I didn't do that though, at the time it didn't occur to me.  Instead I got a little tired of near perfect symmetry so decided to add an element that doesn't fit with the pattern to throw it slightly off centre.  This was achieved only very slightly with an off centre receding archway effect.  

Then I took the off centre archways and built them into ANOTHER repeat pattern with a background derived from an image of an interpretation of biospheres.  This results in another symmetrical pattern that can be repeated ad infinitum.  But which can also be used to enhance other surface pattern ideas.

It's hard to know whether I'm getting the hang of surface pattern design or if surface pattern design is getting ready to hang me.

Surface Pattern Design

I Realised after much thought that my artwork could be perfect for surface pattern design.  Perhaps this is a way I could actually support myself as an artist.  A long time ago someone told me that I'll probably end up designing the background patterns of biscuit tins and perfume bottles.  Perhaps they were right. 

My first attempt is quite simply the same image repeated over and over.  It's not the most imaginative approach to my first pattern but it will be useful to use as backgrounds to other patterns.   I have to start somewhere and this is where I started.  It's all very trial and error.  

What became evident, but should have been obvious, was that any repeat pattern I made can be changed in terms of size, colour and brightness.  The above is the same design as the first image but altered. It actually makes it an even more generic surface pattern design.  

Which brings me to this next development.  I've built a node with flailing perfectly measured limbs sticking out that can be connected to similar nodes.   When these are connected I can build a massive grid making to overlay on top of any other pattern design I want.  

So overlaying a grid can make the pattern slightly more complex.  Slightly more interesting... hopefully slightly less predictable and generic.  It does remind me of the back pages of very fancy old notebooks.  Though it wouldn't really work as a pattern design for an item of menswear.  Unless.....

Print this onto a shirt and in it's larger form it could look like a shirt for someone bending the fashion rules and attempting to look like a more subdued 1970s.  For the less loud the pattern can be shrunk and it would look like a checkered shirt from a distance - but when you get close up it'd become obvious theirs something a bit more going on with it.

After a while of cobbling these together I did have to start realising that my personal identity as an artist is getting lost in each and every image.  These say nothing - they aren't even meaningless voids they are actually made for companies to print onto whatever they want in whatever size and format they want.  So producing these images should really have some negative impact on my self esteem as an artists.  They give me a strange creative satisfaction that's very plastic and empty.  Like blowing up balloons.

What has always been my ideal in creativity is to try to make things nobody else could make.  None of the above have managed to do that.  I'm not sure if that is completely achievable with surface pattern design because most things have been done with it.  But the idea of doing it well in order to generate money to support my  more idealistic endevours is appealing.  Any business plan is appealing to me at the moment. 

This idea will hopefully be quite lucrative once I get going.  I'll still make artwork and still carry on writing my book.  But if I can make some good surface patterns and make some money from that then perhaps I'll be able to go self employed when I get my voluntary redundancy next year.  I just need to build my website and portfolio.  I think the best philosophy to approach this venture with is to make sure I carry on at least attempting to make the designs unique and personal - that way their will be nothing else on the market like them. 

If anyone has any advice feel free to comment.  Also feel free to express your sheer disgust at my new corporate leanings.

A structure. Of all things

Another quick abstract narrative comic.  This one can be interpreted as being a middle point of a story - a kind of liminal space - so it's like a middle point of a story stretching which I can make previous segments and newer segments.  Which doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to make more of it.  Just that it's another potential work in progress.

Also as usual a side note that still have loads of small but cheap artwork for sale on EBay.