They’re right over here – four colours, three sizes, all good!

This weekend I took delivery of some shiny new things:

I now have women’s t-shirts! Not for my personal use! I’ve not had any time to update the shop yet, but it’ll be soon. Something else that’s going on there is:

Some very bright and shiny bag-type things for putting things in. I’ll get some designs printed on these this week and they’ll be in the shop soon too.

I’ve had a busy day, here’s this week’s remake thread:

Now then. Pay attention:

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BLAST was the short-lived literary magazine of the Vorticist movement in Britain. It had two editions, the first published on 2 July 1914… the magazine has become famous as emblematic of the first modern art movement in England and is now recognised as one of the seminal texts of 20th-century modernism. The magazine originally cost 2/6.

“Our Cause is NO-MAN’S,” they said. James Joyce believed it to be primarily a painter’s magazine for which he’d produce poems. He didn’t know what they were going to do with typography.

Vorticism… is more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age and all things modern.

They also liked shouting, and manifestos.

When Wyndham Lewis returned from the trenches, he hoped to revivify the Vorticist spirit (under the name Group X), planning a third issue of Blast and regaining contact with old allies. But the whole context of pre-war experimentation had been dispersed by the destructive power of mechanized warfare, which persuaded most of the former Vorticists to pursue more representational directions thereafter. By 1920 even Lewis was obliged to admit that the movement was dead. (ME: ALSO, CORE VORTICISTS WERE UNHELPFULLY DEAD)

You are the designer for the long-delayed third issue of BLAST. The above is what you know about it. Approach it in any way you see fit.

You have one week.

That gave me this:

Last week’s remake thread from Mr. Ellis:

The Yellow Book, published in London from 1894 to 1897, was a quarterly literary periodical (priced at 5s.) that lent its name to the “Yellow” 1890s. It was a leading journal of the British 1890s; to some degree associated with Aestheticism and Decadence, the magazine contained a wide range of literary and artistic genres, poetry, short stories, essays, book illustrations, portraits, and reproductions of paintings. Aubrey Beardsley was its first art editor, and he has been credited with the idea of the yellow cover, with its association with French fiction of the period.

Authors found within its pages during the three years of its existence include:
Max Beerbohm, “Baron Corvo,” Henry James, H. G. Wells and William Butler Yeats.

…in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a major corrupting influence on Dorian is “the yellow book” which Lord Henry sends over to amuse him after the suicide of his first love. This “yellow book” is understood by critics to be À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, a representative work of Parisian decadence that heavily influenced British aesthetes like Beardsley. Such books in Paris were wrapped in yellow paper to alert the reader to their lascivious content…

So here’s the deal:

You are an artist/designer.

You have to put together the cover for VOLUME 14 of THE YELLOW BOOK.

It must retain the sense of Aestheticism and Decadence, and yet be of its time.

I’m very interested to see what happens with this one.

YOU HAVE ONE WEEK, Wednesday to Wednesday. Go.

– W

So I went:

No scribbles today, seeing as I don’t have any projects anywhere near the stage where I can show you things. Instead, here’s a couple of photos to show how much of a mess I make of this place on a regular basis:

Printing up some t-shirts last week.

Oil paint spatter. This stuff is invincible.

Always knew those damn seagulls were looking at me funny

I’ve had this sizzling away in the back of my skull for aaaaaages and finally got it down on paper:

What’s really going through their tiny chirpy heads.

Another take on one of the characters I’m working on just now:

If all goes to plan I’ll have more for you tomorrow, going back down to weekly posts has been on account of a few projects I’m not sure I can post here just yet…

I’ve been drawing monkeys again. Don’t worry, it’s all probably in a good cause…