From Manchester To Leeds

From Manchester to Leeds from Jason Edmunds on Vimeo.

Please watch in HD if possible. It looks much nicer!

From Manchester To Leeds (and back again)

These are some stills from my new video piece. Im creating a film about the Journey between Manchester and Leeds, and have created a soundtrack using samples of trains and buses i took while travelling. The visuals are just relatively simple shots, yet are edited together to try and visually express the sounds more appropriately, and to create a sense of movement and speed.

You Want Me

An Illustration based on the work of Vania Zouravliov and Raphael Vicenzi. I really attempted to mix the two contrasting styles together to try and create a piece combining traditional techniques and digital techniques.

Summer project

We had a summer project to do some work based on an artist we had written about last year. I did this piece based on the work of Vania Zouravliov, It is my own composition and everything is done in pen & ink mainly. Theres no real story or idea behind the imagery, other than to emulate a certain style and create atmosphere. The main point in the piece was to really think about the design aspect of the work and how everything is put together. I think it came out pretty well, it possibly could have done with a bit more detail, but i really like how successful the black is in framing the pale figure of the woman, making her really stand out, and look delicate at the same time.

He loves me/ He loves me not

This is just a delicate portrait i've done, based on Jamie Scott. It wasnt particularly of him for any reason, other than i saw him in a magazine and thought his face was rather beautiful. There was an article as well that just talked about how much of a heart throb he was. It was almost saying that this guy here could get anyone and anywhere with his looks. So i thought about it from the other side, I was listening to Jay Brannan, one of my biggest influences, and heard the line "Sometimes he loves me, sometimes he loves me not" which kind of fits, its almost from another persons perspective who is desperate to be loved by someone beautiful. Anyway, i really had fun making this image, its obviously a hand drawn portrait in pencil, and is then photoshopped on to vintage paper. I then edited in all the marks and scratches, by scanning different marks i have made with different media into the image. I think all together it works quite well and i am happy with the end result.

Rakes Progress continued

The final two pieces of my Rakes progress. These two are probably two of the stronger ones, one is the 5th piece in the sequence showing a thug waiting next to a car as a get away driver ready to speed off when the other two return, which they do not. In fact his fate can be seen, with the outline of the old man in the top corner getting ready to pull the trigger. The final image, the 6th in the series is rather more chaotic than any of the others, full of marks and splats of paint and ink, to show the violence that has occurred. I particularly like the burn marks through the paper.

Rakes Progress

NOTE: View this series from the bottom image upwards.

Here are numerous pieces im working on at the moment, that tell the story of a group of youths in hoodies trying to break in to an old weak mans house, to take advantage of his vulnerable state, but it turns out hes actually a lot less vulnerable than he looks when he turns a shotgun on them. The pieces mainly concentrate on symbolism, there are numerous references to the Korean war to determine the fact this old man is actually a war veteran. As well as this, numerous images of wilted flowers and skulls etc can also be found in a few of the works. I could go into massive detail on each piece, but i think it may just be better to let them speak for themselves. There are two others that i am currently finishing off that i will post within the next couple of days.

HELLO LADY

Just a simple portrait of a woman. Theres really not much to say about this piece at all, other than i just did this as i was bored, and fancied doing a nice portrait of someone beautiful and intriguing.

The Terrible Old Man

We have this uni project at the moment based on the idea of "The Rakes Progress", and this is one of the first final(ish) images i have come up with. We have to do a series of six illustrations based on a story of our own choosing. I have chosen an already existing story called "The Terrible Old Man" by Howard Phillips Lovecroft. The story revolves around an old man who lives alone with lots of money. He is very vulnerable, and 3 men decide to rob him. However, they later learn they have underestimated the old sailor, and he kills all three of them brutally.

This first image introduces the old man. He has a globe and a compass to help build connotations of him being a sailor. Waves are also crashing behind him, along with a ship in the background to try and portray this idea easily. The numerous bottles in front of him are due to a detail in the story where the old man talks to these bottles, which all have little lead pendulums inside.

At the top of the image is a caption reading "Fluctuat Nec Mergitur" which is Latin, and translates as "It is tossed by the waves but does not sink". It serves as a foreboding warning about the old man, who is sea hardened, and much more dangerous than he seems at first glance.

KAPUT

My laptop has broken. Gone. Kaput. Hence the lack of updates on here. I am currently sat in the library, it is easter, and Manchester is dead. BAAAAAAAH. My room is boring, as i have nothing to do, and no way of using photoshop. :( Im stuck with just plain old fashioned drawing and painting, which is good for a while i guess. PAH. Im going to eat my way through the boredom.... if money permits.

ereuthophobia

Another Illustration based on the idea of being afraid of blushing. The concept is exactly the same as the illustration before, however, within the veins this time are little claw shapes that try and build connotations of fear, and extend the idea of this image being about phobias. I also played around with the composition of this one a bit more, working across the page rather than just vertically as it provides a sense of movement in the image which i think works better.

ereuthophobia

An Illustration based on the idea of having a phobia of blushing for a uni project. I basically just used it as an excuse to draw beautiful women. The veins that link up her cheeks to her heart are supposed to present the idea that blushing is a very natural reflex, and the lock over the heart implies by being afraid of this, and trying to stop it, you are attempting to prevent a vey natural thing which occurs without our control.

Technology

This is my second animation named "Technology". The brief was to ceate a 40 second animation based on a number of given words or phrases of which you chose three to concentrate on. The three i chose were Technology, Jack in a Box, and Fish, and around these words i created a narrative based on the idea of a man who lives his lfe through the tv screen, instead of experiencing the world for himself. He is in a sense a Jack in a Box, and the animation culminates by making this man part of the tv, the technology that imprisons him.

I think this animation was quite successful. While it is a little messier than i would have hoped, it is good for the amount of time i had on the project. It consists of approximately 450 hand drawings/paintings. I really enjoyed the project although it did become incredibly time consuming but i think the result was worth it.

First animation

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The brief was to make an animation starting with a circle and ending with a circle. This is what i came up with based on the theme of smoking.

Flowers and Skulls

These two images are possibly my favourite work i have done since going to Uni. They are just simple line drawings based on positive and negative body image done in Pilot pen as ideas for etchings. While i did not carry them through to the final etching process, i do think the drawn versions themselves are very successful and strong in what they attempt to convey.

The first image is obviously positive body image, using flowers to try and illustrate this woman is comfortable and happy in herself and is flourishing. I particularly like the pose in this drawing, as you can quite easily see the curves of the womans body, and can see a distinct contrast against the long flowing hair etc.

The second image i also feel is successful however the pose is maybe not as clear as the first. Her arms are raised contorted over her head, and her hair flops in front of her hair, showing a more guarded, self concious pose compared to the previous image. Instead of flowers this time the woman is made up of skulls, chains, guns, grenades etc. Many different little details each with bad connotations can be seen upon her body to illustrate ideas of negativity, and self destruction.

Etchings

These are the two etchings i produced for my last Reprographics project. They are both based on the idea of aging, and the positives and negatives of the process.

The first image worked out much better than the second. The first one has less fine lines which were eaten away less in the acid bath so the final print turned out much better and tidier. I was quite suprised how well the dark areas did come out as i was told that i had such a large block of dark area, that it might just turn out grey, but it actually turned out very dark. I think this image is quite successful.

The second image on the other hand did not come out as well. It had much finer lines in the facial features due to it being smaller and more detailed, and when left in the acid bath, the lines all merged together and resulted in much less detail than was previously etched in. While it was not as successful as the first, i still feel it looks okay and was worthy of uploading.

Positive and Negative

Some more sketches for my etchings based on ideas of positives and negatives. These two both also concentrate on the idea of aging as i seemed to notice the age of the older generation of my family much more over christmas, as it was a stark contrast to all the young students i have been surrounded by since moving to Manchester.

The first image explores negative ideas of aging. I constantly hear people moaning about how they do not want to get older, and get more wrinkles etc. And this image was basically just a comment on that. The balding old wrinkled man tries to illustrate what most people are scared of becoming. All the aesthetic issues of aging that people seem to act negatively towards.

The second image on the other hand tries show a more positive attitude towards aging: The idea that ou're old appearance doesnt count for everything, and while you can look old, you can still embrace and act young and fit. The idea of an old man jumping up and down in puddles like a small child was really heart warming in my opinion. It shows how ever old you are, you can still be as innocent and fun loving if you just allow yourself to be, and dont get hung up on all the negative things in life. The addition of colour to the second image also helps develop this concept of young excitement and vibrancy, partiocularly if you contrast this to the first image.

Print ideas

I've been working on a printmaking project lately, which will hopefully result in two final etchings based on the theme of Positive and negative. These are just two sketched ideas based on the theme which i particularly like. One shows a more self confident positive attitude towards body image in the fashion industry, while the other shows the exact opposite. However, when really thinking about it, both could be deemed as a negative way of thinking. Over confident or lacking in confidence. While they are exact opposites, which one is positive and negative?

The first images uses more feminine colours to really develop the idea of confident femininity. The flowers, and colouring of the lips really help to pick this out.

Meanwhile, the second images juxtoposes the feminine pink
pallette, with a putrid bile green. This vivid colour is
very different to the softer pinks in the first image and matches the vivid subject matter well.

Both drawings are done in Pilot pen, and then edited using photoshop. They are just developments of ideas so far.