testing the waters

Designer @ http://decentdesign.co.uk I like drawing portraits http://lizziesharp.blogspot.com http://twitter.com/Lizz0r [email protected]

[artmastered]

Album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duffy © Duffy Archive. Image used to promote the V&A ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition. Source

Music doesn’t play a huge role in my life - there isn’t much room to be honest, what with all the masses of art and piles of books. But one musician has subtly been there since I was very young, bridging that gap between sound and visuals to create something I could never resist. 

Yesterday, the world lost a legend when David Bowie passed away aged 69, just two days after the release of his 25th studio album ‘Blackstar’. His androgynous style and eclectic sound secured him a legion of fans throughout his 50-year career; if you’ve never listened to his music before, I urge you to seek out ‘Heroes’, ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘Modern Love’, ‘Changes’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ - my personal favourites. The Victoria & Albert Museum’s ‘David Bowie Is’ was one of my exhibition highlights of 2013, and there are some fantastic visuals and videos over on the show’s webpage, which are worth checking out. Visiting the exhibition is certainly my favourite Bowie memory, and for any big fans out there, I’d love to hear yours too.

[lizziejsharp]

Lady Grinning Soul.

[lizziejsharp]

Kate Bush digital After a year and a half I've decided this is done, I obviously meant "soon" very loosely! I think the original ivy hair photo is from the front of the London Palladium record.

[lizziejsharp]

I went to life drawing for the first time in ages on Wednesday, it was really good. Nice to see my life drawing friends as well. I used acrylics for the long pose, I'd forgotten what they were like to paint with! I put some black and white chalk on after which made a big difference. Hopefully I will go again in a couple of weeks, I will try and do some oil painting.

[lizziejsharp]

A D-Man pattern made with our logo

Decent Design

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More wise words from Ron Swanson and his pyramid of greatness.

[lizziejsharp]

Two more posters for Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness. Long live the Parks Dept.

[lizziejsharp]

Have a Decent Halloween, love from Andy, Rich and Lizzie at Decent Design!

We've been talking about our branding today and this friendly little fella cropped up...

[lizziejsharp]

Here's a drawing of some of those scary little monsters

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This is a portrait I did a few years ago of my best friend's little (at the time) brother, Bertie.

[lizziejsharp]

Thought this was a happy little crab at first...

[lizziejsharp]

We got lots done today for the Thirteen Degrees show. We got the acrylic postcard holder prototype cut and then re-jigged so that it fitted together really snug without glue. I tried the chloroform solvent with one of the first attempts, and while it was done neatly it wasn't as seamless as we wanted. Andy and I decided that the logo looked better as an outline rather than etched completely. The one I'm holding is the one I glued and the ones on the red table are the final ones. We also got a proof batch of postcards printed - those are Rich's in the printer, they are awesome. Tomorrow we're going to print and cut as much as Steve can do before he runs out of card - spookily we need the whole job printed thirteen times...

[lizziejsharp]

Series of posters I made throughout the year to advertise the visiting lecturers

[lizziejsharp]

We have a site set up for our little exhibition in Bath, you should have a look and then come to it. It's from the 18th - 24th June at the 44AD space, Old Pet Shop in town. There will be design, photography and illustration.

There are thirteen of us, and hopefully we will all get a degree, so we've called it thirteen°

[lizziejsharp]

I've been watching a lot of Parks and Recreation. I want to make posters from Ron Swanson's Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.

[lizziejsharp]

a wip from earlier today

[lizziejsharp]

This will soon be a portrait of Kate Bush.

[lizziejsharp]

Photos of the Clean Dirt book. It was a bit hard to take photos of because it's pretty long. It's hand bound concertina/French fold with the spine sewn up. The text is a poem called Clean Dirt by August Arps

Clean Dirt

deep in the clean loamy. in the dark froth of top soil and odd moss - deep in the tendrils of microscopic cosmologies; fecund and rampant with life - the long reed holding the wind's note in it's throat in the failing light, beneath the canopies... you're gasping. you gasp  at the habit of  love's heart   and the little things, teeming in the underneath. where gnashing teeth are dead leaves.  and yellow is origami  in the dappling of the sun. and the peace.

http://hellopoetry.com/poem/clean-dirt/