i've been thinking about the city.
over the past few years i've drawn people in leeds, and been round various bits of it on various buses; i've drawn local houses and made prints of them.
and recently i've been thinking about how i can make those various explorations a bit more joined-up and coherent. a commissioned illustration project that will come to fruition early next year will satisfy some of that for me (and i'll blog about that when it happens) and i'm working on a series of careful digitally painted portraits of leeds folk (that's been really enjoyable, but each image takes a long time to complete...)
so now i'm also wondering about narrative.
i love a good story, and i want to weave some of that need for narrative into my work - lately i've just not felt that i've got much of a tale to tell. again, that will maybe surface with this illustration job next year.
in the meantime, this little thing has come about.
the text on each is the first line of a song playing on my ipod as i made the drawing or the print.
i like the idea that the first line of a lyric is the beginning of a new story, and i like the way that the image and the words juxtapose to suggest a narrative.
i also really enjoy the way that each image can link up, put side by side the prints can begin to develop a storyline all of their own, with the suggestion that it's being played out across the city.
and of course i've always loved imposing my record collection on folk :-)
the plan is to make and release these prints in sets of maybe ten different designs... i've got these first five done so far.
i'm treating this as a little project in it's own right, but also maybe as preparatory work for some future stuff, part of something ongoing and a bit more intentional and authored.
[the lyrics come from songs by paul buchanan, cherry ghost, arctic monkeys, the blue nile and ride]
