Daily grind – Page 8 – leslie dean brown — illustrator

Poppyseed tea illustration — work in progress

20Sep

The dangers of poppyseed tea.

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / September 20, 2016 / Comments are closed

In the absence of real, paying commissions, I have decided to just… draw whatever the hell I want. One of the most moving articles I have ever written can be read here. It’s about addiction. So I’ve decided to draw it.

I love poppyseeds, especially on cheese on toast. Judging by that young man’s exceptional writing ability, I found this story to be a great tradegy for those parents. Their whole website is about informing other parents of the dangers of poppyseed tea. Poppyseed tea can kill!

Their website is almost completely text-based. I tend to notice this because I am a visual person. So I wanted to draw an illustration for them that was so cool that people would be a little bit more pursuaded by what the website has to say. I also want to send a message to a generation of youngsters — that you don’t need to take drugs to be creative.

Book cover illustration redesign

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / September 15, 2016 / Comments are closed

Here’s my latest illustration. This is a theoretical book cover redesign experiment.

On the left is the current book cover, ranked #1,004,963 in Amazon America and #1,607,617 on Amazon UK.

On the right is what I came up with (just for fun). This was quite a complicated illustration. All the fish were hand drawn and there are many, many layers.

Do you think the illustration is more attention grabbing?

Do you think the illustration helps to tell the story?

Do you think the illustrated version would see increased sales?

Do you think the authot could charge more for the illustrated version?

Which version would you buy?

#feedback #opinion?

13Sep

What do I think of the Charlie Hebdo pasta cartoon?

In Daily grind by Leslie Dean Brown / September 13, 2016 / Comments are closed

As you all know, I am an illustrator and I think the cartoon ‘hurts’. I have a good sense of humor but I didn’t really find it ‘funny’ in the traditional sense. What was my reaction? I think I might have let out a low chuckle and then realised it was in bad taste. What can I say? I think it is ‘clever’, I think it is very ‘creative’, but yes it is also very offensive (to some people). However…

Maybe the point is that actual people are suffering but all the media coverage takes pains to point out that it’s the home of a famous pasta dish. [source]

I think that’s all Charlie Hebdo is trying to point out here. That the media fixates on why the town is famous, because of its Amatriciana pasta. What has that got to do with anything about a quake or deaths?

Now it seems the Italian magistrate is going to try to sue the author. But really, good luck with that case. It’s in a different country!

Maybe if Italians didn’t want to see it, then they should have censored it. Even though it is in bad taste, it is still considered ‘art’. And ‘art’ is seen as being even more important than free ‘speech’. Artists have lawyers too you know…

For example, I find trophy hunters offensive. Can I sue them? I can try. But how far am I going to get?

Also, I think the real issue should be: why did the buildings fall? That’s the real issue. Discussion shouldn’t be about some silly drawing. There should be an enquiry as to why 600 year old buildings survived but modern “Earthquake proof” shools collapsed. Perhaps Hebdo’s second cartoon is more appropriate?

So instead of focusing on the real, difficult issues facing construction in Italy, everyone attacks Hebdo like the scapegoat instead. Why? Probably because it’s one hundred times easier. Sorry, but suing a cartoonist in another country is worse behaviour in my opinion than asking why your own buildings have fallen. Shame on you Italy! If you want to make a better future, then perhaps focus on asking Japan how to make truly Earthquake-proof buildings?

30Aug

Cross section

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / August 30, 2016 / Comments are closed

Here are a couple of recent illustrations. One is a creative cross section, the other is a realistic or scientific cross section.

I chose a nautilus because they are a bit like submarines (they can control their depth) and you often see cross sections of submarines. I am proud of the command centre & control room that features a brain in a jar.

For the McDonalds meal, I just had to complete something, so I thought it would be fun to cut something that is not normally cut.

26Aug

Leonardo da Vinci

In Daily grind by Leslie Dean Brown / August 26, 2016 / Comments are closed

Have you noticed that most people today only strive to develop one career at a time? When you ask someone what they do, they invariably say one profession, don’t they? The government won’t support you in your pursuit of two simultaneous ventures or studies either, will they? You’re either studying full time or working full time. Sequential careers, yes. Concurrent careers, no.Read more →

21Aug

New drawings for #ilustaller

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / August 21, 2016 / Comments are closed

12Aug

Finding the right mentor

In Daily grind by Leslie Dean Brown / August 12, 2016 / Comments are closed

You know, a few weeks ago, I told my ‘mentor’ that I suffer from depression. Because I thought my mentor should be aware of it.

Now, keep in mind that I hadn’t even had my first meeting with him yet. I had only spoken to him previously over the phone, although I had seen him in the NEIS course.

Anyway, do you know what he said to me after I confided in him that I was prone to depression? Something like: “I run a business program, we don’t do touchy feely stuff here…”. [I’ve forgotten exactly how he worded it]

But it wasn’t so much what he said as the way he said it. He said it with a superior attitude, and this intonation that made it seem like he was ‘above’ that kind of thing. Like “touchy feely” stuff is for weak individuals. And then he continued with this nagging voice: “If you can’t even…” [he claimed he had left “loads of messages”, but I never received any]

Straight away, I could tell that not only did this man not understand the disease at all, but he had zero empathy (not to mention zero tact). Something didn’t feel right. It took me a few days to realise it, but eventually I decided that I am going to have to change my mentor.Read more →

10Aug

Reinterpretation of “green eggs and ham” #ilustaller

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / August 10, 2016 / Comments are closed

10Aug

Learning to draw in three steps #Ilustaller

In Daily grind, Illustration by Leslie Dean Brown / August 10, 2016 / Comments are closed

03Aug

Illustration studies

In Daily grind by Leslie Dean Brown / August 3, 2016 / Comments are closed

So just a quick update today. There aren’t really any illustration courses offered in Sydney. So the only place I could see myself studying illustration at is at the University of Hertfordshire. I really wanted to do their idesigni.co.uk top up illustration degree. But that would cost a grand total of about four thousand pound, which works out to about £288/month. I am still seriously considering enrolling, but I need to be able to commit to studying for 16 months part time with enough spare time to be able to produce decent work.

So as a sort of go-between, last May I decided to sign up to #ilustaller, but unfortunately had to postpone that because I had too much stuff going on what with the NEIS course and everything. The good news is that I enrolled again, this time in both the beginner and intermediate courses simultaneously.

So why #ilustaller? What is #ilustaller?

Ilustaller, pronoucned “illustayer” [rough translation illustration workshop], is a Spanish illustration course that operates online from Bogotá, Colombia. Yes, you read that right. Bogota, Colombia. It is run by Carlos Higuera.

The thing is, it only costs US$100 for a course that lasts 4 weeks I think. I think it is extremely good value. As a kind of bonus, it will be fun to practise my Spanish again after not really speaking or listening to it properly for about two years. So the way I look at it, it is an Illustration course and a Spanish refresher course all rolled into one.

I completely missed day one of classes. And then today I missed the first 30 minutes of the intermediate course. Oh well. I feel like a proper art student now. So far Carlos has been understanding and welcoming.

The good news is that I have already drawn some quick ‘sketches’… I’ll share those with you all next week. I’ll probably sign up to the advanced course a bit later on, because some of the other work is of quite a high standard all things considered.

Chao,
Les

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