Never Regret Your Tattoos

Now here's a tee that every tattoo lover needs in their wardrobe.

http://www.inkedshop.com/men-s-never-regret-t-shirt.html?acc=9bf31c7ff062936a96d3c8bd1f8f2ff3 

I love this tee - you can pick it up over on Inkedshop.com along with some other pretty cool tattoo inspired works. 

If you've seen any great tattoo inspired merch leave a comment or Tweet me, I'd love to see it.

Visit Spread the Nerd on Scoop.It for nerdy things from around the interwebs!

//Website//Twitter//Facebook//

Wonder Woman Ink

Found this online and had to share it.

I love a good tattoo that has a meaning and declares a love of something or someone, so when movie, comic, music, or whatever type of nerd they may be, shares their love in the form of ink I jump for joy at these great ideas and designs.  Spread the Nerd!

http://brainz.org/50-awesomely-nerdy-tattoos/

Tattoo Art... In My Coffee

I found a fantastic Tumblr blog during the week called Art In My Coffee. It's full of amazing designs that folk have magically swirled designs into cappuccinos. I have a few favourites:

http://artinmycoffee.com/post/28642474606/cafe-mocha-at-nice-matin-manhattan-beth 

Batman in My Coffee
http://artinmycoffee.com/post/27587238503/so-whos-seeing-a-midnight-showing-of-the-dark 

But I found this one and it made me think of a design I did a while back for Derek in Holland.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/6785856181/

Derek Design
http://daisybisley.com/

Totally addicted to the site now and have been checking back constantly this week to look for new Art in My Coffee.

Thanks for reading the blog. If you have any questions about a custom design for a tattoo or other wise, please leave a comment or Tweet me.

This Week's Round Up

In an effort to become more active on the Facebook page I've been using Austin Kleon's handy hint of using a simple calendar to time my posts. I've been using it all week in the office too to try and bring some sort of structure to our social media and so far its working. I know I've only posting once a day on the Daisy Bisley page, but I'm hoping to get more up and more active as time goes on and I get more into the swing of things with the new routine I'm setting myself.

It's a really simple calendar, I just choose the number of posts I want to do and cross them off throughout the day to mark that I've completed the task. Eventually seeing a clean sweep of red X's will keep me going - appeals to my compulsion to list things I guess!

So Monday was my first foray into HTML and CSS as I was sent on a day course to get the basics under my belt. I kind of knew bits and pieces about tags and how they work, but the course really helped me understand structure and how to build a site.
The actual building of a site is a little way off yet though, but I did by this lovely big mag to help me along the way. I need a lot of tutorials to get me started and though this would be a great way to get me going.

Tuesday was a Pinterest day! I find Pinterest a massive source of inspiration for not just tattoos, but everything. I'm constantly scouring the boards for pretty things to look at and share and am constantly amazed by how much material is on there. I try and add to the tattoo board at least twice a week and have been sharing some of the amazing work by artists all over the world, most recently on Tuesday when I found this one.

http://ladylucktattooaz.com/photos/heather-alvin/tattoo-photos-5-24-09-036.jpg.html  

I love the Henna style of it and the smoothness of the lines. I'm hoping to get some of the Henna influence into my work in the near future as it's something I've loved for years now. I'd also love to get a design myself from a professional Henna artist or try one myself, but I don't quite know if my hands would be steady enough!

Another great find this week was animator Adam Proctor's Water Lives animation on Vimeo It's absolutely beautiful! A collaboration between Adam, water scientists, a musician and a haiku poet that is designed to show the "rich diversity of life within our precious water sources." I love the style and the music is beautiful too. 

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Water-Lives/3413089

It's worth checking out Adam's work over on Behance, and looing out for it in the new BBC/HBO series Hunted that is starting soon. Another favourite piece of mine is "An Underwater Tale" and if you, like me, love shadow puppets then it really is a must see. Short and sweet!

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Ocean-Terminal-an-underwater-story/1045821

Thought I'd finish off with a sneaky peek at a couple of commissions I've been working on. One for Kristi and one for Karen. 

I sat out in the long awaited sun working on these today and hope to get out again tomorrow to do some web designing or maybe some Henna...

Thanks for reading the blog. If you have any questions about a custom design for a tattoo or other wise, please leave a comment or Tweet me.

Weddings, Pirates, Turtles and Tattoos!

My last few posts have been about movies I've seen in the last few months, so I thought this time I'd post about the work I've been doing. I've had a few since the beginning of the year and I hope I continue to get more. I've been thinking recently of updating the website again with a new design section. This way my work might appeal to more people wanting different types of commissions as well as tattoos which in turn will mean more design fun for me!

Last month I was over the moon to be asked to design a wedding invitation for a friend and it was great to be able to turn my hand to something a bit different. 

I loved designing these and I was so happy that Joni liked them. I'd really like to do more invitations and print based things, so I'll need to get some sample designs together.

Last year I was asked to do a different type of print based design. Katherine at The Meltemi Dive Centre in Ios, Greece got in touch and asked if I would like to design a couple of T shirts for them. I love T shirts and have quite a vast collection of them so I was really happy about getting the commission. Katherine asked for a tribal turtle and a pirate diver design for 2 shirts that would be available at the centre.  I've only just been given the go ahead to share this design in the last few weeks, which is why I'm now sharing it all over my online profiles - so happy with it!

Copyright Meltemi Dive Centre

                                       

Copyright Meltemi Dive Centre

I was so proud of these designs as they were going to be seen on a daily basis and worn by folk that visited the Dive Centre. I was so happy about this that when I got a package trough the door containing samples of the shirts I shrieked with joy - like a proper shriek!! I'm assuming the same will happen if I ever meet any of you lovely people who happen to my work inked permanently on your skin, so I apologise in advance if shriek with glee in your face!

Not only were the designs on 2 separate shirts, but also on a multitude of marketing materials. I think I might frame them! I will post a pic of all the goodies together soon.

In April I got sent this amazing pic from Marty O'Shea that his brother Dan had commissioned me to design for them last year. Marty then asked me to design another one for him. 

The design was to include the initials AMO as a symbol and we eventually came out with 2 final designs.

On a side note Marty is the Drummer for The Eternal, worth checking out some of their tunes - so good!!

My newest commission is for a lovely lady called Sarah who has been on my facebook a few times leaving comments and likes (thanks Sarah), so I was over the moon when she asked for a design.

This is just one of the first sketches I drew up for Sarah and I can't wait to work together on getting the final design. Experimenting with the infinity symbol is a lot of fun!

I would like to add a wee note to the end of this post to say thanks to everyone who has asked me to design for them and those who have gone on to use the designs or get them inked. I really appreciate the work you have given me and have taken great pleasure in creating all the designs. A wee bit mushy I know, but hey!

If you are interested in a custom design please get in touch via email or Tweet Me

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

So I've seen the film and read the book and as usual the book trumps the movie. Considering the trailers that were released (the red band one was particularly good!) I knew this would be the case, but don't get me wrong I still enjoyed it.

I'm not one who takes things too seriously, especially my film taste. Years of working in shops have taught me many things, one of them being how serious some people take films, music and games. To the point of being a little arrogant and insulting as to their thoughts on other peoples tastes. Many a time I was told I was an idiot for liking some random film, or the fact that my love of a good blues bass line or guitar solo came from The Blues Brothers didn't make me a 'real' music fan. Each to their own I say!

Army of Darkness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've watched my fair share of 'rubbish' movies and have a fond love of the daft and ridiculous (Megashark Vs Giant Octopus is a perfect example) and I believe this sprung from my teenage obsession with The Evil Dead. Now I know Megashark makes something like The Evil Dead look like Citizen Kane, but its that element of daftness and ridiculousness that makes these movies fun, hilarious and so enjoyable -and in the case of the Evil Dead trilogy, downright frightening at times - Zombie Ash in ED2 freaks me out to this day.

So where am I going with this? Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter falls in to this B movie category for me. Its daft, ridiculous and fun and I don't think 15 minutes go buy without some sort of slow motion/bullet time axe slicing of a vampire. On some level we have The Matrix to thank for that.

Benjamin Walker did well and was believable as an axe wielding vampire slayer who reminded me constantly of Liam Neeson. Although I did eventually want him to announce that we should be excellent to each other and party on! Dominic Cooper was great as Henry too although this does lead me to the most disappointing parts of the film for me. Henry's origin in the book was far more interesting than the movie. We know that he must have some sort of history with Adam (Rufus Sewell), but we never find out what it was. In the book, however Henry is one of the English settlers who, with his wife is on a ship destined for America and along with John White they join the colony of Roanoke. I won't ruin it, but it does involvewhat actually happened to the colony and why CROATOAN was carved in to a post.

Another problem with the cast (and mainly from the point of view of a nutty Firefly fan) Alan Tudyk was dumped after only 2 or 3 moments on screen as Stephen Douglas and I don't even think he was credited. Considering his role in the book, this came as a bit of a shock, but I guess for a vampire movie they couldn't get too bogged down with the politics.

Considering the source material, there was a lot missed out of the movie and I imagine that some of it was filmed, but cut out for timing or some other reason. That, I suppose is the nature of a book adaptation.  Anyhoo, it was a good bit of fun and nice night out for me and the other half, so I enjoyed it. If you haven't read the book and find the concept remotely interesting, I would recommend it. I loved the blending of history with fiction and I'll admit I don't know much about Abraham Lincoln, but as usual a book and a movie makes me want to research, research, research! 

Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment or Tweet me

Visit Spread the Nerd on Scoop.It for nerdy things from around the interwebs!

Avengers Fans... Assemble!!

Tomorrow night will be a gathering of Nerd and Geek friends as we venture out together to the IMAX to see The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble as its being called in the UK)

The UK title makes me think of this...

Anyway... I've been pretty excited about The Avengers for a while now, but I admit I'm not even that much of a Marvel fan other than the X Men and my only knowledge of Thor was Norse mythology and Vincent D'Onofrio in Adventures In Babysitting!
The reason for my new found interest in Marvel is the quality of their movies in the last few years. I loved Thor, Iron Man was fun and Edward Norton's version of the Hulk was brilliant! Although I'm pretty gutted Edward Norton isn't returning, but I'm more than sure that Mark Ruffalo will be just as good.

I'm more a DC/Batman/Superman fan, but the more and more I watch and think about the new Batman series, the more I'm not that fussed for it. They are indeed cracking films but I, like many I've spoken to, just can't get in to Christian Bale as Batman. As Bruce Wayne he's great, but the voice just gets more and more irritating and I hope they tone it down a bit for The Dark Knight Rises. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the third movie and how the twist on Bane will work and I have some ideas in my head that I'd love to see, but I'm just too in love with the animated series and the Arkham Asylum/City games style of Batman to get too worked up about it.


Back to the Avengers -
The other reason I'm really looking forward to it is the Special Effects - they look fantastic! I love movies of all kinds and hate being told I'm not a "real fan of film" if I enjoy big budget SFX blockbusters. Well I say boo to you film snob! - The effects folk have, from what I've seen in the trailer, done a brilliant job of integrating their computer magic with real footage, if it is even real footage you sneaky bunch!

Another great example of  SFX for Marvel characters was the work done in Captain America, « (Click here for a short article on the FX). They did an awesome job with Steve Rogers. If you're interested I really do recommend checking out the special features on the DVD for a short documentary on how they did it - Fantastic stuff!

However, I am most excited about the fact that the wonderful Joss Whedon is directing! I'm a massive fan of  Mr Whedon and have been since my teens with Angel, Buffy and later, the beloved Firefly. Not much explanation needed there really - I love his work :D

I leave you with a bit of fisty cuffs between Iron Man and the Mighty Thor...

Have you seen The Avengers yet? What did you think? 

Leave a comment or Tweet me

Visit Spread the Nerd on Scoop.It  for nerdy things from around the interwebs!

The Woman in Black & The Woman in Front

The freedom of having a car is fantastic and something I took full advantage of this week when at the spur of the moment I suggested to Peter that we head to the cinema to see The Woman in Black. A story that has terrified me for a good while now, having seen the old ITV version and the stage play, I was pretty sure there would be points I'd find myself hiding from the screen in this new one. Unfortunately though I found myself hiding from something else entirely!

At the start of the trailers, the Woman in Front had her iPhone out texting. Fair enough I thought its only the trailers and she'll probably turn it off when the film starts.
I couldn't have been more wrong! All the way through the film she was either texting or updating her Facebook status. I eventually had enough and put my feet up on the seat in front and slouched down a bit in order to hide myself from the light of her phone, although she had kindly turned the brightness down before the film started, it really didn't make much of a difference!

This is something I've been experiencing more and more often and it really is getting beyond a joke. What is it with these people that they can't go 90 minutes without their phone or Facebook? Someone please tell me. Do they not think that the light will distract other movie goers? do they care? or do they even know?

I know I wasn't the only one distracted, so my question is would it be frowned upon if I had the guts to kindly tell her to turn it off as it is distracting? 

My other question is, where the hell did all the staff go? I remember cinemas always had an usher in to make sure there was no recording or noise. What happened to that? In the theatre its expected of me to 'Sssshh' people if they're making too much noise and to tell them to turn their phones off. Surely there is something cinema staff can do?

Normally if it's only one person with a phone I'm ok and can just about bear it, but when it comes to a movie like the Woman in Black that uses sound and silence to build up tension, having someone texting and gabbing to their mate about said text can ruin the whole moment!
The thing I don't understand the most is this.  The cinema can cost quite a bit now, so why do folk pay good money to go see a movie that they are going to ignore by playing with their phone?? Go home and watch telly!

Rant over!

Image via Wikipedia

As for the movie itself, it was pretty good. Different from the old one and the play and not quite as scary, but still enjoyable. And yes I did eventually end up hiding behind my knees... that bloody rocking chair!!  

Despite looking a bit young for the role,  Daniel Radcliffe did really well and I hope he does more roles like this as time goes on. Sound is used really well, making it feel like an old fashioned horror movie. It made me think of the original version of The Haunting which pretty much used sound and sound alone to scare the pants off the audience!!

The Haunting

So if you like a good scare then its worth seeing, just sit down the front so no one with a phone can shine it in your eyes!

If you want to see it, I'd recommend the 1989 version of the Woman in Black  too and if you ever get the chance to see the play, go for it and enjoy being scared!! (Just don't do what I did at work and sit at the back)

Had any bad cinema experiences lately or have you seen the movie yet? I'd love to hear your thoughts - please comment below or Tweet me

My First Car

I finally did it. In January I finally passed my driving test and on Saturday I bought my first car!
With the help of my Dad I bought a 1997 1.0L Volkswagen Polo, ok so its not the Volkswagen Bus I've dreamed of, but it IS a Volkswagen and I love it!

My wee car

When I drove it (her? people keep telling me to name it a girls name) it felt amazing. Finally the freedom I knew I'd get when I owned a car. You couldn't wipe the grin of my and Peter's faces as we casually and freely drove to Tesco to get Petrol and an air freshener. It was a fantastic feeling!! 

Now... ROAD TRIP!!

Please subcribe for further updates

Ode to Special FX and the Oscars

It's been a week or so since I watched the Oscar nominations being announced and for the first time I wasn't really interested.

I'll admit I haven't seen all the movies, but you could kind of tell what was going to be nominated. My main bug about them is the amount of nominations War Horse got. Now I loved the book and being a fan of Spielberg I was really looking forward to the movie. I was, however pretty disappointed and couldn't believe the press rated it so highly, but then if its Spielberg, Scorcese or Woody Allen they tend to love it no matter what.

War Horse was brilliantly shot, the cinematography was beautiful and Peter Mullen was subtly great as Alberts father, but it just felt a bit rushed and at two and a half hours I don't understand why. I didn't feel the connection to Joey and Albert that I had in the book or find myself caring too much about them finding each other. War Horse was good, but that's it and it's certainly not one of the best films released in the last year. I just hope the adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will be much better.

As time goes on I've been less and less interested in the main categories and more interested in the ones that don't get shown in the UK broadcast. Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual FX, and the Animation awards.

I love seeing these categories as this is where films that get ignored for the big awards get recognition for their skills and these are the folk that really make movies special!

I studied animation in uni and did a bit of Special FX so I understand (a bit) how certain effects are done, but I am still amazed by the things I see in films now. Nominated this year for Best Visual FX are Hugo, Real Steel, Transformers, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and of course Harry Potter. I've seen all but Hugo and think the effects were brilliant. Harry Potter's visuals have come so far since the 1st film which is fantastic, same with Transformers. Real Steel was a huge surprise - I knew that I'd like it, but I was surprised as to how enjoyable it really was. Planet of the Apes was a given as I loved the original, but again surprised at how much I enjoyed it and the explanation to how it all kicked off was brilliant. The effects just enhance the stories and really immerse real life with imagination!

Now I have heard the words "the special FX are rubbish" (with reference to Transformers) escape the mouth of an animator, among others and I have to say this really winds me up.

Now I understand that action/sci fi/giant robots/wizards and apes taking over the world might not be you're thing, fair enough, but at lest give the FX guys and gals some credit! They make the impossible possible and believable. The integration and compositing is just incredible! Muchos credit to the sound teams too - every punch Atom took in Real Steel made me wince.

I know some folk don't believe it or agree, but what effects artists do takes skill and talent and they work long, hard hours in front of a screen constantly getting every detail spot on.

Special FX and animation have come a long way since Windsor McKay and Orson Welles and we should embrace the evolution of film making. I honestly don't worry about old methods being forgotten and lost as I truly believe that they won't be. People like Georges Méliès, Ray Harryhausen and the wonderful Stan Winston made movies great and their magic will be remembered and treasured forever!

Thought I'd share this funny video too, it doesn't just apply to VFX folk, living with an animator has proved that! Do it myself sometimes when working with Illustrator. Enjoy :D Beware - there is some swearing!!

I'd love to know how you feel about Special FX or what your favourite movie is. Please leave a comment or Tweet Me

Subscribe for updates

The Boys Are Back In Town

Or should I say birds...
I heard a lovely sound this morning - birds singing. Winter is over and Spring is on the way. Although someone really should tell the weather in Scotland!

This means that the dark evenings are coming to an end and my over active imagination can stop freaking out about the zombie horde or werewolf that could possibly come crashing through the creepy bushes beside the bus stop as I wait for a driver to (possibly) pick me up. Yes, these things do cross my mind and I believe it was an over exposure to horror movies when I was a child! Michael Jackson & John Landis are mainly to blame for these fears!  Can you guess why??

Michael Jackson (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

This time of year always brings thoughts of travel to my mind and I long for any one of the number of places I'd love to see, South Africa, Budapest, Vancouver, Disney World, the steps that Rocky runs up in Philadelphia!

Budapest - The most beautiful city I have ever seen!

In true movie lover fashion, most of my dream destinations have been influenced by my favourite films. - Disney and the Lion King are fully responsible for my love of Africa and I know I'll get there someday, but I thought I'd share a different travel dream with you today.

It came out of a conversation between my other half and I. Both of us would like to go to San Francisco to visit Pixar and thought it would be cool to see Alcatraz too and then we got talking about a certain Michael Bay film.  Now I should point out that we are both big fans of Mr Bay and action movies in general and are openly mocked for this by quite a few people, but we are proud of our movie nerd status' and continue watching our mindless, but amazingly shot action films all the same!
 Anywhoo, one of the best action movies of all time, in my opinion, is The Rock . As Peter and I got to know each other, we discovered a joint love of Nic Cage, Michael Bay movies, the music of Hans Zimmer and the film itself, so it's kind of a personal movie for us and therefore would make a brilliant theme to our dream trip to the West Coast of America.

The Rock (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

We would visit the Palace of Arts, the Fairmont Hotel, The Golden Gate Bridge and of course Alcatraz. We'd also visit Pixar in Emmeryville and possibly swing by LA in a quick homage to Die Hard too!

After that, we'd come home and start planning our Die Hard With a Vengence/Rocky trip of the East Coast!

This is all in our dreams of course and we're going to have to wait a good while until we could ever afford a trip to San Francisco, I think a lottery win would definitely come in handy!

So with that I would like to wish all you lucky people making travel plans - Happy Trails and Yippe Kai Yay!

Would love to hear of anyone's amazing trips around the world. Leave a comment or Tweet me.

Please subcribe for further updates

Sketchbook - Fun & Potatos

I thought I'd share a quick doodle I did last night!

Was feeling a bit blue this week and needed some cheering up. After reading 2 inspiring posts by fellow bloggers Gisele and Leanne, I picked myself up, found a funny post on my other half's Rival Animation Facebook group and drew this.

I have to say, I've not been happier with one of my own creations for a while. I've been happy with commissions, but not my personal work. I find this amazing, that something so daft and silly can make me a happy bunny again!

Happy bunny (Photo credit: charenton)

Any ideas on what I could do with my new potato character? Leave a comment or Tweet me.