Juan illustration

Getting to grips with 3D

2012-02-04T03:09:00.000-08:00

I know I don't start my course until September but there have been a few niggling doubts going through my poor addled brain of late, the biggest being uncertain of how well I'd be able to learn computer programs in a short space of time (I've always relied more on paint and pencils) the other being actually thinking in three dimensions, rather than trying to make something 2D look like it could exist in a 3D world. so on my day off this week I thought, right I'm going to get to grips with this, so I downloaded a free trial of one of the programs that I would be learning, mostly to see how complicated it is...yes it's very complicated but after a few false starts and a couple of very helpful youtube videos I finally got my head around the basics of meshes and the like and even managed to construct my own mesh ready to sculpt onto:

I decided to work on my zombie character as it seemed like a simple albeit stylised design that I'm very familiar with, now I know that the mesh I built has a few errors, I know the arms are too long, I simply wanted to take a figure through the process, to see how it works, so once I was reasonably satisfied with the mesh I began to sculpt:

I tried to keep it in the style of the original drawing and I think it worked to an extent, I enjoyed the sculpting immensely, I must admit feeling advantaged when sculpting the clothes, having spent practically all of last year painting creases into shirts on 2d paintings, I lean't quickly that regarding the sculpt and particularly the face, that less is definitely more. Once I was done with the sculpt I decided to have a go at adding some colour:

I purposely kept this very basic as not to confuse myself, given how complicated every other process was on this program, i was surprised out how straightforward this was. The exercise did exactly what I hoped it would do, it has alleviated some of my worries about the programs and I'm very much looking forward to September. for a first go I don't think it's too bad :)

Chico & Rita nominated for an Oscar

2012-01-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

Quite out of the blue today I got an email from our producer on Chico and Rita informing me that it has been nominated for an Oscar. This is great news, if you recall I worked on that animation for a good long while (November 2008 until the end of February 2010, almost 16 months) It was a big and intense project filled with a great many ups and downs, but on the whole I'm pleased with my contribution to it. Its awhile since I've thought about that job and in hindsight I really miss our studio set up there. still onwards and upwards now at least I can go off to do my masters with a little confidence knowing that I worked on an Oscar nominated animation :)

Happy New Year!! The year gone, the year ahead.

2012-01-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit late with this post I know but hey. 2011 was an extremely busy and largely positive year for me (which I needed as 2009 and 2010, where less than great) the WTTN project took up most of my time and energy and the success of the project surpassed my expectations, I look back on that project with nothing but pride. I had felt for the previous couple of years, a bit stranded, not sure where my work was or where it was going, the illustration industry is still finding its feet after the credit crunch which has forced me (in a good way) to look for other outlets for my work and though 2011 was definitely a year of fine art for me, I've been looking long and hard about the strengths and weaknesses of my work since I began professionally.

This analysis has led me to see where I want to be, what else I want to do and I have realised that more training is necessary in order to do this, which lead me to applying to study my masters degree (which I start in September). The blog is going to change direction a little, in that I''m going to be experimenting with my style and work within an animated context. I will as always try to be more up to date with posts, for know though here's to 2011, it was a good year for me.

A slight change in direction

2011-12-06T00:51:00.001-08:00

I mentioned in the last post, that I felt a change was needed with the ever shrinking commissioning of print media illustration. So I have taken the giant step of applying to study an MA in 3D computer animation, I have applied to Bournemouth university (after some thorough research, they seemed to be the best), I have been through the application process and was offered an interview. So last week I went down to Bournemouth and had an extremely gruelling interview and had a good look at the course and the facilities there, wow it was amazing! and I'm very pleased to announce that I have been offered a place on the course to start in September 2012, and I can't wait!

No down time for me!

2011-11-27T00:22:00.001-08:00

Since I finished the year long and extremely demanding Welcome to the Neighbourhood project back in august, I've been hoping for some down time, it hasn't happened, I've had painting commissions coming out of my ears since then (which I'm not complaining about) and I was asked in September to teach an afternoon a week on the HND and Degree course up at college, I have avoided teaching since I started out simply because I know how easy it is to just do that and not work creatively. to my surprise though i actually rather enjoy it, and I'm now teaching 3 days a week, though I have no intentions of making this my career I will continue with it for this academic year.

I was also asked by he good folks at Tynwald Mills if I would organise an exhibition of artist's work to show over the Christmas period, we were given the old courtyard gallery (where I did my residency all those years ago) that is now an impressive 2 storey exhibition space, it was all very short notice but with a bit of hard work, and with only a week and a half's notice we got a an amazing professional looking show together showcasing the work of around 30 artists and students, well done to all involved.

On another note, I've noticed over the last couple of years a decline not only in the illustration commissions I get but in commissioned illustration in general and though both illustration and fine art have both been good to me in the past, I think a slight change in direction may be on the cards (and I do not mean teaching) I'll post more soon.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T01:42:00.000-07:00

The other day I was going through a few old files and I found some of the original drawings I did for a limited edition book I made, it brought back a lot of feelings, I remember how I came up with the idea for the book, I wasn't long out of university I think this was around the start of october 2006 and I was an artist in residence at a gallery, part of my job was to be present during tuesday evening's life drawing class, really just to make sure nothing got damaged, I wasn't allowed to participate either, but I had to stay there until 9ish at night ( I started at 9 in the morning) so tuesdays were long day for me. anyway I remember being very tired (I'd been painting all day) and I was bored of the internet, so I started doodling, doodled this little zombie in a Kurt Cobain like jumper and I was pleased with it, so i carried on drawing until I had a narrative. the next day I scanned all the drawings in, added a few, refined some, added some text and made it into a book. I would go on to do 3 other books in the same vain about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. in total I made 200 of each book and had sold them all by christmas of 2006. throughout 2007 I would go on to plan out 8 more of these narratives but I never released them as life seemed to get in the way.This year I have done virtually no drawing but I had done a massive amount of painting so I decided to redraw the zombie book, I hope you like.

If you are free this half term, come and have a look at this:

2011-10-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I did this.

2011-10-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

2011 has proved a unique year for me in that I have had the opportunity to work with many talented musicians and song writers, its mostly been a positive experience. So when the hugly talented Clara Barker asked if I would do her an artwork for upcoming live EP (available very soon on digital download) I was thrilled :) Aside form the EP being utterly amazing, Clara is great to go out and have a few beers with too. so you should all go and purchase Clara's wonderful music as soon as you can.

Prints and iphones

2011-10-10T02:55:00.000-07:00

I've been umming and arring whether or not to do this for awhile but, I've finally decided to give it a go, so far it seems okay, so if you fancy an art print of even if you want an iphone skin have a skeet at this, if there is any artwork I've done in the past that you would like to see a print of, then just let me know.its all here: http://society6.com/JuanMoore

I'm on Twitter now.

2011-10-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've put it off for long enough, so if your on twitter please come and join me here.

Current artwork samples 2011

2011-10-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

And Finally

2011-08-22T01:38:00.000-07:00

here is the youtube link to Emily Cook's (big thanks Emily) wonderful video about the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ4IVKxmlCU

I've been that busy wrapping up this project lately (literally in terms of taking the paintings down from the museum) I haven't really sat back to take stock of whether or not the Welcome to the Neighbourhood project was a success. It did everything I wanted it to do, I put on shows in places that would normally not even have exhibitions and as a result attracted hundreds of new people to art, I met every deadline and the shows were all presented in a professional manner and nothing fell down and hurt anyone which was great. So in that respect it was a success, there were also some things I learnt through the project too, I learnt a lot about the way in which I work and I'm very pleased about how my work has progressed throughout the project, also the GIGhibition blew everyone's minds and proved a big success, the collaboration between visual art and music was amazing and its something I would like to try again in the future.

but would I do something like this again. hmmm it did nearly kill me but yes I would like to take welcome to the Neighbourhood to a new place maybe a big city, even though this body of work is over, I doubt that its the last I'll have to do with Welcome to the neighbourhood.
I would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who came to the shows, attended the lectures and workshops, everyone who helped me with the shows and all the wonderful bands, I'd also like to thank everyone who has followed the project on facebook.

The Guardian the other week

2011-08-22T01:35:00.000-07:00

I also did this for the Guardian the other week;

update three: the Museum show

2011-08-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

So this was it! the culmination of the project and a year's worth of work and also my first museum show, I have to say working with Manx national heritage on this was an absolute pleasure, they really pulled out all of the stops for this one, amazing graphic boards, a video about the project, what more could I ask for, all the extra stuff we did along side the show, lectures, workshops and live painting events, they also made a very posh exhibition book for the project too (still available in the MNH gift shop). The preview went extremely well, with speeches and I even suited up for the occasion (try not to faint) well its not everyday you do a solo show at a museum.

update two: live painting

2011-08-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

So to coincide with the big final show at the manx museum I did some quite complicated lectures at the Manx Museum, the lectures take the form of a power point presentation which details the many influences I've had to my work, what makes the lecture complicated is that while discussing this I produce a painting in front of an audience, which is projected on the screen behind me via a mounted video camera, I do all of this in about an hour and a half (no pressure)

update one

2011-08-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know its been awhile, so I'm going to do this update in sections, so first off here is some pictures from the life and other nonsense preview back at the end of May..

Many people commented on how this was what they thought was the best of the work produced for the project, it certainly was easier to produce as apposed to the other exhibition which all had quite strict contexts to adhere to. It really is quite amazing what you can do with a dis-used office.

I know its been awhile :s

2011-08-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

a big update will be here very very soon, I've just been so Busy arrrrrgh!

What A Blurr

2011-06-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Okay just to update, show four was finished, hung and opened all on time to great success, we had plenty of visitors and it was all good fun, so thats the last of the shows I've had to produce for welcome to the neighbourhood. thats 100 paintings in about 8 months (what is it with me and the number 100?) so I'm taking a bit of a break right now. WTTN isn't quite over yet, we still have the museum show to do yet, but no new artworks have to be produced for that which is good but we are doing all manner of other crazy things while thats on, more on that soon..

here are some paintings from show 4:

and here is a nice right up from the BBC: here

SHOW 4!!!!

2011-05-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

I only have about 7 more images to paint for this show, it would be great if you could get down to see this show also if you would like an invite to the preview on Monday 30th May, just pop me an email.

yesterday's Guardian.

2011-05-08T04:59:00.001-07:00

Fantastic time lapse video by Glenn Whorrall

2011-05-02T01:40:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this awhile back, but never got round to it, the highly talented film maker and animator Glenn Whorrall made this great time lapse movie of one painting during the preview of the GIGhibition. I love it I think it's great.

Juan Moore Exhibition - Time-Lapse from Your Movie Crew on Vimeo.

still alive.

2011-04-25T01:07:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile, I've had the inevitable after exhibition illness, but alls well and I'm now working hard on the next show. the GIGhibition however did phenomenally well, we had well over 500 people attend the preview and all of the musicians where fantastic, sales were very high as well, all in all a great night, nowI'm off to work on show 4.

Thank you Isle of Man Arts Council

2011-04-01T02:08:00.001-07:00

It has occurred to me that I have not said thank you to the Isle of man Arts Council for funding my year long project, so this post is for you guys, thank you for funding Welcome to The Neighbourhood.

Wow what a busy month and sneak peek

2011-03-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

I can safely say that March 2011 has been a very busy month, I think the deadlines for this project are just getting shorter and shorter, anyway all of the artwork is now finished and been approved by all of the musicians involved in the project. It was weird promoting the show before I'd finished creating it, but hey it was a fun experience.

I've also really enjoyed working with musicians and songwriters for this show, it is something I would love to do again.

anyway here is a sneaky peek at some of the work...see you on Monday :)

Nice write up on the BBC about the upcoming show

2011-03-31T01:32:00.000-07:00

you can see it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-12892510

Exhibition 3

2011-03-03T00:24:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a bit of awhile since my last update, but rest assured I have been hard at work on exhibition 3. So here it is, just under a month away and despite being ill, my sister and my nieces invading I'm about halfway through the artwork for the project, the image used for the poster is entitle "Hospital Patio" and is based on the song by Planes over Paris. I have been very fortunate to work with all of the very talented bands and musicians in this project. More details to follow..

Work Work!

2011-02-08T01:39:00.001-08:00

So after having literally a day off after the last show finished, I have begun work on exhibition number 3, this show is a little different, as it is also a GIG as well, essentially what is happening is that I'm working with 5 singers / bands, the idea being that I create images based off of their songs, so it will be an interesting night, I have the venue confirmed and all five of the acts I'm working with.

I have to say I feel very privileged to be working with such amazing musicians, the songs everyone has submitted are amazing. I will announce who these extremely talented people are soon.

The show is Due to open on April 4th at the villa Marina arcade.

One night stand opening night photos

2011-01-28T02:29:00.000-08:00

Finally got round to uploading some photos to the WTTN face book page, you can join here.

here are some from the one night the show was on:

all photos are copyright Rosie Irvine 2011.

I made the News :)

2011-01-18T00:56:00.000-08:00

Last night's one night show went really well with an excellent turnout and good sales, the hanging went very smoothly with only a few issues with hanging (thanks so much Nic! you are a genius) I will post some pics once I've picked them up from rosie later in the week, no I'm going to sleep for about a week I think.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion! Panic.

2011-01-16T02:55:00.000-08:00

Well, we open exhibition number 2 tomorrow, it all seems to have come around very quickly, I won't lie but I am really nervous about this show, I'm happy with the work I produced for it, it's just the time of year. I have never done a show in January before simply because it's really hard to get people to come to exhibitions during this time of year let alone try and sell work.

The Courthouse is a fantastic venue and it is also one of the larger venues of the whole project. I'm sure all of this last minuet nerves and aside from the nervousness I'm really excited about the show, It's also getting some good promotion through local media:

BBC article

Also Here

You can Also follow the project on Facebook

The Photo of me looking a bit confused is courtesy of Rosie Irvine, whose work can be seen Here

Ok wish me luck, I'll post some photos of the show and give an update of how it went on tuesday.

One night stand sneak peek!

2011-01-09T03:29:00.000-08:00

Just about a week until the second Welcome to the Neighbourhood show opens at the courthouse, I finished painting last Thursday so as promised here is a sneaky peek at some of the 30 artworks that make up the show. wish me luck!

Finished!!!

2011-01-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

Just finished all the art for show number 2, now to start properly promoting show number 2 :) I'll post some sneaky peeks soon.

News

2010-12-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

Ok Big News the Next show which will be at the Courthouse is nearing completion, Please see the poster for more details either call me on 321325 or email me at runswift@hotmail.com.
The other exciting news is that I'm pleased to announce that the final show (the one that show cases all of the work from all the exhibitions of this project) has been confirmed and will open at the Manx Museum in July 2011 ! (Yay!)

Yesterday's Guardian

2010-12-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy painting for the next show which is looming ever closer, that I'd completely forgotten that last week I did another commission for The guardian, which came out yesterday.

Learning, exhibition announcement.

2010-11-29T11:47:00.000-08:00

So as part of the Welcome to the neighbourhood project, I've spent the last couple of weeks going to the high schools on the island and doing workshops on conceptual thinking (the process I use to come up with artwork ideas) I must say there are a number of very talented young people around and I do hope some of them take it further.

I must say I'm very pleased with some of the work produced in the workshops and as a result some students work will feature in the final show.

Chico & Rita (the animation I worked on for 15 months) premiered last Thursday, myself and some of the team I worked within went to see it, it was nice to see the end result, having never seen the fully finished film, it was nice to finally close the book on the project which my involvement began in November 2008.

unfortunately I'm now very far behind with the work for the next show.

The next show "One Night Stand" will be at the courthouse bar on 17th January 2011, so I'd best get painting.

Exhibition 2 and procrastination

2010-11-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

Now all the excitement (and stress) is over from the first show, I'm now ready to begin work properly on the second exhibition. I did a painting yesterday but felt it was far too similar (in colour at least) to the work produced for carpe diem. I think for this next body of painting I may try and combine the painterly styles from Carpe Diem with a more bold graphic composition.

Much of the last show was about backgrounds and clouds (and fish) so may move focus on the human figure more for this show.

I think I will begin properly on this on thursday and aim to have 5 paintings done for Monday (believe me I need to set myself these little deadlines or nothing would ever get done, I am an olympic level procrastinator after all.

First show is up!

2010-11-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

Even though it was a dark and horrible night the attendance for the first part of the show was brilliant, Tanroagan (the venue) was packed from opening to closing, the show had a great friendly and relaxed atmosphere even though it was so busy. I managed to sell a large number of works at the show (something I wasn't sure would happen given that this show was not in a gallery). It was a good mix of people there too, there were a number of MHKs (manx politicians), the mayor of Douglas as well as People who were interested in the project, all in all a very good night. I'm now going to take a well deserved break for a day or two before working on show number 2, which is due to open in mid January.

here are some photos courtesy of Rosie Irvine:

Almost time for the first show.

2010-10-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Ok all the paintings are framed and ready. I've almost finished the 30 drawings for place mats for the restaurant (thats a total of 50 images about fish..not an easy thing to do) I've been very busy for the last two weeks promoting the project and the show, through posters, invites, press interviews and the like.

Its been unexpected how difficult and time consuming it is, normally the gallery does all of that stuff and a good gallery does it really well.

any way I did an interview with the BBC yesterday and you can see it here.

Carpe Diem Baby!

2010-10-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

Right after almost two straight months of painting (and little else) this show is is just about ready. there will be 20 (much bigger than normal) paintings based around the theme of fish. The paintings have come out somewhat surreal (as you might expect) but I'm very pleased with the out come. if you have not been invited and would like an invite, then please email me. once the show is open I'll post some pics.

Its all go!

2010-10-09T03:20:00.000-07:00

The project is off the ground and I've almost finished all of the work for the first show.
you can now join on facebook to follow the project: Facebook

Welcome to the Neighbourhood!

2010-09-29T01:49:00.000-07:00

1 year, 5 shows!
Welcome to the neighbourhood is a series of temporary
exhibitions over the space of a year in places that an art exhibition
wouldn’t normally be seen. The Idea behind this project is to show
art (and a lot of it) outside the context of an art gallery. The
premise of most of Juan’s previous art has been to cut through the
stigma and pretention of “high” fine art and make it more
accessible to everybody instead of just those well versed in
contemporary art and art history, these exhibitions also aim to
show the art working alongside and within the community. Each of
the exhibitions will not simply have a theme but will be very site
specific. Each of the shows will have a preview evening and each
show will be displayed in its unique location for about two weeks,
there will be final show of all of the artwork at the end of the
project.

The project is supported and fully funded by the Isle of Man Arts council.

first show opens 1st November 2010

another Teaser

2010-08-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

Look what just got Arts Council funding!!!

2010-08-20T01:08:00.001-07:00

work is well underway and I will shed some more light on this project soon.

This weekend's Guardian

2010-08-15T03:08:00.001-07:00

I got to have a whole page to myself as well as 2 spot illustrations on the following double page spread....woo hoo!

Today's Guardian

2010-07-31T02:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd also show a bit of the process of a commissioned illustration. What normally happens is that I get a call asking if I'm available, I then get a bit of a verbal description of what it is that the client wants me to do, some times referencing colour or other work I've done in the past, but mostly describing the context of the illustration. I then get emailed the copy (the article I'm illustrating) I then read through the copy a couple of times and try and work out the feel or crux of the piece, this becomes my starting point. I then start doodling to come up with a very rough idea of what the copy is talking about. once I have an idea I work on the compositional elements of the piece and produce a rough:

After emailing the rough attached with colour notes to the art director, we then have have a chat about the image, in this case it was felt that the stress aspect was too much and that the begging hands and bike was enough, so I got the go ahead to do the final artwork. a few hours later its finished it's emailed off, all being well the art director then approves the artwork (or asks for changes) and a few weeks later it appears in print.

Teaboy!

2010-07-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

15 min painting on paper

2010-06-29T07:31:00.001-07:00

finished painting

2010-06-17T02:03:00.000-07:00

Currently on the Drawingboard.

2010-06-08T01:52:00.000-07:00

I've been commissioned to do a CD cover / itunes image for a rather excellent band called The heights. here is the initial painting:

I was worried I was going to gory but after speaking to Sarah (lead singer) It seems It is to be gorier (which I like a lot) so I will make the necessary changes and post the finished artwork up here when its done.

New idea for portfolios

2010-05-23T03:32:00.001-07:00

I've been planning on updating my portfolio for quite some time now, its shocking that i haven't updated the thing in almost 18 months and I got to thinking about how much tougher it is to get your work noticed than it was when I first started out. so instead of re organising and printing new pages for a folder I decided to try something new. I used a very underused feature on iphoto to arrange jpegs of my work into photo album (books). i decided to do an experiment and organise my fine art (not my illustration just yet) into their appropriate exhibitions and make books of each one.
it took about a day to do each and a week for the books to arrive from apple. when they did I was extremely impressed with the hard back books that arrived in slip cases. the cost of each wasn't too bad either, still less than what i would have paid out in printing to do a portfolio the normal way. I think I may do one for my illustration work and plan a trip to london and attempt to get some illo work that way. though it will have to wait a little while as I have a few projects up in the air at the moment. these books were an experiment worth doing.

Mannanan

2010-04-11T06:12:00.001-07:00

After finishing work on the paintings for the DoE, I've been mucking around with the subject matter a bit as I don't have much freelance work on the go at the moment. I'm in the process of altering my work a little, I'm trying to do more work with out out the odd little black figure I've been using over the last few years. I've always liked fantasy artwork, so maybe in this down time, I'll do a little more of that, any way this is just a messing around piece, just trying things out really.

quick update

2010-03-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

well since finishing the animation at the beginning of this month and after having a very very very drunken and enjoyable wrap party I have managed to hit the ground running and just finished a number of paintings for the Isle of man department of eduction based around manx folk lore, I'm not entirely sure what purpose the will serve, but I did enjoy doing them. I have also invested in a new printer and scanner, which will hopefully arrive soon, after a number of years loyal service my old printer and scanner have died. right on to the next job now.

It' over

2010-03-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

As of sunday Feb 28th, my part as a digital colour artist on the animated feature 'Chico & Rita' has come to its end, production here on the Isle of man will completely cease a week today. a few of us have been on the project since it began production on the island 15 months ago, most others have been on it for about 12 or 13 months, so it is a bitter sweet fare well to my time on the project, I have worked within a great team of people and I will very much miss the insane things we have spoken about throughout this project.
but on to new and exciting things, I'm currently working on some images commissioned by the dept. of education over here, which is good fun, One of the things I have discovered about working on Chico & Rita is that though i love working as an artist and illustrator, it is a somewhat solitary profession. So whilst I have relitivley little work on the go at the moment, I'm contemplating getting together a body of work that would allow me to apply for some more team based work. so I am going to focus for a few months on concept work, storyboards, maybe environments as well. so I'll see how it goes.

Illustration friday: propagate

2010-02-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

finally got round to doing something for illustration friday's topic, its also my last week on the animation this week, so it was excellent practice for going back to doing this full time, I'll do a big update soon, proberbly in the next week or so.

wordless narrative

2010-01-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Going through old files, updating my portfolio and I came across this:

I used to do a lot of these odd little sequential narratives, they are good fun, just making the story up as you go along is good fun, on a side note, this piece actually got me some storyboarding work once.

my top 10

2010-01-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

The other day while talking to a very nice girl who was buying one of my pictures, she asked me out of all the artworks I have ever made which was the one I loved the most. This got me thinking. I have done plenty of images that I have not liked that much, but art that I've loved... that's much tougher so I have decided to show here, in no particular order, my top 10 images that I have created:

The government hates creativity: I did this the day I got a somewhat rediculous tax bill right after new year in January 2009. I was miffed, this made me feel better, the fellow who bought the piece, told ne he felt the same way and I believe he was an ex government employee, I ended up doing 3 paintings like this.

The Day I realised my own mortality: again another one which has appeared here before, but I like it because it just sums up how I feel from time to time, its resuring when someone buys a piece like this as you feel less insane for making the statement.

The Last dream: I was mostly really pleased with the sea in this one, and how painterly it all turned out, which in five inch square I found difficult, I had grown a bit bored of mixed media when I did this one towards the end of 2008, it kind of made me fall in love with painting again, though at the time of writing this I'm growing bored of painting so who knows where to next.

We all came from fish: I did this mid way through the 100 paintings phase, just a silly image I like because it was all getting quite serious and i was terrified I wouldn't be able to deliver 100 paintings on time.

Dying: This is on odd one, very dark, but people loved it, I could have sold it six times over, I made a limited edition print of 50 and sold them all on pre-order, its awhile since I looked at this one, I do feel good about it, I will I think rework it somehow.

Born of Tree: I think this was the first image I did for my first exhibition, for a long time its what I used to promote that show as well, a lot of people ask me what the antlers in my work symbolises, they mean responsibility, leaves often mean the opposite, freedom care freeness.

If the body is just a shell, then where is my soul? I now this has appeared on here more than once before, this image just worked well for me, it looked like it did in my head, I remember the gallery being concearned with the grizzly nature of the piece, in the end though it was well received and I was kind of sorry to it go when it was sold.

I'm more of a Night person: This was one of the last paintings I did for my first exhibition, at the time I was really hoping to create an image for the poster, at the time I found I was doing more work at night than any other time so that was definitly where it come from, odly this is the most successful piece I have done to date, it won 2 painting awards, also I never sold it instead I gave it away to a good friend of mine.
Live or Die by caffine: created for my first exhibition in 2007 this piece, took maybe an hour at most to come up with and then to create, it happened on one of those rare days when I get an idea every 4 seconds or so, I think I did about 6 paintings that day, this was also one of the first images to sell at my exhibition.

Evolution: this is possibly the oldest image in my portfolio, done somewhere near the start of 2006 or possibly even the end of 2005. I like this as even though it didn't turn out like the image I had in my head, I nailed my mixed media style with this peice, something I had struggled with for quite some time.

So there you have it, these are my personal faves, not technically the best but I like them all for diferent reasons, maybe you agree and maybe you don't.

goodbye 2009, hello 2010

2010-01-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

my apologies I have been very slack the last few months, the work on the animation has been pretty much all I've been doing of late, but that will change very soon so as of Feb 28th 2010, out department will be finished on the project and will thus be disbanded, I have mixed feelings about this on one part I will miss the people I have been working with for the last 15 months on the other hand I will like to get back into the art side of things full time. on that note I have many grand ideas concearning that, but for now here is a highlight of 2009:

I've not been slaking!!!

2009-11-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Rest assured I've been kept very very busy of late, I'l post an update very very soon, along with some new images, my work is heading in a whole new direction now.

Look what came in from the printers today!!!

2009-09-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

I gotta say I think that Yee and myself have done a fantastic job on the zombie book, I just got the first issue back from the printers and I have to say it does look rather swish. just one more book to get ready for the show now. If you would like to order a book please let me know or come on down to the launch on October 5th at the Here and Now gallery down in Falmouth, cornwall. Yay!

2009-08-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

No sooner than One exhibition is done and over, the prep for the next begins a new, I have to say though of all the shows this year that my work will appear in (around 7) this is the one I'm looking forward too the most. not only is it in the town where I went to uni, but it is also with my good friend, collaberator and fellow illustrator Yee Ting Kuit.

we have also launched our own small press and will be producing comics, books and magazines together under the name Chalk & Cheese.

What makes this show even more special (and not to be missed) is the fact that we will be releasing two books at the show as well as showing you some wonderful artwork.

our first two titles will be Chalk & Cheese issue 1 the first issue of our new bi-monthly illustration / art magazine. and volume 1 of Zombies like you and Me part one of seven comics.

so this show is not to be missed!!!

Lorient

2009-08-14T01:39:00.000-07:00

The show was great fun, I met some wonderful people and all the other artists were great fun too. the exhibition itself (comprised of 8 artists from around europe) worked very well with every one's work complimenting each other's work well. As well as having a grand time, I even managed to sell some work too.

the whole experience has really inspired me to crack on with more work.

so off I go.

business cards

2009-07-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

a must for any professional artist or creative are business cards, I've experimented with them for years, from trying to print my own, to paying out to get them done, to using templates in all honesty i've never had much luck until now... check these guys out they rock... http://uk.moo.com/en/ very impressive and very affordable.

Busy Busy

2009-07-11T05:11:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to say I'm busy gettung all my exhibition stuff sorted out for the comming months.

Zombie sneaky peak

2009-07-06T02:21:00.001-07:00

by now you will have noticed the new banner at the top, and here is the first sneaky peek at project Zombie, that myself and Yee have been working on for over a year now. I can't really say too much more about the project other than it will be coming soon, though in what incarnation I can't say yet.

Here is all 100 paintings

2009-07-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

So here is what all 100 paintings look like all together. this is the last time i'll go on about this I promise, I'm very pleased with the way this project went nd it did indeed test me in just about every way imaginable, but it was done on time and did prove a success, now on to even bigger and more exciting things.

exhibition photos

2009-07-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

obviously these photos were taken while the gallery was closed, just after the show was hung, the day before it opened to the public. I really just wanted to show how much space 100 paintings really takes up, the show actually took up the entire exhibition space and half of the shop area of the Sayle gallery.

I hadn't realized it had been so long...

2009-07-04T09:58:00.001-07:00

Wow Cant believe it's been four months since I last updated this blog. I guess I'd best fill you in on what has happened. well the exhibition kicked off to great success and was recieved very well by all who went to see the show. I managed to sell just over half of the 100 paintings, which in theses financially grim times was fantastic. the zombie project is now 100% complete and I may have some exciting news about that soon (fingers crossed).

I also have a very busy summer ahead of me. I have been selected to represent the Isle of Man at this year's lorreint celtic festival, of which I've just completed the work for, the exhibition will represent artist's from every celtic country in the world and the festival normally gets around 650,000 visitors, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. in october I will be having a joint show at the here and now gallery with my collaborator, friend and fellow illustrator Yee Ting Kuit, of which I am very much looking forward too. I will hopefully not leave it so long until my next update.

Not long now!!

2009-02-28T01:31:00.000-08:00

As the poster says, in just over a month the exhibition opens, I should have finished all the artworks for the show by tomorrow, 100 paintings has been far more challenging than I could have ever anticipated, I won't lie though, I am a little worried about sales in these uncertain times, but my main and I know it's Dave's main objective is simply to put on a really good show.

SALES!!

2009-02-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Despite the credit crunch crippling me initaly, over xmas I managed to sell at least one piece in every show I had work in which was great, above is one of them :)

Its been a little while (sorry)

2009-02-01T13:37:00.001-08:00

This is an image I did for the Guardian last week..

I know its been a little while since I last updated anything, rest assured though I've been extreamly busy of late, I'm currently working full-time in the field of animation and will be for at least another year. so any tiny gap of free time I have is spent desperatly working on my 100 paintings exhibition which opens on april 2nd at the sayle gallery. I am going to make a conserted effort to update more often this year however.

Sayle Gallery Design work

2008-12-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the information leaflet covers I was commissioned to design for the sayle gallery, I also designed some signage for the outside, which I will post once I've photographed it. I'd also like to point out that I designed the gallery's logo, that was based on one of the late Norman Sayles abstract landscape paintings in 2007

Christmas exhibitions

2008-12-01T00:20:00.001-08:00

As well as having two images in the awesome Bute space gallery in Cardif, I also have three images in the Sale gallery Christmas show (of which I also designed the poster for) the show will be on alongside David lloyds solo show to mark the grand opening of the gallery at it's larger new premises.

Today's Guardian

2008-11-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Though the credit crunch has pretty much destroyed most of my freelance work of late, here is a piece that I did for this Saturday's Guardian, I'm pretty pleased with it and it was nice to work with a different format, instead of a square.

Messing around with digital stuff

2008-10-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

For awhile now I've been wanting to have a crack at trying some more digital artwork, so since I currently have no major jobs on and all my gallery work is taken care of, and i so desperatly need a break from the 100 paintings (of which I've done 65 now) I thought i'd give it a crack, so here we are the first f some old drawings I've coloured on photoshop.

Faraway thoughts

2008-09-29T02:50:00.000-07:00

here are some paintings about odd whimisical thoughts that may look good as an interesting regular cartoon somewhere.

update city

2008-09-28T03:49:00.001-07:00

Okay after a brief break, I'm back painting again now, I'm going to aim to have done another ten this week, bringing the total up to 61. I'm hoping to get this project finished by the end of November, then I can move on to something new.

A REALLY SNEEKY PEEK

2008-09-01T09:01:00.001-07:00

Okay, since I have no reached the halfway point of my colossal project of 100 paintings (thats right I've managed 50 in 2 months) I thought I'd give a sneak look at just a few, I have a few hush hush things going on at the moment, involving this project (should be able to update on that net week) as well as secret projects involving zombies, comics and Yee!

Last weekend's guardian

2008-09-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

this was the most recent peice I did for the guardian, I was quite with it, though the blue did come out a bit too blue unfortunatly but there you go.

Todays guardian

2008-07-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

Its wierd that that the one before this was love related too, not sure why these things come about like this. this is now the 15th illustration I've done for the guardian, and I must say I do like this one.

100 drawings

2008-07-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well this is what started my current mamath mission of 100 paintings, 100 drawings, the show was a huge success and though people loved the drawings it was the fact that I'd produced so many that gave it the wow factor. each drawing was 10cm wide and 15cm tall and were presented in clear plastic with an oversized mount. on a side note 100 unframed drawings is a pitch to display and took up alot more space than I had thought.

My piece in last Saturday's guardian..

2008-07-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

It's all about the love ...

a sneeky peek

2008-07-21T04:23:00.000-07:00

this is the first painting for my forthcoming exhibition in Febuary, this is the first of 100 paints, I've since done 20 so I'm doing ok so far, I just have to stay focused :D

A Quick update

2008-07-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

well, things have been very busy over the last month or so, I had some work in an exhibition at ronaldsway airport on the Isle of Man, I've completed the bulk of the work on the zombie book with Yee (that was a good two months of working on nothing else but that). I'll post some stuff from that very soon.

The Sayle gallery (where a lot of my work appears) has closed for the summer getting ready for its big reopening in its new larger premises in the fall, I've just started work on illustrations for a music book with the Manx heritage foundation. I'm still producing illustrations for the guardian weekend magazine, the next one is in on the 19th so look out for that one.

and as a follow up to my "100 drawings" exhibition, I've just completed painting no. 1o for an exhibition of 100 paintings in feb 09 at the Sayle gallery. so yeah its all mad at the moment.

oh and if life wasn't complicated enough, I've just moved house.

project Zombie

2008-05-14T04:21:00.000-07:00

I should really mention about the project that has been eating up all of my time at the moment, I'm currently working on a graphic novel with the mazing Yee Ting Kuit, I'm just getting ready to stat the final chapter today, one omleted i will have drawn 160 pages, by far the largest body of work that both yee and I have ever done.

well I'll post some images soon, what this book is about is zombies and other horific things though i should say that its a comedy and faily light hearted but also its fairly ironic too.

you can see some of Yee's work on the link bar to the right.

exhibition stuff

2008-05-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

More exhibition stuff

2008-05-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

Heres a few more pics from the Exhibition, again if you would like to know anything about them, just ask.

2008-05-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

heres some more stuff from the exhibition, i should say that all this stuff has sold, however I do work to commissions. I'll post some more stuff tomorrow, as I'm dying of man flu right now.

2008-05-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Heres is some other stuff from the 2007 exhibition, if you would like to know anything about them, just ask.

Born of Tree

2008-05-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

I think this was the first image I did during my residency, I remember being really pleased with it because I had to do the whole thing with the general public watching me, I was quite nervous when I began the residency at the gallery and did find it hard to get used to people watching me. this image is mixed media: Acrylic, collaged paper, photos of leaves and newspaper

Where to begin...

2008-05-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

.... at the beginning of course. As a lot of you will know, My name is Juan Moore and I graduated from Falmouth college of arts (now university college Falmouth)in 2006 with a first class BA (Hons) degree in illustration. So what happened next I hear you ask. Well since graduating my work has appeared all over the place really, from the Guardian newspaper to fine art galleries, I'll post some artwork later on.

In 2007 I had my first solo exhibition of 67 artworks of which I managed to sell over 60 of them, not bad for someone that no one has ever heard of before. Anyway the whole point of this blog really is to try and get more work, and to show people what I'm up to with out having to spend six weeks building a new website and loosing my mind in the process.