“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

This week’s Creative Mondays piece is just a nice reminder to myself. I’m only at the beginning of a big adventure and there’s so much still to learn. There’s so much inspiration out there and if you’re a budding designer/illustrator or creative person in general then I’d suggest getting yourself on Twitter and explore the plethora of talent and knowledge. You can find me there @jasonwstanley

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

This week’s creation ties in with another project I used for #7 of this series. This is officially my second entry into the Photoshop contest that’s currently running on PhotoshopCafe. This time the fake film is all about a robot designed to help and protect humanity. Something (as per usual) goes wrong and the robot turns on the people and begins a destructive rampage wreaking havoc on anything in his path.

Initially the idea was to create a film based on a robot that becomes the first to be accepted alongside humans. I had created the entire robot but purely by accident added the head onto this image and it struck me with more impact. I may decide to go back and attempt the original concept.

So here’s hoping this entry does well. I had a lot of fun experimenting with various textures and images. To pull it all together into one design was great!

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

This week’s Creative Mondays piece is inspired by none other than Star Wars. My wife and I just finished watching the entire 6 film Blu-ray set and it never fails to impress me. The battles in space were awe-inspiring and as a kid I would try and watch every detail as the X-Wings took on the TIE Fighters.

With this piece I wanted to show the movement, chaos and excitement of the battles as the Rebel Alliance attempt to take down the Death Star and put a stop to the evil Emperor and Darth Vader.

What I loved about creating this was the fun I had. I sketched out a few ideas but mainly it was experimentation and seeing where the idea would take me. Sometimes it’s nice to free yourself from the usual boundaries and guidelines.

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

This week’s Creative Mondays piece comes in the form of a blu-ray cover design I entered for a competition on PhotoshopCafe. The competition requires that you must “Design a ficticious Blu-ray cover that can include an original illustration, photograph, photomanip, collage, whatever you like, as long as Photoshop is used somewhere in the creation of the piece.”

Being the massive fan of outer space and galaxies that I am I chose the Photoshop filter ‘Solarize’ as my element to parody. The sun is rapidly becoming a supernova and the Earth will soon meet it’s fate… the remaining population must find a way to get off the planet to safety! Something along those lines.

It’s a great competition and what’s more I’ve joined a forum of enthusiastic artists that like to discuss and share their work. The competition is free to enter and finishes on the 31st of January! You can check it out here.

Photo by: Toomas Järvet http://www.stuudio.net/toomas

Photo by: Gary Cowles http://www.garycowles.com

Photo by: screwcity http://www.sxc.hu/profile/screwcity

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

This week was all about down-time. I have had about ten days off and as much as I tried I wanted to stay away from to many hours in front of the computer. That didn’t work, so I created something that I’d like to use to inspire others (and myself) to be more creative this year! I used the stock photo site http://www.sxc.hu/to gather some images and a pretty sweet ‘swirls’ brush that was designed by Mel Rodicq.

Happy first Monday in 2012!

So another year is upon us and here’s hoping it’s going to be a good one! I felt that 2011 was the year I made my real start on this site and pushed my creativity to a new level. 2012 will be all about that and more.  To all my family, my friends (new and old) and to all those that check out my site I’d like to wish you a Happy New Years and all the best for 2012. Let’s make it awesome!

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

The FWA or (Favourite Website Awards) has been showcasing Flash Website design for over 10 years and was one of the original inspiration sites that I would go to whilst studying at university. Although much has been said recently about the state of Flash and it’s unknown future, there’s clearly an immense amount of talented work going on with the platform.

One aspect of the FWA site that always catches my eye is their wallpaper section. Artists are encouraged to create a wallpaper in any style of their choosing using the FWA logo in some shape or form. With it being so close to Christmas I choose a winter theme for my wallpaper. I’ve submitted it to the site but even if it doesn’t make it up I’d like to be able to share it as something I’ve been working on over the holiday period! Happy Holidays!

You can download the full image wallpaper on my Flickr page!

It’s that time of year and what an awesome year it’s been! Settling down to some time with family and friends and a nice break to recharge those creative batteries!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday and I look forward to 2012. Bigger, brighter and beautiful!

Jason.

“What is Creative Mondays?

Monday’s are always a drag. The start of a new week, you have to go back to that routine of going to bed early/get up early. If (like me) you have to commute then you prepare for that long journey into work and that long journey back for the first time after a nice two day break.

So to kick off those lousy Mondays, I’m going to get my creative mind flowing in a positive way. Creative Mondays. A chance for me to show off something unfinished or finished that I’ve been working on throughout the previous week.”

I usually get a phrase stuck in my mind with the intention of creating something around it but never follow through with the idea. With the help of Creative Mondays I have a feeling that a great deal of work that will pop up on these posts will be representing just those phrases!

Would be nice to keep all my ideas in a container that I could just sprinkle out and complete a great artistic recipe!

This week’s Creative Mondays piece comes from a project I heard about on Twitter earlier in the week. The project created by @ph7labs entitled Illuniverse enables artists/illustrators to submit their own created planets onto a website showcasing their work. The aim is to create an entire universe with a variety of different styles.

The project seems to have taken off pretty well and you can already see a nice selection of styles from artists around the world. As an added bonus, each planet links back to it’s creator’s website and serves as a brilliant resource to explore a very creative collection of people!

What’s great about this project is that it’s an open idea. The brief is very open leaving you to create pretty much anything you want!

My first planet (I call Reddy) was an exploration from scratch. I sketched out a circle and drew whatever came into my head. I then worked on fleshing the planet out in Photoshop and the result seems to be some sort of red dripping spotted planet with a double halo ring!

The idea for my second planet was an homage to a scene from The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo and his companions land the Millenium Falcon on an asteroid in an attempt to escape from the Empire. I created this planet in Illustrator as I rarely work in this program and wanted to expand my knowledge. Watch the clip below to see the scene that I’m talking about.

So I hope you enjoy these little guys and be sure to check out the entire collection over at Illuniverse.com!