As Imbolg and the renewed energy of spring (it already feels like spring here in Montreal thanks to climate change) arrives, I’m taking this time to reflect on the start of this year, take stock and set some intentions and priorities for the months to come.
Starting in December me and Hex decided to really focus the start of our year on improving our creative spaces and processes and also to take our art more seriously. This has led the start of 2024 to be a time of pretty drastic change. Our apartment has changed a lot, we donated a lot of things we didn’t needed anymore, put some more in deep storage in order to keep only what’s relevant to the work we are doing now and in the future along with some pieces from the past that inspire us. I now have three well-defined work areas in my studio space; the main one with the computers and light table where I do most of my drawing, one with a large cutting mat for printed projects and large scale drawing (that also doubles as a tattoo station when I want to do that) and a third one that’s more like a tiny woodworking workshop. This is still a work in progress and I’ll probably be spending a good part of this month finessing the details of my studio space and changing things around as I figure out what works best but I should be able to make a little tour for you in the coming weeks :)
Now, for some side projects I worked on during the month:
Business Cards for Reliquaire Perçage
One of my friends who’s doing piercing has reached out in January to have some business cards made. The brief was to draw a reliquary containing different piercing jewelry. I took the opportunity to do something pretty old school with the shiny chrome effect and picked some of my favorite fonts to go along with it.
Logo for Fall of Stasis
Alongside the sleep paralysis-themed illustration I did for the band, I also redid their logo and sigil. I went with a very expressive and sharp fraktur variation for the logo, building and improving on their old logo. It had been a while i had work with vectors for that kind of work but it was more fun than I remember, it makes it quite easy to reuse parts of some letters to make other ones and make the whole lettering piece feel more consistent.
Lyric Video for Kerosene Heart
As a normal progression from a short teaser we did a while ago for the Kerosene Heart, me and Hex worked on a Lyric video for the full song last month. I played around with color overlays, creative editing and a variety of fonts to illustrate the feeling of the different sections (including a custom font i made for the bridge).
This month of February will be focused on a couple things for me: finishing the layout and the cover illustration for the Northern Lands booklet of Pious Rot, making a visualizer for the full Ecstasy in Darkness album by VOIDXWITCH. I’m also gonna be working on next month’s Occult Correspondence print and I want to do some photography experiments with color filters.
Reading:
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin
- Dice Men by Ian Livingstone
Watching:
- Season 5 and 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Heaven adores you (2014)
Listening to:
- Better way to live by Kneecap
- Return to Winterstead by Guild of Lore
- Middle Earth by Jim Kirkwood
Playing:
- Elden ring