stuck up north

the new sketchbook.

its a leuchtturum1917... and its orange. although more of a notebook, with its numbered pages and contents section, it's actually pretty nice to draw on. the pages are incredibly smooth and even though the paper is light, the ink does not seem to blot through.

so far i have only doodled very roughly in the book, however my aim is to try to produce some tighter, more finished illustrations on the pages within. i'll keep you posted.

i like to think that my love for making and drawing, all started at my little grandmas house. she used to keep a bits box for when me and my brother would go round. the box contained a rich variety of crafting tools, including old loo rolls, cereal boxes and any other packaging that she thought we could make use of.

anyway, this meant that we had to use our imagination to create things to play with. opening out the cereal boxes to use them as large drawing surfaces, was always a popular use of the materials provided. or creating weaponry for a game known as 'guns, bombs and nets'.

i believe these activities, subconsciously rooted a seed in my mind, that made me want to create and draw things for the rest of my life. however, this was just one domino in a much bigger chain of events. after finding a general interest in my design & technology classes at school and college, i went on to complete a degree in ‘(ba) product design’. this was a great course that helped me to develop a keen eye for detail and become fluent in concept generation. from sketching, through to digital design (adobe illustrator & photoshop) and into layout of posters and books (adobe indesign). oh, and not forgetting model making. the course covered a lot of ground and allowed me to see how these skills could transfer into other design fields.

so, after about a year of searching for jobs and working part time in the family bike shop, i was eventually offered a job in preston, at a place called juicy media. here, i have learned a totally different skill, web design. while continuing to hone and develop what i already know, i have also learned the basics of css and html programming. this has been a challenging, yet rewarding process and i now have several websites which i can say that i designed and built. one of my favorites is this one - rainbow music. (i also designed this blog)

of course, like many people i don’t know whats next. but i do know, that i want to use stuck up north as a kind of diary for my own personal development. sketching and illustration are skills i would like to improve and do more, so my plan is to upload images from my daily(ish) sketches and doodles. along with any other projects i may be working on.

and thats me, matt leigh.