Hello internet friends

So, i've had a busy few weeks with poster jaunts to Aarau in Switzerland and then Chicago and Austin in the US. All were amazing and a big thanks to all the lovely people I met on my travels. You made this foolish man very happy.

The good news is that whilst on that trip I had three new posters released and made two new art prints. I might be lazy, but I still get things done.

First up for the new prints we have a collaboration with Jay Ryan called Sloth Comes To Visit, which is an 8 colour slice of joy born from our collective love of animals, sea slugs, small houses and oddness. I met Jay years ago at the opening of his first show in Manchester at the Richard Goodall Gallery along with many other of the current UK poster nerds including Graham Pilling and Drew Millward. If one man is to blame for us persuing this gig poster thing, it is most certainly Jay Ryan. To say it was an honour when Jay agreed to work with me on this is an understatement and the couple of days spent making this in Skokie were truly inspiring. The print can be bought from The Bird Machine site HERE for a mere $40 and there are a few process pics at the Bird Machine Facebook page HERE. Enough gushing, here's the print:

Second up we have my Andrew Bird poster. This was the poster for the mini Euro tour in support of the release of the new record (which is excellent, as you would expect from Mr. Bird) called 'Break It Yourself'...hence the smashed Faberge Egg. Plus he's called Bird you see...Bird's lay eggs...It's clever you see....no?....sorry. It's available from my online purchase hut HERE. Look at it with your vision orbs now:

Third up (bored yet?) we have the print I made based on an illustration for Mat Pringles zine project 'The Book One'. Titled The Escapist it's inspired by one of my favourite books, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and shows a 1940's NYC skyline with the insignia of the comic creation from the book (called The Escapist hence the title) being beamed into the sky. Printed live at Flatstock 33 at SXSW by Andy MacDougall from Squeegeeville it's a rather splendid wee thing indeed and is available HERE: Right then, finally we have the last two prints. FIM (International Federation of Musicians) commissioned me to make a set of prints based on the tag line 'Dangerous Bands In Safe Hands' with a sort of Propaganda type vibe about them. These are what I came up with. They are available as single prints HERE or a set HERE:

That's it for now. Frankly i'm exhausted so I'm off to read comics and eat biscuits. I'd ask you to join me but I only have a few biscuits left and I'm greedy. Goodbye all

Luke

 

 Hello all, I trust you are well in digital land

First off I have returned to my own shores. This means I have to get on with normal life and pay a load of outstanding bills (as in 'need to be paid' not 'really good') BUT it also means normal shipping times will resume for print purchases. Which neatly brings me on to the fact that new prints are available in the online shop at www.lukedrozd.com.

First up is the print I produced for tUnE-yArDs at Into The Great Wide Open festival. I hope it captures the manic, joyous energy of a band who were the highlight of a great weekend. It is available here.

Second up are the mini prints from the residency with Subwalk in Arnhem. These are available either as single prints or in sets of 3 or 5 and are available here.

that's it for now. There will be a some pictures and info on my time at Flatstock Europe 6 later in the week and a new print for Franz Ferdinand available next week though so keep the peeper peeping

best, Luke

 

 

Hello wonderous virtual friends and foes,

So my final week in Arnhem is coming to a close. There have been fun times, prints and artists talks all over the shop and i for one will miss be here at Subwalk, but a couple of days in Groningen beckon before Flatstock Europe 6 later this week.

Most of the week here has been taken up with finshing the design and printing of the mini art-print series 'This, That, The Other', a collection of one, two and three colour lino and photo-plate prints which i think, in general, have ended up working well. There are some pictures below of the works at various stages of completionas part of a very potted run down of the process for those print nerds who like that sort of thing:

1. Designs are taken from brain and made on paper with a pencil and pen:

2. Designs are then reversed and either transfered and cut out of lino:

or designs are scanned, inverted and printed onto acetate. These are then exposed onto photo plates in the magic UV box and the washed out:

3. They ready to print lino looks a little like this:

and the photo plates look a little like this:

4. Ink is mixed, again i use my brain here to think of the colour then my hands and eyes to make sure it matches what is in my brain. Beer helps but is optional:

5. The ink is then rollered onto the plate/lino evenly and it's ready to print:

6. Paper is carefully placed over the print surface and paper packing is placed on top to protect the print and give some pressure when the print-roller works its magic.

7. The print-roller is pulled/rolled over the paper. Underneath magic happens that i was unable to see due to my human eyes not be able to see through paper. The result is the ink has left the lino/plate and transfered to the paper BUT the right way round! Mind-boggling! Peg these up to dry, and get on with the next colour/print:

Repeat as desired. Here we ended up with 11 designs of around 20 pieces each:

I will have these with me in Hamburg for Flatstock if people are interested in purcuring them, and then online afterwards at the old online shop. Subwalk arranged a small pop-up show of then at a great bar/coffee place in Arnhem called Tape. If you are ever in Arnhem i recommend you check it out.

I also did a brief chat/artists talk/waffle time at ArtEZ, the art school here in Arnhem. I think it went well. I talked a mix of sage advice and inane jokes whilst showing work i had made, some of which had penises in/on it. The students seemed interested or at least had the good manners to pretend to be and you can't ask for more than that. Here's a photo i took after the talk of them waving at me but due to me being inept it is blurred and cack-handed. That seems somehow fitting though:

Right that's it for now, off to Hamburg,

bye for now,

Luke