Goldilocks Roughs

Hello,

I've been meaning to put these up for ages actually. I'm waiting for feedback now. These are some of my favourites among the roughs I produced. I feel the text spaces really made me think about how I composed the drawings. I used photographs of my niece for reference, it makes all the difference. :)

Bizzy Bizzy

sheesh,

been so busy I've had no time to blog. The good news is I've been commisioned to do illustrations for 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', it's big deal since its my first picture book job. The bad news is I got a lot of work to do and shouldn't get sidetracked! - (Is that one word?)

P.S:

I took this photograph of Katie Harkin of Sky Larkin at the Lexington in London on the 20th September 2010 - a great gig, her voice was amazing. Oh and check out my Tumblr. It's like a condensed version of this blog haha.

Big Heads

Hello,

A small project I did for my agent - some samples of animals and cutesy stuff targetted at very young children. The brief was pretty sharp-edged. The artwork had to be simple, with a soft colour pallete and no outlines.

I couldn't refrain myself from using more vivid colours. I pretty much always use outlines - out of habit I guess, so it was different.

Merrivale Mews

Yawn,

Merrivale Mews - a road I sometimes pass by. It always makes me smile looking at that street sign. I think of some sort of jazz band made up of a group of yowling cats performing in front of a feline audience.

Common Wood Pigeon

Pigeon babies sound scary.

Pagan

Hello,

a lot has happened since my last post, for example I've started working at my local library now. It's a big library so there's lots to do and the staff are great. It's so funny because as a child I used to role play as a librarian, setting my old scuffed books in a sort of square wall with me kneeling in the middle, issuing them to invisible readers, looking all important and intelligent ha-ha.

The illustration above is inspired by the pagan goddess Isis and the song Isis (or is it Is Is) by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yay for Ancient Egyptians!

Flying Fox

Snore,

It's quite late and my eyes are turning weird again, listening to The Resistance by Muse. The classical inspired pieces calm me down, while the exotically lilting tracks twirl my brain into a swirling frenzy of Paisleys and vivid colour. Great album; they took a gamble.

Anyhow this was a piece I produced just to help me think about the recent news on the media about those urban foxes mauling those poor children. I hope the fox doesn't become demonised and turned into the 'Big Bad Wolf' from The Little Red Riding Hood. The fox is quite a mythical creature - a sort of symbol in my mind, cunning, beautiful, agile, adaptable, cat-like but not quite.

"Counter balance this commotion,
We're not droplets in the ocean". - Muse

Sketchbook: Autumn

Hello,

Doodled this in my sketchbook and just wanted to develop it on Photoshop. It was inspired by Arthur Rackham's Autumn Fairies. I found the illustration on my 'Celebrating Arthur Rackham' themed tin pencil case packaging, (haha) and kept it because it looked so great, (the pencils are pretty poor, no wonder I barely used them). Anyway his compositions have such beautiful harmony. Hmm, she's not really dressed for autumn, is she.

Portrait

Hello,

Did this Andy Warhol-ish illustration of Sunshee, (She's so hard to draw, used lots of references and still got it botched!) Anywho it was fun. This Blog template thingy doesn't seem to work on Windows Interent Explorer.

Peace Walker

Woot!

went along to Uniqlo Oxford Street (was hellish) to see Hideo Kojima, and the awesome Yoji Shinkawa - absolutely loved the artwork he produced for Metal Gear Solid. Everyone was getting their new copy of Peace Walker signed but I took along one of my old battered sketchbooks I worked in at Uni. They signed my animal pics! Kojima on the right and Shinkawa on the left.Kojima there with my sketchbook, oh yeah and I met Fuad there too!

Umm she ate his porridge!

Hello,

just did this sample for a client - subject: Goldilocks and the Three Bears and also a sketch to go along with it.

Ammy of Okami

Hello,

fanart inspired by the mega-ultimate-supernova of a game Okami! I've been playing it for quite a while now admiring the intertwining of myth and legend with colour and art. the PS2 is back in business ha ha.

illustration is of Ammy the sun goddess white-as-chalk wolf character along with Issun the bug thing.

Unicorn in Uniform

Just for fun,

did this mock CD cover for Unicorn in Uniform, song by Colour Me Wednesday. Check out the video here

Momma Nature

Hellolo,

Sheesh, this took ages. It was another excuse to draw animals. The figure in the illustration is a sort of mother nature character. Erm, can't think of any other information at the moment - my eyes have burnt away and my brain is a mush.

Sketchbook: Tiger

Hello,

I was flicking through the Metro and found a chance to draw one of my favourite animals, although the article made me sad :( below is an excerpt from the poem, The Tiger by the great William Blake.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forest of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame that fearful symmetry?

...Waiting

Hello,

Just wanted to create something vaguely Hopperesque and I wanted do some backgroundy stuff, although it does seem to be lacking character; something which has been nagging at me.

Smaug

"There he lay a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber".

-The Hobbit or There and Back Again

Sunshiney Hair

Hello!

Its warm in the day but I start complaining in the evening when it begins to get cooler and my fingers become ice-cold. Dunno why but my fingers and hands are always cold, Why?!

Anyway, started noticing the birds lately and realised how much I missed looking at those tiny sparrows, I wish there were more. They barely visit the garden anymore. At one time a couple of sparrows built a nest and laid some eggs in an old teapot we left discarded in the garden hanging on the fence...I've always wanted to look in there, I know the sparrows have long gone but it feels wrong some how, I don't know why blah.

Meow Meow!

Meow Meow?!

Nooooo, not talking about Mephedrone, I'm on about cats. Having once owned a cat, I've been left with a cat shaped dent in my brain which I need to fill every so often, so I do this by drawing them.

I once read a poem, I think in high school that I never really forgot about. There was a particular line I feel that captured the 'essence of cat':

"Cats, no less liquid than their shadows

Offer no angles to the wind."

Okay then two lines.

Destruction of Convention

Ach!

I totally gave up on this one, lost my patience and rushed it in the end. It's been a while since I've done some Black 'n White stuff, so in hindsight I think it worked out okay. The problem I find when doing this sort of thing is I can end up putting in too much detail - transforming it into a grey mess, so I guess the rushed ending had its merit.

Its an illustration of Eowyn and her efforts to slay the Fell Beast (in the Lord of The Rings), just before she destroys the Witch King, a foe that:

'...no man can kill...'

A wonderful twist on the part of Tolkien.

Floaty Light

Yelo,

This was a doodle I doodled, it sort of reminded me of the line:

'...Give me all the Peace and Joy in your mind!...'

from the song Bliss by Muse - a wonderful psychedelic sounding song, one of my favourites.

*edit*

Added some flora to the background to give it some depth

Excuse Me Mr

Hello,

this was some character development stuff I did for an online puzzle website - wasn't quite what they were looking for but I quite liked the character.

Lotsa Animals

Yalo,

These are some of the illustrations I did for a client who needed images to animate for a music program. It involved drawing animals so it was great!

Cat!

Hello

I'm absolutely useless when it comes to photography, nonetheless it's always fun.

This was a snap I took a loooong time ago of Jen with her gorgeous fat cat Tama (or is it spelt Tamma?), when she was only a teeny-tiny kitten.

Tee-hee I can remember she used to be so afraid of her own reflection.

Check out Jeff's music!

Pan and Abe, Abe and Pan

Hello,

Just did some quick sketches then photoshoped them, (maybe I should have just kept them as sketches).

Anywho, these are two of my favourite fictional characters. Abe from Hellboy and Pan from Pan's Labyrinth. I really enjoyed Guillermo del Torro's version of the Hellboy movie: Colourful and quirky, and how could I possibly forget Pan's Labyrinth! Also directed by the same guy. Must watch again.

Fool

Hello,

Just a drawing I did inspired by a mixture of different songs by different artists, mostly the music video to IAMX's: Song of Imaginary Beings. A beautiful video which incorporates animation inspired by Lotte Reiniger's shadow plays (I think so).

The image was also inspired by Noisettes: Bridge To Canada...well one single line really,

'I'll Play the fool, but not your clown'.

One gets payed to be a fool and the other regrets looking like a clown!

Think of England

Hello lo,

You know when you get a song stuck in your head for a whole day, well mine lasts for days on end! At the moment it's Think of England by IAMX, it's that lilt in the singers voice when he says 'England' that seems to intrigue me for some reason. (The illustration is of Chris Corner.)

'I just can't think of England,

I can't see the picture,

I'm still running from the fire, the fire'.

Adrift: Illustration Friday

Hello,

I thought I'd have a go, (no pressure = no hair being pulled out).

I think her neck is too long and she looks too masculine oh well, it was fun!

enjoy.

Trance

Yellow,

I had the video to Disturbia on my MP3 player and I remembered how it reminded me of the film Jacob's Ladder, which in turn reminded me of the dark style found in the Silent Hill series - so reminiscent of that film, so I ended up with this. After looking at it, the illustration then reminded me of that film that's coming out (or may be it's already out), about those teenaged demi-gods with divine abilities. One of the characters is played by the strangely perfect Uma Thurman who's costume looks similar to the one in this illustration!

This then reminded me of the question:

why do some people hate Kill Bill?

Habits

Hello,

I hate the smell of cigarette smoke arg.

*closes bedroom door so that the smoke can't reach upstairs and into nostrils*

Ice cream

Mmm,

I can remember having ice cream in Rome with Samir and Celine!

We were nomming away as we sat on a bench outside the ice cream store watching all the noisy hubbub go by.

Brian Molko

Hello,

I just found this pencil drawing I did absolutely ages ago of Brian Molko, lead vocalist in Placebo. I was intrigued by his androgenous look. It was drawn on a really cheap Poundland sketchpad he he. Its funny when you look at a drawing or painting after a long time and you start to see all those mistakes and blemishes!

I used Mary Scanlon's band photography as reference, found in a re-release album.

Dog eat Egg

Hello,

Was bored so drew. I think it turned out okay although the dog in the illustration was suppose to be a fox, but it was too big, so I sort of morphed him into a dog instead - he's a big tame fox I guess. I took inspiration from Sumi art for this piece!

Oh, and there's really no story behind it. the image just sort of developed as I was going along, but I knew I wanted an animal.

Enjoy.

sheesh!

Hello,

Haven't been bloggin' for a while now! After some prompting from Celine, I must start blogging and blog I will. I've been lost in retail-land all this time and I'm hopefully making my way back. Anyhow, this was a piece inspired by 'Cinderella'.