Monster High

My wife's daughter is pretty mad for the Monster High brand of toys... and I have to admit I'm really impressed with the illustration work and the concept for the characters! Here's my interpretation of Draculaura, Frankie Stein and Laguna Blue done for Rachel's Birthday next month!

LIVIN' FOR THE WEEKEND

WOOO! This is what the weekend is all about!

We're a happy family..

A recent sketch that took me right back to my early years (spent drawing Tie Fighter battles rather than perfecting my social skills... which are still non-existent!), and a photoshop oddity I create from it.

True Love

There are no words to describe my love for you....

Hail and Kill!

Work up from a previously posted sketch.

The Glass is Half Full...

A work in progress... possibly for a band poster? The keen eyed amongst you will recognize the girl from the 'true love' sketch I recently posted.... damn you're good!

Little White Lies

Working on a competition brief for the D&AD awards to design a cover for the film magazine 'Little White Lies'.. I've got two possibles here... and I'm not sure which one to go with... my favourite it the bottom one (white background). It's not dynamic in the same way as the top version, but iI love the contrast and the fact that the eyes follow you around everywhere!

Move over Mario!

My Son's gone a bit crazy for the Wii game 'Mario Kart' in recent weeks, so whilst trying to dodge his flailing legs and flying steering wheel I doodled up 'Dragstein'... I think I'll revisit the drawing to make the car more of a 'traditional' dragstrip/grandpa Munster auto... but I'm really pleased with the character sketch.

True Love

Another doodle... I'm going to mess about with the monsters head design when I start working this one up in Illustrator... I might apply it to a band poster maybe?

Warrior Woman sketch

Jus' doodling!

Heroes!

Picked up an issue of Classic Rock last week with a great major feature on the band KISS in the 80's. It was a brilliantly put together article, and it really made me want to start listening to my old KISS albums from the period again. Paul Stanley has always been one of my favourite singer/songwriters and I'm really looking forward to their new album MONSTER in June.

As a result of my renewed interest in my musical past I've begun to reconnect with all the bands I loved growing up (but I'm supposed to be ashamed of now)... so the other drawing is of Kip Winger (one time cohort of Alice Cooper and frontman of WINGER). I listened to their second album 'In The Heart Of The Young' and was immediately taken back in time to the day I bought it (on Holiday with Mom and Pop in Tenby, South Wales)... The album (my favourite Winger release) is still amazing... There isn't one track on there that made me go "What the hell did I buy this for?"...

So the upshot is I am proud to say I am unashamedly a fan of 80's Hair Metal!!!... so there!

Dr Sketchy's Alternative Drawing Night! PART 2!

This was my favourite drawing of the night. The exercise was to draw a continuous line without taking the pencil off the page... It was such a struggle, but it was great how you had to think about your mark making, to consider the path of your line. To top it off it was a 3 minute pose... so there was no extra pressure!!!

Dr Sketchy's Alternative Drawing Night!

As promised (you lucky people)... here are some of the less terrible sketches from the great Dr Sketchy night last week. It was a great experience to do some life drawing again (it's been too long), the models were great and the exercises we were set to 'loosen us up' were pretty tough, but very rewarding. I did discover that I've forgotten how to draw properly (I know that sounds stupid)... next time I go to a Dr Sketchy event though I'm going to interpret (or try to) in the same way as I do with my usual drawings, by breaking down the shapes. It was still great fun though!

Hullo!!

Hullo one and all! It's been a little bit 'running silent' these last few weeks... sorry about that. It's been a combination of things that has kept me away from blogging, but i have been sketching and what not. I'm aiming to break out the scanner tomorrow and have a bit of a blog frenzy. As well as the usual random images, I attended an alternative life drawing class last week and had a lot of fun (Dr Sketchy's... where "rubbers are for pussies!") though I was a little horrified to discover that I'd completely forgotten how to draw properly!!!. I've also started working on a logo design for an up coming Skateboard manufacturer over in the US above is a sneak at one of the character designs.... that also fits my current artistic mood!!).

Hope you've all been keeping well!

Bad Girls!

Here's an idea I've had to create a set of characters based on the same body shape (similar to those cut out characters you used to be able to get with interchangeable clothing). These 3 girls form a triptych that I'm thinking of producing as a set of short run screen prints... just have to decide on the colourways!

EL TORO!

My first go at a gig poster for Liverpool Garage band EL TORO! I wanted it to have the feel of a movie poster (think I achieved it!). I've got another idea on the boil for the band which I've been sketching out (influenced by Derek Yaniger)... more to follow!

HUNTRESS Gig Poster 2

I forgot to post this yesterday... another show poster for the excellent HUNTRESS!

DESERTFEST UK

Some AMAZING bands at this year's Desertfest in London over the Easter weekend... Shame the poster for it is a bit rubbish! Still... at least it gave me the incentive to have a go at it myself!

Blood Ceremony

Inspired by a piece a friend of mine recently produced, I thought I'd put a poster together myself. Seeing as how the band aren't currently touring at the moment I've used a date from their previous UK tour in support of their most excellent album 'Living With The Ancients'. A bit different for me this one (being a photo based design) but still fun to put together.

The Fab 4

Nah... not The Beatles or Black Sabbath... not even the Monkeys... It's The Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and a Skeleton.... Like you didn't already know!