Just a quick word..

Hi All. Tomorrow (April 1st) my Masters group is starting a sketch a day project. I've been thinking about how I was going to approach it, and I've decided to produce the artwork on a postcard... maybe with a view of selling the originals on at some point (if they're not too shabby). I will be posting the sketches on here as I do them too, as the Facebook group we are using is 'closed' to public viewing at the moment.

Been a little busy in the last week getting my University work in order.. will post some sketches when I get a chance!

Driving me Unsane...

My poster design for the UNSANE gig went down well, the client felt that they wanted a more 'aggressive' look for the poster though, one that reflected the music a little more... so here's 2 further designs I've been working on to try and hit the right tone... Yes, that's Tura Satana kicking ass on the bottom one!

I'll still use my 'Mignola' style horned man for another band though (it's too cool not to!).

Unsane in the membrane

Well, here's the full image of that sneaky peak I gave you last week. I was holding on to it until the client approved the design... but it's been a week and I've not heard back off them with a 'yes' or a 'no'... and I like it too much not to share it with everyone... so here it is.

I was asked to put together this gig poster off the back of my Electric Wizard posts a while back and pretty much given free reign for the design. I found a beautiful wood cut of some Devil doing dastardly deeds and re-envisaged his (err) visage... The protractor type logo in the top left is UNSANE's own little icon which fitted in quite nicely. Has a bit of a Mignola feel to it don't you think?

Suckerpunch!

Here's a sketch I did the other day of one of the girls from Zak Snyder's new movie 'SUCKERPUNCH'... It looks bonkers!!!

Sorry for the scan quality!

More postery type work

My buddy Dave had an idea for a poster celebrating the blessed union of Ghost and Blood Ceremony in musical manna. The only problem he felt he had was how to represent 'Ghost' in the poster. I really liked the image he produced of a witchy worshipper woman, and it's been rolling around in my brain for a week or two... then I had an idea of how it might work. So I've filched Dave's initial idea and put it in my blender of horrors... and here's the result. For fans of either band, you can just rotate the poster to suit (shown above).

Hope you don't mind Dave!

Sneak Peek

Here's a teaser of something I've been working on.. which will be pretty cool if it comes off!

Something old, something new

The Black Arts...

Reproduction Demon...

By The Award Winning ...

Book Preview

Whilst laid up on my death bed, I got to playing around with BLURB again, and decided to have a go at producing something a little different. It's a Black & White 'portfolio' booklet with some choice images in. Now, bear in mind, I'm poorly sick AND this was just an experiment, but the preview looks good! I've sent off for a copy and I'll post some images when it arrives. If it's any good, It will be an affordable way for me to get my artwork out, but also for people to buy it (its £4.00 plus postage, thats about $2.00 I think!)

Bargain!

Batman of the Future

Been watching episodes of Batman of the Future with my son lately, and it's made me appreciate the show more (not that I didn't appreciate it in the first place).. so I actually did the sketch whilst we were watching it, and worked up the Illustrator file in about 20 minutes...

Pretty pleased with the result too.

War of Words... FORCE

What other possible subject sould spring to mind when the word 'Force' is uttered. It had to be Star Wars. So here's a comic strip I put together for it.

I've been abandoned this week by my War of Words compadres, so I'm going to be choosing another word for this week again..

Word is WONDER!

Monsters, monsters everywhere!!

Here's the first sketch I did of the band together (with the revised layout for the Wolfman) and a worked up page layout idea of him 'doing his stuff'!

The slowly evolving monster band book...

Been struggling to get motivated again for the Masters module.. I just don't know why, but I've even been putting off trying to develop the 'invisible drummer' character. Then yesterday I did a little doodling without putting too much effort into it and a little sketch came out (attached above) and from that sketch came a lot of excitement indeed!!

So tonight, amidst a stinking cold, a poorly 2 year old and off the back of 3 sleepless nights I decided to start working the sketch up to see where it would lead.... and I'm sooooo glad I did! Here's a working illustration of the invisible girl... yes you read that right... all will become clear when the story unfolds.. I've also included a 'sneak peek' of some of the narrative... you lucky, lucky people!!!

Remember that the story has been adapted for a 'pre-school' audience and the illustrations will be submitted to the MacMillan Book Prize competition (hopefully).... if they're good enough!

I'm REALLY stoked about this now.

More poster jiggery

Blood Ceremony AND Wolf People... most certainly something worth celebrating! Here's my poster idea using a 'green man' visual that seems to fit with Blood Ceremony's sound.

Good news everyone!!

My work is to be featured on the excellent RePulped Blog (http://repulped.blogspot.com/) a site that invites contributors to re-interpret old pulp novel covers. Above is the cover for 'The Octopus' I chose, my finished piece (to be published on Thursday) and the original doodle I did.

Show your support and head on over there, there are so many great artists on show.

War of Words... JIGSAW

For the first time in a while Dave and I had similar ideas. He's put together a great rockabilly/roller derby type dame, and I took my queues from Tara McPherson with the heart removing demon girl. I'm going to put it together in Illustrator at some point because I'm not completely happy with finish and I'll be able to 'control' it a little better as I work on it.

This week's word: FORCE.... isn't it obvious what I'm going to do??

Currently Listening to:
Eisley: The Valley (not that that has anything to do with anything really, just wanted to share!).

Heart and Saul..

Here's some posters I put together for the artjumble blog this week, the theme being 'Hitchcock movies'. I've always had an affinity for the artwork of Saul Bass, perhaps there are some parallels in his use of shapes and how I put things together that draw me to him.

Further explorations in space and time..

Here's the slightly more 'worked up' femme fatale from a previous post. I played around with the colours a lot before settling on this set up, she went from being a blonde to a redhead before I settled on the black. It felt good to have the bulk of the character shape almost 'implied' rather than clearly defined. Slightly changed the face shape, and threw in some curves.

I'm pretty happy with it too!

The elusive monster band (update 2)

Here's some Work In Progress illustrations for the Children's book Monster Band. The keen eyed among you will notice 2 wolfmen.. I'm not sure which one I prefer at the minute (though I think that the bottom one fits in style with the Vampire and Gill Man the best... even though he looks more like a cat at the minute!).

I'm definately happy with the Vampire though!

Case in point... Femme Fatale

As if to prove a point... I was working on the female character in the red dress, based on looking at a Stuart Immonen sketch book I picked up... He draws brillaint female figures and I was looking for a little inspiration. After my 'epiphany' in the last post I decided to scrap what I was doing with her and revisit the character 'au natuale' as it were...and I found (suprisingly enough) that I was decidedly happier with the 'shane' style image than that of the original approach. It's not perfect... but it's a start!

Dark days

It would seem that of late I've grown a little more dispondent with my creative ability than normal... to the point where I've been toying with the terrible idea of calling it a day.

I can't seem to take my work (and professional profile) to the next level, and I'm getting increasingly sick of it to be honest. There is so much great talent out there, and I'm starting to think I wont attain that same level any time in the future.

Sometimes I produce an image that makes me think 'yeah, there's something there'... but for every one of those I'll put out 10 that are desperate attempts to be 'creative'. I've begun to realize that in trying to understand how others work I've lost sight of how I work. It's a common danger (and always has been) when you're trying to move your artwork forward... but I feel like I've been blinded by it in recent times.

This Ninja Tortoise is from a sketch I did for the War of Words 'Shell' entry, and whilst working on it I realized how important it was for me to 'reduce' the design to it's most basic of shapes in order for me to be 'happy' with it... and looking back over recent posts, it's a common theme. Take 'Lemmy's head' for example... it's almost entirely made up of basic abstract shapes.. and I'm really happy with it. Same with the 'Cowboy & Ninja' post... really pleased with the outcome. yet I continuously try to change how I approach my work... what the hell for? Surely the 'joy' is in creating artwork that is a little more challenging, more exciting because it's natural and not forced...

I appologise if I've disappointed any viewers with any substandard art in recent times... If it's any consolation, you're nowhere near as disappointed as I am!