Work in progress - Hakuna Matataaaggghhh!!!

This is still work in progress. If you have any thoughts as to how I can improve this illo let me know. Thanks!

Make me mini!

A friend on mine has started a business making decorations for cakes. As you can see from the image posted here they look fantastic. Visit the website and take a look for yourselves!

Anger Management

This is my latest tee design. Let go of all that anger!

Available to buy at my Redbubble shop. Go on. You know you want one.

Experiment - Bed time reading

I'm currently trying to improve my drawing and production skills so expect many more of these. I'm not nessassarily going to be illustrating a vampire each week but I thought why not! I hope you like it.

Shy Guy

A quick doodle of a Shy Guy. When I was a kid I thought they looked cute, but now I think they look creepy. I don't want to imagine what they hide under their masks!

Illustration Friday - Round

My response to Illustration Friday's topic round. The greatest technological breakthrough since fire. THE WHEEL! This is my imagining of a stone age tech trade fair. I hope you like it!

Experiment - Vamp

I've done far too much Illustrator of late so I thought I'd take a little time out to Photoshop an illustration. I know Halloween's been and gone but I wanted to draw a vamp. I think with so much Twilightmania going on I wanted to pay homage to the good old fashioned vampire I remember growing up. Vampires with pointy teeth. Vampires who had no angst just a plain simple love of blood and theatricality! 

The blood splatter brushes come from www.brusheezy.com/brushes/1290-13-blood-and-splatter-brushes.

Illustration Friday - Vanity

This is my submission for the Illustration Friday topic vanity. I'd love some feed back on this as I'm thinking I need to change something about my work. If you have any thoughts on stylistic improvements I'd love to hear them!

Loaded Magazine feature

This is my lastest work for Loaded magazine which documents the worse ways to woo a lady. Quite a lot of fun to do and some of the stories are very very funny. There's always some negative space left for the header and I hope to post a photo of the image as seen in the magazine next month.

Loaded kindly sent me the last illustration I did for them as they'd laid it out in the magazine. It's out in this months issue so get yourself a copy!

IF - Stripes. Work in progress

Try as I might I didn't get around to finishing this weeks IF illustration on Stripes. You'll have to settle for a work in progress unfortunately. I hope you like it!

Logo

This is my new logo which I'll be using very soon as my e-mail signiture. I'll be using the ULR from this post to apply the signiture. There are other more technical ways of doing this but I'm not an IT wizard and like to keep things simple. The add on I'll be using is called WiseStamp. It's as easy as copying the ULR into the image finder and clicking ok.

Experiments

I've been thinking about how to spruce up my illustrations and one avenue was a little photoshoping with textures and brushes. I made a few brushes from an ink splodge and some pastels by following a very helpful tutorial on Bittbox. The textures came from Feodora Umarov’s flickr photostream and the tutorial I followed was on Digital Photography School blog, which was very informative.

I also had a little bash at working in a different style just to stretch myself. I've needed to try something new as it helps me think outside the box. I went a little crazy with the textures but I'm trying to teach myself something a little new.

I know I'm a little late to be doodling Halloween illos but it's in keeping with the above image and it's how I dressed for a Halloween party over the weekend.

IF - Scary

My latest IF contribution on the topic scary. My friend has been waxing lyrical about his new 3D TV which is where the idea came from. I hope you like it!

There was an MP who swallowed a horse

I was asked by the Times Higher Education do to an illustration regarding goverment university policey and how they were dealing with the problems was like the nursery rym There was an old woman who swallowed a fly. The turn around for this was 2.5 hours. I would have liked more time on this but that's the way commissions can be sometimes!

The Worlds Worst Jobs

This is a recent commission for Loaded magazine dipicting the worlds worst jobs as described by various readers. The main image is a double page spread but they wanted some of the characters to be seperate so that they could place them on the following pages with the relevent copy. Here are a few.

Chicken collector.

Greyhound trainer.

Door to door salesman.

The stories are actually quite funny so if you get a chance buy the magazine and have a giggle! I'm hoping to get the actual image as seen in the mag but they're quite busy in the Loaded editorial dept so we'll see. Until then here's the main illustration. 

Xmas characters

The above images complete my latest Christmas character set. It'll be my last set of xmas characters for a while as I don't want to over populate my folio with the same sort of work. I'll be looking at other giftware subjects to cover that I haven't tried yet. I won't be walking away from xmas totally as I haven't done much traditional type designs yet. We'll see how it goes. It depends on what gets purchased.

HO HO HO etc etc

Ho ho ho, etc, etc. It's him again! I've just seen the first mince pies in the shops so I better get used to him because he'll be around a lot more over the next few months. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. Luckily I age like fine wine. I think the only part of that sentence that was true was the "I age" bit. Oh well!

Murder mystery t-shirt

I decided that the mail out I did for June was quite well suited to a t-shirt so I re-coloured it to fit the print restrictions and here we are. It's up for voting now on Threadless so take a look and kindly vote. If you want to take a look at the original here's a link. Link!

Baby design

I don't often do baby designs so this is a rare one for me. I'll be doing another colour way for a girls version as well.

I think I need a week off from the card designs as I'm starting to drag my feet a little with them. It gets like that once you've been working on something solidly for months. I won't be taking five any time soon unfortunately as the next few months are important, but when I do man they'll be sweet!

Surprise surprise, more Christmas

If you're wondering why I keep coming back to Christmas designs it's because there is a far greater market for the yuletide gift product than the everyday designs. I haven't done many pattern based elegant designs hence the my curly tree. The snowman is my usual fair. My agent is due to see clients soon so hopefully they'll like what they see.

On a different note my t-shirt design "Police line up" has finish scoring on Threadless. It recieved 2.95 out 5 from 451 votes which I don't think is too bad for my first design in months. It's now a case of waiting and seeing if it's choosen from all the great designs submitted. If it isn't then there are other companies who might!

Gentlemen start your engines!

My lastest gift wrap design and I am pleased to say that there are no reindeers or snowmen in sight! Thank goodness. Anyway, I haven't done a car design for a while and I used to make the mistake of basing my cars on existing cars. However, this tended to put people off buying them for obvious reasons. These cars are very loosely based on actual cars. For once my limited car knowledge pays off.

I'm now off to put an ice pack on my back as I've done myself a mischief while at a boxing class. I think I'm too soft for boxing!

IF-ferocious

Hello. I had a very busy weekend with the highlight being a £6.00 gig at Rescue Rooms which featured Yunioshi, and Swimming. Two great live acts and a really great night out. It was also my friends 33rd birthday and we went out into to town and watched him make tit of himself!

I went a little off topic there as this post it about the Illustration Friday submission for ferocious and not my weekend activities. It's unfinished and may remain this way depending on how busy I am. I was planning on adding an audience. It was going to be the usual ferocious lion but then I thought who's more ferocious the lion or the nut job with the bull whip and chair. You decide!

New tee - Police line up.

It's been fair old while since my last t-shirt design but finally here it is. Hopefully it's self explanatory but if you need a helping hand it's the Wampa from The Empire Strikes Back pressing assault changes on Luke for lobbing off his arm. I was working from the The Usual Suspects for reference and decided to add them in as well. It may be a little O.T.T with the film references but hey!

Cast your vote here.

Princess

Prepare yourselves for a massively girly post as I've gone all princessy. Not literally but from an illustration point of view. I've done so much Christmas stuff lately I needed a change of scenery. After lunch with my friend and her two cheeky little girls I decided to do a couple of girl friendly designs. Something I don't often do. I'm quite pleased with the results as I went into it a little cynically.

IF - Mesmerizing

Hello! I have had very indulgent weekend involving take out meals, pub lunchs and a restaurant. Infact I don't think I cooked once. It was worth the belly ache as I got to catch up with some of my old University pals, some of which I haven't seen for a good long time. This social and greedy weekend is the main reason that my Illustration Friday submission this week is a little sparse! Anyway I hope you like it. Mesmerizing.

Gift bags

 

Another Christmas set completed. I'm quite pleased with how this has turned out even if I do say so myself. Hopefully they'll go down well.

I'm now off to gym as an alternative to falling asleep. I have no idea why I'm so lethargic. I'm hoping this forced physical activity gives me the energy to do a little more work this afternoon. It may result in me being more tired but it beats my old method of drinking 8 plus coffees a day!

Illustration Friday - Boundaries

Hello! Off the back of an anti social but relaxing weekend I feel quite refreshed and ready for work. So without further ado I give you my latest Illustration Friday contribution. The topic is boundaries. The river Styx was considered a boundary between the land of the living and the land of the dead. It was vitally important to make sure the recently deceased had correct change for the ferryman.

New giftware designs

Christmas Christmas and more Christmas! I swear by December I'm going to be sick of the sight of Santa and his associates. The penguins in the image above complete my set from last week and the snowman leads me onto another.


In an attempt to stop myself going mad and developing strong anti Christmas feelings I thought it would be wise to drop in a everyday design every now and then. Arrr! Pirates! Who doesn't like pirates. Well after Pirates of the Caribbean 4 I suspect a lot people aren't big fans but in general I think they bring the kid out of us all.

Art Jumble - Goth

Good afternoon to you. I have had a very manly weekend doing DIY! That may not be a big deal for most people but I do not do DIY so indulge me. I roofed a shed! Again, you're probably saying "So" but it's one of the first times I've rolled my sleeves up (Metaphorically as I was wearing a t-shirt and didn't need to do any sleeve rolling) and done physical work. It was actually quite good fun and I was rewarded with barbecue food. Nice.

This week I did a little work on the Art Jumble topic Goth. I was stuck between wanting to draw the fearsome Germanic tribe the Visigoths or the modern day melancholy morbid posers the goths, so I combined the two. Visi-goths as I call them. I'm not convinced that it's the most successful illustration but you have to fall on your face every now and then! It's the only way to improve.

Christmas designs

Hello one and all. I hope you are well today. I myself am bleary eyed and more than a little tired. I wish there was a good reason like just getting back from the gym or having a crazy night out but I think I'm just coming down with something. Oh well!

These are my latest Christmas bags. I will be doing one more to complete the set and then moving onto something none Christmas related. I don't want to be sick and tired of Christmas before it even gets here.

I've finished early so I should really try and knock out some t-shirt designs as it's been a few months since my last one. Although, I am very tempted to go for a walk as the sun's shining and lets face it there's been very little sun about this summer. It seems a shame to waist it!

Illustration Friday - Disguise

I thought I'd get back into working on the Illustration Friday topic every now and then. This weeks topic was disguise and it reminded me of one of my first commissions for Business Franchise way back when. It was of two kids trying to get into a cinema in disguise. The topic also reminded me of when I tried unsuccessfully to get tickets for Terminator 2. I was convinced that wearing a baseball cap backwards somehow made me look older.

What a weekend!

I cannot overstate what an awesome weekend I've just had! A couple of my friends were getting married in what has to be one of the most idyllic locations to my mind in the UK. I mean of course the peak district! The views were fantastic, the drinks were free, what more could you ask for. The word for the weekend was fun!

I'm obviously not going to share the wedding photos I took on my blog but I will show a photo of the place I stayed.



Farmcraft rare breed centre just outside Kniveton is one of the friendliest places I've stayed and it's in an ideal location if you're looking to head out to Dovedale for some very lovely walks. I opted for the B&B accommodation which was very nice. However, if you give them a go I'd recommend the Yurts! They looked ace. Also, if you've got kids there's lots of animals for them to fuss over.

Last giftware designs before trip

My giftware rep has put his trip to the US back a week which has given me much needed time to produce a few more designs which I hope will catch the eye of prospective buyers. It's hard to say how successful the trip will be what with the economy being the way it is. These things are out of my hands and all I can do is carry on regardless and stay positive!

I'm now off to prep these designs for the trip at the new studio my rep works out of. It must be an improvement on the Georgian Terrace which for so many years was the base of operations. Apparently it's open plan and very modern which sounds great.

Mail out time

Hello there! I hope you had a lovely weekend. I spent mine socialising and making what at the time seemed like intellectual conversation with all my friends. Looking back it probably wasn't as cerebral as I'd thought at the time. Anyway...

Ever now and then I like to let people know that I still exist by sending them a doodle. This time I've gone for a computer gaming theme which I thought appropriate as I have a few computer game magazines on my mailing list.

The idea came from a conversation I had many moons ago regarding a friend of a friend who'd met her future husband on World of Warcraft. Apparently not an unusual set of circumstances as I had previously thought. Anyway, it popped into my head while sketching ideas. By the way the husband in the story was Swedish and his real name was Krull! He actually sounds like a character from a fantasy world. Wasn't there a film called Krull? Mmm. I might have to ask professor google.

The Inaugural Rokko Super Cup

As mentioned previously I reluctantly took part in a eleven a side football match in honour of my two good friends who recently turned 30. A lot of time and energy went into the planning of this event right down to a trophy and winners medals. As you can imagine this was started in a light hearted fashion with an emphasis on taking part rather than winning. However, all those good intentions disappeared within five seconds on the game beginning.

I don't play football so I was as much use as an instruction manual written in ancient Sumerian. I did try my hardest but as these photos show I am not the most graceful of men!


Here are the birthday boys. Nik on the left with yellow socks and Dan (Rokko) in white. The good looking guy lazily jogging on the right is me!


This is the only shot of me contributing to the game without fouling someone. Although you have to question the tactics of putting the slowest and least experienced player (me) against the fastest man on the pitch! The only other times I stopped was when ran straight into him!


Here is the winning team! From right to left we have Tom, Neil, Matt, John, Dave (safe hands), Archie, me, Trig (The destroyer), Nik, Kayleigh and Luke. The game finished 9-8!

New giftware designs

I know that it's customary to feel a little melancholy on a Monday but I must say I'm feeling rather good. I had a really nice weekend playing an eleven a side football match and following that up with drinks and merry making. Ok I feel like I've been hit repeatedly with a shovel and my body aches all over but apart from that it's left me in a very good mood. I'm very much looking forward to seeing my photography friends photos!

Anyway, I thought I'd update you on some new work I've been doing for my giftware rep. I won't be doing any new work for him this week as I'll be printing and mounting stuff instead. Fingers crossed the economic situation in the US doesn't effect sales.

Floppy disk sound out!

It's typical that a friend of mine suddenly decides he wants my Floppy Disk T-shirt and they've now sold out. He's had a year and somehow it's my fault. Well tough luck!

Limbo

Hello! I'm not much of gamer but I had to mention Limbo. I stumbled across it while procrastinating on the Internet and I was so impressed by how stylish and atmospheric it looked.

Design for sale @ Shirt.Woot!

Good day to you. I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Mine involved a barbecue and far too much food to be eaten by a man of medium build such as myself.

This post is a little late in the day, but my design Smarter than the average bear is available to buy at Shirt.Woot! Considering all the trouble I went through with this design it is very satisfying to see it up for sale knowing that I will not have to worry about anymore maths related amendments. I just need to send a copy of the t-shirt to the very kind astrophysics major who helped me out with the equation. What a nice chap!

Masculine gift bags

I've done some gift bags for guys covering many manly interests like cooking meat, drinking beer, sports and fixing stuff. I'm not so good at any of the above sadly.