an ahool...

Just in the nick of for this months a little bit bunny creature here is an ahool... ... ... yup, I didn't know what one it is either, or maybe that should be, what one might be, given it fails under the heading of cryptid (and if you don't know what that is... here you go... good old wikipedia). I opted for the flying primate angle (I never miss the opportunity for drawing primates of all shapes and sizes) and, as the ahool is supposed to be from the Javan rain forests I loosely based my creature on the Silvery Gibbon (Hylobates moloch) which hails from those parts. Sadly, like so many species, it's fallen foul of deforestation and the bushmeat trade and is now on the endangered list. Quite an eye opening education, this months ALBB submission... As always just a sneak peek of the final illustration... pop onto ALBB for a whole ahool.

Albanian jet fighter exchange...

Bit out of left field (or should that be iron curtain...) this blog post, but I'll try and cut a long story short... A few weeks back I was pleased to be approached by the amazingly talented dutch photographer Arthur Mebius about a stylised concorde graphic I did way back in 2008 (gawd bless the internet, nothing gets thrown away...). Arthur wanted to arrange for use of my concorde design in a project he is currently working on (I hope I can post about it at a future date...). Well, long story short (too late), being a bit of a aircraft nut from my childhood I was really impressed with some of Arthur's photographs, especially some of derelict Albanian Mig fighter jets at an airbase called Kucova. I recall also seeing them on an episode of Top Gear does Albania once too (4 mins in... I hope I'm not as boring a geek as James May on this !). So much did I like them I suggested coming to some arrangement and we sorted out a Mig swap... one of Arthur's Mig photos for prints of a couple of mig designs (one and two) I also did in 2008. Then Arthur sweetens the exchange with a few more photographic goodies so I felt I should add to the pot... loooong story not at all short..... hence this painting. I had real fun on it too!

Staithes and gulls galore...

I went on holiday last month to a grand little fishing village on the east coast of Britain called Staithes. The place has already been photographed, painted and printed more than most, but not to let that stop me I thought I'd work it up into a print design too and see what happens. Gulls pretty much rule the roost there (as I can attest to with more than one sleepless night!), "mine...mine...mine" is spot on, so they are going to have to feature pretty heavily in the illustration, hence I'm trying to get them right before I go on. And now my sketch book is covered in gull sh*t !

cymbals chimp warm up sketch...

Couldn't get enough of the chimp with cymbals in Toy Story 3. You cannot buy them for love nor money!

RIP Mr Armstrong... and some unrelated muppets...

I sketched this a couple of weeks back on the sad news of the death of Neil Armstrong. How irritating it must have been for him to have had his whole life defined by that short period of time he lived out in 1969...? It still fascinates me, and I admit I would have found it hard to have met him and not asked all about the moon landing. And don't ask why I've included my favourite muppets (Statler & Waldorf)... ... they just happened to already have been on that sheet of paper. Could you imagine what the Muppets would have done with "special guest star... Mr. Neil Armstrong... yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaay!"

I couldn't sleep...

Ever have one of those nights were things are just bouncing round inside your head and you cannot switch off...? I gave up around 1am, switched on the light and drew this in the note book I keep by the bed for just such moments.

Yoda sketches...

Doodling Yoda today I have been doing.