Happy holidays or, to be secularly contrary... a very merry Newtonmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

         Twas the night before Newtonmas and all through the lab

         not a creature was stirring, not even the lab crab (...crustacean experiments?).

         The white coats were hung by the black board with care

         in hopes that old Isaac soon would be there.

         And then from outside peering in through the dark

         The bewigged face of jolly Isaark (...?!).

         He swung in through the window with haste and alacrity

         His motion directed by the force of gravity.

OK, OK... I won't do anymore. I'll just end by saying happy Newtonmas to all and to all a good-night!

By way of explanation, and not to repeat myself needlessly, here are my previous Newtonmas card blog posts

Newtonmas 2011
Newtonmas 2012
Newtonmas 2014


See you in the new year with a great deal more illustration work going to be posted in 2016. (That's a pre new year resolution!)

optimistic optometrist...

Just a visual thought that occurred to me a while back... kinda in the same vein as my previous optimistic thinking.

"Optometrist" - Someone for whom the glass eye is always half full.

egg box elephant...

So, ever since my rhino egg box from several whiles back I've been meaning to try for an elephant in a similar vain. Like with the rhino, I didn't have a strong plan of attack, just to use only one egg box for the whole thing, make use of the existing moulded forms where I could and see what happened. I'm particularly surprised and happy with the heavily lidded eyes (which weren't added as separate pieces but are part of the trunk sections). Now, I'm sure there's a egg box hippo to be had as well...

Primate Family Portraits. The White bald headed uakari [wah-kahr-ee].

Just a quick primate illustration to keep the primates family portraits thing slowly rolling on.

Primate Family Portraits. The Golden snub-nosed monkey.

I wouldn't go so far as to say this is going to be a running theme... I'm just really enjoying researching and illustrating some of the more obscure members of our extended primate family. Today's relative, the Golden snub-nosed monkey.

Primate Family Portraits. The Aye-aye.

I've always had more than a passing penchant for all things primate. It's a remarkable thing to look at such a menagerie as you find in the various branches of our primate family tree and know that we are a part of all that (kinda like meeting long lost relatives at a wedding...). One such remarkable relative is the Aye-aye.

Black Books booze... Life Cry bottle label.

A couple of my very good friends had birthdays in close succession recently and, as we all share a love of the estimable Dylan Moran's superb channel 4 comedy series Black Books, I made them both my take on a bottle of the drink Life Cry which features briefly in the episode titled Elephants and Hens (the only playable link I could find on youtube is speeded up and cropped, so part of the bottle label is missing, still, you can get the idea if you jump to 3 min 25 seconds in). On the show Life Cry would appear to be a budget, rough, alcopopish beverage best avoided but I hypothesized its makers had relaunched it for a trendier 21st century market. Fans of the show might get some of the references I included on the back label and, if you haven't seen Black Books yet... what's keeping you ?! I cannot recommend it strongly enough. "You always know you're in for a good night when there's a polar bear bleeding on the label." Cheers!

a smattering of sketches...

Still working on, for now, 'keep it under the hat' stuff. Here's some sketches that hint at aspects of the project. All very good fun, I look forward to showing more...

Apollo Poncho.

There's something about drawing spacesuits that I just find highly enjoyable so, when I arrived at the notion of a "poncho spaceman" with a mate last week, and then that mate had his birthday this week, this drawing for a card was the result.

surplus neanderthals... (not a bad band name either)

Well you would be forgiven for thinking I'd dropped off the face of the earth but I've been busy with some exciting projects and won't have anything I can show for a while save occasional sketch crumbs which fall from the drawing board. The first scattering take the form of neanderthal portraits which, although the wrong flavour for the project in question, had a little something I really liked.

merch for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation with my little, orange fellows on it...

Happy 2015 everyone! It's nice to be able to start the cold and shivering blog year on a warm and fuzzy orange note and finally share photos of some goodies I received through the post.

Towards the end of last year I was approached by The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation as they'd seen a couple (one and two) of my little, orange fellows on the web and wondered if I'd be willing to donate merchandising use of them for T-shirts and the like. Well, if you look back through my blog it would become evident I've got more than a passing soft spot for all things primate so I was very happy to be able to help the BOSF in their worthy work. I'm no expert but sadly, as with other urgent charitable causes, there is a real need to be answered and many devoted and hard working individuals who need the support. If you can spare the time I know these lovely folks (and the hairy, orange guys and gals they care for) would appreciate your interest.

I'm not sure of the ins and outs in getting hold of these BOSF products from countries other than Indonesia but I would suggest a visit to their web shop and in working with them I've found them to be very friendly and eager to help.