a trio of colourful chaps...

I'd mean meaning to do a third irreverent installment to go along with my "Joseph's technicolour dream goat" and "Joseph's technicolour milk float" illustrations from a while back. A few variations sprung to mind (which I still might do when I have a quiet day) but "Joseph's technicolour speed boat" won out. I think it's the retro children's book vibe that's entertaining me as much as the silly word play. Might I have been more religiously inclined if R.E lessons at school had jokey illustrations as an accompaniment... probably not. Would have been more entertaining though.

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.

chimp think doodle...

Just a sketch that passed some time today... and I know chimps aren't monkeys, but I saw the quote and  it seemed apt to scrawl it in there...

don't believe those crocodile tears...

It's been far too long dear blog. Please excuse the lack of posts but I've creative projects ongoing that I couldn't post about, at least not yet. Thankfully good old a little bit bunny blog is always there, as it's supposed to do, to encourage me to blow the cobwebs off and post something. Well this months ALBB creature is the crocodile and I had great fun getting inky and tearful! Here, as always, is some of the sketch work plus a detail of the final illustration.... pop on over to a little bit bunny blog if you'd like to see all of the emotional croc.

Okey dokey, I've a book cover to design, but first I have to read the book... TTFN

a sheep...

a sheep I saw, I sketched... it's tricky to sketch sheep, look at too many and you keep dozing off...

murmuration screen print designs...

A few weeks back now I was fortunate enough to witness the amazing spectacle that is a murmuration of starlings, all swooping and pulsing in a flock before they roosted for the night. It really is a jaw dropping sight to see... and hear. It sounds just like the sea breaking on shore and, when two masses of birds conjoin it actually moves like waves crashing and flowing together.

I really wanted to try and do justice to the scene and cook up a screen print illustration so, off an on, I've been trying to depict the flavour of the event graphically for the last fews weeks. Just like the actual murmuration itself it's such an intangible thing to capture, like bottling smoke. There are the silhouettes of the birds themselves against the sky but, more importantly, there is the motion of the flock as a whole that I'm trying to get at. The pulses, swirls and eddies of the birds all add up to a group organism that is curiously more than the sum of it's individual parts. It really is like in 1950's cartoons when the protagonist goes after the honey, gets chased by the swarm of bees, who form into a fist and bop them on the head.

It's fascinating to read up on theories about this behaviour of flocks of birds, and also bait balls of fish (something else I'd love to see), grouping in such a manner as to deter predators by, perhaps, appearing as a bigger predator... kinda like when a cat puffs up to 'look big'.... (anyone else recall that far side cartoon ? I need to reread my Far Side, it's been far too long... I digress. Here's a smattering of my exploratory sketches, photos I took of the murmuration, (some as animated gifs) and the final "Early Birds" and "Home to Roost" screen print designs. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did cooking them up!

 

tardigrades... and an interview...

Time to break the dry spell on the blog, and as is my wont I'll do it with this months ALBB creature which is the tardigrade. Truly fascinating little fellows these. Tough as old boots too. Burn 'em, freeze 'em, dry 'em almost to dust... high pressure, the vacuum of space, massive doses of radiation... all that and these little tardigrades (aka moss piglets or water bears... ahhh) keep on keeping on. Hard as nails and yet still thought by many to be the cutest of microscopic critters. Well worth a read all about them. I've opted for a variety of colourful mossy piglets for the illustration and just had fun with different characters. As always, here is a sneak peek and some sketches (and collage elements) while the final illustration is over on a little bit bunny if you would like a look down the microscope!

While I'm blogging I need to also send belated yet sincere thanks to Craig over on Fishink blog for his asking for an interview and including me on his truly excellent blog of all things illustration, photography and textiles. Much as I hate talking about myself it's hard to shut me up once I get waffling about illustration as a topic! I cannot recommend Fishink blog highly enough. Just looking back through his posts it's spooky how similar a lot of our visual tastes are and he's also posted a wealth of words and pictures on many glorious illustrators I'd certainly never come across before. Bookmark fishink and I guarantee it will give you all the illustration eye candy you could wish for! Cheers again Craig.

a further sketch in the informal 'cameras I own' series... the Polaroid SX-70

I threatened with my last camera ink sketch to continue the theme... oh, I have plenty more cameras yet... So, while I'm on a roll with my old nikon FE sketch one, old nikon F2 sketch two and my much newer panasonic LX5 sketch (geeks love numbers) here's the transformation of the sublime and anachronistic Polaroid SX-70 camera (this link is to an wonderful Charles and Ray Eames produced original SX-70 advert). Sadly I have to admit that I have never had the polaroid film packs to be able to discover whether this lucky car boot find of mine even works but, as an object of quirky and beautiful design history I'm glad to have one to sketch and admire.

egg box rhino... I am the egg box, I am the rhino, goo goo g'joob...

Happy new year blog! And before January's out here is my first a little bit bunny blog post of the year... an egg box... an rhinoceros. I had, and still have, a notion to illustrate my own take on Durer's Rhinoceros, an illustration I've always loved. I was all set, and had sketched some roughs but, finishing the last egg in the egg box this morning, an alternative take came to mind. Long story short, just one egg box, some scissors, a dab of two of glue and here she is. Makes a nice change to have no preconceptions at all, just snip and fold and see what happens.

an axolotl...

Not enough posts over the last few weeks. I'm working on on various bits and bobs so there should be some blog fodder ASAP. Here's a tidbit for the blog smorgasbord (I never get tired of that word... sssmooorgasbordt), my take on an axolotl for a little bit bunny blog. I've been enjoying quick free and easy doodling with an ink dipped kebab skewer on grease proof paper, coupled with loose 'filling in the shapes' painting on a separate sheet. I used a similar approach on my eagle a few weeks back. I love the variation in the wandering lines thickness and the happenstance capillary bleeding of the ink in places too. The mismatched edges of the paint fill and the ink outline seem to give things an energy, pep things up and stop the drawing looking too flat. It doesn't always work as planned but there are nice surprises to be had when you assemble everything in photoshop. It's always fun to shake things up and loosen up from time to time. As always with a little bit bunny creatures there is a cropped view and some development sketches on this blog... pop on over to ALBB for the final illustration. 

fishbowl ennui...

fire and clouds... and back beside the seaside...

I've a big stack of low grade cardboard by my desk that just seems to love thick nib sharpie marker pen. For whatever reason my mind turned to cloud doodles today then, perhaps by way of elemental balance some flames also flared up. A quick bit of photoshop and nothing goes to waste on this blog. Next time I need to fill a sky or set something alight (in an illustration that is) I've some designs to choose from.

In fact I might well make use of my clouds sooner rather than later as I've started to tackle the seaside screen print scene I put to one side before christmas. I'm sure it was limiting myself to just a single colour print that caused me problems before. The design just wasn't feeling right. I've decided to whack a couple of colours in there, loosen up and see what happens. Here's a very rough in progress post for the present. Still planning the colour and composition. I don't know how obsessive I'm going to go with line and detail but I must admit that I'm quite liking the rough energy that this has so far. Don't over work things...!

technicolour dream goat...

Another month goes by... means another creature over on the group blog a little bit bunny that I share. This month it's goat and, like with my last blog post, I'm still in a colourful rainbow hued mood. Very unlike me (and the last very secular post) I've actually gone a little religious with the theme. Here's a sneak peek as always with the full illustration to be seen over on ALBB. To comment on something that you cannot fully see here... what with the silly season nearly upon us and time in short supply, I've gone for a short and sweet speedy illustration. That said I'm really very happy with the simple line work and overall retro, somehow 1970's children's book / animation feel. It reminds me a little of the black and white line work characters on the superb animated Paddington Bear tv series from my childhood. I still love the way they set a full colour 3D Paddington Bear puppet in a limited colour 2D / not quite 3D world. I think there's one or two more illustrations I really like to do in the same vein as this goat... watch out.

gorilla doodles...

I've had these lying round the desk for days... hate them to go to waste. Still stuck on the primates... they're just so much fun!

Darth Disney...

What can we expect as a result of Disney spending it's pennies on Lucasfilm... ? Might it give us 'new hope' that a worthy star wars sequel film could come about...? My initial hopes aren't high I must admit...although I hate to criticise anyone's creative endeavours before they are finished. Live in hope while enjoying the original trio of films.

fat sharpie gorilla sketch

I battled with a 'much too fat for my liking' sharpie pen today and doodled this chap... I quite like him.

bat surprise...

Here's a surprise bat face that I noticed on an air compressor today. That's got to be worth a little inky doodle.

another ink sketch in the unintentional series "cameras I own..."

I picked up a new 'toy' a few months back so it's high time I doodled it like I did with my old Nikons here & also here... This grand little Panasonic is as close as I'm ever going to get to a glorious Leica rangefinder... too rich for my blood, but I can lust...! I must dig my other old cameras out of the loft sometime and continue this unintentional series of sketches... very therapeutic.

tiny toad rescue...ant armagedon!

So there I was this morning, putting out the recycling when this tiny (say 20mm) toad hops on by... As luck would have it I live near a lake, so the little chap / chapess was ultimately non the worse for their modelling session. My good deed for the day. Ironic really, I relocated the toad partly because I was about to put down ant powder. Now I've nothing whatsoever against ants...fascinating critters, but I've asked them to move and they just won't see reason. You save one creature and wipe out several thousand. I think I've a few more toads to rescue to redress the balance...