There's a Lion in my Bathroom - sketches 1

Twenty days and I finally have some work I can put up on the blog! As I said previously I'm pretty busy with a couple of really stimulating and rewarding projects at the moment. One is pretty hush hush (I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you...!) but I'll hopefully have news on that in due course (fingers crossed). The other project is for an anthology of humorous poetry by an amazingly talented writer, Giles Paley-Phillips, which is, all being well, scheduled for publication by Rebel Books LLP next year. I'm working on 15 greyscale, full facing page illustrations for the book plus one of these being worked up into the colour cover, and it's with that cover design / poem illustration that I'll start the blog ball rolling.

The working title for the book is "There's a Lion in my Bathroom" and the titular poem is my favourite piece out of all 34 in the book. It's a shame I cannot share it with you but hopefully these illustrations capture something of the feel of the book (think Spike Milligan meets Tim Burton with hints of Roald Dahl thrown in...). I don't know what more to add regarding the fairly self explanatory visuals save to say I preferred to not reveal the Lion in full... for me it's just funnier (ha ha and peculiar...) that way. I'm also really pleased with the serendipitous lions paw feet on the old style cast iron bath.

Exciting projects (plural) ... & Meeting Quentin Blake!

Well I've had a lot going on over the last few days work wise and so, for the best of reasons my Jabberwock will stay sketchbook bound for a little while yet. The exciting news is that things are about to start on a real life actual book illustration project. I'm going to be providing 15 black & white illustrations, plus a colour cover, for an anthology of humorous poetry, which will be published next year if all goes to plan. I won't go into details yet but I'll try and post if I can as things develop. But wait, there is hopefully more news... of course I cannot go into specifics on this as yet (wouldn't want to jinx things) but I've also been contacted by a well known client who have very kindly asked me to submit a trial spread for a book they are thinking of publishing using one of their very well known characters... Not only that but they are happy for me to handle their character in my own style, very exciting! I realise I've basically revealed nothing at all in this post but I'm really fired up by both these projects and hope to share things on the blog if allowed/ ASAP!

And to top off all the good news I also met Quentin Blake at a Roald Dahl Day event at the National Theatre yesterday and got him to sign my copy of his autobiography "Words & Pictures" ( it's very hard to pick up a copy these days but I highly recommend it for the wealth of professional knowledge he shares...and the amazing pictures too of course!). Like everyone of my generation I've been a fan of Quentin Blake ever since I first picked up a Roald Dahl book. In fact I clearly recall having the Enormous Crocodile read to me as a kid and seeing Blake's illustration of the spinning toothy croc being flung into the sun! There were soooo many people queued up to see the national treasure that, of course, I only grabbed a minute with him, but I managed to ask for his professional advice (he finds that 'work he felt was right on one day can always stand revisiting the next' and also to 'just keep at it'...) and he was good enough to accept a little Toucan sketch I'd done for him (the beak is so long as it was concertina folded into three). They say you shouldn't meet your idols but he was really approachable and just the same in person as he comes across in his books and on TV.

On a related note all with an interest in illustration should consider supporting Quentin Blake's House of Illustration charity which plans to create a London based museum and centre (scheduled for 2011) to champion British & international illustration as the art form it rightly is. Quentin Blake has pledged his entire professional body of work to the collection to kick things off and I for one will be there on opening day! Follow the link - http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/

I hope everyone who pops by this blog will forgive me for not blogging properly of late. I've really gotten out of that blogging habit but I hope to share project work and comment on the fabulous work of other's when I settle back into my usual habits. No excuses, just must try harder!

The romance is over / the project that never was...

Well, amongst other things, I'd been working on the valentines magazine commission until a few days ago when my US agent flagged up something decidedly iffy in the contract for the job. The long and short of it is the project is no more and I really should have known better than to start work in earnest before the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed. Lesson learned. Still it's more stuff for the blog (feast and famine there for the moment, I know, I know... :) and now I have time to spare for the Jabberwock. I'm finally sketching in the 'tulgey wood' so I hope to have stuff to show soon enough.

Valentine magazine commission... hearty creatures

So where's my Jabberwocky project got to then you might be asking...?! I know, I know... I was all set to get started when a paying project came on the horizon! Obviously I cannot go into great detail until print but it's going to be a double page spread to (all being well) be published February next, hence the valentine theme. Long story short these sketches of red valentine animals aren't the direction the client was looking for, but nothing goes to waste so here they are on t'blog. I'll try and post more on the project as it develops. The jabberwocky will be along presently... thanks to all who are kind enough to express an interest in his progress :)

One for sorrow, two for joy...Happy Magpie logos.

Yes I'm still here, although you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise! Thanks to all those who keep checking by despite the 'lights being off and no one being home'... and endless thanks for those following the blog (I will pop on by yours when I can). There seems to have been a load of stuff keeping me from the blog for the last few...boy, it's been weeks! My decks seem a lot clearer now so it's time to blow off the cobwebs and get cracking. I have a couple of project's about to start up. One is an exciting and (hopefully) paying gig for an illustrated book which I cannot go into right yet, but watch this space and I'll post on it just as soon as I can! There's also a personal project for a Jabberwocky illustrated book I've been thinking about for ages now which will fill in any gaps in my schedule. When I know more so too will the blog! :)

Just for starters here are some logo designs for a jewellery company called "Happy Magpie" I've just finished working on. Sadly these concepts didn't result in a finished design which the client wanted to make use off. I think it eventually boiled down to my interpretations of a supposedly happy magpie looking too startled and scary for them. It was also a struggle to get the birdy looking comfortable in it's clothing and so, long story short, we put the breaks on things. Maybe a revised version of these designs might see the light of day in the future... still, it's all a learning curve and fodder for the blog. Nothing goes to waste :)

two humpty camel

Firstly to get explanations and apologies out of the way I'm in the thick of summer DIY projects (batten down the hatches before winter bites) and sadly just haven't had the time to blog. I seem to have spent every free minute of the last couple of weeks either perched precariously atop a ladder or visiting the DIY store. While I wait for woodstain to dry, and before yet another trip to get supplies, I was determined to at least get my 'corrupted camel' finished for Phil and Kev. Not sure if this works as a concept, based as it is on a flimsy play on words... camel hump / humpty... ...!?... ... but I'm very happy with the general look of the piece, and sketching this sure does beat sealing window frames! More DIY next week, but I hope light is at the end of the tunnel and normal blogging (whatever that is) will resume very soon.

Hyena...red in tooth & claw

The latest animal that Phil, Kev and I are to present in our 'mangled menagerie' is the hyena. There are surprising physical similarities in my treatment of the previous wonky donkey (see below) and this blooded beast but in personality, what a contrast! Whereas the old donkey finds life a trial Mr. cheesy grin is a creature that is happy in his work :) I don't think you can go wrong with caricaturing the 'happy' hyena.... might get tricky if you have to illustrate a manic depressive one I dare say... but a hunched set of hairy shoulders, spots and a smile does the trick I think. And I had as much fun drawing this as the hyena is having, although I did get red ink on my keyboard. Messy business illustration.

Nearly forgot chaps... the next animal will be... the camel (hope you don't get the hump over my choice ..tee hee:)

sad old wonkey

This weeks / fornights / months (I'm not sure which) twisted creature for m'colleagues Phil & Kev is the humble donkey...and it doesn't get more humble than mine. I was initially going to do a "wonkey" and make a play on the legs on one side of the body being too short (is that an old kids joke I've blocked out from my childhood I wonder...?) but as I progressed my donkey just got sadder and more world weary and I realised that's pretty much the essence of donkeys for me. As Phil rightly points out A.A. Milne defined donkeys for all the generations to come with old Eeyore. I added a harness because we always seem to be making them haul something from one spot to another.

Giant steps were what we took...40 years ago!

At the risk of adding to all the Apollo hullabaloo here's my little commemoration of those momentous few days. I really wish I was around to share in the world wide event 40 years back. I would have loved to stay up till 3am to see Armstrong's 'small feet' and mankind's giant ones. Who knows, If NASA, or China, or Russia, or maybe even Virgin Galactic manage it I could very well live to see another moon landing (this one in colour with advert breaks for travel insurance...!). To head off any pedantic comments I know the Saturn V rocket didn't get all the way to the moon but allow me artistic license... it's my way of referencing the Lumiere bros Trip to (poke) the Moon (in the eye) iconic image as well. I wanted to get Noel Fielding's Mighty Boosh d'moon in there too somehow but thought better of it. Happy birthday Apollo 11 Now can I get this posted right on the very minute they landed...321
(it may say 20:07, but I did post at 20:17, honest).

IF "hollow."

There are a dozen other things I should be getting on with but... a slow afternoon, a quick look at illustration friday, the rusty wheels turn, scrap of paper doodle and hey presto.