A boy & his monkey, the finished painting.

Gouache, watercolour and coloured pencil on cream watercolour paper. 210mm x 225mm


Finally, after getting back from my easter travels, I got chance to put brush to paper and finished the painting on sunday. The client was really happy with the scan I showed him (phew, a relief) and, all being well, royal mail will deliver it safe and sound today. Very rewarding to have completed my first serious gouache (well OK gouache, watercolour and coloured pencil) but quite nerve wracking to work without the safety net of an undo command, especially as I was putting on the finishing touches and couldn't resist adding a leaf here and there, or tweeking the iris colours. Just one slip of the brush! Makes me all the more keen to tackle more painting. So nice to have that physical artwork on your desk to show for all your days efforts.I'd also really love to marry up the best bits of gouache with the best bits of digital. Those things that take a lot of fiddling in the computer (natural texture and flow of line) come so freely with painting while those painting challenges (control of line, sharp edges, accurate colour and the all important correction of mistakes) play to photoshops strengths. Cannot wait to play further!

A boy and his monkey.

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone who dropped by and said such nice things about Bathroom Lion, I really appreciate it folks! For those who asked it will, hopefully, be published October time. There's a chance it will be available on Amazon, and the publishers will have it on their site. When I know more I'll be sure and post about it.

I've been working on a commission for a little boy's first birthday present. His parents wanted a painting of the little guy riding a monkey, maybe holding it's ears, and wearing a green T-shirt with a 1 on it... the rest was however I wanted to take it. I showed them 2 versions of initial sketches, which I also splashed some quick colour on. They loved the colour palette of the left hand version with the character design of the right so last nights task was a marriage of the two. The parents are happy with version 3 (save for keeping the original sun design , showing the boy's teeth and having him bear foot) so the next step is to get out the paints! It's going to be a useful exercise in pushing me into doing more natural media pieces. I'd love to get my eye in with gouache as well so I've tried to design things with an eye to the final painting process. I guess I'll know how easy I've made my life when I get cracking over the easter break. I'm away for a few days so it will make a nice holiday project as it will like as not be raining! I'll post the final piece when I have it. Enjoy your secular chocolate eggs folks!

Bathroom Lion Cover, woohoo!

I'm really happy to finally be able to post something further on the bathroom lion book. No doubt a few tweaks to come here and there but this is the cover. Just 2 more illustrations for the inside of the book and I'm done! I've also posted an in progress lion doodle and my exploration of lion's paw bath legs... Although the showering lion was always going to be in silhouette I felt the need to know who I was dealing with behind the curtain. I think I read somewhere that Arthur Rackham always used to draw the rough details on his silhouette illustrations before inking in... I'd say it's essential in order to get a silhouette that really looks like it's owner. The multicoloured version of the hand lettered title is just a bit of whimsy to see what it would look like using the palette of the cover. More soon!

Cards, cards...Happy Mothers Day /Birthday!

Finally I get round to another post. I've a few things coming up which I can finally post on so my sadly neglected blog can feel wanted again. Today's efforts are a pair of cards I actually produced without going any where near a computer... wow who knew you can be creative without photoshop ;) The abstract watercolour collage is for my lovely mum's mother's day card. Islands, hills, rocks... please take your pick. Now I look at how I placed the 3 forms I think they are a bit too bunched up... but my card base was only A5 and I was loathed to trim the pieces down (and lose some of those interesting happenstance textures) to give me more room. My thanks to the inspirational, texture packed watercolourist krisztina maros for her tip on using salt with watercolour. I'm having a lot of fun with the effects... ta for sharing your trade secret!
The second collage is for my good friend Phil's birthday. He's had a wild thing vibe in his work for a while now so I thought it only appropriate! A bit of a rush job but I did enjoy reusing the character treatment I had for Carol (I guess IT/he now has a name) in my terrible yellow eyes submission. Sendak really knew what he was doing when he designed those wild things! More posts in the week.

Shrimp Gumbo!

A long and crappy day in my regular day job today so I badly needed something to let off steam and remind me life is colourful and fun! These little shrimps (or the singular as plural if you prefer) have been sitting in my sketch book since I had call to make use of them. Thought I'd let them out and play... I'm happier now.

Edmund was much happier swimming once he found a way to stop water going up his nose.

I've been playing hooky from the book project for a few hours. I desperately wanted something for the blog and you know when you just have an urge to draw a polar bear in a diving suit... or is that just me...? I've tried the same technique as the previous fly, completing the illustration fully in grayscale first then adding colour over the top. OK I've pulled my punches a little and gone for a more tinted basic colour scheme, but as a way of working I'd love to try it out further. It creates as many working issues as it solves but it's worth another punt I think. Now I see the polar bear and fish cropped in I suppose all I really needed to show was everything below the waterline, still drawing able seaman 'Rusty' and his pump was fun too :)

My usual heartfelt thanks to all who have been stopping by and commenting... and my usual apologies for not reciprocating as I should!

Flies...

Still busy on the book, and my blogging has suffered as a consequence. I'd love to be posting everything I do but understandably the publishers want to keep their powder dry for when the book is available. I'd also love to take the time out to comment on everyone else's splendid blog works but once I get started panning through the blogosphere for nuggets of pure gold I can loose hours, and I've set myself the task of finishing all 15 illustrations plus cover as quickly as humanly possible, so please bear with me...

In the same vain as the last posts this next is the "Sid The Fly" character isolated from the rest of the illustration (to keep the surprise). Although all the pictures in the book are to be greyscale I couldn't resist trying out some colour on this one and I really enjoyed the way of working, adding colour over the top of full greyscale watercolour texture, plus extra digitally toned work. The final result obviously isn't quite as subtle in the colour variations as true watercolour, but you do have fast, fine, flexible control over your colour choices. I know some painters and illustrators do like to work in this manner, full tone in paint or pencil then colour over the top. This fly trial was very quick to do so I'd really like to do a finished illustration with this new way of working. I might well trial it on the front of the book as the cover uses an expanded version of one of the greyscale interior illustrations. I think it could suit my Jabberwocky plans too... when I eventually start them in earnest!

Bathroom Lion vignettes

Too long between posts! I've been beavering away on the book project in every spare moment and I'm happy, on the whole, with the way things are progressing. Still a fair few illustrations to go, and unfortunately I won't be able to post the finished pics on the blog for now. In saying that I do have a couple of vignette creatures that I've just finished for the "Beddy-byes Land" illustration (previously on mattdawsonblog...) which I can post. The publishers of the book were keen on sketch version 3 but also liked the bearded bees from the other sketches and asked for a bee to go along with the king and his cleaner. The scale issues of the little bee alongside the two figures didn't sit well with me but I felt a happy compromise was to isolate it as a top of the page vignette to accompany the main king and cleaner illustration in the page centre. Finally, for composition and added interest, I also worked in another vignette of a moustachioed snake for the foot of the page. Here they both are... More of something, anything, when I can :)

Twisted Creatures part the 7 "The Giraffe."

Well I've been playing hooky from my book project today in order to get out the next twisted creature, a project I share with my esteemed colleagues Messrs Morgan and Levell. Phil's last choice of animal was the giraffe so I present my little sketchy bit of fun. My twisted train of thought stopped at long neck, guillotine and French Revolution so what could make more sense (??!) than a long necked aristo ready for the chop. Please tell me if the frog is one step the wrong side of racist... I was thinking lion or cheetah as a possible revolutionary but, rightly or wrongly, the frog just seemed to fit.

For reference my first port of call is always a google image search but I just wasn't getting the costume pictures I wanted for the revolutionary and the aristocrat. In the back of my mind was the sublime Blackadder, and the "Nob and Nobility" episode in Blackadder the Third with the French Revolution storyline. In the end I thought why look elsewhere, so I put on the DVD, sketched costume reference straight into photoshop and had a fun few minutes laughing and drawing. Clothing is always a constant bind for me to get right in my work. Pardon the pun, but I always get wrapped in in my shorts over the the details. Collars don't fit in with my character design or pose, what side are the buttons on, how many buttons... and don't get me started on having to work out hairstyles! Long story short I didn't follow the Blackadder costumes exactly, I felt the revolutionary needed the blue jacket and stripped pantaloons to be more peasant like, but the whole Blackadder exercise was fun and productive. Enough rambling, as always thanks very much for looking. The next twisted creature will be a Mandrill (pretty unusual to start with!).

additional: arrgh, all I can see now is the frog's terrible weight distribution... why doesn't he fall backwards, is he nailed to the floor!!! It's only a bit of fun, let it go Matt...!

Twisted creatures "Camel Spiders"

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE & ALL! Hope you had jolly holidays and are raring to dive headlong into 2010! I've made a start on the first final artwork for the "There's A Lion In My Bathroom" book. Not sure what I'll be able to show on this but I'll keep the blog posted with whatever I can. To kick the blogging off in this shiny new year here is my (long overdue...) response to the Twisted Creatures project I share with my good friends Phil & Kev. For your amusement (I hope) may I present "Camel Spiders". After my 4 eyed robot and many eyed fly (previously on matts blog...) any excuse from here on in to draw something with more than 2 eyes... it's just so much fun! The next Twisted Creature is to be the Giraffe, so expect long necked shenanigans before too long :)