shark sketches... der dum...der dum... da da da da...

Apparently the collective noun for sharks is a shiver, school or slew... so here's my shiver of shark sketches (and a couple of photos I took; a hammerhead head in a Whitby fish shop and a patriotic jubilee wooden shark in a pub in The Lake District)... all in aid of this months submission to A Little Bit Bunny. As always I've shown a little peek of the final creature. I think my shark has lost something from the initial sketches (often the way when you over work something and loose the spontaneity) but there is definitely a screen print design in this.

The main starting point for my stylised 'flip top head' shark came from a picture book idea I had back in 2007 for a wayward young octopus. I've been waiting for an opportunity to revisit the toothy villan, and I took the chance to add a few more teeth!

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.

BROCCOLI WARNING !

I was chatting with a mate tonight whose son has just started on solid foods, although I hear touching broccoli florets suddenly made him swing from curiosity to tears... ... made me laugh (is that wrong) so, as soon as I hung up the phone I sketched this guy. Sounds like the little chap might share George Bush Sr. views on the subject of vegetables. Don't worry though, the US secret service seem to know how to handle broccoli (42 seconds in :-)

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...

slugs and snails... no puppy dog's tails though...

Blimey, my "a little bit bunny" contribution... this early in the month...! Well ALLB for July is slugs and I figured, as they are so gunky, I'd get a bit messy and see what I ended up with. It's been a while since I actually did some real watercolouring, you know, with paint, a brush and water and everything. I even chucked in some salt to see if I could get that offensive gastropod skin texture. It's nice to leave the computer screen alone for once in a while, although I still assembled everything and added finishing touches in photoshop. Pop on over to ALBB for the final illustration.

ta to Designers Journal

The fine folk over at designersjournal.net have been kind enough to feature a selection of my illustrations along with a biog-ette on their inspirational and informative site. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't come across designers journal before now but it's most definitely one for the bookmarks and a daily visit with the first cuppa of the day. My humble thanks to Alex for the big up. Looking over the past creative types they've featured I'm well and truly honoured to get a mention. Isn't the web a warm and fuzzy place sometimes... Right, I must go off and do something to justify all this.

RIP Lonesome George...natures living 'picnic hamper'

Poor old George. Depending on which sources you read, but the last remaining living specimen of the Pinta island giant tortoise, aka Lonesome George, died on sunday last at the (again, depending on who you ask) ripe old age / or middle age of an estimated 100 years old. The rest of his species were lost when wild goats were misguidedly introduced to his Galapagos island home and ate all the food. Whether some individual examples of the Pinta island Tortoise exist on another island in the Galapagos is open to debate, but either way it's a sad day as we tick off another species that may or may not have still been around had we not buggered about with things we didn't understand. It's not only the goats either... Man more directly played his part in why it is that all examples of giant tortoise are now a protected species. Damn it nature, what were you thinking of, packaging a tasty meal and a drink in one handy living picnic hamper, as illustrated in this episode of QI. Not to get on my environmental soap box, I'm no green angel, but the sad demise of lonely G does paint a picture...

four colour tiger in the forests of the night...

I've gone plant crossed eyed! Enough. It's going to need tweaks here and there before I'd attempt to print it but I've finally finished off my tiger screen print / a little bit bunny submission which I posted roughs developments for previously. After trying out various ways of doing the tiger stripes digitally, non of which were right, I stopped resisting, printed out what I had as an underlay and went at the thing with a brush pen to see what happened. I'm not unhappy with the results, but I have a feeling I'm going to revisit the William Blake Tiger again and again. Attached to this post are the stripe ink scan, a sneak detail of the finished illustration and the four colour screens which go together to make the final image. Pop on over to ALBB if you fancy seeing the final mix. When my eyes have settled down I think I'll play around and see what other colour combos I might also try. That's part of the fun I think with having your illustration as separations like this, just fiddle with the colour sliders in photoshop and voila, a new illustration!

iPad Hulk

I haven't used my ipad as much as I'd like for just kicking back and trying loose colour sketching. You cannot always get what you're after, even when using a stylus, but this finger painted hulk was great fun to do and has a certain something I'm pleased with. Also seems somehow appropriate, painting hulk with your fingers... Hulk no like puny pencils!