Filippo and Livingstone...

Wanted to get this posted, now I can go to bed!

the indifferent lion...and existential angst of sorts.

It's been difficult to find the time this week for my own work but finally here's a things in progress. The next fearsome beastie I'm exploring for inspiration and edification is the lion (or as Monty Python would put it..."number 3 the lion...the...lion...".

My sketching was a bit rusty at first for this one so as a warm up I tried 'sketching' with a scalpel straight into scrap paper without any underdrawing. Happily that got me the rough lion collage that I then touched up in photoshop. Perhaps I'm being overcritical of myself at the moment but so much of what I do has the background as a graphic afterthought to compliment the foreground subject. Pattern, colour and stylistic approach are all well and good but for this lion I want a bit more of a story for the beastie...and now I'm building things up too much for what should just be a quick bit of something. I've been thinking (too much...?!) of late about what I want to achieve with my work above the obvious of, hopefully, supporting myself full time at some future date. Time to just crack on with things Matt... visuals, humour (quirky odd is best) and story!

the colourful gorilla (and other tales...)

Sounded a bit like a book title (maybe / might be it is one / will be one..?)... I'm waffling at an early stage. Here's the second fearsome beastie for the smorgasbord. Just playing about still to rethink things and freshen up. I went way more colourful on this than I would usually do and also played around with how I use scanned in texture. Although I fiddled perhaps a little too much I'm very happy with how the texture went and fairly content that I managed to wrestle the colours into something, if not serene, then at least distinctive. I wasn't planning on the speech bubble at the end but the gorilla made me do it!

an ornamental alligator (try saying that 3 times really fast...)

So, hello... how are you...? I've been trying to loosen up and get a little playful to shake myself out of my creative funk. With an eye to productivity and goals I also wanted whatever I dabbled with to hopefully be applicable to the Fearsome beastie book spread...which should be a simple matter, sorry Giles (the author).

So here's an alligator.... my plan being a smorgasbord (I love that word, don't you...) of a few fearsome beasts that take my fancy which I can pick and mix from to inspire the final beastie. I know, I know, friends have said what I have already is OK but, for whatever reason, and it's probably me being my own worst enemy with this, the FB design I have so far just doesn't allow me to stage the action how I want it and, less concrete a point, just isn't quite what I'm after.

Perhaps it's all about that nebulous search for a distinctive creative approach that makes me stand out in the illustration crowd (and boy it's crowded) while also flicking my creative switches... Still I'm enjoying the change of scene and exploring colour and pattern must be a good thing.

Talking of the 'illustration crowd' I had chance to meet a fine group of talented and friendly illustrator folk last weekend. We all crawled away from our screens and desks, out into the real world... If any of you read this it was great to see all your work, shoot the breeze and pick your brains. Many thanks again to Cass for sorting it all out. It'd be grand to do it again sometime...

Hermit the Frog.

A silly bit of nonsense sketched straight onto the computer just so I can feel like I've done something creative today. Truth be told I've been a little creatively out of sorts the last few days. I've been pushing and pulling the fearsome beastie spread this way and that but I really need to stand back and get some perspective on things. I feel like I've got two left hands (which is OK but I'm right handed...). I'll post just as soon as I get my 'illustrator trousers' back from the dry cleaners.

The Fearsome Beastie - part the first

A busy week or so but I've finally been able to knuckle down to some proper work on "The Fearsome Beastie" project I mentioned. Early days but I'm pretty happy with the character design so far. It remains to be seen if it will be suitable once I start fitting it into the story proper and what tweeks I'll have to make. The broad strokes of the tale are the Fearsome B comes into town on a dark and snowy night and proceeds to panic the local kiddiwinks. It gets it's just deserts in the end of course. The text calls for sharp claws, multiple tails and fangs. The author was also keen for scales and hair. I couldn't resist the multiple eyes after using them on an earlier character. I'm hoping they will prove useful in the spread I'm going to draw up where the FB has to sit and sob, all the while biding it's time till the kiddies get close... the two faced, four eyed swine! I must admit the multiple tails proved awkward at first. I wouldn't have chosen that feature myself but, as is often the case, I'm glad to have been pushed somewhere different. Still plenty to do...

a whole load of woodpeckers

One post a week is too few. I hope to be starting work on a story book spread about a "Fearsome Beastie" with the author of 'Bathrrom Lion' which we will then pitch to whoever will look at it. As soon as I have any sketches dear blog...!

Here's a woodpecker painting I worked on over the weekend as an alternative to a birthday card for my dad. A greater spotted woodpecker has been hanging round my folk's garden so I thought why not. I don't know if I'm on a downer about my work of late but even after two versions I still haven't quite got the feel I was looking for. So many, many woodpeckers...what's the collective noun...? A 'splinter' of woodpeckers...a "rat-a-tat-tat"...a "percussion'...? Answers if you please... The more stylised top painting is my final version. I was vaguely aiming for a Charlie Harper feel (not that I could ever come close to his characterful abstractions. He really knew his birds and animals), but I feel mine lacks a spark. It is a woodpecker though so I guess it fits the bill OK. It was a chance to experiment with acrylics though, something I've not done in years. I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely they behaved in comparison to gouache. Like all my recent paintings I'm still frustrated by the colour matching though. My digital roughs seem to undergo a change for good and bad when I move into paint. Hopefully it will come with time. Onward. A fearsome beastie asap...!

first synthetic living cell, where might it end...?

Just a thought on a piece of news I heard today. Scientists are at it again (they never stop do they...) and have succeeded in creating the worlds first synthetic living cell by implanting artificial DNA into an empty host cell. Not yet the scare story that some of the press would have you believe but where might we end up with this genetic jiggerypokery...? As yet the results of this procedure aren't all that different from the genetic modification we have had for some years now, and I'm sure there are many laudable uses for the process, but I do wonder what the consequences might be if we don't think very carefully about whether we should do something just because we are able to... Has the fuse just been lit on an almighty boom...?

a face to the name... too scary...?!!

Wow two posts in one day! Careful Matt people might say you are actually making use of your blog...! I've been umming and arrrhing on whether to post this or not in it's present state but I might as well put it out there and see if it frightens the kiddies away! While working on the "Lion In My Bathroom" book the publishers asked for a biog and photo for their site (I won't link, if you are unfortunate to happen on it while surfing the 1's and 0's maybe a stiff drink will help you over the shock :). Now I'm never happy in front of the lens so I thought I'd play about with a self portrait pic which I could maybe also use for the blog profile pic. It's been years since I seriously tried a self portrait and the same thing still seems to occur. I don't know about anyone else but do you find your self portraits always come out too stern and intense...? Now perhaps that's to be expected when you work using a mirror... but I was working from a photo where I tried to lighten up! I think this could benefit from some adjusting.... say cheese maybe...?! But a blog is for life not just for the highlights so in the interests of sharing here I sort of am.

Broome Street Review illustration.

I was delighted to be contacted some weeks back now by an arts/literary journal based in New York who had happened upon my blog and liked an illustration I had done for an Illustration Friday topic "instinct". Isn't the web a great place...it provides the impetus to come up with work and (if you are very fortunate) people who are prepared to pay for that work. So I'm indebted to The Broome Street Review for liking my work enough to get in touch and I can heartily recommend you visit their site and blog if you are in the mood to have your post modern artistic sensibilities stimulated and stretched.