My work in The Big Book Of Contemporary Illustration

I have my first publised work in Martin Dawber's latest book the "Big Book of Contemporary Illustration". Will soon be in boarders, waterstones and all those kind of places. What makes it better is that some friends of mine have work in there too.

Happy Anniversary

How the greeting cards look now, finalised with badge. Will soon be available to buy, and make me some money.

Valentines/ Anniversary - An Improvement

Here are two valentines/ anniversary cards I have designed. When printed and completed in their greeting card form they are going to have heart shaped badges in their chests. Either that or some simular idea. I wasn't happy with the way the they origionally turned out so I OCD'd my way to rephotographing them to now look like this:

Internets back

Well i have the internet and the use of a pc again. I also quit my 55hour a week job so I can get back to illustrating...and being pennyless. Anyhow, Im getting back to doing things, my animation came to a stop with moving house, but now (well when i find the disk with it on) i can get to editing the frames.

Will keep you posted.

Animation coming soon...i hope

I currently have an animation in production, and as it's my first it's taking me some thinking to get my head around the process and the fiddly bits. The model the story is based on is made, and so is the set, now just comes the task of animating it...
...so with some luck it will be up on here in about 2-3 weeks time.
wish me luck.

Sketch book Job Vacancy doodles.

Getting back into drawing down my ideas...

Job Vacancies !

I heard about a open competition for noisefestival.com asking for works that portray something that the artist wants to get off their chest. So, in my current pee'd off-ness I chose to make an image for my current situation- (moneyless, living in someone else's house and unable to get work no matter how hard I try).

So here's me in a months time, working in a fast food joint, even more fed up and going nowhere slowly...

A bit of Beth Ditto

I was asked to attend the opening night of 'Popped' at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. The idea behind the show is to create an archive of popular culture based works, viewed through teenage eyes. For more information check out the website : http://www.wearepopped.com/

Well anyway it was requested that I do some of my model making while the event was going on. I chose to make a model of Beth Ditto from 'The gossip'. I managed to get her to the point of base coating, but then had to take it away to finish. Here is the resulting image of her:

There are still things i need to change about her...(ie. shes not fat enough). Also i'm not 100% happy with the final photo so that may change too.

Degree Show

Our UCLAN Illustration course had its degree show this week. Took a lot of sleepless nights but I'm pleased with how it all turned out. People seemed positive looking through my illustrations and liked the playful charm of my models. I learned a lot from the show and have come up with new things i want to do to improve and evolve my work, such as delving into the world of animation and creating more sets in different ways.
Here are some images of my display area (I apologise for the glares from the glass):

The Brave Sir Douglas

It took a long time and a lot of hard work but its here. My honours project, a book called The Brave Sir Douglas. It is the story of a Knights quest to rescue the fair maiden, but to do so he must get past the dragon and defeat the ogre. However as the story develops it becomes apparent that the Knight is really a small boy, who is imagining he is a knight on a quest, so to cloud the reality that he is attempting to save his little sister, who has been neglected by their parents (the dragon and the ogre).
It was made as a new way to communicate how the world is seen by an abused child. They want to be happy and explore, but are punished by doing so, being made to feel scared, unsafe and unloved through no fault of their own.

Here are some of the pages:

"The Brave Knight" Preview

Here are some sneak peaks of the characters for my soon coming childrens book "The brave Knight" (trying to think of a better title, but for now this one fits it well).

Theres the Boy, his alter ego the knight, the fair maiden he must go to rescue, the evil dragon, its reality self (the mother), and the bruitish ogre.

Dear Zine

These are some of the pages from my zine. A diary of a days activities, illustrated with my past models quickly put in a scene. Was only a week deadline so killed me to produce it all in that short time, but i managed it.

Charlotte

Competition brief for Amelias Magazine. They were looking for a double page spread to illustrate a positive view of the future.

Charlotte sits nurturing her plants, dreaming of a day the world would return to nature. 3D puppet model, made from plaster cast, clay, wire, fabrics and feathers. Painted with acrylics, photographed in scenery and edited in photoshop.

Hiromi

A brief to illustrate for 'Hiromi', a short story about a forign exchange student whos very introverted and likes being isolated. Managed to get this 1 illustrated within a week.

Hiromi lays on a bed of clouds, daydreaming, forgetting his troubles.

Design against fur

My designs for the 2008 Respect for Animals competition brief asking for a poster to campaign that the wearing of fur is cruel. The lineup was my 1st design, and then after aload of arangements and modifications the final was made. Now just need to send it off.

Heres the site with the info:

http://www.respectforanimals.co.uk/home.php/daf/more/2008_competition_launched/

Peter Pan

These are my illustrations for the J.M.Barrie book Peter Pan. Had a burning desire to indulge myself with the story I loved for so long and this is how it all turned out. I would like to create captain Hook and the crocodile in the future, some point, when i get lucky to get the chance.