THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!

Hello just a short post.

So Uni asked us Illustration students to come up with designs for christmas cards and below is mine.

They're probably not going to be sold anywhere but at uni, so I'd advise you to just print it out and write a lovely festive message from me to you in it.

 Oh and if you're a member of my family SPOILER ALERT because you're all getting one.

Ho
        Ho
             
               Ho

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Come in, sit down.

 Everything's a-go-go here at drawing manors. The winter nights are drawing in and the inkwell's freezing over. bbrrrr.

Here is a cheeky peek at the cover for 'Sredni Vashta,' the comic this summer I did based on the brilliant short story by 'SAKI' (or 'H H Munro for all you nom -de- plume haters out there) It's a cracking read, why not put it in your eyes?

I tried digital colouring for the first time, which was an expedition into waters murky indeed!

I'm not sure what I'll do with the comic, it still needs colouring really. I'm hoping to get it printed somewhere. Failing that I'll put it up here for all you lovely folks at some point.

Our First 3rd year project was to illustrate Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for the Folio Society competition next January. It was a really fun project and a great book full of lovely visuals.

I've just discovered a charming little  podcast called 'Make it then tell everybody.' Overseen by Dan Berry, these consist of interviews with some great cartoonist/ Illustrators. Well worth a listen if you're into comics or Illustration or the voices of humans.

Also I discovered the work of Warwick Johnson Caldwell. I really like his colouring, in those top two images especially.

Thanks for looking at my pictures and words,

I'm sure these posts will get even more sporadic as the year progresses and the work mounts.

I'll keep you Fred fans posted.

BYE

'Library Ghosts' by Jack 'lesser' Lewis' Awkward Energy

Hello blog, looooong time no post. I've been busy - no really, I have! Come on...don't walk away.....

Oh well.

So, way back in the sands of time, before I had finished my second year of uni, I agreed to make a music video for Jack lewis. The song were sent over and sat on my hard drive, gathering dust for about a month.

 Two months later after having lost and found the will to draw, a broken scanner, a broken hard drive, and  an increasingly estranged relationship with the outside world here it is.

Hope you like it.

The other songs off the album are excellent too, you can find out more about the band here:

http://stitchstitchrecords.co.uk/artists/jack-lesser-lewis-awkward-energy/

Next up, I'm going to retreat to my art-cave to do a 30-page comic book

stay tuned

Holiday!

A month or so ago my course and I went on a 4 -day mind bending adventure into the dark, 70% cocoa, heart of Belguim, below are some highlights from my sketch book of the trip. below below is a video our tutor, the inimitable Phil Shaw made of lots of people's drawings!

Fistful of Art Shop Vouchers!

Yes that's right, in a freak alignment of the cosmos, myself and two other fellow illustrators - this one and this one - found ourselves drawing vaguely valentines - themed pictures in the basement of Cass Arts. 

Here are some pictures:

Here's a lot of stuff cos I haven't put anything up here for a loooong time

Right, it's been a very long time indeed since I've put anything up here, so here's a bumper crop of sketches, and finished art.The creation myth project was really good fun on reflection although a real slog at the time.  I think in the future I'll have to put up these behemoth posts less frequently because the uni thing is ratcheting up tight!

Our new project is to write and draw our own children's story which is at once incredibly exciting and daunting. These first couple of sketches are based on an idea for a children's book I've had for a while involving a sloth. Today I thought it should maybe feature other animals that embody the other six deadly sins. Although on reflection, i don't think it would be prudent to put lust in there.

These couple are prep sketches from the early stages of my Creation Myth project, before in completely abandoned my idea and went in another direction. a week before the deadline.

And here it is; the following was envisaged to be read through once the right way up, then through upside down and in the reverse order. You may well have to turn your laptop upside down or stand on your head to read the second part. (Big thanks/ apologies to Jeffrey Lewis, in whose brilliant comics zine, Fuff I was first introduced to this format.) My creation myth tells the story of the wax and wane of god, as his civilisation grows up and his people no longer need him. But I shouldn't have to say that...

and I just uploaded some new photos up to flickr click here to take a peek

time for a cup of tea, methinks

peace x

Carravagio

This is a project I did before the christmas break. 

ROW

Come on christmas!
I'm working this drawing up into a plate, then I'm going to do some lovely prints of it

As usual this work comes packaged inside an even bigger boxful of work, and so on and so on.

Beauty Beholds

Here is the thee-page comic that I did for our illustrate the news project yesterday. Basically the story revolves around the wife of an MP who stole her husband's mistress's cat. It was a lot of fun drawing such hideous people and I really enjoyed painting it in a this style which is a bit new for me,

enjoy!

CROOKED USAGE GRAND UNVIELING

Drawn of Man HQ has been caught up in a storm of dip pens watercolours and tea drinking recently. In a rare and recent lull I worked feverishly to produce CROOKED USAGE - my monthly comic book magazine. This month's issue is a collection of my first 4 comic strips, plus a few little extra bits I threw in there as well. In months to come they may also feature photography, writing, and boring old non-narrative illustrations, or maybe they won't. I just don't know.

Basically this is a groovy goody bag packed to the gills full of art out of my brain. and it's cheap!

If you're interested, there's  a link to the shop at the top of  the page, or you can get there by clicking here.

First issue's covers look like this:

After hours postcard post

Right right right

Last thursday night was the grand opening of our new arts building at Uni. There were alot of people in suits and it was very surreal to see the atrium transformed into some kind of boozy lecture hall, replete with a podium, waiters and champagne.
My tutors had organised a scheme whereby -for the cost of a stamp - the punters could buy a postcard with one of our illustrations on it. Here are some of my efforts - apologies for the shoddy camera - work.

Haunts of the Poets

Right, so for this project we had to produce images for an exhibition at the poetry cafe in Covent Garden. We went on a couple of drawing days in central london, which was fun, we had to research a poem and then produce a piece/ pieces illustrating the poem and / or incorporate bits of our reportage drawings.

here are a couple out the ol sketchbook;

The prow of the Golden Hinde

 The crazy arches of Borough Market

Millenium bridge as spine, and St. pauls

A pair of identically dressed old men.


and here are the final images, the submissions are reviewed on monday so I'll know pretty soon whether I'm on the wall!

I was inspired by the poem "The london Breed" by Benjamin Zephaniah

CROOKED APPROACH

Hello merry bloggophiles. Unfortunately I don't have anything new this week so I thought I'd dust off the old sketchbooks, leaf through those desiccated tomes and whack something old/new up here.

enjoy

REC

I finally finished the comic I was working on for the observer graphic short fiction prize! I missed the deadline by about  a day...oh well, there's always next year . Then Uni bit down hard and I had to put the whole thing on ice for a couple of weeks anyway, get a load of this -