Thursday, 20 June 2013

So

So quite a lot's happened in my little life over the past few months, all at the same time. My fiancee came to visit, I was in the Lake District and I got a job. I'm now a living breathing, genuine person doing Graphic Design for MADE Agency in Norwich, who are awesome, and couldn't be happier about it. As joyful as these exuberant and charmless fish.




Still got a lot of personal work in the pipeline, the programmers for Niles Snappington's Fancy Dress Adventure are doing a silky job of putting that reptilian misadventure together and hoping it should slide neatly into the app store sometime this summer. Yes, life is good.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

Thrilling times with crocodiles

Hello all you beautiful people.
It's been a busy couple of months, but amongst other things I've been working on an exciting little project. It's a children's book, it's an app, it helps you to read, it's Niles Snappington's Fancy Dress Adventure. I've been producing artwork for Pathway Apps for this project, and now it's coming into the final stages, I can release a few images to whet your enjoyment. 






Very much looking forward to this all coming together. 
There'll be links to official promotional material as and when it's available, but in the meantime thanks to Pathway Apps for allowing me to release a few images, this has been an excellent project to work on. More news on that as it comes.

Monday, 4 February 2013

Game of Face

Want to warm up my blog again and bake something tasty, so here's a little warmup piece; trying to draw Game of Thrones characters as simply as possible. Some are better than others (and the first one is just cheating). 


Indeed, been an awfully long time since I've posted here, but there are things that shall be coming out of the oven fairly shortly. For instance, if a fair wind blows I shall soon be posting details of an upcoming short graphic novel, Boxed In. The first artistic collaboration with my fiancee =]
Stay tuned, lovely people.

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

I wrote a poem about my new job

You know all those things librarians stick on library books?
No they don't, I do. All the library books in the country,
from a secret location in the wilds of Norfolk. Even, strangely
enough, the books that go to the University of Westminster
where I studied. Small world.
It's called servicing, and I wrote a poem about it,
for the sake of pretention.

Spare a thought for the servicing boy,
he does it for his bread,
Spread with butter, toasted while
you're still tucked up in bed.
He rolls right in, a quarter to
the time when sun's awake,
and grinds into three hour shift
for fifteen minute break.
To process books for libraries,
that's his jurisdiction,
And to wonder why they only want
historical crime fiction.
Stickers stuck, and labels glued,
and triggers down the spine,
making books for which forgetful men
will have to pay a fine.
Here's another order now,
and it's one to be hurried,
Library books to line the shelves
of halls where he once studied.
Isn't this some bitter pill
of cruelest irony?
I guess that's what you get
for having a liberal arts degree.
Can you pick him from the lines of drones?
I'll show you how to know him,
He's the one who when there's books to pack,
is writing a fucking poem.

(Melodramatic, actually it's quite alright and the people are lovely. )
It's a good excuse to shock me into posting again. Coming soon,
WIP on various and sundry art projects. Stay tuned

Friday, 11 November 2011

Getting back into the swing

Well I won't deny it's been a long time since my last post. And now in a bid to stir , phoenix-like from posting inactivity, I'm starting work on a new children's book, as a personal project.

Expect trolls.



Maybe phoenix is too grandiose a beast to aspire too. Let's say a somewhat shaggy bear awakening from hibernation.
Possibly with a hangover.

Monday, 25 July 2011

Charley Harper

Charley Harper was a legend of American illustration. In a painting style he called "minimal realism", he managed to distill the subject matter into so few elements that it became essentially geometric, and yet somehow was still rich with character. Of this, he famously said:

"I don't count the feathers, I just count the wings."







I recently discovered the work of Charley Harper
and right now he's my hero.
It's just a shame that there won't be any more from him.

Friday, 1 July 2011

Beauties, Beasts and Broken things

Seems like it's been an awful long time since I've posted here.
In fact last time I did, I wasn't yet a graduate, but now I am, ha!
The sheer strangeness of the feeling. But having filled myself entirely
with prawn crackers I am invigorated enough to show
you lovely people some things. 

There's a rather good competition going at the moment run by
Waterstone's which will give one lucky fella or fille the chance to illustrate a new edition of Beauty and the Beast.
Here's my offering.



Manliest castle Ever
Feels good to be drawing again, and I'm actually pretty pleased.
Fingers crossed I guess.