A Little Trouble in Dublin

I've just had my comp copy of another book I've illustrated for Cambridge University Press, like the ones I did last year it was done for the Discovery Readers range.


This one, A Little Trouble in Dublin was 25 illustrations in all, and after the approval of my rough pencils it was pretty much an illustration a day schedule.


Precocious teenage twins Andy and Mary get into a scrape with some criminals who run a forged euros racket in Dublin. Here, they've ended up at the Garda station where I designed a "watch out" poster, that gets mostly obscured... it was too visually distracting when it was where the map of Ireland is now, so I sacrificed it, the effort wasn't wasted though as it helped continuity in the next image where the twins had changed their clothes...


Four merit points for anyone who spots the two "in" gags I've included in the previous images and a gold star for anyone who gets the gag in the following one.


Don't ask if you're right though, I'll never tell!

V&A Illustration awards

I've entered the V&A Illustration Awards 2010 with the work I produced for Cambridge University Press. The work was for a couple of books published earlier in the year, but I have only entered with illustrations done for Tales of Terror.


My entries can be found here. It's all very exciting. Fingers crossed for me everyone!

The reason I entered was a twitter post I saw made by Dave Gibbons. Now, I'm not wholly sure I like twitter, but without it, I doubt I'd have entered...

Donkey O'Tay and Sancho Panda

Two? TWO posts in one day? surely not!
Twisted Creatures again... a quickly coloured up ink sketch.


I had chosen the humble Donkey for this round, please follow the links to see Matt's and Phil's for very different, but wonderful takes on the theme.

Ever since I was small I've always mis-heard the pronunciation of Don Quixote... This idea wasn't going anywhere until I talked to my lovely wife the other day and she casually said "What about Donkey O'Tay and Sancho Panda?" - I swear, I nearly wet myself.

Phil has chosen the Hyena as the next victim creature.

Tales of the Unexpected

The Cambridge University Press books I did illustrations for earlier in the year are going to be published soon and I received my complementary copies last week...


I thought I'd share a couple more illustrations from Tales of Terror and Tasty Tales here too.

  
I'm pretty chuffed with them, 26 illustrations in total and the reproduction on all of them is damn near spot-on!

Under the Bridge

Well, I'm nearly settled in the new abode but I'm struggling to find my stride with regard to getting back to work properly... I need to focus rapidly as deadlines are starting to loom like mountains on the horizon now!
What I could do with is a "no pressure, no ties" sort of thing, something small, where it doesn't matter what the final piece looks like, just a deadline of some sort...

...the new topic for DrawerGeeks is TROLL.



The thought process behind this one was simply: There is no way something as evil and conniving as a troll is going to be outwitted by something as bone-headed as a goat.
I vote for an alternative ending for 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' when the third and oldest goat happens upon the bridge the Troll thinks that this goat, although bigger, looks a bit stringy. The Troll decides to saddle this goat up, ride into the field where the other littler goats went and have himself a nice feast. Then it's off to market to sell the big dumb animal he's riding.

The Old Tree

Another illustration from Tales of Terror for Cambridge University Press. Well, the background to one anyway.


Quite pleased with this - most of the illustrations I've done recently for Cambridge University Press have turned out quite well. There has been a lot of things I have struggled to get right, but somehow that increases the satisfaction when you've finished and you're happy with the results.

This is all painted digitally in photoshop, over quite a loose sketch. I've got a couple of custom brushes that behave slightly unpredictably and they've given this a mixed natural media feel - well I think so.

Cambridge Smorgasbord?

I thought I'd share three other illustrations that I've done for Cambridge University Press in Madrid. All done for books in their Discovery Readers range, the first two are from Tasty Tales.

This first one is a kind of Harry Potter styled kid with whiskers...


sketches:


tighter pencils:


This next one is a nice, tasty, Full English Breakfast... in its natural environment - a seaside B&B!


sketches:


tighter pencils:


... and this one comes from Tales of Terror and is from an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story The Tell Tale Heart.


sketches:


tighter pencils:


Hope you enjoyed seeing these - I've got a few more to do which should be good and I'll share a couple of those when they're complete too.

Magic Beans

The current DrawerGeeks topic is Jack and The Beanstalk:


Didn't have much time for this again...
I was going for a "not much more than a hill of beans" and a "credit crunch" - bad deal thing...
In the end I went for this cheap Deal or No Deal gag. You win some, you lose some... I think I lost this one!

My Font

I found this great free online font generation service via Mark Cardwell's Bad Librarianship blog. I'd been thinking I'd like to have a go at getting my own block capitals done as a font... Well I think there's a lot more potential than simply that with this fab online service.


I got this workable truetype font as an almost instantaneous result of uploading a template page and pressing a button. I know there are some problems with a bit of the kerning, but with a bit of fiddling, I think you could get a great font as a result.

I don't normally big-up things like this, but this one was relevent and useful to me.

Taormina Teaser

That's right, the next dazzling installment is ready for your viewing pleasure...



...and, as they say, the thick plottens!!

Rup and Matt, my good old pals, suggested a rock underneath Taormina's foot - they thought she looked like she was floating in mid air in the rough from my last post - I think it worked, so thanks guys, I appreciate your input!

A Giant's Tale

Just after Christmas I did five illustrations for a book about the fictional life of giants... I was in a bookshop yesterday and found that the book was out on shelf!! From those five illustrations, only two have made it into the final book but if you want to see my first commissioned work in print: The Secret History of Giants is published by Templar Publishing and I am credited here, which is really cool!
...and for those of the curious persuasion, here, in all their glory, are the five illustrations I did!

Giants Playing Quoits

The Giant's Daughter's Wedding and A Giant With A Dragon's Tail

Jack The Giant Killer and The Childe of Hale

It's nice to be in print and especially to be involved in a nice project with a well respected company...

...buuuut, this is the only real work I've had this year...

Taormina Time...

Just about managed to get this out this week... by the skin of my teeth!!


I'm reasonably happy with how this episode turned out. Especially the stone head in the second illustration, see the sneak peek above! Then head on over to my Taormina blog for the full episode!

I noticed really early on that the format of the blog really doesn't work with how you'd naturally read the story (if you're reading it for the first time) but until I do a dedicated website for it, it'll have to do!

Taormina - work in progress

It's been a criminally long time since I managed to get an episode of Taormina posted...
So, just so the three of you out there who're following her adventures don't think I've let her fall by the wayside. I thought I'd post a bit of work in progress.


This is the first panel, without line-work for now. There are some details to tighten up but the main thing I'm not happy with is the arm holding the log. Her whole pose is supposed to be a bit Boudicca. She is not worried about the haima-vulture and I want to maintain that confidence in her. Perhaps I can just lose the log from the last episode, not worry about that level of continuity and just have her hold on with both hands?

Anyway, this is just a taster and I hope to get the episode finished and posted this week.

Both the creatures in this are fierce too!

Just One More Book Logo

My good pal Matt gave me the link to a website that reviews kids' books, they are looking to redesign their website and have put out a call for concepts - for more information please visit the just one more book website.

I wanted my approach to hint at the magic of a book that you grow to love... I've always loved secondhand bookshops, digging around to find those lovely musty old books, first editions and rare misprints or simply fantastic bargains.

There is a particular smell that old books seem to have when in quantity and something peaceful about those old shops too. I feel increasingly sad that most of them will soon close and trade online... end of an age really.

Taormina's Next Episode

Well, due to other projects and website stuff, this has been a little longer in production than I had hoped...


In this episode Taormina encounters the haima vultures....

In the next episode we will meet Pardus, Taormina's huge winged companion - please keep coming back as there will be more Taormina soon!

Mr.Peeves and Dr.Ensayne again

After comments made on the original posting from yesterday... I was encouraged to change the atmosphere on this piece, I tried to get some spooky lighting in there too.



I really think it helps so, Evan and Paul many thanks guys... you were right!

Illustration Friday - "Pet Peeves"

This week I am later than I'd hoped to be with this but I had to get some stuff ready for my agent to take to Bologna Childrens' Book Fair.
When I first saw the topic this week, I thought about a mangy old cat or something. But as I was working on the other project, I couldn't help but let that word 'peeves' float around my mind... it connected with Peeves from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books and it mutated from there until I had invented the characters you see below...


Just like everyone else, evil scientists have to get things from the shops... who better to send than your trusty servant, Mr. Peeves, he knows all the best places and looks for all the bargains too... and he'll do it all for the occasional petting.

Lots of things amused me about this, I liked it so much I have updated my website to include it.

www.kevlev.co.uk

My website is live!


I've spent all week over a hot iWeb... it seems to be up and running alright. I'm moderately happy with it. Unless you are Matt Dawson I suggest you check it out via the linked image above.

Matt - my 'Crash' entry is there, please visit as and when you are ready to, no hurry!

I'd really appreciate any comments be they critical or grammatical. It might be a little rough around the edges here and there and there is another whole section of sketchbook stuff yet to build - but for now it will do.

Illustration Friday - "Heavy"

This week Illustration Friday had a kind of appropriate theme for me. HEAVY... I'd been drawing this guy all week as part of my Taormina project.
He's supposed to weigh several hundred pounds... if you take a journey over to The Adventures Of Taormina you'll be able to see this guy in his full glory and read about the peril he represents for our foxy heroine!


I hope you will enjoy the brief tale I have put together... there will be more episodes in the coming weeks!

Fagin from Oliver Twist

I did this illustration for a pitch for some black and white work, I liked it enough to colour up.

I hope it's obvious that it's Fagin from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
I tried to make him look shifty and vaguely dirty. I also tried desperately to avoid him looking like Alec Guiness or Ron Moody, it's ended up more Wilfred Bramble from Steptoe and Son than anything else I think.
I had the words "You've got to pick a pocket or two..." rattling around my head the whole time I was doing it, sorry if you now have that in your head too!