Stephen Fry

A much loved English treasure, one of the smartest blokes around, host of the brilliant quizshow QI...



He's a real renaissance man, our Stephen Fry... Comedy series credits too long to mention, best selling books, films, serious documentaries and quizmaster. He's got a great website too.

He reads the Harry Potter Audiobooks - but he'd have been perfect for Dumbledore in the films!

This is the second of my caricatures done roughly in photoshop, just trying it out really... watch out for Alan Davies, Phil Jupitus and possibly Jimmy Carr coming soon! All of them deliver punchlines! Also, see Bill Bailey from earlier this week!

Superman : Man of Style!

I found a great website called Project Rooftop via drawingboard that holds regular redesign contests. This month sees Superman's 70th birthday! He doesn't look bad for an old fella, does he? Anyway, the brief was to re-design his outfit...

01 02
03 04

I wanted to streamline the suit, get rid of the cape which I always felt would bunch-up and give Clark a hunchback when he wore his civilian clothes. Once I had done that there was the issue of colour, I wanted to see the traditional colours (01) in order to judge my other treatments against it. Firstly I went all X-men and Batman black and rubbery (02), then I tried hinting at the old Kryptonite (03) but in the end I liked the cooler, de-saturated feel (04).

I also redesigned the logo, well in marketing terms I think they call this a refresh!



For a comparison to the traditional Super-suit please take another look at my other Superman illustration: Superman's Dilemma

I had a great time doing this but in the end, Superman is just fine as he is, roll on another 70 years!

Bill Bailey

One of the funniest blokes around... and he was the guest on Desert Island Discs on Radio4 last week.


If you're not familiar with Bill, Black Books, Spaced, QI and Nevermind the Buzzcocks will help you out of your dark days!

Check out Bill's website too. The faster html site is good and the flash-rich site is supremely silly - the choice is yours!

Bill doesn't really rely on the old punchline too much and I suppose that is a pretty thin link for the Illustration Friday topic this week.

This is a quick digital caricature done in photoshop - I'm not sure whether it's worth finishing or not.

Another Environment

I did this after being sent a 'homework' assignment from a games company. They wanted to see buildings that sat comfortably in their environment and places for characters to hide/explore...


Alleyways, a pub and an all-night fuel station... at the end of the street I imagine there are playing fields behind wrought iron railings and beyond that, who knows what horrors!

Again, this is rough concept type stuff.

Illustration Friday - "Forgotten"

This week, it seems, that I have forgotten how to draw.

I was going to spout some old cobblers about getting back to a more primitive kind of art, really feeling my roots and trying to express the inner child still within me... but nah, I've just been drawing like a drunken monkey this week, my ideas haven't been much better either.

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.

Illustration Friday - "Baby"

You'd better pray that this baby never comes to visit you...

Seemed like a brilliant movie title until I looked up on IMDb, there was a movie called the PACIFIER and it starred Vin Diesel, I think I'd rather see a film with this baby in it!

Concept Design

I've been trying to get some work with video games developers...

To that end I've produced a few relatively quick concept pieces. Firstly, environment concept paintings, these are really quick 150dpi photoshop paintings...

The Haunted Graveyard

Colonel Gerald's Sitting Room

The Mountain Pass

The Snowy Wood (you may have seen this one before)

Secondly I've done some Pirate designs, I decided to pick Captains and Cooks as being particularly archetypal in a Treasure Island kind of way...

Sketched thumbnails to show a variety of my concepts:

Presentation of my favoured approaches with alternative colour schemes.

I tried not to get too tied up with being perfect, these are, after all, only supposed to be concepts...

Illustration Friday - "Worry"

Worry as a singular term didn't feel right to me - worry has never been alone when visiting me, usually it comes with all it's little friends and sometimes brings its brothers, panic and frustration...



So here then, is my little box of worries, full of all those inner demons and evil things that sit on your shoulder telling you that you're no good and that everyone hates you.

This was roughly coloured in photoshop, (worked-up from a couple of sketchbook pages) I'm not sure if I'll take it to a finished piece. I was trying to work out some intricate carving for the sides of the box but worried that might be distracting from the demons!

Whilst working on this I've been thinking of Pandora's Box and a TV program made by the BBC in the eighties called 'A Box of Delights' (which starred the fabulous Patrick Troughton of Dr. Who fame).

Anyway, I won't trouble you with any more of my worries...

Ten Images For Ithaca

Another competition... details can be found here.

^ click to enlarge ^

Dream.

I've been fiddling around with this for a couple of weeks... got down to it properly and finalized my submission today.

I found this title very reminiscent of a GCSE exam title. (GCSE's, for anyone outside UK are qualifications taken around the age of 16)

This is my interpretation of the theme: dreams are like thought bubbles fading into a night sky of fantasies...
I think it works... I'm moderately happy with it but as with all creations, at some point you have to stop fiddling and let it go!

Illustration Friday - "Wide"

Tenuous, I know, but Triceratops are quite wide...

step six - rendered art
step one - rough shapes
step two - tightened up shapes
step three - sketched details
step four - tightened pencils
step five - line work

This was some work I did for a publisher who've just reneged on our deal and I'm no longer doing the "how to draw dinosaurs" book. I had been waiting for a final brief and thought I at least had this work as a bit of a safety-net when it eventually came in. It's a bit too complicated to go into but I've been badly let down...

There's a lesson to be learnt here... not sure what it is though!

Illustration Friday - "Electricity"

Post No. 50!!

This was for another part of the PODZ project.
There were a variety of robots I designed - this was supposed to be a security robot...

©Marketing and Promotional Services Ltd.

Watch out for the electric whip and taser stunner!

Here are a Maintenance Robot and a Med-droid...

©Marketing and Promotional Services Ltd.

These were rough pencil sketches that had to be tidied up in a hurry for a presentation.

Orphan Works Bill

What the hell is this Orphan Works Bill actually about?

I've read loads of stuff over the last couple of months and I just don't understand...

Is this a devious plot (albeit in America - for now) to make artists pay for the rights to their own works?
Or, is it an innocent attempt to unlock access to works where the original creator simply cannot be found?

This is a piece of proposed legislation that is before the house of congress in the US - RIGHT NOW! There are varying opinions throughout the internet about what it actually means... Rather than muddy the water any further, if you are an artist, writer, photographer, musician or any other individual who relies on copyright, you need to be aware that this thing is out there.
Simply search orphan/orphaned works act/bill via google and you'll get loads of hits... make sure you're looking for the 2008 version of this bill though!

The full orphan works bill is available to read on the library of congress website, it's written in hexadecimal law-speak and I don't have the foggiest what it really means...

Various visual arts 'bodies' are upset about this. The Illustrators' Partnership of America seems to be the most official site... but on the web, how official is official? This is an interesting video on youtube... but how reliable is it?

I'm not sure if this is something to get all worked up about but it does worry me. If you really know what's going on or understand this american legal stuff, please, enlighten me.

Illustration Friday - "Seed"

I've knocked this together very quickly as it was more about the idea than the illustration.

^click to enlarge^

This product will be available in all good drug-stores worldwide before you know it... mankind is one stupid idea away from total chaos!