Nuts Nativity

As promised here's me being a bit more up to date with my postings of jobs, and this is pretty up to the minute as this illustration hit the shelves today!

Simon Freeborough Art Director of Nuts magazine called on a Friday afternoon to see whether i'd be available for a job he had in mind, unfortunately I was down the pub... I should point out I'd earned my afternoon down the boozer, as I hadn't had any time off in two weeks.. I thought i'd be safe to go for a quick pint, I mean who's gonna call past 4 on a Friday... er...how wrong was I?!!

Luckily I got the message at about 5-ish and got in touch, Simon then went about setting a brief for a Christmas TV themed Nativity image, which I got at about 7 that evening.. probably the latest i've received a brief.

The turnaround on this image had to be very quick, to top it off I was also finishing up on another image (that'll be posted here when it sees print) I started a tight line drawing on the Saturday, finished up my other job on the Sunday, then on the Monday sent in the line drawing above.. luckily very few if any changes were asked for, I then went on to colour and sent that in on the Tuesday... all this while making an emergency alteration to the other job I had on the go!

Even though I didn't necessarily have the time to enjoy this job as much as I would have liked, I think the final is a solid image and printed very well, and is certainly I believe what the nice people at Nuts wanted.

It was great to get to work with Simon again, I think if you were to ask anyone that knows me which clients makes a good match for both my style of work and sense of humour, then me and Nuts are a very good fit... hopefully i'll get further opportunities to work with them in 2011!

Illustration above shows Matt Lucas and David Walliams as Mary and Joseph, Harry Hill as the baby Jesus, Top Gear fellas as the three wise Men, Jimmy Carr as the innkeeper, Mitchell & Webb as a goat and sheep, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer as a donkey and cow, James Corden as a moon and Doctor who as the angel.. oh and a TV playing the Christmas premier of Avatar.

Blimey! It made for a tiring weekend juggling all those figures and two jobs at the same time... still I should be pretty much done now until the New Year!

Tasty Accountancy Age Cover!

I've been extremely busy these last few weeks, so yet again I've neglected this blog, still I should have a bit of free time from now into the Christmas period, so i'll do a few catch up posts on images that I've been working on recently.

Jobs over the last few weeks/months have come from Men's Health, Nuts (out Next week!) and an absolute beauty for Mac Format due to be published next month (more on that another time!) but first up there's this rather tasty drawing for the cover of Accountancy Age.

This was actually done last month, but i've only just got around to showing it off... this was art directed by the great Iain Winfield at AA; the illustration was for a feature about 1042 (or some other big number!) tax breaks/reliefs, I think AA Editor Gavin Hinks came up with this blinding idea of making a pick n' mix image, with each sweet referring to a particular financial relief.

First thing I did is go out and buy a couple of selection boxes of sweets... purely for reference purposes you understand, and then set about drawing and designing the wrappers, I didn't have to hand in a rough for this one, as the composition for the most part was pretty random.

I got the call on the Thursday for this job, I sent in a couple of designs the next day and had the final in on the Monday, it was one of those rare smooth jobs, this is probably down to a couple of factors; The guys at AA have a good understanding of what i'm good at and actually choose me for the covers that my work is most appropriate for, they set a reasonable deadline and they make things very comfortable for me, allowing me to find the best drawing solution for them.

Working for Accountancy Age has proved to be a real gift over these last twelve months, so you can imagine how gutted I felt, when having been called for my services a couple of weeks ago for another cover, that I had to turn them down, because I was committed elsewhere.. not only that, but the brief was an absolutely amazing one! In fact I made a point of telling Gavin the Editor, that it was one of those missed briefs that'll keep me awake at night.. because I know it's the kind of image that I would have loved to have drawn. Alas, it wasn't meant to be...

Zombie Mayhem!!

So here they are! Finally got around to putting up the Halloween Mask competition entrees.. I was a little disappointed with the turn out really, as it seemed I was going to be run amok with photos, as it turned out.. a lot of the AD's that were on board at the beginning of the week, didn't get around to sending in their pics! Tut, Tut..

Not to worry though, I got some work out of this promotion, which let's face it is the real point to me sending out the masks...I'd like to thank the people that did take part, and I hope you all enjoyed your goody bags. The picture above is the overall winner, this is actually my good friend Steve Blunt.. the original plan was that I would send a model of a decapitated head through the post, however this being Steve he'll be winning beer tokens instead which I've no doubt he'll spend on our upcoming outing in Bristol.

This is a photo of young Matty complete with Zombie pose, the dog behind "Evil Alfie" doesn't look too impressed!
A picture here of Bethany looking particularly scary even with the Mickey Mouse top!

This is the guys at Mac Format getting in on the act, this is a photo of Production Editor Tim taken by top Art Editor Alex Thomas, thanks for being good sports!

Finally, the one above and the two below are of super writer and genuinely good bloke John Freeman (thanks for the multiple entrees!); you may remember I worked with John on his book Sci-Fi Art Now, which has just come out in the shops! Here's Zombie John dusting.. obviously manically given the motion in this photo..
Zombie John tired of all that dusting settles down for a read of the newspaper, Zombie Times perhaps?!
Now I did say no photoshop, but well I really like this pic, here's a before and after (or after and before) of John Freeman.. I think this was what he looked like before he started the book and how he looked after all those months of hard work!

I've been busy of recent so expect another update of work and other stuff that's happening soon, also as i've said above my work has just seen print in a recently released book (see above) which i'll post something up about shortly!

Halloween Competition!!

So here it is! Art directors and creative folk up and down the land should now have my latest self promo package dropping through their mail boxes, "What is it?!" I hear you cry, well I thought I'd up the stakes and get all interactive!

Bill McConkey's 100% Authentic Zombie Mask, is exactly what it says on the box; however here's the cool part; if you cut out the mask and send a snap to yours truly while wearing it then you get a goody bag of prizes... the entree that is judged by me to be the most inventive and creative wins an extra special prize valued in the region of 10 English pounds!!!

I've already had a couple of entrees today from some of the UK's finest AD's, but I need more, and the more creative or just plain weird the better your chance of scooping top prize, just follow the instructions on the back and email it over!

This I hope will become an annual event, but it really is reliant on you creative folk, cutting loose, showing that AD's, Designers' and Creative whatevers.. can have a bit of fun and enter into the spirit of things, you can do this by making sure you get a photo to me before the end of Halloween night!

All entrants get a gruesome goody bag that'll be sent out either at the end of this week, early next (depending on when you get the entree to me!) the overall winner will be sent there extra special prize next Monday!

I'm not concerned with how you keep the mask to your face, whether it be string, taped or glued... you can take the photo at work, shopping, skateboarding whatever, remember the most creative entrant will win the big prize!! Imagine how envious every other Art Director in the UK will be... just imagine it!!...

Cue Fanfare/Ghostship

I've been a little slow in updating this blog of recent, something which i'll try and put right over the next few weeks.

The above illustration is for the cover of a new EP by the band Cue Fanfare, the title track being the simply amazing song Ghost Ship, which I urge everyone to go out and download, it can be bought on I Tunes and here at the label releasing it Kingem Records.

This job came about as I was recently in touch with the lead singer of the band Rowena Dugdale, whom I know from the dark days when I was represented by a well known Illustration agency in London. I think we met on at least two occasions at agency get togethers, you see along with being a ridiculously talented musician, she just happens to be ridiculously talented illustrator, photographer and now maker of designer hand made clutch bags... I know! It makes me ill too, to think that all that creativity should be found in one human being!!

Anyway, Rowena asked if i'd mind taking a crack at her EP cover; probably because she was too busy with all her other creative pursuits, because if truth be known Rowena would have arguably done a far better job than me, you can see her Illustration work here to see what i'm talking about...told you she was good!

I agreed (wel duh!) and set about coming up with the image; I was asked to illustrate the sails of a galleon type ship (the song is about the Mary Celeste) the big thing about this is it required a departure from my usual style, something a bit more leftfield and a bit more handmade,

Rowena had the idea of a more pattern based image, with scratchy lines... I think I should do more experimental images like this, as I really enjoyed myself.

Now the thing with this, is that there wasn't even a label involved at the time, so no budget, in return for the image Rowena traded me two of her simply stunning designer clutch bags instead, which I was able to pass on to female family members... and if you ask me I got the better end of the deal!

Under the name of Red Ruby Rose, Rowena now has a reputation for creating beautifully elegant handmade silk bags of the highest order, I would urge everyone to check out her shop at etsy, along with her newly created site and also her blog.

Just in case you haven't got enough of the busy Ms Dugdale in your life, then I suggest you visit the Cue Fanfare's site and myspace, make sure you see them play a gig!

New Accountancy Age Cover

Here is a new illustration for the cover of Accountancy Age, which went to print Tuesday.

I really enjoyed myself with this brief, Dan Parker AD at the mag came to me with this idea of a business fella in a supermarket browsing for Accountants; they would be in boxes and on a sale stand... which I thought was a great concept.

When I started drawing it out it dawned on me early on that my original composition (none of the above) would work as it concentrated on the figure too much, where as for the purpose of telling this visual story, the "For Sale" aisle should be equal if not more important than the figure.

I quickly sketched out three thumbnails for Dan to pick from, that showcased the boxes and aisle better, he chose the third one from the sketches above.

I worked up a black and white rough, and got this over to Dan the next day, once this was approved I moved to final artwork.

I had the weekend to complete the final colour artwork; I went a bit crazy on the detail on the boxes; I must admit it's these little things that I enjoy and sent in on the Monday.

There were quite a few alterations to make, but these were just changes to Accountant names on the boxes so that they didn't infringe or promote the names of real accountants.. it got a bit confusing there for a while, just because any name you can think of is taken by an accountancy firm somewhere, that and I had quite a few different versions of the artwork on my hard drive, so I had to make sure my alterations went on the right file(s)!

At the top is the artwork as it was printed, I've really enjoyed these jobs for the nice fellas at AA; the fact is they know what they want, have a good understanding of what I do and set great briefs...what more could an illustrator ask for?!!

Sci Fi Art Interview

I recently did an interview with the extremely talented Mr John Freeman as a run up bit of promotion for his new book Sci Fi Art Now, a book that I mentioned on a previous post; it features some of the greatest examples of SF Art and also showcases a few of my images in this genre.

The interview can be found online here Over the next few months up until the time of release in October there will be a series of interviews with the various contributors to the book.

So if you follow my blog and want to find out a bit more of my history, techniques and thoughts then get over there for a quick look.

If you are a fan of illustration and SF Art then this comes with my highest recommendation, as there is going to be an array of the finest talents in this particular genre on this site over the next few weeks and months... should make for a great read!