New FD Spots!

Again massive delay in putting these up, in my defense i've been really quite ill this week, in fact i'm still not 100 percent, just trying to take things easy this week, hopefully be back to my old self soon.

So here are some new illos for Financial Director, the great Richard Crump was again the AD/commissioner of these.

Even though these are tiny drawings I actually do think some of these illos are the best that I do, as I've said before I've always thought of myself as an ideas man, and that's what I like to get paid for, more often than not though it's portraiture... still I like doing that too, so can't complain!

These are in no particular order, and it was a case of jut picking a few of my faves over the past few months, above the mug man, was about being made a 'mug' of in the workplace, this idea was suggested and I really like it, below that is for an article I can't remember, but hopefully the image is self-explanatory.
Rubik's Cube image, is for an article about solving the economic puzzle, cool idea I thought, with simple execution, no need for flashiness if the idea works! Below that is for an article about personalizing mobiles, went as gaudy and tasteless as poss, this is also a repeat of an idea I did for Men's Health years ago, which can be found on one of my very first posts, if you're going to steal may as well make it from yourself!
Computer beating up man illo, was for an article in which man competed against machine (not physically!) can't remember the article itself, but as you'd expect the computer proved smarter, had fun with the pixel skull on this one.

The dog with the dynamite in his mouth was a suggested idea by Richard for an article about Best Intentions, I couldn't come up with anything else that fitted the brief and duly started drawing, got my Lab Bud to pose for this, albeit without the dynamite, anyone that knows this dog would attest that if you buried dynamite, he'd dig it up and bring it into the house, and drop it at your feet... and they say Labradors are intelligent!
Bad Santa drawing was for the Christmas edition a while back, simple idea just draw a Bad Santa, I was thinking more Dan Ackroyd in Trading Places than Billy Bob Thornton, both are great films though!

Finally bottom image was about graduates, Richard just required a slightly worse for wear student type for this, I was happy to comply... this actually reminds me, that it's now a whole decade since I left Derby Uni with my 2:1 in Illustration, and set on this path of making pictures, officially I count 2013 as my real anniversary of breaking into this business, as I didn't get my first paying job until Jan of 2003 and then went on to actually make a career of image-making, so i'll be doing somethings throughout that year to celebrate no doubt.. doesn't time fly!

Mac Format- 50's Style!

Happy 2012! What's that i'm a bit late? As ever i've been a little tardy in my postings, I have a good excuse though as i've been working on my second issue of Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope volume 2, is the follow up (to Kaleidoscope vol 1, Duh!) to the booklet that collected together my best work (see a previous post) and proved to be very successful with art directors out there, this issue is a collection of works both published and personal that spans 2010-2012, and the momentous task of putting it together and adding new stuff is killing me... anyway more on that another time!

Above is an illustration I tackled just before the Christmas break, and saw print in January, in fact this issue's just left the news stands... need to put these postings up sooner, i'll work on it!

As was the case last Christmas I seemed to be inundated with jobs and wasn't sure I could fit this in, however Alex Thomas AD at the mag has a habit of coming up with the best briefs an illustrator could hope for, as was the case with this.

Brief was simple; A full page illustration depicting a business type holding a Macbook in one hand and a bag of cash in the other, to be done in a retro 50's advertising style... I think Alex is a fan of Mad Men, which served as the inspiration for this great idea... how does an illustrator turn that job down?

As it turns out, I'd long fancied doing something in this style for quite a while (another one of those on the 'to-do' list) and this fell in to my lap, I struggled with this new style initially drawing the head above almost straight away, and then continuing to re-draw several times, one of which was a direct portrait of Don Draper (D'oh!)... only for Alex to apply common sense and go with the original face... I don't always get it right you see even now, good job Alex as i've said before is a great Art Director and was able to steer me down the right path, which just so happened to be the original course i'd set, I just veered off a bit at the last minute!

Once we got the face right, the rest was a delight; playing with halftones, off-registering colour and applying texture.

The final i'm happy with, looked great in print and hopefully looked kind of authentic.

On related news, just before the Christmas break I was informed that four of my illustrations (found on this blog) which were entered into AOI Images competition for 2011 had been selected for inclusion in the annual in the Editorial Category, always a prestigious thing in this profession. Two of the illustrations were done for Mac Format magazine (Gestures Ganesh, Steve jobs Sgt Pepper homage * see posts in 2011) which I think is testament to Alex's ability as an Art Director as much to my involvement, hopefully 2012 will give me the chance to make even better images for the title.

The next post, which i'll put up next week providing i've got time should be all about spot illustrations, which i've been doing lots of recently; more Nuts Celeb Karma Sutra and more clever little ones for Financial Director!

Merry Christmas!!

Well it's that time of year again! Man, what a year, I usually have a hectic period on the run up to the festivities here at McConkey studios, this was no different, still I think that's me pretty much done for this year, Yay!

So I thought i'd kick this posting off with some particularly festive offerings above is a full page illustration done for the TV listings section of Nuts magazine, this is actually a follow up to the one I did last year which was of a Celebrity Nativity scene, this time around a Grotto scene made up of some of Christmas Telly's finest personalities; Top Gear fellas, Alan Carr, Micheal Macintyre, Lee Evans, Doctor Who, Miranda Harte, Jimmy Carr and Chris Moyles.

Really fun one to do this, and it printed really nicely, this one was art directed by the great Simon Freeborough, check it out it's on the shelves now!
Ever wondered why Santa's cheeks are so rosy? This is another illo for the Christmas edition of Nuts, as part of the ongoing Celebrity Karma Sutra series, of course Santa had to get in on the act, really like this one out of the series, think the girl has the right amount of sexiness to her, this one and pretty much the entire series thus far have been art directed by Barney Hammond, this I can tell you is one of those rarest of things; a regular job that's a real joy to do!

On a side note, I read in the Metro paper the other day about people complaining about the Lads mag, it's an ongoing thing it would seem that raises it's head in a cyclical fashion; kind of like Video games causing violence, there's always something for every generation, we shouldn't forget that comic books and Rock n' Roll have all been targets of the PC brigade trying to be the saviors of a generation's morality.

Here's my opinion for what it's worth, and as someone that produces a large volume of work that appears mainly in men's titles, and as a by-product do in fact read various titles, I don't think there's anything in these magazines that you don't see on TV or elsewhere, in fact I'd argue that particularly with a magazine like Nuts, there's something intrinsically British, in it's humor and variety of subject that if anything in this day and age it should be celebrated.

The magazine very much taps into a market, and if you like psyche of a British man, so if you like TV programs like Top Gear, The Inbetweeners and pretty much any British Comedy or Comedian at the the moment, if your interests include music, film, videogames and football then Nuts is the mag for you, also it's got loads of boobs in it, everyone's a winner!

I'll get off my soapbox now, and on to another illustration, above is a cover for HR magazine, i've delayed in putting this up, as i'm not quite sure how successful this one is; it's one those where I was slightly out of my comfort zone, in that there was a crowd of people, a short deadline, and I was asked to draw them "Big Head"/ Caricature style... so different, in that I usually draw proportionately accurate.

It's maybe a job I should have turned down, as I was pretty busy, but it was a case of a bit of ego on my part and the fact that I get to work with the lovely Laura Hawkins at the title, who's a really good person to work with.

It was a bit of a sticky one this, lots of work over a weekend, only to have to change what pretty much everyone what everyone was wearing (they were originally in Tuxedos and evening gowns!) on the Tuesday, with final due on Wednesday/Thursday.

I'll probably be asked to do more Big Head/Caricature based work in 2012, in fact I can see Art Director's already seeing the above and making a note to hire me for something similar, and what I would say is that next time, because i've had this as my trial run-out i'll do some great work in this style, there's no reason why not, i'm a big fan of this genre and it plays to my more humorous side often which makes for my best work. Btw my favorite artist who works in this way is the great American illustrator Drew Friedman, check out his work online!

In the end the above piece was published albeit with some modification, as the powers that be at the title thought it needed to be a bit more serious in tone, why ask for them in this style then that lends itself to humor? Is the most obvious question, as I would have been more comfortable drawing everyone in correct scale.

Still I don't blame Laura the AD on this one, who despite the hiccups mentioned above was a delight to work with and hopefully i'll get the chance to make amends next year with a really great illustration.

So only a couple of weeks on from that last Big Head illo and I got another (these things come in groups!) I think this time with a bit more of a satisfactory outcome.

Graeme Sapsed at Men's Health UK got in touch to ask whether I fancied these big head illos, you can imagine my eyes rolling at the prospect, still I thought this was an opportunity to undo the hoodoo of drawing the cranially blessed.

Brief was this; Cluedo characters, three that actually exist Prof Plum, Col Mustard & Rev Green, and three that are to be visually created using my own feeble imagination based on the names Doctor Black, Mr White & Mr Bulk the Butler all doing a series of exercises.

Again I was busy while I took on this gig, but just about fitted it in, most difficult thing was trying to master how to interpret the exercises, as it wasn't a case of just "lifting weight" type scenes, but generally more difficult things to get reference for such as how to use the Bulgarian Bag, how to use a Grid Roller, in some cases even Google wasn't that much use!

Still got there in the end, and having just seen how Graeme did a great job in setting them out on the page (see above, sorry about the quality of the scans!) I think they came out pretty well.

So that's me for 2011, I couldn't post everything I've worked on of recent up on this blog, as some have yet to see print, so they'll show up early 2012 no doubt.

If you're a regular reader of this blog or one of my clients, I'd just like to give a big thanks to everyone who's made this a busy year for me, and this year has been a good one on the work front, and I look forward to making even better images, in fact roll on 2012 is what I say! I've got a few things up my sleeve... which I can't go into to much detail with, but er... some are a bit special, let's put it that way.

Happy Christmas and have a great New Year! See you in 2012..

Beards & Rude Stuff!

So here we go, late as usual, but as promised more recently printed illos, the above set of images are very much of the moment, this being "Movember" (if you don't know what Movember is then google it!)

Anyway Graeme Sapsed got in touch at Men's Health, to ask whether I fancied this nice little job of illustrating different varieties of facial fuzz, now I'd already in mind to do draw something similar as a personal piece, another one of those images that's on my already massive 'to-do' list of illos, so as you can imagine I was delighted to actually be assigned this job, and obviously getting paid for it doesn't hurt either.

Graeme very kindly sent over sketches (bottom) for me to interpret.. sometimes more difficult than you think this, as all art can be interpreted different ways, still I cracked on with it over a weekend, and here's what I came up with.

I'm not sure they're 100% what Graeme asked for, as I think he maybe wanted them to look more like Victorian drawings or etchings, whereas I think mine have a slight vintage feel to them, but generally have a modernity to them, regardless as a set of illos I'm actually really quite happy with them... and i'm very critical of my stuff.

Top are the drawings as I sent them to MH, and below that are the illustrations laid out in the magazine, lovely page design by Graeme I think on this.

More illustrations for Nuts, in the regular feature of Celebrity Karma Sutra, really is a great job this, I always look forward to who we'll draw next, and the fellas at Nuts always try and keep our "victims" as topical as possible, so be warned celebrities if you're in the papers for getting up to no good with someone you shouldn't, then know this you'll be the next one to be drawn in a compromising position.

Some of these drawings go back a couple of months, first up is the Guvernator himself Arnie, and below is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, I think this position was titled "The Berlusconi Bung Bunga", yeah that's right each drawing comes with a position name. Genius!

Mike Tindall here, getting up to some funny business, and fellow sportsman Phil Taylor scoring a bullseye so to speak.

Rio Ferdinand and Ashton Kutcher, maybe insert your own double entendres here.

Finally, Danny Cipriani, with tales of his recent tryst with Katie Price was next on the hitlist, and of course last but by know means least X Factor's Frankie Cocozza up to some shenanigans with a girl that curiously resembles the red head from Geordie Shore.

Always nice to finish on a high, I think the Frankie one is the best of the bunch so far... I was also very pleased to see in Nuts landmark 400th issue that these Celebrity Karma Sutra illos had made the magazines "50 best moments of Nuts" feature coming in at a respectable No.46 on the list...Yay!!

So there you lots of beards and boobs, some illustrators get all the luck!

More FD Spots!

Plenty of new illustrations completed, but I seem to have very little time to post these things up, hopefully i'll have this weekend off and i'll be able to some catch up postings.

To kick things off i'd thought i'd start with these recent spot illos for Financial Director magazine, as i've said before I absolutely love spots, you see people have all different kinds of views on what illustration is and should be, and everyone has their own skill set to match; for me it's all about ideas and concepts, always has been, always will be.

I'm an ideas man, what I love is getting an article through from a client and being asked to come up with an image that illustrates the point of article, and to do this with an interesting concept rather than a ho-hum scene.

With a spot illustration, you have to strip back even further so it's all about a great idea, simply because it's printed so small... the idea needs to speak even more loudly.

The top one is about the troubles with the Euro, I don't have to say too much the picture does the speaking on this.

The one underneath is about how technology continues to improve the world of business, or something along those ideas, an Ipad on wheels was originally suggested, which I duly illustrated from a variety of angles, and I threw this idea in on a whim, Richard Crump the AD on these ran with that, which was both cool and a bit of a surprise, as I thought he'd prefer one of the wheeled options I sent over.

Top illo is about the company TT electronics, and how it utilized some of the smaller companies and acquisitions under it's banner to strengthen the company.

One underneath is about an FD and a whole lot of airmiles.

Top illo is about the Cosworth car company, and how it's adaptive nature has seen them go from strength to strength, a chameleon made out of a car I suggested, and luckily for me Richard let me go with it, I actually really like that image!

The bottom one is about the decline of the service industry, this is not the first time i've drawn a waiter; they always turn out like Alfred the Butler from the Batman comics!

Top one is about the fear of public speaking, something I know only too well, i'm quiet and an introvert by nature, so nothing fills me with dread as much as either being the centre of attention, or indeed having to speak publicly, here's a microphone re-imagined as the plant from Little Shop of Horrors.. probably something profoundly psychological about that image and it's relation to me.

Bottom one is about the UK Government trying to find someway tax us on our computers, yeah 'cos we're not taxed enough as it is!

Right, that's it for now i'll put up further new stuff over the next couple of days.

Friends of the Earth

I thought I better put these up, while i've got a rare bit of spare time this afternoon, above are a selection of images I recently completed for Friends of the Earth.

This commission came about, as a result of the portrait I did of John Grant for Mojo magazine last year (see a previous post) the creative director of FOE, Glen Colegate got in touch as he'd spoken to John at a gig, and was made aware of my work from the glowing review this awesomely talented musician had given the portrait.

To cut a long story short Glen was able to pass on a signed print of the artwork to John Grant himself on my behalf (thanks Glen!) and suggested that he's like me to produce some work for FOE at some point in the future.

Fast forward a year on, and such a job came available, a series of images for a magazine published by Friends of the Earth.

The above images were borne out of I suppose a bit of struggle and hardship, not everything runs smoothly in this game as anyone will tell you. I accepted the commission with a little hesitation as initially there was an issue with the budget being below where I need it to be, but an agreement was made, and I was told that this job would be overseen by FOE art Director Glynn Perkins, who would be in touch when a brief was ready.

Nearly a month had passed without any contact and I assumed the job had been killed, not that I was too worried as in the interim I'd signed myself up for lots of other jobs, and then just as you'd expect I got an email telling me the briefs were being written up, at this point it then becomes a real issue in juggling jobs, especially as the deadline on these images proved to be particularly tight.

For a period there I was pulling my hair out, because if FOE had hit me earlier with the brief, say not long after the initial email to check my availability which is how this usually works, then it would have been fine, and i've had had longer to create the artwork, as it turned out I think I had maybe just over a week to hand in roughs and produce the final artwork, on top of the mountain of other work i'd taken on because I assumed this job was a no-go.

Still these things happen in this job, Glynn proved to be really good to work with and open to ideas, although it's fair to say I occasionally gave him a tough time on this job, mainly because I was so stressed out on this side, I expect great things from myself on every commission, whether that be a spot illustration or a cover, so if circumstances arise that threaten the production of great images, then it's fair to say i'm not a happy bunny, and i've been in this profession quite a while now, so i'm not afraid to voice my opinion.

In all there were 5 illustrations, one of which got killed (as I was at finishing stage) as it was deemed by the legal department to be potentially a bit iffy for them, I see their point, but in reality it didn't actually need to be killed, a case of legal airing on the side of caution, which lets face it, that's how they always works.. I quickly replaced it with another illustration, which I haven't put here, it's a perfectly fine image, but just treads a bit close to a previous image i've done, and I hate repeating myself.

The image that didn't see light of day, may very well get finished as a portfolio piece as it had all the hallmarks of a really great image, perhaps i'll post it here on another occasion.

As a whole though I was happy with the above images, particularly the top one, which I always felt was a great idea, and i'd love to work with Glen and Glynn at FOE again, preferably with a less limiting time frame and/or budget, that'll allow me to de-stress and just get on with making great images, which is what it's all about.

HR Magazine!

Here's a job I did last month which I think i'm now safe to post up ; the above image was created for a cover to a supplement given away with HR magazine.

This job came about from a chatting with the AD of HR magazine Laura Hawkins, who received one of my 80's Last Supper postcards (*see earlier post) and was I think if I remember correctly the first entrant in the competition to get all the names completely right.

Having got all answers correct, and receiving her goody bag through the post, Laura said that as soon as something suitable came up she'd drop me a line.. now often when an Art Director says things like that, or the classic line: "We'll keep your work on file!"... more often than not, and bearing in mind i've done this job for quite a while, well when you hear that, you never hear from them again and "keeping your work on file" is code for; we'll file that it in the bin... but there are exceptions, thankfully Laura was one of those exceptions and did in fact wait for an appropriate commission.

So the brief was; to show a car boot sale scene, with a business type selling items, several of the items were to be reused for an interior layout, and related to various things in the feature, so on the list we had an old cash register, an old phone, cars and a carriage clock, I was then able to pepper the table with other items of my choosing.

It proved to be an absolutely lovely job to do; I was able to go overboard with little details, such as a little ballet dancer in a snow globe, a vintage robot, russian dolls etc..

Must admit though the real icing on the cake was getting to work with Laura on this, who was personable, fun and professional... in fact I was hemmed in from being my usual approachable self, because at the same time I was doing about 4 other jobs.. bit of a stress head there for a while! Still I've said this before, but work is generally steady, and than BANG; I get 4 or 5 at the same time.. not that i'd ever really complain about being busy!

Hopefully this won't be the only time I'll get to work with Laura and HR mag, as I really enjoyed myself on this one, click on the top pic for a close up.