Celebrity Kama Sutra, The Greatest Hits!

First of all apologies to long time followers of this blog, it has been completely neglected this year thus far, I promise it was never my intention, I have had an abundance of jobs and personal works taking up
all my time.

The big project being my third volume of Kaleidoscope, which I can say with huge relief is nearly ready to take to the printers, it's been perhaps the largest thing I have ever undertaken, as this time around it will be in book format and collects together my best stuff over the past 5 years... it's also full of my views and is part biography too!

I have been threatening to post up a bumper collection of the Celebrity Kama Sutra series I have been drawing these past few years for the great Nuts magazine, so here you go, the wait is over!

These are actually pages from Kaleidoscope, I have organized the celebs into categories; Football Stars, British Television, Music, Hollywood, Repeat Offenders, and a few sub categories: standing up, politicians and sitting down.

Ha, no need to go into any great explanations here, they are what they are, really fun drawings, but I do recommend clicking on each pic to see them more close up.

Now I have not drawn a Kama Sutra for the mag for a number of weeks, and my once weekly slot has dwindled to sporadic appearances, as such the series may in fact be finished, if so this post and my book will be one hell of a send off (these take up about 8 pages in the book!)

I'd like to thank the whole team at Nuts for giving me the opportunity to produce such a large and always fun body of work, above are only my faves, we actually reached the landmark of over a 100 drawings a few months ago!

To think when the AD Simon Freeborough suggested the whole concept to me years ago about a regular sex position drawing, I was somewhat apprehensive, for a start I had never drawn anything vaguely naughty in my career, also on a logistical front I imagined we'd be stuck for positions after the first three illustrations...Ha, prior to drawing these I believed there to be only three positions! Turned out to a real eye-opener! Also, maybe not surprisingly in the times we live in we were rarely short of tabloid fodder to draw too.

If the series has now come to an end; big thanks must go to Simon, Barney, Nitish and James at the mag for giving me such great things to draw, and giving me a great deal of freedom it has to be said on who and how we would draw these.

I've already witnessed a certain amount of snobbery and snootiness with regards to these pics, as though they are somehow lesser than the work I would draw for other clients like The Guardian, etc, personally I am as proud of these as anything I have ever done.

Next post will be a round up of some of the many drawings I have done since New Year, this will be followed up by a giant posting on Kaleidoscope: The Book!

Busy, Busy! Giant-sized Jobs Round up.

This blog has been a bit neglected of recent, when things go quiet here, it's generally because I am up to
my neck in jobs, and that has definitely been the case this past couple of months.

I'm struggling to think of a time when i've been more busy, which is saying something in itself!

I did say my next post would be dedicated to my Karma Sutra drawings, but I think that can wait a little while longer, so that I can do this giant sized catch up on recent jobs.

This isn't everything i've done in the past 2 months, just a slice of jobs that are currently on the newsstands as we speak.

Above is a very cool job that came my way via PC Pro, a magazine I'd created my first illo for earlier in the year. This illustration accompanied a feature about what would happen if the world's internet went down, and given the modern dependency how we'd kind of basically return to the dark ages, not before being treated to scenes of sheer pandemonium ... great brief, I must have been drawing about 4 other jobs at the time, so it was a matter of trying to wrangle enough time to add all the detail I wanted.

I was happy with how it came out in print, not least because they use a much pulpier paper in the mag than the glossy stuff my images usually run on. Big thanks to designer Andrew Bunce for thinking of me when this brief came up, with a bit of luck i'll get to work with PC Pro again in the New Year, and hopefully I won't be quite as busy with other jobs, so I can really go to town on the detail!

Above are a set of number based illos that have just seen print in the UK edition of Women's Health (gorgeous looking mag, check it out!) These I found to be one of my toughest jobs in many a year, the brief was to make celebs fit a series of numbers that relate to health based topics, eg; 2 units of alcohol a day, etc.

I felt that in order to make them fit the shape of a number, that I would have to draw celebs in a variety of outlandish positions, which is how they came to be doing exercises, and it came apparent early on that in order to make them numbers, that i'd maybe need at least two figures per number.

Somewhere down the line (probably because of the Hairy Bikers illo I did first) that we would make the list of characters into celebrity chefs, and that we would draw them doing some kind of activity that pertained to what the number related to.

I don't know if it was being overworked at the time, trying to get figures to contort in ways that weren't natural etc... but I really struggled with these, probably more so than any other job I can think of in the past 5 years!

Anyway, luckily these were under the safe stewardship of the WH team with me working predominantly with numero uno safe pair of hands Kerem Shefik and Editor Farrah Storr, I bought the magazine yesterday, and now I don't know what all the fuss was about now.

Sure I may have done them in a completely different way, if given the brief today, but having seen them in print, and how they were matched on the paper with a lovely watercolour paper texture, apart from a changing some small things on the Gordon Ramsey drawing (arguably the best one) i'm actually  happy with how they came out.

Big thanks to Kerem, Farrah, Ade & Emily at WH for putting up with my madness!

Now here's some spot illustrations that I really got my teeth into for my good friends at Empire magazine, brief was simple; draw JJ Abrams as a Jedi Knight, Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight and Walter White/Heisenberg from Breaking Bad.

These were great fun, and I was in a relaxed mood drawing these, so much that I ended up drawing 3 versions of the JJ Jedi Knight, the final one as a bit of fun was a Yoda version. I sent them to the Art Ed of the title Adam expecting him to chuckle, and then pick one of the other two, then when I picked up a copy of magazine I was surprised to find out he'd run the Yoda drawing.

It was a nice surprise as it looked great on the page too, goes to show you, that an artist is not always the best judge of their own work sometimes.

These ran tiny on the page, and some other illustrators would think I am mad for how much effort I put in with spot illustrations, but I can honestly say I am as happy with these drawings as anything I have drawn all year, regardless of size.

Big thanks to Adam at the mag for sending another great brief my way, and it's always a thrill to work for Empire, which i've already stated here is a magazine, that I read cover to cover every month and have done so for a decade now.

Synchronicity sometimes comes into play when you are an illustrator, so I ended up drawing two Jedi/Yoda images at the same time!

I got a surprise email from Mark Wagstaff at the great music title Mojo, who asked me if I'd like to draw their album of the month feature, the idea for the piece was exactly my cup of tea; Eminem as a Jedi Knight with music producer Rick Reubin as Yoda  on his back, I was in from the get go!

The idea stems from Eminem being quoted as comparing Rick to Yoda, like in the movie Empire Strikes Back.

This one should have been perfect for me, but I struggled with the drawing... it was the placement of the arms which gave me concern, if we are talking about drawing anatomy I rarely have any problems, but this one gave me issues.. in fact it still seems off to me.

Regardless what I do like is how I digitally painted the colour for a more realistic moulded look on this illo, it's something that i'll be employing on future jobs!

Mojo jobs are rare thing, my last one prior to this was probably 3 years ago... I do hope I don't have to wait so long for the next one, it's these kind of briefs why I became an illustrator in the first place!

Above are some of my favorite drawings from the regular feature 'Ask Uncle Top Gear' I illustrate each month for Top Gear magazine, really great fun these.

I go for a more realistic look with these than some of my other stuff, and it's nice rendering these cars in the slickest ways I can muster.

The one second from bottom has lots of innuendos in the sponsors, click on the image to see if you can make them all out.

These illustrations have come my way courtesy of Elliott Webb and Peter Barnes at the mag, cheers fellas! Collectively these illustrations are shaping up as some of the strongest in my entire cannon of work.

Above is another set of illustrations for TG, albeit not one of the 'Uncle TopGear' series, I was charged with drawing 40 figures that represent the main  people that make up an F1 team,  great brief, lovely to draw, can't ask for more than that, again these came my way via Elliott at the magazine, always fun!

So yet another automotive drawing, this time for Insurance Age. I've been working with Iain at the title for a number of years now, and I can always trust him to pitch up every now and then with a great brief.

This was a goodbye to the gloom of 2013 and hello to rosier times ahead in 2014 piece, I think it really shows that I had fun with the perspective and viewpoint of this illustration, the best compositions are often the simplest, this being the case here.

Finally onto some jobs for the fellas at Nuts magazine, this time for the now annual Christmas TV guide (I've drawn the past 4 I think!) main illustration is at the bottom, the idea was simple, draw a list of Christmas TV celebs taking part a cheesy Nativity play.

Again this is one of those that got turned around super quick, as I had a stack of other jobs on top, with November and December now becoming my busiest times of year! Always enjoy these big celeb ensemble images!

The four spot drawings above the lead, show up on the various listings of the TV guide; those are drawings of Wreck-it Ralph as Santa, Peter Capaldi (new Dr Who) chewing on a Turkey leg, Alan Carr getting merry, and Sherlock Holme' Benedict Cumberbach nursing a hangover on New Years Eve.

As ever big thanks to Barney at the mag, and all the other fellas there too ; Simon, Nitish & James for throwing work my way throughout the year, and bearing with me, when I couldn't take jobs due to work other commitments...it's never fun turning down work, but I never like turning down their jobs as they are easily some of the best briefs an illustrator could ask for... pick up the magazine and take a look yourself!

Okay, that's about me done... need a lie down after writing all this!

Next post, will be a Celebrity Karma Sutra special, I promise!

That just leaves me with wishing all clients, readers of this blog a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Have some top secret plans in store for 2014, everyone has been warned! HaaaHaaa, Haaaa,HHaaaa, (breaks into evil maniacal laugh)

Back to Illustrating!

                                         
After all the recent talk of fine art prints on this blog I thought it was about time for a catch up on my real job, which is of course the business of illustration.

Here we go a big round up of jobs, some of these go back months. I should point out this is a fraction of the stuff i've drawn these past few months (the last few weeks being particularly hectic!) but I thought i'd throw a mixture together.

Above are 8 drawings that were used for an advertorial for the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost film The World's End, this was for my chums at Nuts magazine.

Now i've spoke before about advertorials on this blog, and as i've previously stated they can be "tricky", especially these when you are dealing with film companies, something i've done a few times now, it is certainly not for the faint hearted that's for sure.

Weird one this in that I originally had a very tight deadline, so all of these were put together in a matter of days, when you have such a large number of things to do, compromises are made, quality dips etc... with this one the deadline got extended, just as i'd finished the actual drawings!! So after all that stress to finish them I actually got a further week despite having finished the work. I could have spent longer adding detail and making changes (I made a few changes) but I believe every job has it's time limit, and in this case I'd spent enough time with the illos.

Big thanks to Nick and Barney at Nuts for protecting me against the film suits and advertising people, who predictably decided to try and change the whole thing in the last few hours of deadline, there's a reason this kind of advertising stuff and the people in that industry have a bad reputation.. I could go on, but I won't.. suffice to say one of my favourite artists is the movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan, and anyone who's ever read one of his books will know how the people in that business treat artists.

This one's a double page spread for Nuts (done ages back!) for an article about the sinking ship that is QPR football club, I think if I remember correctly I had two days on this, again super stressful.

If you are not of an illustration/design background and wonder why on many of these illos there's plenty of dead space, well that's simply to fit the headline and all the text, of which there is often a lot.

When I did the illustration above I wasn't overly keen on it, it's hard to feel satisfied when you draw these things in such tight timeframes, you don't draw as you'd like, it's a case of what you can do in the permitted time, but y'know it's one of those that came together once it had all the page furniture on it and saw print.

Another double page spread for Nuts on an article about space facts, like what happens when you go to the toilet in space etc..

Great article, great subject to draw... but as is the running theme of my work at the moment, deadline was tight at just three days! Tough also in that the illustration had to be structured and composed in a particular way to fit the features writing on, but generally reasonably happy with this and how it printed.

Here's a cover for Insurance Age done a couple of month backs, the idea of an X Factor style show, with Insurance people being the main acts, really enjoyable to draw this, plus I had a nice long deadline for this (well certainly more than a couple of days, I think)

My favourite bit is the juggling pug in the centre, as ever I am indebted to Iain at the magazine, who continues to give me great jobs.

The above four are for a regular advice column in Top Gear magazine, which have been a real joy to draw.
I think I decided early on that I wanted to tackle these Top Gear jobs in a slightly different way to my other stuff, in that I wanted them to be more rendered and realistic, less about line work and more about representing things in as realistic a way as possible through colour and texture.

I particularly like the giant cow and giant burger images, in fact the burger image is one of my favourite images of the past couple of months. What I should point out is that illustration is more often than not a collaboration, this is I would suggest even more so on these jobs for Top Gear, so I can only take partial credit for the outcome of these drawings, as I feel in this case these images belong just as much to Elliot Webb the Art Ed at the mag as they do to me.

Thought we'd finish with another for Nuts, i've posted these illos up in a kind of sequential order, this is the most recently published image (so it brings us up to date) this was for a feature titled 24 Maddest Movie Star Moments.

Now I decided to take a long weekend break, from Friday until Monday (one of only a few days off i've had all year!) and I made a point of emailing my more regular clients to tell them that I was going on holiday (kind of) now you'd think that would be a kind of cue for said Art Director's to leave me to my few days away.

Ha, Apparently Nitish at Nuts mag didn't get the hint, as he emailed me on the Friday to see if i'd be available to do some work, I didn't mind though, nice to feel wanted isn't it? So the brief was sent to me on the Monday, as I didn't get back until 2pm, and as I had to rush around sending a signed print over to the States, it meant that I had to start this on the Tuesday and had two and half days to turn this around.

Re-energized by the break, I got straight to work and produced the illo above. Which I must say I was very happy with (or as much as I can be with regards to my own work) as it especially looked nice in print.

Big thanks to James Jarman at Nuts, who gave me the great brief of movie stars in an asylum and a list of possible actors to include, and then just left me get on with drawing it... it's rare that I am given something so great a concept and then left to draw it how I see fit. I really did enjoy it!

Below is how the illo looked in context.

Next post: my regular spot illustrations for those boys at Nuts (yes them again!) has reached a landmark number, that's right: I've recently drawn the 100th Celebrity Karma Sutra illustration for the magazine!!! to celebrate i'll be dedicating the next post to those naughty drawings.... you've been warned!

Framed Prints for Sale!

I am pleased to announce that I have recently struck a deal with a gallery, who are now selling signed and framed prints of some of my more in demand artworks... not only that, but these images are coming in previously unheard of large format sizes!

As has been previously stated on this blog, there's been a constant demand from people all over the world asking me about prints of my work (mainly for the 80's Last Supper!) So much so that it's been at times like an extra business on top of my usual day to day drawing for magazines tomfoolery!

I've always considered myself a dyed in the wool illustrator creating work for print purposes, so it's been a huge surprise to me that people think enough of my work that they want to live with it on their walls.

Anyways to cut a long story short, the firm that handles all the printing of my giclee's, a family run gallery/shop/framers called Pomfret Gallery recently asked me whether i'd considered selling framed editions... a deal was struck that they would create, what are in my view premier editions of some of my more popular works.

The images come in sizes bigger than previous prints, and they've been tastefully framed, in fact on the framing side of things they've done an exquisite job, a case of no expense spared!

Above are 'Robots & Aliens' and 'The 80's Last Supper', what doesn't come across is scale in these pics, the Last Supper is only a few cm's larger than the original print (see Last Supper Prints for Sale post) however this new Robots and Aliens is maybe double the size of the original, i'm not sure at this point what the measurements are but it's certainly larger than A2 (420mm x 594mm) it really is a substantial image now.

Along with the drawn stuff i've made my name with in the illustration racket these past few years, they've released prints of a couple of my older works, these were created back in the day, when I used to use paint, collage, photography to create my work... alas I was before my time, I think this way of image-making was seen as too "arty" for the commercial world of illustration, however they've aged particularly well, and in their way stand up as pieces of fine art... certainly look stunning up in the gallery space.

So if for example you want an already framed and mounted Last Supper on your wall as opposed to buying just the print from me, then Pomfret Gallery is where to get it from exclusively.

Check out their site here for a full price list and contact details, certainly if you are buying online be sure to ask about the sizes of these, and shipping costs... I should point out at this point that these really are the premier editions of these prints, and they've been priced accordingly with the money spent on framing etc.. in other words you spend extra for the quality!

NB: If you are wanting just prints of the artwork then it's business as usual, just contact me directly via the email listed in the header of this page, but if you want that pre-framed premier edition contact the team at Pomfret Gallery via the link above.

I♥ He-Man (I heart He-Man) prints for sale!!

                                              full picture.

                                detail from main image.

                                detail from main image.

I've been saying for quite some time now that i've been working on some big personal pieces, and finally I have one to show the world, without further ado I present the 'I Heart He-man' giclee print.

I have a mantra when it comes to creating my personal works; "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!"... something that this illustration probably lives up to.

This image is the first in a planned set of prints I've been working on around my regular editorial work, which seeks to celebrate the action figure/toylines of my childhood, this series I have aptly monikered the 'toybox' series.

This first one as is evident is a celebration of Mattel's He-man & the Masters of the Universe action figure line that ran from 1981 to 1990.

My main goal was to show every one of the 6" figures along with I believe every weapon/accessory that came packaged with them... if i'm missing anything or anyone, i'm sure fans out there will let me know, although i've been pretty diligent and more than a little obsessive in my research and drawing.

I did have to set myself a few guidelines however, so unfortunately there was no room for  creatures and the oversized stuff, the biggest omission was Battle Cat/Cringer, unfortunately if I added him, then i'd have to include all the others, such as Strider etc... which due to scale reasons would detract from the 6" figures which are the main focus.

                                            A2 giclee print

This series is probably the largest scale i've ever drawn, which I mean not only in terms of detail and scope, but literally as each of these measures in at an exhausting A2 size (so that's 420mm width by 594mm height, or 16.5 inches by 23.4 inches) above is a photo of me holding the print.

If you are a massive He-man fan, a toy collector, have a man cave that needs something colorful on the wall, or are like myself and just loves nostalgic 80's things, and you'd like a copy of this print then get in touch.

The print comes in two sizes:

A2 (420mm w by 594mm h) £80 including delivery.
A3 (297mm w by 420mm h) £50 including delivery.

The print comes as a giclee print on thick fine art paper, in other words pretty much the best money can buy right now, all print enquiries can be made via email, see the address on the headline banner at the top of this page.

On the very top image you'll notice a copyright stamp that attributes the illustration to me, unfortunately i've had to do this, as has previously been stated on prior posts, some of my more popular works have a tendency to go walkabout online, it leads to images being misappropriated, and because of the orphaned works act that was brought in with regards to online imagery, people think they can use my work as and how they want... well you can't.

By all means put up this image up on facebook, pinterest, twitter and various other social media and websites, in fact I encourage online promotion of this blog and my work in general, but please always credit me and this blog as the the source point for this work, what I don't like is people passing the work off as something they created or own, also let's face it by crediting me, it allows other people to get in touch should they want to own a print of the image.

Anyway not to dwell on negatives, now as I was saying this is one of a series, so if people out there have their own ideas about what toy line they'd like to see immortalized then by all means feel free to leave a comment below with your suggestion, and if I like it, then maybe it will make the series.

Next up on the drawing board Star Wars & M.U.S.C.L.E!

EMPIRE- Build Your Own Johnny Depp!

My two favorite published jobs of the year (thus far!) happened to come to me at the same time, the first being the E.T busking illo as seen in the last post, and my other fave commission is this Johnny Depp illo for the world's number one film mag Empire.

When the Art Ed at the mag Adam sent over the brief I was thrilled, as this is the kind of image i'd draw as a personal piece anyways, so one of those rare dream jobs I get but once or twice a year, felt kind of like the stars aligned for this one.

Brief was simple enough: Draw a Johnny Depp cut out figure, with all manner of weird and wonderful costumery from some of Johnny's movie back catalogue created to fit said figure.

So got to work pretty quick smart... well not as quick as i'd have liked as I was busy on other jobs (E.T and others) but as soon as the time became available I was straight on this.

At the bottom is the grey scale rough, this you'll see is a more finished rough than I sometimes muster.

The middle illo, is how I sent it to Adam, I gave him a layered version, so he could move things where necessary to fit his layout.

At the top is how the illo looked in print, complete with a wild west paper texture to bring the whole layout together, which I think was a lovely accompaniment provided by Adam and really sets things off  on the the printed page.

Click on the illos, to see in more detail.... if nothing else that is probably the finest fur coat i've ever drawn!

This drawing can be seen in the current copy of Empire which is on the newsstands now!

I've been saying for a while that an epic personal piece will be coming to this blog soon, but i've been super busy with my regular magazine jobs that it's difficult to fit in my own work... the reality is I've only been showing a relatively small portion of everything that is published on this blog for the past few months, because i've been drawing a lot of stuff! What I can say is, that i'm about 90% there with one of my epic personal images, which is just one of a series and that i'll be attempting to post it here in the next few weeks... I can't say anymore than that, it's top secret! But a warning: People's eyes may explode upon seeing it... particularly if you are an 80's geek like myself... Whoops, said too much!

Nice New Illustrations!

So i've been a busy boy of recent, and i've been very fortunate these past few weeks to have got some of my best briefs of the year in through my inbox. Great briefs usually lead to the making of strong images in my case, and I think i've probably made my two best published illustrations of the year thus far in the past week.

Above is one of those illustrations, the AD at Nuts magazine just casually emailed me to see whether i'd ever drawn E.T as a hobo-like busker looking up in a rather sad way to a cancelled E.T 2 poster, first of all my answer was 'No I haven't drawn that before" secondly given my well-acknowledged love of films and particularly 80's films, it was a case of please let me draw this!

The illustration was to accompany a feature about blockbusters that never got made (E.T 2: Nocturnal Fears being the reference here) At the time I  got this brief I was already tied up with various other illustration jobs, including my other "best brief of the year" illo for another mag (more about that next month!) and I was concerned that I wouldn't have time to take this job.

As it turned out I was given a few more days than I usually get from Nuts, which has a tight weekly schedule, and I was able to work on this and four more jobs over the Bank Holiday period.

I left the sign bare, for the designers to fit the headline "22 Blockbusters that never were!" I've just seen this in print, and the illustration came out great... it's also a really good feature for any movie fan to read.

Big thanks to Barney, Nitish & Simon at the mag.... it's these kinds of jobs I live for!

Here's another one for Nuts, a full page illustration to run alongside an interview on British boxer Amir Khan.
This image is a homage to the Rocky 3 movie poster, again great for a film nut, and a Rocky fan like myself... i'm a big fan of the Rocky series, with Rocky 4 being one of my all-time fave films... in fact I think you can live your life by the teachings of that film!

I was asked to digitally paint this image, I dip my toe into the field of digital painting every now and then for the magazine, some images work better than others, this one came out great in print, because it allowed me to just concentrate on painting the flesh correctly. I enjoyed myself with this one!

Above is an illustration on the stands in the current issue of Top Gear magazine for an article about appropriate headwear while driving.

This is my second image for the title, I did a "blink and you'll miss it" spot illo in the previous magazine, it was such a thrill and honor to be asked to contribute to the mag, as i'm a fan of the show and had admired the mag from afar for it's use of illustration down the years.

The new Art Editor at the title Elliot is someone who i'd already had the pleasure of working with when he was at Empire mag, so it was lovely to get the opportunity to work with him again... he's one of those who knows his job inside out, also he knows how to commission illustrators; as he gives a good brief, enough time to let you draw it, and leaves you to get on with the job at hand. Can't ask for more than that! Really enjoy working with him... one day I'm hoping for a super detailed double page feature for the title....

This one is also very nice on the printed page!

That's it for now, more big jobs to come, and if I ever get around to finishing them, some epic personal works to put up here soon... you'll need to see them to believe 'em!