I was commissioned to design an illustrated map for the Forest-to-Forest Trail, a temporary trail that runs alongside the existing Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail. I love drawing maps, and I love art too. And trees as well. So I enjoyed doing this.
Here’s some (sort-of-animated) illustrations I’ve been making for BBC See Hear’s cookery strand, over the past 2 years. I wore my “Bake-Off” hat for these. The recipes are not my own of course – I’m a terrible cook.
I’m enjoying playing with the new Adobe Illustrator on the iPad. I’m still only scratching the surface, but it’s really nice being able to do Illustrator-y sort of stuff away from the big computer desk (ie; in the garden, down the park, or on the sofa in front of the telly). The iPad version seems […]
Recently we went on holiday to France. It was great! The highlight, for me, was Nantes, which seems to be a really quirky, fun little city. I loved following the green line and finding all the art installations and exhibitions that were going on. In fact, I almost want to run away and start my […]
I’m running in the London Marathon tomorrow. To try and calm my nerves a bit, I’ve been drawing some of the things I have to take with me. I’m running for National Deaf Children’s Society. Massive thanks to everyone who has sponsored me – I never expected that I’d be able to raise the amount I […]
In 7 weeks time, I shall be running in the London Marathon. Eek! With the snow interrupting my training regime this week, I decided to draw a picture instead, to try and motivate myself. I’ve also been re-reading Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic recently, which might explain the Death character popping up. (p.s. I’m […]
BBC See Hear were kind enough to let me to draw all over their stuff again. 🙂 Here is a poster I made for their See Hear Weekend in Bristol. (The itinerary looks amazing and I wish I could go. Especially the Aardman workshops!)
Having failed in my attempt to catch up on last month’s, “Inktober”, I shall now attempt to fail at, “30 Comics November”. Here’s my first attempt out of what might well turn out to be one. In other news, I’ve cut my Indian ink with a cheaper brand, and it seems have gone really runny.
Yay! I’ve done them all now. “Burn”, is possibly a bit not-so-good, and “Friend”, is maybe a bit cheesy and un-halloweeny, but I’ll live with it. I did two, “Surprises”, too. Surprise! So, now I need to catch-up with the Bestiary!
View Over the Great Courtyard at the British Museum, from the Members Room
Last night I ran around the British Museum in a blind panic trying to find something to draw before closing time. There’s too many amazing things to look at! I can’t make up my mind! So I went and had a beer in the members room to try and calm myself down for a bit, […]
I’m helping to illustrate Hana Videen’s new blog, Dēor-Hord: A Medieval and Modern Bestiary. Woohoo! I’m completely fascinated by any kind of history, so I’m really excited to be involved with Hana’s new blog. It’s about how medieval artists had to try and visualise exotic animals based on travellers’ (possibly exaggerated) descriptions, without having actually seen […]
“C”, is for, “Cat”, of course. And, “Castle”. And, “Cream”. And, “Cushion”. And, “Crown”. And, “Chain”. And, “Claws”. It’s hard to stop thinking of things that begin with a, “C”, now.
Witch! Or Wand? Or Worm?… So many potential Ws. This is a pertinently Halloween-themed sign-letter drawing. W is the most difficult letter of the alphabet to draw. It’s all those fingers sticking out all over the place. Here’s another witch, but I didn’t think she was characterful enough to make the final cut.
Not sure about this one…. I’ll sit on for a bit and see what I think in a few days time… I did try a more “anatomically correct” version of the octopus (below), but everyone in my family seem to prefer the octopus with the silly mouth. Boo to anatomically correct(er) octopuses!
If one tries to add alligator scales to human hands, they start to look like they belong to the Creature From the Black Lagoon (sans webby bits). Who knew this would happen?
Ok, I know I’m going to have to come back and re-do this one, in order to shave Sailor Bob’s Beard off. Also binoculars might be a bit over-ambitious. Maybe it really needs to be something else that begins with a B (a bee?). I’ll let it go for now though! Here is an earlier, […]
Here are some wine label designs I made for a competition. I’m not expecting any winnings to be honest, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. Now I just need a large glass of wine. Here’s some of the working-out sketches.
Here’s an absolutely true story about what actually, really happened the other night. Rendered in actual, real colour inks! (black and white version below if colours are too painful to look at)
Exporting Art-boards From Illustrator As Separate Files
There is a really useful button, hidden away in the “Save As” dialogue, in Illustrator. If you have just been given an Illustrator file, with about a hundred-million art-boards in it, and you need to find a way to import it all into After Effects; then this can be good thing to know! (it took […]
