Serge Gainsbourg...

...Here is my contribution to a project started by Illustrator Jonathan Edwards - Draw Serge as a tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg who passed away in 1991. I chose to concentrate on a French theme hence the portrait of Serge alongside the beautiful Brigitte Bardot within the French Tricolour...

Constance...

...Hello, I'm Constance and I am the first painting that my creator has made for several years...

...Yes, I'm very ashamed to admit that as far as a piece of Illustration work is concerned this is in fact the first time that I have produced a piece of work from start to finish in traditional media alone in many a long year, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, so look out for more in the not too distant future. Produced in gouache, pastel and coloured pencils as an 18th birthday present, it was fun to complete though not necessarily in the colours that I would have chosen had it been for myself...

I am a Rock...

...I am an Island - well not really anything relating to Paul Simon and his iconic 1965 song, but an image for an engagement party, congratulations to Debbie and Keith...

60 Years Project...

...I have just completed this piece of work for Zara Arshad's 60 Years Project, it celebrates the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. in 1948. The project is to be exhibited in London and China on dates to be confirmed. I chose to take a light hearted approach which still conveyed a strong message using Julie Andrews as the central character from the 'Sound of Music'. The concept should be self explanatory. Thanks for the opportunity Zara, hope it all goes well...

British Drinks...

...These are the roughs for an editorial job just completed. The artwork is full page for an article on British Drinks, I'll keep the details quiet for a day or two as it isn't due on the shelves for another few weeks. Detail wasn't a requirement and it wasn't necessary to specify one particular drink over another as there are 4 mentioned in the text - Vodka, Gin, Beer and Cider. I was simply requested to include bottles, botanicals (raw ingredients) and British elements. I therefore wanted to keep the image as simple as was possible, so Britannia became the central part of the composition with the colours remaining similar and the Union Flag providing the colour and emphasising the British element...





...The bottle image was preferred, though in the artwork I did include the type as they are simple semi-transparent shapes...

...Here is the finished artwork - thank you for the commission Meg...

Updates and redesigns...

...As can be seen here, I have re-designed my blog and updated all of my online folios, hope you like the new look...

Networking...

...Hi folks, I'm now 'LinkedIn'.
Click here to see my profile.

A.O.I. 'Images 33' - Private View...

...The private view and Awards night of the Association of Illustrators 'Images 33 The best of British contemporary Illustration 2009 took place at the London College of Communication on 28th July and will continue there until 12th August. Here are a couple of photos from the exhibition, I feel very proud to have had my work hung between those of Jonny Hannah and Andy Smith, two Illustrators whom I greatly admire.









The works with the top 80 marks out of the nearly 500 hung will then tour the country, my John Wayne illustration will be amongst them. The tour dates are:

Images 33 - UK tourdates 2009 - 2010

Piece Hall, Halifax 4 October 2009 - 7 November 2009
Shire Hall, Staffordshire 14 November 2009 - 3 January 2010
Birmingham University 6 January 2010 - 8 February 2010
Suffolk University 13 February 2010 - 28 March 2010
Nuneaton Museum 3 April 2010 - 15 May 2010
Aberystwyth Arts Centre 22 May 2010 - 04 July 2010

Summer Impatience...

...This piece of work for this week's Illustration Friday brief - 'Impatience' - is a response to an image that I created a couple of months ago wishing for a good hot Summer after last year's dreadful excuse. Unfortunately, my wishes have thus far yet to be answered in a positive way, we have up until today had by far the worst Summer that I can personally remember with around 6 weeks of solid rain.

Today has actually turned out quite nicely though so let's all hope for the remainder of the season to be more like this...

Web site up-dated...

...I updated my web site this morning, the information pages and awards/shows pages have been updated to include my latest achievements. Also included are several new images and a general re-jig...

Converse...

...This is the start of a new series of works that came to me last night. It may take one of two routes, I'm not quite sure yet, or in fact may even take both routes. The first possibility is a series of shoe pieces, after all if it was good enough for Andy Warhol, then it's good enough for me. Secondly is the possibility of American/Worldwide style iconic images, for example; Converse All Stars, Ray Bans, Levis' etc. etc...

Anyway, here's the first, 'Converse All Stars', the original image is quite large at a metre wide...