3 Ravens

3 pieces I've been working on for my Fairytale and Folklore project. I wanted to set the scenes in a modern environment. Through the first image I wanted to depict the subject of seduction, a strong theme in the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I've been looking at some awesome images by many other illustrators where they manipulate shadows to dramatizes a composition. Also film noir has been a big influence. The middle piece is an accumulation of symbols that relate back to many of the themes from the original story, such as: womanhood, purity, cleansing, and the role of the male.

LIVE DRAW butterflies

Recently I've been involved in a theatre performance which involves live painting of butterflies. A friend of mine and I volunteered ourselves to take on this task, not realising how big the job was - we don't get paid for the hours (mon-fri 17.30-21.30) and we had to personally collect enough card board boxes (our canvas) to fill up an entire length of 25m wall and 2 metres in height. We chose to limit the palette so it would look better. I love how the blue stands out against the brown of the card board and the black acrylic. Honestly, its exhausting. ONE MORE NIGHT TO GO!!!!

Beautiful Dreamers; the backdrop

This is the backdrop I drew out on black card with coloured pencils. Recently I've been playing around a lot with bright colours and coloured paper and the work is paying off. For instance I now have a better understanding of colour palettes! Because of the weird and small dimensions of the illustration I had to produce I could not put the whole piece in (sad face).

Beautiful Dreamers (first draft)

A while back I was listening to a Radio4 (BBC) show called Beautiful Dreamers. I think it was the title that immediately caught my attention and also in the blurb it said that it was about music. Had a listen and it was AMAZING! I produced a small 58x42mm illustration for it (uni course work). It was about Artur Mistek's Musica Zoologika - the world's first animal orchestra, set against a backdrop of the CCCP. Definitely worth a listen. There was a bit where they explain this butterfly gong - a massive flock of butterflies are flown into a gong and with every collision produces a soft sound. The unconscious/dead bodies then fall onto another gong. Cruel - possibly, but the sound this little scene omitted must have been awesome!

Goodbye to Berlin pt 2

A more clean and crisp version of the previous. The limited colours give it a slight vintage feel, I think.

Smoking bot

Was having a rummage through some of my old shizz the other day when I happened to stumble upon this - a drawing I really got into nearly a year ago. I used a mechanical pencil just so I could get all the detail down. Obviously I never properly came to finishing it but I kind of like that about it. I've always had a passion for mechanical things. At 13 I really got into HR Giger, the Swiss artist who's concepts were used for the very famous Alien movies. And also I'd like to point out that, shading with mechanical pencils kicks ass!

....response to the earlier post

As a response to the earlier post, a follower pointed out that it would look better if it was white on a red background and I'd like to say, Jenn Evans, you were quite right! Now I'll try and put it all in a sequence; I'm sure this will bring a host of new other problems to deal with ... guh!

Goodbye to Berlin

This is an mock editorial image for the Radio Times - for the radio interpretation of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin. The layout size is actually 58mmx42mm. Proper small! I tried to incorporate the bourgeoisie/luxury lifestyle with a hint of the Nazi threat. I usually try to avoid using black but in this case I think using a solid black really helps bring out the other colours. Looking at it now I recon I could make it better by working on some of the shapes ..... back to work then!

Tree pt2

Added block colours and shapes and made a simple composition. The 3 colours that make up the ring I really like right now.

Tree

A pen and ink drawing of a tree in a simple form. I put a sheet of tracing paper over it to give off a diffused feel. The scanner didn't quite capture it quite as well as I had hoped it would. I'm currently working on giving it a bit more of the 'something-factor' on photoshop.

Skull Safety Pin

Its a sketch I did a few months ago and I never really did anything with it. Turns out just dropping a simple colour onto it enhances the pencil lines. Why a skull suspended in a giant safety pin - I do not know.

Face-off

Since adding colour to the bullet casing scene I decided to just go ahead and start adding block colours into the other images. I decided to use a darker red; its a simple colour and the easiest way to portray tension and potential bloodshed. Though I'm not sure if I'm liking the stark white...

Smoking Cases

This is a continued post from a few days ago. I wanted to see what the last sequence would look like with added colour. The gradual darkening of the grey back-drop signifies a finality and thus adds dynamism and drama to the piece.

BLAPP BLAPP!

Here's an image sequence I did a while back (2009). I did the drawings in pen and ink, scanned it into the mac and then put it through Illustrator and got the live trace on it. It's actually an extract from a number of sequential illustrations I did in the form of a graphic novel based on the cult classic movie The Boondock Saints. I was quite apprehensive about adding colour into it so I might play around with it soon.

McIlheny's Tabasco Sauce

An editorial piece I did for an article about the history and trivia behind the world famous McIlheny's Tabasco sauce. It included a bit about the Royal Seal of Approval and the fact that the sauce has actually been sent into space so I thought I'd definitely include that in the piece.

Excuse Me

A piece produced for an editorial piece about a passive aggressive way in dealing with people who lack public etiquette (ie. putting bags on an empty seat). I used acrylic and brush for the line work and colour was later added on through Photoshop. If you didn't notice straight away the speech bubble represents a arm reaching out and gently tapping the character to the left on the shoulder.

Eat, Drink, Dine

This is a piece I entered for an IKEA competition a while back to the title Eat, Drink, Dine. Sadly I didn't win the five hundred squid prize but I did have a lot of fun doing and learned more of my medium and managed to properly push myself in terms of skill and creative ability. The line work was done in pencil and then scanned into Photoshop. The colours were scanned in as well from coloured pencil scratchings I had done on paper.

Once We Were Kings

This image of the king was used for a lot of my wheat pastes. I just recently decided to scan it in and see what it looked like against some block colours.

SoCo Music Project (live draw)

A live drawing session that I was invited to do at a recently opened place in a shopping centre near by (the SoCo music project). I was given a big white board to draw on during an acoustic session. I used the medium of black acrylic paint - something I'm getting used to at the moment. I'm loving the large scale I get to work at with these things.

The Brotherhood of the Travelling Pilchards

Recently I was commissioned by a bunch of old school mates for a t-shirt/poster design. I thought I'd hit them up with this. The sketches took a while and I did spend a bit of time planning out the basic compositional elements but I think its pulled through! Can't wait to see it on a t-shirt.