It's A Funworld

Here's a colourful commission for IAAPA's Funworld magazine, for all things to do with the global attractions industry. The brief was to create a bright and bustling cover and double page spread illustration on the theme of a post-pandemic Asia-Pacific tourist industry resurgence. I was supplied with a list of relevant countries, famous landmarks and attractions that should be represented in the collage and went about designing compositions that would fit the theme, interact with the cover title and generally look fun and be fun to do - which they were. You can also see the work on the main site here. 

The Fliers Of Gy

I entered the Folio Society Book Illustration Awards again this year as it's always a rewarding creative challenge to take on. The chosen book was Ursula K. Le Guin's short story The Fliers of Gy and the brief was to create one illustration based on a passage of your choosing from the set text. The book is about a society of feathered human beings of whom a select few grow wings and face persecution if used to openly take flight.

I worked on two illustrations and chose the first one to submit, titled 'Love Letter' and based on this passage - 'Lovers exchange feathers with which to write love letters to one another, a pretty custom, referred to in a famous scene in the play The Misunderstanding by Inuinui.'

The second un-submitted illustration was based on this passage - '...I turned around and there I had the full run ahead of me, clear across the market-place to the Assay Office. And I ran, and I took off.'

The longlist was announced this week and unfortunately I didn't make it this time but huge congrats to the excellent illustrators who were selected, all fantastic entries. You can see my entries for previous Folio Society book illustration competitions here.

WIA23 Longlister

Super pleased to be longlisted for the AOI's World Illustration Awards in the Science & Technology Professional Category. My Great Moon Rush animated cover illustration for BBC Science Focus was selected amongst some fantastic work this year. To the moon! Absolute lunar-cy, etc. See the work here.

 

Toronto Time

This is a commission that's been on the shelf for a while. It was originally created in 2019 for a TD Bank event in Toronto which was hastily cancelled in 2020 by a certain global pandemic and rescheduled for '22 I believe. The brief was to illustrate the city's landmarks and activities in an exciting way so I (virtually) went to town with this dynamically composed collage featuring the CN Tower and the pretty cool looking Royal Ontario Museum. Would sure like to visit the city in person one day.

Do The Math

Here's a commission from a couple of years ago that I'm allowed to put out there now I think. It's a cover illustration for one in a series of Florida math curriculum books for HMH called Into Math and the brief required a fun collage of aquatic adventure and exploration imagery with an emphasis on tech. Something of a deep dive into the numbers game. Enjoyed working on this one. See further science and technology work on the site here.

IMAA11 Winner

Chuffed to be a Selected Winner in this year's American Illustration International Motion Art Awards 11 for my BBC Science Focus animated cover First Contact! <alien whooping noises>

Forward Thinking

Here's a new illustration for EdTech: Focus on Higher Education Magazine's Spring issue. It's the kind of commission I love to work on, an intricate digital collage with a colourful mix of people, places and tech. You can see further science and technology themed illustrations here.

Ultramassive Black Holes

Here's a new cover animation and illustration for BBC Science Focus on the Hunt for Ultramassive Black Holes. I'd worked on a black hole cover illustration for Focus a few years ago and was keen to differentiate this one in terms of look and scale. The brief mentioned the term 'galaxy-eater' - so not something you could lose down the back of the sofa then. I went about creating a Nolan-esque black hole in Cinema 4d to create the first visuals and have something ready for animating later in the process. Initial ideas included a space ship and an earthbound observatory as seen above but the final design would be all about the black hole. I added galaxy textures, meteors and collapsing planets for detail and made room for the central strap line. For the spread illustration I moved the 3d camera around to get a wider perspective shot and fill the space. 

Once the print version was complete I created a forward camera move in Cinema 4d for the Apple News edition and rendered out the black hole, meteor and planet passes for compositing in After Effects. The title was animated to complement the camera move and to create the loop I designed a brief black hole interior abstract light tunnel effect. Another enjoyable project for Science Focus, you can see further work here.

Tech At The Edge

Here's a very welcome commission for an MIT Sloan Management Review feature looking at emerging tech tools entitled Tech At The Edge. The brief required a cover and three spot illustrations for the related articles with the cover focusing on a figure surveying a technological scene. I used Cinema 4d to build a 3d wireframe landscape and  layered tablet screens to comp with the photographic figure and digital textures in Photoshop. I maintained the stylings and electric blue/gold palette throughout the spot illustrations that were based on Web3, Quantum Computing and AI Tool integrity. A really enjoyable job overall. You can also see an animated commission for MIT's McGovern Institute here.

Loose Connection

Here's my latest illustration for a Car And Driver magazine feature called Loose Connection. It's a look at the history of vehicle fuelling from the kerosene era of the 1880s to modern EVs and some of the problems encountered along the way. See more work for Car And Driver here.

Around The World In 80Mbps

Here's a nice cover commission for The Journalist magazine on the transformation of foreign reporting in the digital age. Came up with a few ideas for this one but liked the laptop/travel luggage visual and glad to say the client did too. This first visual took more of a 2d face-on approach and was a little static so for a more dynamic composition I built the luggage handle and wheels in 3d, to attach to an existing Cinema 4d library laptop model, and had the freedom to play around with camera angles. The final illustration with screen graphics and luggage stickers was comped together in Photoshop on top of the 3d render. A fun job overall. Here's some previous work for The Journalist.

Illustration West 61

Happy to say I've had two entries selected for this year's Illustration West 61 annual competition and exhibition by the Society Of Illustrators Los Angeles. Both were cover illustrations chosen in the Editorial category, The Great Moon Rush for BBC Science Focus and The People Worth Watching for MG Magazine. Schweet!

Rise Of The Machines

Happy New Year to all! To kick-off 2023 here's a double page editorial for Populous Magazine that I worked on during the recent World Cup. The feature looks at the state of the art officiating technology being employed there, and across the sporting world, and whether it will ultimately supersede human decision making. Was great fun collaging together all the sporting imagery and tech and you can see similar work on the site here.

Lido Crab and the Lidoverse

Since moving to Margate, just over a year ago now, I've had a bit of a creative crush on the Cliftonville Lido tower. So much so that I built a 3d model of it in Cinema 4d to tinker around with for an ongoing project I like to call the Lidoverse. Here are some of the illustrations created so far mostly envisaging the tower as an enormous monument out at sea that develops a Santa complex at Christmas and, for its latest incarnation, transforms into a crab. The Lido Crab was created as a submission for the 2023 calendar from the wonderful Crab Museum based in Margate. Happy to report the Lido Crab will appear in the calendar amongst some very fine crustacean-centric art and is available here. 

Editorial Drive-By

Here are a couple of recent editorials for long time client Car And Driver magazine. The first is a map style illustration for a look at London's vehicular based attractions and the second is a rundown of 20 years of SUV history. Always enjoy a good car collage.

See further work for Car and Driver on the site here.

ABRSM Ten Years In

It's been great to work with ABRSM and designer Kate Benjamin again this year on a number of cover illustrations for their latest Piano Exam Pieces and Brass Syllabus books. I really enjoy creating these illustrative collages and working with good photography, provided here by Lloyd Winters and Phil Harrison. After 10 years of working with ABRSM it's interesting to see how the cover style has evolved, from loose and painterly to clean and graphic. You can see all the work posted on this blog over the years here and the first post from 2012 here.

First Contact

All new animated cover illustration for BBC Science Focus' latest issue on the theme of First Contact and what happens if we discover an extra terrestrial signal. The brief was to visualise this alien message with a silhouetted onlooker in a spartan night time landscape and it made sense to add a radar dish to emphasise the communication theme. With scenes from Contact, Arrival and Close Encounters swirling around my brain I started designing. For the signal itself multiple 3d abstract animations were created to layer up with some optical light effects while the radar dish was modelled in Cinema 4d and comped into mountain scenery in Photoshop. For the Apple News cover animation I wanted to move the camera in close to the signal before being zipped into a wormhole briefly to create a loop. Great fun to work on. See more Focus work on the main site here.