Tears Of An Elephantine Clown

Here is this year's design for my agent Anna Goodson Management's annual coaster campaign. 'Circus' was the theme so I conjured up this clowny elephant creature to plonk the coffee on.

The Finkler?

Here are some illustrations for Hadassah Magazine in the States to support an extract from Howard Jacobson's Ribalow Prize winning novel The Finkler Question. 

Who You Gonna Call?

Here's another illustration in response to a story, this time for Whitstable's Horsebridge Arts And Community Centre's 'Ghosts' exhibition. I chose a number and landed an extract from Fritz Leiber's tale Smoke Ghost to illuminate with a spectral image. It will be haunting the gallery from tomorrow until 23rd December.

26 Stories Of Christmas

I've contributed to an online project called 26 Stories Of Christmas which unveils a unique illustrated Christmas tale every day this month up to Boxing Day. A selection of writers were paired up with an illustrator and I created an image to support Laura Kennedy's story The Magician which appeared on the 4th December. Well worth a look here, it's like advent calendar choccy for the mind and eyes.

Swimming Online

Here's some work I can blab about now that the revamped Nominet Trust website has launched. It's a couple of illustrations for one of their provocation papers looking at developments to safeguard children online called 'Physical metaphors for digital safety'. I ran (swam?) with the water as interpipe metaphor on this and enjoyed using a simple but colourful approach.

Smashing Pumpkins

Here's another illustration for the Circus Mind book of music prose, a Billy Corgan portrait for a piece on the Smashing Pumpkins. On that note have a smashing weekend y'all.

Flame On

Here are a few belated shots from a recent trip to lovely Dorset over bonfire night weekend. Stayed in the market town of Bridport and popped to Lyme Regis on the Saturday to take in fireworks at the Cobb and an inferno on the beach. Blazin'.

Scorpio

I chanced across the stone-cold classic Dirty Harry on the tellybox again recently and was reminded of the insane brilliance of Andy Robinson's performance as the Frisco nutjob Scorpio, particularly his schoolbus nursery rhyme routine. It also reminded me that a friend had requested his portrait so here it is in it's original monochrome and with a seventies subdued palette. Hope you like...well, do you punk!?

Nirvana

Here's the second portrait for the music poetry collection A Circus Mind, of a total of twenty I'll be working on over the next few months, the troubled Nirvana figurehead Kurt Cobain. I'm digging the simpler brush pen drawing style for this particular job, will see where it takes me.

Bridge Over Techy Waters

Here's another cover illustration for CIO magazine looking at the art of building bridges to partnerships in  business technology.

Joy Division

A busy few weeks have kept me out of the blogosphere but, dammit, there will be posts. So to kickstart this joint here's the first taster of a long term project I've been working on recently. I'm collaborating with the author Ryan Cox and a crack squad of illustrators, Julia Minamata, Zela Lobb and Dushan Millic, on a book of music inspired prose called A Circus Mind. For me it's an exciting chance to experiment with drawing and portraiture and wallow in some of my favourite music. First out of the gate are Joy Division and a suitably ghoulish post-Halloween interpretation.

Gridmobile

Here's an illustration for Miller Mccune magazine in the States looking at the possibility of electric cars that can generate cash from powering and regulating the grid. Nought to sixty quid in no time.

Fly-By

More aerial based illustration pulling a loop-the-loop on the blog, this time for AOPA Pilot Magazine looking at how pilots tend to have a lot on their mind. Just land the thing would yer!?

Power To The Peeps

Here are some illustrations for a feature in Ethos Magazine looking at Localism in action around the UK whereby local volunteers work together to improve their communities in various ways. A refreshing change from wholesale rioting methinks.

Fido

If I had a dog it might look like this mashed-up angry Atariesque animal. It's very hot today.

Inflight Illustration

Here's a recent illustration for Flight Training Magazine in the States looking at how US pilot training programs are more long-winded than those of countries such as Canada and the UK. Test-flew a more stripped back graphic style on this one which I'm liking.

Taking That

Visual design and animated elements created for the song SOS performed by Take That on their Progress Tour 2011. Art direction, 3D and animation by Fish Nor Fowl for Treatment Studio. See the animation here.

The Lost Boys

I recently went along to Future Cinema's California Classics weekend at Canary Wharf where they were reviving eighties nuggets The Lost Boys and Top Gun with outdoor screenings. I wasn't really feeling the need for speed so opted for death by stereo instead and went for The Lost Boys' mulleted vamps and greasy saxophonists. Santa Carla was recreated with a fairground, arcade hall, comic store and vampire lair all populated by actors and motorbike gangs hamming it up to eleven. The film was preceded with a cheese-tastic group karaoke session of the theme Cry Little Sister (Thou shall not fall etc.) and the movie itself was still great fun despite Corey Haim's fashion atrocities.

Hive Talkin'

Here's an illustration for America's Billboard Magazine for an article on the creative minds behind the MTV Hive website. Buzzzzed up the colours on this one (no change there then) to go for a modern take on old school MTV graphics. 

Le Weekend Part Deux

My wife and I zipped through the Chunnel on that Eurostar again recently for another rumble with Paris. We spent a fun evening at the Phillipe Stark designed budget hotel Mama Shelter, the rooms of which came with snazzy light-fitting masks based on comic characters, in our case the dynamic duo of Batman and, er...Obelix. The Père Lachaise Cemetery was nearby so we had a wander around the necropolis, finding Oscar Wilde and losing Jim Morrison, before moving over to stay in the Canal Saint-Martin area. We strolled up the canal to the Parc de la Villette, stopping to gawp at the Logan's Run-style spectacle of the huge Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie with it's towering disco ball, before spending an end-of-summer evening in the Parc des Butte Chaumont supping le vin at the lovely Rosa Bonheur bar, our new favourite spot in Paris. On Sunday we got our tourist fix following a literary themed walking map around the left bank of the Seine, ticking off the sights en route (bonjour Notre Dame) and spotting the pads of Hemingway, Orwell and Kerouac amongst others. It were bon.

Business Class

Here's another editorial pic for The Telegraph, this time for a HSBC supplement about globe-trotting UK business folk exploring new markets.

Images 35

Bit of a delayed post this but what the hey? I popped along to the AOI Images 35 Exhibition a couple of weeks ago at Bankside Gallery London for this year's awards night. Had a top evening catching up with friends and colleauges and checked out some of the great work on show. My BBC Proms 2010 illustration was hanging in the Advertising category and goes on tour with the exhibition across the country. Also picked up the new Images 35 book and here's a spread with a few of my bits and pieces that passed muster with the judges.

Paths Of Infamy

Busy couple of weeks in Pottsville, will get the posts flowing asap. For now, here's a Monday morn drawing of little known actor, Timothy Carey, who I've recently discovered from a couple of early classic Stanley Kubrick films. He plays a louche sharpshooter in the influential heist movie The Killing and an unfortunate French soldier facing execution in the WW1 anti-war film Paths Of Glory pictured here. He smash'n'grabs every scene he's in with his oddball charisma and built a reputation for pissing-off his fellow actors according to this interesting article on his barmy career and underground legend status. Will be all over this guy's crazed oeuvre.

Cloudy WIth A Chance Of Data

Here's a recent cover and feature illustration for IBM Magazine looking at the latest hardware fit for the clouds. Bit like David Essex's Silver Dream Machine. No? Oh ok.

Tuppence Alert

If you find yourself flipping through the pages of this month's Advanced Photoshop magazine you'll find me contributing my tuppence worth in a feature on Global Advertising Styles. Thanking you.

Call It

I went all analogue on Friday and took a screen printing workshop at Printclub London which I enjoyed the heck out of. I took along my latest film head drawing to put the ink squeegee to. It's the preternaturally bad-assed Anton Chigurh, from the Coen brother's masterpiece No Country For Old Men, played brilliantly by a medievally mop-topped Javier Bardem. More screen printing to come methinks, can't wait to get my hands dirty again.

Small Audio Dynamite

Here's an editorial illo for Canada's Globe & Mail for an article on how tiny ear buds crunch massive audio.

Sonatine

You can't 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano I reckon so here's a scene from my favourite film of his, Sonatine, a gorgeous, blackly comic slice of existential yakuza action with oodles of seaside gunplay. Knockout.

Folly For A Flyover

I went to a pop-up cinema, dubbed the Folly For A Flyover, nestling under the A12 flyover in Hackney Wick at the weekend to catch a screening of fifties rebel classic The Wild One. The folly was built from reclaimed and donated materials next to the Lea Navigation Canal and was a great space to soak up a bit of campy Brando on a warm summer evening.

Tim & Eric In The Flesh

Last Friday I went along to see comedy mentalists Tim & Eric's  Awesome European Tour, Great Job! 2011 Just Islands show at Camden's Electric Ballroom in Lindin with that f*cking bridge (watch the trailer to see what I'm talking about). It was diarrheatically funny and they were ably supported 'In The Mix' by DJ Dougg Pound. Loving this poster artwork too by Duke Aber.

Carrie On

Some Friday sketchbook action before I call it a day. For some reason the crazed death stare of Sissy Spacek from the pig's blood drenched finale of Brian De Palma's classic Carrie popped into my brain this afternoon so had to put pen to paper. Right, get me out of herrreee.

Piggy Bank Riding

All a bit quiet on the blogging front recently but here's a little something from the last few weeks, a series of three finance themed illustrations for a weekly Aviva sponsored supplement in the Telegraph. I well and truly ram-raided the piggy bank of ideas for this one and I'm happy with the loot. 

Beeks!

As it's my birthday today I thought I'd treat myself to a lil' portrait. It's the amazing Paul Gleason, deadpan stalwart of classics such as Die Hard and The Breakfast Club (again), seen here in his crowning comedy role as the insanely abrupt Clarence Beeks in the brilliant Trading Places. Nobody delivers a line like this guy.

Comeback Kid

I've had my head down working away on various projects over the last couple of weeks without so much as a digital murmur but here's a cheeky little editorial in the meantime. It's for Denver's 5280 Magazine and an article about the comeback of 50 year old American 1984 Olympic gold cycling legend Alexi Grewal.

Birthday Club

It's my wife Liz's birthday today and I've drawn one of her celluloid heroes to mark the occasion. It's the mascara-caked 'goth chick' Ally Sheedy from John Hughes' classic The Breakfast Club trying (and failing) to resist an unwanted and horrendous make-over offer. Happy birthday hon!

Optimised

Latest Design Week illo for a Private View piece on creative optimism in troubled times, taking in WW2, the sixties and the present day with Paul Smith's new scent Optimistic cited as an example of designers willing to experiment outside their comfort zone.

Barrier Grief

Here's a recent editorial piece for National Mortgage News about the legal barriers being introduced in the US on foreclosures and defaults. Red tape huh?

Spanish Castle Magic

Been back from Barcelona and Catalonia for well over a week but still there in my mind, chomping on padron peppers and slurping the gin *sigh*. Anyway here are a few snaps from the trip which started with four nocturnal days at the Primavera Sound music festival held at the concrete-tastic Parc Del Forum overlooking the Med. Musical highlights for me included Interpol, Deerhunter, PIL, Grinderman, Factory Floor, Battles and the brash Odd Future. We spent a couple of days re-adjusting our post-festival body clocks taking in beautiful Barcelona and enjoyed a memorable trip to Ferran Adrià's new cocktail joint, 41 Degrees, sampling the great drinks and bizarro snack delights such as Parmesan Ice Cream sandwiches and the mysterious Fake Pistachios, all topped by the chance appearance of the amiable elBulli celeb-chef himself at the table next to us...whoop! After the city break we drove up the coast to the lovely Dali-centric Cadaqués, where we were based for the last three days, squeezing in a daytrip to nearby medieval Besalú and crag-perching Castellfollit de la Rocha. On the final day we strolled the lovely seafront at Sitges before shooting off to the airport and home, tired but inspired.

V&A Illustration Awards 2011 Shortlist

I was proper chuffed to find my name on the shortlist in the editorial category for the V&A Illustration Awards this year. My Urban Utopia illustration for New Scientist was doing the rounds for me again and faced some tough competition at the award ceremony last night where the excellent Oliver Kugler took the honours. I couldn't attend the prize giving unfortunately but I'll be popping along to see the exhibition at some point where I think my piece can be found on a screen with shortlisted winner's work until 17th December.

The Tingler

Back in rainy London town after an excelente break in Barcelona and Catalonia, of which I'll post more about soon. While I was away though I was chuffed to find out I'd won a competition run by the Aubin Cinema to design a poster for a special 'Vincentenary' screening of a classic Vincent Price schlock horror The Tingler, originally shown with a new screen gimmick called Percepto! (which I suspect involved having a rubber worm-thing thrown at your head). I missed the film screening, unfortunately, but here's the design for the poster which was on display at the cinema.

Uptown Car

New illustration for Automobile Magazine charting the rise and fall of the Lincoln Town Car from it's heyday as New York's glamorous upscale transport service to the imminent closure of the assembly line.

Deep Benching

So I metaphorically stepped up to the plate, gave it a 110%, and attempted to knock it out of the park with this baseball themed cover illustration for CIO Magazine, which is actually about building a stronger IT department of course.

Secret Cinema Goes To War

I went along to Secret Cinema again recently over Easter, this time staged at the Old Vic Tunnels under Waterloo station. On arrival at The Embassy we presented our pre-prepared French identity cards at the military style checkpoint and avoided the steely gazes of the guards who were detaining people at their leisure. We made it passed the checkpoint into a dark and atmospheric recreation of North African backstreets, mosques, food markets, cafe's and embassies all populated by arabic speaking folk and policed by temperamental French military, who could also be found dishing out a bit of torture in one of the antechambers. I got the impression it wasn't going to be a showing of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, as one punter suggested, and soon twigged it was the classic sixties insurgent film The Battle Of Algiers. For the screening itself we were bundled through hidden passages into a makeshift cinema to watch the powerful film which is still as relevant as ever in it's brutal depiction of the Algerian struggle for independence from French colonial rule. It was more of an appropriately solemn affair for such a challenging film but great to see this classic transformed into an inspired experience.

Pucka Brand

Latest Design Week illo for a Private View column looking at the successful branding of TV's foodmeister Jamie Oliver.

On The Buses

I went along to the Serco Prize for Illustration 2011 awards on Monday at the London Transport Museum where my London Flow illustration is exhibiting amongst the 50 shortlisted entries. It was a great venue for the ceremony, surrounded by historical London buses of all shapes and sizes, and the exhibition featured some excellent work, particularly from the worthy winners. I didn't go home with anything on the night but it's great to be part of the exhibition and I certainly wasn't anywhere near as grumpy as this waxwork goon behind the wheel!