Focus Fest

Time for a BBC Focus magazine catch-up before the year is out. Here are the two most recent cover illustrations for BBC Focus Collection, on The Science Of True Crime and Health Breakthroughs, that continue the 3d minimal style I've been developing since the first issue earlier in the year. The third illustration is a cover for the main magazine for the theme 'Inside Mars' and required me to create a colourful new planet environment for the supplied 3d rendering of the Mars InSight lander. See further Focus cover work on my site here.

Anna Goodson Coaster Campaign 2018

Get your mugs at the ready as it's Anna Goodson Christmas coaster campaign time again! This year's theme is all about showing support for the protection of our environment and comes with the hashtag #Illustratorswhocare. I chose to illustrate wind power as a source of green renewable energy and created a stylised scene featuring 3d turbines. Once I'd created the 3d environment and illustration I had some fun bringing it to life for an animated gif and a short teaser animation you can watch above. Anna also asked me to edit a promo for the coaster campaign featuring all of the excellent contributions from the agency's illustrators. You can read the full news post on the campaign here and see the work on the main site, along with previous coasters, here.

In Transit

More transport-themed collage mayhem with this illustration for NYC's Transit Center. It's about how autonomous vehicles are falsely presented as a future solution to urban transportation problems and undermine investment in the struggling transit system. You can also see this on the main site here with related work.

Stock Cars

Here's a nice little mover for Car And Driver magazine on a new smartphone app, Rally Rd, that allows enthusiasts to buy and sell shares in classic cars. You can see it on the site with previous work for Car And Driver here.

Red Hot Brexit Peppers

Here's a recent illustration for the newly relaunched quarterly edition of Red Pepper, a political magazine that, in their words, has been spicing up the left for 20 years. I was commissioned to illustrate an article on the Brexit debacle and the original brief was to create an image that envisioned the mixed possibilities of a dystopian no-deal future and a potentially inspiring left case for the way forward. The final, John Martin-inspired, heaven/hell vision of the UK landscape developed as the magazine was being edited and ended up featuring alongside an article entitled 'Socialism starts at home' rather than representing a possible three viewpoints, hence an alternate sign-post version featured here. I've also included some initial ideas that I floated of Britannia facing an unknown future and a flying Boris-pig inflicting untold damage on the nation. You can also see the work on the site here with related illustrations.

Fit For Fun

I've recently worked on a couple of healthy editorial commissions for Germany's Fit For Fun magazine. The first was based on Chronotypes, the sleep routines of individuals with the animalistic labels of bear, wolf, lion, and dolphin, and how they effect daily training. The second commission was based on how hormones effect your workout and diet. Enjoyable exercises in collage and colour, as it were. See them on the site with related work here.

Marvelous Models

Here's a commission for Science magazine in the US for an article entitled 'Marvelous Models'. It's about the increasing availability of computational resources to create scientific models, loads of people accessing data simulations from computer servers, basically. Really enjoyed working on this one using traditional Photoshop methods with some 3d enhancements. You can see it on the site here with related work.

Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Cover

Roar-ly pleased to have one of my illustrations selected for the cover of this year's Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide. It's my entry, Brex The Lionheart, for last year's Great British Postcard Competition judged by John Lydon, in which it was a finalist. Chuffed to also have a few other pieces chosen for the new edition, an article on which you can read on the Lürzer's site here.

Mind-Bending Future Life

Here are the latest covers for the BBC Focus Collection series for the themes of Mind-Bending Science Simply Explained and the Scientific Guide To Your Future Life. The content for these usually covers a broad spectrum of topics so I tend to go for a simpler striking visual that sums up the theme and sits well with the established cover layout. Working with 3d allows me to focus on a central object then experiment with camera angles, light and colour. Bright eye-catching colours are generally preferred by the publisher so once my 3d renders are in Photoshop then I can enhance elements and ratchet up the palettes to my heart's content. I've included some of the early ideas and variations on the finals for these two covers. I was getting carried away with flying cars and neon cocktail cities for the Future Life theme but the 'simpler' billboard-only approach won out in the end. You can see these and previous work for BBC Focus on the site here.

Nature Photonics

I was recently approached by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, NY, to create illustrations based on their research into non-invasive laser vision correction. The aim was to submit them to Nature Photonics magazine to support their manuscript and be selected for a cover feature. Very happy to report one of the illustrations was chosen and is on the current issue as we speak!
I worked on four images based on some relatively jargon-heavy discussions and diagrams of the process and created three interpretations of the external eye and femtosecond laser and one micro view of crosslinks in collagen fibrils - still with me? I used some 3D modelling to create the laser and eye close-ups before bringing the renders into Photoshop to play with colours and texture. You can see them on the site with related work for Nature here.

3x3 Professional Show Merits

Really chuffed to get two merits in this year's 3x3 Professional Show No.15! First was for animation and was awarded to my Bokhari Records teaser for their sixteenth release 'Southside Engineering' by Stephen Lopkin. The second was in the editorial category for my illustration for Mercedes-Benz/Daimler Next 'The Future Is Electric'.

Secret 7" 2018

I was really pleased to have one of my submissions chosen again for this year's Secret 7" exhibition and auction in aid of Mind charity. All the artists involved remain anonymous until sale day and I can now reveal I created this illustration for Jeff Buckley's 'Lover, You Should've Come Over' based on some of the song's lyrics 'She is the tear that hangs inside my soul forever'. The show was held at The Jetty in North Greenwich and the sale has now moved online here where mine is still available to buy until Sunday 8th July. I also submitted the illustration above for Jimi Hendrix's 'Castles Made Of Sand' that didn't make it into the show but could do with a little blog love. You can see this and related work on the site here.

Wormholes A Go Go

All new work for BBC Focus' current 'Through The Wormhole' themed issue. The commission included a cover, double-page spread and iPad edition animated illustrations. Had lots of fun envisaging and animating these, yet to be discovered, tunnels between galaxies. You can also see them on the site with further Focus work here.