Duck Wars

Ever wanted to tour London on a yellow aquatic vehicle during the mayhem of the Blitz, now you can. Here's a recent OTT poster design for a World War 2 themed London Duck Tour which was fun to do, in an insane kind of way. Focke-Duck you might say.

Spring Loaded

I've been working a lot with the RHS recently on various projects which will begin to blossom as the year unfolds (see what I did there). After successfully promoting the Butterflies In The Glasshouse event at RHS Garden Wisley I've been commissioned, in tandem with the excellent folk at Premm Design, to work on a number of illustrations for campaigns throughout the year including this Spring design. Keep 'em pruned.

Security!

Here's a recent editorial piece for Security Management magazine in the US. The article is a pretty unfrothy look at tackling domestic terrorism, such as the recent shootings at Fort Hood in Texas, and the rise of self-radicalised lone operators. Uh huh, I need to lie down.

A Beautiful Machine

Here's my monstrous contribution to an upcoming exhibition in Bristol entitled A Beautiful Machine. The two week bicycle-centric show is curated by John Mcfaul/Mcfaul Studio and Howies and will be at the Howies Bristol store from Friday 26th March til Friday April 9th. Check out some of the cool entries so far on the blog, should be a great show. Saddle up!

Memories Submission

I mentioned the Memories Project a few posts back, an artistic response to the personal stories and experiences of cancer survivors. Here's my submission for the project which was based on the story of Wendy Nichols, who embraced a lifestyle change of health and well-being, particularly ashtanga yoga, over radio/chemotherapy and lived to tell the tale. The illustration will feature in an upcoming book so more news on that as and when.

Excite-o-tron

Ok, my inner fanboy has collapsed with excitement and is currently recovering in hospital, chomping on grapes. Caught the exciting new trailer for Tron Legacy, the long gestating sequel to the 1982 Tron original, a childhood favourite and major source of early inspiration. Not sure how much of a hand original designer and personal hero Syd Mead had in updating the designs but looks like they've simultaneously retained and supercharged all the original qualities. New Daft Punk soundtrack taster sounds spot on too.

Tweet This

Here's an illustration featured in the current issue of the newly rebranded Design Week. It's for a column by design guru Adrian Shaughnessy looking at his newly acquired taste for Twitter and it's usefulness to the creative community. Looks like I'll be contributing illustrations on a fairly regular basis to the new DW which is pretty 'tweet (ouch).

I'm Talking Here!

Thought I'd point you all in the direction of a few recent online interviews. First up is a quick Q+A for the recent Heavy Pencil event, which inspired this Daniel Plainview drawing. There's also a featured artist interview on my agent's site at Anna Goodson Managment and a recent profile on Adobe Creative News .

Potsdamer Platz Nights

Went to another Secret Cinema event over the weekend. This one had a teutonic flavour and was housed in an amazing derelict cinema on Shepherd's Bush Green with it's exterior dressed to resemble the Potsdamer Platz U-Bahn station in Berlin. The screening turned out to be the classic Wim Wenders movie Wings Of Desire and the venue was decked out like the film's Metropol club with live music acts and scenes enacted all around. The cinema itself was impressive and doubled up as a circus space with live trapeze artists mimicking the moves of the Marion character as she performs in the Circus Alekan on screen. This gorgeous art-house film was a brave choice for the organisers and I think they really pulled it off. I first saw this film about twenty years ago and I've always remembered the impact it had on me which I'm glad to say hasn't diminished in the least.

Mind The Creative

I pop up in this months Digital Arts magazine wearing my guru cap offering advice on how to be more creative when the inspiration well has dried up. You know, insider tricks like drinking rivers of coffee, escaping on your bike, watching daytime TV, doodling aimlessly til dawn. Essentially anything that resets your noggin and saves you headbutting the monitor out of sheer frustration. Arhhh, too late.

Six Chunks Of Road Warrior

Had some fun condensing one of my favourite B-movies Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior into a six panel comic strip for a recent Little White Lies competition. The brief was to keep it black and white, no greyscale, and to stick to the panel system they provided. If only Tina Turner had been in this sequel too. Click to enlarge

Still Feeling Minnesota

Revisited the cover of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Twin Cities Visitor Guide for another illustration this year. Would be cool to actually physically visit the twins in the flesh one day without my lasso tool. For sure.

CSI: Crime Scene Illustration

Here's a recent spread illustration for Canada's Readers Digest. It's about the elaborate forensic investigation behind the capture of an elusive hit & run perp. Nasty business.

Pencilled Out

I had a great time last Thursday at the ICA's Heavy Pencil event shootin' hot lead (and ink) with John Slade. We had a couple of hours to put some imagery to our sounds, the playlist loosely revolving around film themes and general inspiration, with the results being projected live on the bar wall . Here's a selection of snaps from the night courtesy of Tom Bunning and Rich Sinclair and some of the creations, more of which can be seen on John's blog. Thanks to all the people that came and a big cheers to John for getting me involved and to Gemma Tortella for putting on a great night.

Some of the tunes for these drawings included...

Queen - The Hero (Flash Gordon OST)

Company Flow - Population Control

John Carpenter - Escape From New York theme

Johnny Greenwood - Prospector's Arrive (There Will Be Blood OST)

Beck - Broken Drum (Boards Of Canada Remix)

Elsie Mae - Do You Really Want To Rescue Me?

Vangelis - Salome's Dance (Blade Runner Esper Edition OST)

Goodbye Horses - Q Lazzarus

The Sad Skinhead - Faust

Memories Project

I've been invited to contribute some artwork to the Memories Project which looks at the thoughts and experiences of individuals who have survived cancer. The project is launched in the Summer by DAHRA (Designers Against Human Rights Abuse), Subism, OneTenEleven Media and Garrick Webster. There's some fantastic artists on board and I'm proud to be a part of it, will keep you posted.

Puritanical

It's a grey Monday morning and a window has opened for a timely re-entry into the blogosphere to catch up on recent happenings. I wanted to mention a great gig I went to a couple of weeks ago, These New Puritans at Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush, London. Their new album 'Hidden' is an innovative beast, a rousing soundscape of electronic rhythms, massive drums, children's choirs and woodwind/brass instrumentation which is at once futuristic and ancient. It was reproduced to wonderful effect live on the night with the woodwind/brass section, huge drum and chains all present and correct. It was unlike anything I've seen or heard for quite some time. Inspiring stuff.

Love Letter

Blue Velvet's Frank Booth, a pyscho for the ages

Plisken

Just call me Snake

Redhead

It's a doodly kind of day...

Heavy Pencil

I will be sporting a particularly heavy pencil, and maybe a brush pen or two, at the ICA's regular live drawing/drinking event on Thursday February 4th. Good friend and fellow illustrator John Slade was invited to the event and asked me to partner up with him for some vaguely cinematic musical doodlings for a couple of hours. The event is free so come along if you can.