Independent

new illustration out in todays independent

Its Nice That

Thanks to Its Nice That for asking me to be be featured on their Bookshelf post.

You can read about some of the books that sit by me in my studio and influence my work here

Artistic.ly

New print for sale via Artistic.ly. An exhibition of all the artist prints , including Andrew Rae, Miles Donovan and Spencer Wilson opens tonight at Loading Bay Gallery, The Old Truman Brewery.

The prints are 50 x 70 cm on 310gsm German etching paper, edition of 50 and come framed.

they will be available to buy online shorty after

Nobrow issue 6

Nobrow 6 ' The Double' is now out and its a great issue. Half the issue is single panel illustrations and the other are double page comics, included some great work from SophyHollington, Paul Paetzel, Richard Short and many many more.

Heres my contribution to the issue, the original , and how its translates into Nobrows pantone colour way

Independent

I was commissoned to do two covers for a supplement about living with cancer in the Independent. The first image was to do with the practical help and support with everyday tasks, provided by the Macmillian charity. The second cover will be out next month.

FTI journal

I was recently commissioned to come up with rough ideas for the cover of FTI journal.

The piece was about new regulations in the finance sector, and how there is still room for businesses to maneuver. The image had to be non figuraitve, speak to a global market and not take one side of the argument. Overall I did 5 roughs but here are just two.

The illustrations won't be used as a photography direction was chosen in the end

Gabon Magazine

recent illustration for an article about the logging industry in Gabon

Readers digest

recent illustration for readers digest. The article talks about the reasons why it is better to be single

studio music

Studio music was created my rose blake and gives you an insight into the music that surrounds a variety of art and design practitioners . I was kindly asked to add a playlist of some of the music that informs my daily working process, so if you fancy a listen, hear it is.

Nobrow issue 6

I was lucky enough to be asked to create some work for Nobrow issue 6 on the Theme of Doppleganger. My idea was based on th idea that if you see your own doppleganger, you die.

The image below is just a small section to show how I've tried to use the 4 pantone colours that were supplied by Nobrow. Its out at the start of november so ill post more then

Geo Wissen Nr 47

Four illustrations for german science magazine Geo Wissen out in November .

All four are on the the theme of psychological resilience

summer work

over the summer i was lucky enough to have a week away , looking after a friends dog and being able to use their printing press. I was able to print at a larger format (57 x 45 cm) and produced the following reduction woodcut reduction. I am trying to get the balance right between the planning that is needed for the colours to work but allow the drawing to have room to manoever and have some fluidity. I relied on a previous subject matter for the content to allow me to focus more on the technique. This is an edition of 7

Inbetween printing it was good to spend some time concentrating on drawing .As an action it gives me real enjoyment but there seems to be a growing distance between this and my illustration work.I think more work and time is needed to work out a way of processing the drawing, finding a method were it retains certain qualities but has a usability

Mural

Over the summer I did quite a few pitches for jobs that didn't happen.

Firstly i was asked to test for a 15 m mural for a coffee shop.

I did a 1-2m section for the test. The idea from the client was that the mural would tell the 'story' behind coffee and would be able to break down into 16 different usable illustrations. This was a good challenge but in trying to make the mural encompass 16 sections the overall section lost something- a change in scale and the rythym of it became quite flat. If the job had progressed, a bolder section would of been needed in the following meters. This also partly happen because I found it problematic working on screen for something thats should be at a large scale.

starting to catch up

Its been a while since I posted so they will be a few catch up posts over the next couple of days

firstly heres an editorial for for Harpers Magazine- who always provide a nice short story to illustrate from.

New York Times

A nice quick one day turn around job out in todays The New York Times.

An interesting article about the problems of multiculturalism as a political policy on the anniversary of the London 7/7 bombings

world of interiors

New illustration out now in this months World of Interiors

'It's a Long way back'

Its been a while since my last post but ive just arrived back from Malmo, Sweden were I was kindly asked to exhibit by Krets gallery.

The show, titled 'It's a long way back' was made up of mostly new work , with some older key pieces supporting the ideas. Below are some photos of the space, and some notes about the work and process. more photos of the work can also be seen here

In ‘ It’s a Long way Back’ I took its starting point from a plaque I saw in Portland a couple of years ago. It was commemorating a flood that occurred in 1800’s.

‘Softly, silently the waters crept up, inch by inch giving ample time for the removal of goods and other precautionary measures and then gradually receded. There was no raging waters, no sweeping destructive currents. Nothing but a gradual submersion’ - Oregon Historical Society file 1532.4

I had a replica of this made for the show, placed beneath the ‘surfers’ image This alongside another small piece of text within the show hopefully gave clues, encouraged the viewer to find narratives, connections within the work.

Another consideration for the exhibtion was to use materials and methods that would not reproduce well and only work when seen in the flesh, Graphite on graphite, neon paper stock,etc

In the initial drawings I was trying to use different marks, forms, building up an image then covering it, trying to eradicate areas, getting rid of information. Not really any different to how I work digitally but the whole process remains visible, each part informing the next more directly.

It’s been an interesting process because of the shift in thinking about the construction of an image. Perhaps more formal, basic concerns- line, composition, tone come to the surface and the 'communication' aspect, that is rightly important in my illustration work, is less director clear within these pieces.

This is especially true with the larger pieces. Often starting with an idea in how to combine certain pictorial elements. For example, the following image first contained a whale’s tail hanging by a noose from an iron American streetlamp from the early 1900s. This seemed like a simple way to comment on some of my references, the hunting of whales for oil to fuel the lamps and later the use of these street lamps for lynching but visually became too obvious, clunky, a punch line. All the elements, references remain simmering below the surface

Rightly or wrongly, the viewer engages with the work differently when its in a gallery space rather then pages of a magazine, asks more questions of an the work perhaps? Im not sure but a phrase I heard and liked during the exhibition in Sweden, which didn’t really have a direct translation but roughly meant ‘don’t write it on my nose’, I guess saying ‘don’t spell it out for me, I can decide.’

Exhibition

i have an exhibition coming up next month at Krets gallery in Malmo Sweden.

ill be there for the opening so if your in town or fancy a weekend away pop by and say hello.

ill post some of the new work in progress soon

beautiful south bbc sessions (02)

i was recently commissioned to do another Beautiful South BBC sessions CD cover by Smiler associates. the project was similar to before in that they commissioned an already existed image which i than had to expand upon. The original image was similar to the top picture of the owl, which was arrived at through an animation i did for Sleeproom a couple of years ago.

because it was old work i reworked it to make it fit in with the newly created work. I think its interesting to have to then build a world around an image that was created as a one off, feels closed. you could almost take any image as a starting point and start to build a set of rules, systems narratives around it. In this case the giant owl originally had no reason for its scale other than a visual aesthetic ( poster image for animation) but now it started to take the form of a god or a threat. from there , a form of worship occurs and a form of resistance and a small narrative starts to unfold. i also wanted to include a character from the first CD cover ( the girl) so this started to become about the night version of the first cover im not sure how well this will translate to the finished product as it will have to contain a lot of other information, but it gave me a basis and direction to make the work

Peepshow exhibition

a recent peepshow exhibition in the Here gallery in falmouth

more photos can be seen here

Editorials

two new editorial pieces . the bottom one is for HBR about the lack of book s in business about failures and what we can learn form failing. I think its the first time i've ever used type to help an idea.

The top one was in this sundays independent to coincide with valentines days. it was based on a short story and the simple miscommunications in conversation between men and women

the outsider

During the first week of january I decided to work on the House of Illustration and Folio Society competition for 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus. It was a book I had read and attempted to illustrate before, (not very successfully) when I was a student. For that reason it was easy to get up to speed with the book quickly. The competition required three illustrations spanning the entire book, and the cover design with consideration given to the folios binding. Two of the four images turned out ok (coffin & beach) but the final image ( prison) which i thought was the most interesting at first, became the least successfully, weak drawing of the man and far too flat compared to the other images. There is a need to acknowledge the tradition of illustrated books whilst speaking in your own visual language, this is a balance I didnt achieve but is worth thinking about when attempting this again. Hopefully with another weeks work these could be improved- but I might try to expand the series to six images first to really get a sense of the whole book and create a body of work that is consistent

cover
'i then wanted a cigerette. But i hesitated because i didnt know if i could smoke in front of my dead mother...' ' .....the whiteness of the room seemed even more dazzling than before'

'.... That was when everything shook' ' ....and it was like four sharp knocks at the door of unhappiness'

'.... i had a tormenting desire for women...' '..... the feeling of the water and the freedom it would give me.... i imagined the sound of the first little waves...'