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...'

Ministry of Stories

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to work on an image for the Ministry of Stories, a wonderful new creative writing centre for young people. Its based out the back of a Monster Supply Store on Hoxton street and based on the 826 Valencia , set up by Dave Eggers. You can read more about it here. I was given a written description of a monster 'Filthystien' by the Year 4 class at St Monica's RC Primary school ( you can read their full description of this monster here) and had to make a drawing to match. The finished image was a three colour screen print( kindly printed by Nobrow). some other great monster were created by the likes of Ben Newman and Stevie Gee. you can see them here.

Aubin and Wills

Over the christmas period I was working on a four panel cover for Aubin and Wills magazine Almanac ,which will be out in the spring. For that reason I can t show the finished artwork yet but heres a some small crops. more to come nearer the time