Inspector Marmalade's Notepad

First Post of the Year!

2012-01-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Here is some new work to kick start the new direction I'm going in.

Firstly some Tea Packaging designs.

and Secondly some Publishing Book Jackets, both of these sets are for my illustration agency Eastwing.

Free Rose Pattern Tile Background

2011-11-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Roses are Red...and Blue and Yellow Too!

I made a nice Rose Pattern Tile for my laptop background a while back and after a few people mentioned they liked it I thought I would share it with everyone. I myself like the blue but its my favourite colour so I suppose you could call me biased, but please enjoy the lovely Red and Yellow versions as well.

Totally FREE so feel free to right click and save. and please don't forget to Pass it on! :)

More Freebies to come so keep checking!

Cheers! :)

Living for Less

2011-11-02T16:42:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Here's hoping you have a good one!

Stitched Up Manchester

2011-10-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked to design a flyer for Stitched Up Manchester by my good friend Alice Eleanor, part of a fantastic group of Earth Conscious Fashionista-Revoltionaries based in Manchester.
I can not take credit for their awesome logo which was designed by Jim McDougall,www.flickr.com/photos/slackstatic/

Stitched Up run swap shops, social events, workshops and help with all your sewing needs at their Stitch Clinic. Find out more about their members and what they have coming up here:www.stitchedupuk.blogspot.com/

New Work

2011-09-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a little update of work, I have been a bit rubbish at keeping my blogger up to date. I think its because I'm not keen on the new layout mine seems to have adopted.

The first image is all about the sunny summer, a time for people so go on adventures.

The second is an image inspired by when man first walked on the moon, with the well known electronics brand Tesla Teles of course. :)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2011-05-09T08:09:00.001-07:00

The American Author Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28th in 1926. I decided to celebrate her birthday with an illustration inspired by her 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. I read the book as a child and it has always been a favourite of mine, and of course the film adaptation with the fantastic Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch only helped to make me love it more.

Spring'in in the air!

2011-03-18T02:17:00.001-07:00

GOING GOING GONE RED!

2011-03-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

A while ago you may remember I donated some work to the Go Red Campaign for Richard House, London's First Children's Hospice.

Myself and a ton of other artist donated work that you can now buy online, but that's not just it! You can mix all the heads, arms and legs to make your very own custom character print! I have been playing around with it for days now and it is so much fun, check out the link here and try it for yourself!

As well as this you can read all about Richard House and the brilliant things that they do with all the donations they receive here.

Please help them continue their fantastic work by supporting them anyway you can!

Charles Bukowski

2011-03-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I have updated so here is an image I made recently for the eastwing news page.

This illustration is a tribute to the American writer Charles Bukowski, who died 9th March in 1994, this book jacket was inspired by his poem "For Jane: With all the love I had which was not enough".

Printed 1605 BK, Before Kindle

2011-01-17T00:20:00.000-08:00

I have been building my portfolio up a bit over the past few months, one of the projects if you like that my agent suggested was to make book jacket related images for the daily news feed they do over on the Eastwing website. I really like the news feed that we have on there, I think its a fantastic way to keep everyone sketching as well as being quite informative too! For example, did you know that today in 1605 Don Quixote was first published by author Miguel De Cervantes. It is one of those books that I have picked up many times and not managed to get all the way through, alittle like Moby Dick but I will eventually!

So to celebrate a brilliant piece of literature I have doodled a "mock" book jacket, very worn looking and rather dog eared but it looks like a book that has been loved and appreciated by many.

Happy Monday!

Belated

2011-01-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a lovely break with family and friends. I spent alot of it running around seeing lots of people and even had a day trip out in the snow with the ladysnail which was nice!

Very belated I know as it is no longer Christmas but I forgot to put this other Christmas themed image up before I went off galaranting around.

I have been busy with other work but unforunatly I can't show any of it yet but I will be back up to speed soon, finding it hard to get back into the swing of things. More tea is needed I think.

Seasons Greetings

2010-12-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

As things start to settle down here I'd like to wish everyone who wanders past my blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years, have a great holiday and I'll see you in 2011!

Some Fine Zinery

2010-11-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

If you are like me you love zines, cant get enough of them. So when I was asked to contribute to a fantastic new zine by Jake Blanchard, Illustrator and founder of Tor Press, you can bet I jumped at the chance.
They released the first edition last year inspired by the letter A and the next two B and C are now available for you to buy here! You can even buy all three at a discounted price which I would highly recommend!
There are plenty of hip-kat artists hidden under all those finely screen printed covers just waiting to flaunt their stuff at you. For more info go here.
So here's a sneaky look at my B (movie) submission!

Brochure pages

2010-11-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the double page spread from the new Eastwing brochure, the first image you have already seen. The second is the cursed Captain Ahab with the white whale Moby Dick and the third image is based on when Orson Welles did his adaptation of War of the Worlds on the radio and it incited panic amongst people who thought it might have been real.

Thomas Edison's bright idea.

2010-11-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

An illustration inspired by the first successful test of a carbon filament light bulb on 22 October 1879. Edison’s light bulb lasted 40 hours.
This image is featured in the new Eastwing Brochure.

Free 2011 Owl Lover Calender

2010-10-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

Time for another lovely freebie! A lovely Owl Lover 2011 Calender!
This calendar is a collaborative project of 30 artists (including myself) and My Owl Barn. For each month, you can choose from 30 beautiful owl-themed artworks. You can pick and choose the images you love the most from the gallery and create your own calendar. All this is for free. If you are not big on customization, you can simply download the pre-made one here!
There is also a fantastic giveaway where you can win a gorgeous purse and a printed copy of the calender!
Definitely one to enter and share with other! :)

My piece in inspired by my favorite season, Autumn!

Etsy Feature

2010-09-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Greaser print I currently have up for sale on my etsy shop has been featured on an esty blog called Searched and Found, their theme for this post was the book The Outsiders and my 1950's inspired piece fit in quite well which I am very happy about, click the picture to read more.

They also have pages and pages full of awesome stuff, I have been very taken with alot of things which may find themselves on my Christmas list very soon.

Free Mr Moggie and Teatime Tile Backgrounds

2010-08-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a lovely Mr Moggie inspired tile background for you and a teatime tile background, right click and save then display for all to see, I hope you enjoy them! :)

Spaceman Sam

2010-08-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a better look at the piece I did for Anorak's Activity Book. His name is Spaceman Sam and the inspiration for him came from pictures of my eldest brother when he was little and my 3 little nephews.

You can buy the book direct from Anorak here!

Awesome Update!

2010-08-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

A few new things to fill you all in on, Firstly my work is in the Mail Me Art 2 exhibition that started on Friday 30th July and runs until Thursday 5th August 2010. If your in London between that time you should definitely go and check out the exhibition as its got some brilliant work there, follow this link for the address and more info on the project.

And secondly, today Anorak Magazine have launched their first activity book, its crammed full of awesome games and activities, all from a group of very talented artists and they kindly asked me to contribute. I used to love playing with paper dolls when I was little so I just had to design my own with a spaceman theme.
Follow the link to find out more about the book and links to all the other fantastic artists!

"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."

2010-07-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24 1897. Earhart was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, this image illustrates her famous disappearence off the shore of Howland Island in July 2, 1937.

Today's Weather Forecast

2010-07-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

St Swithun was Bishop of Winchester. The 15th of July is St Swithun’s day. According to a British proverb if it rains on St Swithun’s day it will rain for 40 days. Hmm seems like we'll be having mr raincloud round for alittle while longer then.

Click the Image!

2010-07-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

PerculiarBliss

2010-07-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the full image of the preview I put up a few weeks back. It's an image I did for PerculiarBliss Magazine, the theme was happiness. I have been on a cooking and baking kick since christmas and now I find baking a cake always cheers me up when I'm feeling blue, aswell as drinking tea, cats and sailors of course :)
You can download it from their site for free and I think you definatly should as it has some swell work in it, a nice mixture of handrawn stuff, photography and digital work.

Etsy

2010-07-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

I have finally figured out how to set up my Etsy shop, I've only added one item (the print below) so far to see how it works, it took me 2 hours to sort out pictures and lists etc. I havent gotten the best quality photographs but they will have to do for now.
Anyway, keep checking it because I have some nice crafty ideas planned for this month which may find there way on there soon.

Blue Tattoo

2010-07-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

Sweet Ride

2010-06-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

New Illustration, did you know the first corvette came out today in 1953? its one sweet ride and must be celebrated hipcats.

Preview

2010-06-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a little preview of something I have been working on.

Whoops

2010-05-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Shame on me I was doing so well, dear sweet blog I have neglected you again.

I haven't had much in the way of work that I would really post though so I guess it wasn't totally due to my laziness.

Had some personal stuff to deal with towards the end of last month and this month so I've been trying to get back on track with work, life etc. But enough of that lets get to the doodling.

I have been making some more crafty bits and looking into different work processes, I had my work accepted at PAD Gallery in Preston too, so the boy and I took the train to Preston town to drop the work off today.

One of the new things is a teatime greetings card. I don't have pictures of the finished ones because I made 6 for the shop but forgot to take pictures of them first.

But now its, TIME FOR TEA!

Say Hello to Lilly..

2010-04-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Lilly Von Pink is a fantastic jewellery designer, pin-up and all round lover of all things rockabilly! She also runs Burlesque nights with her sassy snappy friend Betty Bee called the Cherry Lounge, please check them out as they have some awesome stuff and frankly I don't know why I haven't blogged about them sooner! You to me pinky lea!

Craft Stall Alert!

2010-04-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Craft Stall on the 18th April at the Chorlton Library, Manchester.
Its a Craft fair and Fund Raising event organised by Threads and Jewels. It will be on between 12.30pm - 3.30pm. Debbie is away but there in spirit as I will be running our stall with both our work with the help from the boy who has lovingly agreed to help me.

If your free and the weather is as lovely as it has been over the past few weeks please pop by, there will be some fantastic work and lots of tasty treats on sale to help raise money for charity.
Look forward to seeing you there!

Oh and here's a preview of the NEW Mr Moggie cat badges that I will be selling.

Hard Days Craft

2010-04-13T05:05:00.001-07:00

ello derr'

Well crafting at the triangle is over, Mrs Debbie and I had a really nice time, the Fuse crafters and the Manchester based artists there are all very talented and had some gorgeous wares, if you went at some point over the weekend I hope you came away with something awesome. I unfortunately was not allowed to indulge myself as I had to keep every penny I made to help towards bills, except I did treat myself to a hazelnut latte at Costa, yum!
We didn't do too bad, it was mainly our badges really they sold like hot cakes! I made some new badges, cat face ones which I will have pictures off soon.
Right now I am relaxing back a little, not too much though as I have book covers to design and cross stitch badges to create and stitch. I am going away to the boy's parents house for a few days to have a little Easter break so I have my sketchbook and cross stitch stuff packed up ready to take with me. Currently making a lemon drizzle cake to take as well, I hope its better than the last one I made, it didn't taste like lemon at all I was so disappointed, fingers crossed for this one.
Aw I feel better after a big blog ramble, more ramblings soon!

P.S Debbie and I have another stall on Sunday 18th April at the Chorlton Library which I will be doing solo as she will be high up in the Scottish mountains somewhere, more info soon!

Easter Holiday Stalls!

2010-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo! wonderful news! Mrs Debbie Greenaway and I will be in the Triangle Shopping Centre in Manchester City Centre (next to the big wheel) this Thursday, Friday and Sunday selling our lovely wares and stitching/cross-stitching the afternoons away! If you are in town please pop by and say hello as it would be lovely to see some friendly smiley faces!

Please click the image below to find out more info about the event! :)

Cheap Affair 4th April, Easter Sunday

2010-03-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hello! Debbie and I are going to be at the next Cheap Affair Event on Easter Sunday, Islington Mill, Salford. There is going to be lots of live music, food and I'm pretty sure some tasty Easter treats. Please pop by and say hello, we will have are usual crafty delights and possibly some treats aswell.

Stall 27th March

2010-03-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hello! it was my turn to design the poster, its Debbie and me at our last stall talking about her lion story book.
We have another stall this saturday (27th) at the Contact Theatre, Oxford Road Manchester between 12-5pm part of the monthy Art Rumble.
Please come by and see us as we will have our usual tasty wares and there will be coffee and cake somewhere I hear, which is always a winner. Look forward to it :)

Bluebird

2010-03-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have a twitter account now, I hear its good and Debbie was adamant I join so I'm checking it out, if you'd like to follow me there please do! I hardly know what I'm doing but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

Tweet!

I've been blogged

2010-03-23T11:21:00.001-07:00

I am very happy to say that I have been blogged about on *pur-ple greeting cards and design blog! The lovely StephSaysHello has been posting about her favourite artists and has choosen to mention me, please check out the blog and steph's work. I have been a fan of her work on flickr for a while and she designs some brilliant cards and characters!

Rainbow

2010-03-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today was cleaning day , after I'd finished the bedroom I went to make a cup of tea and saw this beauiful rainbow! it was huge and arched all the way over the buildings and carpark below. I've not seen a huge raindow like this for years and years, It quickly disappeared but just had time to grab the camera and take some pictures.

Stall Round 2

2010-03-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

The lovely Debbie and I are having another stall on Sunday at Chorlton Library between 12:30 and 3:30pm at the Craft Fair and Bake Sale. Its organised by 'Threads and Jewels" raising money for the Haiti Appeal. Please come by and give us a wave, we'd love to chat and maybe share our hobnobs if debbie hasnt nibbled them all already.

The image below was drawn by debbie and its us at our last stall trying to count, we manged it in the end but had alittle help from the calculator.

Carry On Crafty

2010-03-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

New crafty update, stamp sticker packs! Packs of 6 stamp inspired stickers.
Look at those lovely ladies and gents, who says the queen is the only one who can have her face on a stamp aye!

Catch Up

2010-03-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hello, Ive been up to some bits and bobs of late, mostly crafty things. As I said in my previous post Mrs Snail and I shared a stall at the Cheap Affair event last Sunday. We had a great time and I had lots of fun making stuff to sell, we have some more stalls lined up over the next few months (more info soon) so this is the beginning of my crafty wares. I had some A5 prints, teatime badges and lino prints greetings cards. I took some pictures of the very messy process, I used soft cut lino which is brilliant stuff; to cut down on the distractions I just chose to do images of things that I like and to use my two favourite colours.

I was really happy with how they turned out and I will be doing some more larger, detailed lino cards throughout this month. Ive also included some close ups of the prints, badges and mini cards all packaged up. They arent the best quality photos as my camera doesnt like close up but they should do for now.

If anyone has any feed back on my work please feel free to post, this is my first real attempt at having my own mercandise and I'd really like to do more but sometimes I'm unsure about what works and what doesnt. I'd appreciate any advice :)

Look at them there wares

2010-03-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hello! had a lovely time at the Cheap Affair at Islington Mill on Sunday. There was some brilliant stalls there, tasty food and lovely live music, huge thank you to Cheap for having us! Debbie and I shared a stall and it went well, we had a lovely time doodling, nibbling hobnobs and talking to people so I think we will definatly be doing it again next month. I managed to get some stuff together in time, hooray! I had some A4 and A5 prints for sale aswell as tea time badges, packs of lino print cards and some adorable cupcake pin cushions which my mum made, bless her talented socks. I will have some close up pictures on here soon but for now please take a look at the pictures I lifted from Mrs Greenaways blog (check out the nervous grimice on me, lush)

Go Red

2010-03-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

I went Red as part of the creative collaboration Go Red! organised by The Partners for Richard House, London's first Children's Hospice. The idea was for different artists to design one section be it the head, body of legs so that they can all be mixed up together to make some awesome characters. All designs are to be sold in an auction at the end of this month and there will also be a gallery show to showcase the designs too. Please check out the links as there is some fantastic artists involved and Go Red!

As you can see I got excited and did all of the sections but I do like this chap a lot

Roll Up Roll Up

2010-02-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

The first Sunday of March the lovely Mrs Greenaway and I are going to have a stall set up at Islington Mill in Manchester. Really looking forward to it as I haven't done any crafty stuff since my pop up and I'm dying to see how it goes, fingers crossed it goes well.
Debs will have her fanastic screen prints, robots badges and clouds andI should have some prints, cards, badges and other bits and pieces for sale.
If your around please feel free to pop by as there will be plenty of stuff going on, music, food, art, crafts and lots more lovely stuff!

Oh, you should'nt have!

2010-02-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Good Day! Its been a bit of a random week but true to my word I have some lovely treats for you and your sweethearts. Here as promised are some of the Valentine cards I've been working on. All you need to do is right click the image below and save. Then you just need to print on A4 paper, cut along the dotted line, fold in half and tar darr you have two lovely cards to keep for yourself or send to that special someone. Hope that you all have a lovely Sunday.

Aw, thats lovely.

2010-02-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of Valentines day, but who can ignore all those cute cards, heart shaped balloons, tasty chocolate treats and smoochie faced love birds. So over the next few days there should be some downloadable valentine cards up for you to- you guested it- download, for free! send a little luuuurve and it wont cost you a penny! (if you don't include the printing cost that is --ahem)

C'or blimey! look at all that snow!

2010-01-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Watercolour picture inspired by all this snow we have been having lately.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T20:08:00.001-08:00

A new year is the best time for new beginnings. I'm starting afresh. I'm not promising to update everyday but I am promising to update alot more than I have in the past few months. It feels like I havent been working hard enough and that just doesnt sit right anymore. So.. Happy new year to everyone who passes by this blog and heres to new beginnings.

Freedom

2009-12-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

Its sweet! except the moment I cleared my locker out I was assaulted by some strange mixture of flu and SAD (seasonal affective disorder) least that's the only thing I can imagine it to be. I'm not 100% that SAD is an actual condition but its freaking freezing these days and always seems dark and I'm not exactly happy about it.
Anywhoooo, I'm gonna wrestle this flu monster into submission and get cracking on stuff asap! Dont write me off yet! :(

EXCITED

2009-11-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Will soon be free of my horrible job and back to drawing, doodling, networking and other such lovely creative things. The "To Do.." List is HUGE and I can't wait!

New News

2009-08-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

I am now represented by Eastwing and they have just relaunched their site, check it out here!

Huh? awww crap

2009-07-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

I feel bad that I have not updated in a while, the reason for this is at the moment I am working on updating my portfolio ready for something I think is pretty big, Heres hoping it goes well.

Horoscope's

2009-06-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

Working at beefing up my portfolio abit :)

Presents

2009-05-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

Blonde Burlesque Lady

2009-04-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Lady Dachshund

2009-04-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Ive been getting abit fed up of always working in Photochop so decided to dust off the old watercolours and have a bash at painting myself a picture. Here it is, I am rather pleased with it and will be doing more, maybe I'll even tackle those two canvases I bought AGES ago, maybe :)

Lazy Oaf Drawing Club

2009-04-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

Burlesque Ladies

2009-04-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

I went to watch a burlesque show on Wednesday, it was brilliant! which got me doodling lovely ladies. Oohh lovely!

Major Kip Mittens

2009-03-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

look who I found!

2009-03-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Its none other than the fantasticly talented ladysnail, Debbie Greenaway!
I found her mailmeart submission on the back of the mailmeart book! unfortunatly I couldnt find her great work inside which was strange but we do judge books by there covers and judging by this cover Id buy this book (and I did!)

Way to go Debbie doodle!

Logo

2009-03-19T09:49:00.001-07:00

IF - Legendary

2009-03-17T09:00:00.001-07:00

Submission for Illustration Friday.

Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother, hes Legen... DARY!

Make Your Own Pop-Up, Mr Moggie style!

2009-03-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

Right-Click and save these two images to make your very own "Mini Mr Moggie Pop-up House"!
All you need is a A4 printer, two pieces of card, glue, scissors and alittle free time!
Go ahead! oh and if you do and you like it, please take a picture and send it to me Id love to see it! ^_^

clock work ticket collecter

2009-03-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

First try at piecing this picture together, im not that happy with the colours so I might redo them, not a bad start though. This image was originally for a zine I was hoping to make last month but never got round to doing it in my own typical way so heres one image coloured in hopes it will inspire me to finish the whole zine.

bikini postcards

2009-02-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

day time tv

2009-02-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have been doing things, mainly sitting around watching tv feeling all sorry for myself, daft really. So here is one of the friends that keeps me company during most days, hes the dawggg! I love this show!

Dinner Party

2009-02-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

Mock editorial image based on past Taste Italia Magazine article about sharing and dinner parties. I really like the magazine alot and I think it need some illustrations in it to accompany the great recipes it has :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-25T21:24:00.001-08:00

New Lady

2009-01-16T15:54:00.001-08:00

Playing with my neeewww tablet

2009-01-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

I bought myself a new printer/scanner/copier thingy and a drawing tablet for Christmas. So today I scanned in this beautiful lady on my neeeeeeww scanner and coloured it using my neeeewww tablet. It look me AGES to get used to the sensitivity, was fun tho! I'm happy with her but I think I'll probably do another version using different colours, I'm not that sure I like the ones Ive chosen here. Also used those brushes I was dabbling with the other day, looks rather paintly like acrylic. Oooh, fancy! ^_^

Practice Makes..

2009-01-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

Just had alittle play with photoshop brushes and textures, Im pretty pleased with the result ^_^

Lets Play with HTML

2009-01-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

Im still waiting for Dreamweaver for dummies to arrive in the post so in the mean while I have been playing with templates that came with a free hosting site. I dont have a clue how to use HTML so this is rather simple and I cheated quite alot but its a start ^_^

Website-aroonie!

2009 aye?

2009-01-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!

Lets kick it off properly shall we, had a bit of a false start last year so lets hope this time the flux capacitor behaves. Broom!

I have a lot to do this year, its gonna be a big'in! Look out for my website, new character designs and hopefully some commissioned work (there is gonna be some self promotion going on once my office is up and running, gosh darnit!).

Also I've made a new years resolution to be a bit more nicer to myself, so if you catch me bullying myself out of my lunch money you just go and tell the teach!

Oh! and don't forget to keep an eye out for these fellows, they are first on the lengthy "to-do" list ^_^

Time for Tea

2008-12-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

IF - Similar

2008-12-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

I was doing some drawing over the weekend from a cool Soviet Military book, which, after the point was made clear to me by a rather dashing mustachio'd gent, I've decided to draw more from portraits and life again. My people are starting to look a little similar which isn't that much of a bad thing except I do need to practice drawing people better or at least showing more emotion ^_^

IF - Balloon

2008-12-03T13:10:00.001-08:00

As I'm sure you can tell this image is greatly inspired by all the 50's animation Ive been watching and reading up about lately, also AMAZING day trips to Chester Zoo as a kid!
Its not the best image ever but I had fun doodling idea's for this weeks topic, if I get a chance I might draw a few of them up :)

IF - Opinion

2008-11-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

Keep the posties busy! ^_^

IF - Pretend

2008-11-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

Doing these Illustration Friday topics is really rather fun, work had sort of killed all creativity in me so its nice to be back drawing AND enjoying it ^_^

IF - Wise

2008-11-12T14:30:00.001-08:00

Stephen Fry, I know no one wiser than this man. I believe EVERYTHING he says simply because he said it, No need for your facts, photos or years of scientific evidence, Stephen Fry said it you say? well that's good enough for me.
Space is actually Beige coloured you know ^_^

IF - Vacant

2008-11-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

Vacant, like my face when approached by fundraisers and charity workers. My brain bails out, leaving me on standby until they get bored and move onto someone else.

Idle Hands

2008-10-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

I havent been very happy with myself lately, havent been drawing. Tsk Tsk, well time for a change me thinks! turn of events means I will have some free time to get my act together and do some proper drawing again. Sweet!
I did do something arty though, the other weekend there was a excellent exhibition on at the Lowry (would recommend you go check it out), one of the contributors was the amazing Ali Graney who was also involved in the Big Draw 08 where you got to make your own pop up's!!
This one is mine, its Envelope City!

To see other pop-up's from the workshop go HERE!

Download Free Mothman Comic NOW!

2008-09-25T14:38:00.001-07:00

The download-able pdf version of the first Mothman comic is up and ready for you to download, free! Artwork by Tony Knox, Anna McDade and myself, you are also invited to contribute Mothman related artwork for the next issue, all work will be put together and published into an anthology at the end of the year! if interested please get into touch with Tony and he'll tell you how. Its fun and Mothman is a cool character so I hope you enjoy it and any feedback on my first ever comic pages would be much appreciated! ENJOY!

click here!

Sneaky Peek

2008-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here is alittle look at the comic I have been working on, its part of the Liverpool Biennial 08 and thats all I can tell you for now ^_^ "Fly to the light!"

Click!

2008-07-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is the little office area Ive finally gotten round to setting up, its squeezed into an alcove in my bedroom but I like it, its rather cute. Those walls are still a little too bare for my liking though but I'm sure I can have them covered in no time at all ^_^

He's a lumberjck and he dont care..

2008-07-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

AW YEAH! thinking green for a timberland 'treeshirt' competition, this is my first design, I'm pretty happy with it so I'll probably submit this one but I think I'll do a little bit more doodling just for fun, I did enjoy drawing beards ^_^

Phew!

2008-07-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

I handed all my work in, had the degree show and then went to D&AD New Blood. Its been very very busy. I'm just settling back into life at home so I don't have any new work but I do have Elvis with a raygun at last and a other friends. I'll just post these up for now ^_^ These are the three book covers side by side!

smile its more editorial

2008-05-15T09:40:00.001-07:00

Yes indeedie more editorial, this one is for Amelia magazine. I HATED the first one I did (that's why it isn't on the blog) SO I have redone it. The idea was to creative a image of a Utopia, an ideal state. I think if you want to make the world a utopia you got to make people smile, not the evil looking over your shoulder kind favoured by pretty much all the bad guys in hollyoaks, the kind that you cant control like when someone pulls a silly face or cracks a terrible joke. So here is my Utopia - me, a cat and a rat chilling out with some brews playing cards! What could be simpler? ^_^

tasty bit of illustration

2008-05-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Its not Elvis with a ray gun but it is a editorial image for Taste Italia magazine. I just had a small break from book covers to do some quick fire editorial. The article the image is for is about classic Italian dishes, the ones we think are classics like "spagbol" aren't and it has recipes and tips for those such dishes, very nice! its making me hungry just thinking about it. Bon Appetite.... wait.. that's not Italian.. ehh.

Big Cheesy Grin! :-D

2008-04-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

And shes back. Hello! thank you very much for the supporting posts I received I really appreciated them, you'll be happy to know that my work was saved! the amazing, did I say amazing? I mean fan-tab-u-lous ali saved it for me! but I was abit thrown for awhile so have been trying hard to catch up with myself the past few weeks, think I am back on track now hooray!
I have been working on a limited edition postcard artist book (long title?). The book is called "Pictophobia- a fear of illustration" and other relating phobia's that I have with my work, like mixing colour, being too polite and stuff like that. Ive been having fun playing with CYMK colours and halftone, finally I have figured out how to do it without fiddling around for ages like before, it was surprisingly easy but most things are once you figure it out ^_^ my next project is book covers from none other but the great Robert Rankin and his Armageddon trilogy, I'm speed reading them now, look out for Elvis with a ray gun, beew beew beew!

Sad Face

2008-04-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

External Hard drive, if you havent got one, GET ONE! I should have but didnt and my laptop died and Ive lost all my work, le sigh! So there wont be any updates for sometime as I redo the images I lost for university before starting the other stuff yet to be done. Cant help feeling abit blue but no time, got to get on get on with my work. So yeah, external hard drive, get one of those suckers!

Children's Book

2008-03-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

I began writing a children's book in the first semester of the 3rd year, long story short it didn't go as I had planned. So! now I have some free time over Easter with which to chill I decided to go over the images I made before Christmas and fix them. Here are examples of the double page spreads for three of the pages with accompanying text. I like how this is going because I simplified it, you wouldn't believe the detailed inking I had planned just for those borders. As nice as it would be I only plan on making one copy of this book and I don't intend to give myself brain failure again with it so the catchphrase is... "keep it simple" ^_^ I also tried some duo tone versions to see how they would look, they don't look too bad. I was worried the collage detail would be lost completely but you can still see it. Any comment on these images would be GREATLY appreciated, I asked my 3 year old niece what she thought but see didn't give me much feedback, except she did like the teeth monster ^_^ with is a bonus.

Hustla t-shirts

2008-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

This is the catalogue cover for hustla's new design range that featured the spark and myself. It occurred to me that I hadn't actually put any images of the t-shirts up yet so here they are, my designs are the pink and blue ghost tee, the brown and orange cat tee and if you look closely you might be able to see my black and yellow monster tee. It's ace seeing them up in the shop, they say they are selling quite well which is sweet. I have a few I seem to be living in at the minute, its all self promotion though so its all good! Myself and a few other designers have been asked to work for them again to design some tee's and brand logo which I will be starting soon.
Hopefully they will have their website up and running asap so you can buy them online, at the moment they have a shop open in Preston which is pretty cool.

Zine

2008-03-12T20:05:00.001-07:00

I got set a brief at Uni to make a zine based on a journey, unfortunately (but surprisingly inspiration in the end) I got distracted all week watching films and chatting rubbish with my flat mate Alice (who just happens to have a blog by the way -check it!).
We decided to turn this unfortunate event around for the better and use the fact we got distracted for inspiration for our zine!
It is about the terrible illness known as Distraction that effects everyone at some point in their lives. We made a few in colour but we are going to see how they would turn out in black and white and maybe you will see them hanging around in bookshops soon! Free stickers and pull out posters included, how much of a sweet deal is that!? ^_^

Say hello to...

2008-03-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Alice

She is a new addition to the UCLAN blogging world, she's a total colour fiend so check out her blog for lots of colourful delights!

Beast Book 2 Entry

2008-02-29T20:31:00.000-08:00

This is my creature design for the Beasts Book Vol. 2 The creature is "Cait Sidhe" from Irish and Scottish folklore, it is a cat fairy and some say collects the souls of recently deceased people. Ive been working on it for the past week and I seem to have looked at this image for a little to long so I'm rather stumped as what to do with it. I am going to complete it but unfortunately I wont be submitting it for the March 1st deadline. Shame really because it would be a great opportunity and you'd never know unless you try but I made the mistake of looking too long at the submissions posted on the blog and the ideas in my head got all fuzzy, I didn't want to rush it for the deadline and not be 100% happy with it.
Who knows MAYBE they will make a Beasts Book Vol.3, if so I will be submitting my work extra extra early instead of super last minute.
This first image if the original idea I had, the cat doesn't look that sinister as I'd have liked and the little ginger tom doesn't really have a place being there really, but I do like the speak bubbles.. but then again I would say that as I put them in everything ^_^

This is the revised image, it still needs a lot of tweaking, the solid white areas are just ideas of placement for the legs of the dead person and the spirit that the cat is stealing. I'm happy with the more solid black cat and this thinner outline/outer glow but I think it still needs a lot of work to tie it all together nicely.

lets celebrate... me atually doing some uni work

2008-02-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

Hooray! 2 editorial images only... 3 to go? Argh.
The first is for a Bill Oddie interview, in it hes just talking about his garden an how he has all these random objects like glitter balls, plastic figures, gnomes, cat statues and wind chimes that are suppost to deter wild animals but it just ends up attracting them instead. I thought it was quite a nice interview so illustrated it. The second is for a article called "lets celebrate Darwin" from the new scientist magazine that talks about creationism and the Evolution Weekend that tries to bring creationists and scienctists together. I was drawn to the title but the article was rather interesting so I ended up illustrating it also.
I am very happy with the Darwin image but I think Mr Oddie needs abit more work, but that can wait alittle while ^_^

manly cat

2008-02-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

I had so much fun drawing this picture, everytime I looked at it I burst out laughing. It reminds me of the time I caught my cat Sooty taking a poo in the rose bush, I swear he looked at me just like that an scowled until I walked off. Hahaha.. memories.
Errr.. maybe I should have kept that story to myself.. ahem.

Make my day, kaplunk

2008-02-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

Ladysnail says I make her day which is really sweet of her (Im going to make her an extra special cup of tea later ^_^) so now its my turn to chose five people that make my day, 'ere we go

Mr Andy Moombaduo! His little quirky characters make me smile everytime! (he also lets me steal his cute pillow to cuddle whenever I want ^_^)
http://moombaduo.blogspot.com/

Marky P, hes bringin' tashes back!
http://m-d-penman.blogspot.com/

Caroline, I really like her photography and digital illustration
http://viridian-house.blogspot.com/

Amanda Visell and Michelle Valigura, those girls are just amazing!
http://thegirlsproductions.blogspot.com/

and Scott MacDonald who's characters are simply fan-friggin-tastic! ^_^
http://scottkmacdonald.blogspot.com/

To pass it on, here are the details:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make my Day Award” logo
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

the t-shirt reads: wee bit bored

2008-02-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

I have just done a few more t-shirt designs for hustla, this is one that I just decided to play around with. was abit bored.