Manchester Vintage Collective

Firstly, Happy Valentines Day....

Secondly some NEWS - Last year I designed a poster for the The Manchester Vintage Collective who are bringing you a selection of vintage era inspired photo shoots showcasing a range of multi talents creators and businesses across Manchester, check out the links below to see the gorgeous vintage wedding photo shoots, not to be missed!

1920's - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s Jubilee

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Mentions must and NEED to go to all of the individuals who volunteered their time and resources into making them perfect in every way! Click and find out more about these extraordinarily talented folks.

Amedea and Scott (Photography) - Manchester Art Gallery (Venue) - Dodie (Bridal Wear) - James (Bespoke Tailor) - Jenny (Make Up Artist) - Adam (Hairstylist) - Jacqui (Letterpress Designer) - Joanne (Table Décor & Favours) - Katie (Vintage China and Props) - Michelle (Hair Accessories & Jewellery) - Laura (Cupcakes) - Emily (Textile Designer) - Bud (Diamond Rings) - Claire (Florist)

Here are just a few of my favourite images,

Christmas Commission

Last year I was asked to illustrate a custom Christmas card for the fantastic Airy Fairy Cake Boutique based in Didsbury, Manchester and like with their tasty cakes, I simply couldn't resist.
Check out their awesome Boutique cafe here!

Eastwing 2012 Brochure

The new "Letters from Eastwing" brochure is out for 2012, the theme for this year was the alphabet and I chose the letter K and what a fine letter it is too! Check out more fantastic letters here.

Home & Antiques Magazine

I was recently commissioned for the June issue of Homes and Antiques magazine.
The feature is about the best vintage festivals happening over the summer in the UK, there are some fantastic events coming up that are a must see, OUT NOW!!

Wine.... NOT!

Oh, I do apologise that was terrible but I couldn't resist.

The Eastwing Wine Brochure is now available for viewing on Issuu, there are some great pieces of work in there including my own so check it out!

First Post of the Year!

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

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

Happy Halloween!

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

Stitched Up Manchester

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

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

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!

GOING GOING GONE RED!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.