James Mathurin Art

Acquisition, Page 3, finished

2012-01-09T19:30:00.000Z

Page 3, finished! It's amazing how much you learn just trying to finish one short story. This page has got some experiments that didn't work, some that did, and some that I reckon will come good. Halfway through this short story now...

Acquisition, Page 3, colours

2012-01-06T07:35:00.001Z

Finished the colour work on page 3, so hopefully the finished, text version won't be long now. Enjoy!

Acquisition, Page 3, finished inks

2011-12-29T18:36:00.001Z

Final black and white art for page 3. This is a page where I made some changes to how I'd scripted the art, as there were several panels that essentially repeated themselves without advancing the story. I think this is a more interesting version.

Acquisition, Page 3, first inks

2011-12-27T23:45:00.003Z

Not finished yet, but looking cleaner now, finished black and white art won't take long.

Accquisition Page 3, pencils

2011-12-23T01:18:00.000Z

Christmas is keeping me busy, like everyone else, so it took a while to get page 3 this far. Finished versions to follow.

A free-market fairytale

2011-12-01T20:30:00.001Z

So, art includes writing, right?

Anyway, I wrote this in response to a post on a blog with... alternative views, which mentioned a particular myth about Socialism and Barack Obama, and followed it up with a bunch of 'political fairytales'. I simply thought I'd offer my own:

Interesting, but bear in mind, a fairytale written under our current deregulated Capitalist system would go something like:

A ladybird had enough grain to make 10 loaves of bread, but couldn't grow it. It told some other insects they could grow his grain, harvest it, grind it, bake it and slice it, and in return they would each get one slice each. They toil for weeks while the ladybird relaxes, and eventually get paid their slice each.

Next season, they go back to see if the ladybird's offering the same deal, only to find out that he took the profits from last year's bread, bought even more grain, and got insects from the poorer field next door to do the same job, but for only a crust each.

The insects protest, but are beaten up by his security, and villified in his press as 'jealous class warriors' who only want to bring down a 'job creator'.

Acquisition Page 2

2011-11-29T20:46:00.000Z

Here is the second page of my Acquisition story. What happens next...

What a difference a font makes... Acquisition Page 1

2011-11-27T20:39:00.001Z

Due to some very helpful advice from a couple of helpful and talented guys (Geoffrey Thorne and Marv Daniels), I changed the text, and thought it came out looking much better.

2011 James Mathurin

Acquisition - Page 2 in colour

2011-11-23T12:30:00.000Z

I'm still working on the text and dialogue, but here is the finished artwork for the second page of my Acquisition comic.

Acquisition Page 1

2011-11-20T15:01:00.001Z

I have the first two pages of this project nearly ready to go now, so here is the completed page 1 of this short sci-fi story called 'Acquisition'.

More comic work.

2011-11-16T17:16:00.001Z

Some colour work, text and page 2 to come.

Page 2 of the new project

2011-11-14T22:10:00.001Z

Finished black and white art - colours and digital stuff to come. Once I get lettering done, I'll start actually naming the project.

New project - moving on

2011-11-13T21:42:00.001Z

I've been working on my new project a lot over the weekend, on paper, and with the computer stuff - colouring, lettering, etc. Here's the finished black and white stuff for page 1.

More pencils from my new stuff

2011-11-09T19:24:00.001Z

I'm trying a new approach with this, and am going to try a few digital tricks with it, hence some of the empty spaces. As long as it doesn't end up looking like The Dark Knight Strikes Back, I'll be happy with the experiment.

Rocket-Powered Tortoise

2011-10-31T19:15:00.001Z

Self-explanatory, really. This is one of the fun sides of working with kids.

Today in Year 5's Art Corner...

2011-10-18T16:53:00.001+01:00

Just another quick post of some art I did at my day job in Primary school.

©2011 James Mathurin

A new project - First page

2011-10-07T14:29:00.002+01:00

This is page 1 of a comic I'm working on. I will be putting each version and page as they are ready. Inks, colours and letters to come.

Electric Sheep Magazine - Twisted Romance

2011-08-31T23:05:00.002+01:00

Electric Sheep magazine is a great magazine with "a deviant view of cinema", and a really good podcast (I can definitely recommend the one on 'Secret Societies'). September's theme is 'Twisted Romance', and I provided the illustration for it. This is combining images from 3 films they are reviewing and looking at:

La Piscine;

Days of Heaven;

and Lars Von Trier's new film Melancholia.

Hulk will tell you WHY he's smashing...

2011-07-31T09:14:00.002+01:00

Just an experiment with text, as I didn't think the picture got everything across without it. I'm no Richard Starkings, but it works...

Hulk Smash!

2011-07-30T09:30:00.001+01:00

Carrying on from yesterday's Spider-Man, here is an Incredible Hulk piece. I want to add a little text, so expect another version

Does whatever a spider can...

2011-07-29T19:18:00.001+01:00

My cousin Gill mentioned that her son, Louis liked Marvel heroes, so I did a few quick sketches, meaning to do them on a larger scale, but I ended up thinking the sketches were pretty good, so why not just colour them? Pretty happy with the results (I got the background from Silus Grok's flikr stream).

Weasels Unusual

2011-07-28T22:17:00.000+01:00

Here are the updated versions of the Weasels Unusual drawing I posted a little while ago.

Unusual Weasels

2011-07-14T22:00:00.000+01:00

Whenever I get a chance, I go along to the Weasels Unusual meets, where we have drinks and talk about geek stuff. I was trying to come up with an image to sum the group up, and, well, here it is.

Primary School Musical

2011-07-07T20:28:00.000+01:00

So, at the school I am working at currently, they are starting to come to me for assistance on art duties (I'm hoping to set up an after-school club in September!), so I got a chance to do a few bits of the set for the Year 6 play. What we have here is 2 side-views and one front-on view of a 'rickety, home-made' go-kart.

I don't think I'll be planning designing sets in the West End any time soon, but it was fun, and I wanted to share.

I'm (still) Trying To Reach the Moon

2011-07-04T06:54:00.016+01:00

So here are some different formats of my second I'm Trying To Reach The Moon But I'm Stuck On This Airplane piece. Oh, and happy Fourth of July to Stanza, and any other Americans following this blog!

I'm Trying To Reach the Moon - additional art

2011-07-03T07:12:00.000+01:00

After finishing my cover art for I'm Trying To Reach The Moon But I'm Stuck On This Airplane, Stanza and I talked about doing some additional art based on some sketches I did. Here are the prep stages of said art.

I'm Trying To Reach the Moon - finished

2011-07-02T10:13:00.000+01:00

So here are the finished cover design's for Stanza's I'm Trying To Reach The Moon, But I'm Stuck on This Airplane.

I'm Trying To Reach the Moon - now in colour!

2011-07-01T06:45:00.001+01:00

So, from yesterday's post, here are the different colour experiments I did with the inked work.

I'm Trying To Reach the Moon - early stages

2011-06-30T06:45:00.003+01:00

These are the black and white stages for the I'm Trying To Reach The Moon But I'm Stuck On This Airplane cover art.

Stanza's trying to reach the Moon

2011-06-29T07:13:00.001+01:00

These are concept sketches and research for some album art for Stanza's latest project, I'm Trying To Reach The Moon But I'm Stuck On This Airplane. I'll be sharing the finished pieces over the week.

Shlomo covers

2011-04-19T23:39:00.001+01:00

So, these are the end product of all the Shlomo pictures I've been doing. I was hoping to catch the feel of his on-stage style, where he has a really innovative use of electronics to sample, repeat, distort and layer his voice.

Fancy Shlomo tricks

2011-04-17T10:36:00.000+01:00

I'm pretty happy with these. Getting my Photoshop on!

Shlomo on a Saturday night

2011-04-16T23:03:00.000+01:00

This is my dedication to my art: Here I am on a Saturday night, working on my Shlomo piece. Still, after the disappointment of the FA Cup, I am happy with how this is coming along. Now for me to try some of the tricks I want to do...

Shlomo, finished line work

2011-04-16T11:18:00.000+01:00

I finished the black and white stage of the Shlomo drawing, so now it's to Photoshop to do some colouring, and play some of the tricks I'm hoping to do, to make it a better representation of Shlo's music.

More work on my Shlomo piece

2011-04-14T20:54:00.000+01:00

Been doing some inking work on this, and experimenting with different combinations of pen and ink in Photoshop.

More Shlomo

2011-04-12T21:09:00.000+01:00

I just got a couple of designs finished that I can't post for a while, but which I am very happy with, and potentially very excited about. Having done them, though, I can get back to drawing stuff which I can post, so here is the pencil stage of a more ambitious Shlomo image I've started.

Drogba update - colour!

2011-03-17T07:42:00.001Z

So, a while ago I did a couple of pictures of Chelsea and Ivory Coast player Didier Drogba. I finally finished them off after a few other projects came up, so here are the final version (s).

Stanza sketches

2011-03-13T17:12:00.001Z

Some sketches of and relating to Stanza. How are they related? Time will tell...

More Dolly West

2011-03-09T18:30:00.045Z

To go along with yesterday's portrait of my Nan, Dolly West Shaer, I also did a picture of her in her younger, more glamorous days.

International Women's day

2011-03-08T18:29:00.000Z

Well, I was holding onto these as a surprise, but seeing as she's seen them now, here are some pictures of my Nan, Dolly West Shaer, that I did recently. Today seems an appropriate time to share it, what with it being International Women's Day, and my nan has been a bit of a pioneer in her time - she has been involved in pushing forward Special Educational Needs and English as an Additional Language (check out my education training!) teaching in the UK, and been heavily involved in many political and civil rights struggles through the years.

As always, click on the images to see larger versions.

More Stanza stuff

2011-02-28T09:47:00.001Z

I've been working on some personal stuff, which I will be sharing on here in a little while, but now I'm getting back to some of the stuff I was working on before, including finishing of these Stanza drawings.

Dwayne McDuffie is gone

2011-02-23T02:02:00.002Z

This is so strange for me. The man who has been an inspiration to me since my early teens has died. If you are not into comics or cartoons, you may not know him, but this man was amazing. Dwayne McDuffie wrote so many things that touched me and many others. You can google him to find out his history, and go to Amazon to find books or DVDs of his work, and you'll be glad you did. If you watch or have children who watch the hugely popular Ben 10: Alien Force, or Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, which he was executive producer of, I can guarantee you've seen his work. I just want to talk about my personal experiences with him.

I never got to meet my hero in person. However, thanks to the Internet, I did get to converse with him. In 2001, he did an email interview for my degree dissertation. On his online message boards, I was one of the people who discussed comics, science, politics and religion with him. A couple of years ago, a friend asked him to sign something for me as a birthday present - Dwayne signed a copy of his graphic novel Icon: A Hero's Return, and a massive Justice League poster, a title he was working on at the time, where his Milestone characters were receiving a new lease of life in the DC Universe, with a personal message telling me how important fans like me had been to Milestone. And he sent it for free, even insisting on paying the postage.

People who know me, especially my fiancée, will tell you how much I can talk about Dwayne, his work, the personal and professional struggles he's been through. It's because he is my hero. Two of my proudest moments were when Dwayne asked if he could steal a phrase I coined to describe how 'gangsta rap' described urban life, as opposed to how artists like himself portrayed it ("the ghetto as a playground"), and when he said he liked a drawing I did of one of his characters (below). Those memories will now be that little bit more treasured.

Rest in peace, Dwayne, and condolences to your wife and family.

And thank you.

Shlomo update

2011-02-11T22:20:00.001Z

More work on the Shlomo sketches I was doing. Had a few ideas building on these, hope you like them.

Drogba update

2011-02-11T22:15:00.000Z

Coming along nicely - I've now finished the black and white stages of this drawing, and I'm told I captured Drogba's arrogance, which is exactly what I was going for. Please let me know what you think!

Stanza update

2011-02-10T19:38:00.001Z

So, I was too ill to work today, but it gave me the chance to work on a few things, so here are the final drawing stages of those pictures of Stanza I posted yesterday. Colour versions to come soon.

Shlomo

2011-02-10T11:33:00.001Z

More music related stuff! My sister and I were lucky enough to see a fantastic show earlier in the week, by the Beatboxer Shlomo. If you get the chance to see his Mouthtronica show you should, and if you don't, at least check out his website, with lots of goodies, podcasts, etc.

Oh, also, he's got a cool charity download thing going on on his site, so give it a look.

Stanza

2011-02-09T13:25:00.002Z

Stanza is a rapper from Georgia, whose music I got introduced to via the Top Twenty Countdown on VVC Radio, hosted by my buddy Mastrmynd. There are plenty of free downloads on his site, and if you like good music, you should check it out. Anyway, I'm a fan, and I thought I'd do a few sketches.

Drogba

2011-02-09T13:19:00.000Z

This is a picture I wasn't going to finish for a while, and this is only the pencilling stage, but I promised a certain young man that I would put it up here, so here it is. Thing is, I'm not even a Chelsea fan, but you have to admit, Drogba is still one of the most dynamic players in the game, so you can make some good pictures of him.

The Ministry

2011-01-30T21:02:00.000Z

This is some old material I found recently, which I'm posting in advance of some new stuff I'm working on. This is a comic I worked on, originally with a friend, then on my own, called The Ministry. Looking at it, I can really tell that some of these pages are 15 years old, but I'm happy with some of the things I tried in them.

Melbourne street art

2010-12-22T14:58:00.000Z

Having been a bit ill lately, I haven't been able to produce some of the work I had been planning. It did occur to me that I had an opportunity to share some photographs I took of the amazing street art in Sydney.

More art on display!

2010-11-28T23:15:00.000Z

As promised, here are the photographs of me with the colour prints I have on display (and sale) in The Apostles (you can also see a copy of my Movember poster in the first one).

A little fashion experiment

2010-11-28T13:00:00.000Z

This is something I'd always intended to do with this sketch I did while I was in Sydney. I wanted to try a different inking style, and have a go at some fashion illustration. Overall, I'm happy with the final image, but this is something for me to work on and get another different, but hopefully still distinctive style down.

Brothers, sisters and friends

2010-11-27T15:24:00.001Z

Well, this picture certainly tested my new computer to it's fullest. The background is pretty busy in all the versions, to the point where I find myself wondering if the black and white versions of the drawings don't end up working better. Still, here we are:

Fathers' Day?

2010-11-26T22:46:00.001Z

After posting the sketch and development of this piece, I have finally used my new computer (and thank you to all the family who helped me to be able to afford it!) to colour it, so here are a few variations.

Movember at the Apostles final design

2010-11-22T19:59:00.000Z

Having finished the Movember poster for the Apostles Bar, I did a few variations with colour and text, ending up with the final design below.

Movember!

2010-11-21T11:58:00.000Z

You may have noticed a certain hirsute similarity in the sketches I posted last time, and here is the reason: A Movember party at the Apostles! For those that don't know, Movember is a chance for guys to grow a sponsored moustache for prostate cancer charity, and a few of our patrons are taking part. Here are the early stages of the design, with finished versions hopefully being up tomorrow.

Some recent sketches

2010-11-21T00:30:00.000Z

Here are the prep sketches for a couple of my recent ones, and some things I'm working on now. I've started going over the outlines with pen in my sketches just to give me a better idea of how they'll look as final pieces. I am looking forward to doing a larger-scale version of the carnival picture.

Another progressing work in progress

2010-11-18T12:46:00.001Z

Colour versions still to come.

Work in progress which is still progressing

2010-11-17T11:57:00.000Z

Haven't reached the colour stage yet, but the last bit of inks helped.

Another work in progress

2010-11-16T12:03:00.001Z

Another one (maybe one that might be a card - if you can think of an occaission it could be for, do let me know) that is going on the back burner, probably until next week, but here is the stage it is up to now.

Father's Day - work in progress

2010-11-15T18:02:00.000Z

I'm going to be working on a new Apostles poster, so this is getting put on the back burner, but I'm intending to finish this off in colour, and maybe shop it around to some greeting card people for Father's Day. Yes, yes, I'm a corporate whore, but if they will pay me, I can live with the shame.

My pieces on display!

2010-11-12T12:01:00.002Z

I have some of my pieces up and for sale at the Apostles Bar in Raynes Park! There are already some photographs up and for sale by photographer Richard Van Wyk, but now a few of my pencil and ink originals are up there too. You can see the posters I've done for The Apostles, Brother X-Mas, Mind-Reading Santa, and my commission for Callan Maloney. I'm also working on getting some colour canvas prints of some of my pieces up too. Anyone nearby should come and have a look and a drink!

Revisions and variations

2010-11-11T16:05:00.000Z

Feedback has been very useful to me, and it has led to a few changes to some pieces I posted recently. Some of the graphic design advice has been especially useful, such as looking for new fonts and similar. Anyway, here are some tweaked versions:

My business card

2010-11-10T10:36:00.000Z

So, I finished that self-portrait, and tried a few different colour variations, then put together a design for a business card. And, well, here it is.

Redone Jazzy Sunday Poster

2010-11-09T12:30:00.001Z

So, yesterday I posted the first version of this poster, but here it is with a much better rendition of Marisa's face. If I do say so myself, that was some good photoshopping.

First version of Jazzy Sundays poster

2010-11-08T12:35:00.051Z

One of my focuses doing this was the chance to experiment with colours, and do some different things in Photoshop - semi-transparent layers and stuff. The idea was to be reminiscent of old 50s style Jazz record covers, Blue Note and that kind of thing. Callan's been doing fantastic work at the bar, not the least of which is the regular karaoke and music nights, and the poster shows the people that are the real faces of the Apostles, Callan, my Dad (Clete), and my 'sister' Marisa.

One thing I discovered doing this was that Marisa somehow has a face that it is difficult to capture properly in sketches, so after some feedback, and the fact that I was not 100% happy with it myself, I decided to have another go at her face, and photoshop a superior version in.

Self-portrait and revisions

2010-11-07T22:32:00.000Z

Doing this blog has made me realise that I don't often do self-portraits, but it occurred to me that I could use a business card, so it was a good excuse to have a go. Also, I am redoing my friend Marisa's face in a poster I did recently, so here is the sketch that I am planning to photoshop in. Actually, I should post the original versions, as that was where I did most of my colouring experiments. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy!

Brother X-Mas!

2010-11-06T23:41:00.000Z

This was just an idea I had, inspired by a few things, such as this entry on my Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Need to Know blog, and Santaman, basically a blaxploitation Santa. In fact, a while back, I posted some of the research and sketches that had gone towards this.

Also, I got some feedback that I should do more colour variations, so after pencilling and inking the design, I did quite a few, which made some interesting effects, but this is still my final version.

Mind-Reading Santa

2010-11-02T23:24:00.000Z

This is based purely on a conversation that my fiancée Tammy overheard between a young girl and her father, where he was trying to work out what she wanted for Christmas, by asking what she was going to put in her letter to Santa. Here are the stages of development up to the final pieces.

Karaoke!

2010-10-26T12:52:00.002+01:00

OK, who doesn't like Karaoke? Only people who haven't tried it at The Apostles, that's who! So, a silly bit of fun deserves a silly, fun poster. Naturally, I updated this poster, with myself and a few of the staff of The Apostles.

Also, while I did not video my amazing rendition of All These Things That I've Done, I did get the other 3 people in the poster, so here they are for your enjoyment (and also one of our patrons, who was just amazing:

Rediscovered pieces

2010-10-25T13:53:00.013+01:00

It's amazing how good computers are at making it hard to find stuff. My first night back from Australia, I found a few things that I believed had been lost for good, so here they are. Ikeabot returns, on a design that was meant to be folded in four as a leaflet. Looking at it does make me realise how far I've come since then, as I can see about a hundred things I'd like to redo in it. I also found a better quality version of the page I had to scan in the original post.

This is another response to an editorial brief on the idea of holidays in hot and cold places. I prefer this to the first idea I had (the first image on this entry).

A few more sketches from Australia

2010-10-24T13:34:00.001+01:00

These are just a couple more things I did in Australia.

Train sketches

2010-10-23T13:28:00.000+01:00

Again, as an exercise in doing some different inking styles, I did a few observational (and a couple of imaginary) sketches while I was riding around Sydney.

Windsor (the Australian one)

2010-10-22T13:12:00.001+01:00

One thing that's slightly strange about going around Australia is the number of places that were named after British towns by the European settlers. I went past a Richmond, Croydon and many others, including a small country town called Windsor, whose main claim to fame is the flabbit (flying rabbit), a creature created by a hoaxer and which now adorns their posters and flags. I also did these sketches of the river that borders the town, a colonial house, Willy Wagtails and a boat out on the river and a lorikeet.

Art Gallery of New South Wales

2010-10-21T11:37:00.001+01:00

These are some sketches I did in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is an absolutely fantastic place, which really highlights the individual character of Australian art, as well as having some great pieces from around the world. Although I sketched in pencil at the gallery, I was keen to try some different inking techniques, something a bit less busy, as an alternative to the cross-hatching I like. I'm quite happy with the results.

The pieces are Circe and The Dancer by Bertram Mackennal.

Benini @ the Powerhouse Museum

2010-10-20T10:27:00.014+01:00

Sydney has some great museums and galleries, and I really enjoyed the Powerhouse Museum. Slightly surprisingly, for a science and engineering museum, they also had a collection of photographs by the fashion photographer Bruno Benini, which I did a few sketches of, and some photographs.

Sketches from Sydney

2010-10-19T10:19:00.001+01:00

So, I am back from Sydney, and back to doing some more regular updates for the blog. While I was there, it's not a big shock that I did some sketches and stuff as I went around, and I'll share a few of those as I get back into doing some new illustration work.

The first one I wanted to put up was a couple of sketches I did in Sydney's beautiful Chinese Garden. If you're in the city, this is a fantastic place to go, incredibly relaxing, and I loved the way they make use of the incongruous urban surroundings to highlight the importance of Yin / Yang - style balance. The first is of the Moon Gate, and the second is of a lizard I spotted basking on a rock. I've also included my photographs of the two subjects, for context.

More recent stuff

2010-08-27T12:21:00.000+01:00

Like yesterday, just putting some recent stuff up, this time sketches I've done to try out more ideas that I've been working on.

Recent sketches

2010-08-26T20:21:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned, I've been busy and working on more writing than art lately, so this blog has been a bit quiet. I just thought I'd put up some sketches and stuff I've done while I've been out and about.

A sketch of one of the flower girls from the wedding of my cousin Paul and his wife Lyndsey. Also, someone reading Harry Potter on the train.

Birds in Regent's Park. I was pleasantly surprised to see Storks and Pelicans as I was passing through, as well as the usual geese.

I visited the Tate Modern, but only ended up sketching out of the windows across the Millennium Bridge. The man in the wheelchair was on there busking on a steel drum, and had taken a break to chat to the other guy. Below is a very rough sketch of St Paul's.

A more detailed sketch of the Millennium Bridge, leading to St Paul's on the North Bank.

Children's book illustrations

2010-08-15T11:56:00.000+01:00

This is a project that I'm currently focussing on the writing side of (so not much to put on here, at least for now), but I did realise that I hadn't put any of the illustrations I'd already done up.

Now some of these may go through further alterations (I'm thinking of completely redrawing one of them, and making some small changes to another), but I've been quite happy with them so far.

Blaxploitation research

2010-08-09T12:03:00.000+01:00

For a few ideas I'm working with, I needed to have a look at some classic blaxploitation posters (and saw some really mental ideas - a film about evil living pimp dolls, or a woman with zombie henchmen?), and here are some I liked.

Sketches

2010-08-08T12:49:00.003+01:00

I've been working at a holiday scheme, and it gives me a chance to do a few studies for the children's book I've been working on for a while.

Mr Bones!

2010-08-07T12:37:00.014+01:00

So, this is why I was researching foxes. Even with that, I still don't feel the idea even started to come together until Tammy, whose idea he is, pointed out that his bow tie should be undone. I'll need to develop it, but here he is, along with a couple of other sketches related to some stuff I was doing on my own.

Foxes!

2010-08-06T18:15:00.000+01:00

This is all research for a joint project I'm looking forward to doing art for. Research on drawing foxes was an important first step (you'd think I'd be able to draw them from memory, the number there are around my house!)

Apostles Cocktail night poster

2010-08-03T12:46:00.002+01:00

So, here is the poster design I was researching, and here is Sheldon from The Apostles bar, doing his classy best to introduce the bar's cocktail nights.

Callan Maloney final designs

2010-08-02T12:07:00.001+01:00

Here are the coloured and final designs for Callan's posters and business cards (plus a Warhol-style poster design for fun).

Callan Maloney

2010-08-01T12:38:00.000+01:00

Research and black and white stages for a commission for singer Callan Maloney, who is doing his next show at the Apostles on the 4th of August.

Callan's really impressed at the bar, and can be reached at bookings.cal@gmail.com.

More research sketches

2010-07-31T12:21:00.000+01:00

Here are more research sketches I did for another Apostles bar poster which is in the owrks at the moment. After a few starring my Dad, I thought it was about time some of the other staff got a shout out, so here's Sheldon (don't worry John and Marisa, you'll be in future ones, maybe I will too!).

Buggatti Veyron - apparently

2010-07-30T12:34:00.000+01:00

The last picture I did for the boy I'm working with before the Summer Holidays. Now, I'm not exactly a gear-head (in fact, I'd quite happillly see the cast of Top Gear run over by oil tankers in a hugely amusing segment on their show - possibly with a celebrity at the wheel, say, Susan Boyle), but a little research allowed me to find out what a Buggatti Veyron looked like (admittedly, pretty cool, though I bet the fuel consumption is rubbish), and here it is.

Final Apostles Music Night poster

2010-07-29T12:27:00.012+01:00

Here's the final version of that poster I put up a couple of days ago, with some crafty photoshopping to maake it a portrait, rather than landscape, and to better reflect the style of music that the bar has.

Apostles Music Night poster

2010-07-28T12:40:00.008+01:00

So, this is what those research sketches from a couple of days ago were for. The Apostles are planning to take advantage of their music licence to start doing live music, and here's the first version of my promotional poster. There were some changes before the final version, which I'll put up tomorrow.

Oh, and I also wanted to include this poster which the boy I work with did, as I really like his interpretation of the brief.

Australian sketches

2010-07-27T12:15:00.024+01:00

These are sketches and drawings I did while I was on holiday in Australia in December 2009. As you can tell, I was quite taken with the wildlife there, as well as the architecture.

Research sketches

2010-07-26T12:14:00.004+01:00

After the other Apostles posters, they arranged for a series of events to take place on different Wednesday nights through the month. The Quiz Night poster I'd already done was one, and this is research for another one.

Apostles World Cup Poster

2010-07-25T12:52:00.032+01:00

Doing a World Cup poster for the Apostles, I needed to emphasise the combined English / South African crowd it gets, which is a big part of it's friendly atmosphere (this isn't a Walkabout, people, The Apostles has some class). So, a few elements needed to be thrown in - The World Cup, England, South Africa, and the landlord, Clete Mathurin, who is probably the main attraction (everyone loves him!). Granted, the World Cup didn't live up to a lot of people's hopes and expectations, at least as far as England and South Africa went, but The Apostles was a great place to watch it.

Apostles Hallowe'en Poster

2010-07-24T12:38:00.002+01:00

Here it is, another Apostles poster, this time for the Halloween Party.

Apostles Quiz Night Poster

2010-07-22T12:19:00.000+01:00

So, if you haven't been to the Apostles yet, you're missing a treat. Apart from maybe finding me there, there's a great atmosphere, good food (Props to John!) and my Dad, who everybody loves. Here is a poster I produced to advertise the once-monthly quiz nights.

Commissions for a kid

2010-07-21T12:12:00.000+01:00

Obviously I'm too professional to name names, but I've been working with a young boy in a school, and one of the things we've arranged is for me to do drawings for him each week. He's actually challenged me to draw things that are more unusual for me, so I've enjoyed doing it. Here are the 2 I've done so far.

Education pieces

2010-07-20T12:14:00.000+01:00

One of the things I've loved the most in recent years is working with children. These are a few pieces that I've done while I was doing that:

It was Christmas while I was working with the Year 6 class at Barrow Hedges Primary, so this was something I knocked up to go with their Christmas cards. I was quite touched to see a few of them still stuck on the inside of desks well into the New Year. I should also mention there was a very talented little girl in the class, Jasmine Read, who showed great promise in cartooning, even at only 11; keep an eye out for her in a few year's time.

These are pictures of Egyptian gods I did with a Year 4 class as part of their Egypt work. The first piece shows Osiris, Isis, Ra, Horus, Anubis, Bast and Nut, while the second shows Ra and Bast in modern dress. This became an activity with the class, where they designed their own modern gods and goddesses.

More random stuff

2010-07-19T12:04:00.000+01:00

Same as yesterday. Enjoy. I'm using elements of the first one in some stories I'm trying to get written up at the moment. When I have some art from them ready, I'll post them on here.

Random stuff

2010-07-18T12:43:00.000+01:00

A lot of these are sketches I did while I was working in my office jobs (that's also when I started writing the material for Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Need to Know). On quiet days, it's actually a good time for creativity, as there's nothing interesting enough to distract you. Anyway...