New Empress Magazine - A Certain Nightmare Before a Certain Christmas

 

I've recently created a black and white illustration for the latest edition of New Empress magazine.

The editor had a few jitters about depicting properties that come under the ownership of a certain house of a certain mouse so this called for a bit of abstraction. The final piece turned a lot more abstract and basic (basic in a good way hopefully) than previous work for the magazine.

New Empress Magazine - Action v Romance

 

 

The latest brief for New Empress magazine was to 'have Arnold Schwarzenneger punching Katherine Heigl' for an article posing the question 'why can't/shouldn't men enjoy rom-coms'.

 

Obviously wanted to keep image of male actor punching actress as light as possible as was uneasy about it tipping into dodgy waters. Arnie basically drew himself as there's only one AH-NULD but I spent far too long trying to get Kathereine Heigl right and to have a heightened caricature look that would immediately be recognisably 'Heigl-esque'. I just couldn't get a foot hold on any features to ramp up. Have definitely walked away with a firm respect for the work of caricaturists such as Mort Drucker, who would do panel after panel, page after page of instantly recognisable caricatures of famous faces/celebrities for MAD magazine, to the point where you take it for granted.  

 

New Empress Magazine - Freddie Kreuger / Ringu

A full page greyscale illustration created for an article in the latest New Empress magazine covering the horror movies 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Ringu'.

 

The original ink drawing of Freddie Kreuger can be picked up over at my Etsy store for a 'snip', ho ho!

New Empress Magazine - Strip Nude for Your Killer

An illustration created for the latest edition of New Empress magazine to accompany a piece on 1970s Italian giallo (Italian horror/thriller films from the early 70's which contained pretty extreme sex and violence and pre-dated American slasher films) 'Strip Nude for Your Killer'.

True Love is Like the Loch Ness Monster

This is a book cover illustration I created for Helen Cox, editor of New Empress film magazine, of which I create regular illustrated content for. It's a collection of film essays and criticism.

The cover concept was from a frankly bizarre (but fun) brief from Helen.

I also created the type treatment.

It can be bought through here.

New Empress Magazine - Freaks

Have recently completed this full page illustration for New Empress magazine to accompany an article on Tod Browning's 1932 film 'Freaks'.

I wanted to use colours that were seemingly randomly selected and bordering on garish to replicate the garish cheap pulpy thrills of the subject matter and the day, hopefully I wasn't too successful in this and it seems like they actually were selected without any thought.

A3 illustrative prints of this are available from my Etsy shop.

New Empress Magazine - Frankensten v BBFC

The latest issue of New Empress film magazine focuses on silent film and the transition into 'talkies'. All artwork and content for it was created, suitably, in greyscale.

My brief was to 'depict Boris Karloff's 'Frankenstein's Monster' strangling an official from the BBFC', fun!

I decided to turn back the clock with how I created this piece to my pre-computer, pre-Photoshop days, when as a teenager I'd spend hours and hours working on pencilled pieces. It was actually a great experience to go back to that and focus on drawing and drawing alone and not worry about layer actions, digital colouring, texture overlays etc etc

Here's the finished piece (with a few digital tweeks and clean ups):

The original pencil art (A3, bristol board) is for sale over at my Etsy shop:

New Empress Magazine - Poppins v Magritte

A recent cover design created for the first digital edition of New Empress film magazine.

It was a lot of fun to work on but caused quite a few problems getting off the ground with composition then colour scheme.

Had fun bringing screen printed style effects into the final mix.

Cover with copy:

New Empress Magazine - United Artists

This is recent full-page illustration created for the fourth issue of New Empress magazine.

The brief was to do the line-up of the founders of United Artists production company in 1919 in the style of The Usual Suspects film poster. I dovetailed this with contemporary Art Deco styling and colour palette.

New Empress Magazine - Maximum Overdrive

Here's a full page illustration created to accompany an article about the trashy 80's movie 'Maximum Overdrive' in the latest edition of New Empress magazine. This is, I believe, Stephen King's only stint behind the camera.



I wanted to emulate the great gore-carnage schlock of the 50's EC horror/crime comic covers, which were a defining influence on Stepehen King, right down to the main protagonists/storytellers depicted in stacked circles.

New Empress Magazine - Carlton Cinema

Below is a full-page illustration created for the second issue of New Empress magazine.

The article highlighted the architectural splendour of the now sadly derelict Carlton Cinema, Essex Road, North London, which opened in 1930.

The brief was to create an illustration which looked like it advertised the cinema in its newly opened Art Deco period magnificence.







This is the initial detailed pencil work: