The Thing artbook

Got my hands on The Thing artbook, Approx 400 illustrations inspired by the unique beast that is the John Carpenter 1982 classic, commemorating it's 35th anniversary. An amazing monster of a book. Chuffed to have a piece in such a great collection.

It's brought to you by Printed in Blood and can be picked up here: 
http://printedinblood.com/artbook_thething.html

Yoshiwara

Have created this illustrated piece for Belfast-based newly established label Yoshiwara. They're focusing on releases of doom/stoner/metal and just downright esoteric material.

The name is taken from the club featured in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) so the direction was 'do something with art deco feel and if possible throw in something dark/fantastic/satanic'. Had a blast doing this as love Art Nouveau/Art Deco stylings and trappings and intersected with dark, murky stuff just made it all the more fun to work on.

It involved original ink elements such as figures scanned in, then a lot of background/environment stuff built up as vector elements in Illustrator, then colouring and textures applied and tweeked in Photoshop. Haven't really had the time this weather to build anything up in that time-consuming intricate fashion so was nice to get to work this up.

Below is illustration containing the Yoshiwara logo created by Will Broadbent, drummer of band Ogre who do a great line in Sabbath 70s-style heavy doom metal. They've released material through the Yoshiwara label. 

Behance Portfolios - 2014

A round-up of images and drawing from the year that was, 2014, over at my Behance account.

Have knuckled down since the summer in keeping a sketchbook in my hipster-lite Moleskin sketchbook, it's been overall enjoyable and hopefully beneficial, at very least a good way to kill dead time such as travelling to/from work. Link to my first portfolio dedicated to sketchbook pages.

Illustration link contains a mix of comic book material, including cover and pages from my third and final edition of my 'Charlatan Tales' comic series, and one-off illustrative pieces as well first two pieces from ongoing series illustrating A-Z of personal music heroes.

Let's what's at the end of the line in 2015...

Uproar Comics - Artist Profile

I've recently done a few pages for 'Zombies Hi!' comic, published by Derry-based Uproar Comics. They'll appear in the next issue, number 6.

Uproar have got a wee profile of me and a few of my work samples over at their blog:

http://www.uproarcomics.co.uk/blog/?p=152

Check them out and give them a bit of support!

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.

Jimi

The unearthly talents of the one and only Jimi Hendrix. Hoping to create this as an A2 print.

Trisickle Magazine

A few spot illustrations created for online/print arts and culture magazine 'Trisickle'...

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.

Marshlands

More Book Covers - Illustrated Artwork

Release

Book Covers - Illustrated Artwork

Below are a few samples of book cover illustrated work created within the last year. They range from children's fiction (the cover design is weasels meets Star Wars), romantic fiction (with a bit of past life oddness thrown in) and poetry.

The Corncrakes - Ingo and the Bouncy Castle

I've done EP artwork/layouts for the folk band 'The Corncrakes' before.

Now, they've got a full album release out, Ingo and the Bouncy Castle, which gave me the opportunity to design and illustrate all content for a CD release with a 12-page booklet. This was great to work on as I've always wanted to get the chance to work on something like this from the ground up.

Below is the main artwork, inspired partly by the title track lyrics, created for the release; booklet cover spread, booklet inner spread and back cover artwork:







Here are shots of the final package:


The front and back cover of the jewel case CD.


I jumped at the chance to allude to old-school gatefold sleeve art (albeit in CD dimensions). The front booklet spread continues on into the second and third page of the booklet. Also, the leg of the escape artist at the far right of the inner spread can be seen coming into shot at the far left of the front spread, creating a revolving, carousel effect.





The album is available to buy from their website now and should be available on iTunes soon. So good luck from here on in guys!

Garage

Here's a new self-initiated illustration. Wanted to spend a bit of time getting the shadows and light effects just right. Click to embiggen.

Below is the initial pencil/ink work...

Crime Triangle

Lazer Love

This is a piece I've worked on lately. It's in ink and water colours. It's hard getting a bit of weight with watercolours and I think I may have went overkill on the final black outlines. Though I think it's healthy sometimes to sit down at a blank piece of paper knowing you don't have the luxury of 'undo', especially with something like watercolours which needs a considered build up with no going back over your tracks.



Here's a few details from it:





This is a behind the curtains, Wizard of Oz tyle shot, while I was working on it: