Look what I drawed

Happy Birthday Bruv!

2012-02-01T11:44:00.003Z

Today is my brother's birthday. He enjoys cooking, so I drew a picture of him Chef-ing it up in the kitchen...

Sketchbook Scribbles #1: X-men

2012-01-30T23:39:00.003Z

I did a drawing today in my sketchbook of some of the characters from the X-men comics from memory. Just because...

The Ridiculous Looking Man

2012-01-29T21:48:00.004Z

Yesterday I was travelling on the Overground from Dalston Junction to New Cross, when this guy got on the train and sat opposite me. Now, I would never suggest that I know anything about fashion, but this person just had far too many different things going on at once with his appearance! His hair went into this bizarre ice-cream curl, he'd seemed to have gone to quite some effort to style his nearly non-existent facial hair, he was wearing a suede blazer, a massive belt, jeans that managed to be both extra baggy and tight-fitting at the same time, no socks and moccasins! He literally looked like a child's description of person! I wanted to get out my sketchbook and draw him, but I honestly didn't know where to begin...

Since then, I've felt as though this strange human has somehow been haunting my subconscious, so in an effort to exorcise him from my imagination, I've done a quick sketch of him from memory...

Now hopefully I can sleep soundly this evening!

Happy Birthday Karen!

2012-01-29T13:22:00.002Z

Today is my friend Karen's 30th birthday...

Happy Birthday Laura!

2012-01-29T13:04:00.007Z

Last week it was my friend Laura's birthday. Since having a baby, Laura seems to be watching a lot of CBeebies ...and I sometimes feel that she is a lot more excited about the shows than her son William is...

Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-26T00:24:00.001Z

Happy Australia Day to all my friends from G'day Land...

Gong Xi Fa Cai/Gong Hey Fat Choy/Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-22T14:05:00.000Z

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, and it's the Year of the Dragon. Dragons are cool!

Secret 7" competiton

2012-01-20T00:15:00.000Z

Phew! That was a busy few hours of drawing!!

A while ago, I saw a competition on the Talenthouse website to design artwork for the band CSS. I've been a fan of CSS for ages, and have seen them play Live a few times, so this sounded like something I'd like to do! And then I forgot all about it. Until I noticed a couple of tweets and facebook posts from friends saying that they had entered the competition. I still wanted to take part, but was busy with a few other things, and so time passed...

Today was the deadline for entries, and I was working at the gallery during the day so when I got home, I FINALLY got around to working on my entry for the competition, and hurried to get it done before the deadline...

Fortunately, on the bus to work this morning I was listening to the selected song – City Grrrl by CSS – on my iPod and came up with an idea, so I was good to go! Listening to the lyrics of the song, I kept coming back to the idea of transformation and the desire to "live the life I didn't have yet" in New York City, and the iconic symbol of freedom: the Statue of Liberty (I had also watched Ghostbusters 2 recently...).

The band themselves will be picking the winning designs to be printed on a Secret 7" vinyl sleeve and exhibited in East London for Record Store Day on the 21 April, but if you like my design, you can also vote for my entry over on the Talenthouse website. Voting starts tomorrow (20 January) until the 26 January, and you can view my entry on their site and cast your vote here:
http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a025b5d123838fcb866e34472764626d/379

Happy Birthday Richy!

2012-01-15T12:26:00.000Z

Yesterday I met up with my friend Richy to celebrate his birthday.

Richy is a fan of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and also recently got a new cat called Suki Kabuki, so I drew a picture of Richy and Suki in the style of Calvin and Hobbes...

Happy Birthday Jo!

2012-01-12T15:52:00.000Z

Yesterday was my friend Jo's birthday. Jo draws awesome pictures of characters from TV animations from the 80's, so I drew her this picture of Orko from He-Man and The Masters of The Universe conjuring up some cake and presents for her birthday...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Covered)

2012-01-10T16:54:00.000Z

So, after finishing the interior pages of my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook, I've finally completed it and drawn on the front and back cover.

If reading comics has taught me anything (...and it has!), if you put Wolverine and Spider-Man on the cover, more people will pick up your book, so...

And on the back cover is Professor Pyg, one of the best new villains from Grant Morrison's recent Batman books...

I'll be posting my sketchbook back to the Brooklyn Art Library later this week. It's been a really good project to do and I definitely want to take part again in a future Sketchbook Project!

Happy Birthday Nanae!

2012-01-09T00:56:00.001Z

Today was my friend Nanae's birthday.
It was also David Bowie's birthday.
Nanae likes dogs.

I combined all of these facts to draw a birthday card for her...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2012-01-07T23:57:00.000Z

So I've been finishing off my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook and have completed the last few pages...

...which included the first page in the book, which ended up being the last page that I drew (and I added a brief description of my project at the bottom of the page)...

Now I just need to draw something on the cover and then I'll be finished and ready to return my sketchbook back to the Brooklyn Art Library for inclusion in The Sketchbook Project 2012 World Tour.

If you haven't already, you can view all my previous pages here:
http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Happy Birthday William!

2012-01-05T21:55:00.001Z

Today was my cousin William's birthday and he reached the grand old age of nine years old! Here's a card I drew for him, featuring his current favourite, Spongebob Squarepants...

He also gave me a picture he drew of Doctor Who's TARDIS flying through a vortex in space, and wanted to know if I would put it on my blog. So, here it is...

Happy Birthday Cathy!

2012-01-05T16:25:00.000Z

Today is my friend Cathy's birthday and here's a drawing I did for her, based on one of her creative Facebook photos...

Two Fold Magazine (issue 2)

2012-01-05T14:26:00.000Z

My Star Wars inspired illustration is featured in the second issue of TWOFOLD Magazine, an independent magazine "showcasing some of the world's best talent" (they're words, not mine!) in illustration and typography.

I also have a profile page up on their website. You can purchase a copy of issue 2 here.

Happy Birthday Arina!

2012-01-05T01:10:00.000Z

Today was my friend Arina's birthday, and I made her a card based on her recent artwork featuring James Bond...

By a complete coincidence, my friend Yuki also made her a very similar card. Great minds think alike and all that...

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-03T22:37:00.000Z

I'm back at my desk after a break over the Christmas and New Year holidays and ready to start drawing again.

Wishing you all a very happy new year...

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T19:55:00.000Z

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Eat, drink and be merry! Seasons Greetings! x

Emmy The Zombie Sleigher

2011-12-24T19:43:00.000Z

So, a couple more posts before I close up for Christmas...

Earlier this month, I did a comic strip for Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler's online advent calendar for their festive album This Is Christmas. One of the songs on the album is called Zombie Christmas and listening to it gave me the idea for this drawing of Emmy The Zombie Sleigher. Move over Buffy...

Xfm are currently giving away a free download of Zombie Christmas as a special seasonal gift.

Look What THEY Drawed (Christmas 2011)

2011-12-24T16:25:00.000Z

It's that time of year again, so here are a bunch of creative Christmas cards I received from some of my friends.

First up is this cute little dragon, courtesy of Richy K. Chandler...

Next, Yuki Nishimura drew this hilarious Christmas version of the movie Alive...

Joe Beale drew this picture of Christmas in Greenwich...

Zarina Liew sent me a festive picture of the characters from her
Le Mime web-comic...

And Arina Orlova produced this very topical illustration...

And finally, my dear old mother got in on the act this year and drew me a Christmas card featuring a picture of me pulling Santa's sleigh... Thanks mum! (Although she forgot to draw my beard...)

And thanks to everyone else who sent me a card this Christmas. And I hope you all have a great day tomorrow! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

***UPDATE 02/01/12***
I also got this neat card from Nanae Kawahara, illustrated on both the front and the back...

And I bought Nanae's New Year postcard from her Yaomart market stall at the Duckie Christmas Market at the Barbican, just in time for 2012 – the Year of the Dragon...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-12-19T23:10:00.000Z

Now that I've finished the commissioned work that's been keeping me busy the last few weeks, I thought I better get back to my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

I'm nearly at the end of my sketchbook now. It's been an interesting project to do, and I definitely plan to take part again next year.
If you haven't already, you can view all my previous pages here:
http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

The Man In The Iron Mask

2011-12-14T16:44:00.000Z

After yesterday's blog post about Daniel Craig starring in both the Bond films and the upcoming remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, today I saw the poster for the second Sherlock Holmes film and I began wondering if maybe there's a shortage of actors out there to star in all these franchise movies.

As well as playing Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr is also Iron Man and will be in next Summer's The Avengers movie. And Chris Evans (not that one!) is also in The Avengers as Captain America, but was the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies a few years ago. And before all this, Sir Ian McKellen was both Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and Magneto over in the X-men films.

Surely they must get confused about which character they're meant to be playing...

The Girl With The James Bond Tattoo

2011-12-13T18:51:00.000Z

While I was out and about yesterday, I saw the poster for David Fincher's remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on the side of the BFI IMAX cinema. Seeing Daniel Craig taking on the role of Mikael Blomkvist gave me the idea for this drawing...

The "James Bond tattoo" is taken (with permission) from my friend Arina Orlova's excellent artwork: James Bond: Kills and Kisses.

The Hole Opportunity

2011-12-12T22:11:00.000Z

I was commissioned to produce an illustrated book cover for James Minter's first novel The Hole Opportunity.

The Hole Opportunity is an English farce, revolving around the misadventures of Colin Griggs and his wife Izzy, who decide to set up a "Hole Farming Business", supplying holes to the local golf course. When things don't go exactly to plan, Colin ends up making an enemy of the club's captain: Major Woods.

You can order a physical copy of the book, or download an eBook version, from Amazon.

Carols By Candlelight

2011-12-12T21:05:00.000Z

I was commissioned to design a poster and marketing material for the University of Arts London's Christmas carol service, which was held last week at St Paul's Church in Covent Garden. The A3 poster had to appeal to people regardless of their religious beliefs, and I came up with this design using a hand-drawn pattern in the background to suggest Winter and the lettering in the title reflecting the long thin appearance of a candlestick.

Using a modified version of the design I also produced an A5 postcard, a digital image to be projected onto a plasma screen, and the front and back cover for the Order Of Service.

The Line It Is Drawn Try-Out (Week 2)

2011-12-09T23:44:00.000Z

So last week I shared my first submission for The Line It Is Drawn over on the Comics Should Be Good blog, and now I've got my week 2 submission(s) to share with you.

This week's theme was "comic book characters that haven't previously teamed up", and I ended up drawing two of the suggestions:

'Mazing Man and Forbush Man

The Monitor and The Watcher (watching Watchmen)

Voting is now open, and if you like my drawings, please click on this link and tick the box with my name (It's the sixth name down in the second list, in case any of you have a problem finding it). You can also check out the other entries while you're there, in the interest of fairness.

Voting closes on Thursday 15 December at 11:59 EST and the two entries with the most votes will be the new weekly artists joining the current bunch of regulars. Wish me luck!

Emmy & Tim's Christmas Advent Calendar day 8

2011-12-09T00:43:00.000Z

One of my favourite singers, Emmy The Great, has released a Christmas Album with Tim Wheeler called This Is Christmas. You should buy it!

I've been listening to it on my iPod for a while now, and was pleased to get an email last week asking if I wanted to draw a comic strip based on their song Jesus The Reindeer to be included as a festive treat as part of their christmas advent calendar on their facebook page!

My comic strip was featured today behind Day 8 of their advent calender!

**UPDATED 15/12/2011**

Tonight I went to Rough Trade East to see Emma & Tim perform an in-store gig as the last part of their This Is Christmas mini tour. It was of course a very Christmassy affair, and as well as the songs from their album they also played cover versions of Last Christmas and Fairy Tale of New York, as well as other Christmas songs. At the end of the gig the pair did a signing and signed a copy of my comic strip for me!

The Line It Is Drawn Try-Out (Week 1)

2011-12-02T15:48:00.001Z

The Line It Is Drawn is a weekly online column on the Comic Book Resources website. Each week a comics-related theme is suggested on the Comics Should Be Good blog and twitter with people posting suggestions for that theme during the week. Seven artists then each pick one of the suggestions to draw and the results are posted at the end of the week.

Three of the regular artists involved are stepping down soon, so they are currently looking for new artists to replace them, and I decided to throw my hat into the ring. Over the next couple of weeks, all those people wishing to try-out for a position get sent the list of suggestions and have the chance to submit their work.

This week's theme was "Super-fy It: Turn a person, real or fictional, into a superhero". Out of over 250 suggestions, I finally decided to go with The Virgin Mary(!) and made her into the superhero Immaculate, based partly on the cover to the Image comic
Invincible #32...

Next week's theme is "Team-up two comic book characters who have never had a team-up before".

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-11-28T01:59:00.001Z

Here's the latest page from my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

This is partly based on an idea I used for another illustration recently, but I quite liked it, so wanted to use it again. Plus Mr Freeze is one of my favourite Batman villains, mainly due to the awesome animated series (and nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger's role as Mr Freeze in the movie Batman & Robin!).

If you haven't already, you can view all my previous pages here:
http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-11-22T21:52:00.001Z

I've been busy working on a couple of commissions the last few weeks – which I'll hopefully be able to blog about soon – but for now here's a couple of new pages from my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

If you haven't already, you can view all my previous pages here:
http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Look what THEY drawed... Me!

2011-11-20T19:13:00.000Z

I'm frequently drawing people on the train/tube/DLR/Overground.
I find it's a good way to pass the time during journeys and also is good practice for drawing different faces and expressions.

But today I was drawn by someone else while I was on the Overground to Wapping! I look very sophisticated! haha

I noticed that he was sketching, but didn't know he was drawing me! Then before I got off, he tore the page out and gave it to me, with his facebook page to upload it to. You can check out his page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inexmetris/358371295376?sk=wall

Happy Birthday Shigeru Miyamoto!

2011-11-16T22:20:00.000Z

Today is the 59th birthday of Shigeru Miyamoto. As a designer and producer at Nintendo he has been responsible for many of my favourite video games over the years. Happy Birthday to him!

The Twilight Zone 2

2011-11-16T00:57:00.000Z

I did another Twilight comic... if Twilight is about a vampire and a werewolf who live together. And if that's not what Twilight is about, then I don't want to know!

The Twilight Zone

2011-11-13T23:16:00.000Z

I've never watched any of the Twilight movies, but the other day I saw an advert for the latest film on the side of a bus and had an idea to do a comic about a vampire and a werewolf...

Depressed Cat fan art

2011-11-13T20:04:00.001Z

The other week I noticed a tweet by Lizz Lunney (@Lizzlizz) looking for people to submit fan art of her character Depressed Cat (who also has his own Twitter page – @depressed_cat). As I'm a fan of Lizz's comics, and Depressed Cat, I decided to join in and sent this image of the fed-up feline...

Lizz has featured the fan art images in her new comic book: Depressed Cat: Nine Miserable Lives.

I'm happy to have my drawing included in the book, and received a copy from Lizz yesterday at the Comica Comiket independent comic fair.

Depressed Cat: Nine Miserable Lives is now available to buy from Lizz's online shop.

OFFRET – An Art Intervention on the London Riots

2011-11-13T18:48:00.000Z

I was recently asked by 6th Hour Productions to be involved in their latest project: OFFRET, part of the Exchange Radical Moments! Live art festival.

OFFRET was planned as an urban intervention about the London riots of August 2011, focusing on the area of Clapham Junction affected during the rioting. On Friday night, a large-scale outdoor projection was presented onto one of the buildings which had been badly affected by arson during the unrest in Clapham Junction, offering a reflection on the multiplicity of perspectives regarding the riots: from local residents to police officers, youths and business owners, and addressing some of it's causes, feelings and consequences.

The other part of the project involved encouraging different sectors of the local community to get together and discuss the unrest caused by the rioting, through a series of workshops. The outcome of these workshops was the production of a fictional newspaper, dated 2013, with fictional stories about the future of Clapham Junction. And this is where I became involved in the project!

As well as the fictional news stories, the members of 6th Hour Productions also wanted to include a few "fun" elements to the paper, and asked me if I could come up with a comic strip that they could include.

There was no specific theme for the comic strip, but I decided that I wanted to work within the themes of the newspaper and the project and attempt to come up with a strip that made reference to the riots...

Click on strip to enlarge

The Skyfall Tower

2011-11-04T00:49:00.000Z

The title of the 23rd James Bond film has been revealed as Skyfall.

The first thing that came into my head when I heard this was the story of Chicken Licken, who believes that the sky is falling after an acorn drops on his head...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-11-01T19:38:00.000Z

After a brief hiatus, here's the latest page from my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

You can view all my previous pages here:http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Hey! Listen!

2011-10-26T23:15:00.001+01:00

Last night I went to the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony concert at the Hammersmith Apollo. It was a memorable event, with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra playing a series of arrangements based on the music from The Legend of Zelda titles. The music was introduced by Zelda Williams, daughter of actor Robin Williams, who was actually named after the titular princess of the video game series.

It was a really amazing evening, made even more unique by the guest appearance by Koji Kondo who has been employed as a musical composer by Nintendo since 1984 and has produced many memorable scores for the company. He ended the evening by playing Grandma's Theme from The Wind Waker on the piano.

Anyway, inspired by the events of the evening, I wanted to create a musical Zelda-based image, so here is a drawing of Link playing his ocarina...

Anders Nilsen in conversation with Tom Gauld at Orbital Comics

2011-10-20T13:16:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening I attended an event at Orbital Comics with Anders Nilsen in conversation with Tom Gauld, as part of this year's Comica Festival. Although I am a big fan of Tom Gauld's work, I wasn't that familiar with the work of Anders Nilsen, but it's always interesting to hear two creative people talking.

Here's a quick sketch I did of the pair before the talk began – and while they are both looking rather unanimated in my drawing, when the conversation got under way they were both very lively, engaging and interesting!

I got a lot of inspiration from the talk for my own comics work, and am keen to pick up Big Questions by Anders Nilsen, which has just been released by Drawn & Quarterly.

AND after the talk finished I was able to get my copy of Tom Gauld's Hunter & Painter signed!

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-10-19T15:28:00.000+01:00

Another day, another page for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

You can view all my previous pages here: http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Never Mind The Bollocks...

2011-10-18T20:41:00.000+01:00

My friend Tom is talking bollocks! And not for the first time. But on this occasion it's for a good cause!

Tom is taking part in Movember, where thousands of men in the UK spend the month of November growing facial hair on their top lips to raise funds and awareness for both prostate and testicular cancer.

And I've leant my support by drawing him a portrait to help promote his efforts...

You can visit his donation page here: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1424566/

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-10-18T18:08:00.000+01:00

Here's a couple more pages for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook for the theme Heroes & Villains...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-10-15T18:59:00.000+01:00

Here are my latest pages for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook for the theme Heroes & Villains...

One Flew Over The Penguin's Nest: The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2011

2011-10-11T13:59:00.000+01:00

So as well as the i newspaper's Comic Idol competition, I have also been working on my entry for this year's The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Competition. I completed my 4-page comic story yesterday ahead of the deadline this Friday, and here is the result...

I enjoyed the challenge of producing a longer comic story, and am pleased with the final result. I came up with the idea for this story after reading news reports back in June about an Emperor penguin that arrived on a beach in New Zealand after supposedly getting lost while swimming from the Antarctic. Then I started thinking: What if he wasn't lost, and really wanted to go to New Zealand to get away from the Antarctic?

The winning entry will be printed in The Observer newspaper on Sunday 6 November.

i's Cartoonist Idol Competition

2011-10-09T16:13:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine told me about a competition being run by i newspaper – a spin-off from The Independent – to find new cartoonists to feature in the paper either daily or weekly. The competition is open to a variety of different styles and the entries could take the form of a pocket cartoon, cartoon strip or large-format single image piece.

I wanted to work on a cartoon strip, and so came up with three examples featuring two characters that I came up with around ten years ago: Doug The Dog and his friend Joe.

The deadline for entries is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll hear soon about the result. I'm also rushing to finish my entry for another comic competition by the end of the week, so I'll be posting the finished result of that one very soon...

Fingers crossed!!

Look What THEY Drawed - Happy Birthday to me!

2011-09-17T14:07:00.000+01:00

It was my birthday yesterday, which meant that I got some brilliant cards drawn for me! There seems to be a theme of drawings of me, superheroes and penguins...

© Arina Orlova

© Richy K. Chandler

© Thomas Flintham

© Nanae Kawahara

© Guthrie Watson

© Yuki Nishimura

Happy Birthday Diana!

2011-09-17T13:58:00.000+01:00

My friend Diana was visiting London for a few days last week, and it was also her birthday the day before. Here's the birthday card I made for her. Thankfully it didn't actually rain while she was here, and it was nice and sunny for most of the time. London weather is SOOOO unpredictable!

The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize (Sneaky Peak)

2011-09-15T14:45:00.000+01:00

I'm working on a 4-page comic to submit to The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize. I've planned out the story, and have finished the first page, but I wanted to share a short sequence...

I'll post the full story once I'm finished. The deadline is 14 October. Wish me luck!

Congratulations Emma & Martyn!

2011-09-15T13:04:00.000+01:00

My friends Emma and Martyn got married last weekend, and while I wasn't able to make it along on the day, I was able to be a part of their big day. Several months ago, they contacted me to ask if I would be able to draw the pair of them in the style of a lot of the Royal Wedding images that were being used on commemorative mugs and plates, that they could use on jam jars, mugs and fridge magnets and give as gifts to the wedding guests.

Here's my completed illustration...

And here's a photo of my image used on the lid of a jar of home-made jam...

(Photograph © Charlotte Timney)

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-09-12T14:40:00.000+01:00

Here are my latest pages for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook for the theme Heroes & Villains...

You can see my previous pages here.

Paul Shinn covers Wolverine #8

2011-09-09T23:09:00.000+01:00

My work is featured on the Covered blog today! The idea behind the blog is to rework an existing comic book cover in your own style. I've been featured on their before, and this time my entry was a reworking of the cover to Wolverine #8, featuring Wolverine and the Hulk.

Here's my version and below it the original cover by John Buscema...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-09-05T18:34:00.000+01:00

Here are some more pages from my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook, for the theme Heroes & Villains...

双截龍

2011-09-04T23:44:00.000+01:00

This evening's episode of Dragon's Den featured a set of twin sisters who run a company selling "unique hand-drawn illustrated animal t-shirts". They are selling their products in 60 stores as well as a major high street department store, and were asking for £65,000 of investment from the Dragons. (For anyone that hasn't seen the show before, the Dragons aren't actually mythical fire-breathing creatures, they're "five of Britian's wealthiest and most enterprising business leaders").

Eventually the question was asked regarding how much they pay for their illustrations, and the answer of a £20 flat fee had me and many other illustrators on Twitter up in arms at the fact that they were paying so little, and also that there are illustrators out there that are willing to work for such a paltry sum. (The paid did admit that this amount was "quite small", but then they didn't suggest using any of their investment to pay a better rate).

Working as an illustrator, I want to get paid a decent rate for my work, which reflects the time and effort that I put into it. And yet some people out there who are commissioning work don't seem to appreciate the value of the service that we are providing. And when there are people out there that are willing to do work for little or no pay in the belief that it will provide them with exposure, it becomes increasingly difficult to garner a fair price for your work.

The whole thing left me quite angry and in need of a long lie down in a dark room!

BUT while watching Dragon's Den, I was struck by the unique appearance of the newest Dragon – Hilary Devey. So much so that I found myself doing a quick sketch of her while I was watching, just to calm myself down...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

2011-09-03T21:01:00.001+01:00

I've signed up to take part in The Sketchbook Project 2012 run by the Art House Co-op with the Brooklyn Art Library. Once you've signed up for the project, they post you out a 32 page sketchbook which you then have to fill and send back by the 31 January 2012, to be included in The Sketchbook Project 2012 tour which takes in numerous locations across America, as well as Vancouver, Toronto, London and Melbourne, before being housed within the Brooklyn Art Library and available for people to view.

There are a selection of themes available to choose from to provide a starting point for your sketchbook. I selected Heroes and villains and decided to use this as an opportunity to develop an idea for a series of images that I first came up with a couple of years ago, taking iconic brightly coloured comic book superheroes and villains and placing them in a much more ordinary setting than they are usually depicted.

It's been good not to go near my computer for a change, and I've been using a combination of drawing ink, marker pen and watercolour to create the images. Here's a sneak peak at my work so far...

Yeah but no but yeah but no but...

2011-09-01T17:05:00.000+01:00

I was recently asked to do an illustration for Amelia's Magazine to accompany a review of the book CHAVS: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones. After reading through the review, I picked up on the references to both the media and politicians presenting so-called Chavs as "the bogeymen of Britain"...

You can read the full review online over at the Amelia's Magazine website.

Shaun Tan talk

2011-08-30T23:18:00.000+01:00

Tonight I went to a talk at Waterstone's Piccadilly by Shaun Tan in conversation with Paul Gravett. Tan is an award winning author and illustrator and I'm a big fan of his work. He was a really interesting and humourous speaker and it was good to get an insight into how he works, as well as what inspires him.

Here's a quick sketch I did during the talk of Shaun, along with his character Eric who featured in his book Tales From Outer Suburbia...

Disco 2000 (and 11)

2011-08-27T22:44:00.000+01:00

Here's a quick sketch of Jarvis Cocker I just did while watching Pulp performing at Reading Festival on BBC3...

Happy Birthday Welmoet!

2011-08-27T20:37:00.000+01:00

It was my friend Welmoet's birthday on Thursday. Welmoet was studying at Camberwell the same time as me doing an MA in Book Arts, so I made her a book-based card...

Happy Birthday Kazu!

2011-08-24T00:55:00.000+01:00

Today was my friend Kazu's birthday. And she also recently got married. So I decided to combine the two and draw her a multi-tasking birthday/wedding card...

It cuts down on paper waste, so I'm being environmentally friendly!

Old Skool Scribbling: Episode IV - A Scanner Darko

2011-08-22T14:19:00.001+01:00

Okay, so this is the last of these retro-themed blog posts for today, although I do have a few other bits and pieces that I want to share.

I really liked the 2001 film Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular character, who goes out sleep walking, meets a demonic-looking rabbit called Frank who tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, and returns home the next morning to discover that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom. As you do!

I drew this picture imagining what Donnie Darko would be like if it was a Looney Tunes cartoon...

When I found this drawing in my sketchbook, I actually had all the different parts – the individual characters and items, and the background – drawn seperately. So scanned them and pasted it all together in Photoshop, as I must have originally intended to do.

Old Skool Scribbling: Episode III - Se7en

2011-08-22T13:08:00.000+01:00

Hmm... It seems that I quite liked drawing group shots in 2006.

Seven Soldiers was a comic book series published by DC Comics in 2005–2006. Written by Grant Morrison, and featuring art by J. H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Cameron Stewart, Ryan Sook, Frazer Irving, Pascal Ferry, Yanick Paquette, and Doug Mahnke, it consisted of seven loosely interconnected titles, each of which featured one of the titular Seven Solidiers: Shining Knight, The Manhattan Guardian, Klarion the Witch Boy, Mister Miracle, Bulleteer, Zatanna and Frankenstien. Although events in one title would sometimes impact upon another title, the characters themselves never meet and aren't aware of the fact that they all eventually play a role in the final battle against the Queen of the Sheeda.

Anyway, in complete contrast to the tone of the series, I decided to draw a picture of all of the seven characters together...

Old Skool Scribbling: Episode II - Why So Serious?

2011-08-22T12:42:00.000+01:00

The second of my retro-themed blog posts for today is a bit silly, but it made me laugh.

As far as I can remember – all the way back to two thousand and six – sitting and drawing some stationery items led to me developing a brand new Batman villain...

DC Comics never returned my calls.

Old Skool Scribbling: Episode I - Hadoken!

2011-08-22T12:36:00.001+01:00

So last Monday I went to turn on my laptop only to be greeted with... nothing! No image on the screen, no reassuring sound effect as my Mac turns on, just a slight whirr of the fan and then a glowing light on the front as if it was in Sleep mode. But it wasn't in Sleep mode!! After rushing to the Apple Store I was told that there was nobody available to see me today, but I could make an appointment... for Wednesday afternoon! Two Mac-less days later, I went to the Apple Store and they told me not to worry, it was a problem with the graphics chip and not only could they repair it, but I would also not lose any data (which was my main worry!). They didn't have the parts there, so they took my laptop away to the iHospital (...not to be confused with the Eye Hospital, which is where you go if you get Glaucoma), and two more Mac-less days later I got a call to let me know my laptop was repaired and ready to collect!

Which is a long way of saying that I wasn't really able to do any illustration work last week. I did do some drawing in my Sketchbook Project sketchbook, but there were a lot of other things I wanted to do which involved scanning or Photoshop, and so had to wait. But while I was in my low-fi existence I had some time to sort out a couple of boxes of stuff that I'd been meaning to look through for ages now. And in them I found a couple of old sketchbooks from the dim and distant past of 2006AD. Flipping through them I found some old drawings which I quite liked, so now with my computer back, I scanned them in so I can share them here.

Street Fighter is probably one of my favourite computer games. In October 2005 Udon Comics released a comic book series based on Street Fighter 2 and I drew this picture featuring all* of the characters from the game desperate to get a look at the first issue...

On my original drawing I'd left a blank space for the cover of the comic to be scanned and placed in Photoshop, so I finally got to complete the image as originally intended.

*I just realised as I was writing this that I didn't in fact include ALL of the characters, and left out Dee Jay and Ken, which I was quite surprised to discover as Ken is my favourite character...

Happy Birthday Yuki Nishimura!

2011-08-14T00:56:00.000+01:00

Today was my friend Yuki's actual birthday and to celebrate we went to see Watch Me Move: The Animation Show exhibition at the Barbican, and then out for dinner and drinks afterwards.
Here's a card I drew for Yuki...

Keep CALM and CLEAN UP!

2011-08-11T23:46:00.000+01:00

A lot has been written online about the London riots which occured at the start of the week, and sadly spread to other parts of the country in the days that followed. I don't want to dwell too much on the senseless violence, but instead highlight something which made me smile in the face of such mindless destruction.

On Monday night, gangs of around 100-200 people were gathering in cities across London, destroying property, looting shops, and setting fire to vehicles and buildings. As I sat at home watching the footage on the news, and hearing the police sirens outside the window, the situation really did feel quite helpless...

And then the next day there was news of groups of more than 400-600 people turning up at the sights of the previous nights riots, with brooms and bin bags in hand, ready to help with the clean up!

Seeing this reaffirmed my love for the city of London and the people who live here and made me feel that everything would be alright in the end. Suddenly the rioting gangs were shown for what they really were: a small minority, something it was easy to lose sight of when watching endless footage of the rioting on Monday night. The majority of people in London did not decide to go out and loot and riot. Instead they chose to come out and do something positive to help to clean up the mess others had created!

After a surreal few days, I wanted to get back to drawing again, and to create an image which somehow reflected on recent events. While it is important that we don't loose sight of what happened on Monday night, I think it is more important to remain positive and to focus on how the city responded the next day, and how I hope the whole country will respond in the days and weeks to come...

(Belated) Congratulations Lynsay & Matt!

2011-08-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

My friend Lynsay got married at the beginning of last month. It was a really nice day and miraculously the sun was shining! I had planned to draw them a wedding card featuring the happy couple, but then I realised that I'd only briefly met her husband-to-be once before, a few years ago now, and couldn't really remember what he looked like to draw him...!

My options were:
a) Not to include him on the card (but that might have seemed a little weird).
b) To draw a generic male figure (but that might have seemed even weirder).
c) To draw the card, but leave a blank space where his face would be and finish the drawing during the wedding.
d) To go along to the wedding minus a card, make sure I took some photos which included the groom, then use them for reference to draw the card when I got home and give it to them later.

In the end I decided to go for the last option, and today met up with Lynsay and gave her the card, so I can finally blog about it without ruining the surprise!

You can check out some great photos of the wedding by photographer Emma Case over at her blog, which also includes a rather amusing photograph of me!

Well Done Little Brother!

2011-08-01T21:57:00.000+01:00

My brother recently completed his Legal Practice Course (LPC) and passed with a Distinction, so to celebrate I drew a picture of him as Judge Dredd...

My First Sleeping Beauty

2011-08-01T15:25:00.000+01:00

I spotted a competition online to create a poster for the English National Ballet's performance of My First Sleeping Beauty, the first in a series of classic ballets for children, which will tour the UK in 2012. I was scribbling down some ideas, and came up with this image of a sleeping ballerina, happily dreaming, but continuing to dance. How professional! ...

The chosen poster design will have extra information added to it, including performance dates and times, and company logos, so I decided to keep it quite minimal and not include too much superfluous detail.

The winning entry will be chosen by the English National Ballet along with cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe on the 21 September. There will also be an online vote from 1–7 September, with the top voted entries given special consideration during the final selection.

So if you like my image, please head over to the talenthouse website and cast your vote!

Happy Unbirthday Yuki Nishimura!

2011-07-31T00:50:00.001+01:00

Today my friend Yuki Nishimura had a picnic in London Fields to celebrate her birthday. Except it wasn't actually her birthday. Her birthday is in 2 weeks time! (But she did something today because some of her friends won't be around for her actual birthday).

Anyway, I thought I would make her a card to celebrate her Unbirthday today. And as she likes dinosaurs and Harry Potter, I ended up drawing Jurassic Potter...

I tried out the watercolours I bought the other week to colour the card, and am pleased with the results for a first attempt. I'll have to experiment a bit more with them...

The Scottish Penguin

2011-07-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

I was recently contacted about a commission by Sarah Christie who – in her own words on her Twitter page – is a "London based, IT working, gig going, penguin obsessed Scottish person" and also makes things. She is currently in the process of setting up an online shop in order to sell some of her craft work under the title of The Scottish Penguin and after seeing my recent penguin comics online, wanted me to design a Scottish penguin that she could use on her blog and online shop.

I had a bit of a think and came up with a few initial sketches based around the idea of Scottish-ness...

Obviously, some of them were a bit more serious than others, but it at least gave us a starting point. Sarah liked the idea of a tartan penguin. She also suggested trying something using The Saltire. I must confess to being a bit unsure of what this was, but one google-search later and I was sat at my computer going "Oh! The Scottish flag!".

I did try out using The Saltire, but the results made it look like the penguin was a member of the Marvel Comics mutant group X-Factor (Nothing to do with Simon Cowell!)...

So deciding to focus on the tartan design, I worked on creating a tartan pattern that Sarah was happy with, and finally came up with The Scottish Penguin!

You can visit The Scottish Penguin online shop here!

"I'm a god. I'm not THE God... I don't think."

2011-07-25T17:12:00.000+01:00

I've been spending the last few days updating my website, adding some new images to my portfolio and revising some of the sections, and have finally finished!

You can view the results over at paulshinndraws.com.

One section I wanted to revise was the Contact section. Given how important the presence of social media sites has become to publicising my work, I wanted to add details of my Twitter and Facebook profiles.

I also wanted to include a new illustration to the Contact page and after scribbling down some ideas, eventually came up with this...

Now obviously the composition is based on Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but it was only when I had already started drawing the picture that I suddenly realised that I was drawing myself in the position of God...

I would just like to point out that I was in no way suggesting that I'm like God.

Still, I guess we do both have beards...

The Ghost of Drawings Past: Episode Four

2011-07-20T17:56:00.001+01:00

One more old-skool drawing I found! This was a cartoon I drew for a student magazine to accompany an article about the number of movie sequels – Men In Black 2, Spider-man 2, Scooby Doo 2, Stuart Little 2 – being released that summer (2002)...

The Ghost of Drawings Past: Episode Three

2011-07-20T16:48:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking a bit about my online presence recently, and what people can see when they search for me online. As part of this, I deleted my MySpace account which I hadn't really logged on to in over three years, because I didn't really have time to maintain it, and would prefer people get directed to my current social networking profiles. But before I did, I made sure to copy my old illustrations that I had loaded up on my profile. I posted some of these old drawings to my blog a few years ago now, but here are a few more that I didn't previously post.

Band On The Run

So this was one of the first images I posted online I think. A drawing for my friend's brother's band... I'm not sure if they're even still together now... And I forget the name of their band. But I like the limited colour!

ASBO Koala

A drawing I did for my friend Mel. I often would ask people for suggestions of things to draw...

The Lion, The Which? And The Wardrobe

My friend Janice suggested drawing Mr Tumnus being mauled by Aslan. As you do!

WTF?!?

She also suggested this drawing. But I haven't got a clue what her original suggestion actually was...

I'd rather have a bowl of JOCOpops

Jo Co gan is a talented designer/illustrator who I first met on MySpace. This was a drawing of her I did based on her profile photo at the time.

The Future's Bright...

And here's my version (bottom) of an illustration she produced (top) for the mobile phone company Orange.

Me, Myself and I...

I think this was around the time that I began drawing myself...

...and I didn't have a beard back then.

Happy Birthday Kavita

And finally, here's a birthday card I drew for my friend Kavita who was studying to become a doctor. She wasn't actually training to be a surgeon... But I think she had to do some surgery training... Or else I just thought it was a good idea for a drawing. I forget which...

Ghost Poet, Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam

2011-07-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

In amongst all the phone-hacking, job-resigning and pie-flinging that has been going on lately, the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2011 Albums of the Year nominations were announced today.

Having a look at the list of nominations, I was struck by the fact that I didn't have a clue who most of them were! Yes, I saw PJ Harvey at the Reading Festival one year and I liked her album Stories From The City, Songs From The Sea, and I have at least heard of Elbow and Adele, even if I couldn't name you any of their songs, but most of the other names on the list left me none-the-wiser...

Is Katy B related to Scary Spice? Is Tinie Tempah a dyslexic dwarf with a short fuse? And how exactly do you pronounce Gwilym Simcock's first name?

But one nomination stood out for me, based purely on the name, and immediately gave me an idea for a drawing! I have no idea what they're music sounds like (and part of me doesn't want to hear it, as I'd probably only be disappointed), but this is my illustrated impression of Ghost Poet, Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam...

In space no one can eat ice cream.

2011-07-19T19:30:00.001+01:00

I've just completed my submission for the SPACE exhibition which will be happening as part of the Cardiff Design Festival 2011 in October. They are currently taking submissions for inclusion in the show (Deadline: Monday 1 August 2011) which will then be featured on their online showcase, with selected entries being printed and exhibited at the event in October.

My illustration is entitled "In space no one can eat ice cream" – a deviation from the tagline to the Ridley Scott film Alien – and highlights the impracticalities of attempting to eat an ice cream while wearing a space helmet. I've also included a number of references to various science fiction concepts from film and television...

Endangered Creature Alphabet

2011-07-18T11:48:00.000+01:00

After a few months of maintaining radio silence, I'm pleased to finally be able to talk about my involvement in the Endangered Creature Alphabet – a collaborative project organised by Matt Witt of creaturemag, an online arts blog dedicated to displaying the work of talented upcoming and established artists.

Officially launched today, the Endangered Creature Alphabet is "an illustrated collection of 26 threatened species, drawn by 26 talented artists". And I'm one of those artists!

Responding to a message put out on Twitter back in May for artists who wanted to be involved in the project, I emailed Matt expressing my interest, and was pleased to be selected to take part.

Each of the selected artists was given a letter of the alphabet and a corresponding animal to draw. The letter selected for me was M and my designated animal was the Mandrill. I was pleased with my selection – I'm always happy to draw a monkey – and enjoyed capturing this fierce but funny-looking creature. I was slightly suprised to learn that the mandrill was facing the possible threat of extinction, which I guess is one of the aims of this project, and hopefully it will help to educate more people about the plight of endangered species.

The completed illustrations have been gathered together and collected as an e-book, alongside a foreword by John Farndon, with each page giving some insight into the level of risk that each of these animals is facing.

To view the book, click on the image below and you'll be able to read through the pages online...

I was pleased to be asked to get involved with this project and to have the chance to work with other artists from across the globe. It's great that the current boom in social networking has made it so much easier to interact with other creative people and opens up new opportunities.

Thanks to Matt Witt and Creaturemag for devising the project, and I hope that it will help to enlighten and educate people to the plight of endangered species.

Happy Birthday Mum!

2011-07-15T11:06:00.001+01:00

Today is my Mum's birthday. And as she is now 64 years old, I drew her a card based on The Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four"...

(I should probably point out that my Mum is not actually bald or an alchoholic. And she's normally tucked up in bed by quarter to three. But I did make her a cake!)

Despite the fact that she is now 64, my Mum isn't one for playing bingo and shouting at buses (or whatever it is old people normally do...).

She is a big fan of Doctor Who, and is old enough to have watched it from when it first started back in November 1963. So for her birthday I drew a picture of my Mum alongside the current Doctor Who, about to take on various bad guys from the show, and got it printed and framed...

Happy Birthday Mum! :-)

------------------------------------------------

Oh, and as a little bit of a DVD-style bonus feature, here's my initial thumbnail sketch I produced for the drawing. I was pleased of the fact that I managed to capture the idea on my first attempt...

You're Fired!

2011-07-14T01:22:00.000+01:00

I really don't watch that much television these days, but one show that I do watch religiously is The Apprentice on BBC1, which I figure is probably as close as I'll get to doing a Business Studies degree...

Anyway, after 11 weeks, they are now down to the final four contestants, and with the Final being shown this Sunday, I thought
I would do a few drawings of the remaining contestants...

(clockwise from top-left: Jim, Helen, Susan and Tom)

My money is on Susan to win! Even though she has the uncanny ability to be amazingly stupid and then brilliantly clever in a single sentence (which may well be down to the show's editing), she's shown that she knows a lot about business and also seems to be the most ambitious of the four. I like Tom, but he just doesn't seem like he could actually run a business. Jim is too manipulative of other people and Helen... I don't really have any opinion about Helen. She's been on the winning team the most number of times, but I don't think that's always been particularly due to her contribution.

Anyway, apologies for anyone who reads this blog and doesn't watch The Apprentice... but it IS my blog, so stop your moaning! x

**UPDATE**
Tom won.

Howling Mad Murdoch!

2011-07-13T22:00:00.000+01:00

Look what they writed...

2011-07-11T12:11:00.000+01:00

I'm currently working on a couple of projects which I can't quite blog about yet, so things are likely to be a bit quiet from me over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the Illustration Rally website has just posted an extremely flattering Artist Feature all about me, which you can read here!

Thanks very much to Natsuki Otani and everyone at Illustration Rally. After you've finsihed reading all about me, you should definitely take some time to have a look around the site as they have a lot of interesting features and really amazing artwork. Plus they've done a lot of great work in support of the Japanese Tsunami Appeal with their Ganbare Nippon appeal. I'm really happy to be featured on their site...

**UPDATE**
I was browsing through the stats for my website earlier to see where the traffic to my site was coming from and was amazed to discover another article about me and my work over on the Comics Alliance website! It was posted a few months ago, but this was the first I'd heard of it. I guess online articles are like buses, you wait ages for one and then two come along at once!

HP7.2 (Harry Potter and the Half-Cut Prince)

2011-07-05T22:36:00.000+01:00

The final Harry Potter film is released very soon and in an interview with GQ magazine, Daniel Radcliffe has revealed how he recently gave up drinking after becoming increasingly dependent on alcohol during the filming of the last few films in the franchise.

Obviously, alchoholism IS a serious subject, but I can't help imagining what a drunk Harry Potter would be like...

Born On the Fourth of July

2011-07-04T15:01:00.000+01:00

Today is the Fourth of July – Independence Day – a public holiday in the United States, where they celebrate the time that the actor Will Smith saved Earth from an alien invasion...

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends!

Happy Birth Day Isla!

2011-07-03T23:59:00.000+01:00

Recently my friend Shirlene gave birth to an adorable baby girl and I decided to draw her little cartoon to celebrate the special occassion...

Happy Birthday Mr Flintham!

2011-06-21T00:08:00.001+01:00

Today was my friend Tom's 30th birthday. To celebrate we went and did bowling in the Trocodero, played Mario Kart Arcade and then went to have a look in the children's book section of Waterstones.

Me and Tom both got a Nintendo 3DS a few months ago and have been playing Super Street Fighter IV online against each other. So I decided to draw him a Street Fighter-themed card...

Emmy The Great: no relation of Tony The Tiger...

2011-06-16T18:27:00.000+01:00

This week I have mostly been listening to Virtue, the new album from Emmy The Great. I was also lucky enough to see Emma-Lee Moss and her band play live at St Pancras Old Church last Friday, and at an acoustic gig at Rough Trade East on Tuesday, both of which were awesome!

Anyway, here is my cover version of the album cover. Who doesn't love playing with dinosaurs...?

Happy Birthday Agustin!

2011-06-15T00:42:00.001+01:00

Today was my friend Agustin's birthday. We've been working together on a comic book called Rock The Boat which will be published later this year – he's doing the artwork and I'm working on the lettering and speech bubbles. Anyway, for his birthday I decided to draw a card featuring the main characters from the comic...

The Apathetic Adventures of Bob The Great

2011-06-14T01:28:00.001+01:00

R.I.P. Zippy... :-(

2011-06-08T18:59:00.001+01:00

Earlier today I saw the news that actor and voice-artist Roy Skelton had died at the age of 79.

As well as providing the voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who during the Seventies and Eighties, Roy was perhaps most well-known for being the voice of the characters of Zippy and George in the children's television programme Rainbow.

I liked watching Rainbow when I was a kid...

Happy Birth Day Olive!

2011-06-07T18:55:00.001+01:00

I'm making quite a few baby cards lately! My friend's Chris and Vicky recently became first-time parents to baby Olive. Me and Chris studied Typography & Graphic Communication for our BA course and lived together during our final year. He's skilled in identifying typefaces and knows when to use a ligature, skills I thought he might like to pass on to his daughter with some typographic building blocks (they're never too young to learn!)...

Flimsy the Kitten

2011-06-06T20:24:00.000+01:00

The uber-talented Rachael Smith recently reached 1000 posts on her excellent Flimsy the Kitten blog and to celebrate she's featuring a series of guest-posts by other illustrators and fans. And starting the whole thing off is ME!

I decided to go with a movie-theme. Can you name these films? I'm posting my images below, but you should definitely head over to Rachael's blog to check out more of her Flimsy comics. They're ace!

Attack The Blog: Life imitating art...?

2011-06-06T19:33:00.000+01:00

Way back in January, I posted on this blog about all the layout changes being implemented on Facebook, and included a self-portrait inspired by Shephard Fairey's "Hope" poster featuring Barack Obama.

I liked this image and, after changing the text at the bottom, I used it on the cover of a 12-page booklet I designed to send out to publishers and magazines in order to promote my illustration work...

Yesterday I was attending a wedding and was wearing a suit with a red tie, and it suddenly seemed as though my real life was imitating my drawing...

Attack The Blog: Congratulations Joe & Yu-Hsuan

2011-06-06T19:17:00.000+01:00

Yesterday my friends Joe and Yu-Hsuan got married in Blackheath. I made them a card, but unfortunately the weather didn't turn out to be as nice as in my picture... Still it was a good day!

Attack The Blog: Happy Birthday Katie!

2011-06-06T18:24:00.000+01:00

Last week it was my friend Katie's birthday. She plays a mean game of Scrabble, so I made this drawing for her...

Attack The Blog: Bridge Over The River Thames

2011-06-06T17:53:00.000+01:00

My friend Loraine commissioned me to draw a picture as a engagement present for her sister and her husband-to-be. She already had an idea in mind, which featured them fishing for cupcakes off of the Albert Bridge. As you do.

I wasn't familiar with the Albert Bridge, but one quick google-search later, I found out it was a combination cable-stayed / suspension / beam bridge connecting Chelsea and Battersea. Isn't technology marvelous! It's also quite a tricky bridge to draw with all those cables and beams, but after a day spent scribbling, I think I managed to capture it quite well.

Attack The Blog: Happy Birth Day William!

2011-06-06T17:07:00.000+01:00

Yikes! It's been a while since I last updated my blog, but I've finally managed to find some time to sit down and post some new work. The next couple of posts will feature some of the things that I've been working on in my absence, and a couple of other drawings that I couldn't upload before. There are still one or two things that I can't talk about just yet, but hopefully I'll be able to post about them very soon...

So off we go then!

Towards the end of March, my friend Laura gave birth to a baby boy called William – which is her dad's name, not anything to do with the Royal Wedding in case you were wondering!

I made her a card to celebrate featuring William going for a ride on the back of Laura's dog Pippa (partly because I sometimes think it would be quite fun to be able to ride around on a dog, like a horse...).

Last week I went over to visit Laura, which was my first time to see the baby. And I realised that he had blue eyes, not brown eyes as I had drawn them on the card. So for this post I've corrected that in Photoshop! Isn't technology marvelous...?!?

Faster than a speeding lawsuit...

2011-05-24T01:21:00.000+01:00

Website Updated!

2011-05-17T00:00:00.000+01:00

I've been busy with a few different projects lately, so haven't posted on here for the past week. Normal service will be resumed shorltly, but in the meantime, I've just finished updating my website over at paulshinndraws.com. Please take a few minutes to have a look...

Thanks!

Happy Birthday Roger Hargreaves!

2011-05-09T23:42:00.001+01:00

Roger Hargreaves is best known as the creator of the Mr. Men. He sadly passed away in September 1988, but today would have been his 76th birthday, and to celebrate his work, the search engine Google today featured 16 different Mr. Men-themed illustrations on their home page.

I loved the Mr. Men books as a child – my personal favourites were Mr. Tickle and Mr. Bump – and there's still something very endearing about the characters that Hargreaves created, and I wanted to draw something myself to mark the occasion.

So here's my own Mr. Men drawing, a homage to Jack Kirby's cover to Fantastic Four #1...