Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone that has looked at my blog this year. I've hoped you've enjoyed it and hope that you all have a great xmas!



I came up with the idea for my Christmas card after seeing this year's xmas advert from John Lewis and wondering what would happen if Mr Snowman didn't put quite so much thought into his present buying...



SEASON'S GREETINGS! :)

Happy Birthday Mega Man!

Today is the 25th Anniversary of the first Mega Man game from Capcom. When I was younger, I remember playing Mega Man 3 on the NES and thinking that it had The Best Video Game Music Ever, and even making up songs to go with the soundtrack. To celebrate this occasion I decided to have a go at creating my own pixel art image...

Movillustration – This is the end/Beautiful friend

So Movember is now over and so is my Movillustration challenge, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK, and I somehow managed to draw 30 men with moustaches in 30 days (and just about avoided going mental during the process). Here's the last batch of images...











And here's something I put together for my Facebook Cover Image to promote my efforts, with all my moustache faces together...



You can view all my Movillustration images over at the Tumblr page I set up especially for this project: http://movillustrations.tumblr.com/ Also, if you still would like to donate for Prostate Cancer UK, you can visit my Just Giving page here: http://www.justgiving.com/movillustration

Happy Birthday Valentina!

Also last night, I popped along to my friend Valentina's drinks for her birthday. I remembered that earlier in the year, Valentina was saying how much she enjoyed the animated film Brave, so I made her this card...

Secret Santa Sketch

Last night I went to my first party of the Festive Season, Zarina's Xmas-Manga-Mexican Party, and a very good evening it was too! And we did a Secret Santa Sketch, where everyone drew a 10-15 minute A5 black and white image before the party (or during the party if you hadn't done your homework!) and then everyone's names were put in a bag and the name you picked out, you got their sketch.

Here's my Secret Santa Sketch. I decided to pick up on the Xmas and Mexican themes, which according to Zarina was part of the "rules", although she hadn't actually told any of us that part...

And I got this cute Secret Santa Sketch by naniiebim...

Spandex Black & White

I was recently asked by Martin Eden to contribute to 'Spandex Black & White' – a mini artbook that comes free with issue 7 of Spandex, the comic about a Brighton-based all-gay superteam, written and illustrated by Martin.

'Spandex Black & White' features images by 16 different artists of some of the many characters that Martin has created in the comic. Martin asked me to draw a picture of the Japanese superhero group The J-Team – Harajuku Girl, Salary Man, Geisha, Su Mo, Fuji, Facemask and Mr Tokyo – and I decided to show the team enjoying some time off from superheroics...



Spandex #7, and previous issues of the series, are available to order online for £3.20 (including postage and packaging).

Movillustration – The Final Countdown!

I'm entering into the final few days of my Movillstration challenge to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK with only 5 days left to go before the end of the month, and an end to my daily drawings of men with moustaches!

Here's an update of the drawings I've done over the last ten days...





















You can view all of my Movillustration pictures so far on my Movillustration Tumblr page, and if you want to donate some money to Prostate Cancer UK, then you can visit my Just Giving page here: http://www.justgiving.com/movillustration. Only five more daily drawings to go...

Blame Canada!

My friends Ming Xien and Arbi are leaving London to go and live in Canada very soon. I made them this card. I don't really know much about Canada...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! :)

Happy Birthday Ayano!

Last week it was my friend Ayano's birthday. She was away in Berlin for her actual birthday, but I met up with her yesterday and gave her this card which I made...

Movillustration – Halfway there!

I've reached the halfway point with my Movillustration project to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK by drawing a different moustachioed man every day for the whole month of November... and I must admit I'm starting to get a little bit tired! But I still have plenty of moustaches to keep me going until the end of the month. Here's an update since the last time I posted on here, and if you want to keep up to date with my daily drawings then you can follow my Movillustration Tumblr blog here: http://movillustrations.tumblr.com/



Fifteen down, fifteen to go! If you want to sponsor me for my ridiculous efforts and donate some money to Prostate Cancer UK, then you can visit my Just Giving page here: http://www.justgiving.com/movillustration

Hitchcock sketchathon

Earlier this afternoon I was busy drawing moustaches, when I noticed a tweet from Little White Lies magazine (@LWLies) announcing their latest #sketchathon - one hour to draw a picture of Alfred Hitchcock with the chance to win the Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection Blu-Ray. So I stopped what I was drawing and got to work on a Hitchcock sketch...

While I didn't win, my drawing did get a "Special Mention" as one of the Runners Up. It was a good exercise to take part in and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next #sketchathon...

Happy Birthday Kirsty!

Last night my friend Kirsty had a party for her birthday with the theme "Films From Our Childhood", giving me the excuse to finally live out my life-long ambition to be a Ghosbuster...



I knew ahead of the party that Kirsty was planning to go dressed as Garth from Wayne's World, so I drew her this card...

Happy Birthday Molly!

Yesterday was my friend Molly's birthday and I drew her this card...

The Sigh Heard Around The World

So this morning I woke up to the news that Barack Obama had won a second term as the President Of The United States of America, and the whole world breathed a collective sigh of relief at the fact that Mitt Romney lost.

Following Obama's election in Novmeber 2008, Marvel Comics featured the President on the variant cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #583...



The issue included a story entitled "Spidey Meets The President!" written by Mark Waid, in which Spider-Man... meets The President. It went on to sell over 350,000 copies and had five reprintings.

I guess it's time for a new cover...

Rachael Smith vs. The Wolves

Rachael Smith is an awesome illustrator/comic artist/drawer of small purple cats. She also has an equally awesome blog called One Good Thing where she draws daily comics focusing on one good thing that has happened each day - "because the little good things deserve more attention that then big bad ones". I think this is something that everybody could do with remembering every now and then.

This is a drawing I drew for Rachael...

Happy Halloween

Okay, so I got a bit behind with my blog posts recently, and one thing I missed was this illustration I did the Illustration Rally website's Halloween Rally.

On a night when kids are going out dressed up as monsters, surely it's only fair that the monsters would get to play fancy dress too...?

Movillustration

The month of November is also known as Movember, when thousands of men in the UK spend a month growing a moustache on their top lip to help raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

I wanted to do my bit for this worthwhile cause, but wasn't too keen on growing a mustache of my own, and then came up with an alternative idea: to draw a different mustachioed man every day for the whole month and raise awareness (and hopefully some money) for Prostate Cancer UK.

Today is Day Six of my Movillustration challenge and I've managed to do six drawings so far...



I've set up a Tumblr page where I'm posting a new drawing each day - http://movillustrations.tumblr.com/ - but I'll be doing a catch-up post on this blog at the end of each week.

If you've enjoyed looking at my drawings and want to sponsor the rest of my Movillustration challenge then I've set up a Just Giving page for donations: http://www.justgiving.com/movillustration

The Unexpected Consequences of Iron Overload

I was recently contacted by James Minter – who I've worked with before, producing the cover for his first novel, The Hole Opportunity – asking me to create a cover for his latest book, The Unexpected Consequences of Iron Overload.

The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kavanagh a young man who has Haemochromatosis (sometimes referred to as Iron Overload), a condition whereby the body absorbs excess amounts of iron from a person's diet.

James was diagnosed with Haemochromatosis in 2004, but rather than being a factual account of living with the condition, he's instead crafted a humorous story about what happens when Jimmy's Haemochromoatosis results in some rather unexpected consequences, including magnetic abilities which allow him to save the life of Barbara, the woman of his dreams. The cast of characters gets larger with the arrival of a pair of Russian spies, two CIA agents, and a local cafe owner who finds herself unexpectedly caught in the middle of it all.

After reading through a draft of the book, I worked at coming up with something which reflected the tone of the story, and showed some of the main characters and scenes from the novel. Two things immediately sprang to mind: James Bond and this Jim Steranko cover to Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD from Marvel Comics...



Taking these two things as a starting point, and with some suggestions from James about which elements to include on the cover, I produced this rough sketch to show what I was thinking...



James was happy with my initial layout, although he thought that Jimmy looked a bit too suave and sophisticated in his tuxedo. After a bit of thinking I suggested that we get rid of his trousers, keeping the Bond-esque visual at first glance, but as you pan down the image it becomes more farcical. James was in agreement, so I went ahead and produced the final illustrations for the front and back cover...



The Unexpected Consequences of Iron Overload is available to buy through Amazon in both paperback and ebook editions.