Sketchbook Scribbles #1: X-men

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

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!

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

Happy Birthday Laura!

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!

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

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

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

Secret 7" competiton

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!

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!

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)

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!

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)

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!

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!

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)

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!

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

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...