Blog-Me-Do Part 7: Portrait Commission

My friends Anna and Paul got married last year and commissioned me to draw a picture of them and their parents at the wedding, which they could have framed and give to them as presents. They sent me a reference photo from the wedding. This was a fun job. I've drawn both Paul and Anna before for cards I've given them, but it was a challenge to draw a good likeness of their parents. I'm very pleased with the final image and happily so were their parents.

Blog-Me-Do Part 6: Revenge of The Herd

Sometimes working as a Freelance Illustrator you can end up with some quite surprising jobs. This one rates pretty high in the "Wait! You want me to draw what?" categories.

In June last year I received an email from a woman in the US with a commission request. They wanted me to draw a cartoon for their kids' pediatrician in the style of The Far Side one panel comics. They were quite clear in what they wanted me to draw: the pediatrician walking down a dark alley, and a bunch of kids waiting to jab her with needles containing vaccines. The reason behind it was that her pediatrician had said that she experiences feelings of guilt when she is injecting vaccines and making children cry and jokingly commented that one day her kids may come back for revenge. The caption at the bottom of the picture: "Revenge of the Herd."

Initially, it seemed a bit of an odd request. Something about drawing a bunch of kids waiting to stick needles into someone walking down an alleyway seemed a little bit ...odd. But after reading my client's email explaining the story, it made more sense, and also it was an interesting challenge to draw without it coming off as too creepy. I think I succeeded...

Blog-Me-Do Part 2: House of Cards

Another thing that I don't get as much time to do as I once did, is making cards for friends and family for birthdays and other special occasions.

I still enjoy being able to do it, and it's always a fun challenge to come up with a new idea for a card for someone that I've known for a long time and already made a bunch of cards for, but it's also quite time consuming, so isn't always possible when I have other work demands and deadlines. But I did manage to still make more than a few cards in 2017. I've already blogged a few of them at the start of last year, but here are the others...

My Mum really enjoyed the all-female Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 (and so did I), so I drew her this card for Mother's Day:


My friend Saul is a big fan of My Little Pony, especially Pinky Pie, so I drew this card for his birthday:


I'm not sure I can really explain this card for my friend Jon. He loved it though!


This was a slightly odd commission that I received last year, where someone emailed me and asked me to recreate a Venice-themed birthday card that I drew for my friend Jess in 2013 that they'd seen online, but with their son in Jess's place...


My friends Anna and Paul got married last year, and here's a card I made for them:


My Dad loves cutting the hedge in the garden, and wants to do it most weekends, so I drew him this card for Father's Day...


My Mum was 70 last year! And here's a card I made for her:


This was a commission to draw a card for friends of my brother's fiancee, who were gettting married in Spain...


My friend Kate was 30 last year and enjoys playing the banjo, so here's a card I drew for her:


A birthday card for my Dad:


My parents celebrated their 40th Ruby Wedding Anniversary on New Year's Eve, so I drew this Red-hued card for them:


And finally, my Christmas card that I made for 2017:

So long Steve!

Pretty much ever since I started going there regularly since it moved to it's current location on Berwick Street in Soho, Steve Walsh has been working behind the counter at Gosh! Comics. And now he's left and moved to Ireland. It feels like the end of an era.

As well as working at the shop and having an encyclopedic knowledge for comics, Steve also played a large part in building a community around the shop, and in recent years ran the Capers superhero discussion group and, along with Oliver O'Keefe, the monthly comic book reading group Reads. When it became clear that Steve was leaving, Ollie had the idea of commissioning me to draw an illustration that we could give to Steve as a present featuring the various members of the group. I thought it would be a good idea to do it as a homage to a classic comic book cover. Ollie wanted to reference Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, but I suggested Uncanny X-men #138 instead.

Here's the finished piece:



And here's a photo of Steve after we gave it to him:



Good luck in Ireland Steve. And to quote the classic X-men cover-line: "Hope you survive the experience"!

Cards Of Christmas Past

I was contacted by Pascale in November last year to draw a few Christmas cards for members of her family. She already had quite clear ideas of the design for each of the cards, so it was a fairly straightforward process.

First up was a card for her nephew(?), who I had previously been commissioned to draw a birthday card for earlier in the year:



Then there was a card for her boyfriend's two nieces:



And finally a card for her boyfriend, featuring the pair of them:



I also took part in The House Of Illustration's Illustrators' Christmas Fair in December (more of which, later!) and designed my own Xmas cards to sell at the event and to send out to friends and family afterwards:

Olive and Jake portrait

My friend Chris recently commissioned me to draw a portrait of his daughter Olive and her friend Jake...

Card commission

I wanted to share a recent commission I worked on to draw a birthday/house-warming card. This was a fun job and the client was thankfully very clear in what they wanted, providing lots of photos for reference. I was pleased with the final result, and happily so were they!

Happy Birthday Clare!

My friend Jess commissioned me to draw a card for her friend Clare's birthday. The last couple of years, I have made Jess a birthday card based on the covers of Hanson albums, because she loves Hanson. And it turns out (surprisingly!) that she's not the only one, and her friend's Tash and Clare are also fans of Hanson. And so Jess wanted me to draw a card for Clare, also including her and Tash, and based on the cover to the band's Shout It Out album...

Happy Anniversary Elizabeth and James

My friend Elizabeth commissioned me to draw a portrait of her and James as a present for their five-year anniversary. She sent me a lot of photos for reference, plus notes about hair, clothes and glasses, and I was pleased with how it turned out (and happily, so were they!)...