Illustration Friday: Peace

I've been pretty busy recently working on Secret Things, so I wanted to unwind a little just drawing something stupid. This week's Illustration Friday topic was "Peace"...



Erm, yeah...

Illustration Friday: Bottled

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Bottled.

While I was thinking this over, my brain went through the following chain of thoughts:

Bottled... Ship in a Bottle... Ship Wreck... Ship Wreck in a Bottle...

Illustration Friday: Duet

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Duet.

duet n

1. (Music, other) a musical composition for two performers

2. an action or activity performed by a pair of closely connected individuals

Illustration Friday: Toy

First I have a confession to make. I didn't do last week's Illustration Friday topic which was Cultivate because, to be honest, I couldn't think of anything to do for it...

Anyway, this week's Illustration Friday theme is Toy.

I did think of drawing something with teddy bears or lego people, but then I thought back to when I was a kid and decided I had to draw...

SKELETOR!!!!



They don't make toys like that anymore!

Illustration Friday: Stir

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Stir.

"Stir Crazy" is a term that originally refered to a prisoner who became mentally unbalanced because of prolonged incarceration, although it has now become used to refer to anybody who becomes restless as a result of being stuck in one place for too long.

This poor prisoner has gone completely Stir Crazy...!

Illustration Friday: Warning

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Warning. Maybe it was because I've been posting some of my old drawings recently, but this made me think of a comic strip I drew back when I was at University doing my BA course. Like a lot of stuff I drew then, I didn't keep it, but I still remembered the idea, which seemed quite appropriate for this week's theme, so I decided to recreate it...

Illustration Friday: Swarm

This week's Illustration Friday theme was Swarm.

Uh-oh! This little bee is as angry as an entire swarm!



And here's a close-up of the swarm of bees in the lettering...

Illustration Friday: Layer

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Layer.

I was a bit stuck for ideas this week, but then while I was doing another illustration, I suddenly realised that I'm always using Layers...in Photoshop!









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And incase you were wondering, this was what I drew for last week's Illustration Friday, which could also be used this week...

Illustration Friday: Sweater

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Sweater.
There's nothing like wearing a thick woolen sweater on a sunny day to make you perspire...

Illustration Friday: Reverse

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Reverse.

I took a little while to come up with something again this week, but then this little comic entered my head on the tube this morning...

Illustration Friday: Surrender

Illustration Friday: Dusty

Okay please bear with me...

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Dusty. As I've decided to go with the very first thing that comes into my head upon seeing each week's theme, the word Dusty immediately made me think of Dusty Bin!

For the uninitiated, Dusty Bin (as the name suggests) was an anthropomorphic rubbish bin who appeared on the UK television game show 3-2-1, which appeared on ITV for ten years between 1978 and 1988. As well as being the mascot for the show, the losing contestants each week would win their own Dusty Bin to take home.

Anyway, all of which brings me to my drawing for this week's theme. A slightly melancholic image of Dusty Bin dusting and dreaming of happier times...

Illustration Friday: Chicken

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Chicken.

The very first thing that came into my head was the scene from Back To The Future Part II, where Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) reacts to being called "Chicken"...



You can see the original scene here, and if you haven't watched all three Back To The Future films before, then you really should do.

Illustration Friday: Déjà-vu

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Déjà-vu.

Déjà-vu – meaning "already seen" – is the sensation of feeling sure that you've already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined.

When I was a child, I use to experience moments of Déjà-vu quite often. I would suddenly get an uncanny sense that I'd experienced a moment before, hearing a familiar conversation or viewing a scene I'd witnessed before. It usually only occured for a few seconds, yet in all these cases, there was no possible way I could have seen or heard these things in the exact same way before. It's hard to describe the sensation. As I grew older, these moments became a lot less frequent, but recently I have begun experiencing them again from time to time.

Earlier last year I went to Brighton for the day with some friends, and while we were sitting on the beach, I suddenly had a sense that I'd experienced this exact moment before, sat on Brighton beach with these exact same people, and hearing the conversation that was taking place. All of which finally brings me to my drawing for this week's Illustration Friday theme, which was an attempt to capture my own personal moment of Déjà-vu...



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BONUS FRIDAY:

While I was producing this illustration, I was thinking a lot about the concept of Déjà-vu, and the sensation of feeling as though you've experienced something before, and I got an idea for another illustration for this theme.

Surely, with their supposed 3-second memories*, goldfish must spend their whole life with a feeling of Déjà-vu...



*Apparently, goldfish don't actually have 3-second memories. According to The Internet, it is more likely between 3–6 months.

Illustration Friday: Resolutions

One of my aims for 2011 is to really focus on my illustration work, and to this end I've decided to resume taking part in Illustration Friday – a weekly illustration challenge, where a new topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation of that week's theme. It's a good exercise to do, and I plan to take part every week during 2011.

This week's theme is Resolutions.
Hopefully everyone can achieve a small triumph of their own...

Illustration Friday: Fearless

So I decided to take a break from shamelessly online promotion of my new website (paulshinndraws.com!!) to tackle this week's Illustration Friday topic which is Fearless. After a bit of head-scratching, I eventually came up with a slightly tenuous solution, featuring Daredevil, The Man Without Fear, riding on a Ghost Train...



...well, it made me laugh!

Illustration Friday: Ahead

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Ahead.

So I decided to draw a head...



Thank you and good night!

Illustration Friday: Detective

It's been a while since I've done any drawing – what with going to Barcelona and working on my website – but I wanted to get back to it, and this week's Illustration Friday topic seemed a good starting point. This week's theme is detective, which makes me think of two things: Sherlock Holmes and Batman! So I decided to draw Holmes taking a break from all his detectiving (is that a word? If not, it should be!), and sitting back and reading a copy of Detective Comics #27, featuring the first appearance of Batman... Elementary, my dear Watson!

Illustration Friday: Frozen

So, this week's Illustration Friday topic is Frozen. I had a few ideas for this one, but kept coming back to the saying "When Hell freezes over", used to suggest that something is unlikely ever to happen. But what if Hell did freeze over? Could this be the ultimate impact of Climate Change...

Illustration Friday: Germs

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Germs.

Initially, I wasn't really struck by the topic, but after a little while spent scribbling ideas down on a sheet of paper, I came up with this comic about two germ viruses.

I'm not really sure why I went with the vertical layout, it just seemed to work better in this instance than a traditional horizontal layout, or a square block...