Little White Lies' Breaking Bad Creative Brief

Having had a couple of jobs cancelled in recent weeks, I found myself with a bit of time on my hands and, while surfing the internet, discovered that Little White Lies were running a Breaking Bad Creative Brief to design a piece of artwork based on your favourite scene from the series. The winner will receive a 55" TV and a complete set of the Ralph Steadman designed Steelbook Blu-rays of the series, which look lovely!

Anyway, having watched the whole series early last year I thought I'd give it a go, and created an image based on, possibly, my favourite episode of the series: Fly (series 3, episode 10)...

Woody Allen Sketchathon

Earlier this week, Little White Lies magazine announced a Woody Allen Sketchathon on their Twitter feed to tie in with his new film Blue Jasmine. By 12m the next day, the brief was to produce a black-and-white sketch inspired by Woody Allen, either as himself or as a character played by Allen in one of his films.

I decided to have a go, and drew a portrait of Woody Allen and decide to include the "What, Me Worry?" motto of Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine, as it seemed to fit quite well with Woody Allen's neurotic persona...

Gangster Squad #sketchathon

I was doing some work this afternoon with my laptop on in the background, when I saw a tweet about the latest Sketchathon brief from Little White Lies magazine (@LWLies) - to draw any character from the upcoming film Gangster Squad, with the winning sketch receiving two tickets to see the film. As I hadn't properly started what I was already working on, I decided to drop what I was doing and give it a go!

I decided to draw Grace Faraday (played by Emma Stone, who was also Gwen Stacy in the recent Amazing Spider-man reboot). After a few failed attempts which didn't quite capture her look, I was finally happy with this attempt which I drew using a brush pen and then scanned and added some limited colour in Photoshop, and finished just a few minutes before the deadline!



The winner will be announced tomorrow. Let's see... But I enjoyed it as a drawing exercise, whatever the result. I was quite pleased with the results I achieved by drawing with the brush pen, which I've struggled with in the past.

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...

Little White Lies Creative Brief

To tie in with the release of Matthew Vaughn’s movie, Kick-Ass, based on Mark Millar’s comic-book series of the same name, Little White Lies set a competition to take the film of your choice and re-imagine it in the form of a comic, within a single six-panel page.

After wracking my brains trying to decide what film to use, I finally decided (for reasons I can't quite explain) on David Fincher's Fight Club.

All entries had to be black and white, and also had to fit within the set panel template, which was an interesting limitation to be faced with. It was also a challenge to condense the essence of the film into just 6 panels, and as a result I ditched some of the less relevant sub-plots and characters. As Edward Norton's character in the film provides a constant narration to the events, I decided to avoid using speech bubbles, and instead use narration boxes to capture the tone of the movie...

I'm happy with the final result and enjoyed working on this project... The best selected entries will be included in a special digital edition of the magazine, and the winning entry will be printed in a full-page of the next issue of Little White Lies...Fingers crossed!

Late Night Blogging: Where The Wild Things Are

Okay, so it's 3am and I really need to go to sleep, but I've spent the evening working on an illustration for a competition run by Little White Lies magazine, to design a cover based around the forthcoming Where The Wild Things Are film, which is adapted from the classic Maurice Sendak children's story. The selected designs will be printed in the magazine and featured on the website, plus there's a top secret prize for the best entry!

The only specifications are that you have to include the white title circle which is part of the magazine's layout, and you must also include the words "The Where The Wild Things Are issue" on the cover, but in any way you like.

As I often read the original book when I was a kid, and am really looking forward to seeing the film, I decided to put pen to paper and channel my inner Wild Thing. I decided upon the idea fairly quickly, and am pleased with the final result...