Here's (more than) one I prepared earlier...

I've been busy recently working on something which I can't reveal just yet, so haven't had time to blog a couple of other things which I've done in the meantime. So consider this a catch-up post to bring me up-to-date. So here we go...!

Firstly, it was my friend Chrys's birthday almost a month ago (which just shows how long it's been since I've done a proper blog post!). After our work Christmas party we went to this bar in Soho where they serve cocktails in teapots, so I drew this picture for her birthday. And as we work at the National Gallery, I also took some inspiration from Caravaggio's technique of chiaroscuro, using strong contrasts between light and dark, and used a dark(ish) colour for the background...



Speaking of the National Gallery, when I was working last week, I found myself in a room closed off to visitors while technicians worked on the lighting. With little to do while I was there, other than keeping an eye on the paintings, I found a scrap of paper and a pencil in my pocket and did a quick sketch of Andrea Previtali's Salvator Mundi (1519)...



Next up, Little White Lies ran an 8-bit Creative Brief to draw a Start Screen for a fictional Disney video game using MS Paint, with the chance to win an iPad mini. I designed a screen for an ice-skating game featuring Bambi, but sadly didn't win. Still it was fun doing some old school digital drawing!



Sometimes ideas pop into your head at the most unexpected moments, and while I was chatting online with my friend Janice the other week, I came out with an especially pointless bit of conversation which just seemed perfect to turn into a comic strip (and quoted word for word!)...



I've made no secret of the fact that I love penguins, and I really enjoyed the recent BBC television series Penguins – Spy in the Huddle, three episodes featuring footage of penguins filmed using spycams to capture never-before-seen moments. After watching the final episode I drew this drawing of an Emperor Penguin and a chick...



It was my friend Zarina's birthday last week, and to celebrate I drew a picture of one of her characters from her new webcomic The Higgs...



And finally, for now, it was my friend Ireeni's birthday on Friday. She's recently been posting a lot of photos on Facebook of various gastronomic delights that she's cooked at home, so I drew her this card...

Happy Birthday Alyana!

It was my friend Alyana's birthday today. She recently told me that she had started taking violin lessons, which gave me the idea for her birthday card...

One Flew Over The Penguin's Nest: The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2011

So as well as the i newspaper's Comic Idol competition, I have also been working on my entry for this year's The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Competition. I completed my 4-page comic story yesterday ahead of the deadline this Friday, and here is the result...

I enjoyed the challenge of producing a longer comic story, and am pleased with the final result. I came up with the idea for this story after reading news reports back in June about an Emperor penguin that arrived on a beach in New Zealand after supposedly getting lost while swimming from the Antarctic. Then I started thinking: What if he wasn't lost, and really wanted to go to New Zealand to get away from the Antarctic?

The winning entry will be printed in The Observer newspaper on Sunday 6 November.

The Scottish Penguin

I was recently contacted about a commission by Sarah Christie who – in her own words on her Twitter page – is a "London based, IT working, gig going, penguin obsessed Scottish person" and also makes things. She is currently in the process of setting up an online shop in order to sell some of her craft work under the title of The Scottish Penguin and after seeing my recent penguin comics online, wanted me to design a Scottish penguin that she could use on her blog and online shop.

I had a bit of a think and came up with a few initial sketches based around the idea of Scottish-ness...



Obviously, some of them were a bit more serious than others, but it at least gave us a starting point. Sarah liked the idea of a tartan penguin. She also suggested trying something using The Saltire. I must confess to being a bit unsure of what this was, but one google-search later and I was sat at my computer going "Oh! The Scottish flag!".

I did try out using The Saltire, but the results made it look like the penguin was a member of the Marvel Comics mutant group X-Factor (Nothing to do with Simon Cowell!)...


So deciding to focus on the tartan design, I worked on creating a tartan pattern that Sarah was happy with, and finally came up with The Scottish Penguin!



You can visit The Scottish Penguin online shop here!

Warm Greetings!

(Special thanks to Arina for the inspiration for the second part of this image!)

I Love London

It's been a while since my last blog post, and that's because I've been busy working on a series of images for a book project I'm working on with a group of people from my illustration course. The idea was for each of us to choose a different area of London and then produce a short narrative across two spreads. The images should feature animal characters.

For my submission, I decided to focus on the West End of London, specifically Charing Cross train station, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden market and Big Ben. My story follows the adventures of a small penguin visiting the city for the day...

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I came to London on the train, when I arrived it began to rain...


I hurried towards Trafalgar Square, the lion statue gave me a scare!


To Covent Garden next, I popped. Fortunately, the rain had stopped.


Before I left, I saw Big Ben. I cannot wait to come to London again!!


Finally, here is a spot illustration I created for the index page...


I've really enjoyed drawing the buildings in these images, and coming up with different animal characters to populate the scenes. It's also been fun adding little details like the animal-based advertisements on the buses...

Sneak Preview

I don't often do this, but I'm currently working on a project, and while it is not yet finished, I'm really happy with how things are progressing, so wanted to share it with the world (well, anyone who bothers to read this blog...)!



I still have some details to add to the drawing before applying colour to the image, but the general composition is pretty much complete. I'm enjoying the challenge of incorporating my cartoon figures within a real world setting, and am also rediscovering a fascination with drawing cityscapes and architectural detailing.

It really is nice to be pleasantly surprised by my own work...