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.

My First Sleeping Beauty

I spotted a competition online to create a poster for the English National Ballet's performance of My First Sleeping Beauty, the first in a series of classic ballets for children, which will tour the UK in 2012. I was scribbling down some ideas, and came up with this image of a sleeping ballerina, happily dreaming, but continuing to dance. How professional! ...



The chosen poster design will have extra information added to it, including performance dates and times, and company logos, so I decided to keep it quite minimal and not include too much superfluous detail.

The winning entry will be chosen by the English National Ballet along with cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe on the 21 September. There will also be an online vote from 1–7 September, with the top voted entries given special consideration during the final selection.

So if you like my image, please head over to the talenthouse website and cast your vote!

Drawn This Way competition

I spotted on Twitter earlier that Lady Gaga has been announced as a new columnist for V Magazine, and they are running a competition where the winning illustration of her will be featured alongside the column.

For some reason, I thought I'd submit an illustration, even though I'm fairly sure they won't end up chosing this as the winning entry...

Colour Me Totem

Here is my submission to Inkygoodness' Colour Me Totem creative project to create your own Character Totem.

My creation is called Totem-Khamun. This poor wooden totem doesn't look too happy to see that hungry woodpecker though...

If you want to create your own, you can view the template and submission details here.

H&M Design Competiton

I recently entered a competition to design a poster for H&M's Recruitment Event at the University of Arts London, in collaboration with Arttemps. The winner gets a paid commission to produce their poster design, plus £100 of H&M vouchers.

Here's the draft version I submitted...

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...