Happy Birthday Nadia!

As well as enjoying the amazing sunshine we've had in London this weekend, I also went to my friend Nadia's birthday party in a bar next to the river in Richmond (even though her birthday is actually on Wednesday, so it was all a bit premature...). Anyway, here's a card I drew for her...

Elephants on Parade!

So I've been a bit obsessed with the Elephant Parade London 2010. Raising awareness of the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant, it is an outdoor art event featuring 258 fibreglass elephants decorated by an assortment of creative artists and designers, scattered across London. I have been fascinated with seeing the elephants positioned within the city, and also observing the way in which the public reacts to them. I've been out trying to photograph all of the elephants, and posting the results over on Facebook. There's still a fair number left for me to capture, but I'm enjoying the photographic hunt.

Anyway, all of which leads me to some rather exciting drawing news! Yesterday I was informed that Amelia's Magazine had been asking on Twitter whether anyone had any photographs or illustrations of the Elephant Parade, so I sent them an email with a link to my photo album, plus informing them that I was an illustrator who was very interested in the Elephant Parade and would really like to produce an illustration. A few emails later, and I was hard at work producing an illustration to send to them by first thing this morning. One slightly sleepless night later, and I came up with an image featuring a group of elephants from the Parade riding around in one of the many rickshaws that zip around Central London...



You can read the full article (which also includes some of my photographs) over at Amelia's Magazine, and also sign the petition to save the Asian elephant at the Elephant Parade London website.

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!

www.paulshinndraws.com

Cue the sound of trumpets and bring on the dancing girls!!! My website is now official online! Head on over to paulshinndraws.com and have a look!!

I've given my blog a lick of paint as well to mark the occasion, and have also created a Facebook page to help promote my new website as well as providing another way for me to keep people updated about my illustration-based activities. If you're on Facebook you can go and join my page over at http://facebook.com/paulshinndraws.

Pauly Pauly Shinn Shinn

Wow! This is my 200th post since I started this blog just over two years ago. Happy Blogday to me! Let's all have some jelly and ice-cream!!!

Anyway, last week, my talented friend Thomas Flintham decided to leave a series of rhyming messages on my Facebook page, all about me! So, in the spirit of collaboration, I decided to illustrate them...



As I said, he wrote rather a lot, so I'd like to come back to this little project again later. Watch this space...

Dino-FAIL! Happy Birthday Mel!

So, despite the fact that I had it written in my diary and on both my calenders (yes, I have two calenders. One upstairs, and one downstairs!) that her birthday was today, "apparently" it was my friend Mel's birthday yesterday (and I guess she would know best).

Anyway, mysterious date discrepancies aside, I did manage to draw her a birthday picture...



Maybe that's why the dinosaurs really became extinct – because they weren't able to reach the cake!

Illustration Dust's Monthly Challenge (April): Frankenstein

So I've recently become a part of Illustration Dust, a blog site where illustrators can upload their work to share with others. I haven't got around to uploading much work yet (I'm currently spending quite a bit of time working on my website), but I did get a chance to produce a new illustration for their Monthly Challenge. Similar to Illustration Friday except running monthly rather than weekly, each month a new topic is selected for you to upload a related image.

The theme for April is Frankenstein, so I decided to draw a thoroughly modern monster...

Illustration Friday: Ahead

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Ahead.

So I decided to draw a head...



Thank you and good night!

Paul Shinn covers Uncanny X-men #141

Hooray! My work is featured on the Covered website today! The site, run by Robert Goodin, features the work of a variety of artists reworking existing comic book covers in their own style.

I produced a version of John Bryne's cover to Uncanny X-men #141, taking the grim and gritty original from the '80s (left) and applying elements of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch for a slightly more humorous twist...

Mum's Gone To Iceland...

I'm being very topical today!

As well as the General Election, the news has been all about the erupting volcano in Iceland, which has grounded all flights into and out of the UK and most of Europe, due to fears that the volcanic ash clouds could cause problems with the jet engines on the planes.

If you're stuck overseas and unable to fly back home, or planning a trip overseas, it is a rather stressful time, not knowing when you'll be able to fly. I hope it will all get sorted out very soon!

BUT...when I read about the eruption of an volcano in Iceland, I immediately thought of this...