Warm-up sketch: Robin

I decided to do a quick sketch this morning to get me warmed-up, and ended up drawing Damian Wayne, Batman's son and the most recent Robin...

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...

Acoustic Guitar - a 69 Love Songs comic

69 Love Songs, Illustrated is an online project, curated by Julia Scheele, attempting to illustrate all of the songs from The Magnetic Fields' three-volume concept album 69 Love Songs.

I had previously discovered the project towards the end of last year, and after seeing a recent tweet from Julia asking for more contributors, I decided to attempt my own interpretation of the song Acoustic Guitar.



After listening to the song a few times I made some notes and thumbnail sketches...



...and then condensed my initial ideas into a 3 page comic offering a slightly sideways take on the original song...
(click on the pages to enlarge)



You can view all the contributions to the project so far here, and if you are interested in taking part, the list of songs still available can be found here.

Happy 20th Anniversary Starfox

Twenty years ago today, on the 21 February 1993, Star Fox was released in Japan for Nintendo's Super Famicon console and was the first game from Nintendo to use 3D polygon graphics, generated by the Super FX processor. When it was released in Europe in June that year, its name was changed to Starwing due to a trademark issue.

Five years later, Star Fox 64 – called Lylat Wars in Europe – was released for the Nintendo 64 console, and was notable for the voice acting featured in the game which included a number of memorable phrases, especially Peppy Hare's "Do a barrel roll", which eventually went on to become an Internet meme and even a hidden easter egg on the search engine Google (try searching for "Do a barrel roll"...).

So I thought I'd draw something to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Star Fox...

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year Of The Snake...

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Some days, you can just feel like everything is too much, and yet also so very far away...

Happy Birthday Bro!

It was my brother's 30th birthday on Friday. He recently attempted the Devastator Challenge at the Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton: to finish a burger consisting of three 6oz patties, 200g of pulled pork, six rashers of bacon and six slices of cheese with two sides of coleslaw and French fries, plus a milkshake in 10 minutes(!). In the end he didn't quite make it, but it gave me the idea for his card...

Richard 3: Back In Training

A skeleton uncovered by archaeologists last year in a car park in Leicester has been officially confirmed as belonging to the King of England, Richard III...

Super Bowls

Yeah...? Yeah!

Comics!

I'm not feeling that well today, but I drew this comic. It's a bit wonky looking and I'm not sure that it makes much sense, which is also kind of how I feel... (click to enlarge)