Spidey Toot

Vector vs. Freehand

I'm a huge fan of vector art and have constantly been told by people that my work would translate well to vector images. I've been meaning to give it a go but it's being able to take the time to learn Illustrator (I use Photoshop) and try and perfect a new technique. There's just one problem I have with vector work and that is that it seems to really be dominating the illustration and design industry at the moment so what would possibly make mine stand out if I went vector?

The fact is, I love the hand drawn look. I love wonky lines and a slightly "imperfect" look as I think it has a charm that vectorisation just can't capture. But then comes the question: Am I shooting myself in the foot by not jumping on the vector bandwagon and sticking with freehand work? This has been a big worry for me over the last few months as vector work is used everywhere. I recently had a meeting with the company Trunki and voiced this concern and was told not to change my artistic style as it worked very well. I was glad they said this as it meant they chose to see me based on my style.

Does anyone else feel the same about their artwork? I feel I'd lose something if I vectorised everything but maybe that's what clients want at the moment; a more uniform look to artwork than wobbly lines.

Any comments on this would be very much appreciated!

Commissions!

I am currently open for commissioned artwork, prices of which are listed below! If you are interested in anything, please send me an email. I'm pretty open to requests but won't consider anything of an adult or dodgy nature! I'm also open to any fanart commissions (famous last words) but these would probably be drawn similar to the fanart that exists in my DeviantArt gallery. Please take a look in my gallery to get an idea of the kind of work I do!

Price list:

5x5 inch deep-edge original canvas painting - £12

8x8 inch deep-edge original canvas painting - £25

Any canvas size bigger than 8x8 inches, please note me with details of what you want and we'll sort something out. Prices range from £25 - £100.

Pen and ink + digitally coloured A4 print (high quality paper) - £10

If you want anything more specific to what is already listed, please send me an email; the above list is by no means final!

Gimme Radishes Pattern

I love radishes...

Ghostie Pattern

Woo, ghosts! In a never ending pattern!

Space Cute Pattern

My first attempt at a simple repeat pattern. Don't stare too long; you might go blind!

Radiation Dude

He doesn't have many friends. None that live long enough anyway...

Little Vampire

Not to be confused with Eddie Munster...!

Cactus, Fat Bird and Anteater Notecard Designs

Little Dino Notecard Design

Daredevil #8 Covered!

Here's my go at Daredevil #8 for Covered!

Everything Must Be Cute

I did some little pics of Hellboy and Marvel characters last year because who can resisit doing their own take on well-known characters? Here they are for those who may not have seen them!

Head Cheese on paper!

Possible Character Designing for Trunki!

I was contacted last week by Trunki after they'd seen my work at the Bristol Design Festival and went in for a meeting today to show them my work. Hopefully I may be doing some designs for them for their Yondi travel pillow (pic above) as they want to re-brand the range. I'm keeping all of my crossable bits crossed that they'll send me a brief and ask for some samples; the meeting seemed to go pretty well and if anything, I may have babbled a bit and got a bit too enthusiastic at times (I started to gush about Ren and Stimpy at one point...groan...!). Let's hope they took that as a good thing!

Covered!

I have totally fallen in love with Covered; an awesome blog about artists drawing their own version of classic comic book covers. The blog's been about for a while and I've seen a few covers by people but only had a good look on the site the other day and it's amazing! There are some really fantastic covers where people have just gone to town with their own interpretations which I think work the best (I LOVE the Amazing Fantasy one below!)

So I thought I'd have a go at one too and did Daredevil #8! I can't post it until it's been on Covered (just so it not on lots of places over the web until it's been featured) but it will be up sometime this week so have a look and see what you think! Here are some of my favourites so far:

I think I'm already hooked on this because I've got a Swamp Thing cover I'm going to draw and submit too...!

Note Card Design

Design Festival aftermath!

These are terrible pictures I took of my display at the design festival so apologies for that; it looked a lot better in real-life! I won a 2nd place award for best 2D Design on the opening night which was a huge surprise! Well, the Festival is over for this year and I have to say, it was so much more awesome than I thought it would be. I joined a bit last minute so wasn't really sure what to expect and how much space I would have but it was a really decent space and I could've made a lot more of it. Next year I'm going all-out and will hopefully have a REALLY awesome display! The BDF Blog wrote a very cool little snippet about my display here ; it's been so cool that people who haven't seen my work people really responded to it at the Festival; apparently, my stand went down a storm with all-ages which is a fantastic thing to hear!

Packing up yesterday, I had a stack of comments left on my notepad from people who liked my stuff and I was really chuffed to read some of them! One in particular from a 13 year-old called Lucy was so nice!

I also received an email that could potentially be very exciting but I'll say more about that after next Tuesday if anything comes of it. Fingers crossed!

Forest Sasquatch

Snow Monster

More Colour Sketchbook pics

Colour Sketchbook Doodle

Bristol Design Festival!

This last week has been a flurry of activity to get ready for the Bristol Design Festival which opened last night. It was really awesome; a lot of people turned up and my display had a great reception. An unexpected surprise turned up in the form of a second place award for best 2D Design! The stands were judged by six professional designers (I'm not sure who) but to have people who had never seen my work before give me an award for it was a great boost. I'll definitly attend next year and now that I know what to expect, will make a really big display with lots more stuff! It's on until the 11th of June so if you're about please drop by as there is some awesome work on display.

Sketchbook Stuff

A few pages from my current sketchbook scanned in and fiddled with slightly to make them look a bit less boring!

Notebook Doodle