Sneaky Peek...

Here's a very vague sneak peek at one of the kid's books I'm working on at the moment! I've finished 2 of the 5 I have on at the moment, but still have 3 to slog through before the mid-Feb deadline. I'm getting there though! :P

Big Step for 2013!

Well, I've made a big step that I've been working towards since I graduated from University waaaaaaaaaay back in 2003: I've finally quit the day job and am now an officially freelance illustrator. A lot of factors have stopped this from happening sooner over the years such as not having much money after graduation, taking a few wrong turns, etc. But the last 5 years years have been pretty much nothing but solid work towards this goal and I can't believe that it's now actually happening!

2012 has been a huge year for me; I've pretty much been working on a book a month for the year, and that doesn't include my own self-published work. I got to work on a dream job (which I will be able to announce soon) which has now been extended to early 2013 and maybe (big maybe) beyond that. Hopefully this will lead to more work with the publishers in question, and it's also looking like I can justify a trip to the San Diego Comic Con next year as the publishers go every year, my books will be there (yeep!) and my partner currently works for IDW who will also be there.

I'm expecting things to get harder now that I don't have a day job to back me up, but I only see this as a challenge to work even harder than I have been and this will hopefully lead to more work in 2013. I've put in a lot of work over the last 5 years and I feel elated that it's finally paying off. There was a time when I would sit and hope that work would fall in my lap but I started to learn that the more I put in, the more I got out and that's certainly been true for the last couple of years. I've had a lot of support from my amazing partner, John-Paul Bove , who is also enjoying some success after putting a lot of hard work into his writing and colouring career. Considering he also has a full-time job, this is also a huge achievement in itself!

I cannot imagine doing anything else but this for a living now and I hope that I can prove myself worthy of the title of Freelance Illustrator! :P

Your date's here!

Giveaway winner!

A big thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway - all of the comments were awesome and kept me laughing! The winner was randomly picked through Random.org and the winner is:

jbzen3

Well done! Thanks again all; I'll make sure to do another giveaway after xmas.

Updates and SUPER SASQUATCH GIVEAWAY!

Well, things have exploded into a cavalcade of busyness at the moment; I'm working full steam on 4 books that are due by February. I'm pretty stressed at the moment but hopefully it'll be for the greater good! The books are an awesome continuation of the series I'm working on for the American publishers (hopefully I can talk about these very soon and share some pictures!) so at least it's enjoyable stress! :P Anyway, as I've been a bit slack on my blog I thought I'd do a giveaway!

Up for grabs are a copy of my latest self-published effort, I Know Sasquatch, a sasquatch sticker and a whole bunch of sasquatch prints. All you have to do is leave a sasquatch related comment, along with your email address should you win. I'll pick the winner at random on the 24th of November. Good luck! :D

Happy Halloween!

New book: On The Farm!

Yay! The farm activity book I worked on earlier this year is now listed on Amazon. It comes out in Feb next year and I'm very excited! I've worked on another 4 books in this series, but this is the first whee I did the colour artwork as well as the single colour work. I had a great time with this book and am really looking forward to seeing it when it comes out. I'm also currently working on another book in the series, this one about princesses, so I'm having to channel my girly side! :P

I know Sasquatch!

Hooray! My new book, I Know Sasquatch arrived yesterday! I'll be selling this little chronicle of the day I met Sasquatch in the woods near my house at MCM Expo and Thought Bubble this year. It is also available in my online store!

I Love Katamari!

We Love Katamari is one of my all-time favourite games. I have a first-generation PS2 that still runs, even though it sounds like a lawnmower and WLK is pretty much the game that's always in it. This game never fails to cheer me up and my life-long ambition is to roll up The King Of All Cosmos which I struggle to do every time. One day...

Sketchy Doodles!

I'm trying to get back into the habit of drawing in my sketchbook every day, either before I leave for work, or in the evening when I'm vegging in front of the telly. I'm rather fond of trying to draw things without looking - might do some more of those! :P

Video Game Art Exhibition!

Some of my video game based prints will be displayed at an awesome exhibition as part of the London Games Festival in October! Lots of other talented peeps and game developers will also be exhibiting which should make it a really great show. Team 17 are also part of it which made my 11 year old self squeal for joy and want to get my Amiga out of the loft so I could play Alien Breed. Unfortunately (not too unfortunately though), I'll be at MCM on the weekend of the show itself so I wont be able to see it, but hopefully some pics will make it out! All of the work will be auctioned off to charity so get along to it if you want to own some amazing video game art and donate to a worthy cause.

Little Bitty Dredd!

I went to see Dredd 3D a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty good; I wasn't particularly bothered about watching it and went in with zero expectations and really enjoyed it. The 3D was actually worth seeing and I loved the atmosphere and minimalism. Even though I worked in a comic shop for over 3 years, I never really picked up any 2000AD. I had one issue of it that my mum bought me for holiday reading back in 1994 (was never quite sure what made her pick it up as me and my brother had never bought 2000AD). I still have that comic somewhere and the one story I really remember from it is Slaughterbowl which I can't find anywhere but would love to read again. I'm quite tempted to pick up a couple of the Judge Dredd case files at some point and give Dredd a proper go.

My very talented other half, John-Paul Bove is currently colouring/grey-toning a story for the Judge Dredd Megazine at the moment and also coloured a cover for the upcoming IDW series, drawn by Jim Starlin no less! Anyway, seeing the film gave me a push to actually draw a Dredd (apologies to the many people who have asked me to for years!) and quite enjoyed doodling him and his satisfying colour scheme!

The Rather Odd Alphabet!

My new small press book, The Rather Odd Alphabet was delivered today! It's 32 pages of weird and wonderful animals and words and you'll be able to pick it up from me at all the comic cons I'll be attending. However, if you simply cannot wait that long, it's also available in my online store. Be sure to check out my other books which now have new prices and shipping prices! :D

Upcoming Comic Cons!

I've got a few comic cons left for this year and I should also have a few new books for them too.

Bristol Comic and Zine Fair - a small one day zine fair on the 23rd of September. I've never done this one before so hopefully it'll be a nice little fair!

MCM Expo - I'll be in the Comic Village again this October for more fun and frolics!

Thought Bubble - There's an awesome line-up of creators at TB this year - I cannot wait!

Hope to see you all at one of these!

Noodle Doodle!

Do The Robot!

I'm working on a silly little colouring book called Do The Robot - here are a couple of pics!

Sketchbook: Join the queue!

New Book: Sneak Peek!

My Desk: New Book!

I'm going to Devon for a week today so I thought I'd watch a film (Dawn Of The Dead) and start sketching my new small press book! I'm taking all the work with me, but seeings as how there will be a dog in the house, I don't trust how much work will get done...

My Desk: Book shelves!

A peek at one of my desk shelves. Needless to say, they're getting a bit crammed...

Sneak Peek: Farm Book!

Here are a couple of sneak peeks from the farm activity book I recently finished. I can't wait to see this one as I drew the whole thing rather than just the single-colour line art. I used a mix of drawn and photo elements in this book as the series has mixed media throughout. Hopefully it works! I really enjoyed drawing this book and will hopefully be starting another one quite soon...

Doodle: Expectations

At this point in the morning, I don't think it's coming.

Colouring Book Samples

Although I didn't get the job, I recently did some samples for a publisher looking to produce some partially coloured books for young children. I quite enjoyed drawing these and anything to add to the portfolio is good! (Also, any excuse to draw an Ankylosaurus.) I'm becoming rather fond of making colouring books and may start producing more of my own; I don't think there are enough that include werewolves and robots, personally! :P

T-Shirt Designs!

Last year I was contacted by an apparel company to design some t-shirts which was very exciting. The resultant tees are now available in a range of shops, high street and on-line!  I have a bunch more hopefully coming out soon! :D

The tees are available from Blue Banana, This Is Pulp, Jukupop and Play among others!

Sketchbooks Are Awesome

Anyone who has been to art college or university to do any art-based course will most likely have had the importance of keeping a sketchbook drummed into them. It took me quite a while to get into the habit of keeping a sketchbook in art college (way back in 1999) but as soon as I realised I didn't need to make every page a masterpiece, I was hooked. I've got a huge stack of sketchbooks that I've kept over the years, alternating from hardback A5 150gsm paper books to normal lined paper note books. My parent's loft contains a couple of boxes of my university sketchbooks that while I'm too embarrassed to look back over, can't quite bring myself to throw away. 



One of the reasons I love keeping sketchbooks so much, is the fact that I can take them anywhere with me, even if I don't end up drawing anything. It's like a comfort thing! My sketchbook is always in my bag; I daydream quite a lot when I'm walking about and if I happen to happen to have an idea, I can quickly scrawl it down while I walk. It's also a perfect place to mindlessly doodle, something I'm particularly good at. A lot of the personal work I do starts off as some weird doodle in my sketchbooks that I've decided to work up.



I've been trying to get into a more regimented sketchbook routine as of late; I started a shiny new one a couple of weeks ago and decided I wanted to try and draw in it every day (not something I always do.) I leave for my part-time job at 10:20am on weekdays so I make sure I'm sat in the living room at 10am with my SB and try to doodle something. It's been pretty fun so far as I can just draw nonsense and have a bit of fun with it!

I rarely draw any roughs or ideas for work for publishers in my sketchbooks though as I try and keep them just for me. Roughs for work usually end up on normal photocopy paper so I can keep everything together. This does mean my desk becomes an endless mess with piles of paper everywhere while I'm working on books but it's a system that works for me! XD

Materials-wise for sketchbooks, I particularly fond of A5 Daler-Rowney hardbacks because the paper is nice to work on (not to thin) and they're easy to carry around. They also all look nice together on the shelf when they're full! XD I use Uni-Ball Vision Elite black pens to draw with, as they're pretty nice rollerballs and can be found in most supermarkets if I lose one. I have about a billion of them lying about, all in varying degrees of used-up-ness.

I also love looking at other people's sketchbooks; there's something very satisfying about looking at how people work and the doodles they come up with. Sketchbooks are essentially brain-dumps and I like looking at the insides of other artists heads this way! XD My insanely talented friend Mark Pearce keeps the most awesome sketchbooks and he must get fed up with me constantly asking to look at them whenever he's over our house. I don't think mine are quite so interesting to look at but I enjoy drawing in them anyway!