Collaboration 3 - Tappy Turtle

I may be tempted to use another similar sounding name for the turtle soon.


This is my current effort at achieving a turtle shape, Its not coming along as well as I would have hoped for. I have in my mind the turtles and koopas from Mario Bros hazing up my thoughts a well as Ninja Turtles and their ilk.

Maybe I should just go and do some research on Turtle and Tortoise' just to try and get an acurate idea of shape and build before turning my pencils and pens loose.

I am just to impatient.

Collaboration2 - Turtles

Its hard to draw turtles, even cartoony style ones.
I havent really tried very hard, in fact, I have just given up after trying a few very weak efforts. Of course, I shall go back to them.

Collaboration - with my sons

My boys have really gotten the arty bug, I cant really claim much credit since mum is a poet, Uncle is a poet and aspiring artist and grandad was an artisan engraver.

They both come up with weird and wonderful monsters and animals, sometimes after seeing what I am creating, sometimes I have a look at what they are doing and, truth be told, borrow some of their ideas!

John has written a very short three part tale about a lonely Turtle which I am hoping to illustrate in the coming weeks, Johns words and my illustration, it seems right to proceed but am anxious that it keep Johns unencumbered vision and wont be overly complicated or too simplistic.

Comic Hero?

Acrylics and Black Barker on 9x12" Board.

Adapted from one of my previous comic doodles. This guy is a hero, of sorts, helping to save a lad caught in some mega trouble, he never speaks, eats or sleeps. I'm not even sure that he is truly a good guy- he isnt an anti hero by any means - but his thoughts are his own as is his agenda.

I'm having trouble with the marker bleeding through under the white acrylic smoke trail and I am having issues with the marker on the figure itslf. I will remedy this by going over in ink or black acrylic hopefully this will dull the lines down a little.

Seal - Version 2

Not terribly happy with the first effort I went back and added some more 'detail' around the little critter.

Moderately more pleased with this attempt although It isnt as good as I would have hoped.
The idea is out there and the chances are that I may come back and do some more with this character. Maybe I will give the piece another name....

Seal (Clubbing) New Piece

'Seal Clubbing'

9x12 Board

Acrylic and Black Marker.

This is similar in technique to 'Amnio Bunny'.

The flipper like arms were a late addition to the overall design of this character. I not terribly sure that I like them. I'm none too sure about the character itself but had to give it its moment of glory.

Maybe I will go back to the drawing board with this, I want to change the head, make it smoother and the eyes. maybe the flipper/arms could go as well or be made a bit 'chubbier'? the marker outline is too shaky.

'Amnio Bunny' New Piece

'Amnio Bunny'.

9x12 Board

Acrylic and Black Marker.

One of the new pieces that I did just last night, it possibly shows but I don't care. True to the original doodle of a 'slightly' malformed parody of a bunny which I scribbled into one of my cheap little black books (markers bleed through numerous pages) resized to fit the board size that I am using.

I primed the boards with Cadmium Yellow Hue for a nice bright finish, upon drying I then splodged some red and gold acrylics onto my mixing plate and using some scrunched up tinfoil dabbed over the surface. letting this dry I then drew the bunny outline with marker, filling in the eyes before applying masking fluid to the outlines. I then let this dry and then roughly daubed some of the Cadmium Yellow. when this dried I peeled back the masking fluid to reveal the intact thick black bunny outline.

I have started using the masking fluid technique quiote a lot in experiments and it is giving some good results especially to the way that I create my work. It isnt perfect, but nether am I, so it all works out quite well.

Bunnies, in numerous bizarre forms are taking up a lot of my time at the moment, I cannot pinpoint the exact time or the reason I started debasing them. Possibly, I distres and distort the childlike image of the rabbit, being cute and fluffy? Dunno, I'm sure that a psych evaluation will sort this fetish out!

new artwork coming soon...

I am currently working on some new pieces, derived from my sketchpad/doodle books. Hopefully they won't take too long to produce and can be displayed on this blog in all their splendour!
They will be 9x12 inch boards with acrylic and markers used (my current media of choice!).

Cartoon Sketch Idea

This is something done in my A4 pad using a fineliner and a sharpie.





Cropped due to some light leakage showing on the scanned image. I think the genreal consensus is that I should perhaps pursue this style a bit more vigouriously than I have been doing and maybe create some final works. be they strips, single panels, or just larger montages. I have some ideas for panels either on board or canvas wether they will piece together I dont know. maybe I will take just a single motif or character, we shall see...

Another Strip WIP

This is something else dredged up from the recent past, another strip without a spoken word featuring 3 or 4 recurring characters.

Probably difficult to see in this posted image. Each frame is drawn separately in an A4 sketchbook inked using Indian ink and was then scanned. Its a WIP so is rough and ready, scratchy and the lack of contrast means that you cannot pick out much detail. I plan to retell the story of one boys adventures with superheroes and the mystical, using new layouts. It will still be black and white and may end up as a series of canvas'.

DIC

DIC 2

Freebie Mousemat, Acrylic and Marker.

Not a new piece, (I had displayed this elsewhere before). The inspiration is taken from a conversation I had reagrding apossibel commision. To be honest I havent done much for this commision as of yet, I am too tied up and the crux of the piece needed is still eluding me.

This piece is a an offshoot of that conversation and the ideas that stemmed from it. Death in a Crowd in its most basic form. I rather like how this has come out, small scale, quick, haphazard. There is potential to develop this much further, into a larger canvas, with more going on in the background, maybe making death himself a little less obvious but still 'there'. maybe to add more characters would help loose Death a little bit, maybe single one out for special attention?

Newish Month, New-Ish Post

For my first post this month I think I will add something that I have rediscovered.

'Animal Fighting Carnival'-Title Page.

A4 paper pencil and Eddings and Faber Ink pens.

A short lived strip about bizzare animals...fighting.

Why I thought I could pen and illustrate a strip about fighting animals is now lost on me although it does rear its ugly head very often. particularly when new age types reference animal groups, pods and families when trying to make us all live in harmony, hey, I've seen what Chimps, and Meerkats get up to, vicious little swine that they all are.

Anyway, no text or speaking in this strip since no animals I have seen, speak. The action is fairly self explanitory. maybe I will get round to doing some more, more refined or rough round the edges? Im no primadonna, I cant draw, so it will be rough!

Blimey! I have been away a long time

So my password stiil works, even if it works only to redirect me to log in via Google, which is fine with me.

A lot of things have been in development since I last posted here, some things have arisen and died, soem things were stillborn, some things are still going round in my head. Basically I have been trying a lot of things since my last post in '06.

My website was started but is now back in development, or on hiatus if you prefer. A new direction to my creativity was needed as was a dirction for publicising any of my creative endeavours. thee avenues are still being sought and thought about and alongside my other blog I will be posting ideas comments and other thoughts and junk here.

of course I wont just be writing about my tortued route to illustrative recognition, maybe I might ramble on to myself about stuff and happenings within my world.