May 5, 2016

Here are a selection of food drawings I have been working on, The drawings are of your everyday food items which include, Fruit and vegetable drawings as well as fast food drawings. This is a on going series of drawings of everyday objects that I have taken a keen interest in illustrating. I have tried to capture the identifying features of the items mostly by the pen lines. I vary the pen lines which may consist of continuous line or broken lines which can fill large and small areas with the drawings.

My early drawings which consisted of mostly outline drawings, have gone under some development, I figured the drawings needed some more depth to them, with that in mind, I have played about with adding subtle details to the drawings, in terms of lines, different line styles and weights. I have begun to introduce limited colour to the illustrated drawings.

My work consists of black and white lines with very limited colour. The everyday drawing series, It was important to investigate how colour could be used with the black and while line drawings. The colour developed into an almost solid colour, with a hint of colour shading> it was important to overall retain the drawn illustrated pen look and feel, without the illustrations looking to digital, which is a conscious decision for me,

 

March 9, 2016

Agency Sectorlight London Map

Agency Sectorlight London Map Drawing, the brief given by designer Emily Knight from Sector Light was to illustrate a map of London, with selected key landmarks, that included, London Bridge, St Pauls, the Shard, The London Eye and the OXO Tower. These Land Marks would further enhance the London map drawing.

The London Map drawing would be printed on to canvas material which would then be and for the development companies selling show room based in Bermondsey.

To illustrated the map, I researched street maps of London, I then started to draw the roads of London, in a hand drawn sketchy line, the initial brief outlined that the lines did not had to be very perfect, in fact the less perfect the better. Once the drawing was drawn, I used photoshop to edit the map, however in this case, the drawing did not need much work, since I wanted to retain the sketchy look and feel,

The land marks were then placed on the London Map. The London Map was  a differnt style of drawing then I would usually illustrate, however for this brief the map worked in this slightly sketch style. I think I might try and retain some this simplicity going forward in my map illustrations,

November 23, 2015

Moleskine European City Map Drawings

The rationale behind the maps, read on or enjoy the short clip 🙂 I guess Id like to explain the maps which started off initially as maps of dates I would go on with a girl I was seeing at the time, the dates were fun and I wanted to capture the moments as a little memories of time as drawings in my moleskin sketch book.

The maps continued to develop into a illustrative style. I was pretty much in a transitional period, creatively and as a person. Luckily my illustration agent noticed my drawings, Thanks Ben, and liked them, and encouraged me to create more map work and drawings.

I hadn’t seriously been drawing for a very long time, and its only been 3 years since I took it up more seriously, mostly out of frustration of being sat at a computer being a vector artist, which was stifling. I was waiting for something to magically happen, I was waiting for those clients to notice and commission my work, It doesn’t work like that, I was stuck with my old vector illustration style. with few commissions coming through the door, I took control and decided to take a risk and make drastic changes.

I’m pretty lucky to kick off a new illustration style from scratch it was a risk, I guess you have to take control of things, experimenting with ideas, the maps and illustrations have been going well, recently I thought it would be fun to combine drawing and traveling into a personal project, where I can take short day trips to European cities and capture them as map drawings, while having a bit of fun at the same time.

Change is good sometimes, you have to change it up to develop and try things, if you don’t try and give things a go, you wont know where it might take you. Im also trying out being more straight talking, some of you who know me well, know id never give away so much info as I have above, if your still here, thanks for reading.

#moleskine #ink #pen #illustration #draw #drawing #sketch #sketching #rotring #stationary #stationaryaddict #inkstagram #inkart #inky #sketchpad #sketchbook #sketchbookdaily #sketchoftheday #citymap #europe #berlin #london #copenhagen #dublin

June 9, 2015

San Miguel 125th Anniversary Chalice Glass

The Marketing Store agency based in Central London, invited me a illustrate a limited edition, illustrated Chalice glass for San Miguel beer brand, to celebrate 125 years of the brand and draw attention to it’s rich and well travelled past. The Chalice will be available for consumers in bars all over London. Consumers spotted drinking from the Chalice will have the chance to win a selection of experience based prizes to create additional interest around the promotion. The launch of the Chalice will be supported with a digital media campaign with the Chalice as the hero. This will also act in informing consumers about the Prize promotion.

The brief was to produce a beautiful, illustrative, part chronologic, part geographic timeline taking consumers on a visual journey around their Chalice Highlighting key dates, places, events, quotes, inspirations and influences absorbed by San Miguel along its 125 year journey to present day.

The design has to be vibrant and bold bringing the story to life in flashes of colour evoking the adventurous spirit of the brand. Yet containing clusters of detail that could well be overlooked in a dimly lit busy bar at first glance. Allowing consumers to discover fragments of San Miguel’s influences for themselves at their own leisure. Areas of the design should reflect there geographic and or periodic roots (China, South Pacific 1950s) but still feel overtly Spanish, inline with the brands heritage.

May 29, 2015

Road Trip Maps Across America Redbook Magazine

The story is about road trips across America, illustrated maps for redbook magazine. The maps consisted of 5 different trip routes with 3-to-4 destination cities delineated along the way that will run slightly smaller than 1/4-page. These road trip routes were envisaged as being a little loose and fun, illustrations.

The hand lettering of each trip consisted of a “name” and then references to the name of each city stop along the way, because the maps were quite small, the detail had to minimal and yet impartial as well as usable for the reader. An example of trip criteria for example. #1: “The Early America” Boston, MA, Gloucester, MA, Portsmouth, NH, Boothbay Harbor, ME. Accompanying little drawings of main attractions or activities along the way that are specific to each city stop.

The story will also have small sidebars peppered throughout that required a few more individual drawings of things like a car, bicycle, road sign, iPhone etc for the magazine article, and each sidebar consisted of hand-lettered typography such as “The best car ride games”.

The brief was challenging, as the maps were a much smaller size then I am use to creating, this also made the brief interesting, as much of much of my work is very detailed, and to be able to use less detail and to focus on the important information and content of the map, made me think more about how I could illustrate future maps which are detailed, usable and illustrative pieces of work.

March 23, 2015

Chrysanthemum Floral Detailed drawing

Chrysanthemum Floral Detailed drawing, looking through my work portfolio, its noticeable I have many architectural and map drawings and few organic forms, such as floral drawings. My vector work had always had a natural organic form to it, and it was natural to work in that way. Since developing the hand drawn maps and architecture, I am missing that organic natural forms, and its a conscious decision to try and bring the organic form back into my work which would bring a balance to the hand draw maps and architecture drawings.

I guess drawing has always been natural to me, and its only now that I am drawing again, after a long period as working as a vector artist. I enjoy drawing more then working purely as a vector artist. I guess it allows me to experiment much more with different techniques, and I find it pleasurable to draw in my spare time and sketch, while at home or out and about which was something I did not do enough of as a vector artist, to quickly sketch an idea or thought, or a location capturing a scene of everyday life.

I have discovered working with different mediums, such as screen printing, paints and inks, have bought a interesting and different level of richness to my illustration work, which I was not able to achieve while I was working as a vector artist, something which I try and work at on a daily bases.

February 2, 2015

Detailed Bra Pattern Drawing

I created the detailed bra pattern drawing from an initial sketch that was inspired by a fashion magazine I was looking through. My illustrative style can be very detailed. And I like to draw patterns. I am drawing and creating personal work on a constant level, and I was thinking of a new project and piece of work which could be a interesting illustration with a view to screen print it, The detailed bra drawing illustration came from my initial moleskine sketch.

The pattern evolved from drawings and sketches from my sketch book. The intricate pattern detail was labour intensive. The bra was broken down and drawn in sections of patterned layers. The body out line was drawn in a soft line in contrast to the almost geometric pattern of the bra, and the hair I had a vision to draw as detailed as the bra, with many flowing and intersecting lines.

The view with this drawing is to screen print the artwork, and capture the solid black lines onto a solid coloured base which Imagine would make the colour and the stark black lines pop.

October 13, 2014

Private Commission Hand Drawn Map

The 2 illustrations above were commissioned by private clients who contacted me to draw, some well known London landmarks as well as their memories to form a map of the clients memories as a personal illustration. I took the references from each of the clients. The First map was commissioned by a wife, who wanted to commission a map of her memories with her husband for their anniversary, from the memories from when they first met, to their memories up to the present day

The second ma was commissioned as a gift to be given to a friend who lives, works and travels between London and Hong Kong. The locations were Taken from Surbiton, South London the family home to who the gift will be given to, and Hong Kong the ancestral home. I enjoyed drawing both maps and they were both well received by the clients.

I started by referencing the images for the clients, working with them both, this was essential as it was important to deliver the illustrations which they would be happy with. Each map took alot of hours to draw the intricate architecture. once all the elements were drawn. I worked with them digitally to compose and position them so they worked well as a composition.

The clients were both very happy with the final illustrations.

July 18, 2014

Wild Crow and Owl Tote Bag

I have a keen interest in Tote bags, one which has become a bit of an obsession, I started to collect tote bags when I was travelling around South East Asia, My interest grew to a passion, which culminated into taking 2 interesting paths for my tote bag interest. The first path was to write a blog about tote bags, Tote Bag Prints, and the artists which create them and the second route, which came from the blog was a book written about tote bag which was published by Laurence King publishing in 2009, I curated the very best and interesting tote bag designs and the designers that created them, at that particular time.

While I have been illustrating and writing it crossed my mind I should design my own tote bags, it has taken me a few years to create my own tote bags, which has seemed a little odd to those who know me, and know of my interest in these particular cotton tote bags, which are even more ubiquitous then when they first came onto the scene.

I have created 2 tote bags prints, and I am now snowballing with more ideas for tote bags, which has now started to brew and boil over. I created a series of illustrations based on wild animals, and considered they would make great prints for tote bags.

The drawings of the owl and crow are quite details and intricate delicate fine lines pen drawings. The prints on the tote bags are digitally printed which seemed the best method of printing to achieve a good quality print considering my hand drawn lines have a fine detail, I considered potentially screen print the art work, however is seemed I would not be able to achieve a good enough level of print quality, and lose some of the quality of line work, which lesson the impact of the illustration drawings. Look out for more tote bag projects, which will be available soon, check back again to see how my tote bag project is progressing, and it would be great to have some of your thoughts and comments about them.

 

 

 

June 26, 2014

Hand Drawn London Iconic Buildings

My obsession with London, now know no bounds, and it grows increasingly over the summer months, where the atmosphere in London city is positive. as we all look ahead to the summer, what ever that may be, going out being with family and friends, enjoying the outdoor entertainment. I have been drawing increasingly more, in my Moleskine sketchbooks, layout pads, scraps of paper. drawing ideas and concepts I have thought about. Here is a series of drawings, Looking at the London Skyline, we cant seem to escape the urban sprawl which is happening all around us, and the London pace seems to grow ever faster.

I have created this series of London Iconic buildings, to capture the London skyline. I draw detailed sketches of the london architecture, which we all know so well, the buildings are fantastical as well as internationally recognised. The concept for this series of drawings was to capture the tops of these well known buildings, I decided to crop the drawings to the essential details of the buildings, to leave just enough detail, with out loosing the essence of the building, my thoughts were to leave enough detail, which actually enhance the architecture of the buildings, while leaving enough thought for anyone else to fill in the gaps for them selves using their own imaginations.

I had the illustrations printed as post cards, to hand out to friends, and clients, which make good keep sakes, as well as being handy post cards to send, as well all like to receive hand written messages in a digital age.