Life has been very very busy at the moment, and today is one of my first days off in a month and a half. Last week, I just finished my most recent internship at Elwin Street Productions near Angel station, Islington (one of the greenest suburbs in London). Elwin is a co-edition publishing company, so they negotiate ideas and new releases between authors and international publishing houses. They also create their own in-house titles, which I assisted on for some of my time here:
I worked with my art director at Elwin for an upcoming title called “The Big Book of Summer”, featuring illustrations by David Eaton. My role was to produce a series of colour swatches (with a vintage and slightly archaic feel to them), and to add a uniform texture to each line drawing in the book (see example above).
These are some early examples of page spreads from the book- The worn paper background is used throughout the title. I intended to use a water colour effect for the rendering work to allow this texture to be visible through the illustrations.
Copyright Note: All featured line drawings on this blog post were created by David Eaton.
I’ve been working on another little project for Tim Marjoribanks recently, making the most of a few evenings off. This time, I have been commissioned to sketch Durham Cathedral in a similar style to my previous wedding card image of St Marks Church, Harrogate.
During my final week of working at Blue Peter, I was asked to assist in designing a layout for the CBBC World Cup Wallchart. The chart was mentioned on the programme, and was made available on the Blue Peter website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/getinvolved/wallchart.shtml
Also, I’m happy to say that I’ve been given the opportunity to gain some work experience with Elwin Street Productions, an independent publisher based in Angel, Islington. Feel free to visit their site at: http://www.elwinstreet.com/home.php
I am currently based at Crimson Publishing in Richmond at the moment, commencing on a short period of freelance work. I have been involved with a few projects with the company in the past, including an illustration project for the book “Pregnancy for Men” by Mark Woods (see some earlier posts). When I arrived at the offices, I was greeted with a copy of the printed paperback on my desk- the first time I have seen my work in published form!
I have just completed a months work experience with the Blue Peter Interactive team in BBC White City, London. I had a fantastic time here, a very surreal experience working in an office for a children’s TV programme. I was surrounded by pets, picture books, toys and sticky back plastic the whole time, felt a bit like I was descending into childhood again!
Most of my projects were focused on providing illustrated content and instructions for the “makes and bakes” (craft work and recipes) posted in the “Things To Do” section of the Blue Peter website. These activities are frequently mentioned on the programme itself, or created to run with a current topic on the show.
The image above is a set of child-friendly instructions for a blanket stitch available as a downloadable PDF. It was required for “the Funky Badge make”, which involved sewing felt together to make home-made badges.
The image below are some additional downloadable extras for the “Catmobile Cat Den Make”, a funny little project that encouraged children to make car-shaped play boxes for their pets. These are toy driving licences for the two Blue Peter cats, Socks and Cookie, but viewers are also able to print out their own copies from the site.
Visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/thingstodo/makeit/badge/
Last month, I was lucky enough to be mentioned by a friend of mine in a meeting at Crimson Publishing, Surrey and chosen to provide a series of cartoons for one of their new titles.
“Pregnancy for Men” is a book written as a “for dummies”-style guide of what to expect in the 9 1/2 months before a birth, and most importantly, what your partner will be going through. It will be published through Crimson Publishing in May.
My entry in the Travelling Moleskine, a project unleashed by Culture Vulture and Thompson Brand Partners. Keep an eye out for it, it will be touring the world until October 2010. If you want to contribute, just register at: http://www.theculturevulture.co.uk/ The theme was “Food for Thought”, and the image was influenced by an editorial letter in London culture freebie “Catch 22″ magazine. Reader Steve Walker had responded to a previous article called “RestauRANT” with a compelling argument supporting the tipping of waiters, a much unappreciated utilitarian position.
Last year, I spent nearly a month living on Kunst und Kaese Hof in Thuringen, Germany, working around the farm and helping with some art and design work too (there is a previous post about the sign-board I helped to make for the place). During my final days, my hosts asked if I could create a logo for them, based on a little sketch I had made during the signage project. Although I was able to get the general style and form completed before heading off, I had to make a few changes at a later date.
However, when I returned home to England, I couldn’t find the Illustrator file for my original work, and the project was halted for a long time. Recently, I bought a Wacom tablet, which has really sped up my image adjustments and Illustrator work, so I spent a free evening piecing the logo back together again.
I was looking through some old folders and papers from my trip to Germany last year, and these two little comic books fell out! These were given to me by shopkeeper in a fantastic bookshop in Heidelberg- it was beautiful, with hundreds and thousands of old books from wall to wall. He said he was going to throw them out soon, and I was happy to take a few back to England.
I wiki’ed “Perry Rhodan” and I found out that it is one of the most successful “space-opera” book series ever written, selling billions of copies since 1961, and published in Germany. I also found out that one of these magazines was over 40 years old! I love thinking about who might have bought it, and where it has come from.
Also, I found the Marlboro adverts on the back covers really fascinating. I can’t imagine a time when cigarette manufacturers could get away with promotion on comic books!
Recently, I have been creating work for magazine and publishing markets in mind, and I hope that this will be the first in a series of illustrations for articles. I found this page in The Times last week, and I thought the text had great potential for visual interpretation.
Satham Sanghera talks about the upsides of being a single man on Valentine’s Day, effectively avoiding the unnecessary commercialism and kitschy romantic gestures of the event.
“Valentines Man” vector drawing using graphics tablet
