Hello,

Here's some of the work I've been up to just lately.  Time goes by so quickly and it's about a month since my last post.  I've been pretty busy of late what with one thing or another but it's great when I get the chance to paint for hours at a time :).  The piece below is the latest work i've completed and I really enjoyed creating it.  I love making up little fantasy landscapes where I can get carried away with creating my own little plants, scenes and the like.  This one is pretty calm and thoughtful.

Here's an illustration I did of Tiny Dancer for Amelias Magazine.  It was based on the video for the song 'Who Am I?'.  I really liked the track so I was keen to illustrate something for it.  If you get the chance check out the video.

That's it for now, have a good week :)

Hello and Happy Easter everyone!

It's been really nice to have the long weekend although it has been busy.  I thought I'd share some work that I've recently completed.

I really enjoy creating patterns and with the piece below I wanted to experiment with more of this.  I also wanted to stick to a particular colour range.  Unfortunately the colours don't reproduce so well on the screen in reality they are much more subtle and less yellow but you can get the idea I hope. 

I've been wanting to create some work based on some atmospheric, foresty landscapes for a while now.  It comes in part from things I've been watching and reading and in particular at the early part of the year I was watching a lot of Twin Peaks which inspired me quite a lot. I'd never really watched it properly until then and I really got into it.  Once again I wanted to reduce the colour palette and continue with my pattern and texture obsession!

That's all for now, I hope that you all had a nice Easter break!

Competition entries

Hello again, 

Just a quick post to let you know about some competitions that I've entered recently.  

Below was my entry for the Nandos menu art competition.  The brief was to create an illustration that describes how Nandos makes people feel, so I tried to mix up some Nandoesque food alongside happiness and a touch of spice.  I also wanted to keep to Nando colours hence the warm oranges and reds contrasted with cooler greens. My entry didn't get anywhere, but I enjoyed creating it and in my book it's all about the taking part, isn't that right? :)

Nandos

The next image is my entry for the 2013 Secret 7" competition.  The idea is based on a continuing journey through the ups and downs in the cycle of a relationship as told through the seasons.  Including the combination of uncertainty and magic that it can bring.  That was my interpretation of the song i choose anyway.
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has voted for me so far, it really means a lot to me :)
Voting is open until the 26th February (tomorrow, eek!) so if you would like to vote please click here :- Talenthouse
All votes are much appreciated!  Thank you :)

Secret 7"

That's it for now, have a good week everyone! :)

Hello again,

At the end of November I took a little pre-christmas trip back to Norfolk.  Whilst I was there my brother took me on a little trip around Norwich, somewhere that I haven't really been to for years, and it was lovely.  I studied in Norwich and I used to spend a lot of time wandering around there.  It's a perfect size to do just that as it's not that big and it has some really pretty areas.  I forgot how lovely it is.  I had in my head the idea to create some sort of map based on the walk.  It's something I've wanted to do for a while now and a bit of a departure from the kind of subjects I normally choose to illustrate.  So this is the result of that.  Following the little brown dots is the simplified route that we took.  From the Britons Arms we went up through the the cobbled streets of Elm hill, round by the river (with some lovely willow trees on the way), past Cow Tower and Pull's Ferry, up near the Cathedral and on into the main part of the City, (no doubt for some more food!) finally ending up at the Castle Museum.  By the way we did have some really lovely cake in the Britons Arms, somewhere unbelievably I don't think I've ever been!  It was a cold day and when we opened the door and saw the open fire it was a real delight, and then the cake arrived and perhaps the biggest coffee I've ever seen........yum!

A little wander in Norwich

I've done a couple of crops so it's possible to see some areas in a little more detail.

Here's a couple of photos I took whilst wandering also.  This is the inside of Cow Tower, a historic military tower built in the 14th century.  It was sunny at this point, so I like that little streak of sunlight on the brickwork.

Cow Tower

That's it for now.  I think Norwich is a lovely place to walk around and worth a visit if you get the chance!  Bye for now

Hello,

Just a very quick post to show some work I did over the weekend for Amelia's Magazine.  The illustration was for Martina Spetlova's S/S 2013 collection.  In the end I decided to illustrate this dress as I loved the fan-like pleats.  
It was a very snowy weekend here in London so it was nice to be warm indoors painting!
Anyway for now that's it, I should be back soon with a longer post about the other things I have been working on recently so bye for now!

Martina Spetlova

It's Christmas!

Hello, and Merry Christmas!  It's been a while since my last post i realise.  I've been doing lots of Christmassy themed pieces over the last couple of months.  So to begin here's an illustration that is now featured in Amelia's magazine.  The theme was Christmas music and i choose to illustrate a cover version of the great Wonderful Christmastime (its such a classic Christmas tune) by Dog is Dead.  I loved the video and I wanted the illustration to be subtley humorous.  Along with the traditional Christmas things (crackers, reindeer, the delightful Christmas jumper! and so on) I wanted it to be quite decorative and I was obsessed with the sprouts being an integral part of Christmas and having a good bop around.  Who doesn't love a sprout at Christmas after all!?!

Wonderful Christmastime

The image below I've used for Christmas cards and is also featured in the Yoillo Advent Calendar.  Give the calendar a look, it has wonderful illustrations from some very talented lovely folk.

Christmas Stag

Here's a couple more pieces I did just based on a Christmas theme just because i wanted to really.

Reindeer

This little chap I made while I was on a trip home and he is happily sitting in his new place on the tree waiting patiently for Christmas day!

It's going to be strange not drawing snowflakes, stars and the like for a while now!  Happy Christmas!

Skullface for Halloween

Hello, this is a little something I did for Halloween and for the excellent Illustration Rally.  It was nice to do something a bit different and use ink and bleach again which I haven't done for a while.  Happy Halloween!