Busy times...

A bit of a break on the blog. I haven't forgotten you all, or given up on illustration.

I'll update here with some of the things I've been up to over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, here are some pics of an invitation I created for my dad's wedding. It has our dog, Alfie (you may recognise him from some of my earlier work!) and my dad's fiance's dog, Stanley. They are both big on walking the dogs and the card works a bit like a ying and yang sign, interconnecting and overlapping in the middle.

I also made the cake...

 

Belated congratulations to the groom and bride!

Battersea dogs home sketchbook.

Sorry for the distinct lack of regular updates. I've been slightly manic recently (Interning at Penguin Children's books, illustration stuff and more) which I will in time... hopefully soon... update this blog with.

For now, here is some older work which I don't think I ever got round to posting. A few select pages from when I went to Battersea dogs home for  a few days for reportage drawing. The final result of the project is here.

Only a week to go! Curiouser and Curiouser at the Curious Duke.

Time has flown by and it's only a week until the start of the exhibition I'm in. It's very exciting and, based on all the work of the other artists that I've seen, it looks like it's going to be wonderful!

Here are two images I've done (one you've already seen before...) based on "Sylvie and Bruno go to Dogland" and modelled on the beautiful Alfie and Billy! 

 If you would like to visit the exhibition (and I really hope you do!) it runs from the 24th of January until the 30th. It is on at the Curious Duke Gallery and there is a private view on the evening of the 24th, with Mad Hatter's tea party and talk from Mark Richards from the lovely Lewis Carroll society.

For more details on the exhibition you can look at the website or RSVP at the Facebook event page.

More artwork previews to come over the week...

Two birds with one stone...

I really should be holding off posting this... for one thing it's actually part of a set of two. However, I was pleased as punch the other day when I finally finished it and just couldn't hold off! It's unusual for me (in other words once in a blue moon) to be happy with my artwork or feel it looks how I imagined it. This was one of those rare occasions! (Although annoyingly my scanner was still playing up and made the colours slightly off... Updated! It's better but still not perfect!)

This is my dad's girlfriend's dog, Billy. It was a birthday present for her but also came out of an idea of something I wanted to do for the Lewis Carroll show (based on a incident in "Sylvie and Bruno" where the pair visit dogland). It is also a development of the images I did way back here, where I took animals and combined them with portraits from the fab National portrait gallery (this was based on a portrait of Henry Pelham by John Shackleton). 

I'll probably post it again with its pairing nearer to the show but for now you can enjoy it as a single image in all its glory!

Battersea dogs home!

One of my four projects (along with the Spike Milligan stuff) was to create postcards advertising Battersea dogs home in lino.
The idea I had was based on a conversation with someone in which they said that they wouldn't want a dog from Battersea as "they wouldn't know what the dog had done to be put there."
I felt people lump rescue dogs with 'problem' dogs when in reality this isn't always the case! My strap line on the back of the cards was: We are not Criminals!