MAY-OCTOBER 2016: Books and Monsters

The best part of 2016 saw a big commission for Mind Candy to design and create a couple of
personalised story books.

The first project was to storyboard and create a rough layout for Petlandia, Mind Candy's first foray into the personalised storybook market. You can see the finished title and order a copy HERE.

The next and most significant book project was the Moshi Monsters Egg Hunt. Here's a couple of snaps of my own (named!) copy.

You can order the MOSHI MONSTERS EGG HUNT book HERE....

While the commission initially came my way I was by no means the only artist on this; it was a big old project with a fairly intense pace. So while I was busy creating all the backgrounds, plus colouring and lighting the characters, the amazing Lea Wade led the charge with sketching and lining the characters. It was great fun and I got to work with some old friends from Mind Candy and it wouldn't be right for me not to mention names and contributions:

Art Director- Neil Tony Porter

Lead Character artist- Lea Wade.

Extra character art - Mazz Attak, Steven Plunkett and Trevor White 

YOU CAN SEE MORE PAGES HERE

MARCH-APRIL 2016: Never say never

I'm playing catch up again here!
2016 was fantastically busy with some big commissions. In March I was asked to create some characters for a mobile game that was right up my street; Monsters and warriors and magic! It was for a prolific gaming company, who shall (and have to) remain nameless.
Sadly, after about a months work it was canned but I had a lot of fun with it anyway, working on my fantasy chops ;)

Below is a small sample of what might have been:

See the rest of the work HERE!

FEB 2016: Character designs and more!

Busy month, January! I was working for New York-based creative agency Click3x, to design some characters and a few of their keyframe poses. It was a really fun project! See more of the designs HERE

JAN 2016: Happy New Year!

Hello,

2016 is already shaping up to be an exciting year! I wrapped up all the World of Warriors work towards the end of 2015 which was sad but it was a real privilege to work alongside some incredible artists and designers, some of whom I have continued to work with on personal projects and there's the promise of new ventures on the horizon.
COME AND SEE!

It's a labour of love and a project where I'm learning new things every time I get to work on it. Who knows if it will ever see the light of day as a product, we're busy doing other things but it's been really fun and challenging defining a new direction and style in my work :)

see what you think!

......see you soon

DEC 2015- WARRIORS: DUEL and xmas commissions

More Epic fun with Warriors! This time it's for a spin off app called World of Warriors:Duel

It's a fun little reflex/ timing app to test your reactions and you can see the full set of characters I did HERE

On a side note, I created a little cartoon for my in-laws' Xmas present. They've just got a little ginge kitten (called oscar). He loves that feather! 

And finally I was commissioned by my bro to create some sketches of his daughter as a present to my sister -in-law. So its been a busy xmas! HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE..is anyone even reading this??

NOVEMBER 2015 -WORLD OF WARRIORS toy release!!!

This project really was the icing on the cake for me! It was cool enough to be involved in the card game art but I was then  commissioned to design the range of Warriors action figures plus the packaging illustrations.

This project presented a particular challenge because the actual in-game and marketing characters have a different set of proportions. Luckily they liked what I presented and you can now buy them IN SHOPS ....and yes, I have a few on my shelf :)

Here is a video of some kids opening and reviewing the toys

See some of the packaging art HERE (scroll down near the bottom of the page)

HYPE!

AUGUST 2015 - New World of Warriors commissions

Lots of work for Mind Candy and their World of Warriors brand over the past few months . Here are few examples and you can see the rest over at my website.

MAY - JUNE 2015 SCHOOLISM WORKSHOP PART 5

Here are a few pics that captured the essence of my time in Canada! There's tons more but I'll keep it short and snappy:

With Thierry, our host and tutor for the month-

The Schoolism Library-

Munchkin session-

Me & Tom, Final night BBQ

 Jeff Turley's final night ending a 3 day workshop-

My hand,(honestly!) with a very friendly chipmunk :)

MAY - JUNE 2015 SCHOOLISM WORKSHOP PART 4

Here is my final creation for the Schoolism workshop. It was a long month and very tough but I did get a lot out of it. Not only the actual class but also the realisation to just how important continuing my artistic education is. Going back to uni in 2002 was a life changing experience and despite having some great opportunities it's easy to become stagnant. Looking back at a lot of my work I cringe and wonder if I was ever developing! Still it's all part of my journey and wouldn't change any of it; It's the people I met too, the contacts I made and everything I've created good or bad, has led me to this point.

There's no such thing as a stupid mistake...unless you keep doing it!


Anyway, 2015 has been a great year for me so far as I established myself as a freelancer again and this was an essential experience for me. My plan is to invest a portion of my earnings into an educational fund and do something like this every year.

Initial digital thumbs-

Final value study-

Final digital colour pass plus image references -

First part of tonal underpainting-

Colour glaze being applied over sepia values -

Final painting (dried!). It survived the flight home and is now framed in my front room :)

MAY - JUNE 2015 SCHOOLISM WORKSHOP PART 3

After weeks of still-life painting, material studies, classical painting studies and table football we were finally given the brief to start designing our characters which we would eventually go on to paint in acrylics. Below are my initial designs which were based on the backstory set in the brief. Basically it was to be a magical humanoid creature, made out of any organic plant or vegetable based material. It which lives in a forest, near a farm and befriends a child on the farm. Apart from that it was anything goes. 

I didn't end up using Acorn or chestnut for a specific reason which I should have spotted at the start:

Part of the brief was to include a few textures which we, as part of the development, would have to do studies of. All of my initial characters had too much info to deal with in the time we had.  

Still, I really liked the silhouettes and had fun with developing them.

MAY - JUNE 2015 SCHOOLISM WORKSHOP PART 2

One of the most rewarding experiences at the Schoolism workshop was a 3-day project with Jeff Turley. He's a formidable talent and really nice guy to boot, we all benefitted hugely from his wisdom and knowledge. One of main things I picked up from the classes was to spend much more time exploring ideas and story, something which I managed to integrate and benefit from straight away in my professional work.
The thumbnails below are just a tiny fraction of the roughs I churned out but are the most relevant set of images in showing the final idea I wanted to run with.

 

MAY - JUNE 2015 SCHOOLISM WORKSHOP PART 1

I've been in Montreal, Canada at the Schoolism in-house workshop!  There were 3 other students selected to participate: Tom (Holland), Monika (Mexico) and Anita (Brazil) in a month of intensive art classes ranging from foundation level tutorials right up to a final painting project using acrylic paints. I will put up a few landmark projects.

Below are a series of still life digital paintings of mine which were created in the first week which focused on observation, value and light.