Bones

Animal bones are far more interesting to draw than actual animals I discovered last December on a drawing trip to the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. There was less snow there than in Edinburgh which was a nice break from walking like a penguin, and I took Kate on her first journey on the Clockwork Orange.

These fine chaps are the starting point for work I am showing in an exhibition in York this summer with my good friend Holly Archer.

I am also screenprinting some birds tomorrow that we drew whilst sitting with Holly's Masters show last August. It was boring and we always love a drawing competition. They are getting thrown on the wall in the exhibition too. Exciting times!

New Old Work

I recently rediscovered some work I started years ago. I think it was for some kind of competition that I didn't ever enter. When I was a Masters student I spent a lot of time listening into people's conversations and writing them in my sketchbook. Weirdly one of them featured the name of a person I later met in Leicester (probably not the same exact one, and to be honest he's someone I wish I hadn't met). These images are based on some of the words I wrote and illustrated in my massive sketchbook that smells a bit like sick.

Yet another fox

Latest work on my exciting project.........

I love working on this little chap, he is very very cute.

FREMSLEY!

I was lucky enough this week to meet the great illustrator Jonny Hannah at eca. He did a fantastic talk about his work, spoke to me about my work, and set a 48 hour brief to come up with a poster to advertise an imaginary record shop in Cowdenbeath.

From a list of possible spoken pieces to use for inspiration I chose "Fremsley" by Ivor Cutler. He is my new hero and Fremsley is my new favourite thing ever! Please look it up in YouTube. Cutler's work has been used in David Shrigley's work too.

This is my poster.

FREMSLEY.

New Story

I am VERY excited to be working on a project with a very good friend of mine who just happens to be an amazing author for kids. It is top secret at the moment, but here are some character sketches.

I love drawing foxes.

Filmhouse Poster

The successor to my role as Illustration Studio Assistant last year at eca has organised an exhibition in The Filmhouse cinema next month showcasing work produced in our print workshop. The brief was to choose a film, design a poster and print it. Simple. 

I chose Betty Blue, a French film from 1986, and here is my poster design. I screenprinted it.

Come along to see them all from March 12th (I think!).

Paper Tiger

As usual it has been too long since I posted anything new up here so I think there may be a wave of new stuff hitting my blog in the next week.

I am very pleased to now be working with Paper Tiger and Studio One on their posters and advertising. They want to keep some of their iconic images and use them in contemporary ways.

This is the latest; a Valentine's advertisement due to hit The Scotsman.

I am working on Studio One, and trying to design a series of images for them to use around the shop and in their advertising.

Students

Following on from Jeremy Kyle, I am now drawing 'University Challenge' teams.

Co-incidentally, I have been asked to produce an illustration comparing uni students to art students and here are the results, as drawn from real-life episodes. Luckily this week the first ever art school appeared on the programme, making this commission a whole lot easier!

I am proud to be a double art school graduate!

Wee Exhibition in Bijou, Leith Links

My pal of many-a-year Miss Weezil Gribinson, or Liza Robinson as she is actually called, has kindly asked me to adorn the walls of her lovely little bistro 'Bijou' in Leith Links, Edinburgh, with some animals. Always eager to oblige, I am hanging my work on Thursday night. It is a small collection of animals and characters who featured in another exhibition I had last year with fellow illustrator Vicki Gausden.

They are all available to buy as digital prints for a very reasonable price!

Here is a lovely lion.

London Here I Come (again)

WOW! What a busy week I have lined up. After a kind of boring weekend I now have soooo much to do before Saturday, when I fly off to East Midlands Airport. There is a single launch gig on Saturday night to celebrate the release of Superevolver's single 'Viva La Revolution' (OUT ON MONDAY 8TH NOVEMBER, AVAILABLE ON I-TUNES SO BUY IT!) for which I did the artwork, and on Monday I am travelling to London to visit Walker Books. Exciting times!

This is one of the roughs for my book. It is a hedgehogs' equivalent of the side of my fridge where I keep all sorts of unimportant information and photos.