More Summersdale book images

Kiwi

Northern Bald Ibis

Royal Albatross

These are 3 more black and white illustrations I did for the Summersdale book "Was Beethoven a Birdwatcher" by David Turner, due out in spring 2011.

A mention of the Northern Bald Ibis, a charismatic and endangered species holding on to survival thanks largely to the efforts of local and international conservationists in areas such as Morocco, Turkey and Syria. This wonderful species can hopefully see its numbers increase if efforts are co-ordinated across the different countries where the Ibises range. Please see their inspirational blog at  http://northernbaldibis.blogspot.com/ , where you may also see a post which includes my Ibis drawing!

Pirate doodle

(No reason for this whatsoever, just something that occurred to me as I was trying to think of something far more profound and creative to draw.)

Happy Birthday!

A Hedgehog, Flamingo and Puffin birthday card for my fiancee! Mail is best delivered in person :-)

Book illustration for Summersdale Publishing

This is an image from a series I am working on for Summersdale Publishing, for a book entitled "Was Beethoven a Birdwatcher?", written by David Turner. I have been commissioned to create a series of black-and-white bird illustrations for this book due out in spring 2011. This is a South American bird called a Hoatzin.

Bye Bye Rong!

Rong's card

The card is a farewell card for the lovely Rong Sun (http://rong-sun.blogspot.com/ and http://www.iamrong.com/), a talented Chinese illustrator who has just gone back to Qingdao. We will miss you and wish you all the very best for the future!

Owls of Britain

I did this today because I felt like it, just trying out different styles and it's always fun to draw owls :-)

Halloween Mushrooms sketch

This is a pen sketch of some weird mushrooms I found around Halloween. Quite fun to draw them in black and white!

Proverb - a cat may look at a king

Practically the first proverb I thought of... any excuse to draw kings and cats :-)

This is my book for the Camberwell College of Arts Illustration MA fInal degree show. This is on soon at Peckham Road, London SE5, open 14th to 17th July for general viewing (from 10am til 8pm weekdays and 11 am til 4pm on Saturday 17th). http://twitter.com/illoMA2010; www.maillustration2010.wordepress.com. If you want to come along and see lots of exciting work, please do. I'll be there on Thursday and Friday afternoons. Glad to finish, but I'll miss it too...

Not a new image, I did this ages ago, but I haven't had a chance to do anything recently so it'll have to do for now, and it kind of sums up everything right now!

The Foxes' Dance

Of course the foxes and cats are invited, but other living creatures rarely get the chance to witness such an event (although they happen often, those who take part are shy and wait until they know they won't be seen by the likes of you and me).
This didn't end up quite how I'd originally planned it, it kind of took on a life of its own, but that is sometimes the way and sometimes it is better like that. I think I needed to create this one, because it was as if the elements therein had been waiting to be unleashed. The original idea, however, still remains in my mind waiting to be exorcised...

Finally, I have ordered a scanner! After talking about getting one for about a year... :D
Update 18th April: I have a lovely scanner now...

They need some kind of dip. So, hummous is brought to them. But not everyone likes hummous...
An Illustration Friday topic to get me back into some kind of illustration routine, nothing too serious :-)

Hi, first of all apologies for neglecting Ghost Blog and not replying for a while, I've been a bit busy recently! I hope you'll understand and if you follow my posts here you'll probably realise by now that days and weeks can go by sometimes before I tend to my blog... I hope to be back posting stuff soon!

Secondly, if anyone's in London, I'm showing some images upstairs in the Greenwich Picturehouse cafe/bar from 1st April (yes, it had to be April Fool's Day) until the 30th April. If you feel like it, please feel free to come along and have a look. :-)

School going home time isn't the preferred time of day for some...A quick sketch for no real reason! Btw I really will get a scanner soon, but for now it's these photos I'm afraid...

The little rodents were brave to risk everything for a couple of bottles of wine. They knew that if they were caught, there would be no mercy.

Profile picture

For the collaborative children's book project, had fun drawing this. I am one of the characters... This is an initial draft, before all the tidying up. I think I'm starting to prefer the un-tidied versions of things.

For my Valentine... :-)

Nightmares

The idea of nightmares, you know, the ones where you're not sure you're asleep or not... and your eyes start playing tricks on you. It's surprising how your mind turns shapes into threatening things: a coat hanging up becomes a dark figure, objects appear to move... If you are having a nightmare and you realise this, occasionally you can control the dream and enjoy it. You just have to hope you are really dreaming!

A rainy day... just trying out ideas for creating the impression of rain and the feeling of creatures going about their daily business... drawn from the comfort of a nice cafe!