This is an image I made to raise awareness about the potential cuts to Burma’s BBC service. The service gives the oppressed people of Burma a voice in a country where the media is otherwise tightly controlled and censored. The savings made are not substantial to justify cutting something so valuable to so many people. Don’t do it.

More information here.

Newspaper texture from here.

Get this fucking octopus off my head. Seriously.

express yourself

scrappy cat

A while without a post - been busy graduating and moving out and such, exciting and scary times. Here is a doodle I did today for a possible cheshire cat.

PS. blogger - where the hell has the manual image size editing function gone on the editor? Get it back.

Guardian

This was for a creature of the week entry on conceptart.org - the title was "Guardian of the Portal Gate". Here was my concept:

Legends tell of a portal to paradise somewhere in the depths of the desert. This portal is not a stone gateway or a door, but a pair of dead trees perched on the edge of a cliff face – it is said that those with faith and courage can step through this natural gateway to paradise, but those who fear and doubt will plummet into the rocky sea below. Seekers of the portal speak of its guardian, a strange creature of unworldly and terrifying beauty that fixes you in its gaze and fills you with an overwhelming fear that sends you running and crawling away back into the sweltering desert.

spare any change?

Another one.

D is for Dragon

This was a tiny biro doodle, maybe 4 by 4cms scanned and coloured in photoshop. I got the weathered texture from here. I'm not quite done with it, needs a bit of tidying around the edges and I'd like to lighten the sky background so the dragon stands out a bit more. I'll update it sometime.

Could be part of a series, we'll see how it goes!

woofhog

Another creature doodle coloured. Just a quickie.

moo cow

Coloured the llama-like creature.

various monsters and creatures

These are some doodles I did during a shoot (another set build, less to do on the shooting day so spent some time doodling). Various monsters and creatures.

elepaint

Coloured a doodle done at the natural history museum. Reasonably pleased with the results but it took me way too long (I'd say about 20 mins).

album cover

Here's a rough album cover I did for a friend of mine - it was a last minute thing but fairly happy with it. He seemed to like it to. The breif was simply "somthing peaceful". His myspace is here - check him out.

what up dog

Just about finished with this guy I think - may do some more bits and bobs to him at some point. Biro drawing scanned and coloured on photoshop.

rabbid dog pencil test

Here's another one, suprised with how well this one came out - wasn't sure it would work. It needs a couple more frames in there. Check it here.

hamster animation pencil test.

Agreed to do some basic animations for a friend's film. Struggling with my old laptop, it just can't handle the big files and keeps crashing - and exporting the video has been a bit of a nightmare. Also trying to get to grips with the animation software on photoshop - I miss flash!
Anyway here's the rough test. I'm going to post up the finished thing on my film blog when it's done.

LINESKULL

To take my mind off the mountain of work I have to do and the rising levels of stress I did this drawing on MS paint. I used only the line tool and I don't have a mouse on my laptop so it was using just the mousepad. It was suprisingly fun and maybe even a little relaxing.

Sloppy sketch painted sloppily. Was trying to use some unusual colours and stuff... not too happy with this one but it's a learning curve. Feel like I need to do some reading on colour theory before I can do this kind of experimentation. I'm much more confident with bold block colours but I'm trying to push out of my comfort zone a bit.

Tellyman

A4 doodle coloured in photoshop. Fun with the gradient tool. Like this guy but his head is waaaaaaayy too big.

flay

Flay is a character from two of my favourite books: Titus Groan and Gormenghast. They are both amazing and I really reccomend reading them. The characters and their descriptions are amazing - ripe for illustration. Here's a description of him I found from the book:

"Mr Flay appeared to clutter up the doorway as he stood revealed, his arms folded, surveying the smaller man before him in an expressionless way. It did not look as though such a bony face as his could give normal utterance, but rather that instead of sounds, something more brittle, more ancient, something dryer would emerge, something perhaps more in the nature of a splinter or fragment of stone. Nevertheless, the harsh lips parted. ‘It's me,’ he said, and took a step forward into the room, his knee joints cracking as he did so. His passage across the room - in fact his passage through life - was accompanied by these cracking sounds, one per step, which might be likened to the breaking of twigs."

Awesome huh? There is some really great description of his face as well (which is what I opted to draw). Here's one of a series of attempts that I'm most happy with:
Think I'm going to try and redraw it from a few different angles, see if I can replicate it and get it down.

a general and a pigeon

Was going to enter a Panel of the Week on concept art before I realised the deadline was the next day - heh. Well here are two doodles from it, I may have a crack and complete it one day if I'm bored. It was going to be about the trials and tribulations of a carrier pigeon. Here is the pigeon looking cold, and the general who gives the bird the message.

vote for pedro

Another colouring attempt on photoshop. I went too far with it and he ended up looking like he had fake tan, so I had to pull it back. Think I got there n the end. No reference for skin tones or anything, just playing around.

bad bunny

Horrible hench bunny! I thought it'd be interesting to see a bunny head on a built body, turned out quite creepy (and that was after I erased the drool). May have a go at colouring this guy properly at some point. Quite happy with how the body turned out as I didn't use reference (although the reason it's cropped is cos I messed up the lower half of the body...).

old man photoshoops

Just a little sketch I did a while ago from a photo - tried painting it in photoshop. Still very much a beginner in digital art, but enjoying practicing. Kinda gave up on this one with the hair and clothes - was mainly just practicing for skin tones, which I'm reasonably happy with.

a zombie...

This is a sketch I coloured of a zombie for a comic I'm planning (god knows when I'll actually draw some propper panels). Trying to get the essence of a zombie without the gore. Bit rough around the edges cos I did the lines in biro. He's called Bob.

RABBIDS

Three of my rabid rabbits, aka "rabbids" - trying different colours. Another possible tee design!

BACK...

Gonna try and keep this blog rolling with some regulat post. Here's a doodle i tried colouring in photoshop. Possible tee design.