Asleep

Whilst wandering through the forest one dark night the children discovered a sort of sleeping beauty. Well, not very beautiful, but definitely sleeping. Or so they thought.......

Brasil

A few sketches from a recent trip to Brazil. Funny how you don't quite seem to get the same amount done when the kids are there! Bless. These are done in Belo Horizonte and Jacaraipe.

More tragedy.....A journey in small pictures

Another tragedy in small pictures...bottled

duet

here's my pic for IF

'UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA.'

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA.'
Words just designed to make you want to throw down your un-bought shopping and punch somebody. Oh, it's a supermarket and somebody is unexpectedly trying to buy something. How could they have expected that? It would be unreasonable to apportion blame for that. I wonder when it might be expected? As the phrase blares out over and over from each and every self service area, I start to wonder how many times it will take for them to become aware of it and expect something...?
Maybe one day, just maybe, they might, just tiny teeny weeny might expect something random like that to happen. But it may be a while.
I love it that they follow up with 'PLEASE WAIT FOR ASSISTANCE'
Ah! Now I understand! That's why there are no staff at the checkout! They're all busy being surprised by hundreds of unexpected items and shoppers in the bagging area!
'Bagging area.'
Where did that come from? 'bagging area'
It should be called 'pointless hell designed by supermarkets to make your life just a little bit more crap area.' Maybe it's a bit long but there are products called things like I really can't quite believe that it's not imitation hydrogenized fat, so why not?
It's the area you can never checkout from.
It's the area where people mill about mindlessly putting things in bags, then removing them before shuffling guiltily to the next bagging area and doing it all again. Can it become addictive? I think we should be told.
After repeating the process several times, go and wait in the long queue of ex-bagging area-ites.

Bright orange uniforms are used for the subliminal fear. The idea of having being transported to Guantanamo Bay, is quickly suppressed, but the sneaking suspicion remains, thus keeping complaints to a minimum. I suppose I could just let it go.....?

cultivate

'cultivate' for IF.

stir

Here's a bit of an experiment. I seem to doing lots of experimenting! This guy has been known to create a bit of a stir, i'm sure..

warning sign

"Information given in a triangle bordered with red is a warning sign." This is directly quoted from the highway code. ...as far as I remember. So clearly this illustration has extra gravitasSo much gravitas that it may sink in fact. Or is that gravity? I get them mixed up. Actually, thinking about, just a little, gravity can't sink an illustration. I hope someone edits this soon so it all makes sense......

swarm

What on earth would possess anyone to have a beard of bees? Words fail me.....!
Actually is that some sort of 'terrist' there? There is one in hiding I believe.... has anyone checked these bee-bearded wonders. There has to be a reason for it somewhere.

progress

As promised, here is an update on the digital painting side of things, I'm quite pleased so far at high resolution, but I think you need a while for the critical eye to set in! It might look a complete mess in the cold light of morning! I may print one to see what that looks like..

layers

A cartoon, which has layers and layers of turgid wordage...!

sweater

not sure whether this is a sweater or a jumper really...XXXL perhaps?

book cover ideas

Just discovered theses little jewels tucked away and thought I should share them. They are little pictures. Tiny tiny jewels, loosely based on books. Maybe I will design a few and repost...

digital portrait

Here is the first postable version of a portrait of my daughter. It's still not finished, but getting there. Still looks a bit too worried and serious I think. I'm sure it will need lots of tweeks and repainting. I'd forgotten that doing portraits is highly demanding, and lots of time is required! It has been done digitally, but that doesn't make it any easier, it just makes the choices different!

archive

Here's a picture I did nearly 8 years ago whilst trying to get to grips with a computer. It has a certain naive charm, I've not done anything like it since though!

Hohohoho!

Well, getting into the Christmas spirit now...
polished off the whiskey last night, followed by the Jack Daniels.
Hohohoho...

The missing link

Prehistoric. This is a photo of what might be the missing link in the history of fish and mankind. I found it in my back garden. I was just putting out the rubbish when I looked round and there it was. The dog had been ferretting around excitedly for something to knaw on, because the cupboard was bare and had unearthed this. Obviously I was quite excited as I had been looking for a reason to catch the bus to town, so I popped up to the natural history museum where they gave me a full run down on the value of their time and asked me to make another appointment sometime after the next blue moon. Well, I can hardly wait! So this is pretty much a sneak preview before the world's press get hold of it. I think I might call it the luazulasaurus. Or something...

A billion Elephants..

I saw this quote somewhere and have been waiting to illustrate it for ages. All I want to know though is: Who is doing the dropping? Where did all the elephants come from? Questions that I think we need to know answers to...Wikileaks anybody??

Arty reasons to catch a train

Due to the cold snap and iffy back I caught the train a few times. Bloody expensive! It's good fun though to stare at people, surreptitiously, so here are a few sketches from the train. They may appear in illustrations later...