Hello. A while ago a friend lent me a book full of artist Peter De Sève character sketches. I decided recently that I want to improve my character design and I thought what better way than to study the work of some amazing character designers.

De Sève is one of the few artist whose characters have the ability to make me smirk  just as they are. Without any words or captions in the entire book, he shows his brilliance in capturing hilarious expressions and conveying a real sense of emotion in his characters. I really love looking at them and thinking about what they might be thinking or what caption I would put along side them.

Anyway here is a full page of sketches I did of his sketches. And also go and check out his other stuff http://www.peterdeseve.com/

Towards the end of June I will be participating in a collective exhibition in Bristol with a butt-load of  other awesome illustrators & artists.

The exhibition is called ‘BUNT’ and is organised by local creative super-force Drawn in Bristol. They’ve asked local artists & designers to create pieces based on local endangered species which they’ll paint onto  triangular pieces of wooden ply board. Each artist’s piece of delicious triangular artwork will then be hung up in line to form large bunting in various venues in Bristol city centre. What fun!

Below is a mock-up design for my painting. I chose to produce an image of a gannet, the large sea bird known for their striking blue eyes. I decided to show a few development stages for the design in order to show how I came to the final image. My initial idea was to simply have a gannet poised on a rock looking out to sea, however, I thought this was a bit unimaginative and not very challenging. On further research I found that gannets our known for diving skills in order to catch fish and which led me to something a lot more exciting and dynamic.

The design process was pretty challenging as there were a lot of elements that were unfamiliar to me; trying to capture water splashing, how water reacts below the surface when something hits it, and also trying to get a perspective that make sense to the viewer.When it comes to painting it up on the board I might still change a few things but overall I’m pretty pleased with the design.

The final painting along with all the other artists’ will be up for auction at the end of the exhibition in June I’m told. So if you’re looking to own a one-off piece of decorative triangle remember to bring you wallets and bidding canes.

This is illustration is about mastery. I’m a firm believer in putting in the hours for the things you want to get better at. Nothing worth having comes easy.

As there was a lot going on in this image I didn’t want to get bogged down with colour decisions and thus keep the less important areas in monochrome.

I’ve added a new section to the site which is simply showcasing pages from sketchbook. I thought I’d share a few here on the blogwall but please go and check out the rest for goodness sake! (Click SKETCHES on the left-hand sidebar ; ) I haven’t cleaned them up because it’s a lot more personal showing them in their natural state. Pobody’s nerfect.

This was inspired by a recent cook-off had recently between me and my housemates.

The colour and heat of the ribs was something that I really wanted to pop out of the picture. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

A sweet looking VW camper van I saw many moons ago.

I thought it deserved it’s own painting.

Mr. Arms Akimbo, Executive Vice-President

If you haven’t tried drawing on a banana then you’ve really been missing out! Take you favourite biro to banana skin now! The skin is great for absorbing the pen, and is very satisfying to draw on.

Alternatively write down your dreams and desires on a banana and then eat it to make them come true. WARNING: This may not work.

This is an image inspired by the Bristol Zombie Walk that I attended a couple of Halloweens ago.

Bristol is such a great place for fun, out-of-the-ordinary events like this. Others events have included a mass Saturday afternoon pillow fight (BYO pillow) and mass water pistol fight. All taking place in the city centre, amusing and bewildering passers-by.

Something that amused me when I first moved to Bristol. Looked like a good bike. Poor owner.

I don’t think you can leave your bike around for too long these days. It’s best to keep moving.

When I saw this it reminded me of the scene from Short Circuit 2, where Johnny 5 gets bashed up and left in the street.