International Dylan Thomas Day

I had the honour of being asked to design the logo and posters for this year's International Dylan Day by poet Mab Jones, this year's organiser. I was given free reign to do what I wanted but was asked to concentrate more on the younger Dylan Thomas and, in particular, the photographs taken by Nora Summers.

I produced a lot of sketches of Dylan Thomas and once I'd achieved a look I was happy with I tried to abstract it. I use a brush to draw with and I wanted the sketch to have a calligraphic and lyrical look. I tried different brushes and papers (including Japanese calligraphy paper until I got the look I was after).

Despite the artwork needing to be produced digitally I needed the original image to be created as traditionally as possible. Each layer was created using brush, ink and paint (and in some cases painted on acetate) and combined in Photoshop. All the lettering on the posters was written by hand (a bigger task than normal as all posters and logos were required in English and Welsh).

It's a pleasure to see my Dylan Day posters out and about and across social media. A real honour to be associated with an artist of Thomas' stature (especially as a Welsh illustrator). Details about the day itself can be found HERE and the event kicks off with sand artist Marc Treanor recreating my portrait of Thomas on the beach at New Quay. I can't wait to see this! If you'd like to learn more about Dylan Thomas before the day itself I recommend the excellent "Set Fire To The Stars" film starring Celyn Jones and Elijah Wood.

Prints of my Dylan Thomas portrait can be bought from my online shop.

A small house in the woods

Finished illustration and the original sketchbook page.

Now available as a fancy pearlescent print HERE.

The Spokesmen poster

Some work I did recently for the Visible Fictions Theatre Company in Scotland.

Tank Girl

Inspired by seeing Hewlett's recent Tank Girl drawings on Instagram I had a go myself.

"The Weird Little Word of William Willow" & "Alice in Wonderland"

Here's some work I've produced recently for composer, Andrew Fisher. Andrew is an incredibly prolific and versatile composer who I've worked with in the past on some very enjoyable projects (HERE and HERE). This time I've produced posters to promote two of his musicals - "The Weird Little World of William Willow" and "Alice in Wonderland".

Quadrophenia

I was asked to contribute to a movie themed show in Paris by the brilliant Seb Mesnard. I could choose any film I wanted. I struggled for a while. That's a pretty open brief and there were just too many choices - The Apartment, Annie Hall, Dirty Harry, Westworld, Rollerball, Chungking Express, The Royal Tenenbaums, A Clockwork Orange, Beyond The Valley of the Dolls - then I noticed the DVD of Quadrophenia on my shelf. I can't count how many times I've seen this film. If I ever catch it on TV I have to watch it to the end. It's one of those films. The piece I'll send to Paris will be an original ink drawing with no computer involved at all but I've also produced a digitally coloured version to be made available as print . Below are the earlier stages of the illustration - pencil sketch and the finished line work. I always enjoy seeing other illlustators process so I thought I'd share.

It ain't over until...

A Valkyrie style opera singer. A recent commission for a Scottish tourism magazine.

Spirou

Here's some recent illustrations for Spirou (always a pleasure to work for Spirou!). This time I had to drawn human flesh empanadas, a giant spider swarm and a human brain with a robot body (I love my job!). Here's the illustrations and how some of them appeared on the page.

Exhale

An image I was thinking of producing as a print.

Hellboy

I love Hellboy. Mignola's artwork is absolutely sublime. I last had a go at drawing Hellboy years ago for a charity Christmas card to be sold at a comics convention (Bristol, I think). Been flicking through my Hellboy books again this week and thought I'd have another go.