It’s always flattering and a confidence boost when someone likes my work enough to want to feature or interview me for their website or blog and it’s always much appreciated.
Creative Sessions
I was lucky enough to be featured on the amazing Creative Sessions website run by the lovely guys at Envato a few months ago for their Digital Illustration Session. If you haven’t checked these amazing resources out, head on over to the site and have a peek – other great sessions in the series so far include Illustrative Lettering and Character Design.
Thanks to super talented illustrator Chris Leavens for inviting me to be a part of the awesome Digital Illustration Session.
Boxed In Design
I was also interviewed recently for Boxed In Design, a great resource site primarily geared towards designers with great interview, news and tutorials.
Thanks to Ken for the opportunity to feature on the site.
Sometimes when a rush job comes in with no concrete brief and no existing branding to work off, you have to take what you have and run with it.
This recent flyer that I designed for the Royal Literacy Fund in the UK was one of those jobs. All I received was the copy about a new literacy reading group event and the request to make it fun, with a subtle reference to Winnie the Pooh.
The solution I arrived at was to put on my illustration hat and create a repeat pattern using various elements of the text to give a fun, friendly and relaxed feel to the flyer (oh, and can you spot the Winnie The Pooh reference?).
Here’s the repeat pattern…
And the final flyer…
Last weekend we took Mali (my one year old daughter) for her first trip to the zoo – it was a magical day watching her face as she saw real live creatures that she’d previously only seen in pictures.
I also took the opportunity to whip out the sketchbook and make a few doodles too (got slightly carried away with the penguins – such lovely, expressive and comedic little creatures)…
Hmmmm, brush and ink – not the most forgiving medium to work in 
Inspired by the wonderful array of birds at the zoo, I returned home and created this little chap in the evening…
Pastel study of a Phil Hale oil painting
Combining pastel experiments with a couple of other passions of mine – bears and boxing
Nelson Mandela weathered iron statue study (gouache, finished digitally)
Zsa Zsa (friends pet dog)
Seals
Way back in April 2009 I was approached by the awesome Photoshop Tutorial site Psdtuts+ to create a digital painting demo for them.
Below is the final illustration and if you’d like to watch the video (showing me creating the piece from start to finish along with my cringe worthy narration 
here’s a link.
A quick digital study from a favourite movie of mine – can you guess which one?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to make comics for a living. I love the medium of sequential story telling and some of my favourite artists and inspirations are from the field of comics.
So, to my surprise, when I was commissioned to work in this medium…..I found out I hated it.
The subject matter was even one of my favourite subjects to illustrate (animals and nature) but the repetitive nature of drawing the same thing time after time, just left me bored and burnt out.
It was a hard lesson to learn at the time, but one I’m truly glad to have experienced as it helped me focus on the type of illustration that I do want to do.
Luckily the project was canceled and I was off the hook – but for those interested, here are a few finished pages from the first chapter including the cover…
