tom bagshaw blog

Prisma Artist Collective...

2012-01-27T10:25:00.003Z

If you havent seen it yet, the PRISMA Artist Collective (which im a part of) now has a great new website! The collective features an international line-up of 25 amazing artists, some of whom you may or may not know of already, make sure you check out the site for information about the artists, latest news on shows, interviews and works in progress!

Follow PRISMA on:
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Twitter / twitter.com/PRRRISMA
Facebook / www.facebook.com/prismacollective
Tumblr / prismacollective.tumblr.com
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Catching up...

2012-01-27T10:11:00.004Z

Cant quite believe its almost been a month since my last post! Ive been pretty bad at keeping up with stuff online for awhile- moving house and settling in took more of my time than i anticipated and its meant ive fallen behind on my work for a mini show with Corey Helford in March! As a little taster, heres a couple of wip IG shots of what to expect in March, when things get a little closer to the show i will be able to post up the full pieces!

Happy New Year!...

2011-12-31T20:26:00.002Z

Another year seems to have flown past, this one certainly had its ups and downs though! As some of you may know, im now back in Bath, its been a couple of weeks since moving in and already it feels more like home than living for nearly 11 months in the other place- we really wont be missing it in the slightest! Lots of new stuff planned for the year ahead, a few shows lined up already- the first couple of months in particular are going to be a bit hectic but im really looking forward to it!

Just in case you missed it on the 3Cs Blog, my 100 portraits project is completed and as of the 1st January, the portraits will be available to order. Check out the blog for all the details.

I just wanted to say Happy New year to everyone, thanks for following! See you in 2012!

3Cs project Completed!...

2011-12-12T17:42:00.002Z

After 100 days, ive finally finished the 100 portraits project! Go have a look on the project blog to see all 100 portraits, some closeups and whats happening next!
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http://100portraits.blogspot.com/
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Just a quick update...

2011-12-09T16:08:00.003Z

sorry about the lack of updates here, everythings been a bit hectic over the last couple of weeks- we are finally moving again next week- back into Bath after having to move further out between Bath and Bristol, it quickly became apparent it wasnt somewhere we wanted to be and its taken most of this year trying to find anything suitable back in Bath!

Anyway, hopefully after christmas things should settle down a bit and i can get on with some new work, a few shows lined up next year so lots to do! In other news, the 3Cs project is nearly done, after the weekend i will be posting up the final 20 portraits and then the whole collection of 100! The initial concept of trying to do 100 portraits in 100 hours over 100 days soon became a bit redundant- after the first couple i realised that 1 hour just wasnt enough to produce a good enough portrait (at least to my eyes) so i resigned myself to allowing a bit more time if needed- the majority ended up being 1.5hrs while a couple i got a bit carried away with and did a couple of hours- hopefully it shows though as they had good little details that i really wanted to capture! Look out for the completed works some time on the 12th Dec on the project blog.

Falls Grace...

2011-10-31T10:37:00.004Z

A new piece that will be going to the Scope Miami art show with Corey Helford Gallery at the end of November. 'Fall's Grace' is about 17 x 23" (minus the frame), and (as ever) painted in Painter IX.5, printed on heavy cotton rag, mounted on board, varnished and framed. Please contact the gallery for pricing.

Best Small Shops...

2011-10-06T11:57:00.004+01:00

Another illustration for the Daily Telegraph Magazine, this time a feature about the best small shops in Britain of 2011. The feature was not only about fashion but also categories such as best shop for wine, mens fashion, bookshop, interiors etc.. the brief was pretty open but the general idea was to have a sexy fashionista and incorporate the categories in there as well.

The idea to have her carry bags and have the categories on there seemed like a good one so i quickly sketched it up for approval. Even though her head is really the only part thats fully painted and its actually pretty small- it gave me a complete nightmare and took a couple of days to get 'right' (right to me that is) but everything else went pretty smoothly.

Popshot magazine...

2011-10-04T17:07:00.004+01:00

Awhile ago i was asked by the nice guys at Popshot Magazine to do an accompanying illustration for a poem in their Love Issue. Black Oil imagines love as a physical thing that percolates through the body. They very nicely sent a copy through for me, so heres a couple of quick Instagram shots of the cover and my page. I will add the original image onto my portfolio site soon if you want to see it without the filter.

Inspiration blogging...

2011-10-03T16:38:00.003+01:00

A while ago i created a blooger called Carbon Cradle which i wanted to use as a place where i could share images that i found to be interesting, inspirational etc and i was able to keep it going for a reasonable time. Unfortunately as many will know, blogger probably isnt the best platform to share images like this, uploading, tagging, linking each picture can be a little tedious, especially when my custom css blogger template never seemed to want to conform to the right size- so every image needed alterations to the html so it would display properly!

So i have been looking to move this stuff over to Tumblr which is pretty much built with this type of blogging in mind. The problem i had was that Tumblrs coding was completely new to me and trying to find a custom theme i liked was a bit tricky. Ive found one which is ok- for now, its a bit buggy on the infinite scroll so im likely to change it when i find something that works a little better. (if you know of any themes that may suit- feel free to let me know!)

Anyway- as of now, my Carbon Cradle blog is now running on Tumblr at: carboncradle.tumblr.com and the old blog will just sit around feeling sorry for itself.

New work for London AAF...

2011-09-21T14:45:00.004+01:00

Coming up at the end of October is the London Affordable Art Fair (AAF). Fine Grime will be at stand 7 at the Battersea show which runs October 20th-23rd. They will be showing a variety of great artists including: Carles Gomila, Nom Kinnear King, Jessica Stewart, Bethany Marchman, Charmaine Olivia, Paul Barnes, Archer Dougherty, Lindsey Carr, Adam Oehlers, Joshua Burbank, Bradley MacMath.

I will have a few pieces available there including these 2 new ones. Maleficent and Lucille, (Lucille La Vern voiced the Evil Queen in the Disney animated Snow White). Each is 355x498mm (approx 14x20"), giclee printed on cotton rag, dry mounted on board, varnished and framed. Please contact Fine Grime for sales enquiries.

Landscape sketches 4...

2011-09-13T16:01:00.004+01:00

Taking a little break from doing these little sketches for awhile, just too much to do at the moment so they can take a back seat while i concentrate on other pieces. Heres the last batch, in all ive done 99 of these warmup sketches, seems fitting to be able to leave it there for a while!

ST Fashion, Front Row...

2011-09-13T15:52:00.003+01:00

After producing 2 illustrations for ST Fashion magazines AW/11 Guide to Coats feature, i also got asked to do a couple more for their Front Row feature in the same magazine. I think this issue is going to be out with the Daily Telegraph on the 18th Sept.

3Cs project, one week in...

2011-09-08T10:50:00.008+01:00

Ive just updated the 3Cs project blog with a little post, its now 1 week to the day that i took the ref images and started the project and so far its been going well. Ive added a couple of photos of a portrait i did on wednesday so people have some idea of what im actually doing!

Have a look at the 3Cs blog: 100portraits.blogspot.com

Landscape sketches 3...

2011-08-30T15:49:00.002+01:00

More of these little landscape warm-up sketches.

Instagram pics...

2011-08-19T10:25:00.003+01:00

As you may be aware, i use an iphone app called Instagram to take a lot of quick photos. At the moment (as far as im aware) there is no native website that allows people who dont have the app to view someones pictures. Of course you can see them if it gets posted through to Facebook, Twitter etc but not have a way to view everything that someone has taken. Fortuntely theres a site called Instagrid that allows you to view publish all you images under your profile and allow non Instagram users to see what youve been posting. Heres the link to my profile if you ever fancy a look:

http://instagrid.me/tombagshaw

Landscape sketches...

2011-08-17T10:19:00.003+01:00

Heres a few more of these little sketches ive been doing as a warmup exercise. Check out the first post under the landscapes category for more.

3Cs Project Launched...

2011-08-08T14:36:00.003+01:00

On the 1st of September i will start a project to create 100 portrait studies in 100 hours over 100 days! The idea is quite simple, take some reference photographs of 100 volunteers at noon on the 1st of September, then start creating a digital portrait study from the reference but only allow myself one hour to do it- one a day, for 100 days! Im hoping that this will allow me to further develop my portrait painting skills and will certainly make me do portraits that i would not normally undertake in my normal work!

I have set up a blogspot address, 100portraits.blogspot.com where you can find more information about the project if you would like to take part. Im also going to be promoting the project through Facebook and Twitter, if you can, please help in getting the word around, link to the blog, tell your friends etc. Obviously this is only going to be something you can volunteer for if youre in the Bath area on the 1st of September but i really need as much publicity as i can get in order for this to work!

Mostlywanted updated...

2011-08-07T21:38:00.004+01:00

Ive just updated my main portfolio website mostlywanted.com with all the latest works including the full body of work for the Beautiful Imperfections show at Corey Helford Gallery. If you cant get to the gallery to see them, you can now see all the finished pieces in Portfolio One! I will try and get some detail shots up on the blog at some point but it may take awhile, ive also got a new project starting soon which i should be announcing tomorrow!

Beautiful Imperfections...

2011-08-01T16:55:00.002+01:00

Beautiful Imperfections is the title ive chosen for my new body of work which will be on show at the Corey Helford Gallery in LA starting on the 6th August. The show runs till the 27th, as you will see from previous posts the main show on the ground floor will be David Stoupakis who has produced 7 new pieces (weirdly coincidental that i produced 7 new ones as well...). I really cant wait to see all his new work- from the couple ive seen so far he looks like hes produced a killer show.

Anyway, heres a little showcard ive put together using my 'Regrets' piece with some of the details. More info can be found on the CHG main site.

Something a bit different...

2011-08-01T16:45:00.004+01:00

For a couple of weeks since i finished my work for Corey Helford ive been doing a couple of warm-up sketches per day, nothing fancy, just a nice landscape image sketched in photoshop with a single custom brush i made (again, nothing special- a dual brush, default round combined with a dry brush set on multiply).

I just wanted to do something i dont ever usually deal with for very long, i generally do figurative work so these were a nice way to 'warm up' before starting work properly, im really enjoying it so far. Im going to see how long i can keep producing these sketches and every now and again upload a little collection of them here (if you follow me on Instagram / twitter etc you may have already seen small versions of them). I will put them all under a new 'Landscapes' category and see how they come along. Heres the last couple of weeks worth..

ST Fashion AW/11...

2011-08-01T16:35:00.004+01:00

Heres a bit of new work recently commissioned for ST Fashion, a bi-annual published with the Daily Telegraph. They are for a 'Guide to coats' feature in the Autumn / Winter issue. A really nice job with a lot of supplied ref images and a pretty much free hand in what to produce. The first illustration is on a right hand page so the image leads your eye over the turn to the next page where the second image is boxed within a couple of columns. Really enjoyable job- thanks Ciara!

CHG flyers...

2011-07-19T19:37:00.004+01:00

Heres the Corey Helford Gallery show eflyer for the upcoming show with David Stoupakis and myself, below that is a small postcard theyre also having made up. Going by the full upcoming shows flyer that came over, CHG is going to be having some amazing shows over the next couple of months!

CHG Teaser collection...

2011-07-04T12:43:00.009+01:00

After 2 months, ive now come to the end of producing my work for the upcoming joint show with David Stoupakis at Corey Helford Gallery next month.

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen these already- in fact you may have seen them on Facebook and Twitter as well (i upload to IG and sometimes send the feed to FB / Twitter too). These are the small teasers for the new show works, small closeups, sketches and works in progress, all taken with the Instagram app on Iphone4. I just wanted to collect them all in one place, hopefully it will show my progress over the last 8 weeks! Im now in the middle of printing, mounting, varnishing and framing.. then everything will be shipped over for the show!

Paint it! Make it! Zine...

2011-07-04T12:29:00.002+01:00

Illustration Rally now have the 'Paint it! Make it!' zine available to buy. This zine was part of the event on the 25th that i posted about earlier and you can buy it with a small donation (£3 minimum). Check out the Illustration Rally blog post to get more info and heres a look at the little piece i supplied.

Guilty pleasures...

2011-06-23T12:28:00.004+01:00

The Guilty Pleasures and Modern Vices show will be running at the London Miles popup gallery location tonight. The Vices show will be displayed on the first floor while the 'Coming to Town' joint show by Nom Kinnear King and Xue Wang, will be on show on the ground floor (i think). If youre in London (or if you are going to be visting in the next few days) make sure you stop by and see the work.

Opening reception: Thusday, June 23rd 2011. From 6pm to 11pm.
On show: June 23rd to June 27th 2011
Location: 65 Hanbury Street. East London.

Heres my 'Mans Ruin' piece for the Vices show which i posted about previously here.

CLIO Awards...

2011-06-07T11:04:00.002+01:00

I recently found out that my illustrations for JWT Melbourne for the IFAW Anti Whaling Campaign had won Silver and Bronze in the CLIO Awards 'Print' category! There was also a silver award at Adfest earlier in the year for the same and they were shortlisted for D&AD as well which was pretty cool. Congrats to the guys at JWT especially @HarshKapadia9 who i dealt with throughout the job.

Coming to Town...

2011-06-07T10:25:00.004+01:00

Coming to Town is the title for a new joint show of works by Nom Kinnear King and Xue Wang. They are putting on the show at the London Miles pop up location of 65 Hanbury Street in London. This looks like a really good pairing of two great artists from the UK. The show only runs from the 23rd to the 27th June so make sure you have a look before its gone!

Paint it! Make it!...

2011-06-07T09:16:00.004+01:00

I was recently asked by the awesome Stephen Chan to get involved with the Paint it! Make it! party for Japan. Its being put on by Illustration Rally (and friends) and looks like it should be a great event! 'Live drawing, origami, cakes and zine making where you can bind and customise your own zine with the work of some of the hottest illustrators around!' Everything raised from the event goes to the Just giving Tsunami appeal. Heres some more details:

When:
Saturday the 25th of June 10am til 5pm

Where:
The Book Club, 100-106 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4XS

If youre on twitter help spread the word with the hash tag #paintitmakeit and make sure you have a look at the main page on Illustration Rally for the artist list and more details on whats being planned. Heres the flyer- after the event i will also post up my contribution for the zine.

Working away...

2011-05-10T16:39:00.002+01:00

In case anyone was wondering, im busy working away on a few new pieces for a joint show that ive got coming up with the incredible David Stoupakis at Corey Helford Gallery at the begining of August. Im slightly nervous about it to be honest and i really hope i can pull something 'out of the bag' that will be worthy of such a show! Ive got a couple of months of long hours ahead so things may be a little quiet on the blog (more so than usual) but i will try and add updates when i can- i will also be sending the occasional mobile upload through my twitter and facebook feeds just so you know ive not dropped off the face of the earth!

Remember that London Miles have their Literal Eyes show this week- Thursday, May 12th 2011. 6pm to 11pm. Exhibition on show: May 13th to May 16th 2011 at 65 Hanbury Street, East London.

Strychnin gallery also start their 'Enchanted Forest' show on the 13th in Berlin, looks like it will be a great show and a percentage of sales goes to help the WWF with their forestry projects.

Skullface...

2011-05-10T16:29:00.003+01:00

Awhile back i got asked to contribute my Odokuro piece to an upcoming book called Skullface being put together by the nice chaps at Korero books. Compiled by Yak El-Droubie Skullface gathers over 70 artists to get to grips with Death in all its guises. An unequaled showcase of today's painters and illustrators, featuring the likes of Alex Garcia, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Shawn Barber, Mike Giant and Jeral Tidwell. Today i got my copy through the post (thanks guys!) and its a really amazing book- if you like anything to do with skulls, go get it now! Heres a couple of quick Instagram pics:

Literal Eyes...

2011-04-21T16:47:00.004+01:00

London Miles Gallery have an new show on soon called 'Literal Eyes'. To quote the press release: '30 artists from Europe translating their favorite works of literature into visual masterpieces'. Im fortunate enough to have been asked to submit a piece alongside some great artists and i chose to interpret Shakespears 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'- more specifically the queen of the fairies herself, Titania- the title of this piece.

I always thought Titania was actually a much darker character- at least in so far as you usually see her portrayed. Originally i wanted to do a big epic piece, full of the characters lounging around- akin to my favorite painting of the story by Edwin Henry Landseer but unfortunately i just didnt have the time for something so complex (just too much to do over the next few months!) so i chose to concentrate on Titania herself. I wanted to include some fairies but stay well clear of the usual sugary sweet variety that has become all to familiar over the last few years. Hopefully the darker edge i wanted to portray together with a contemporary feel have come through enough.. anyway, there you go, a little background for you!

Heres my piece, a few details and the show flyer. You may have noticed that London Miles have a new venue for this show so if youre going- make sure you note the new address! Show runs May 12th - May 16th, 65 Hanbury Street, Shoreditch, London.

The Enchanted Forest...

2011-04-21T11:00:00.006+01:00

'The enchanted forest' is a forthcoming show at the Strychnin Gallery in Berlin that i was asked to participate in. Heres the press release:

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Every single minute forest regions with the size of 36 football fields disappear from our planet. Such a massive removal of trees without sufficient reforestation results in biodiversity loss, habitat damage and aridity. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland. Nowadays, deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emission which drastically affects global warming and climate change.

In concordance with the United Nation's International Year of Forests, Strychnin Gallery presents 'The Enchanted Forest' an international charity group show curated by Yasha Young and Giovanni Cervi that is dedicated to the forests and their inhabitants all over the world. The show should remind people of the drastic damage that is constantly done to our forests as well as their beauty, uniqueness and importance. Many lovingly and elaborately crafted sculptures as well as paintings and photographs by over 30 international artists will display both the desolation of deforestation and the forest‘s magic and liveliness that we have to save.

The long list of participating artists includes: David Hochbaum, Luke Chueh, Mia Araujo, Caitlin Hackett, Travis Lampe, Tom Bagshaw, Bethany Marchman, Mimi S., Seymour, Lindsey Carr, Skeleton Heart, Daniel van Nes, Christina Graf, Miraschi, Raf Veulemans, Lisa Black, Lisa Mei Ling Fong, Annie Bertram, Francois Escalmel, Wee Flowers, Squp, Tamara Ferioli, Fernanda Veron, Lost Fish, Angela Singer, Elmer Presslee, Lucy McLauchlan, Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn (Tale of Tales), Sage Vaughn, Suzanne Moxhay, Yumiko Kayumawa and many more.

10 percent of the price of every sold artwork will be donated to a project of the WWF!

--

Of course i was more than happy to be involved and had a pretty strong idea of what i wanted to do almost immediately. Heres the final artwork and a little walk-through on the process behind it.

Quite unusually for me, i started out with a pencil sketch, yes- real paper and pencil! I didnt need a brilliant reproduction of the sketch as i was just going to be painting over the top so i just took a quick snap with my phone...

The next 3 shots are the quick greyscale forest painted in Photoshop over the top of the sketch, next up is a rough placement for the characters in the scene. Once i had these elements established i put a solid layer over everything and lowered the opacity slightly, then started sketching in the characters in more detail with a default round brush...

Once i had the sketch completed and given the characters some basic tonal work i did a few rough color tests then took a flattened high resolution file into Painter and began the long process of painting!

The final painting is 640x450mm minus frame (approx 25x18"), mounted, varnished and framed. The show runs from May 13th, for purchase enquiries please contact the gallery.

Imagine FX 69...

2011-04-13T19:36:00.003+01:00

The latest issue of the fantasy and sci-fi digital art mag Imagine FX is now on sale and in this issue theres some great articles on painting fantasy landscapes along with the usual tips and tricks from some great artists. I was asked to the artist Q&A section with some advice on creating wavy / natural hair and also giving a character ghostly translucency. Im pretty bad at expressing myself through writing (which you can probably tell if youve spent any time on this blog) so hopefully the tips are reasonably easy to understand! Heres a few quick shots of the mag, if you see it on the stands make sure you check it out.

Kate Middleton...

2011-04-09T20:18:00.005+01:00

I was recently approached by the guys at the Daily Telegraph Magazine with the possibility of doing a portrait of Kate Middleton for an upcoming feature. Everything was a little shaky as it needed to not only get approval from the nice chaps at the magazine but also by the big guys on the Telegraph itself, as this was the first attempt at having an illustrated cover (and to my mind- also of impending royalty) i wasnt holding out much hope that it would get in.

I really had no brief, just to produce a good likeness / portrait of Kate and to bear in mind the usual constraints of editorial work- room for copy!

My first piece came out really well (i thought), i wanted to try and get her hair up off her shoulders- shes always photographed with her hair down and i wanted to move away from any preconceived views. Although (minus a couple of small edits) this was sounding pretty good- when it came to the big meeting the fact her hair wasnt down- was actually a problem and she needed to be more identifiable! So back in with long hair! Fortunately the rest of the image was good so i was able to salvage the facial portrait and edit everything else. When i got a quick mockup of the cover it became evident that it needed something else in the background, a right to left diagonal which darkened the top left for the type to appear as knockout fitted the bill nicely!

Many thanks to Gary Cochran at the Telegraph for commissioning this piece via CIA and for pushing to get an illustration onto the cover of the Telegraph Magazine, with any luck this will get some good feedback and allow a few more through!

Heres the final portrait, closeup details and a quick shot of the cover (she got scaled up a bit on the cover!)

Design Week...

2011-03-21T11:26:00.003Z

Just picked up this weeks Design Week magazine, theres an interesting article on the 'hopefully' better 2011- with consultancies getting work in and starting to hire again, together with some figures for salary comparison between 2009-2010 (drawn from a recruitment agency questionnaire). Theres also a great piece by Garrick Webster that looks at illustration and the realm of technology. I got to throw in my 2 cents worth in 'talking tech'. Its funny that while everyone gives a valid comment about the subject- im the only one who mentions the costs involved in using tech to create! I often think its an overlooked area when people are talking about digital art, but maybe its just something that people are willing to accept mainly because traditional art materials are so expensive... at least with digital software your paint doesnt run out i suppose!

Anyway, if you get a chance to have a flick through it on the news stand or buy it, check out the article.

Vices show for London Miles...

2011-03-16T11:03:00.004Z

In between bits and pieces i have been able to fit in this piece for a forthcoming show at London Miles Gallery. The show was originally slated for the end of March but has been put back a bit to May. As soon as the show details become available i will get them up here. In the meantime- heres my piece, the show is about modern vices and artists have been given a particular vice or guilty pleasure to run with. Mine was gambling and i really wanted to do something along the theme of the traditional tattoo pin-up of 'Mans Ruin' and this is what that evolved into.

Titled 'Mans Ruin', the final work is mounted on board and varnished, approx 44x60cm / 24x17" (minus frame) and will be on sale via London Miles Gallery. Below is the full image and a few details.

Daily Telegraph 70s Hair...

2011-03-16T10:59:00.002Z

Heres another recent piece done for the Daily Telegraph fashion supplement. The article was about the big frizzy hair seen on the catwalk. It needed a fair amount of space for the typography / copy etc and to make it easier to shift i bled out to white on the right. I was trying to get this done at the same time as moving house so im not 100% happy with it, but i still think its a nice image. Not having seen the actual article yet i dont know whether they went for my original design or the alternate- after a request from the AD i removed some of the extra accent details. Below is the original artwork, a side by side of the two versions and a few detail shots.

Edit: weirdly enough i got a copy of the article page in the post today so heres a quick Instagram snap, bit of a shame the alt version got used...

A little update...

2011-02-04T16:54:00.005Z

Well its been a week since our house move, starting to settle a bit better- getting used to a new place always takes some time- at the least ive managed to get a desk and my system up and running again and have been able to get on with some work. Im working on a big job at the moment, cant show anything about that one yet (probably not for quite some time in fact) but what i can show you is my piece for the London Miles Gallery show 'Pens and Needles' which will be taking place at the gallery on 25th Feb- 7th Mar.

I mentioned it in a previous post, its a tattoo theme show with a nice touch that not only are the works themselves inspired by tattoo culture but also the gallery has also chosen tattoo artists to contribute their works on media other than skin. Im hoping that im going to be able to get up to the smoke for this show, fingers crossed i will have the time / money to do so!

Here is my piece entitled 'Hera'. She is approx 295x425mm (11x16") minus the frame and is the first piece ive used a hot press dry mounting process to bond it to a ply board then varnished. If youre interested in buying, please contact the gallery for pricing info.

Here is the show flyer:

Shop notice...

2011-01-24T08:44:00.002Z

As some of you may be aware, i am currently in the process of moving house. Consequently, through 24th Jan - 7th Feb orders placed at my online shop will have some delays in getting processed. Bear with me, as soon as we have settled in a bit i will get orders sorted out. A few orders that have been placed this last weekend should (with any luck) go out at the end of this week. Buyers will of course be kept up to date via email.

Cheers.

The Long Walk preview..

2011-01-17T17:28:00.004Z

As promised heres my 'The Long Walk' preview for the Corey Helford Gallery group show 'In the nursery'. The show starts on the 29th Jan and looks like its going to be another great one for the gallery, some great artists are showing (see my previous post here). Below the main preview is a few detail shots.

Hello 2011...

2011-01-14T11:25:00.002Z

First post of the new year (a little late maybe), its only a couple of weeks in and already the year is shaping up to be a good one. We have found a new place to live which is a massive relief and should hopefully be moving in on the 26/27th Jan- consequently im now surrounded by boxes and having great fun trying to juggle packing and work.

My piece for the Corey Helford 'In the nursery' show arrived in LA yesterday, with any luck it will be in one piece when they unwrap it (i did package it to survive nuclear fallout so it should be ok). Ive also just finished a portrait piece for a group show with London Miles Gallery in Feb- a tattoo inspired exhibition that will be showing work inspired by the art together with paintings and drawings by tattooists themselves. I dont think theres much info at the moment but i think it show be showing as of the 18th Feb.

I will put in previews of both pieces in the next few days- hope everyone is having a good new year so far!

Farewell to 2010...

2010-12-31T11:13:00.002Z

I have to say that 2010 sucked. Bigtime. Ive had years where things have been up and down, as does everyone- but never have i had a year where the bad has so dramatically outweighed the good. And im going to blame it on the year itself purely as it seems like its not just affected myself and my family but the vast majority of the people i encounter all have had similar tales of bad luck throughout the year.

Im not going to continue to waffle about all that has happened this year (there has been some good points by the way- its wasnt all bad!), but lets just say i am looking forward to the new year like never before. So in short, goodbye 2010- glad we were just passing through, please dont visit again!

I hope that you have all had a great Christmas holiday and that you have a great time on New Years Eve- whatever youre up to. Heres to a better, brighter 12 months!

Cheers!

The Long Walk Teaser...

2010-12-23T10:55:00.004Z

I released a small Instagram pic of part of my piece for the Corey Helford Gallery group show 'In the Nursery' a couple of days ago but wanted to share a slightly bigger version- it doesnt show much more than the other pic but it is a bit bigger and a lot clearer!

My piece is entitled 'The Long Walk' and was painted with a cross of creepy / cute that im getting to feel quite comfortable with now. I also wanted to do something that i would be happy to have up in my own daughters room, fortunately / unfortunately shes a bit young to appreciate the darker side. Its approx 550x550mm (22" sq) digital painting mounted on board and framed. The show starts the 29th Jan 2011 and will be available to purchase from CHG. I think the online preview will be going out a week or so before the show starts.

The list of artists involved so far will make an awesome show and im honoured to be a part of it. Heres a list of some of the artists showing: Aiko, Chris Anthony, Shawn Barber, Scott G. Brooks, Ray Caesar, Sas and Colin Christian, Ben Eine, Korin Faught, Sarah Folkman, Paul Frank, Harma Heikens, Hush, Anita Kunz, Michael Mararian, Elizabeth McGrath, Brandi Milne, Billy Norrby, Brendan Sharkey, Natalie Shau, Mike Stilkey, David Stoupakis, Sage Vaughn, Nick Walker, Martin Wittfooth and Chet Zar.

Saint Criminal Live...

2010-12-15T17:07:00.004Z

My piece for the guys at T-post mag (check the previous post here if you missed it) has been released into the wild. Head over to the T-post site and read the article for issue 60 here.

In other news, some of you may have noticed i havent been around much over the last week or so- nothing new there, but its because im trying to wrap up a new piece which is going to the Corey Helford Gallery in LA for their Jan group show 'In the nursery'. For some reason this piece has been giving me a few headaches (an armidillo took a hell of a lot longer than i anticipated!!) but hopefully it will be worthwhile in the end. I will try and post up a teaser at some point.

Today we found out that after 7 years we are having to move (we rent our home btw) and find somewhere else to live. Its a real bummer, as a family we have put down roots here but it doesnt look like we will be able to afford to live elsewhere in Bath (its a stupidly over priced region to live in!). Hopefully we will find somewhere suitable sooner rather than later. Trying not to let it stress us out too much- especially with christmas round the corner. 2010 has utterly sucked and i will be glad to see the back of it! Looking forward to 2011!!

Pandora

2010-11-22T11:23:00.004Z

In case you missed it, heres my piece for the London Miles Gallery Nov group show 'The Idol Hours'. Iconic artworks reinterpreted for the modern age by an elite selection of New Contemporary artists. Running from the 12th November to 1st of December at their Westbourne Studios space in London the show has a great line-up of artists paying tribute to some classic works. Some of the artists showing include: Dave MacDowell, Stella Im Hultberg, Matthew Bone, Travis Lampe, Zoe Lacchei, Bob Dob, Carrie Ann Baade, Carles Gomila, Nom Kinnear King, Chris B Murray, Ken Keirns and myself.

I chose to pay homage to Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'Pandora'. This was the first piece i had done as a one off digital work, it was painted digitally with painter as i usually work- printed on heavy cotton rag stock, hand embellished with acrylic, varnished and mounted on board. The end result was then custom framed and i have to say i was really pleased with how it turned out. Apparently it has got great feedback at the show and sold in a sneak preview a couple of days before the show opened! (as an aside to this- my 'Frankie' piece, which was also produced in the same way- also sold really quickly at the opening for the Eyes wide shut show in Bath the same night!) So going by the good feedback ive been getting i think i will be producing my work in this way from now on, with limited edition prints being reserved for a smaller size and much smaller run than previously published.

Heres my Pandora piece if you cant get to London Miles before the 1st of december and a couple of detail shots. In case youre interested the painting is about 20x28" / about 50x70cm, excluding the frame.

Saint Criminal

2010-11-20T11:55:00.006Z

Here's a recent commission for T-post magazine in Sweden. To quote their About page: 'Offbeat news + graphic t-shirt = T-post, the world’s first wearable magazine. Every five weeks, subscribers receive a new t-shirt in the mail. News story on the inside. Artist interpretation on the front. All-around conversation piece.' Which is a pretty nice idea. They have been quite nicely selective with the artists they have chosen to interpret the main article in each mag so i was happy to be involved.

I was asked to interpret an article based on the subject of unusual sentencing for various crimes with the examples of an Ohio judge ordering a Salvation army worker who stole a collection tin containing about $250 to spend the night homeless (which i have to say was a bit lame- thats almost a drunk night out for most- a week or month may have been a better example!). Or the story of a judge ordering a man who slapped his wife to go to yoga classes and a woman convicted of animal neglect that led to the euthanization of one of her horses, being sentenced to 30 days in jail, the first three with nothing to eat but bread and water.

One of the most interesting was the story of Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone ordering Capt. Joseph Hazelwood to spend 1,000 hours wiping rocks and cleaning beaches in Prince William Sound as punishment for steering the tanker Exxon Valdez onto Bligh Reef where it spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil.

After some direction from the guys at Tpost this was the basis for my illustration, hopefully it will look cool on the T!

Friday 12th November...

2010-11-10T10:23:00.006Z

This friday, the 12th November, i have work in 2 shows. First up is my tribute to Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'Pandora' for the 'Idol Hours' group show at the London Miles Gallery and can be seen here on a showcard. If youre in London be sure to pop over and check out the show, its an impressive artist list and im really pleased to be involved and have my work hanging in such great company!

Next up is the 'Eyes wide shut' show by Fine Grime at the Walcot Chapel in Bath- my home turf! I have my 'Frankie' portrait and the 'All the Devils' works on show / sale at this exhibition so if youre local to the area, or if you fancy a night in Bath- pop in for a drink and check out the works on show that include pieces from Sylivia Ji, Carles Gomila, Natalie Shau, Fran Williams and Tom Lane (aka Ginger Monkey).

I was intending to get up to the London Miles show but plans have had to change and i will now be at the Fine Grime show in Bath so feel free to say hi!

A little Halloween cheer...

2010-10-25T15:49:00.006+01:00

Edit: I have released 'Frankie' as a limited run of 10 prints, now available in the Mostlywanted shop. 9x12" plus border for framing, signed, titled and numbered, £50 plus p&p.
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After being off sick for awhile i was finally able to get motivated enough to do something creative on sunday! Heres a little portrait painted for Halloween. 'Frankie' is another Giclee mounted on board and varnished, about 12 x 17" and will be available at Fine Grimes 'Eyes Wide Shut' show on 12th Nov, along with the 'All the Devils' piece. Hope everyone has a good Halloween weekend!

Hosting down..

2010-10-12T10:11:00.004+01:00

Looks like my webhost- who are usually pretty reliable, have totally screwed up and im left with my portfolio site unavailable! Some of my hosted images for my blogs (ie: here) are also missing. Sorry if youve got here and theres a bunch of gaps where images should be- normal service will be resumed asap!

Edit: Took all day but it looks like theyve sorted things out and everythings running normally again. Phew.

All the Devils...

2010-10-10T14:46:00.004+01:00

New piece, with a working title of 'All the Devils' which is a shortened title from the line 'Hell is empty and all the devils are here' from the first act in The Tempest by William Shakespear. The line is carved into the twisting bramble-like roots at the bottom of the picture. The final print will be approx 20x30 inches, hand embellished, dry mounted on board and varnished. I will drop some news when its available to purchase after its been on show. Heres the final piece and some details at about half size.

Mailout progress..

2010-10-04T09:32:00.002+01:00

Well that just sucks, i spent way too long doing these cards, finished them up only to discover that i really didnt like the result! My main problem was that the 'air' card was seriously weak in comparison to the others and was just killing everything else. Ive sat here staring at them for so long that ive grown to loathe them- all because of that weak spot.. what a pain in the ass. Anyway, heres the 'Earth / Water' cards together.. back to the drawing board, hopefully i can pull something a bit stronger out of the bag!

CA 180, The Sex Issue

2010-09-23T14:39:00.004+01:00

Computer Arts magazine Issue 180 is now on the UK stands and as you may gathered from the title here- its the Sex Issue. To quote a little from the release copy:

'Whatever your opinion of it, sexual imagery within design is rife, and will almost certainly always be a part of the industry. So, this month we investigate, through a series of features, what is so alluring about erotically-charged design.'

Ive done a new image and walk-through on its process for the issue so heres a few photos of the spreads. I have to say that im really looking forward to giving this one a read- from the quick look ive given it so far it looks like a great issue with some top notch content from a great array of contributors. Check out the images below and then get out and grab yourself a copy while you can!

Mailout sketch

2010-09-23T14:28:00.003+01:00

Mentioned this awhile back, im doing a mailout relatively soon- i decided to go with a nice postcard accordian fold. Taken me awhile to get around to actually working out what sort of thing i wanted to do. Finally finished a reasonable grayscale sketch, a few things are off a bit and the graphic elements are all missing, (i tend to work those details out as i go along) but its pretty much there i think. Will be cracking on with the high res version asap.

As you can see from the previews, its a large landscape piece that broken down into the panels reflects the 4 elements. When its folded you should also get Earth and Water to make a smaller landscape of their own. Looking forward to working out the details!

Telegraph Fashion Illustrations

2010-09-16T12:44:00.003+01:00

Last weekend saw the release of the Daily Telegraphs Fashion supplement for Autumn / Winter and within its pages are my recently commissioned works. Im really pleased with how these came out thanks to some good direction from the AD at the telegraph. Its great to have a brief with a strong starting point but also be able to have a pretty free reign in its interpretation and execution. In case you missed it, heres some shots of the work in-situ.

Digital Arts

2010-09-16T12:29:00.003+01:00

The nice guys at Digital Arts magazine asked me to do a little interview and supply a few images for a feature in the Autumn issue. The Brushes with Genius article centers on the art of digital painting and gives interviews, tips etc from some great artists: Sam Gilbey, The Red Dress, Rory Kurtz, Marta Dahlig, and Meisan Mui.

The issue is on the stands now, pick up a copy if you can and heres some of my shots from the mag:

Print giveaway winners!

2010-09-08T08:55:00.003+01:00

Its the 8th of Sept so the giveaway prize draw is done! Thanks for the great response and for those you you that helped spread the word a special thank you! In order to be as fair as possible each name on the list has their own number, im using the random.org true number generator to pick out the three winners in reverse order... and the winners are:

No.42 / Mike Ramirez / Wins 'Preen'
No.100 / Kirsty Mordaunt / Wins 'Fledgling'
No.55 / Erin Tapken / Wins 'O-dokuro'

Congratulations to the winners, i will be sending you a confirmation email shortly and to request your delivery details. To everyone else- thanks again for entering, im sure i will end up doing something similar again so check back soon!

Prize draw closing

2010-09-07T10:05:00.002+01:00

The print giveaway prize draw will be closing on the 8th Sepetember so this is the last chance to get your name in the hat if you havent already! See the Print Giveaway post for all the details and see what you could win or click through here to go straight to the signup page.

The Mostlywanted Shop lives!!

2010-09-01T11:40:00.002+01:00

Finally, after quite awhile of waiting, i can now say that the shop is back up and running including the work from Yokai Dreams (both the smaller sizes and the large special limited editions for the exhibition) together with a selection of illustration work as open editions!

If youre interested, please visit mostlywanted.com/shop and if youre swayed, purchase something to brighten your walls!

Social networking

2010-08-25T12:24:00.002+01:00

As well as being able to catch me on Facebook, you can now find me on Twitter! Bearing in mind that im pretty useless at keeping things like this updated and use these social networks more for seeing what everyone else is up to.. so dont expect constant tweets. But if you feel the need to follow along, by all means do. @tombagshaw

Interview

2010-08-18T19:46:00.003+01:00

The nice chaps Richard and Chippy of the Coats and Scarry art blog recently asked me to do an interview with them. Have a look at the article here: Tom Bagshaw on Yokai Dreams at Coates and Scarry

Print giveaway

2010-08-17T13:10:00.006+01:00

In between everything else ive been trying to work in getting the mostlywanted shop redone, its taken a little while but i have finally finished it. (i have to say i reeaallly hate hand coding, the constant expletives centered around 'wtf is it doing that for?!!' tend to be a little wearing.)

I will be letting the site go live on the 1st September and to celebrate im going to be giving away 3 prints! Im giving away one limited edition O-dokuro, edition of 25, 16x16", 310gsm cotton rag. One of Fledgling and Preen, both open editions on 260gsm cotton rag, 13x18".

If you would like to be in with a chance to win: sign up here!

One week after the shop has opened (thats weds 8th btw) 3 names will be chosen at random and announced here later in the day. Sound good? Help spread the word by linking this post up via twitter, facebook, blogger or any other social network you frequent!

Computer Arts tutorial

2010-08-17T13:02:00.003+01:00

Ive just finished an illustration and tutorial walk-though for the nice chaps at Computer Arts magazine. Issue 180 has a sexy theme and i was asked to produce something as a full page illustration together with a step by step breakdown of the process. Im pretty happy with the end result but as the issue isnt out yet i will just give you a little preview and give you a better view of the article when it hits the shelves.

Telegraph Fashion II

2010-07-31T12:45:00.002+01:00

The very nice chaps at the Daily Telegraph kindly asked me to do some more work for the fashion supplement, which- after the success of the first one- i was more than happy to do! Each piece relates to a letter and its article in the magazine. 'A' was for Amelia (pertaining to Amelia Earhart) and focused on a Burberry flight jacket. The others were Knit, Red and Wild. Again, im not sure on the release date for the magazine so hopefully im not jumping the gun too much in sharing the work! Heres some detail shots from the four pieces, the full images can be found on mostlywanted or my Behance folio.

Also, a quick mention that ive given mostlywanted a little update by re-introducing some of my older works, this is primarily for commissioning purposes and will allow me to add and remove works as i go on.

Gathering cover illustration

2010-07-29T11:25:00.002+01:00

This is a wrap around cover recently completed commission for Little Brown Books, the book is the UK version of Kelley Armstrongs 'The Gathering'. Not quite sure when its going to be launched so hopefully its ok to post this preview!

CIA site relaunch

2010-07-28T11:55:00.003+01:00

The Central Illustration Agency have just relaunched their site to coincide with the release of the 'License to Inspire' book. Both have been designed by Staziker Jones who are also responsible for more of CIA's marketing materials. The new site brings together the CIA blog and shop with the primary site purpose of letting commissioning agents see examples of the artists work. There is now the added bonus of being able to create a moodboard for output to pdf which is pretty handy.

Yokai competition closed

2010-07-27T10:24:00.003+01:00

Thanks for the overwhelming response everyone, its really cool that so many would like one of these little flyers! I am going to be picking out the 20 winners (thats all the flyers i have left out of 250 for the show!) via the extremely useful random.org which is probably the fairest way to 'randomly' select the winning names.

Unfortunatley i wont be able to let you know whether youve won or not, so to all who have entered i will say a big 'thank you', even more so to those who not only entered, but also wrote little notes- its very much appreciated!

The winners will have their flyer posted out to them tomorrow (weds 28th July), hopefully the post services around the world will be good and get them to you quickly. (not holding out too much hope on that one) There have been a lot, probably about 2/3 of entries from the USA with the rest scattered around the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Russia and a couple from the far east. Quite interesting to see where some of you guys are!

Anyway, thanks again, i think with the success of this i may end up doing another little contest soon!

CIA Book press release

2010-07-13T10:28:00.007+01:00

The Central Illustration Agency have passed on the press release for their debut book 'License to Inspire'. Its currently available on pre-order from amazon but will soon be gracing book stores worldwide. Heres the press release...
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License To Inspire
The Central Illustration Agency's book debut.

A collection of work from some of the world's most inspiring illustrators and the story of the agency that represents them.

License To Inspire is an eclectic mix of stunning artwork and fascinating interviews from the world's most talented illustrators and industry innovators. An invaluable resource for art buyers and other professionals within the creative industries, this will soon become a recommended text for art students and particularly those who wish to work in the industry. With inclusions from a diverse range of artists from Jonas Bergstrand to Sir Peter Blake, the book is packed with beautiful images and thought-provoking words. Created by the acclaimed Central Illustration Agency, who have been associated with the brightest talent in illustrative art since 1983, this book will be an essential addition to any coffee table or agency library.

"Illustration has been arguably the liveliest art form of this decade, and CIA have been right in the centre of it. This Book paints a brilliant and lively portrait of the world, the art and the business of contemporary illustration."
-Marc Valli, Elephant magazine & Magma.

Contents:
License to inspire. Now. And how now happened.
-A commentary charting the origins of the Central Illustration Agency from its inception in the 1980s to present day – a journey taking in some of the most memorable advertising campaigns and evocative book covers of the last few decades.

The mechanics of a job: a relatively simple case study.
-A case study tracking the progress of a job from commission to completion.

The artists.
Showcasing work from some of the worlds most talented illustrators, including:

12 foot 6, Ahoy There, Nik Ainley, Tatiana Arocha, Tom Bagshaw, Andrew Bannecker, Jonas Bergstrand, Ian Bilbey, Sir Peter Blake, Bernard Blatch, Greg Bridges, Christopher Brown, Mick Brownfield, Lesley Buckingham, Susan Burghart, Stanley Chow, Nishant Choksi, Sarah J Coleman, Haydn Cornner, Jimi Crayon, Dust, Tristan Eaton, Max Ellis, Fine & Dandy, Jeff Fisher, Jessie Ford, Andrew Foster, Nathan Fox, Jonathan Gibbs, Chris Gilvan Cartwright, Good Wives and Warriors, Brian Grimwood, Martin Haake, Pete Harrison, Lee Hasler, Sara Hayward, David Holmes, Darren Hopes, Peter Horridge, David Hughes, M. H. Jeeves, Kai & Sunny, Chris Kasch, Carol Lawson, Tina Mansuwan, Tim Marrs, Mick Marston, Chris McEwan, Clare Melinsky, Kate Miller, Dave Needham, Gary Neill, Jeff Nishinaka, Paul Oakley, Nigel Owen, Jackie Parsons, Jitesh Patel, Pirates, Wendy Plovmand, Ulla Puggaard, Maria Raymondsdotter, John Royle, Harriet Russell, Jeremy Sancha, Yuko Shimizu, Paul Slater, Ray Smith, John Spencer, Simon Spilsbury, Spiral Studio, Louisa St. Pierre, The 3D Agency, Alex Turvey, Mark Thomas, Benjamin Wachenje, Paul Wearing, Richard Wilkinson, Mike Wilks.

Back-word. What inspires Brian Grimwood.
A few words from the agency’s founder, whom Print Magazine described as “having changed the look of British illustration”.

In Conversation with:
Sheri Glee, Art Director at the Folio Society, Sir John Hegarty, BBH, Paul Slater and Tom Conran at the Cow, Sir Peter Blake at his studio and Katie Grogan, art buyer.

Edited by Benjamin Cox.
Designed by Staziker Jones - http://www.stazikerjones.co.uk/
Published by Pirum Press - http://www.pirumpress.co.uk/

Printed in Italy by Printer Trento Slr. Content, end-papers and cover wrap printed on Munken Print Cream, cover in Cialux cloth.

ISBN—13: 978-0-9565729-0-5
Publication date: 14 July 2010
Launch date: Early Autumn 2010 (tbc)
Price: RRP £25.00
Format: 246 x 189mm, case-bound
Hardcover: 256 pages

Will also be stocked in various hand selected, worldwide book, gift & interior stores, including Magma. More images & spreads available upon immediate request.

To receive a copy for review (or for your coffee table), please get in touch with CIA.

For more information or interviews, contact Alicja McCarthy on:
+44 (0) 207 73 7187
e: alicja@centralillustration.com
www.centralillustration.com
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Yokai give away...

2010-07-12T15:35:00.004+01:00

Ive got a limited amount of the booklets i was giving away at my show, if you would like one drop me a mail to 'info at mostlywanted dot com' with 'Yokai Giveaway' as the subject line and include your postal address in the body of the message. I will leave it a couple of weeks and then randomly pick the recipients and get them in the post asap.

Edit: Competition closes Monday 26th July.

I designed these booklets to give visitors a brief insight into the stories that inspired each piece, 250 were produced and most went on opening night.

I wont be able to let you know if youve won or not, but i will post a message here to say when theyre in the mail.

Yokai prints at Fine Grime

2010-07-12T15:12:00.004+01:00

Fine Grime have released 2 of my works from my Yokai Dreams solo show as limited edition prints. 'Hito-dama' and 'Kuchisake Onna' are on sale in editions of 50 on Woodstock Felt cotton rag, 410 x 560mm including a border for framing.

If you would like to buy one (or two..) contact Joel at Fine Grime or buy online through my page on the Fine Grime shop. Some of the original editions of 5, done for the actual exhibition are also available via Fine Grime.

Hullo all...

2010-07-12T14:21:00.003+01:00

weeks pass and i have started getting a nagging feeling that i should be posting something here. At the moment im trying to get some new work done, working on a piece for the November group show at London Miles Gallery where im happy to say my work will be rubbing shoulders with some awesome artists!

Im also happy to be doing more work for the Telegraph magazine, doing illustrations for the fashion supplement. Ive also just finished a book cover for Little Brown Books, the UK edition of Kelly Armstrong's 'Gathering'. Hopefully i will be able to post them up soon.

For the July issue of Computer Arts magazine, they ran a series of articles for the 101 ways to make better images feature. I was kindly asked to provide 10 tips for the 'Brushes' section. If you havent seen the magazine heres the cover and my tips (theyre worded a lot better in the actual article!)

Get a Tablet!
To fully make use of the brushes in the major applications you really need a tablet. Once one is hooked up all the various brush options like pressure sensitivity, opacity, color dynamics, shape and scattering all become accessible and it also allows you to create work in a more intuitive way.

Rotate brushes
Its often an overlooked ability in the brush presets, but simply changing the rotation of a brush can produce some dramatic effects and is a feature worth playing around with if youre looking for something new. Obviously far more effective with brushes other than a basic circle tip!

Make custom brushes
It’s a lot easier than people expect. Most applications like Photoshop, Painter and Illustrator give you the ability to quickly make a new brush preset, fine tune the opacity, stroke, pressure and then save it for further use. Textures, marks from other brushes, photographs- all can be made into a new brush to breathe life into your work.

Download custom brushes
If you feel unsure about the process of creating your own or are pushed for time, there is a bunch of sites dedicated to sharing brushes that others have created. Most are free for personal or commercial use but some do require a credit so check what you download. Most brush repositories enable you to search for what youre after using basic filtering so it can be a quick way of finding a new effect.

Blending
For more realistic painting your digital paint can be blended together to produce soft transitions of colour. Corel Painter has the largest selection of brushes that replicate traditional media, blending paint in possibly the most realistic fashion. Photoshop 5 has introduced some new bristle brushes that accomplish a similar effect, in older versions using the smudge tool with a low opacity can also be used.

Brush Cursor
Most of the time the brush cursor is set by default to the standard outline of the brush tip which changes size as you increase or decrease the brush size. For the most part this is a fine way to paint but occasionally for detailed work or when youre zoomed in this display of the brush can get in the way. Temporarily switch over to the cross-hairs of the precise cursor by hitting the Caps lock on.

Add a layer style
When painting on layers your brush strokes can be given an extra dimension by adding a layer style. Simple brush marks can be given a variety of effects that can remain editable throughout your work-flow.

Default brushes
Its easy to forget that applications like Photoshop, Painter and Illustrator all come with brush libraries that have been created as a default toolset. Basic round head, soft, calligraphic, natural, wet and dry brushes are all useful and in many cases all you really need for many jobs.

Ditch the dodge and burn tools
Many creatives use the dodge and burn tools, most with subtlety, a few like a sledgehammer. Instead of jumping straight to those tools try the brush but change its mode to color dodge or color burn. It works best on a very low opacity and flow and instead of using a color to paint which can have some undesirable effects try using a mid range- dark gray.

Manage your brushes
Many people are so busy downloading or creating custom brushes they don’t realize that their brush library has become a ram sucking nightmare. Try to keep a default brush library that has a few of your most used brush types and either delete or create new brush libraries for the others. Name the library files in a way that will enable you to swap libraries in and out with ease for the job you are working on. Eg. Fabric textures.abr, foliage.abr, sketching brushes.abr.
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Obviously theres a lot of other creatives talking about a variety of other subjects, certainly worth a look if youre at the news stand!

Im also in the process of sorting out the mostlywanted shop. Im going to be able to direct buyers to places where my work is currently for sale and also be putting out limited editions myself. If you would like to know when the shop goes live (and it may be a little while yet!) please pop over to the mostlywanted.com/shop page and register your email address where you will be added to a simple mailing list. You wont get anything else from me other than a single mail to let you know the shop is running- i wont be bombarding you with junk!

Queen Adelaide Wine

2010-06-11T09:17:00.003+01:00

Heres a recent illustration commissioned for a pitch to rebrand the Queen Adelaide wine in Australia. Its really a contemporary portrait to reinvigorate the publics perception of the brand. Obviously this was just the portrait, im guessing that the label design would incorporate the image within a frame of some sort, ive no idea how it eventually got presented to the client.

Beautiful Grim Auction

2010-06-02T09:56:00.002+01:00

The second wave of auctions for the Beautiful Grim project is now live on Ebay. Check the listings for Beautiful Grim and see what wonderful works have been donated. The first edition of my 'Hito Dama / Beautiful Grim' piece for my Yokai Dreams show is available for bidding along with work by Lisa Evans, Joy Ang, Jeff Miracola, Victoria Ying and Andrew Jones to name just a few.

So if you can, place some bids and help out with a good cause.

Final run..

2010-05-25T14:26:00.000+01:00

this is the final week of the Yokai Dreams show at the knifesmith gallery in bristol, show end is 29th May. If youre able to get into bristol, maybe youre coming along for the 'Art from the new world' Exhibition at the bistol museum- make sure you pop down the road to the Knifesmith and check out the show before it closes.

Mostlywanted update

2010-05-10T11:50:00.004+01:00

Mostlywanted has just had a little facelift so that it now includes the Yokai Dreams works. A lot of older work has been archived off to keep it as minimal as possible, ive got a couple of little tweaks to try and sort out over the next few days, i will also be adding an FAQs page that will reside here on the blog and be linked from the information page on mostlywanted.

Yokai Dreams

2010-05-08T10:03:00.005+01:00

Well the show is now up and running, the Knifesmiths doors are open to everyone so if youre in bristol at any point during may please pop in and have a look at the show. As i mentioned in a previous post, the Knifesmith gallery is a few streets away from the Bristol Museum so if youre coming to Bristol to see the amazing 'Art from the new world' Show by the Corey Helford gallery you may want to wander over and have a look at the Yokai Dreams exhibition.

The private view went really well, a really good turn out and i would just like to say thanks to all of you who made it, i dont think ive spent so long talking about my work, if i wasnt able to speak to you i can only apologize and thank you for spending the time to look at the exhibition! To those of you who i did manage to have a chat with- it was great to talk to you and thanks for listening to my rambling!

I was able to take a few (bad) pictures of the gallery before the opening to give you a view of the hanging works and below is the cover image for the fold out flyer i was giving away which went to give a little of the back story to each of the pieces- hopefully if i wasnt able to explain the work, this would have given you enough to understand a little of the individual Yokai in the show.

I have added all the work from the show to my Behance portfolio projects and will be adding everything to mostlywanted.com early in the week.

Showtime!

2010-05-07T11:15:00.002+01:00

Its finally here, private view for my Yokai Dreams show starts at 6.30pm through to 9pm at the Knifesmith gallery in Bristol (UK), if youre in the vicinity feel free to come along and buy something. I will be taking some pics and if any are of any use i will post them up as soon as my hangover clears. I will also be publishing the work on my behance portfolio and updating mostlywanted with the work so will drop the links back here too. Fingers crossed all goes well.

Yokai Dreams, Tengu

2010-05-04T10:11:00.002+01:00

As the show is just in a few days time i can show you another full image from the exhibition. I posted a preview for this one awhile back, it was the first to be finished, although i did go back and do some final tweaks to it a few weeks ago just because i had looked at it long enough to see some areas that needed a little improving!

Each of the works for this show are based around japanese yokai stories, this one is the Tengu spirit. Theres a lot of folklore based around this deity and its image is usually depicted as male, wings and a human face but with an elongated nose. At least thats the image that is more prevalent in popular culture reference, previously in its origins the Tengu took the form of a bird of prey, sometimes a crow and are depicted with avian and human characteristics. In its early history it was a pretty malevolent demon and a harbinger of war but over time has become a more protective spirit of the forests. They are shapeshifters and one of the more powerful yokai. I have drawn this Tengu as a female and changing to human form as she removes a traditional crow mask, quite a bit of symbolism going on throughout but as with all my work i would rather the viewer interpret each piece in their own way so im only giving the basics away!

Once the show is in full swing i will update the blog and my portfolio site with the full body of work. Until then, heres the full Tengu piece.

Yokai Dreams show

2010-04-12T15:47:00.004+01:00

Finally- im able to reveal some stuff about the show! My solo show will be taking place at the Knifesmith Gallery in Bristol (UK) and will be running from the 8th to the 29th of May. There will also be a private viewing on the evening of the 7th.

The show is being put on in conjunction with the great Fine Grime who already publish the limited editions of 2 of my previous works. The pieces in this show will be available in extremely limited editions of 5, 4 of which will also be specially hand finished and include the piece that was donated to the Beautiful Grim project i posted about awhile ago. (although the final finished version is a little different to the posted pics)

As well as the show ive also got a few of these pieces going up for sale in the Fine Grime booth at the bristol Affordable Art Fair which will be taking place 14-16th May, well worth a visit!

If youre interested in what my show is all about the check out the Knifesmith page, in the meantime heres a couple of flyers for the show to give you a taste of whats going to be on offer.

As soon as things are a little more settled i will post up some more images and probably a post on the custom typography. As a slight aside to this, if youre in the UK or if you can venture over here around this time- just up the road from my show is also the amazing exhibit being put on by the Corey Helford Gallery in conjunction with the Bristol Museum. 'Art from the new world' just looks quite incredible and a show that really cant be missed. Check out the CHG press release (pdf link) or the article on Juxtapoz online. So if youre coming over for the CHG show, pop round the corner to the Knifesmith too!

Show Teaser VI...

2010-03-17T15:56:00.003Z

Heres yet another small teaser image of what ive been working away at. Hopefully some more concrete details for the show will be coming soon.

Telegraph Fashion Illustrations

2010-03-01T13:58:00.002Z

Heres some recently completed illustrations done for the Telegraph Magazines fashion section:

Fashion Illustrator 2 book

2010-03-01T11:34:00.003Z

Finally got my copy of Fashion Illustrator- Second edition (ISBN-10: 1856696545). It seems like ive been waiting for this to come out for ages now, publishing times being what they usually are. Its a nice book- with a pretty good spectrum of artists interviewed, showcases and tutorials and is aimed at the fashion illustration student. Its similar to the first edition but definitely has more to offer.

I have a few pieces throughout the book including an interview spread and a pretty in depth photoshop tutorial on how i created the Duck and cover piece (blogged earlier) which now i re-read it, is probably utterly confusing to just about everyone. When youre working on something, some ways you do it come second nature youve done them so many times but at the end of the day theyre a variety of simpler and quicker routes to accomplish the same result. So apologies if you buy the book, read the tutorial and then say 'wtf?!'.

Heres the photos of the book spreads. Go buy it and let me know what you think!

Computer up and running

2010-03-01T11:12:00.002Z

Thank god. As i had suspected it was a power supply issue (the PSU had gone) and fortunately not the motherboard. As you can imagine that was a major relief as the psu is pretty easy to replace. So im now back up and running again and can get on with some work after a nervous few days.

See what you reckon to this though.. when i took my machine into the shop to get it looked at and after mentioning my guess at the problem and the relative ease with which the problem was diagnosed and a replacement part ordered- fitted etc i then had a complete nightmare with these guys. I called to ask when i could pick it up (after numerous calls each day to check progress...) and after saying that it was ready to be picked up- it was then dropped into conversation that 'i noticed you only had this type of anti-virus and as a business client we have installed sympatec (norton av) on your machine....' at which point i stopped really hearing what was being said as my eyes and ears started pouring blood.

Needless to say i wasnt happy and tried to make this clear, politely as possible- stopping short of name calling and told him to take it off and i would be there asap. When i got there (fortunately a few mins drive away) my machine was waiting to be picked up- and had only just been unplugged. Heres the problem with this as i see it. You have to trust these people with your machine that basically has your life on it- everything from my company information to family videos and photos, if i bring a machine in that has a hardware issue i do not expect to be told that they have been 'looking through your machine'. The OS, software, files etc are all off limits as far as im concerned, the only time they should even have had it on was to check that it booted and then shut it straight off again.

Telling me that they 'always perform a checklist of stuff including security checks etc etc' does not justify this intrusion especially if i was not made aware of what they were planning on doing when i dropped it off!

To top it all off i obviously ended up having to pay through the nose for the part and then their time to put it in- and i was even going to be charged for them dicking about with my OS! (after mentioning the 'misunderstanding' this additional charge was dropped)

Anyway- after getting everything home, and checking everything out, all seems well but if i can ever help it i wont be taking my machine anywhere ever again!

/end rant - back to work.

Down computer

2010-02-25T09:32:00.002Z

A couple of days ago my workstation decided that it needed a rest and refused to switch on or show any sign of life. After I had managed to stop freaking out I went through all the usual checks and came to the conclusion that it was probably at best the power supply unit or worst case- the motherboard. As I had no way of actually checking either of these problems or working out if it was anything else I have had to take it to a tech shop to have it 'looked at'.

After a few hours of nervous waiting I got the call to say that it was indeed the power supply, thank god, bit I'm mow having to wait for a replacement 550w with the extra cable to help power the graphics card. Not too bad- could have been a lot worse, but the upshot is that I have had to take a bit of an enforced break which is driving me nuts and I haven't been able to get my print sales out. If you're one of those who have yet to hear back after making a purchase- please bear with me, I will send you a confirmation mail asap.

Hopefully I will get all this sorted and be able to post a few new pieces at some point after the week end.

Another preview

2010-01-29T15:24:00.003Z

Just finished the 4th in my new body of work, this one actually went down without any complications- at least nothing that meant me spending days re-working a section (unlike the last piece). I would love to show everyone all of whats being produced but im trying to keep this whole body of work relatively unseen until the show, bear with me, hopefully the end result will be worth the wait. Until then i will post up small cropped sections like this- just so you know im not being idle!

With my head in work so frequently i havent been doing much online surfing recently and only just noticed that the Apple ipad has finally dropped on the official site. Like many- i had heard something new was being produced by Jobs and co and was interested to see what was to come- and yes- its great, a big-ass ipod touch. If you havent seen it yet- check the link and check it out, another beautiful piece of design and tech merged.

-- Begin Rant.

I dont mention it that often as it tends to get me quite a lot of flack, especially from the design community- but i work on a PC. Dirty, i know- but at the end of the day i need a computer to do its job, my setup is a custom build that after 4 years is still pretty bloody fast, still has ample storage etc... it cost half of an equivalent Apple system. Ive worked on both platforms- a lot, both have problems with their OS in terms of crashes, hanging- apple just looks great doing it. My desk has a million wires behind it from the tablet, keyboard, monitors, printers, power, external HD's, but it does work. Im not extolling the virtues of being on a PC, far from it, if i could afford the same spec kit i would happily trade it all in without even thinking about it- and for one reason: it looks better. From build to OS, apple have it nailed in terms of product design.

But i cant afford to swap out all the kit i own, i dont have thousands of pounds lying around- so i must live out my professional life, shunned and ridiculed when i am asked the question that only a mac user will ask 'are you on mac?'. Rant over- i will likely have to trade in my v2 ipod (that is still going strong- it just doesnt mount on usb too well anymore and the backlight and contrast are nearly gone) and get an ipod touch and now im kicking myself for buying a little netbook purely for online surfing, mail etc in the eve because now a comparatively well priced but purely more awesome gadget is due to be released in the form of the ipad. Bugger.

-- Stop.

Anyway, sorry about that, wont happen again- heres the preview. Enjoy.

Finally- a 2010 post.

2010-01-22T17:19:00.002Z

Hi all, been stupidly busy and once again have fallen a little behind with the blog, couple of new pieces done for the show (small section teaser of one below) got quite a lot more to do and the initial thumbnail sketches i did have slightly misled me into thinking doing the actual paintings will be relatively simple.. nope.

Anyway, on top of that theres a few other jobs in the pipeline, not much i can mention here at the moment but hopefully i will be able to post up something more later. One thing that i can say is that ive gotten involved with Memories project and will be doing a piece for the show / book. If you havent read about it yet check out all the latest info on the Memories site. Heres some background on the project:

'Memories will look at the thoughts and experiences of individuals who have survived cancer, as well as those of people who have lost loved ones. There will be ten stories inside, each looking at one person’s recollection of a particular day in the struggle against cancer. For each of these ‘memories’ a dozen leading artists, illustrators and designers will be creating their own visual response. Two further stories will go ‘open brief’ and we’ll be inviting creatives worldwide to make their own images to accompany the text. The best submissions will go into the book.

That makes for 12 touching stories, and 144 smashing pieces of artwork

The project is being launched this summer by Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA), Subism, OneTenEleven Media and editor Garrick Webster. Along with a number of writers and, of course, all the image contributors, they’ll be volunteering their time and skills to the project. We expect it will take a year to complete, culminating in the launch of Memories and an exhibition.'

From the current line up of contributors it looks like its going to a really good mix of work, looking forward to getting started on it!

Finally, heres the teaser for the recently finished show piece, back with more soon.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T11:36:00.004Z

Just a quick note to say that i hope you all have a good Christmas and New Year's break, cant quite believe that another year has flown by but am certainly looking forward to what 2010 will bring! Heres a little teaser of a recently completed piece for the spring show, see you next year!

Beautiful Grim

2009-12-03T09:47:00.003Z

A while ago i got a message from a friend on facebook that made me aware of a project being put together by concept artist Mike 'Daarken' Lim. Earlier this year his girlfriend, Cat, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25, after 16 weeks of chemotherapy she had a bilateral mastectomy.

In order to help with the ensuing medical bills he and some friends have set up a charity auction and are asking artists, sculptors and photographers to donate some work. The theme / title of 'Beautiful Grim' has been given to the event and artists from all around the globe are getting involved, at the moment theres about 200 participating, hopefully raising the much needed funds for both Cat and a Breast cancer charity.

Ive just finished my contribution, it a digital painting which on the final print will be hand embellished (so a total one of a kind), signed and framed. Heres a couple of shots of the artist proofs (theres a bit of a color cast on them in the photos which is throwing everything off slightly)

I will post more details about the show and auction as i get them but in the meantime make sure you pop by the site and join the facebook group, buy or donate if you can!

Beautiful Grim website.
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Beautiful Grim Facebook group.
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Mike 'Daarken' Lim.

IFAW ad campaign

2009-11-27T16:32:00.003Z

I got asked to help produce the latest print ads for IFAW's (International Fund for Animal Welfare) Save the whales campaign. The whaling season started this month and the ads have gone to press. The campaign was produced for IFAW by JWT Melborne. Below is the concept as delivered from JWT, it was something that i was fully prepared to do in a full colour, painted manner but the feedback was that they wanted to keep it this simple- a little outside what i was expecting but i think the result works well.

The campaign was intending to stay away from the usual shock tactics and gore, hence the simplicity of the initial designs, as i began working on them they took on quite a ghostly appearance- something i pushed into the final design. The copy was intended to give the suggestion of running water, i havent received the final artwork with the right copy but apparently its not far off these.

In other news, im currently working on a new body of work with the view to having a show in the first part of next year. As a consequence things may go a little quiet here, bear with me and i will hopefully be able to give you some peaks at the works as they progress.

CIA 2010 calendar launched

2009-11-11T10:26:00.003Z

Its that time of year again, the new CIA 'ACE' calendar for 2010 has been set free and is now available to purchase. Check out the CIA Shop for more information. Below is a couple of press shots and at the bottom is my image, hopefully it makes sense in the context of the calendar, if not- at least it should be odd enough to catch your eye!

BBC Myths work live

2009-10-20T09:41:00.003+01:00

The guys at Preloaded have done a nice job and my work for the BBC's Myths stories is now live. Check out the BBC Myths main site where you can view all the stories that are currently available and their associated mini games.

Make sure you hit the full screen option so you can see as much of the illustrations as possible, youll get the full image if your monitor is running at 1920px. The control panel allows you to move around in the story and turn the text or narration on and off. As well as the parallax scrolling, some lighting and other flash effects have been added. Check out the Guinevere's Wedding story direct and heres a look at some other reduced size pages.

Sony eBook

2009-10-19T11:08:00.002+01:00

Awhile back i got to work on a job for the new Sony reader eBook. You may have seen these things around, a digital 'book' that allows you to download and store the written word, much like an mp3 player.

The campaign takes 4 different takes on the eBook reader, i was lucky enough to get the fantasy version, while the brief was quite specific and i had to fit the illustration to the photograph i did have a good amount of freedom to add characters that i knew would work. Ive just noticed the campaign is now going live, or at least the products webpage is now showing the new line and the campaign, not sure about the print ads yet.

Heres the link to the eBooks product page, my work is in the main intro flash at the end. View the Sony reader eBook site.

The illustration not only needed to work with the photo-shoot but was required to be supplied with each character on separate layers, this was so that as well as being a print ad, it could be animated in flash, on the site you can see the results of the animation. Heres the final artwork on the working photograph (i think that in the final version the photograph was retouched a bit) and below are some detail shots.

CIA shop sale

2009-10-07T08:57:00.003+01:00

To celebrate their birthday, the CIA shop is having a 25% off sale on a wide range of prints, my New Beginnings and Tiki Spirit pieces are included!

Check out the CIA shop sale.

Carbon Cradle

2009-10-05T12:05:00.003+01:00

Ive just started a new blog, somewhere i can post up images and links to stuff i find interesting without getting caught up in writing too much. Pretty much all areas of design, illustration, fine art, craft- basically anything i like looking at- i can now pass on. Ive just finished tweaking the blogger template, hopefully it will grow from here.

Visit Carbon Cradle here.

BBC Myths from Preloaded

2009-09-16T10:57:00.003+01:00

Ive just finished up doing the story illustrations for the forthcoming BBC Myths site which is currently under development by Preloaded. It will be a flash site where Arthurian based stories will be available, 4 to start off with but hopefully more will be added down the line. I was fortunate to be picked to illustrate one of the stories. There are 10 chapters so 10 screen illustrations and a mini game that will be included per story.

Each illustration was created on various layers so that the guys at Preloaded could take the files and, using some Flash Parallax Scrolling, give a sense of depth to the scene. Little animated touches will be added and the stories themselves will be narrated as well as having controls for page turns and type overlays, so each illustration also needed to include some dead space for when any type gets overlaid.

Below is a reduced size preview of chapter 6. At full screen each illustration covers a 1920px resolution. Im really looking forward to seeing what the guys come up with, i will post up a link when everything goes live. (This is also copyright to the BBC btw)

Im off for a little break but will be back soon, hopefully refreshed and ready to get some new work done.

Edwin Ushiro at LeBasse

2009-09-16T10:42:00.002+01:00

Arrested Motion have posted some rather nice pics of Edwin Ushiros solo show "Softly Encompassing the Womb." This is a body of work that was inspired by ghost stories he heard growing up in Hawaii and he seems to have included some of those stories with the relevant artwork on display. Its great when artists are able to give the viewer a back story, Travis Louie is a fantastic example. Check out the show pics at Arrested Motion here.

Fine Grime

2009-09-05T15:49:00.004+01:00

I now have 2 prints available as limited editions through the great Fine Grime, Sweet Mercy and Reliquary.

Im currently up to my ears with a job for the BBC via the nice guys at Preloaded, cant show anything about it at the moment- hopefully i will post some shots of the illustrations when the site is finished, really looking forward to how it turns out although i have to say after this job is finished i may never want to paint a forest piece ever again.

I have a bunch of new work in the pipeline that i cant wait to get started on, it will have to wait a little while (after i finish this current job) as ive had the joy of developing RSI in my hand, consequently using a mouse and tablet have both become pretty painful, so a bit of R&R is long overdue!

Reliquary

2009-08-04T16:22:00.006+01:00

Just finished this piece 'Reliquary' which will hopefully be doing the rounds in the forthcoming Central Illustration 'Traveling Circus' show. It will soon be available through Fine Grime who will be releasing it along with Sweet Mercy as limited edition prints. More details to come.

Kokeshi Show

2009-08-04T10:32:00.003+01:00

For awhile now ive been seeing various artists showing or mentioning about having a piece shown in a forthcoming Kokeshi Show at the Japanese American National Museum and it seems like its finally here. Arrested Motion posted an entry regarding the show 'Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy' and have posted a series of fantastic photographs from the exhibition. You can view the museums complete selection of dolls here, some of which are still available to buy. Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy

Heres a few of my favorites but make sure you check out the Arrested motion post and the Museums pages for other great works.

Crazy 4 Cult 3D show

2009-07-21T17:20:00.005+01:00

Photos are up of the works in the Crazy 4 Cult 3D show at Gallery1988. Some amazing works on display, covering a good range of cult classics, although it looks like Willy Wonka gets some pretty good coverage. Check out the Gallery1988 blog to see all the photos, here are some of my personal favorites:

01: Audrey Pongracz "Gooses Geeses" / Charlie and the chocolate factory
02: Dan May "Portrait Of A Gentle Man" / Edward Scissorhands
03: Krista Huot "Temptresses" / Monty Pythons Holy Grail
04: Dave MacDowell "Appetite For Veruca" / Charlie and the chocolate factory
05: Ana Bagayan "Silence" / Silence of the lambs
06: Charlie Immer "Re-Animated" / Re-animator
07: Shannon Bonatakis "Little Violet Beauregarde" / Charlie and the chocolate factory
08: Lola "Portrait Of Veruca Salt" / Charlie and the chocolate factory
09: N.C. Winters "I Am Jack's Broken Heart" / Fight club

These are all crops so make sure you visit the show page to see the images in the complete form- Ana's Silence of the lambs tribute is just awesome.

Chloe

2009-07-21T11:48:00.004+01:00

A new piece just completed with some detail shots below.