Tiki Spirit

I have spent the last few days working on this new piece, as usual- here is a run-down on the process for those that are interested. After numerous thumbnail sketches getting the shapes right and drawing a lot of totems and skulls (so much fun to draw) i finally got the idea sorted and moved into artrage to pencil out a refined drawing on an oil textured pink background. The next sequential shots show the first few steps, the girls skin painted then the clothing.



The rest of the painting progressed in much the same way, tackling each section in separate files in order to bring it all together in a master photoshop file.



After the robots came the skulls, fish, mug and bottle, then the grass with the foreground leaves and the forest and volcano coming in near the end. Unusually for me, this piece was painted almost completely in painter with oil brushes then brought into photoshop for tweaks. This was largely due to the end effect i had in mind- i wanted this piece to look more like a painting on weathered wood and for more texture to be apparent. Painter allows me more freedom to create a work more closely resembling actual paint.

Almost the last piece to be finished was the girls tattoo, as you can see from the sequence- the majority of the painting is finished, this was so i could see how the colors would work together and get a better idea of the shape i had to work with.



Finally, distressed effects were added together with a more fitting border shape. Below is the final image together with some 100% closeups. Prints of Tiki Spirit are now available to buy through CIA Shop.

Franks Lunch

After getting mostlywanted live yesterday i had this pop into my mind, no idea why but thought it would be fun to do while im working out some other pieces. The style is seeming to follow on from the CIA ad, this one may be a bit ott but im quite digging doing characters at the moment so expect to see some similar stuff start appearing soon.



Edit: after another look, i will probably go with this one as the final version.

Mostlywanted vol5

After a bit of teething problems getting it up and running, the new mostlywanted site is up and running! Go check it out when you have a few mins to spare: mostlywanted.com

Creative Handbook

Ben at Central Illustration asked if i would like to do their ad for the forth coming relaunch of the Creative Handbook, of course i said yes and whilst talking through the details had an almost instant idea of what i wanted to do, got off the phone and scribbled the top image down. Obviously, not a great idea of what the hell i was trying to get across so after a bit of refinement a more concrete drawing / mockup (2nd image) emerged with which i was able to sell the idea and get the go ahead to make a start on the hires.



Unfortunately, this time around i didn't actually take any good process shots but it was basically the same as usual. First was a resize of the drawing up to the correct size at 600dpi with bleed and gutters marked up i could go ahead and start a new file the size of the painted area within the frame. The girls had the skin, clothes and hair painted together in a separate file which were then clipped out with paths and masks and brought into a working file where the background was being painted.



As you can see from the above top shot, i painted a separate layer with the negative space shapes of the trees etc so i could work on the layers below without being distracted by overflow. The 3rd image is the painting almost finished, after the trees, then the characters were painted, then the grasses, forest and cloud backdrop and ghosts added almost last so highlight colours could be added correctly. The final stages were to add the CIA Icon and my name, some tweaks here and there, levels etc. Then the image was then flattened down and brought into another file where i created the frame above the painted layer and added the final details. Heres the final double page spread:



and some closer detail shots:

Mostlywanted updates

As i mentioned in the previous post, mostlywanted will be getting a re-launch, hopefully later today (but possibly tomorrow), this new incarnation has a bit more of a classic style, the site itself is simple to navigate but thanks to some developer wizardry (thanks simon) is a lot easier to update and should be more cross browser compatible and accessible.

I have been trying to get my butt in gear and get some new work done, I have been pretty bad recently, lots going on thats unfortunately taken priority over the work life, bear with me, hopefully things will get back on track soon.

Below is the new mostlywanted brand I have developed, as i mentioned, a little more classic than the previous logotype, just felt like i needed to shake things up a bit.

Terrible at updates!

Dammit! I swore i would try and keep this thing up-to-date better than this! Just to let you know, i have been doing some new work and getting the new mostlywanted site together- hopefully there should be a new site launched in the next few days! I will add another post with some new work soon, keep'em peeled!