More moldy oldies....

These were done to try and get a monthly if not weekly cartoon strip up and running. Needless to say, it failed and now looking past with hazey eyes and can see why! Years ago, myself and Niel Bushnell used to do a couple of daily strips, Flasher Mac for the Daily Sport and The Funny Farm for the Hartlepool Mail and Yorkshire Post. Again, like my previous post, things seemed so much more easier then. Of course, The Farm is still close to our hearts and we're still trying to get it animated but breaking into T.V. is a really long and difficult path!

A Blast from the Past....

Work is so slow at the moment (as in there isn't any) that I've had an opportunity to go through some of my old files of work. I came across these....all hand painted from eons ago. They were for a now sadly defunct magazine called 'Stories for Children'. This magazine was brilliant, it normally had about 5 to 6 original kids stories illustrated by some of our best artists (including Norman Beardsly...who used to do most of the illustrations on the 'Rainbow' kids show)

I miss those days when everything seemed a hell of a lot easier than they are today!

Scooby-Dooby-Doo!

Spooky greetings to you all mortals! Tis a tad late I know for Halloween but I hope you all had a good one! I've got to say that it was a really quiet one round our patch, I think the state of the country has even effected this our holyiest of holy days!.....If it wasn't for those pesky kids!

He's behind you.....AGAIN!

Well dear reader, another year, another panto poster. I don't know where the time goes!

I love working for this client as they're always so easy to get on with and generally give me free rein to do whatever I want to (within limits anyway...I always tend to go for a more moody, dark image and have to be gently reminded these posters are for a family market so brighten the buggers up!) best part is, unlike another company I know, they pay up within a week! They also give me plenty of time but I somehow always run out of it...mind you this year I had a good excuse...the accursed company who owe me are slowly destroying my will to live at the moment.

Anyway, at the end of the day, I must admit that I like this illo...and I got away with doing it with a nightime background as well! VICTORY IS MINE!

A fish called Gothtwinz

Well the summer hols are done and dusted and as you can tell from my lack of posts last month, twas a hectic time! Two Gothette kids off school for six weeks and one Gothtwin trying to work from home is not an easy thing. Work is slow, the card industry (like the rest of the country) seems to be falling to bits. I'm working on a commission as we speak but after that I'm dry although I've got a new client lined up for some book work which sounds pretty exciting!

Here's some fish I've been messing around with in Illustrator just to keep my finger in so to speak.

I like RED ROBOTS!

How do all! Heres another old sketch I've just painted up. Haven't got a clue who he's meant to be....I was going to do him in white armour but as always seems to be the case with any robotty things I do...he's ended up in red!

Many,many moons ago I did a couple of comic strips featuring an army of red suited soldiers flying around the universe in their red spaceships. I think it all stems from one of my childhood heroes, Baron Von Richthofen AKA The Red Baron. I adored his Fokker Triplane and loved the fact that he (and his fellow pilots) were so confident that they flew around in brightly coloured bi-planes (unlike thier Allied counterparts who flew in dull coloured planes)

I dream of genie...

Here's the concepts for the hero and genie for my poster job. There was a green version of the genie done as well as my clients didn't know which version they were going to use. My problem was that in my eyes, the red genie reminds me of Hellboy (one of my gods) yet the green version reminded me of the Hulk (one of the dullest comic characters ever!)

They've plumbed for the red (which I wanted as it links into the overall colour scheme) so I'm a happy bunny!

Bad news is that my bad guy (see below) and the Emperor have been dropped from the poster...gutted at that as I really liked the bad guy!