Tis the season to be Jolly!

Here's wishing you all, dear readers, a Merry Yuletide and Splondiferous New Year ! Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you back here next year !

I'm an Illustrator goddammit, not a Doctor!

Make a note in your diaries for Monday the 17th of November , BBC 1, 13.45pm......a piece of my artwork is going to be on 'Doctors'! I haven't seen the episode so I'm not sure how long it will feature, if it's anything like the last episode I did it'll be milli-seconds!! (I'll put that piece up later)

One of the characters is a comics nerd (all bow to him) and I believe my poster of a comic cover is going to be on his wall in his bedroom. As I said earlier, I did some work for the same character last year. I produced a mock up comic cover for the props department (and also a logo for the t-shirt he was wearing) he was carrying it around with him but this is where the programme researchers made a fatal flaw......he ROLLED IT UP AND RAMMED IT INTO HIS BACK POCKET!!! Any true comics nerd would never do this!! HAHA!

Anyway, I'm really pleased with this piece...I just hope they don't kill the nerd off.....of course they could bring him back in a shower scene where everything was a dream!!

Dave Ross

I've been very busy lately, lots of greetings card work on and two poster jobs. Between all this, I did this piece as a favour for a friend. I've took the text off as the joke wouldn't make any sense unless you knew the guy in the card but I thought I'd show you the illustration. It was fun doing it, if a bit stressful, due to my other commitments but it made a change from doing drunk dads and fluffy little animals!

One thing I learnt was that Daleks are an absolute nightmare to draw, I never took in how many blinkin' lines and shapes make them up...and yes Glazy...before you tell me, I know that I've only done three rows of orbs on the lower body instead of four...IT'S ART LUVVY!!!

...Smithers....release the hounds!

Two months since my last post!!! Unbelievable! The reason for this absence confirms my first post and THE GREAT BALANCING ACT.....after a worrying period of no work, I produced some new stock card designs and hit as many of the publishers that I could. My reply rate was pretty poor (this is the norm, out of thirty or so, I think I got six 'thanks we'll put you on files' and a couple of 'no thanks') I did get a new contact though, I was commissioned to do six humourous greetings cards which then grew into twelve. They were a pleasure to work for, easy going art directions and hardly and changes, which is always good!

In the time I was doing this, I also had a mountain of spec work on, the bane of a freelancer, producing samples on the chance of getting a commission out of it. I've managed to get a handful of cards out of the spec stuff but not as many as I'd have liked! Still, any spec work I now do, if it doesn't get initially bought, I work up to a printable standard and store as stock for future use.

The best bit of news was that I got another small commission from the good old BBC! HUZZAH!! I can't go into details yet but at some point I'll hopefully be allowed to show what I did for them! All I can say is it was right up my street and not cute card characters for a change!

The dog with the butterfly is an illustration I've was playing around with just before my mad rush, I'd show you more of my new stuff but the various companies would probably have me hunted down and shot!

...finally a big thank you to all of you fellow bloggers who have posted here, it makes my day hearing from you, it amazes me who you can meet thru the power of the blog!! Don't forget folks....One Blog to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!!

Monster Raving Loony Party!

Here's some of my latest illo's, three lil' monster's brought forward from the depths of Hell.....or at least Middlesbrough, which let's be honest is damn well close enough! They were all done in Illustrator so I'm keeping to my promise of getting as much practise in as possible. I'm starting to find it a bit easier to use now although there's still a load of functions that I just can't seem to get my around yet.

I've just got a new little commission so I'm going back to Photoshop for the next few days, I must admit that I'm looking forward to it! You just can't beat plugging into the ol'P.C., listening to Radio 7 re-runs of the Goons, cup of black coffee, pack of Hobnobs, and away I go.................

Illustrator Versus Photoshop....FIGHTTT!!!!!!!!!!

This is one of my latest pieces, all done in Illustrator. I don't normally use this program, I tend to stick with Adobe Photoshop but lately, I feel like the greetings card market is dropping the more 'formal' type illustrations for a more stylized image. So, with this in mind I've decided to get some much needed practice in.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the final result but I most admit to prefering Photoshop, I feel like you can beef up your work and achieve some nice effects and I really feel more in control of that program than Illustrator. Still, I will try to do the odd illo in vectors just to keep up to speed.

...and so it begins.....

Well my dear chums, off we go! The life of a jobbing freelancer is a sorry tale of great times of famine or feast. You may have a great commission on the go or if you're really lucky, more than one at the same time (although of course this can lead to trouble, afterall, you've only got one pair of hands!) When you have nothing 'official' on, then that is the time to calmly panic. I find the worst part of freelancing is the great balancing act, you must promote yourself as much as possible, emailing companies, updating your sites, checking the various art job webs and of course, producing more samples. You do this with the aim of getting a commission, you may get one, so then, all of this side of your business technically stops so you can concentrate on the brief for your latest job, you do said job and then the whole process starts again! In an ideal world, this would be a fluid transaction, but in reality it never seems to fall like that. For example, last year I had two commissions on the go at once (plus a third small regular one as well) I must have averaged about 4 hours sleep a day if I was lucky, my family nearly forgot who I was and I started to go 'Photoshop Blind'...(you start seeing the real world like your PS work area and wonder what button you have to click to change your trousers!) It was worth it, as that is my choosen job, but just as soon as you think you've made it, it all slows down to a grinding halt. I'm at that stage right now, I've been busy creating fresh greetings card stock to send off and am awaiting various companies replies with baited breath. I know I'm on a countdown again, the money only lasts so long until a new commission, you always have that tiny fear in the back of your mind 'what if nothing else comes through?'....you just have to get on with it and have faith in yourself!

Above is my very latest stock card, I've had a thumbnail sketch of this one for a while now and was eager to do a Tardis (nerd I know but sue me!) I'm pretty chuffed with it! Let's hope it sells!

Empire of the Gothtwinz lives........

Hello one and all and welcome to my new blog. I've been planning on doing one of these for ages now so today, at last, I went for it! Naturally the Farmageddon blog is still up and going, but I thought it'd be nice to share all my mad ramblings from my alter ego side of the Farm.....THE LIFE OF A FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR!!!

Prepare for blood, sweat, tears and the odd illo from my vast archive of work....


Be seeing you!