Tuesday 26 June 2018

Alice and the Invaders from Wonderland, continues...

More images from the upcoming comic. Really pleased with how it's looking and how it pushes me to get creative in ways that I don't usually get from clients. Big shout out of course to author (and talented scribbler in his own right) Bret M. Herholz.

These images are pre-lettering, basically continues the story the Queen of Hearts invading our dimension and taking over. She's evil like that. Featuring The Mad hatter, The Cheshire Cat, The March Hare, The Dormouse and a "bandersnatch". Lots of "The's" ...I want to be a "The."

Enjoy...!





Spock

A picture of Spock for a friend of mine on his birthday. Everyone and his grandmother knows about Spock, so on with the post...

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end. 
From Star Trek VI, which is in my top two
Star Trek films.

Quite pleased with it, I've become a fan of just black and grey ink. 

Monday 25 June 2018

Paul Draws Pets

Check the facebook page for details: HERE

Basically, you send me pics, I send you original art. With a little bit of money in-between.

 Dogs...
 cats...
 all the animals...
even more dogs! 

Comic Madness!!

I was commissioned by, let's say, an office worker to create a couple of comic pages for a colleague who was leaving. The details don't matter.

 Featuring flying monkeys, a robotic hive-mind
Angela Merkel, The Queen, Brussels and stuff that 
doesn't make a load of sense unless you're one of those pictured.

If I can blow my own trumpet for a second; I'm pleased with how I interpreted the script and how much I was able to cram into single A3 sheets of paper. ...Yep, it was all drawn by hand just as you see it. colouring and text was done in Photoshop though, I'm not a total Luddite.  




Fancy the Queen!

I doodled over a fiver as part of a project called "fiversforartistic". Why? Not entirely sure, but I was approached to do so and some really famous artists were also in on this.

In their own words... (LINK)

"The aim of “FIVERSFORARTISTIC” is to collect 200 old fivers and convince important contemporary artists to sign and then decorate the fiver in any way they wish making the note completely original. Artistic will then auction the collection of fivers to raise enough money to launch Artistic as a CIO charity. We have had a great response so far  from some amazing artists ranging from Peter Blake to Mason Storm and the wonderful duos of Gilbert and George and the Chapman Brothers. We have now collected 57 completed fivers but we desperately need more . Where is the BANKSY fiver ? We have a wonderful note from the incredibly lovely Damien Hirst. Come on let’s make this happen in 2018 ? We know it can be done!"


Here's my effort:


On the £5 note I received, I noticed the letters "MD" - if you look closely you can see MD circled on the note itself. Now consider the following: I'm a fan of the Sega Megadrive (or Genesis if you're in the US) often, particularly in Japan, abbreviated to "MD". I am also a fan of thrash band Megadeth. 

So I decided to aim for an early 90s "radical" queen. There is something deeper here though: the reduction and distillation of the 60s counter cultural rebellion into marketing tools geared solely towards making money. Hence rebellion as "illusion" rather than as reality. 

Umm, the end.




Many Mel Smiths

Author and film nut Jon Spira hired me to create 36 portraits of late comedian and actor Mel Smith. The images were created to go alongside the launch of Book #1 of the Forgotten Film Club Series, which focuses on Smith's "unremembered" classic Morons From Outer Space.

Go and order it TODAY!!!

A great little project, for which I am thankful. HERE is a link to Jon's Kickstarter.

 Smith of course is the legand from 
Not The Nine O'clock News, Alas Smith and Jones...
...directed The Tall Guy, rocked around the
Christmas tree with Kim Wilde...

The BBC and the World Cup

Good news! I was lucky enough to create several 2018 FIFA World Cup images for BBC Sport. These pics get posted online when they become relevant (sort of).

On the downside, the two images posted so far are tragic reminders that you can't always predict the winners.

The first one is "King Salah"; a depiction of Mohammed Salah taking his place as one of the world's top three football players currently, much to the annoyance of the other two: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Of course the image may still hold true, however neither Salah nor Lionel Messi have had a great tournament to say the least, with Egypt most definitely out and Argentina on the brink.

 Salah takes centre stage, Messi trying to reach a golden ball
from under Salah's boot. Made sense when I drew it. 
Here's a link to the BBC Sport post on Instagram: MO SALAH

 Salah has been given the "Egyptian King" moniker by 
Liverpool fans (Salah plays for Liverpool). ...Hence the crown.
At least he scored a penalty against hosts Russia.

Moving on to the second image, which depicts Lionel Messi carrying the squad through the tournament. This could still be a thing if Argentina can beat Nigeria and if Iceland can win against Croatia. I hope I've got that right.

We know it's in Russia because of St Basil's Cathdral 
Here's a link to the BBC Sport Instagram IMAGE

Here's a close-up! Perhaps I'll end up making one 
of these for England and Harry Kane