Fruit and Football Wizards

I always make a point to use the word "diverse" in describing the range of projects I have worked on. Well, this one come straight out of left field. That being said, I had worked with famous footballers before ...and by "with" I mean as an unknown entity, on the same project, for vastly different salaries. Sad face (not really sad, I'm always happy to be employed).

Back in January, I worked on a commercial starring several Manchester United football players. The ad was for international fruit juice brand Chivita and the post-production company I worked with were Bark & Bite (Manchester). In the advert, the players (Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Eric Bertrand Bailly), drink some juice before gathering round a Chivita themed pinball machine "Chivita, 100% Pinball" as the illuminated backboard says. See the video here...

As you can see the scenario is like an analogue version of Disney's Tron; the players are miniaturised and play football-pinball against the machine. My role was to create the artwork for the sides of the main body of the machine as well as the "backbox" sides and "backglass" where the score is displayed.

 Combining fruit, football to make it look hopefully interesting and pinbally:

The sides of the main body of the machine.

 Kaboom! The sides of the backbox.

Aside from a supermarket-load of fruit, that backglass is where my illustration of the players comes in. First drawn separately, they were composited together like the reflections of the players themselves, frozen in time. ...Just watch the bloody thing, it's hard to explain!

Wayne Rooney

Eric Bertrand Bailly

This is the final post-transition backbox with the 

players in their frozen reflections. Some of the above

elements were created entirely for mock-up and some 

were in the final commercial...

...Such as the fruit corners. Thanks for reading!!!

Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland

I do comics now, it's almost official.

First mentioned in a previous post a couple of years ago, this sequel to the famous works of 19th century author Lewis Caroll is at the stage where several pages have been created and are now in the process of being submitted for potential publication.

Small children in peril; 

guaranteed page turner.

Writer (and comic book artist in his own right), Bret M. Herholz brought me on board to this project an embarrasingly long time ago, in fact if patience is a virtue, then Bret is a man who seemingly has it in spades (and hearts, clubs and diamonds in case you wondered if pun was intended). Finally though it has begun to take shape and I'm pleased to say it has been a joy to scribble thus far. I genuinely feel like a comic book artist at times. It's a good feeling!

"Someone" to the rescue, but whom??

My role is pencils and inks, whilst Bret (aside from writing) handles colours, lettering and those fiddly speech bubbles. This is Bret's blog http://www.bretmherholz.com/ which contains reams of his own published works. This project also has its very own cinematic trailer...