Dr. Who-oo, and the Tardis

Actually this is just the aliens for the Dr. Who 60th Anniversary Starburst Magazine #483

Unused "England Won!" image for BBC Sport

This image was to be published online by BBC Sport if England won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, sadly this was not to be because as you all know, England unfortunately failed to beat South Africa in the final.

...And even more sadly for me, the image remains irrelevant. Thankfully I can show it off regardless.

The current squad roll up to an exclusive nightclub 

for previous winners. Waiting at the door is the 

2003 World Cup-winning squad, with expressions
ranging from bemused to whatever-I-
could-find-on-the-internet. 

The image features current head coach Eddie Jones, eyeballing the 2003 coach Clive Woodward who is posing as a doorman alongside Martin Johnson. Mike Tindall and Jony Wilkinson pause from cocktail slurping to gape from the doorway at the (not) new champions headed by Owen Farrell holding the Webb Ellis Cup. Behind Owen you should, if I've done my job correctly, be able to spot Harlequin star Kyle Sinckler and Sale Shark's Tom Curry ...Sale is just down the road from my house, where I drew this. So there's that.  

Oh, and before I go: the original ink-on-paper

drawing. I added the VIP sign later and changed

Eddie's flag from Japan to an England one. 

I should point out that most of the ideas came from Nick at BBC Sport and his crew. Good eggs.

Up the Irons!

The Fab Four

I created the "Fab Four" for BBC Sport and the Champions League Final. Depicts the four Liverpool managers that have won over the years. #liverpool 

So from left to right: Bob Paisley - who brought the team to victory in 1977, 78 and 81. Joe Fagan - 1984. Raphael Benitez - 2005. Jurgen Klopp - 2019.

This was a bit of a big deal for me because it was really high profile, with Liverpool legends such as Jamie Carragher using this image as his Twitter banner. 

Obviously this is also a reference to The Beatles' Abbey road album, featuring songs such as "I want You (she's So Heavy)" and "Carry That Weight".

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 

BBC: Gold Rush with Dan Snow

Hi! ...Last year I created hundreds of illustrations for The BBC (possibly slightly less than a hundred, I didn't count...feels like hundreds). Two projects were responsible for most of these: Operation Gold Rush with Dan Snow and The Top Ten Comedy Kit.

Operation Gold Rush was a series on BBC 2, in which "history guy" Dan Snow and company trail through the wilds of North America and up to Canada's Yukon territory. Info and videos HERE.

From the safety of my shed in the mild and mostly wet UK, I created images and elements for the online video game version (see also link above). Well, not just a game, but also a game maker which alows you to put my drawings to creative use as you create your own levels and goals. Those drawings included...

 Characters: Indians, simple townsfolk, bandits and hunters...

 More characters, such as this beardy prospector

"There's gold in them thar hills etc..."

 Trees.

 Birds such as an owl and Bald Headed Eagle.

These are numbered for potential animation sequencing.

 Dan himself, the hero of the game.

I also created this sweet animation of Dan on a horse.

EastEnders: Update with Video... Cor Blimey!

Following the last post, several cast members appeared in a video to promote the EastEnders SoapFactory app. Some of them can be seen holding little cardboard cutouts; my drawings of their digital alter egos!

 Danny-Boy Hatchard (Lee) and miniature Lee.

Choose your sarcastic, gritty "oik". 

Pity this isn't StreetFighter. 

Paper view: Tameka Empson (Kim) 

and Natalie Cassidy (Sonia). Note: Kim was not

drawn by me, but the previous artist from whom

I took over.

The actual video...

BBC: Eastenders, GET "ART" (of my pub).

I will do a bigger post about this at some point because it's been a huge deal for me.

Towards the end of last year, I took over the reins as the guy who draws SoapFactory: the online "create your own Eastenders stories." As someone who grew up with Eastenders, and old enough to remember it starting back in 1985, this has been an absolute privilage to work on.

The guy I took over from, I should point out, set the style and came up with the poses which are terrific. My job was to continue where he left off with characters such as Tamwar Masood, Nancy Carter, Whitney Dean and the infamous return of Kathy Beale! ...DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DA DA DA DA.

Some of my heads and their scenery chewing expressions.