Here’s a drawing from one of my sketchbooks that reflects exactly my state of mind at the moment. 
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Pixie Child
here’s a recent drawing of a young Pixie, based on photos of my oldest son Niall. I don’t usually use reference for my Faery illustrations, but the opportunity presented itself one day when Niall walked out into the kitchen with a pair of his long johns on his head… “perfect!” thought I. I quickly ran and grabbed the camera and now have a fair few pics to use as reference (If Iever find the time…).
Koala drawings…
I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic lately, mapping my progress, seeing how my style’s changed over the years etc. This has led me into the back of my wardrobes, under the bed, in cupboards and digging out old portfolio cases that I haven’t looked at in a long time. Here are a couple of very old drawings done around the time I moved to Australia from England (2000-2001 ). It’s rather nice to see how far my work’s come and equally good to see work that shows a little glimpse of what it ‘s become.
new book illustration…
Just finished off the illustrations to one of the books I’ve been working on. Here’s the second from last one in the book…
I enjoyed this light, fresh style immensely and will try and render this way as often as I can. line art coloured digitally in Photoshop CS3
Watching….
Her’s an older image that’s recently been given a little makeover. I quite like this painting and would love to have another go at it one day. The original was painted around 7-8 years ago and was fairly typical of the illustrative work I concentrated on back then..
. Painted in watercolour, pen and ink and touches of coloured pencil.
Elfin Child….
Ok, I couldn’t resist. I had to warm up before starting work. I based this little sketch on an old drawing I did a while back.
10 mins graphite.
Elven Maidens….
Here are a couple of sketches I made a few months back. I’m posting older work at the moment as I’m VEEEEEEERY busy ploughing through my current workload. I’ll get some new sketches and things drawn soon.
pencil to paint….
Another post today. With apologies to my dear friends over at deviantart who may have already seen this. Just a quickie showing the motions I use to get from one to the other. It truly is a labour of love and, colouring digitally, I’m still left with a piece of inked line art. Cool.
Black Swan…
Here’s a painting of a black swan I did back in 2003-04…
It’s The Weekend…..
What a fantastic week it’s been. A lot of things happening in my life that I am extremely grateful for.
Firstly, I’ve been commissioned by a major Australian Publisher to produce a book containing 54 black and white illustrations, and anyone who knows me, or who has read my blog here, knows that I love drawing in black and white, so that’s kind of a dream come true for me. I’m very happy working in colour, but to do a whole book in black and white after so long since my last one makes me very happy indeed.
Secondly, I was contacted yesterday by another major publisher- a multi-national company to produce a cover illustration for a new line of books they’re launching. Something tells me I’m going to have to raise my game a little to keep up with the good fortune the Universe is throwing my way…. I’m definately up for the challenge though.
Everything’s great on the home front. My 2 1/2 year old has learnt his ABC and other nursury rhymes… The boy veritably blows me away with his learning. I swear I must have been in my teens before I could count to ten and remember my ABC…. They learn so fast nowadays don’t they? My 10 month old son is standing unaided for longer and longer lengths of time, he’s making sounds that sometimes seem like words… deperately trying to keep up with his brother. he moves like a rocket and learns VERY quickly. Being a Dad is the most rewarding thing I can think of!
Still got lots of work on the go, I’ll post more when I’m allowed to. In the meantime here’s an illustration or two…
The first is a cover I painted last year:
The next is a character design for the last book I illustrated in pen and ink:
Another for the same book:
And finally, here’s the latest one for a book I’m currently illustrating:
busybusybusy….
One of the things I love the most about being an illustrator is that I get such a diversity of projects coming my way. The subject matter and the styles I need to create them are constantly changing and I don’t mind one bit. I love a challenge and I love to learn and to throw changes into the mix whenever I can.
One of my current projects involves the use of colouring up my line art. I’ve been working in photoshop and painter to create art that whilst being coloured, will still maintain the integrity of the inked drawing underneath, it’s rather like working in watercolour. Although it’s a very simplistic style, this gives an idea of what I’m talking about, and will hopefully set the tone for future work. I get a line drawing and a coloured piece of art for my money. I’ve been missing the luxury of having a piece of work to actually hold in my hand since turning to digital media for my illustration work. see samples: 
here’s the coloured version: 
This next one’s a WIP, a little more ‘painterly’ but still in keeping with the basic technique, I’ll post the finished version once it’s been completed:
Speaking of line art, here’s the original pen drawing for yesterday’s post:
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Angel…..
I had a request a while ago to draw a little angel, I gave in to the urge to use the watercolours today after so long in front of the PC scratching away on my drawing tablet… Here’s what I came up with, and I enjoyed it immensely, it’s lovely to use ‘real’ paint from time-to-time. 
Witchie Coloured…..
I’m feeling a bit rusty after not being anywhere near my art stuff for a day or so. Feeling the need to get something done before I start colouring up a fair few of the images I still have on th go, I used this drawing of a witch I’d finished recently to get me back into the swing of things again.
‘Witchie’-Digital colour over traditional line art.
stuff from earlier this year….
It’s Monday morning and I’m still removing the sand from my eyes. I have a whole heap of stuff to do today so I’ll be busily working away all day, so no warm-ups or anything this morning. Instead, here are a few sketches I worked on earlier this year…
and here’s another new one from the book I’m currently illustrating- line art (pending coloured work)…
Waterfall Line art…
Here’s an illustration I’m doing for another book. This is the line art before the colour is added. Will post the final illustration once it’s completed. Traditional-pen and ink.
Here’s the original preliminary sketch, drawn in graphite which shows just how much free work the inking stage entails… It can be a little dangerous to work this way but what’s life without a little step into the unknown from time to time?
Crow Princess….
I’m very busy with family stuff this weekend, but managed to slip out to catch my breath. Here’s a recent sketch I did on the PC…
more stuff from the new book….
A couple more coloured images from the book I’m working on. See yesterday’s post for another image from the same book.
Here’s the drawing before the colour was added….
Here’ s the coloured version…
another line art drawing before colour was added…
Here’s the coloured version….
This has been a very refreshing job so far. It’s great to work on something so simplistic for a change. all images were drawn traditionally with pen and ink and coloured in Photoshop and PainterX
simplifying…..
One of the (many) projects I currently have on the go is a (quote) Spiritual (unquote) children’s book. The subject matter is quite heavy and rather a strtch for most people, so my take on this book involves stripping the art back to it’s bare bones and injecting as much humour as I can to make the ‘message’ sink in more easily. It’s great fun every now and again to draw in a style that doesn’t involve over-rendering, or little tiny details- the brain can only cope with so much at times eh?
here’re the pencils for one of the illustrations…
Here’s the inked drawing…
…Speaking of detailed artwork… when I first moved to Australia, I focused most of my creative attention on the drawing and painting of wildlife. It was a great time for me and I think I evolved artistically rather quickly. I immersed myself in the diversity Australia offers as far as it’s animal life is concerned. My wife and I travelled a lot to National parks and zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. Here’s a painting from that period, painted in watercolour, gouache and a scratch of coloured pencil here and there. Sorry for the crappy image, the photo was taken behind glass..
and here are a couple of graphite drawings from around that time….
Shameless Art Promo….
I just found this old image on my hard drive. It’s about 7 years old, painted in watercolour, I don’t get to paint in traditional media very often, but I rather like this image which was originally painted as a still life.
Old work, recently inked…
Before I start my day at the drawing board, I generally do something to warm up. It may be drawing something completely new, reworking something I’ve done previously that I may not be entirely happy with or inking up old sketches. Here are a couple of older images from my sketchbooks that have been inked over the past few days….
‘Granny’s Magic Slippers’- originally drawn a couple of years ago….
‘Broom Cupboard’- a reworking of an old drawing from a couple of years ago…
‘Paint Like Arthur Rackham’- Commission for The Official Corel Painter Magazine. This image was discarded in favour of a simpler image. It was drawn on paper, scanned in, then inked and painted using Corel PainterX. I’ve already posted the line art for this in an earlier post…
More whispy forest maidens….
I’ve just finished this TV drawing. I have to say that the inking is my favourite part, call me weird, but I absolutely adore scribbling over the faint graphite drawing with the pen- very satisfying indeed.
So… the photo shoot went really well. the photographer was a very interesting lady, plenty of fresh insights about life and things and I found the 2 1/2 hours just flew by. I didn’t even really mind having my picture taken, which is kind of a first for me. It did help that whatever flash she was using didn’t blind me in the process.
Workwise, things are looking good. Coming to the end of the book I’m working on, just one illustration to go and a cover then I’ll go through and tighten up a few patchy areas throughout the other illustrations then it’s done. I received another book commission through yesterday, so along with the other couple of things I have on the go, I’ve got me quite a nice little pile of illustrations to be working through over the next few months. My horscope yesterday said something along the lines of: “Be prepared for a very busy period ahead…” Seems they were right. Ten deep breaths, now focus Mr. Pocock….
Photo Shoot….
Oh joy…. I woke up from a very fitful sleep this morning. After having intense dream after intense dream, I woke up and found it very difficult to get back to sleep again. Today, I have a photo shoot. Great… I look like I haven’t slept for a week and I have to try and get my wits about me for 2pm when the photographer arrives. She’s doing a project about the working methods of artists in the area and I was one of the chosen ones. I’m not a big fan of having my photo taken but professionally, it’ll give me more exposure so I’m not complaining. Much.
Wish me luck!!!!
Here’s a WIP of a young lady and a fairy having a chat high up in a tree. This is one of the drawings I’m currently working on in my spare time when I get a minute to crash in front of the TV and just scribble away for my own amusement. Traditional-pen and ink
Here’s an old sketchbook page containing heaps of birds of prey. This is fairly typical of what I get up to to keep my hand in when I’m not feeling particularly creative. Reference books and DVD’s are an illustrator’s friend when the muse buggers off and goes on holiday or pops away for the weekend.
Father’s Day….
What a fantastic day it’s been so far. I was quite suddenly woken up at 7 Am by my eldest son Niall…”Happy Father’s Day!!!” he exclaimed. Rubbing the sand from my eyes and bidding the wonderful dream I was in the middle of goodbye, I looked up to see my beautiful wife holding my youngest son Finn and Niall with an armful of gifts, and of course, the toys he can never put down they all jumped on the bed and I opened my gifts.
It’s Father’s Day here in Australia today. It’s been a pretty emotional journey through the day so far as I count my (many) blessings and gaze on at my boys with absolute love in my heart. I became a Dad at the age of 36, later in life for many, I just know I wouldn’t have been ready for such a role any earlier I also feel as though I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m about as happy as I’ll ever be and the overwhelming sense of pride and the surreal honesty of looking on at my sons as they play is almost more than I can bear at times. the tears aren’t far from the surface today
UPDATE…… Just gotten back from lunch at the local cafe and went to the park with the boys. Finn took his first step today!!! Also, his first tooth has come through…. Very exciting. 
My Dad, my sons Finn (left) and Niall (right) and I on Dad’s trip over from the UK a couple of months ago….
Niall (2 1/2 yrs old)
Finn (10 months old)
The boys and I at the park today… Can you tell I’m not a big fan of having my photo taken?
I did some work for a client yesterday, I had to produce a dragon silhouette for a company’s logo. It was a great job and I came up with a fair few designs I rather liked. A few of them were far too elaborate for a company logo though, this is one of them….
The Biggest Question Of All Is….
…Who makes the clothes for Superheroes?
Here’s an old sketch of a cool mandolin-playing Piskie enjoying some of nature’s finest herbs. graphite
Ponkidoodling….
As per my post yesterday, here’s an advanced viewing of some of the images from the ‘Ponkidoodle’ book that’ll be available very soon. The images were painted digitally using Corel PainterX and Photoshop CS3. funfunfun…..
Old Witch….
I had a wonderful day yesterday. It was a very soft energy surrounding things. There were no ’have to do it or else’ vibes going on and I positively revelled in it. Started the day out at the local mall and had a wonderful breakfast at the Italian restaurant there. the kids were very well behaved (which is a blessing when we’re out shopping- let me tell you…).
When I got home I just dropped my current workload on it’s head. I wanted to be creative for myself. The pressure just lately to do this or do that, to make sure this deadline is met, make sure that contract is signed etcetc has taken it’s toll and really leaves me kind of frazzled at times. So yesterday I thought I’d have a little bit of fun, keeping one eye on some stuff for my portfolio to send potential clients, but mainly to goof around and please myself. The Witch I’ve posted here is a drawing from my sketchbook, but I liked it so much I inked it. I also drew a couple of other bits and pieces which I’m very happy with. It’s great to let the hand and the mind run free….. Highly recommended.
Full moon in Pisces today, sentimental, nostagic, romantic, creative, loving, caring….. Highly emotional for some people… Make it work for you.
Ponkidoodle
I’ve just received notification that the advance copies of my latest illustrated effort, written by author Neridah McMullin and published by Little Steps Books, will be available over the next couple of weeks. Very much looking forward to seeing it. It’s a picture book featuring a mischievous little green character called the ‘Ponkidoodle’. I had heaps of fun illustrating it… Feel free to contact me at my email address if you’d like to purchase a copy, not sure of the cover price just yet:
A recent drawing from my sketchbook.
Dragons….
There seems to be a fair bit of naughty planetary activity around at the moment and it’s sending my system loopy. Not sure what’s going on up there and I’m not likely to find out just yet as I’m a little too busy to have a look. I’m about to plough into my workload for the day, so no new sketches, but I’ve added a couple of old dragon drawings from my sketchbooks.
Gone Fishing…..
‘Gone Fishin’ Line art, Digital.
I’m giving myself the day off today. It’s official- I’ve gorn fishing, I needs me rest.
