Century

This is my 100th post.

This is also probably the best thing I've drawn in ages. Really happy with it. It's kind of a new style but kind of the same as my old ones. I think it's worked really well. The hat was a mistake I feel but ah well.

Buffalion

So Christmas has been and gone but I can say it's been a good one. I got some excellent gifts, my favorite being the Juxtapoz illustration book which has made me see some new styles which I'd never really seen before. I also got a set of Faber Castell Indian Ink pens with brush tips.

I tried them out for this character and a new style of shading. Kind of unsure if I hate it or like it. It was originally going to be a buffalo but has slowly evolved into a hybrid Buffalion.

Merry Christmas

I've been slack on the updating so here's what i've done this week.











Everyone have a good Christmas and I'm gonna get off my arse and finish this sketchbook before the end of January when I'll announce some news.

Peace

Merry Commisions

So Christmas is the time for giving and lots of people enjoy giving paintings apparently as I've had quite a few commisions over this period. Here are the latest four I finished. I'll get close ups tomorrow when it's light so the flash doesn't ruin them.

All in all I now have been able to buy my family presents and it's all good.

Poor update

So I wasn't going to post these illustrations cos they're shit but I thought I might as well because it's a sketchbook and not everything in it will be as good as I'd like it.


This one is an owl, it looked better as I first sketched it but went downhill as I was adding ink to it with the most horrendous hang over ever.



When I was finishing this turtle I lost all abilities to draw hands but ah well. I'm sure they'll return.

Snowmandem

So I've been slack, but it did snow and I did draw this in it. I'm unbelievably busy with college and it's a stress so I doubt I'll do that much sketchbook work until my brief is finished. However I'm going away for the weekend so I will get some done. There has been new work done in my moleskin but that shit is under wraps.

Uno line

So this may look like I didn't put much effort in to these but actually I did. It is all one line. That's tech. I really want to get good at this as a mate of mine called Dom can draw full detailed characters like this and it's fresh as fuck.

Sea horse

My girlfriend was bored on the train so she kept saying different animals and things to draw. Never tried a Seahorse before, I finished it yesterday but it seemed to plain so I started the scales and it took a long time to finish them.

Slack

I need to stop being slack. I have loads of half finished pages in my sketchbook. I'm gonna try and finish some tomorrow and slam them up.

Any way, another filler.

Did this a while back when I was obsessed with cockatiels. Don't think it's particularly great but ah well.

Squirrel

Drew this on the train on the way back from London. In a huge rush so there'll be better banter later.

Apoligies

So quick explanation, I have chilled and realised that my Dad's comments on the painting being alright kind of just made me realise it wasn't right and I just wanted someone to blame for my poor piece of work. Anyway because of this I have redone it and I am a lot happier with it and just happier in general. So happy I have three pictures for you today.

A lot happier with this. The colour work better, it is cleaner and the dark red works well with it.


So it's a friend's birthday and I drew them a picture. It is one which has never been on here and may possibly never be seen. Not because I don't like it but just because I'm keeping it secret in my little moleskin. In fact all of my moleskin work is secret. But anyway I decided that I wanted them to know the card was from me so made a smiley face out of it. Kind of like a real life character although I was thinking how rad it'd be to get some of those printed, they wouldn't be that hard to make. Maybe this is another thing I'll claim I'll do and never bother to actually do.


And finally I drew the snake from the last post on my wall because I felt like my poscas don't get used enough. Ignore the shit thing next to him, it was something that never got finished and I can't remember what was meant to be going on with it.


So that's it. I'm off to LCC to check out the Graphics department. Lots of drawing on the train...maybe.

Two things

So I redid that stencil in four layers and I thought it looked alright but then I showed it to my father who said "It'll look alright when it's finished." So as always the angered child I decided to just pour paint on it and hope it would end up looking good. It didn't.
So pretty much the canvas now lies in two pieces in my garage as I destroyed it because it is shit and I cannot do anything else with it because of the fucking drips.



Second thing which I do like is a new illustration. Python, well an adder, or it might be a pyhton, dunno what they look like.

Stencil weekend

So I kept getting really pissed off with different things in the stencil I did the other day and I ended up just redoing it because it was bugging me so much. I'm pretty happy with how it's came out. I'll probably stick with the multilayers, I don't think I can do justice to the whole two layer deal.

Stencil again

So I repainted that stencil I posted last night. This is what annoys me with stencils, they always look better than the previous but you'll have done something wrong which is something really obvious which you forget.

I also don't like the drips on this one, i'm gonna do it as a portrait on a much smaller canvas. Maybe try and get a better white as the one I'm currently using looks like someone had a piss in the paint. Lips are now red which I think looks good.

Stencil session

So I've been a slack man on the painting game but that's gonna change. Multi layers are out, black and white is in. Decided to try a new stencil. It's pretty scruffy because I did it very quickly to see how it worked painted. It's like my sketchbook work it's all just planning something better out. I'm gonna start the proper one tomorrow except it's gonna be rad and clean. Quite like the drips idea, that was originally only so that it didn't look weird just cutting off but I'm considering doing it on the canvas.



So I forgot to put this as I was sleepy but this stencil is yet again a wonderful photo taken by my dear friend Anna Victoria Best. I did a different stencil of my girlfriend using her photos and it came out very well.

Stresshead

I need to get round to sorting out my workspace. I've got so much shit I need to do and I end up doing nothing because my desk is a fucking state. It's annoying that I only get motivated to clean it at night because I can't due to everyone else trying to sleep.

I love having a moleskin sketchbook. My girlfriend got me it for my birthday and it's so useful. I'm just drawing anything in it. My big sketchbook is work I want people to see while this is just anything I think of. I want to have by the end of the year a two or three big sketchbooks and loads of little moleskins full of things.

Munny

So I bought a munny a while back and didn't do anything with it because i was kind of scared to put a mark on it. So I was talking to mate of mine about how I had it planned but didn't have the money to buy poscas and didn't really want to paint it and he disapeared off into our classroom then came back with a massive box of poscas he'd just bought. So here's my first munny. A lot of things I hate but I guess you live and learn.

Guess how old I am?

So today was my birthday and I got lots of cool stuff. A new camera, a sticker maker, shirt, books, etc. I'd go ahead and say it's been my favorite birthday so far. Woke up and I didn't have many presents to open as the camera was expensive but everything I did get was well thought out and either exactly what I wanted or something that's hugely useful to me but I didn't think to ask for. Then I got to college and my girlfriend came in and turns out she's been conspiring to get me lots of stuff without telling me so I got another load of presents off her. Stoked.My mate Tom Whittle had the opening of his first solo show type thing "One Night Stand with a Thirsty Brush". Was pretty good, I was stoked.

So I don't really like this as I didn't think it out well enough and I kept trying to do more to it and thinking of things.

Wabbits

So tshirt design for pretty focused. Ah well, might make a few of my own depending on people being into it or not.

So I got bored at college and wanted to make an old character better so pulled out the rabbit.

Buffalo head

So this is the start of a character for something I've been planning a while. I've been trying to get it to look better but I thought I'll just put it down on paper and draw it and hopefully it'll evolve like my yeti.
This is kind of a plan for a t-shirt so that's why the pole and his tee are blank as they would have type on them if it got used. Who knows, I'll show you it as it evolves.

Lizard Evolution

So I felt I'd kind of ignored these lizards for a while so I thought I'd try drawing them again. I want to evolve them a bit. My yeti just from drawing him repeatedly has came along a lot from the first time so I feel I should give more time to these. I'm trying to play with the eyes more as they are a bit to simple on their own.

Sasquatch

So I stopped being slack today and finished this months Pancakes and brought my colour sketches home to photograph and show you all. This is concept for some illustrator work I'm going to do next week, actually I'll be honest it's concept work for some illustrator work I'm claiming I'll do but probably won't finish next week.

Excuses

So I apoligise for the slackness, I do have a build up of work to post but I'm also doing loads of important stuff related to uni so that's taken priority. I'm gonna get some proper updates done tomorrow with my new drawings of my sasquatch in colour and different angles.

Shrubbish

So i'm back on it and I think I've found my work pattern again. I keep starting new projects and some of them are finally coming to an end which is nice.

This is a character for my group of jungle monsters which I've started drawing. Again this looks like it'll drag out but I'm having fun.

This guy is kind of like a shrub creature, the one being done on the big sketch is getting a lot of detail added to him, this is kind of just the concept of him.

Flying Monkey

I like doing mixed media but I dunno if this one worked very well.

Gonna have a blast at doing some other things like this, maybe without colour.

Stresshead

So this was meant to be up last night but I had a power cut and have had no gas or electricty till this afternoon.

I'm going through a major crisis at the moment, I've got to the point on my course at college where I need to start making decisions which will affect me through out my life. I want to do illustration but I don't want to work freelance as I could easily end up making no money at all, I kind of want to go into Animation Illustration as I'll be able to do illustration but for a company doing the concept art for their animations. Thing is I think I could do this but what if I end up stuck working for some shit company who just do online cartoons and I don't want to just stop doing graphics. Ah, it's a hard knock life for us.

So anyway, this is a new character and I like him. I think I might make a menagerie of these creatures.

Mundane Clown Posse

So this is another portfolio page. I dunno if I like it or not. The girl got cocked up with the colour of her face. Also the the ring master looks all faded due to the flash.

Portfolio

So I have started working on my portfolio as I was reading about different courses I'm considering and my portfolio will be a lot stronger if I have my own work in it which shows my interest in the subject.

So because of this I'm doing some of my favorite characters in larger versions in colour.




I also have got a new desk which has meant I have a totally new work set up so should be hammering it for the next week or two.

Mandem

So I quite like the style of this character but not the actual execution of it. I feel like it's got a lot of potential but it's failed to reach it. I'm gonna have a play around with this style for a bit.

Shoesys

So this is the second set of shoes I designed. I prefer this one. The paint splatters are almost like a camo print.

Gonna submit it all on Monday so should have a link up next week for if you want to buy them.

Excuse the slackness

So there has been a reason for my slackness other than me being on a constant downer, I've been snowed under with work but it's been worth it. We're doing a project with a company called Sneakart. Essentially you get some trainers and buy this Sneakskin stuff and put it on. It means you can have custom trainers for cheap. Anyway they have shit designs at the moment so have asked us to design some for them and since this is exactly the type of thing I'm into I've been hammering the work.

I came up with two sets of designs.

The lizards are stickers which will come separate so you can place them as you want. The background is a load of scribbles with a multiple gradient through them, I might put a few extra scribbles in before I submit it but I think this one works well.



I'll put the link up to buy them when they go on the site as I get the money from it and I'm skint.

Also I'm doing a skate competition this weekend so I'll definetely post tomorrow but Saturday and Sunday I might be busy with skating and partying.

Big five Oh

So I've been slack recently and I admit but I've had a mad creative block and I've been feeling shit so I didn't feel like it.

So anyway the reason I am feeling like it is a good friend of mine told me they liked my drawings and that they'd like one for their wall. She wanted a Sasquatch which I assume is a clever way of saying Abominable Snowman as that's what I drew.

He's friendly, shy and just a teeny bit slow. I imagine he'd have a deep slow Texan drawl but luckily be racially tolerant or he wouldn't be any good for a kids book.





Also you should all read The Abominable Charles Christopher as it's fantastic and one of my favorite online comics at the moment. The artwork is amazing and the storyline has yet to involve computer games so I love it.

Platypus

So I was going to draw a made up ridiculous animal but then I remembered the platypus so I drew that, then decided to put nerd glasses and a skiing hat for some reason.

Kind of like it but I feel it could have been done better. Ah well, I'll try a better one tomorrow. One of my first drawings which I've drawn from the photo. I'm gonna do a tshirt design tomorrow or start putting it together. I think I'm gonna try and have a set of tshirts printed by Christmas...so I can give them as a cheap excuse of a gift.

HUG LYF

So I missed yesterdays update and I think I'm going to have to accept that I won't be updating daily. I'll try my best but it's pretty hard to have enough work to update a blog at such a fast rate. I'll have a lot of stuff to show you next week when I go into college to do some work and I'm currently editing the new issue of Pancakes so I'll link you all to that when it's finished.


So the reason the posture is a bit off on this character is he originally was going to be flying as a weird version of Icarus but I changed my mind half way through and had him hold the HUG LYF flag high. I quite like him, I'm not sure how good the uneven eyes is but I might try it out with a few characters to see if it works or not.

HUG LYF is something my mate made up and I think it's great so it gets used occasionally in work we do. I'll put some of his work up as he's pretty sick and we've done a few collaborations over the last year which never really got shown to anyone.

Deery me.

So I'm back and I'm more positive. Best I've felt since coming home.Went out, had a good night, saw some friends I hadn't in ages, danced, sang, drank, it's all good.

I'm not all that keen on this but I like the idea and it's given me an idea for something better, even though I'm not amazingly stoked on it I think it's been good because it's got my ideas flowing and I'm feeling good.



As you can tell I didn't scan this very well.

Excuse

I'm missing todays update because I feel uncreative and that all of my work is just bland. Don't know what's going on but I feel so shit and drawing isn't cheering me up, I've just spent an hour drawing a set of cartoons then scribbled all over it because I hated them.

I'm stuck in a rut and it's shit. I can't think of things to do, I want characters that people go wow that's sick but it isn't happening. I progressed loads when I started the sketchbook and now I'm grinding to a halt. I need to do something which will get me on track.

I'll have some new drawings tomorrow even if they are morbid.

Peace.

Bossman birdy

So I drew a bird but tried a new style. I quite like it, I'd like some opinions on it. What do you think? Yes? No? Maybe? Can I repeat the question?



Also if you would care to look over at a blog done by a friend of mine, Tom Kirkby, you will see he has written nice things.

Tom is a funny man and quite right in saying I'm angry although right now I'm chilled out. I think you should all check out his club night Creep on the 30th of October at DB Social in Newcastle. I will be there venting my anger.

Cop out

I am on a massive downer as I had lots of fun in Manchester and now I'm back to the normality of my life. Manchester is such a good city for dancing, drinking and skating. I loved it and had an amazing time. Cheers to everyone who let me stay, put up with my mess and helped me out when I got in a state.

Anyway, I have done a drawing but my scanner is not working so I'll post it tomorrow. Instead I'm posting a stencil of my dear girlfriend. She's ill at the moment and sad so I thought this might cheer her up.

Hippodrome

So it's Sunday, I should be back by now. I'll give you an update if this has been posted before I'm back. well to be fair if you're reading this I'm not back yet, or my girlfriend has put this up before I got back.

I'll give you some pictures of my sketchbook from when I went away, I should have a lot of new sketches as I have spent about 10 hours on coaches at this point.

So this is the hippo character, I had to have one. The Rhino will probably say something like "Gee, me and you sure do look a like" and then the hippo will quip "Except I spend a lot more time in the bath than you." then we'll share a laugh. This dialogue will continue till we learn that we all maybe different but at the same time we're all very similar.

God I'm good, I should be teaching your kids why not to play with fire and the negative aspects of sniffing glue.

Vegan, vegetarians and vultures

So I've been really thinking about my childrens book I'm going to do. Obviously it's just a kind of test for myself to see if I can do it and if I enjoy it.

Well thinking along these lines I knew I needed to start thinking of more characters so now I give you my Vegetarian Vulture. Or something like that. He'll be the guy crying and the happy rhino will go "What's wrong?" and someone will go "Don't talk to him, he's a scavenger, he eats dead animals." and then he can go "That's the problem, I don't like meat, I've became a vegetarian and now everybodies laughing at me." and then the rhino will say something that makes us all realise that we shouldn't laugh at someone for being different.

Thinking about it, he's probably vegan as he lives on the savannah so he won't be catching no fish and it'd be cannibalism to eat an egg.

Hug Lyf

So it's Saturday, what a fun day. I wonder if my girlfriend has remembered to update(Turns out she couldn't log in for some reason so now I'm doing this off my mates laptop). I hope I am having fun and I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing break from your normal work like I am.

So I had to get a 5 hour coach journey down here and I'll be honest, I hate coaches so I wonder how I dealt with that one. It had no breaks but a lot of stops. Sounds like it'll take the piss, I'm gonna try to sleep for most of it and if not get some drawing done. I brought a new sketchbook down with me to start "The Rarest Rhino", I wonder if I bothered. I wonder if I decided to use my pens or stuck with pencils. I was quite tempted with pencils they make a nice colour. I hope I make the right choice. I hope I don't get claustrophobic. I hope I'm not sick.

And that leads me right onto the subject of todays work. Another cockatiel but this one is being sick. I've developed a love of mixed media, it's fun and looks good. My next project is an illustration based one so I've bought a book from years ago about Orangutans so I think I'll get some good characters out of that. These cockatiels are going to be used on some t-shirts I'm designing for a company which my good friend Dom and I are starting up. It's gonna be a classic DIY type situation, we'll design the t-shirts, get some of that special paper and make them, potentially do a home screen printing job, I'll see. The best thing about them is they'll be custom order, we'll have the design but because we're not doing them in batches we can put them on anything. I think it'll be sick.

Also ignore the bullshit I've written next to this. It's annotations to justify why I have drawn a cockatiel vomiting because apparently "I found it funny" is not a legitimate reason.

The rarest rhino.

I wonder how much fun I'm having in Manchester? I wonder how much money I've spent on useless items? I wonder if the weather is nice?

I'm writing this in the past now so I'm in Manchester at the moment...unless I missed the bus, or died. That's a bit scary and depressing that my way of haunting the world would be by writing a blog from beyond the dead.

Anyway this is the rhino from the other day with colour added to him. I really like this character and I'm going to have a go at doing a story with him. I'm really into the idea of doing childrens book illustrations. I'm not sure why really. I think it's because I went to the Baltic and saw Yoshitomo Nara's exhibition which was insane and found out they were a childrens book illustrator. I just love the way that they were able to keep their own style rather than having to conform to a certain norm which is seen in most adult books. I also would prefer to work in an industry where I'm illustrating stories about friendship and learning lessons about morals through the baking habits of a chicken than having to draw shit illustrations of a hooker infront of some crudely done skyline because that's what's in.



This should have been a lot earlier but it's been posted late. I'll try to make sure the rest of the updates are on time

Lift back to manny.

So dear Sketchbook readers I was originally gonna tell you how I was going to miss a few days but I got my act together and found some work which I never got round to showing you. It's not from the actual sketchbook, well not all of it but I thought it's better to have something rather than nothing and me becoming slack due to it. So a big thankyou to my dearest girlfriend who is doing the updates while I'm away and if she isn't so lazy might end up doing a collaboration with me.

I have some big things happening in the next week or two so I should have something exciting to tell you and show you.

So this is from my customer profile for my current college project. I've shown the cockatiels before but I continued using them through my work and they just kind of got out of control. This page was aboutmy customer's food preferences. I really like the cockatiel character on this page as he's quite fat and sweet. I imagine he'd be swedish...well he would be if they had cockatiels there....do they?

Wock n woll

So I did these the other day because we were skating at a dull spot and I wasn't feeling it. There's numerous things like these about Newcastle from when I've been bored or pissed with a sharpie on hand.

Rhite Whino

So I think I might have decided what I want to do in the future. Currently I'm loving illustration but I don't want to just do illustration so I'm thinking graphics illustration or childrens book illustrations. I dunno, I'm gonna try and draw a little series of the same character in different situations.

So this is a rhino I came up with before, I like him, I imagine he'd chew his grass thoroughly before swallowing it and make sure he washed behind his ears everytime he went in the waterhole.

His body is lacking and I'm not sure whether he needs a tail or not.I do know that rhinoes have tails I'm just not sure if you would be able to see his.

Bear man

So I decided to redo the bear but as I drew him he changed dramatically so he now doesn't really resemble the original one. I like him except for his left arm which is wack and his ears which also doesn't look very good. I like how he's changed and I might add more to him at a later date.