St. Nicholas

"He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself."

-A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore

Sherlock Holmes

I'm taking  part in the House of Illustration's collaborative competition with The Folio Society (deadline 17th January). This year it's designing a cover and illusrtations to a collection of three Sherlock Holmes stories; A Scandal in Bohemia, The Man With the Twisted Lip and The Musgrave Ritual. To warm up, I decided to finally get my version of the great detective nailed down.

It was important to not follow the cliches of the character. I love the deerstalker, inverness cloak and pipe, but they unfortunately look like a cliche and not as though you have really thought about the design. Holmes would very likely wear a deerstalker in the countryside, but certainly not in his homes in Baker Street. Besides, its more fun to look at characters from a different angle.

My take on the character certainly owes to the cold analytical aspect of the character. There's an alien quality to this design, that is different to other depictions, but when I drew it, I knew it was right, for me. I guess this is Holmes, the Vulcan.

The Wicked Witch of the West

I wondered what my version of the Wicked Witch of the West would look like. I read a few of the Oz books as a child and watched every version of the stories I could find (my favourite being the 1982 Japanese animation).

My version of the Witch is heavily influenced by W.W. Denslow's wonderful illustrations. I love the 'tough old pirate granny' look he gave her. It reminds of Captain Dola from Hayao Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Cyrano de Bergerac- 'The Shadow of my Profile on the Wall'

I love the character of Cyrano de Bergerac, a man who decides to overcome a supposed disadvantage (in Cyrano's case: an overpronounced nose), by being amazing at everything: he is a raconteur, a man whose swordsmanship skills are only matched by his razor-sharp wit. 

He is the character we all want to be... 

...And then there are scenes like this monolgue, where he longs for romance, yet believes that no-one could love him back, because of what he believes to be a defect. We realise that Cyrano de Bergerac isn't the character that we want to be- he is us. He is the part of ourselves that ignore what make us great, or unique, and instead focus on what we are ashamed of, or body parts we think are ugly. In that respect, Cyrano de Bergerac is a fascinating and, I find, inspiring character.

Favourite Literary Characters: Captain Nemo (Prince Dakkar)

Captain of the Nautilus, the Indian Prince who roams the seas in a self imposed exile, collecting lost bullion and rescuing the oppressed. Nemo is a mysterious figure with a commanding presence and brilliant mind. You never know whether to class him as a hero, or villain, but we love him all the same.

Supergirl

I like Supergirl. She is a fun character. I have always seen her as someone who just LOVES being a superhero, the action, the adventure and of course: helping others. I miss that with superheroes, especially the last one.

My take on the character owes a lot to the silver age, especially the first appearance of the Kara Zor-El character in Action Comics #252. Due to a colouring mistake, Supergirl appears to have blue leggings, as opposed to her bare legs. But, this is actually my favourite look for the character, I just added a red skirt for balance.

 

Web-Head

I watched Spider-Man: Homecoming yesterday. I really enjoyed it. Easily my favourite Spider-Man film. It wasn't overly-complicated, the characters were fun and I was invested in all of their stories. Plus, I really like this version of the Spider-Man costume.  

It inspired me to finally get down to draw our friendly neighbourhood friend. I've never been able to draw him successfully, but I was pleased with how it went.

 

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Wonderful Chap. All Of Them

My Lives with Doctor Who

Doctor Who is one of my favourite things to exist. A fantastic science-fantasy about a centuries year old, shape-shifting alien, who travels through time and space in a 1960s Police Telephone Box.  C. S. Lewis meets Alfred Bestell meets H.G. Wells. Its the best of British quirky adventure literature. It has, of course, had its ups-and-downs over the years. 

My favourite Doctor is the Second Doctor, portrayed by Patrick Troughton. He is everything that I want the Doctor to be, heroic, funny, mysterious and . Troughton played it so differently to William Hartnell's First Doctor, and this was so vital to the show's longevity. 

My favourite era, however, are the stories from the Third Doctor's tenure. I love the U.N.I.T family of The Doctor (now played by the marvelous Jon Pertwee), Jo Grant (Katy Manning), The Brigadier (a fantastic comedic performance by Nicholas Courtney), Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sgt. Benton (John Levine). There's a lovely feeling of comfort to these stories. Yes, they produced some of the scariest visuals of the show (my fear of shop mannequins no doubt stems from watching the Spearhead From Space omnibus on UKGold), but the central cast adds a familiarity that I just adore. They bicker and disagree with one another constantly, but each and every one of them would die for one another (unless Mike Yates has been hypnotised again).

My least favourite era is the majority of the 1980s. I'm not going to rant about John Nathan-Turner. Although he made some frankly awful decisions in this period, he did a lot of good in terms of publicity. But, it was during this time that the show started losing its mystery, and sense of dignity. It started to become a tad pantomime and too geared towards children. What made Doctor Who special to me was that is was a dark family show. It went a bit too far with the horror, sometimes verging on the disgusting, but it was always fun because of that. Children love to be scared, there's a pride factor to having sat through a challenging scary feature. The show built its reputation on being "watched behind the sofa" (although my settee was always pushed up against the wall, because I had cruel parents). For me the Sixth Doctor and half of the Seventh's are the low points of the show's history. This is by no means criticising the actors Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, who throughout their runs always arrived on form, and thank-you Big Finish for redeeming them. It's just the writing and direction that let them down. But, again, it seems unfair to blame the production team, as Auntie Beeb decided to totally screw with the show. Partly because Michael Grade did not like it. But the last part of the Seventh Doctor's run, basically as soon as Ace (Sophie Aldred) joined the TARDIS, things began to pick up... then it was cancelled. Terrific. 

I remember the buzz around the TV Movie and I was so excited. When I was born there was no Doctor. It had been cancelled. The TV Movie meant that I was finally going to have a Doctor for my generation and I would follow his adventures for years to come. 

Yeah, that didn't happen.

The TV Movie (the Enemy Within) came out and... I didn't like it. There was something off about it. It did not feel like Doctor Who to me. Where was the multi-part story? Where was the Brigadier? Where was the CSO? It looked polished and like a film. Weird. But, the opening credits were cool. I love this version of the theme tune. The TARDIS interior is beautiful, possibly my favourite, a Victorian science-gothic machine. Paul McGann is great and would go on better stories courtesy of Big Finish Productions. 

That's the classic period in a nutshell. To me.

The modern era have had some great episodes: Dalek, The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, Human Nature/ The Family of Blood, Blink, The Doctor's Wife. But overall the modern era just hasn't grabbed me as much as the classic series. And it's not because I've grown up, for goodness sake I bought a Rupert Bear collection the other week! I think the episodes seem rush, as if they are meant for multiple episodes. I am also not a fan of the mythologising of The Doctor. I know the Doctor is awesome, I don't need aliens to tell me he is great. 

Plus the companions I don't find all that imaginative. The classic series had multiple Time-Lord companions, a Victorian girl, an alien princess, a journalist, a scientist, an explosives expert, a futuristic tribal woman. The modern series has had such diversity as present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, and a present day Earth woman. For a show whose boundaries are that of imagination, that's not very imaginative.

Anyway, even though I am not a fan of the modern era, I still always watch it, because, Doctor Who, if anything is a show about ideas and even when it doesn't work, it's still one of the most interesting things on television. And that's why I love it.


 

Garden Fete Poster

I have recently completed a poster for a local event. I wanted to go Art-Nouveau inspired design and the front windows of the cafe worked perfectly for the border design. There's a bit of Alphonse Mucha, William Morris and W. W. Denslow, illustrator of the Oz books who I consider very much an Art-Nouveau illustrator. This was a fun poster to do. Very complicated, in terms of measuring and detail, but still I managed to pencil, ink and colour all in a day!

A Bareback Satan

My favourite drink is, of course, a “Bareback Satan”. Does anybody know how to craft this fine nectar that sprang straight from the teat of Dionysus himself?
No… well, its just as well I'm here, then:

    Take a glass, of any size
    Half fill it with crushed ice
    Add a dash of classic bourbon
    Then a clump of hair most auburn
    Throw in the tail of a baby fox
    And the stinkiest pair of your Uncle’s socks
    Key is the left earlobe of Brigitte Bardot
    (Though caution, m’dear, as supplies are low)
    A fake moustache, in the style of Mark Twain
    Then leave for two years in the pouring rain

    A handful of kale
    A hipster’s ponytail
    The skin of a cheetah
    Chapter three of Lolita
    Anton Chekhov dressed as a satyr
    But not his gun, as you’ll need it later
    A popular character from Dr Suess
    (And being fictional is no excuse)
    An african elephant with bronchitis
    An Irish goat with hepatitis
    Attempt to steal William Shatner’s wig
    (And at this point take a sneaky swig)
    The Joshua Tree will nicely do
    Oh, screw it, just throw in all of U2
    A tiny cherry will make it ripple
    As would Bernard Cribbins favourite nipple
    A boa constrictor of impressive length
    And the heart of your enemy to give you strength
   
    A centaur’s hoof will make quite the hunt
    As would hair from a lady’s front
    Shoot a man and collect the discharge
    And hopefully, now you should be at large
    The signed confession you gave to the police
    Plus, Liza Minelli’s elbow grease
    A former minister, now thoroughly hated
    (Preferably one who auto-asphyxiated)
    Befriend a composer, to get a score
    Then throw in one confusing metaphor
    By now the drink won’t look attractive
    So, toss in something radioactive
    For a final heresy, stir with a Nicolaitan
    And that’s how you make a “Bareback Satan”.


By now, your tastebuds will be far wetter,
So order this drink: You’ll never get better.

A T-Rex Has Feathers, Yet Never Flies?

  

A silly cartoon, with an adorable T-Rex.

The Day That Our World Ended

A one-off poem I wrote. 

Enjoy!

The Poem That I Wrote

Slowly getting through the illustrations of my children's book, The Poem That I Wrote. Redesigning the character set me back a bit, but it all helps the overall project, which is the main thing. I cannot in all good faith release something without my 100% satisfaction. 

Anyway here's a little taste of what's to come.

 

The Tobacconist

I doodled this whilst reading Robert Seethaler's The Tobacconist (Translated by Charlotte Collins). It's a great book and I highly recommend it. This scene in particular grabbed my attention. Normally I don't like the trope of 'main character has inspirational talk with historical figure', but Seethaler's style is so subtle, you almost forget that the character is talking to Sigmund Freud, but rather a wise older gentleman. It was a nice conversation, the kind you always wish you could have with people, as opposed to "weather's turned mighty bitter".

Midnight in Metropolis: An Animated Film

This is an animated film I made during the first year of my Illustration degree. I was the only one interested in the art form and is still the area I would like to get into. As with all of my projects, this is one I would like to remake one day.

We didn't have long for this project, but it was still one of favourites. Because it was a silent film, I wanted to pay homage to one of my favourites films Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). I have always been a fan of robots, I just adore them. I cannot hate a robot. So, the film is really my attempt at bringing justice to the adorable machines, that always end up being the villains in films. Its like how I treat monsters. I always loved them, so wanted to make them the sympathetic characters, allowing the audience to see them the way I always did. 

So, please enjoy Midnight in Metropolis.

Magician Poster

I've always loved old theatre posters, particularly Magician posters, because they always featured little devils and cool themes. I threw in a bit of the art-nouveau look, especially Alphonse Mucha (an early hero of mine).  The magician, who I named Abra-Kadebra (GET ITTT!!!!), is obviously influenced by Zatanna, a favourite comic character of mine.

Peter Pan Watercolour

My take on The Boy Who Never Grew Up (don't know why I relate). I tried to avoid previous depictions, the Disney, whilst a great design similar to the stage musical, is rather simple and conservative for a child with no parents. My design is the Wild Child aspect of the character, the idea that Peter has taken bits of foliage, animal skins, or even stolen pirate clothes , to make his costume. I don't think Peter Pan would ever have one costume, rather whatever he feels like wearing that day.

Book Character Redesign

So, I've slightly modified the character representing the author/audience for my children's book. Originally the character had thin, spindly legs, but it was difficult to suggest youth in a design with long legs.

 So, I was looking through a couple of Walt Kelly's Pogo books and noticed the baby raccoon's (Rackety Coon Chile) body and realised that is how should model my own character.
 

So, that is how I came to modify my character. I much prefer it, and it is far easier to draw and stick to the same model.

KONG Poster

The original King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) is my favourite film of all time. That's not me saying it's flawless, sublime, the peak of humanity's experience in art. It is the film, however, that thrills me the most, touches me in my heart (which apparently does exist!). I have always been a monster guy. I do not fear the rampaging beast, I want to nurture them, show them that they have nothing to fear. Classic monster films are the greatest tragedies of all time, because they are not as selfish as tragic romances, they are misunderstood animals trying to survive. 

Rather than being a straight-up dedication to the original, this poster is more of a "If I remade" King Kong. It's still in keeping with the 1930s tone, with Carl Denham as a filmmaker, Jack Driscoll as the every-man turned action hero, an Anne as the actress lost in an unknown world, now with big boots. 

I want and plan to do more posters of my favourite films.

World Book Day 2017

It's that wonderful time of year, a day when everyone takes time to appreciate the wonderful world of books. 

My contribution to this celebration is a tribute piece to one of my favourite book series: The Adventures of Tintin, by Hergé (Georges Remi). A twenty-four volume series of classic adventures, where the plucky young reporter faces off against royal kidnappers/drug smugglers (Cigars of the Pharaoh), a Lost South American tribe (The Seven Crystal Balls/ Prisoners of the Sun), even the notorious Al Capone (Tintin in America). He was even the first human on the moon!

The series is a joy for children of all ages, full of excitement, morals, friendship and humour. I urge you to buy them for your children, and whilst your at it, read it yourself.
 
(The backdrop is from Prisoners of the Sun, page 15.)
 

Book vs. Film: Norman Bates

Where would the film industry be if it weren't for books. No, seriously, think of five films off the top of your head, chances are the majority, if not all, are based on a novel or short story, often without your realisation. I find adaptations fascinating, even if they don't work (in fact, that sometimes makes a film even more interesting). It's always interesting to notice what they left out, what they changed slightly, or the complete diversion of the original text, but also "why?". Film is a different medium to a book. Pretty obvious, I know, but it's surprising how purists forget this. It's important to change things from medium-to-medium. In a book, you have the advantage of the author's narration, which can be as poetic as possible. Film is a visual medium, and you should always hire the best actor you can to play a role. Whether their appearance is identical, or not is irrelevant, so long as they embody the character.

This is going to be series I get back to every-so-often, where I draw the same character from book and its adaptation(s).

First, we have Robert Bloch's classic thriller, PSYCHO, famously overshadowed by its 1960 Hitchcock adaptation, starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. As you can see from the image below, the two look very different. Bloch's Norman Bates is a chunkier, middle-aged man, like that guy you encounter on the bus. Perkins portrayal of Norman Bates is the shy, awkward pleasant boy next door. They both work in that idea of anyone in you town, or street could be a killer.

 

A Gentleman's Gentleman & A Gentleman's Gentleman's Gentleman

I love the writings of P. G. Wodehouse. I always find his stories to have that comforting Bank Holiday Monday feeling. 

To me, Wodehouse's strength lies in the text itself, not necessarily the situations, which is something you lose in media adaptations, the hilarity of the narrator.

 “And she's got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.”  (Mostly Sally)

They are a joy to read, very easy, very audience-conscious. I highly recommend them.

This old body of mine is wearing a bit thin...

With the recent news of Peter Capaldi's departure from Doctor Who, one question has been on everybody's mind (realting to the show, obviously): Who is going to play the 13th/14th/2nd (whatever the regeneration number is) Doctor? Poor, Capaldi, he still has one more series and everyone is going to be thinking of a new actor. Anyway, being a fan of the show since early childhood, I of course have my own opinions on who would make a great Doctor:

 First, Tamsin Greig. Best known for her comedy performances, which is needed for the Doctor, but Greig is a great actor. I didn't like the film Tamara Drewe, but the scenes involving Tamsin Greig and Roger Allam were gripping me, just because I liked the actors. I could see her Doctor being quite sharp and sarcastic with people, almost like Jon Pertwee's. Greig is my personal top choice, but who made the runner-ups...

 Second, Tuppence Middleton. An odd choice, I know, but she is older than Matt Smith was when he first took over the role. Middleton has a interesting other-worldly quality about her and since the first time I saw her, The White Bear episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, I thought she would be suited for any role in Doctor Who. I think she reminds me of Carole Ann Ford who played the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Forman (yeah, remember Susan!). I could imagine Middleton's Doctor being patchwork-like, in costume and performance, almost as if the regeneration didn't work properly, like Drusilla in Buffy, almost like a damaged product that still functions.

Sophie Okonedo has had a history with the show already, not only starring in the Matt Smith's series as Liz Ten, but also in the animated web-series The Scream of Shalka, which featured Richard E. Grant as the Doctor. Okonedo brings a grace-like presence in every role, and that would be an interesting path to take the Doctor, who is usually a rebel, quirky and ramshackled.

Finally, an actor I have always wanted to see as The Doctor, Michael Palin, who is basically the Doctor in real life, traveling around having interesting adventures. Like Greig, Palin is most known for his comedy, but in those performances lie brilliantly acting. I've never seen him as a comedic actor, but a classic British character actor, who just happens to do comedy.

So, those are my picks for a character who has been a part of all our lives so long. Doctor Who may have had its ups-and-downs over the years, but they have chosen a bad actor to play The Doctor, so why stop now...

M'Book

Currently I am producing my own children's book. It's been a fun project, writing, rewriting, rerewriting, and providing the illustrations, arguing with myself over the overall design... like I said, fun process.

Here are the illustrations so far. Hopefully they'll make more sense when you read it.