Porporpeius at The Museum of Small Things

Opening from the 5th February until the 7th March, 'The Museum of Small Things' is being held at Ultralounge inside Selfridges, London, and it is one hell of a show. Here is the skinny on the exhibition.

The Museum of Small Things will inspire visitors to open wide their eyes and to slowly look, and then look again, at the world they inhabit. M.O.S.T. will house priceless gems too subtle to compete with the show-stopping technology of the modern world. Modest masterpieces under-valued in cultures where biggest is better and mega, if achievable, is best, will be centre-stage. The variety on display in this museum will dynamically demonstrate how the lines between all forms of visual expression have become blurred. Exhibits range across images, objects, moving pictures, ideas, detritus and treasures.

I was asked to design a Deity mask that would be built for the exhibition by the extremely talented Felix Wentworth. Here is Porporpeius himself, the drug addled half-brother of Neptune, god of water and air, bodiless and pathetic!

Whilst at the preview for the show, I made a film of how the mask is viewed because I couldn't do it justice with just a photograph.

The photos below are to demonstrate how amazing Felix's skills are and to help give a better impression of the depth and layering of the mask.

I'd like to say a big thank you to Ali, Valentina and Nicola at Pocko and Kit Grover for the huge amount of energy and time they put into making the show look so incredible and also, for asking me to take part in it.

Pre-Order The First Ever Nobrow/Ben Newman Vinyl Toy

Roll up, roll up! Thats right folks, you can pre-order the first ever Nobrow vinyl figurine designed by moi (er..me) and available exclusively from the Nobrow website. This sexy chunk of plastic is a limited edition of 50 which will never be made in the same way again! It will also be presented in a sumptuous silk screened printed box which I will hand sign and edition ready for it's release on the 12th February. Holy Nizzle Whizzle! Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for the launch of a few more super exciting projects which I have been working on for the past couple of months. Gidee-up!

(Please note that the toy box in the picture above is not the final design and is for advertising purposes only)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody and a big thank you to all of you who follow this blog for coming back and taking an interest in my work. Hope you all have a great New Year. x

Christmas Cards For Charity

It's that time of year again when time plods by for children and races at a million miles an hour for adults. Yes. It's Christmas and what better way to not only show friends and family how much you love them, but also donate and help a charity, than to but a pack of 'All I Want For Christmas' cards. A pack of 20 limited edition festive cards designed by 20 different illustrators and designers including Bjorn Lie, Jon Burgerman, Peskimo, Lucie Sheridan and many, many more for only £15. So click here to help 'Young Bristol'.

Jungle Gym For Nobrow 2

Right, I've just dragged my snotty, spluttering, cold-riddled carcuss over to my computer to tell you healthy, bright eyed, bushy-tailed specimens about Nobrow 2 which is now available to buy at Nobrow.net. If you purchased and fell in love with the first journal then you ain't seen nothing yet. The latest issue is printed in 3 spot colours and features the incredible Blexbolex, who designed the front cover that you can see above, and picked the 'Jungle' as the theme for talented folk such as Marc Boutavant, Henning Wagenbreth, Alex Spiro, Jack Teagle and many, many more to wrap their creative noggins around. I received my copy this morning and although it didn't cure my cold, it did manage to put some colour in my cheeks and made my chapped lips crack from smiling. Thanks to Al and Sam for letting me take part. Below is my hotspotch contribution to the issue. Enjoy!

'Secret Service' at Rotopol

From this Saturday (21st November) until the 13th February 2010, Rotopol Press will be hosting their exhibition entitled 'Secret Service'. Rotopol are using the term 'post-democracy' to create a series of themed group exhibitions until November 2010 and this is set to be the first. My Secret Service print is featured above and will be available to purchase at the show so check out the Rotopol website for more details by clicking here!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween, everybody! To kick off this ghoulish weekend of halloween hi-jinks, Pocko have asked me some devilishly scary questions and believe me the answers are utterly shocking so be brave and go here if you dare. Wooo ha hahaha!

Autism Society

This recent illustration for the Autism Society is about how some autism sufferers find it difficult to understand social situations and interact with others. People with autism can have a very literal sense of language and facial expressions which confuses their understanding of conversations and social behaviour.

Creative Review film the Bento Bestiary

Thanks to Ollie from Play Nicely for emailing me the link to this, it made my bloody day.

451 Flier From Start to Finish

Rather than just posting a final image, I thought it would be fun to talk and show you through a recently finished job. The brief was to create the first in a series of fliers for a new poetry evening in Southampton called 451.

After a few emails and a one to one meeting with the client, I put together the first rough (below) that incorporated the ideas we had discussed. The name of the poetry evening comes from 451 fahrenheit which is the temperature that paper starts to burn at, so it was agreed that heat or flame should be used in the image. An image of a poet holding burning paper didn't seem quite right, so we decided that a 'flaming brain' would be symbolically more interesting and could imply a burning intellect or passionate thinking, which better suited the subject matter.

After watching a few poets perform, I realised just how different each individual's movements, vocal delivery and subject matter were. I knew I wanted the main image for the flier to be quite simple but still display a series of emotions and gestures. I felt it would be better to send a colour mock with the first pencil rough to give the client a better idea of how the arms and heads would look when they overlap. Below is the colour rough and as you can see it's very basic but conveys the idea well enough at this stage.

Once the client had agreed to the first pencil rough and the colour mock, I started to draw up a neater pencil drawing adding some changes and fleshing out other elements that I had been asked to experiment with.
I used the neater pencil rough to create a final colour mock so that we could see what works and what doesn't.
The colour mock above helped us to identify areas that needed to be simplified and altered, for example; the microphone mesh, the brain swiggles and the swirling leaves. I was happy at this stage with the progress of the illustration, so I got to work drawing a logo that would complement the image. I didn't want the logo to be too distracting so I decided to keep it really simple and colourful.
Below is the final image that will be used on the flier. I've added texture and staining to the background colour so that it is no longer completely flat and the main figure has had a weathering effect added to it. Also, you may noticed that the second row of arms have changed their hand shape. It was felt that the meditating hand position may confuse the poetry evening with that of a spiritual event.

There you have it. From pencil scribble to full colour image. Thanks for reading and I hope it was interesting!

Owls for the ARK Project

This Barn owl and Long-eared owl are my contribution to the ARK Project, which is being run by DGPH and printed by IDN. Over 200 illustrators and artists worldwide were commissioned to help fill the Ark and each contributor had to choose an animal native to their country. Illustrators involved include Chris Garbutt, Jon Burgerman, Johnny Yanok and Nishant Choksi. The aim of the ARK project is to help raise money and awareness for endangered animals.

Also, my 'Mr Fish' print is available from 'On The Wall' for an economy busting £9.99. You can buy it here.

POCKOSHKO in Magma's Window

Ali from Pocko very kindly sent out this photo to all the Pocko artists. It's great to see everyone's nesting dolls together at last.

POCKOSHKO Opens at Magma

POCKOSHKO opens this weekend exhibiting across all 3 Magma stores as part of London Design Week. The show involves 20 international Pocko artists and will showcase a set of Russian dolls by various Pocko illustrators including Paul Bower, Tabas, Kinpro, James Braithwaite and many others. Above is the full set of my dolls that will be exhibited. It's nice to see them together at last.

On another note, I highly recommend checking out Nick White's new book called 'People I've never met & conversations I've never had' published by Nobrow. I picked up my copy at the launch yesterday and it is hilarious and looks amazing too. Shazam!

Early Autumn in the City

New Portfolio Work

It's commissioning time through late September and October so there is no better time to give your portfolio a spit and polish. Above is the new poster for the 'Socialism' night held on Bristol's only club on a boat, the Thekla.

Ouroboros Four Panel Preview

Here is a preview from my first comic book called 'Ouroboros', which will be published by Nobrow in February. More information to follow in the coming months.

Russian Dolls For Pocko/ Magma London Show

The first batch of these dolls were jinxed and were sadly stolen whilst on route to London (boo hiss). The good news is that the second batch look heaps better. I didn't photograph the first set and wish that I had so I made an effort to document these just incase I never see them again. These dolls will be showcased along with the big daddy doll (who is currently on holiday at the Pocko gallery in Milan, you can see him here in a previous blog post) and a whole host of super fine Pocko artists at the London Design Festival. The show will take place at Magma in Clerkenwell, London starting from the 19th September until the 19th October, and then they will cross the pond to the Big Apple for another exhibition. I'm going to try and figure out how I can fit in the these dolls so that I can go too!

More Extracts from the Bento Bestiary

There are still a few copies of the Bento Bestiary left so head over to Nobrow and have a look. The Bestiary even made an appearance on the Creative Review blog which you can see by clicking here. In the meantime, here are a couple of Yokai that you may not have seen.

Mr Fish Dude

Yep, this post is pretty much identical to the previous one. This is a print for 'On the Wall' and I'll post more details once it's released. I think this is a much more considered design than the self promo Ad and it was a lot of fun ironing out the creases.

Self Promotion Ad

Compass of Desire Festival 2009

This year's Compass festival theme is desire. The festival will cover the many facets of desire in a broad range of media and gets bigger and more exciting each year. The illustration above will be the front (right-hand side) and back (left-hand side) cover for the programme. I needed to make sure that the illustrations were culturally accessible because the festival looks at each theme from the perspective of other countries. The front cover conveys the positive connotations of desire whilst the back cover delves into the darker, negative side. 

Below is the original illustration for the programme which wasn't suitable because it focuses too strongly on Adam and Eve therefore implying a christian theme when the festival incorporates a vast variety of religions and cultures. I do however quite like it and thought it would be a shame for the cover to never see the light of day, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.

It will also be the first year that the new Compass logo will be used. I posted it on this blog a little while back but here it is again if you missed it.

The Bento Bestiary now on sale at Nobrow!

The Bento Bestiary is now available to buy from Nobrow as well as a new print taken from the first issue of the Nobrow 'Gods and Monsters' journal. This is my very first book and I was lucky enough to collaborate with my very good friend and writer extraordinaire, Scott James Donaldson (Scott is one of the writers for the 'Untimely' blog with fellow wordsmiths, Sam Butler and Philip Contos). Scott and Myself wanted to take the ancient Japanese Yokai and re-interpret them in a whole new light but still stay true to their origins. The result is this very sexy hand-printed book which was screen-printed in 3 colours by the very talented chaps at Nobrow and is limited to just 100 copies.

The 'Gods and Monsters' prints are actually the original images for two Yokai called Nue and Neko-mata. These prints were actually the catalyst for The Bento Bestiary and are for sale individually or as a set from Nobrow. Go on treat yourself!

Green Lantern 63 Covered

My redraw of the cover for Green Lantern 63 can now be seen (next to the original by Neal Adams) over on Covered blog. 

Bento Bestiary Pre-Order at Nobrow!

Head over to Nobrow because The Bento Bestiary is now available for pre-order and will be sold exclusively from their website. Get in there first and guarantee yourself a copy of this very limited edition, hand printed book. Huzzah!

Bento Bestiary In Progress

Hot off the press, or should I say 'wet' off the press! The Bento Bestiary is nearing completion as Sam, Al and Owen from Nobrow pour sweat, blood and tears into this hand printed limited edition book. Only 100 of these sumptuous darlings will be made featuring all the Yokai that Scott and Myself could catch or poke small twigs at.

Character Designs

Today, I drew....

...a fish...

..and some grain.

I've had a lovely day drawing lots of icons and symbols for Wonky's 'Climate Changed' project. These are two of my favourites.

Another Bento Beastie!

Meet Inugami, the dog god, featured in the soon to be released Bento Bestiary. Head over to Nobrow's new website and read more about my first limited edition, hand printed book.

New Compass Logo

This is the new logo for Compass International, who are now approaching their fourth year with the festival of Desire. 

Nobrow Magazine Presents 'Gods and Monsters'

The first Nobrow Journal is launched today and it's a steal at a mere £9 so order yours at Nobrow.net, you won't regret it. The cover is illustrated by the super awesome Stuart Kolakovic. Below is my contribution to the issue illustrating two Yokai, Nue and Neko-mata, dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Both of whom are featured and re-designed in the Bento Bestiary, that is due out very, very soon.

Nobrow-JaguarShoes Press Release

To celebrate the release of our first publication ‘Gods and Monsters’ we will be exhibiting the work from the edition in large scale format at Bar and exhibition space; DreamBagsJaguarShoes.

Private View: Thursday 14th May, 2009
Exhibition: 15th May – 28th June 2009
DreamBagsJaguarShoes,
32 Kingsland Road, E2.

Nobrow Issue 1: Gods & Monsters. Printed in two spot colours in a limited edition of 3000 numbered copies it gives a high quality platform to artists and illustrators both new and established. The diverse contributors were hand picked for their unique styles and all were invited to generate work based on the theme. Some are up and coming, others are plucked from unexpected places, all are talented.

Contributors are: Dave Taylor, Alex Spiro, Sam Arthur, Jordan Crane,Emiliano Ponzi, A. Richard Allen, Jens Harder, Reuben Rude,Benjamin Guedel, Eda Akaltun, Matthieu Bessudo, Caspar Williamson,Toby Leigh, Alex Bland, Ben Newman, Nick White, Stuart Kolakovic,Sarah King, Leah Hayes, Paul Blow, Bjorn Rune Lie, Brett Ryder , Carl Johanson and Blexbolex.

It will be available for the super special intro price of £9.00 in the following shops from the 15th May: Magma (Clerkenwell & Manchester branches), ICA, Gosh Comics, Beyond The Valley, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Koenig Books, Camden Arts Centre, Arnolfini Gallery, Here Gallery, Soma and many, many more.