Blogoliolio

Test Flight Birdie

2012-01-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

A little test from a collaboration between myself and a very fine gentleman called James D Wilson. You can see his work HERE.

GOOM for Gosh!

2012-01-07T01:57:00.001-08:00

Just before Christmas I was asked by the kind folk at Gosh! to design a poster for them..... here it is! The image is based on an old Jack Kirby monster called Goom. Gosh! is a very awesome comic shop in Soho, London and I positively implore you to go visit.

COLBERT FOR PRESIDENT - TPost Collaboration

2011-12-20T01:45:00.000-08:00

TPost is a wearable magazine where the article is written on the inside and the graphic interpretation is on the outside. This issue of TPost was about American political satirist, Stephen Colbert so the illustration is based on a mock Presidential campaign. It was a real pleasure to work with TPost and the job became much more of a collaboration as Giuliano and I batted the design back and forth. I'm really pleased with the results and I had a great time working on this. Thanks to the TPost gang and the very beautiful model for making this T-Shirt a success. Check out the T-Shirt and their website HERE.
Oh... and here is the promo video that TPost asked me to make to help promote my design.

Opera Louise - Le Canard Chipeau

2011-12-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

When Opera Louise approached me to draw a 'phantasmal gadwall' I knew this was going to be a really fun job. You can listen to snippets of the album from Le Canard Chipeau's website HERE. It's mighty impressive.

Cover for Brummell Magazine

2011-11-21T12:33:00.001-08:00

I loved working on this job it was really engaging and fun. The issue is themed around timepieces so the art director asked me to illustrate the watchfaces and cogs deconstructing and reconstructing in a similar way to one of my images for the MASKS exhibition. Check out the amazing past Brummell covers HERE. I am very proud to be among such a great selection of illustrators.

Astro Cats Wrapping Paper

2011-11-21T00:24:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas! This new 3 colour Astro Cat wrapping paper is now available from Nobrow. Click HERE to purchase some!

Come to 'Ghost Of Gone Birds', London this Saturday

2011-11-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Come to 'Ghost Of Gone Birds', London this Saturday (19th November) at 1pm to see the last colour of a new edition of the Bishop's 'o'o being printed live. I'll be signing these beauties as they fly of the screen printing beds. Come along it'll be great and the show is awesome so if you haven't see it yet then hurry up and come along.

'Ghost Of Gone Birds' is being exhibited at Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch, London and is on until the 23rd November.

Kamen Riders Vs Super Sentai Exhibition

2011-11-15T05:51:00.001-08:00

I feel very lucky to have been asked to take part in the 'Kamen Riders Vs Super Sentai' exhibition at Q Pop gallery in Los Angles. About 100 artists were asked to reinterpret any character or image from either of these classic Japanese children's TV shows into a one off piece of art. My one off prints are available HERE and HERE.

IBM Think Tank Illustrations

2011-11-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

Around April, I was asked by French design agency Oglivy to work on 9 illustrations for IBM's next issue of their 'Think' magazine. The themes of the articles in the issue are about how the public sector in France can be improved by looking at how their private sector is run and how new media and technology can enhance that. All nine of the illustrations were very complex but we managed to wrap the job up in about two and a half weeks.... that consisted of very long days in the studio. Anyhoo, these illustrations are very clean and very bright... take a look.

Morality Test Illustrations for BBC Lab

2011-11-15T05:43:00.000-08:00

Thirty three illustrations in two weeks..... yep, this was a real 'nose to the grindstone' job but also incredibly rewarding. I had to illustrate the scenarios for thirty three different questions to gauge your sense of morality for BBC Lab. You can take the test, see how moral you are and view all of the illustrations HERE. This was a great job and I really enjoyed stripping the images back and working on producing a strong compositional picture that helped enhanced the text for the reader. Here are a sample of eleven of the illustrations.

75 Peters

2011-10-14T03:51:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 75th birthday of Sir Peter Cook, 75 artists and designers were asked to create a portrait of the great British Architect to help raise money for charity. The exhibition is taking place in Brisbane, Australia but the auction for the pieces will take place online. You can check in and look at the auction by signing up at the following link where you'll also be able to see the full list on artists involved. http://theadamandeveprojects.com/75peters

Here is my piece for the show built up layer by layer.

MASKS opens at Nobrow Gallery, London

2011-09-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 15th September, Masks opened to the general public and the launch night was a blast. Thank you to everyone who attended and a special thanks to Sam and Al at Nobrow for hosting the event, Adrian, James, Natasha, Ann Lou and Joe for being such stars helping me ready the show, Nick White and Laura Beckett for looking after me in their lovely home all week, Sahar Freemantle for her beautiful hats, Felt Mistress for the incredible and gigantic felt versions of Mr Fish, Taimatsu Maru and Neko Mata from the Bento Bestiary and lastly, my father, Colin Newman for the fantastic work he put into making the Masks come to life in 3D. Hopefully this is just the first of many projects with him in the future. The prints from the show are available from Nobrow. Below are some pictures from the night and some press reviews I've found from around the interwebs.

As the show is a part of the London Design Festival it has been gaining some great press. Here are some snippets and quotes.

This quote is from a blog called 'I am the Noble Savage'. I'm flattered beyond belief.

"Newman’s evocation of primitivism, however, is also layered with a retroactive sense of futuristic fascination. Weird, wily faces are composed with a repetitive mechanical energy reminiscent of Italian Futurism, the graphic rigor of Russian Constructivism and the clunky horror of nineteen-fifties American science-fiction monsters in a faded pulp comic palette. Symmetry offers no solace in these images, at once remarkable reminders of the highly organized aesthetics of the uncivilized and machined abstractions of ritualistic horror."

-Jamil, (iamthenoblesavage.com)

You can see more pictures and writings of the show on 8 and 2 (a blog by Yu Fujiwara), the Nobrow website and Its Nice That (which is where the video below comes from). Thanks to everyone for supporting the show.

LDF Special: Ben Newman from It's Nice That on Vimeo.

Life and Fate for BBC Radio 4

2011-09-16T02:10:00.001-07:00

I was asked by creative agency Devilfish to create a bold, Russian-style poser to advertise the upcoming BBC Radio 4 dramatisation by Kenneth Branagh of Vasily Grossman's novel 'Life and Fate', which was so controversial at its time of publication that it was banned. Some say it was the only book to ever 'be arrested'.
Once the poster images were designed, Devilfish approached me about the idea of creating an animation to advertise the radio show on BBC television. I suggested the fantastic Wonky Studios. I worked as character and element designer on the animation and Wonky did an amazing job of storyboarding and animating this 30 second promo, just watch the video below to see for yourself. Thanks to Devilfish and Wonky for all their hard work. It looks great! Daniel Binns was the animator on this project check out his site HERE.

Credits:
Agency: Devilfish Creative
Senior partner: Richard Holman
Creative director: Lee Edwards
Designer: Ben Newman @ Pocko

Production/ animation company: Wonky Films.

ABSOULT VIS10NS Project

2011-09-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

During the last week of August, I was fortunate enough to be asked to fly out to Dublin and join nine other artists in the ABSOLUT VIS10NS project which was being curated by The Small Print. I was part of a team of very talented folk from a wide scope of the creative spectrum. We all had to customise an 8ft fibre glass Absolut vodka bottle each and we all had a blast. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Absolut, the fantastic Small Print crew and all the awesome creatives for making my week in Dublin so incredible. Below are some shots of my final bottle design (you can see the full set of bottles HERE on the Creative Review website).

Here is a shot of me working on the bottle in the final stages.
Finally, here is a great 7 minute mini-documentary about the creation of the bottles and footage from the launch night which we were all flown out to on the 7th September. FYI, I'm the one who keeps waving all the time.

ABSOLUT Vis10ns from THE SMALL PRINT on Vimeo.

Artists included in the project were Ben Newman (UK) / BRENB (IRL) / Celestine Cooney (IRL) / DALEK (US) / Linda Brownlee (IRL) / Mario Sughi (ITA) / Niels Shoe Meulman (NL) / Rilla Alexander – RINZEN (OZ) / Steve Alexander – RINZEN (OZ) / The London Police (UK)

3D Masks Sneak Preview

2011-08-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here are the first glimpses of two of the three 3D masks that I have collaborated on with my father for the MASKS show (Facebook users can RSVP here) that opens on the 15th September in London at the Nobrow gallery. The show will run until the 11th November. My Dad and I talked at length about how to get these image to work three dimensionally and with a spot of elbow grease, luck and determination, I am pleased to say that I couldn't be happier with the end results. My Pops has really out done himself. He cut, drilled and chiseled the wood perfectly and it was up to me to paint and varnish the buggers. Just a few tweaks left and then they will be back at his work space for gluing before they are shipped to London for hanging. Exciting times.See here for exhibition details during the London Design Festival.

Masks Exhibition and Felt Mistress Sneak Preview

2011-07-27T04:29:00.000-07:00

September 15th marks the opening of my new solo show 'Masks' at the Nobrow Gallery in London which will feature my mask designs from the last six months. The show opens just in time for London Design Festival and you can read more details on their website by clicking HERE. To make the event even more special I have enlisted the help of some very talented friends. In fact one of the collaborations is with my Father, Colin Newman but more details and pictures of that project nearer to the exhibition.

With the show just over a month and a half away, I can contain myself no longer as I'm very, very, very excited to preview photos of my collaboration with the extremely talented and very lovely, Felt Mistress. This is a dream project for me as back in 2008, I was exhibiting alongside Felt Mistress in a Christmas show and completely fell in love with her monsters and her ability to visualise and create these incredible beasts in three dimensions and only using felt! Anyway, three years later and to much anticipated excitement, I've finally gotten to team up with her and the results are amazing. Felt Mistress is creating three Yokai from my book, The Bento Bestiary (which is available to buy HERE) and today you can see sneak preview shots of the terrifying Taimatsu Maru. YEAH!This bad boy even has a big blue tail. SHAZAM!
Boy oh boy, he is a handsome devil!

'Masks' featured in Guardian

2011-07-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back, my Masks series was featured the the Guardian newspaper. Which came as quite a surprise..... a very good one. These prints along with a whole host of other prints and exciting projects will be exhibited at the Nobrow gallery from the 15th September. You find more details HERE.

The Science of BBQ for Wired

2011-07-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

An illustration for an article titled 'How to BBQ with Science' in the famous 'how to' section in Wired magazine.

Totem Tape for Betty and Dupree

2011-06-29T00:46:00.001-07:00

Available now! My Totem Decorative Tape is for sale on the Betty & Dupree website for £4.95. Click HERE to purchase the tape or click HERE to check out their fantastic shop.

'Masks' Update

2011-05-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

Pretty busy at the moment but I thought I'd stop and share the latest Mask designs from last week.

Ghost of Gone Birds - Bishop's O' O'

2011-05-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

This is my illustration of the now extinct Bishop's O' O' for the 'Ghost of Gone Birds' exhibition and will be available at the shows as a 21x21 cm screen print of 20 on wood and a 42x42 cm Giclee print of 40 on a 310g fine art felt paper. The aim is to help raise awareness and money for bird preservation societies so that hopefully we can stop more species of bird from becoming extinct. The first of a number of Ghost shows start this week at the Liverpool School of Art and Design on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th May. Over 80 artists and designers are taking part in the project including Ralph Steadman, Jamie Hewlett and many more.

Free wallpapers available at The Fox is Black

2011-05-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Head over to The Fox is Black to download two free desktop wallpapers designed by me. Click HERE to pimp your screen.

Pocko

2011-05-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

A little illustration for my agent, Pocko. All of the Pocko illustrators have designed a small image that works as a signature at the bottom of their emails. The images rotate at random from email to email. Pretty neat, huh?

NSPCC Foyer Images

2011-04-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

A little while back myself and numerous other illustrators were asked by the NSPCC to create images to brighten up their foyer for visitors. We had to choose from a variety of words and I picked 'tiger' and 'robot'. A simple but incredibly fun brief. Below are the final illustrations and some shots of the illustrations hung in the foyer.

Here are some shots of the illustrations hung in the foyer. Thanks to Ashley May for his involvement in the project and for send the photos over.

Window Drawing for Schuh's 30th Birthday

2011-04-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

On Good Friday I was asked by Schuh to come down to their Bristol store in Cabot Circus and draw on their window for their 30th Anniversary. I was quite nervous about drawing in public because it really isn't something I ever do but that worry was all for nothing as the sun was shining and the folks at Schuh were super friendly. I had a great day and really enjoyed being out of the studio and drawing on a large scale. The photo below was taken by Neil from Schuh, who travelled down from their HQ in Edinburgh for the day, and tweeted the drawing in its various states of progress.

The brief for the drawing was to take any key moments from the past 30 years of pop culture and interpret them in my own way. I mainly drew inspiration from hip hop, punk, metal and Teen Wolf. The below pictures were taken by my friend and talented photographer, Pete Derrett. Pete dropped by to say hi and was a welcome break from the non-stop drawing. You can check out Pete's blog HERE.
This last photo was taken by Neil at the end of the day to show everyone on Twitter the finished window. I highly recommend checking Schuh out. On top of the fact they sell lots of great shoes they also stock a good array of UK size 12 which is fantastic for me as I suffer from large feet and usually have a very limited choice for foot wear.

Nobrow Packing Tape

2011-04-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

A little while back Nobrow asked me to design their new packaging tape for their online orders to be wrapped in and here is the result. Alex from Nobrow asked me to illustrate a parade of animals all reading books in just two colours. Due to popular demand the tape is being sold on their online shop for £6.50 a roll but currently only a very limited amount is available. Click HERE to purchase the tape. Each roll is 66 metres in length and 5cm wide, the pattern is 40cm long and then repeats for the remainder of the tape's length. Below is a quick rough sketch of the design. Notice how quite a lot of the animals have changed places and the Bear and Gorilla have changed drastically from the first rough to the final full colour design.
Here is the full 40cm design.

Masks Series Part 1

2011-04-18T02:22:00.001-07:00

Over the past two weeks, I've found time to work on a personal project and I finally feel genuinely excited and enthusiastic about drawing again. I've really enjoyed experimenting without any pressure and I have found that the ideas for other images in this series are starting to snowball. I'm taking a little break from working on them at the moment to concentrate on commercial work but this is the first half of a series of prints titled 'Masks' that will be available in the near future. Once the collection is complete they will all be sale at my solo show in September. Enjoy.

Public Display of Affection Sign

2011-04-11T02:04:00.001-07:00

Cent magazine asked myself and four other designers if we would like to create a sign for their latest issue. We had to create a sign that each of us felt was missing from the world. I chose to create a sign to endorse 'Public Displays of Affection' (PDA). I'm not talking about outdoor sex in public places or dogging in a layby, I'm talking about how nice it is to see people happy together and unafraid or embarrassed to show affection for each other in a world where bad news is reported at a premium. You can read my full explanation in the image below if you click on it. You don't have to but I thought I'd at least give you the option.

The Spring/Summer issue of .Cent magazine, guest edited by photographer Minnie Weisz, is out mid-April. For more details, please visit www.centmagazine.co.uk

Nobrow 5 - Repeat Pattern and Process

2011-03-23T05:10:00.001-07:00

Nobrow 5 debuted at 'Pick Me Up' London last week and is now available from the Nobrow website. The theme of the issue is 'A Few Of My Favourite Things' which needed to be worked into a repeat pattern using 3 regular pantone spot colours and 1 gold metallic pantone. Blimey! It was bloody tricky but the results were worth it. The cover of the issue is by Micah Lidberg and inside features work from Bjorn Lie, Nick White, Meg Hunt, Matthew The Horse, Jon Boam, Rob Hunter, Nishant Choksi and many, many more.

I thought it might be interesting to run you through each spot colour layer for my piece. It was made up of a grid of monster and robot faces. Here is the original sketch that I retraced with a pencil, ruler and compass on my light box. Everything I do is hand drawn. I don't use vectors.
The first pantone is yellow and I used the colour at 100%, 70% and a 40%.
The highest opacity that I used the blue at was 85% due to a conversation with Rob Hunter about how dark the blue will print compared to how it appears on the computer screen. Rob had a pantone chart and the difference from screen to printed paper was quite significant. Losing the 15% knocked some of the intensity out which worked out for the best.
Next up is red. It's really more of a pinky red than a deep red. By crossing it over with the yellow, the pinkish red gets boosted to a strong red. I think I only used the red at a maximum of 90% and a minimum of 20%.

Here we have the pinkish red and yellow crossing over and making a strong red. It was fun to work out the areas to leave pink so that the image didn't appear too flat and boring. You always wanna give a bit of 'Shazam!'

The blue and yellow create a green and the different shades of green are made by using different opacities of each spot colour.
Here is the blue and red crossing over without the yellow. These two colours create a purplish secondary colour that highlights the dark areas of the image.
For the gold spot colour to work at its best, it should not be over-layed or under-layed. Industrial litho printing is very, very accurate so I just cut the shapes to fit directly into the spaces. Here is an example of what it looks like without the other colours.
Here is the finished illustration. It really made my brain blocks hurt but I feel very happy with the final result.
Here is a photo of it in the latest issue. My digital camera is very old and very rubbish so this probably isn't the best representation of the printed article which is why you should go and buy it. It smells great too.
Hope this was helpful. Toodles. x

A Sample of the Animated 'Ouroboros'.

2011-03-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks! Here is a 29 second glimpse of an animated test for my comic book, 'Ouroboros', published by Nobrow Press. FYI- you can buy the comic HERE. Anyhoo, hurry up and click play!

This test sample has been put together by the fantastic, Daniel Binns (click on his name and check out his showreel... A M A Z I N G!). I can't thank him enough for bring the story to life.

I've been trying to think up some ways to raise funds for this project so that I can pay Daniel to finish the animation. I'd also like to raise enough to pay musicians to score the film. I have some exciting ideas for that but lack resources so if anyone has any ideas of ways to help raise some dollar or feels they can help then all input would be hugely appreciated. Post a comment, email this to a friend or send me an email at ben@bennewman.co.uk. It would be great if we could circulate this sample and see if it picks up steam. Thanking yous.

Mural for BodyTech Gym, New Zealand

2011-02-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

The incredible Pete Rana from the BodyTech Gym in New Zealand got in touch with me just before Christmas to design a mural for his new gym. The mural changed into a super giant piece of work printed on canvas and stretched over a metal frame (similar to how old billboards use to be). Anyhoo, Pete wanted me to adapted my 'Jungle Gym' piece for Nobrow issue 2 so that it could be blown up to 9.5 metres by 3.5 metres. Seeing the photos below really puts the size into perspective. Whoa! Its pretty bloody big. Thanks again to Pete for asking me to create this for his gym and also for the great encouragement he provided me. Total dude! I hope to work with him again soon. Above is one of my roughs for the project and below is the adapted final version.
Here are some photos of the 'Jungle Gym' in the BodyTech Gym. I'm very pleased.

Getting Past the ‘Digital Divide’

2011-01-23T02:43:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas I had some editorial work from 'Teaching Tolerance' magazine in the U.S. The article was about the 'digital divide' in American schools and how some children who have computers, mobile phones and internet access at home have the opportunity to develop further and faster than those who don't. The full article is available to read HERE.

Here are close up character details.

Illostribute to Earl Oliver Hurst

2010-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

Featured above is my contribution to the fantastic illostribute blog run by a very, very lovely chap called Toby Neighbors. Each illostribute post looks at a grand-master of illustration from yesteryear and after running through a short study of their work, a selection of current/

modern illustrators are asked to pay tribute to them by creating a piece of work in the spirit of the featured artist. This recent post looks at Earl Oliver Hurst and you can see the picture I chose to pay homage to below. Click HERE to head over to illostribute to see what all the other brilliant illustrators did (check out my good chum Stuart Kolakovic's contribution, it's bloody brilliant).

Zingolula Cudaduda for the Ministry of Stories.

2010-12-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

I was very pleased to be asked to take part in helping out the 'Ministry of Stories' based in London, who have set out to create a learning centre where kids from 8-18 can get one-to-one tuition with professional writers and other volunteers. The centre is fronted by the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies which sells everything any monster enthusiast could wish for, click HERE to see pictures from inside this incredible shop.

Anyhoo, the monster bit is where myself and a host of other (much more talented) illustrators come in. We were each asked to draw a monster that the children had come up with and boy oh boy, did they come up with some insane monsters.
I was asked to draw the monster, Zingolula Cudaduda and all the illustrators were given a limited palette of blue, red and black.

"Zingoula lives in a lion’s cave, stocked with secret gold he stole from the bank. He’s great at scaring people (and with a mouth as big as a white board, ears as big as a 72 inch TV screen, and feet so big they shake the ground, it’s easy to see why) but sometimes this back fires – he’s so good at scaring people he can’t make any friends.

He bathes and goes fishing in the canal all the time, but his arms are still always as greasy as if they were covered in Vaseline, and he has rusty toenails and lips as dry as sandpaper.
After a meal of chicken (and humans) and a play in the forest, Zingoula settles down with his prized possessions – a photo of his mum and dad, some toe nail clippings, and another photo of Zingoula killing some humans. Every night he hopes he doesn’t have bad dreams. He’s terribly scared of giant dinosaurs!

Zingoula Cudacuda was created by the Year 6 class at Burbage Primary School."

Photos by Alistair Hall.

All That Dreams... Featured in the Guardian Guide.

2010-12-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

Tom Frost dropped this on my desk this morning. I was lucky enough to have my illustrations used to help promote Nobrow's incredible 'A Graphic Cosmogony' in the Guardian Guide from the weekend. I am truly flattered.

The New Bento Bestiary NOW ON SALE

2010-12-02T05:06:00.000-08:00

(Hold down shift and....) ITS HERE AND ON SALE NOW!Scrub up and revise your knowledge of a selection of Yokai, the ancient spirits and demons, from Japan. Yes sir, the Bento Bestiary is back and mass produced in hardback format with super fresh reinterpretations for you and all the family to enjoy at the affordable price of £12. Published by the super kind folks at Nobrow and ready just in time for Christmas (provided you order soon dear reader). Scroll your optical receptors down to see some photomographs of this lovely book.
Words provided by the excellent Scott James Donaldson, who has truly made this book something special. If it doesn't make you laugh or feel weird and confused then you have no soul (or you're reading it upside down.)
I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who bought the original limited edition Bento Bestiary, without whom this new edition would never have been made. The Bento Bestiary is available from all GOOD bookshops internationally, you can also pick the Bento up by CLICKING HERE from the Nobrow website. Lastly, here is the front and back cover spread. Thanks for reading.
PS - If you are in Bristol on the Weds 8th December then drop by the Here shop and gallery as Scott, myself and Bjorn Lie will be signing copies of our new books (and plowing ourselves with cheap booze) between 7pm and 9pm. You can RSVP on Facebook by clicking HERE or just turn up on the night. Bjorn's new book is called 'The Wolf's Whistle' and I think it might just be the best book I own, it truly is eye wateringly incredible.

A Graphic Cosmogony ON SALE NOW!

2010-11-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

I remember last autumn when Al from Nobrow started to kick around the idea of creating a comic anthology and now a year later here it is in all its glory. WOW! I think you'll agree, after perusing the photos I've nabbed from their website, that it is one sexy looking book. Hot damn, gotta love that cloth spine (drool!). The incredible front and back cover have been illustrated by the insanely talented Micah Lidberg. When I first saw this cover illustration, I wanted to go and throw my pens, pencils, brushes and computer in the bin. Its just TOO good.
Get ready for that tasty cloth spine. BAM!

'The Graphic Cosmogony' contains interpretations of the creation of the universe by 24 illustrators over 7 pages (24 hours in a day, 7 days a week. Neat, huh? Yes... yes, it is). Each interpretation is completely unique and printed in 4 whacked out spot colours. I played a small part in helping to edit the book in the early stages and also contributed 7 pages to the anthology. You can see one of my double page spreads below.
Further below is my favourite image that I produced for the book and I can not wait to see it in print on Thursday, when Nobrow have an official launch for the book, alongside the opening for Jon McNaught and Rob Hunter's 'Murmuring landscapes' exhibition at the Nobrow Gallery. RSVP on the facebook page by clicking HERE.
This splendid artifact can be purchased via the Nobrow website for a mere £24 by clicking HERE and will also be available from all GOOD bookshops in the UK, USA and Europe.

Here is the complete list of all the talented illustrators that contributed a 7 page story to the book; Stuart Kolakovic, Mikkel Sommers, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Luke Best, Rob Hunter, Jon McNaught, Ben Newman, Andrew Rae, Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Jon Boam, Jakob Hindrichs, Clayton Junior, Daniel Locke, Isabel Greenberg, Mike Bertino, Nick White, Rui Tenreiro, Sean Hudson, Luc Melanson, Katia Fouquet, Yeji Yun, Matthew Lyons, Liesbeth De Stercke.

My Favourite Raymond Chandler Quote

2010-11-23T04:22:00.000-08:00

I've read every book Chandler wrote. He is utterly brilliant. Chandler's use of simile in his work makes me smile no end. I decided to illustrate one of my favourite lines from 'The Lady in the Lake'.

Pre-order the Brand New Bento Bestiary Now

2010-11-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

Hold on to your hats, folks! Here comes the brand new Bento Bestiary ready for pre-order (its only £12 English sterling). Every pre-order comes with a Nobrow canvas bag (while stocks last), which just so happens to have one of my lazy ass pictures on (what are the chances? Fair, I'd say). Here is the canvas bag illustration below.

Here are couple of inside shots from the new Bento Bestiary. KA-BLAMMO!

Pre-order the book by simply clicking HERE! If you are a book shop, gallery or any shop of any kind, the Bento Bestiary and all other Nobrow books are available in the UK and Europe through Turnaround Distribution and in the USA by Last Gasp! (West coast) and AdHouse Books Distro (East Coast).

The Solar System

2010-11-15T04:57:00.000-08:00

My brand new 'solar system' poster is now available to buy online by clicking HERE. This large offset litho beauty is £10 plus £4 p&p and is packed with useful information about our sector of the Universe, which will entertain the young and the young at heart. I've been wanting to create large mass produced posters for a while now as I've grown a little bored of solely designing and printing limited edition prints. The idea was to create something that can be pinned to a wall or put in a lovely frame at an affordable price for all. I'd been looking at educational posters for children and found that a lot of them were lackluster and the very formal information provided was incredibly unexciting. Anyhoo, hopefully this is just the first of a series informative posters I'll be producing.

I'd like to thank Taylor Brothers for such fantastic customer service and printing this poster so beautifully and also Dunstan Baker at The Fine Art Print Company for all the hard work he put into making this happen. What a diamond!If you run a shop or gallery, please feel free to email me at ben@bennewman.co.uk for wholesale prices and shipping costs. Thanks for reading!

Sneak Preview of New Print

2010-11-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from a new large mass produced poster. Should go to the printers this week. I hope.

The Compass of Lunacy

2010-10-26T04:30:00.000-07:00

Wowzers! I can't believe I forgot to post about this. The Compass festival has been a regular Bristol occurrence for five years now and each year it just gets better and better. This year's theme is 'Lunacy' and the festival is taking place in the Old Coronor's Court, Stokes Croft, Bristol. Events range from spoken word evenings, burlesque performances, DJ nights and film screenings. I went to see Ingmar Bergman's horror film 'The Hour of the Wolf' on Sunday and it was amazing. Next Sunday, 31st October, they will be screening Jan Svankmajer's adaption of Alice in Wonderland which I'm super excited about as it's been years since I last saw it. For more information about the festival and it's events click HERE. At the top of this post is the front cover illustration for the event programme and the back cover below. I wonder what theme I'll be illustrating next year?

'Journey to the Centre of the Page' Screen Print

2010-10-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

This screen print is now for sale on my online shop! All 50 of these one colour puzzle prints have been lovingly solved individually by me. Yes, I sat and drew the route out of the maze by hand with a red chinagraph pencil fifty times and amazingly managed to go the wrong route on a few. Each print is also hand number and signed by me. They are approximately 45 x 32cm big and are available for £35 each, you can purchase them HERE.

Dicephaly Brothers SOLD OUT!

2010-10-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who bought one! Very kind of you and I hope you enjoy having it in your home.

Self Portrait

2010-09-21T07:55:00.001-07:00

Frigo Fingers: When the Apes Met.......Jazz

2010-09-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm currently exhibiting a piece of work in the "When the Apes Met..." exhibition, curated by the Frigo Fingers Expo, and is taking place in both the Joker Gallery, Bilbao and the Vertigo Gallery, Mexico. The theme for the show was to take the characters from 'Planet of the Apes' and place them in unusual pop culture settings. I went for a Jim Flora homage and drew them as if they had released an album. I don't have much information about the show as I can find very little in English about it on the interwebs but there are heaps of great artists and illustrators taking part in the show and you can click HERE to see more.

Rockus Bockus Wine Label Design

2010-09-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

At the end of last year, I had the pleasure of being asked to design a wine label for a company in San Francisco called Gundlach Bundschu. They wanted to create a wine so great tasting you couldn't believe how affordable it is.

Jeff Bundschu, the president of the Gundlach Bundschu, wanted to take the god of wine, Bacchus, and re-invent him for the modern day. Hence the birth of Rockus Bockus. I'd like to say a big thank you to Jeff and Susan for being such great people to work for and for choosing me to work on this project as I've always wanted to design a wine label.

Bento Bestiary Update Part Three

2010-09-06T03:38:00.001-07:00

I streamlined Jorogumo for the new Bento Bestiary and I'm really pleased with the results. I was originally going to keep the colouring the same as the 2009 version but while tweaking the print layers I accidently ended up with pinks and purples, which fit the feel of the character better than the original. She sure is sexy!

New Website!

2010-08-28T00:56:00.001-07:00

Head over to the brand new bennewman.co.uk. It's dead fancy like!

Only 2 Dicephaly Brothers left!

2010-08-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

Only 50 were made and now just 2 are left of this double headed treasure! Get it while you can by clicking HERE.

Snap Mini Print for Sale Online

2010-08-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

My screen print for the SNAP mini print show is now for sale on the SNAP studios website for a steal at £25. The full size of the print is 21cm x 21cm and if you click HERE you purchase this geometric treasure.

Bento Bestiary Update Part Two

2010-08-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

What a difference a year and a half makes! Similar to the last post, the image on the left is from the original Bento Bestiary in early 2009 and the image on the right is from the new edition due October 2010. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity to revisit an old project and tweak it. It has been a real eye opener to see how much my ability to draw has developed since the original.

The original was silk screen printed in 3 colours. The new edition will be litho printed in 4 spot colours.

Bento Bestiary Update

2010-08-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

(Left) Original Inugami used in the Limited Edition 'Bento Bestiary, which came out in early 2009, and was silk screen printed in a run of just 100.

(Right) New Inugami that will feature in the all new, mass produced, hardback edition due out October 2010 and will be printed in 4 spot colours.

All That Dreams Matters

2010-08-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from my 7 page contribution to the 'Graphic Cosmogony' that will be published by Nobrow later in the year. Thanks to Bjorn Lie for his incredible technical advice and tips on this project and Tom Frost for his help checking back through my work and being an awesome studio buddy. Cheers, chaps.

Stay Loose Business Card Design

2010-07-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, Matt Brown from Stay Loose contacted me about using my 'Charley and the Birds' image for his website. Matt enjoyed the birds so much he recently asked me to design him a business card similar to an image I designed for 'Kindred' a while back. It was great to be able to revisit a picture I designed very quickly and improve on it. Cheers then.

Geometric Love

2010-06-14T02:43:00.001-07:00

I managed to squeeze in some print designs over the weekend so that I can spend a couple of evenings screen-printing in the SNAP studio basement. I'll post photos of the prints once they are finished.

Shape-o-lio-lio

2010-06-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Mini-print Design for SNAP

2010-06-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

Just finished this design for the SNAP studios mini-print show that starts on the 6th July. The private view will start at 6pm on the 8th July and includes a stellar line up of illustrators which you can see by clicking HERE. The artists taking part are donating a print each to help raise money for SNAP and all the prints will be on sale for a very affordable price. Toodles!

Plone Conference 2010 Logo

2010-06-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

Netsight Internet Solutions contacted me a few weeks back about designing a logo for the Plone conference they are hosting in Bristol. Netsight are a Bristol based company and as the hosts they wanted the logo to incorporate not just Bristol landmarks but also the city's quirks and cultural identity.

I tried out numerous compositions ranging from very busy and cluttered to minimal and spacious. One of the things I really enjoyed about this job was that the client wanted the icons and graphics to be a little rough around the edges so it was great to loosen up and relax a bit. You can see how the logo was used for their website by clicking HERE.

Interview at Sooner Than Now!

2010-05-26T00:32:00.001-07:00

Howdy Folks! Simon at Sooner Than Now asked me a few questions the other day. You can read my verbal wibblings HERE. Enjoy!

Journey to the Centre of the Page

2010-05-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

I created this map for fellow Pocko illustrator and all round good dude, Adam Hayes and his fantastic maps project. You can read more about this map HERE and find out more about Adam's exciting project by clicking HERE. DO IT!

The Evolution of Neko-mata

2010-05-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

(Running from left to right is Neko-mata featured in Nobrow 1 (2009), The Bento Bestiary Limited Edition (2009) and The Bento Bestiary (2010)). My blog has been pretty quiet of late due to an intense workload. One of the projects that is taking up a large serving of my time is the brand spanking new hardback version of the Bento Bestiary that will be available from all good bookshops in October. I'm redesigning the whole thing almost from scratch and thought it would be interesting to show the evolution of one of my favourite Yokai. Neko-mata is an old possessed cat that torments it's owner. Any more details would ruin the fun. I'll post some more teasers in the coming months. Thanks for reading.

Free 'Me No Want To Work Today' Wallpaper for your iPhone

2010-04-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Get the 'Me No Want To Work Today' monster on your iPhone for FREE! Simply head over to the Roxbury Industries' website by clicking HERE and download it along with fantastic wallpapers from Peskimo and Oreli.

Astro Cat Tote Bag available from Magma

2010-04-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

The Astro Cat black tote bag is available now from Magma books in London for £9.99. Astro Cat appears on both sides of this hip, all cotton, shopping accessory. Alternatively, you can purchase it HERE from their online shop.

Ben Newman Merchandise at the Tate

2010-04-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

If you are heading to the Tate Modern in London then keep your beady peepers peeled for these tasty pieces of merchandise that I designed exclusively for the Tate shop on the second floor.This signed limited edition print of 100 measures 40cm x 50cms and is a steal at only £20, click HERE to purchase it while stocks last.

Next up is a malfunctioning robot on a T-Shirt printed on a climate neutral cotton so it was made purely from renewable green energy. Purchase of this fine garment can be made HERE.
Note to self, iron T-shirts before photographing them for promotional purposes. Ooops!
Lastly, the 'Scribble Cat' T-Shirt, again printed on the same climate neutral cotton. Both Tees are £20 and you can purchase this one HERE.
Also, please note that the cat on the tee appears to be white. He isn't. The sun was just really bright and seems to have bleached him out a bit so he doesn't look very blue in the photograph.

That's all, folks!

Sneak Preview From Next Book Project

2010-04-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

Ssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!

Kerry & Kevin Collaboration - Open Call

2010-03-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

Just before Christmas, I was sent a rather fetching letter with an egg cup on the front and an invitation with the words "Say Yes" screen printed across a page from an old children's annual with a cowboy on. The letter was from a project called Kerry&Kevin. I'm not sure if there was a subliminal message in this invitiation but for some reason I decide to "Say Yes".

To help explain 'Kerry&Kevin' better, Kerry says "this project started in December 2009 with the intention of combining different processes and opinions in response to the issue of social inclusion. For example: how do people experience inclusion on a social, everyday level; what are the social consequences of inclusion; how can we make people aware of others; offer support systems and understand individual needs and behaviour. I have invited 41 practitioners from a range of disciplines to contribute due to their expertise, methodology and subject knowledge, I have asked them for some of their time, conversation and participation. This project will evolve from Kerry and Kevin's discussions and interactions, and the outcomes will vary from a chat, a workshop, a written statement to sharing an existing piece of work."

This project is open to collaboration so please check out the site as there are many wonderful people involved, including Bill Drummond and the Untimely writers to name just a few. Below is my contribution to the project illustrating my feelings towards inclusion stemming from my practice as an illustrator. These are just the first two panels of an eight panel sequence so to see the full story click HERE.

Batman No 72 on Covered Blog

2010-03-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

Robert Goodin from Covered blog asked me if I would like to take part in the first "Covered Art Show' taking place at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles. Covered is one of my favourite blogs and I check in there everyday at 4pm (GMT) to see the latest post so obviously I didn't hesitate to say YES. The show started a few days ago and features a stack of awesome cartoonists and illustrators redrawing any existing comic book of their choice. Prints and originals are available to buy via their flickr site, which you can find by clicking here.

I drew my interpretation of Batman No 72. I really struggled with this image mainly due to my workload from November through to January. Finishing the comic, the Porporpeius mask, the 'dicephaly brothers' toy and box, and a merchandise range for the Tate, plus the mania that is Christmas, all happened at the same time and I have to admit I felt utterly burnt out when I got round to doing this. Anyway, if this picture doesn't remind you of being extremely tired then you can buy it for the bargain price of $50 here. It is a giclee print in an edition of 20 so get 'em while their hot!

Little Ao-sag-bi

2010-03-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

Here is 'Ao-sag-bi'. This illustration is just a small detail in a much larger picture than feeds into an even bigger project that should be due out in October. Unfortunately, I had to adjust his position for the final image but I like this initial composition so much that I thought I'd share it.

Ouroboros Update

2010-03-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

The fantastic Nate Williams very kindly interviewed me about the process of creating 'Ouroboros' over at Illustrationmundo, where you can see early stage sketchbook drawings of the comic, you can read this verbal exchange HERE. Creative Review even picked 'Ouroboros' to be in their 'very nice publications' for March section, clickity clack HERE to peruse. Finally, the AOI featured it on their blog with some very positive (if misspelt) words, tap that mouse HERE to go there.

Below are a few unused images from the illustratiomundo interview. First up is the pencil sketch and colour final of page 7.
Pencil sketch and colour final of page 18.

Finally, here is a section of the shelf beside my desk. It's littered with books and toys and is a constant source of distraction and inspiration.

'Ouroboros' Signing at the Here Gallery, Bristol

2010-02-22T03:44:00.001-08:00

To celebrate the release of my debut comic book 'Ouroboros', I'll be signing copies of it at the Here Gallery in Bristol from 7.30pm-9pm on Tuesday 2nd March. The Here Gallery will have copies of 'Ouroboros' for sale so come along for a few glasses of wine and a warm atmosphere, your more than welcome. PS - Bring your hip flasks!

Mr Fish Dude at Piñatarama!

2010-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

A big Thank you to Jorge Alderete fo asking me to take part in Pinatarama at the Vertigo Gallery in Mexico. Here is the press blurb for the show.

The piñata’s associated with the Latino culture, but historians point to Asia (especially China) as its actual point of origin. It’s supposed that the famous traveler Marco Polo’s visit to that nation, he saw how the Chinese created colorful animal figures covered with paper, which is hung with ornaments, and were used in the New Year celebrations. As a good observer, Polo brought Europe the idea of these early piñatas. Although housed in various regions of their religious significance, today, is considered a symbol of fun and entertainment.

Between contemporary design of characters and this popular tradition the project aims to let ourselves be surprised by the unexpected results arising from the interpretation of these characters by Mexican artisans who made them. And give the viewer a particular facility where the 30 piñatas “design” reflect the contemporary look of mixtures, juxtaposition and appropriation, in this case an object culturally ingrained in Latin America. Mexican artisans Ricardo Linares and Lorenzo García will be constructing the piñatas based on the designs of 25 worldwide artists including Cupco, Cecy Meade, Apak, S.britt, Snaggs, Tado, David Gamez, Gaston Caba, Sonni, and many more!

Who is that dapper sea creature? It's the Mr Fish Dude Piñata!
Here is a picture of more of the Pinatas. Go to nfgraphics to see a whole host of great photos of the show.

Also, I recently set up a facebook page so feel free to join up here for sneak previews of projects before I post them on this blog.

'Ouroboros' Out Now!

2010-02-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to announce the release of my debut comic book, Ouroboros, which has been published by the super kind folk at Nobrow. The book is printed in three spot colours on an off-white Munken paper and is retailing for £8.50. You can buy it now from the Nobrow website and the first 40 people to buy this regaling tale of utter futility will receive a signed copy for no extra charge! Still need convincing? Well, read this insightful review by Bobby Jewel to help make up your mind.

Inspired by the mythical serpent Ouroboros, Ben Newman brings the reader on a tale of action and adventure that juxtaposes brutal violence with ecstatic comic exuberance. Where our protagonist fights a band of rogue, thuggish, drug peddling perverts after they murder his newly beloved mermaid.

Brought to life in a world of Newman's trademark bold style and visually arresting use of colour and timing; Newman plays with the theme of life, death and rebirth across 24 pages of vivid and original story telling. As described in the book, Ouroboros ‘is that which is forever done, but which may not be undone, it is life and death intertwined. Both chicken and the egg... but also Sunday dinner'.

Here are some sample pictures that Nobrow have taken for you, dear reader, to enjoy. Hubba hubba!

For those of you in Bristol, you'll be able to purchase 'Ouroboros' from the Here Gallery on Stokes Croft Road, where I'll be signing copies from 7.30pm until 9pm on the 2nd March. So come along and say hi!

Porporpeius at The Museum of Small Things

2010-02-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

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!

Here is the legend of Porporpeius.

One of the little-known God Deitys of water and air is Porporpeius, who you may remember from his booming music career during the Blues revival of the 1960s. Heavy drug use and a failed suicide attempt during the late 1970s drove Porporpeius to confront his half-brother Neptune about his rights to the Kingdom of Atlantis. Unfortunately, Porporpeius fell off the wagon just before this confrontation and after causing a dreadful scene at Neptune's son's birthday party, Neptune decided to sever Porporpeius' head and hide his body in the darkest depths of the sea. For the past 40 years, the bodiless Porporpeius has been strung out on cheap liquor and cheaper drugs, searching every square inch of the Earth for his missing body but to no avail.

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

2010-01-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-25T15:35:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-06T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-27T03:35:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T01:34:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-30T01:26:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

451 Flier From Start to Finish

2009-09-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

New Portfolio Work

2009-09-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

Compass of Desire Festival 2009

2009-06-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

Today, I drew....

2009-05-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

...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.