Illostribute to Earl Oliver Hurst

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.

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.

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

(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!

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

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

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

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

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

The Compass of Lunacy

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

Only 2 Dicephaly Brothers left!

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

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

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

(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

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

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

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

Mini-print Design for SNAP

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

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!

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