NY Times Illustration

I had a phone call early evening on Thursday from the New York Times to ask if I could illustrate an article for them for their edition on Sunday. I was in the pub at the time of the call so I finished my drink (ordered another, drank that) and headed back to the studio to work on a rough sketch. The article is about the recall elections in Wisconsin and you can read the full article HERE. 

Thanks to Bjorn Lie, Dunstan Baker and Tom Frost for helping me spit ball some ideas in the pub.

Ghost of Gone Birds/Birdlife Research Trip to Malta

It's been a very busy month and on top of commissions and the Pictoplasma festival, I went on a research trip to sunny Malta with the Ghost Of Gone Birds team. Cery Levi, the man behind Ghosts, and a group of artists went to volunteer for Birdlife to help understand what is happening there in regards to hunting legislation and the migration of exotic birds that stop off in Malta on their travels. As well as formulating ideas of how best to visually represent the situation there, we got to learn how bad the hunting is in Malta. So many endangered birds are killed in incredible numbers and illegally to boot.

We started each day at 4.15am and after a 10am-1pm break we were back out in the fields again monitoring hunters and the migration patterns of birds until the sun set. It was extremely tiring but hugely rewarding work. Thank you to everyone at Birdlife and the Ghost Of Gone Birds team for a unique and fascinating experience. In the coming months I'll post work in progress shots of the work that I'll be producing for a group show based on the artists experiences of the trip.

Pictoplasma 2012, Berlin

I had the great great honour of being asked to exhibit and talk at Pictoplasma this year in Berlin. It was the first time I had visited the city and the festival itself and I'm now hooked. I'll be back next year as a ticket holder for sure as the festival has such an incredible atmosphere and I love how the speakers, artists and attendees all mingle together drinking, talking and laughing. 

I took an updated version of my Masks show out to the festival to exhibit as part of their 'Character Walk' that takes place through the Mitte district in 16 different venues. New collaboration work with Felt Mistress and my father were the main features of the show. I can't thank them both enough for their hard work and time making this show something so much better than I could ever manage on my own.

Felt Mistress' Masks were hung from fishing wire so that they seem to just float in the air in front of the wooden masks on the back wall. It really made the front room come to life. 

The last felt mask was used in the back room along with all the mask prints. 11 prints were exhibited in total. I cut a few from the original show in favour some new incarnations.

Here is my good friend and illustrator, Nikko Barber modelling the Goom mask. I'd like to say a big thank you to Nikko for his hospitality and help through the show. A truly great human bean.

The lovely Felt Mistress' new look and the awesome Tippy.

Above is the new mask that I made with my Father. He really is utterly amazing. I can't wait to start work on some new sculpture projects with him.

Below is a picture that was taken during my character lab talk at .HBC (picture by Tamar Moshkovitz). A big thank you to everyone who came along, I was so surprised and happy to see such a great turn out.

Last but not least I would love to say a big thank you to Peter and Lars for inviting me to be a part of the Pictoplasma festival this year, Danielle for all here help organising my show and the venue and the rest of the Pictoplasma team for their incredible hard work. 

Animated Animal Menagerie Teaser

Here is a work in progress teaser trailer for the 'Animal Menagerie' which is being animated by the extremely awesome, James Wilson. It's currently at a low resolution as we don't want to give to much away at the moment. If you would like to see some of James' illustration work then click HERE to see his website.
 

Volkswagen Illustration

A couple of months back I was asked by DDB London to produce a small illustration for Volkswagen to be used as a mail out to potential customers. I worked with Art Director, Peter Mould on this mainly provided the aesthetic touch to this idea. A throughly pleasing job and a delight to see it in print. Here are the results below.

'Masks' show is going to Pictoplasma, Berlin.

I'm very proud, excited and nervous to announce that my MASKS show will be going to Berlin for the Pictoplasma festival. The show will be part of the Character Walk that runs over the whole festival from the 11th until the 15th April and MASKS will be exhibited at Berlin Weekly. I'll also be giving a talk at .HBC as part of the Character Lab talks and workshops (you can read more about the other speakers HERE).

The MASKS show has been expand a bit from the London show at Nobrow last September. New collaborative work with my Father, Colin Newman and the ever fantastic, Felt Mistress will be on show for the first time. Here are some sneak previews.

Pancho Guedes Portrait for Architectural Review

Recent editorial piece for Architectural Review to accompany a piece written by Sir Peter Cook about the Architect, Sculptor and Artist, Pancho Guedes. I had to loosen up and work with a strong flourish of Pancho' s visual language. It was tricky but fun to still keep a sense of myself and Pancho in the final illustration.