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.

Russian Doll For Pocko

This cheeky fella is currently winging his way to the Metropolis exhibition in Milan which starts on the 21st of May at the Pocko Gallery. Each Pocko artist has been asked to design a Russian Doll for the show so I'm really looking forward to seeing them all lined up together.

In other news, check out Sharesomecandy.com which I have been contributing to along with a whole host of talented folk from across the globe. Hit the link below to treat those peepers.
Thanks for reading!

Cinemascope Exhibition Now On!

These two prints are a limited edition of 12 and went on sale on the 8th May at the Cinemascope exhibition in Brighton. The show will run until the 31st May at the Boxbird Gallery. 

New T-Shirt From Roxbury!

Smash your piggy bank and raid your Mum's purse because Roxbury Industries have launched their new T-shirt designed by me. Click here to purchase this bad boy, you know you want to.

The Good Old Days

I was transferring some old work and general clutter from my computer to my external hard drive when I found this old video from 2006. I then remembered that I had posted it on YouTube a long time ago. These videos are from Safetyword's album launch at the The Cube Cinema in Bristol on the 2nd December, 2006. I designed a series of simple moving images for each song on the album and on the night I had to watch the show through a tiny glass window in the projection booth at the back. This was because I had to press the 'next chapter' button on the DVD remote at the end of every song and I think I accidentally press 'stop' in the middle of one of the songs and the background disappears. Whoops!

I dug around on my computer and found the poster for the night too. This was my first gig poster design. Hope you enjoy!

NIDO Magazine Launches Today

This is one of two illustrations featured in the brand new NIDO magazine based in Germany. 

More Bento News

Head over to Nobrow for some more details.

The Bronnt and Crease Album Launch Poster

A joint album launch for Bronnt Industries Kapital and Iron Crease promises to be a truly great night and with The Dagger Brothers in support, they'll be turning the 'PARTY' all the way up to 11. BOOM!

Uncertain Future

Here are two more concept images from the 'Climate Changed' project for Wonky.

Climate Issues

I'm looking forward to taking a day off in May so that I can pluck all of my new gray hairs out of my head. The last couple of months have been non-stop so I just wanted to show you kind folks some images from a project I've been working on with Wonky, an animation studio based in Bristol. Hopefully, once pitched, this project will develop into a fantastic animated documentary or interactive game under the title 'Climate Changed'.

The first image represents an idea of our current climate with glaciers dwarfing cities but pollution still being a factor in our everyday lives.
This image represents the year 2050 if we continue expanding our cities and destroying our environment. Water levels will rise because the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and the sun will become more dangerous as the ozone layer is broken down due to the intense pollution.
The third and final image demonstrates that we need to find a way to even out what we take and what we give back environmentally so that we can reach a compromise with nature. The space cars below are hover cars that work by using reusable energies. I know they look stupidly futuristic but back in the 60's and 70's the interpretation of the year 2000 was freaking bonkers, just look at Buck Rogers. I suppose I'm still bitter that the 'Back to the Future II' hover boards were never made. Damn you Michael J Fox and damn you too 1980's.
I'll post some more of this project soon if anyone is interested. Thanks for reading!

Bento Bestiary Presents Amirkiri

Here is one of my favourite Bento Beasties, the cheeky Amirkiri. The Bento Bestiary will be a limited edition book hand-printed by the fine gentlemen at Nobrow Limited. It's designed and illustrated by myself and written by the incredible Scott James Donaldson. I'm really excited about this book and hopefully more details will follow soon. 

"THE NEGATIVE BATMAN"

If you haven't checked out the Covered blog then you should spend more time indoors looking on the internet. (It's a well known fact that computer screens give better 'tans' than the sun, just ask any doctor.) The premise for Covered is to round up cartoonists, illustrators and anyone else who likes to draw and get them to re-interpret comic book covers. It's such a simple and fantastically brilliant idea. It is updated once a day Monday to Friday and has me hooked.

I have had the original of this issue sat on a shelf for over a year and this blog finally gave me the excuse to re-draw it. You can see my version next to the original here.

Sneak Preview and excerpt from The Bento Bestiary

NINGYO
Words by Scott James Donaldson

Pleasingly hairier but no less alluring than the Western Mermaid, the Ningyo is a very special creature. Not only is this breed of Yokai blessed with golden scales upon their carp-like bodies, but they are also fortunate enough to have a cheeky little monkey’s face up top. More than likely, it is this dynamite combination that makes them such excellent flute players.
Found in seas off the coast of Japan, it is incredibly rude to catch and eat a Ningyo without it’s consent. If you do, you will probably die. Or there will at least be a very nasty storm. Somewhere.
If the Ningyo does invite you to sup upon it’s fragrant, tasty flesh, please be aware of the following:
• You will never grow old.
• You will never die.
• Everyone you ever loved will age and fall before your eyes and you will weep for all eternity in maddening solitude.
• You’ll look great.
Choose and Perish.

Bento Bestiary Sneak Preview

Coming soon!

Boxbird Presents the CinemaScope Exhibition

AArrgghh! I only meant to post one of these prints but I think they look better put together. These two prints will be available from the 8th May at the Boxbird gallery in Brighton during the Fringe festival. The show is called 'CinemaScope' and features a host of fantastic Boxbird artists and invited talent. Click here to see the ace line-up. Each artist will produce two A2 prints based on any film of their choice. I chose 'Shogun Assassin' and the 'Fistful of Dollars Trilogy'.