A lovely commission from the Radio Times. An image for the radio pages to accompany the late Anthony Minghella's acclaimed production of Puccini's opera being broadcast by the Met, live from New York on Saturday 17th December. As a main theme I kept coming back to the idea of Cio-Cio San reacting to her fate with quiet dignity, her expression overlapping into her childhood memory of witnessing moths and butterflies being pinned to a display board. When rendering the finished artwork I approached it from the onset intending it be more decorative than usual - as per some of my experimental images of late. A lovely job and many thanks to powers that be at the RT for the commission. Out on the newsstands from today.
Steampunk Cat Demon - An experiment
An experimental image with a bit of history as it was sat in a sketch book for a while. Always knew I'd do something with this Sphynx like scribbly exaggerated drawing (based on our cat) as it had an interesting anthropomorphic feel to it. I'd been working on and off the finished image for a while and a version of this character also came into play when working on the Times Dreams & Nightmares series, as a sphynx like demon for the second article. I decided to take it a little further, changing mainly the eyes. No real planning to the changes, just leaving progress to fate when rendering the finished image to see what would happen. Hoping for inspiration from the divine accident!
I'm playing with a new approach with a heavier bias towards working in Photoshop. To date I've always preferred the directness of Adobe Illustrator, but recently I've been exploring PS a little more inquisitively. Screen shots were taken to gauge and monitor progress (yes I was struggling!) when rendering, just as I did when working on the Tosca image for the RT. Where that image came together beautifully, this Steampunk Demon proved a little more troublesome, going through three colour-ways before I was totally happy. By the time the image was fully resolved I had about 40 screen shots totted up. As I'd maximised the viewable image for each screen grab they all lined up quite well. Thought they could make an interesting sequence showing all of the key stages of the render when animated into a slide show. Assembled in Adobe Flash after a steep learning curve. My first time using the software and I actually found it quite intuitive after the initial head scratching. Hope you enjoy it.
LAB Visual Illustration Agency
I'm delighted to report that I will be represented in mainland Europe by the new Illustration Agency LAB Visual. An exciting new venture and a huge thanks to Ev and team for the invitation to join :-) Agents? Never ever say never. I had no immediate plans to approach an agent but fate intervened and an interesting email came pinging into my inbox a couple of weeks ago. An invitation to join something new - a different type of agency. Small in scale with only a handful of artists. Limited, agreed representation. No contracts sealed in blood. Soul not exchanged for a bulging suitcase full of dollars & euros with Beelzebub. The main carrot for me? They intend to concentrate and limit their promotion to Europe, Russia and the far east, where I've hardly ever worked (mainly UK and US) before. They have the team to deal with any language barriers that may arise and the experience to back up their venture. After quite a bit of head scratching and ether based correspondence I decided to take the plunge. It will be interesting to see how things move forward. After all, I've been involved with two other agents in my career - both at their genesis and really enjoyed being part of something at the beginning. The same scenario here with LAB Visual, starting from scratch with yours truly on board for the journey. Lets just hope its an interesting, stimulating and smooth ride for all involved...
Community Care Magazine
As soon as the email came through from the Art Editor, I knew I wanted to do this job. The description of people passing through a clock face to liberate themselves from the constraints of the usual working time frame appealed immediately. Two final variations shown where the figures and clock were adjusted for scale and placement so leaving the copy clear. Also, interesting to fire up Adboe Illustrator as well on this job. I've been neglecting this fiddly, but very versatile piece of software in preference for Photoshop of late. I really enjoyed tinkering with the gradient mesh and pen tools again and had forgotten its distinct benefits and advantages over Photoshop (namely speed). I shall be playing some more :-)
New York Times.
A real privilege to work for one of the worlds great newspapers this week, with the added bonus of a rather challenging subject to tackle as well. The article discussed the current reduced US productivity levels and the potential follow on scenarios, which are of great concern to the financial markets. A few ideas were submitted but the Art Director preferred the concept of a sparse landscape with the factories only capable of manufacturing and producing tumbleweed. Simple and to the point. A huge thanks to Minh for the opportunity to work for the NYT. Out on the
newsstands
today.