Ainulindale Finished

The painting is now finished, I transferred the 'singing heads' then thinly added highlights with Titanium White. I await the final verdict (scary stuff)...

P.s Happy Birthday Emily :-)

'Not On The Rocks' Illustrations

I'm certainly not old enough to remember the highly detailed black & white illustrations that used to be printed in newspapers. I once was lucky enough to visit a designer who started his professional life inking furniture drawings for a local rag, he showed me some of his old work and we both lamented the disappearance of that old style.  Imagine my excitement when an offer of work came through asking me to pastichean old Whisky advert but include a few modern elements.

The article was about the Morrison Bowmore distilleries being a uniquely British affair that had customers all over the world. The main illustration and spot were to show the tradition of Scotch making and the modern machinery involved in the process.

Above is the main illustration which has some of the modern elements in the decoration (dials, meters, arrow diagrams and LEDs).

Below are the all the bits I did for the article printed in the final magazine.

Not your average Bonfire Night

As the large firework displays were just beginning over Swindon, Suzanne and I went up to Barbury Castle to get a spectacular and rather chilly panoramic. Barbury is what's left of a large Iron Age hill fort the impressive ground works are still there which includes a perimeter ditch roughly 25ft deep so making our way round that was a bit hairy in the dark however our trusty torch and flask saved the day - or rather the night.

Apologies for my poor photography. Left is a blurry view of the bonfire in the next field, Right is an even more blurry Swindon void of fireworks because I've never managed to time a photograph well. Unfortunately you can't see the smoke accumulating from the many fires lying low over the town which is a shame because it gave an ethereal quality to the view.

The blueprint for an heroic leader.

 

Above is a single page illustration I completed for Management Today that was published last month. The concept was reasonably straightforward but even so my small bit of training in technical drawing helped immensely, without it who knows how the piece would have turned out?

I was also asked to supply a couple of spot illustrations based on two well known business leaders. Fortunately for Tony Hayward his annotations didn't come from my pen. I don't think the feature would have made the print otherwise ;-)

  As they are meant to be seen.

Soon I'm hoping to put up the most recent bit of work I did for the same magazine. Mostly black and white and ridiculously detailed - my eyes are still trying to re-adjust.

Ainulindale in colour

I've been adding oil colour to the under-painting of 'Ainulindale' in-between other work, despite the slow progress it's finally coming together. Tomorrow I shall move onto the foliage highlights and then the faces can be added when the paint is touch dry.