Sketches...

After posting my latest illustration yesterday, I later thought some of you may have been interested in seeing the original sketches for them, and so here they are...

The Wally with the Brolly

After publishing my previous post featuring a slightly new illustrative direction for me, I was over the moon with the positive feedback I received for it.

Personally I was really pleased with how it has developed and really wanted to try another composition, which leads me to this post.

This new composition is very loosely based on the infamous photo of ex-England football manager Steve McClaren watching his side fail to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. I have always been intrigued by the shot, as it holds such emotion and portrays a man who is simply watching his reputation and career fall apart in front of his very own eyes. It was this photograph that earned McClaren his unwanted title of 'The Wally with the Brolly'.

When creating the image, I deliberately avoided branding it with the English FA crest and decided against making the character look like McClaren (apart from the hair colour), as I wanted to keep the illustration quite generic, but more importantly, I didn’t really fancy getting in trouble with The FA or Steve McClaren.

This will be the last of my illustrations in this style that I post up for a while, as I have a few other illustrations and project that I want to show over the next few weeks which will be back to my more recognisable look.

This image will be available to purchase from iStock within the next week or so.
Thanks for dropping by.

Some guy...

For a while now, I have had this image in my head. I don’t know who it is, or why I really drew it, but my brain has been continuously reminding me of it until I have got to the point where I have surrendered and have drawn what it has been obsessively telling me to.

The style is a little different to my normal work, but to be honest, I have watched my illustrations evolve over the years and I can see how I have got to where I currently am.

That’s not to say that I have moved away from my old style, as I haven’t, but I am just having fun exploring and producing work which is a lot less vibrant and offers a lot more simplicity in respects to the construction of the characters. As you can see, I have purposely moved away from having too many colours and have resisted the use of highlights on the character.

I just wanted to make the figure itself as simple as possible and I wanted the form of character to leap out at you, rather then the bold palette or the incredible detail.

I hope you enjoy the piece. I am a little unsure whether to make this available on my iStock portfolio, but I will keep you notified if I do.