Bubble, bubble, toil - no trouble !

 

I'm nearing completion of a great job for a children's indoor soft play company based in Scotland.

It was one of those great briefs where you get to take everything from initial character design, to the final website design with a little Flash animation thrown in too.


Here's a sneaky peak of the website - I'll update with more details over the next few days.

Personalised Cartoons for Weddings, Anniversaries, Retirement...

Most of the work I do is for corporate clients, but I've just had a run of people commissioning cartoons for gifts for weddings, birthdays, retirements and so on.

These are always fun jobs because you get to learn all sorts of amusing and just plain weird facts about the individuals you're illustrating. People really open up.

Also after spending too much money on another bucket of Indian Ink and fancy, shmancy paper and too long repeatedly drawing and re-drawing a single illustration I've decided I'm going entirely digital from now on.

This means that I can create better quality illustrations with brighter, more vibrant colours and where relevant include photo imagery (as above) to broaden the range of possible effects.

If you want something similar please get in touch.

Little Pip pops over!

Earlier this year I did some work for a chain of nurseries based here in England. Their logo featured a little boy dressed as a toy soldier (named Little Pip) and they wanted the character redesigning and updating. I blogged about it in January.

They were really pleased with the new character design - so much so that they said they were thinking of getting him turned into a soft toy for the kids and maybe even a full life size mascot. Woohoo! The kids could meet a giant Little Pip just like they can meet a giant Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld! *

Well they've only gone and done it! Brilliant! Little Pip pops over and gives us the thumbs up! My only thought is that maybe his head is a bit small compared to the original design - but I suppose nobody likes a bighead!



* Well a bit like anyway ... if you imagine Disneyworld without the exciting rides and sunshine!

Where do cartoon ideas come from ?

I'm putting together the latest cartoon strip for a regular corporate client I have. It often takes a while to get the ideas flowing for this job and then about seven appear at once. So at the moment I'm sat here at the ideas table sipping strong tea, doodling and waiting for the first bolt of inspiration to strike (or the kids to come home - whatever happens first).

Anyway for interest, here are a couple of recent cartoon strips.

Yes I know they're the size of a pea. There are 2 solutions to this ... either
i) sit really close to your monitor and squint and imagine what they are about
or
ii) click on the cartoon to see a bigger version

Enjoy!

The Grass is always greener ...

I recently completed some images for a landscaping company in Toronto for use as business cards, advertisements and gift certificates. It featured a cartoon version of the company owner as a basis of the company logo - I've done a number of jobs like this and they're always fun.
Now if only my garden could look as swish as that - at the moment my lawn looks like the set of Little House on the Prairie...

10 baby board books sitting on a wall - well at the printers anyway

I recently completed work on a series of 10 tiny children's board books all about transport for Make Believe Ideas.
This project was like a great big game of Pictionary. I had to draw something like 50 pictures of all sorts of different cars, bikes, trucks, planes, diggers, trains and capture their essence on the page so they were instantly recognisable.

Additionally, I tested out a new drawing style that I've been playing with for a while and was pretty pleased with the results.

So here are some excerpts to whet your appetite! Another fun job!

A new recruit !

Hoorah! We've just had a baby boy !

He's called Finn and as the card on the left says when he's not sleeping and feeding he seems to enjoy parping and testing out how loud his voice can go.

This card was created with my 3 year old daughter's help. She more or less made up the rhyme - she seems to like doing this. Over Christmas she managed to embarass me on a number of occasions in public by singing Jingle bells with her own words ... it went "Jingle Bells, Botty smells".


Daddy the red faced reindeer!