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.

Radio Times: Gormenghast: Steerpike

The world of Gormenghast created by Mervyn Peake needs little introduction due to the dedicated following the books have gained since publication. BBC Radio 4 are currently broadcasting a radio adaptation in six parts, adapted by Brian Sibley. I was commissioned by the Radio Times to produce an illustration for their radio pages to accompany the series. A gift of a project. I thought it best to concentrate on Steerpike and his murderous intent. For me, he's by far the most interesting character in the book(s) as he's so calculating and unrelentingly evil. A true villain in the best theatrical sense. His ambition to be part of the castle life and hierarchy is all consuming and I thought it would be interesting to depict him overlapping into the walls of Gormenghast itself. I explored a few other ideas, but I kept coming back to this as it seemed to have the most potential for a brooding portrait. I also subtly referenced the Peake original drawing without resorting to copying or fan worshipping - his illustrations for Treasure Island (astonishing) made a big impact on me as a student. Great fun to do, and timely in reference to the last Bama / Aurora illustration blog entry, as they were an influence here too.

More on: Mervyn Peake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01292v3

More on Brian Sibley:

And the Radio 4 show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/07/the_history_of_titus_groan_rad.html

And a link to a post by Brian on his blog:

http://briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/titus-times.html

Aurora - Universal Monsters

Aurora. Not the Northern Lights, although that is a spectacle I would like to witness once day, but a 1950's company that produced an interesting range of self assembly model kits that were an influence on me as a youngster. Now defunct, but a very popular brand in the US (less so in the UK) through the sixties and into the nineties, when still releasing kits under changing parent companies. Compared to the likes of Airfix, Revell, Tamiya etc, the company placed themselves in a unique position by obtaining a copyright license from Universal Studios, allowing Aurora to manufacture plastic kits in association with Universal's famous monster movies, following on with popular TV show / comic related kits. They commissioned a talented artist to depict the model kit figure on the box cover and lets just say there was artistic license with the portrayal of the actual contents! Favorites are The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Dracula (based on Bela Lugosi), King Kong holding on to a mini glow in the dark Fay Wray and of course Godzilla - my all time fav creature feature.

Nowhere near as scary as a ten year old boy would hope, despite the real "glow in the dark" pieces. In fact once constructed the Godzilla figure looked like he was suffering from a bad case of elephantiasis! The Mummy kit based on Boris Karloff is slightly out of proportion as well, sporting a rather large head. No matter, as a kid I loved these kits and more so the box cover images, pouring over the cover and then the contents, afterwards enthusiastically covering my fingers in polystyrene glue and Humbrol enamel paint when constructing them. For me at that impressionable age they were evocative of the movies themselves, bridging the gap between cinema and behind the sofa fan, where perhaps a little piece of Hollywood terror could sit a on kids shelf. Inspired.

The illustrator was a chap called James Bama. He was latterly famed for his portrayal of native americans, formerly, for a broad spectrum of commercial work, most famously the Doc Savage book covers. I only linked the childhood experience of these kits to the work of the artist and the Aurora company when I studied illustration at college, then of course finally understanding the role of a commercial artist - I was a slow learner (still am). These tall portrait box images are the original Bama illustration covers. The square 'glow in the dark' covers were from a later controversial release, where the original paintings were overpainted by another artist to exaggerate the new glow in the dark kit parts.

Bama's later gallery work consists mainly of delicate sensitive character studies, a million miles away from the commercial work. But for me, its the Aurora model cover art that still pleases the most due to my nostalgia driven experience of them. The way a heightened colour pallet was used for exaggerated (cinematic?) drama, how the limited printing process of the time added its own patina and how the images spurred on the imagination, long after the movie had been watched. Kitsch? Definitely, even gloriously so. But they are executed with such affection for the genre that I find them irresistible. Even though my work influences have changed significantly over the years, they still make me smile, and always will. Thanks James Bama and Aurora.

More on James Bama: http://www.bighorngalleries.com/bama.htm

http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid7/bama1.htm

More on Aurora: http://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plastic-model-kit-history/a-brief-history-of-aurora-plastic-model-kits/

More on what happened to the originals (shameful): http://arglebarglin.blogspot.com/2006/06/aurora-bama-box-art-blasphemy.html

UCLAN 2011 Exhibition

UCLAN Y3 Exhibition: Spent a very pleasant morning catching up with Steve Wilkin who is the course leader of the BA Illustration course at UCLAN in Preston. I enjoyed a good few years teaching at the Uni with Steve and his team. Certainly very interesting to be back in the academic environment for a short time, catching up with student progress, the course evolution and how the nature of University funding is changing (for the worse - much worse) in relation to the new fee structure. Its show time of course and the Year 3 bods have their graduation exhibition now open to the public. Overall its a mixed show, but there are stand out artists and potential stars in the making. The course has gone from strength to strength over Steve's ten year role as course leader, turning out some of the finest UK based illustrators working today. To name check just a few: Rachel Goslin, Danny Allison, Jay Taylor, Angela Swan, Liam Derbyshire Ben Tallon and Kate Pankhurst. Being in the Y3 exhibition room brought back the memory of the frantic last minute preparation, student panic and the relief of completing it all. Wistful sigh! Great to see that the course is thriving with Steve at the helm and his teams passion for the subject appears undiminished, despite the challenges ahead regarding Uni funding etc. Well worth a looksee if you are in area :-)

Storybook

Occasionally projects come along that just raise the spirits. This was one. I was contacted by Art Director Rob Story who is putting together a bound sketchbook of his favorite artists drawings / sketches, to be presented to his two boys when they are older. A lovely idea. I thought it would be interesting to contribute sketch ideas for a proposed set of promo / experimental pieces that will go on to be finished paintings or promo illustrations, the format yet to be decided. At the moment I have no idea how they will develop, only knowing they will move forward - somehow. As its such a personal project Rob wants to keep the website available to the contributors only and out of the public domain, but he has kindly allowed me to share my drawings in my newsfeed. Anyways, a lovely project to be a part of and thanks to Rob for the invitation. More on Rob: http://therobstory.com/

Here's a brief snippet from one of the email exchanges:"Hi Rob. Well, I've finally finished the drawings..! Sincere apologies for the delay in getting them done. Drawing for me is a purpose solely to get to the finished painting or digital illustration, so I didn't want to just 'knock something out' quickly. To me, that would just not feel right somehow, and be a false representation of how I work. So, I waited until the decks were clear and could start planning a series of experimental images, loosely exploring concepts about passing ideas down the generational line. Making the sketches working drawings to progress to either a painting or digital illustration. That way there is a creative lineage to a finished image or even a series (who knows where the direction will lead) from the sketches. But the important issue being, these drawings are very early in that creative process. Concept genesis if you like. So they are fresh and also part of 'something', rather than just a dashed out doodle. Nothing wrong with that approach, just not how I work really. Anyway, enough rambling, time to get busy! "

Radio Times: Wind In The Willows (A Change in the Willows)

Here's a set of beloved characters that I would probably never have considered tackling independently of commission. Somehow I would never have associated my work with Kenneth Grahame's Wind In The Willows, but I'm very pleased that the powers that be at the Radio Times thought otherwise. From the synopsis:

"A Change In The Willows reunites the beloved characters of Kenneth Grahame's seminal The Wind in the Willows for an all new adventure, written by Ian Buchan.

Toad is back on a spending spree and dismissive of his friends until he needs their help for a rather irritating ghost problem. Ratty finds himself flooded out of his riverside home by rising river levels.

Mole tries to understand the link between the pang in his stomach and the desire all animals have to be amongst their own kind. And good old Badger is upset that nobody listens to him and his friends take him for granted.

The cast stars Tim McInnerny as Toad, Stephen Mangan as Mole, Julian Rhind-Tutt as Ratty and Andrew Sachs as Badger."

A really interesting commission all round, a real challenge and great to be stretched with the subject matter. Out on the news stands today.

Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide

I'm very pleased to be able to report that I had a piece selected for the Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide. I really enjoyed looking through the superb work on display in this beautifully designed book. A really varied cross section of working styles representative of how the illustration profession stands at the beginning of 2011. A privilege to be part of.

If you have visited this news feed before you may remember the image, originally commissioned by the Radio Times and featured in this post: Radio Times: Tosca. So a great big thanks go out to Jacob Howard at the Radio Times for the commission and all of the final jury members who allowed my work to be featured with such illustrious company.

Here's a brief description from the Lürzer's Archive bulletin...

More than 1,100 illustrators applied for inclusion in what is now the fourth special to be entitled "200 Best Illustrators," with no fewer than 6,075 submissions having been received. Yet – as the name itself suggests – only 200 actually made it into the selection. In a volume numbering 326 pages, we present you with exceptional illustrations produced during the past two years from around the world. Incidentally, the cover of this new edition comes from India or, to be more precise, from Taproot India, Mumbai. The name of the illustrator who produced it is Anant Nanvare. What particularly pleases us, as a publisher dedicated to showcasing the best advertising from around the world, is the fact that this illustration originally appeared as part of an advertising campaign (featured in issue 3/10). The motifs for Transasia Papers were also awarded a Golden Lion at Cannes in 2010.

For more info: Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators.

Radio Times Christmas Edition: "Old Harry's Game"

Devils. Don't you just love them? Well, I do anyway! Always enjoy depicting 'the dark one' when I get the opportunity, and this commission proved no exception. Published in the Christmas edition of the Radio Times this week, it accompanies a new series of the show "Old Harry's Game", set in Hell, where Satan decides to ban Christmas in the first of two episodes. The opportunity to depict a grumpy Satan festooned with Christmas decorations was simply too good to miss!

There were a few variants along the way, mainly a couple of simpler versions where the background content was reduced to concentrate visual focus on the head, but they did not quite have the overall atmosphere I was after. All three shown for reference. A big thank you to the Radio Times as it was a pleasure to work on from start to finish. Published and out this week in the double Christmas edition of the Radio Times.

Footbal Heroes Gold.

I'f you've visited this news feed before, then you may remember the Football Heroes Gold project I contributed to a while back. The printed version arrived this week and it looks very good indeed. Available to buy at selective bookstores worldwide: ISBN # 9783952308882 . Wonderful to see all the other artists work in the book too, where the illustrations are of a very high standard indeed. I feel very lucky to have been one of the 45 chosen artists. A total pleasure to be involved. A huge great big thanks to Herzglut and Beach for the invitation to take part and of course all of the hard work to see it into production. A few press links that may be of interest...

Anna Goodson.
Maxim

Times Dreams & Nightmare Image 8

Here's the final image in the series and I thought this article written by Simon Winch fascinating. It describes the analysis of seafarers dreams. When on land they they tend to dream of blue skies and calm seas, but when at sea they dream of maelstroms, sea serpents and raging storms. Published today in The Times T2 section, here's a snippet....

"At sea, a sailor’s slumber is overrun with nightmares; but when his trick is done, and he is back at home in bed, then his nights are filled with dreams. This is an axiom well known to all who sail: that out there your sleep is ruined by unconscious fear, but back here is made bliss by the nocturnal pleasures of remembrance and longing."