The Silver Darlings cover & MA show

First off, apologies for the distinctly spartan nature of blog posts lately. I have been furiously drawing, painting and making imperceptible tweaks on Photoshop to prepare for my MA show (more on this later) and to get my book The Silver Darlings ready to print later this year. The book is being published on Blank Slate's awesomely diverse Chalk Marks imprint and I'm delighted to be in the company of some mega talent there. All credit to Kenny Penman and the team at Blank Slate for supporting new creators with such a luxuriant platform...On that note if you haven't already I'd recommend picking up Joe Decie's book The Accidental Salad, his off-key observations brightened an otherwise dismal tube journey and beyond. 


The illustration topping this post is for the wrap-around cover to my Chalk Marks book and below is the hardcover mock-up for my MA show, for which I liberally borrowed from the style of European graphic albums.

Finally on the subject of my MA show, it kicks off tomorrow (2nd September) and runs all the way through to the 8th. Please come on down to Camberwell to take a look and in case you want a preview of some of the work on show saunter over to this link.

The harbour

The calm before the storm...a panel from The Silver Darlings.

It comes calling

I haven't posted much sketch work, but yesterday my brain seized up whilst trying to puzzle the jigsaw of a tricky page layout, so I drew this instead. Just went straight in with the pen, funny how I often enjoy something more if it's not been laboured with pencil.

Toils of a Fisherman

A recent panel of fishermen mending their net from The Silver Darlings.

A Restorative Dredd

A quick sketch, just to freshen up between drawing fisher-folk.

Confronting perspective

I've never really gotten on with tools for rendering perspective, but this viewpoint forced my hand.

A Cricket in Distress

Thought I'd update with a detail of an elegantly dressed but feverishly panicked  cricket whilst I work on my comic.

Hansel and Gretel

A recent illustration for an upcoming production of the Hansel and Gretel opera - A brief respite from writing a doubtless ground-breaking research paper. I'm now in the final stages and then it's open seas for my current comic project.

A Stuck Herring

Potential cover image for my upcoming comic 'The Silver Darlings'. The image is of a herring run through with a white handled gutting knife.

After Donald McGill

A poster created for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama's upcoming production of Albert Herring http://boxoffice.rsamd.ac.uk/peo/show.asp. Given the parochial tone of this comedy about a period of social change in an East Suffolk village, Donald McGill's saucy sea-side postcards seemed the perfect inspiration. A fleeting departure from ink and watercolour, this was created largely in Photoshop as I wanted it to have a more 1950s/60s travel poster style about it to reflect the setting.