Illustration Friday - Envy

Envy : I think everyone's a bit envious of something or someone at one time or another. What you usually find though is that the grass is always greener on the other side.

I decided on another cartoon for my illustration this week, I've been dying to get my big stupid macho character in a cartoon for ages, so I'm pleased he fits in with this theme well!

Without being too deep!, in the cartoon:
One man has everything he needs,
One man has everything he wants,
One man doesn't need anything else.


Click for the full image...Tag: cartoon car

Yugop

If you haven't checked out Yugop.com recently then it's well worth revisiting to see Yugo's new AmazType project that creates a composition using artwork resulting from an Amazon product search - at least I think that's how he does it!

Be sure to while away a few hours playing in the Archives section too for some beautiful and innovative flash projects - my favourite has to be ClockBlock.

tag: flash design

Illustration Friday - Aquatic

I am in no way a 'water' person and I see toe-testing as a very necessary part of getting into any pool!
The original sketch was actually done on a post-it note believe it or not, I removed the yellow and added the colours in Photoshop. I also discovered feet are extremely hard to draw!

Custom Greeting Cards

My creative urge has led me to try and design my own greeting cards this Christmas, whether it happens this year or next is another matter but I'm going to start thinking about it early and give it a shot. They'll only be for friends & family, & it'll probably more expensive than just grabbing a pack from Oxfam but I hope the experience will be rewarding!

I've never done anything like this before, but luckily the folks over at Illustration Friday have been pretty helpful in answering some of my very basic questions, and I think I roughly know what I might need.

Planning - Finding resources in the US is easy but a little harder to track down in the UK, but there's some good tips over at KookyKards and useful info on size codes and envelopes/cellophane.

Designing - hmm yeah still got to do this bit. I hope to have a shortlist created in the next few months. Then I might ask for some feedback on the best one design to carry through!

Printing - Thanks to nic for recommending ThinkInk a UK based printers who very quickly sent me an impressive sample pack. I think when it comes to this stage these guys will do fine.

Finishing - I always think having envelopes that compliment the card colours look far higher in quality than plain white so I might order some extra goodies such as coloured envelopes or cellophane wrappers. Of course, this will have to wait until I'm happy with a design though! I have my eye on SimplyEnvelopes or Mayfair as (after my brief investigations) they seem reasonably priced, though I am open to better suggestions!

Check out these inspiring card sites: TearDrop, BlueTurtleStudio and lots at Bottman - especially Sue Jenkins ones.

Tag: greeting card

Its's One of Those Days

I discovered today I went into work with my pants on inside out. Enough said.

(That's pants in the UK sense by the way, not the USA sense!)

Illustration Friday - Nourishment

The Friendly Giraffe!

This illustration came from playing around with textures and patterns in Photoshop. I wanted to get a crafty 'cut-out' sort of look, but keeping it cartoony at the same time - hence the rather friendly looking giraffe (I hope you can tell that's what it is!)

keyword:cartoon

Illustration Friday - Mischief

Here's my entry for this weeks Illo Friday topic - 'Mischief'. Ideally I would have like to have had a two image 'before-and-after' style cartoon but, hey I'm too slow as it is! I shall therefore leave the 'before' picture to your imagination!
Created from a pencil sketch and tracing/colour in Photoshop.

Tag: cartoon

Climate Change - Fact vs Fiction

Although one can't help feeling a little sorry for the poor old man David Bellamy, a botanist whom I have fond childhood memories of from various wildlife and nature programs, his irresponsible claims that global warming is a load of old rubbish has surely stripped any credibility this bearded environmentalist used to have.

During a rather one-way 'discussion' on the UK's Channel 4 News last night, Bellamy met for the first time George Monbiot who has investigated his claims and found them to be somewhat ropey at best. Monbiot, who was suited up and well prepared, demolished the arguments of Bellamy, who looked like he had just come from the wild himself (and strangely enough seems to be wearing the same set of clothes he did for his 'I'm a friendly old man' photoshoot here.)

Bellamy's 'facts' about glaciers actually growing seem to have originated from about half an hour of surfing the web, and towards the end of the interview Bellamy was practically admitting he didn't get paid to research this topic and hadn't checked his sources out. Surely when the World Glacier Monitoring service has called your ideas bullshit it's not a good idea to try and argue your point more on National News. Better stick to the badger watching Bellamy.

Technorati Tag:Environment

Berlin Here I Come

Berlin is my destination this weekend, mainly to see my fave Jack Johnson in concert seeing as tickets in the UK sold out in half an hour!

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for artwork by Jim Avignon, who apparently is renowned in Berlin and believes all his art should be really affordable. Also I found a portfolio of Robin Max Marder who has some really nice digital illustrations.

Unrelated other than by name, Annette Berlin has some great pastel drawings, and some rather bizarre illustrations of animals.

Hopefully I'll get some time for some airplane doodling, and expect a (biased) review of Jack's gig !

Illustration Friday - Ambition

Had drums on my mind a lot recently what with all the gigs coming up. Hopefully now I've got some down on paper I can think about something else for a little while.

Hopefully this might be suitable for my Illustration Friday topic of 'ambition' too. Learning any instrument has to involve some ambition, and a bit of courage and determination too. The sketch was done with a soft pencil, with the splashes of colour added in Photoshop to add some interest.