limited edition print now available to buy at the working proof

This screen print is now available to buy at the working proof. It is a three colour screen print on 285 gsm fabriano so its on nice thick quality paper and is limited to an edition of 50.

you might be able to see the trees from the images above which are quite subtile but they are there if you look close enough.

not only that 15% of sales goes to the 'kids in need foundation' so its also helping a good cause as well.

the print costs $45 and only available from the working proof.

be good

heres a little doodle just for christmas. why E.T? well he's usually on at some point either around christmas or easter.

So for everyone out there, have a great christmas and a happy new year.

the power of the atom

here's something thats been sitting around for a while, has a nice retro theme with painted beakers, tubes and some negative spacing to create the white coat.

Unbreakable now available to buy at howies

The good folks at howies have now put this addition into their catalogue, my 'unbreakable' design now available to buy from howies stores and also through their online store here.

Now before anyone rushes off to buy one there is one catch, and that is its for kids only. So if you want your little 'uns to be the best decked out kids on the street or if you can squeeze into a smaller size knock yourself out. Maybe if this is popular, just maybe howies might print an adult version, who knows.

for anyone still reading this, this image was drawn with 100% posca pen in the blue verity then made white by means of alchemy.

the wizard's hat

This was done for the wizard's hat a few months back, I think that this issue was going to be the last of the wizard's hat so this was in the last issue provided it was released.

Basically, because this was a collaboration between the wizard's hat and TOY, the theme was to create imagery in the vein of activity book illustrations. Ranging from mazes to simply colouring in, so as long as it had an interactive element to the illustration, it would be featured in the issue.

With this in mind I produced the image above in the realms of a join the dots activity. It wasn't that difficult to do either, its just a case of seeing the process of creating such an image. Initially, I was going to create a join the dot two-step animation image. there was only one place where I had seen this done and that was an old simpsons sticker album dated around 1991. the album had a mixture of activities included in the back and also a pair of modified 3d glasses used to make the simpsons drawings move in two steps. it was like a mono viewer where you would slide the red filter and then the green filter to cancel out the red/green ink on the page to give the illusion of movement, and it was at the back that this album had a join the dot version of bart using a hairdryer to be done an was something that has suck in my mind as being the only version that I have seen using this type of join the dots.

Ultimately, this fell through due to the wizard's hat requirement was greyscale rather than colour, though I am planning on doing something like this in the future just to see how it turns out.

I've made the image above a bit bigger so I think if anyone wants to try it out can but if not below is what it looks like with the dots joined.

creatures weird and wonderful

Hi all, this one was done for the 'UNICEF Happiness this way' which can be found here.

I'm thinking these would look great as a wooden toy sort of like the pull along ones on wheels. its something I'd like to see about looking into at some point and this includes making vinyl toys. Hopefully at some point in the future.

Going back to this one I think if I was going to make a toy out of the above it would be wooden to add to the retro-ness of the image. Would be great to create something where the end result is an actual object and that includes the packaging.

The question is were to start though.

A brief history of inter-galactic twister

Here's one that was created entirely from within illustrator with the aid of my new and better graphics tablet. Years ago during my student days I bought an A6 graphics tablet and although it was ok once you got used to it the size felt like drawing inside the area of a postage stamp. My new tablet may only be a slight step up to A5 but it has made a vast difference as a comfortable area to work within. This doesn't mean that I'm going to go all Bob Dylan and switch to being entirely digital, its just another tool to create images with.

Anyway, the image above was based on the initial idea of creating astronauts/cosmonauts poking out of various black holes. But right at the beginning I changed this to reflect a funkier version of twister, which to me suited this piece more while also adding a bit of colour and making the overall feel of the piece more fun.

have you seen this person

Here's a bit of fun. I started out drawing each strand of hair then accompanied the drawing with cut out shapes to make this mock missing poster with hand painted type thrown in for good measure. the mouth part was cut out of some old scraps of a screenprint which ended up making this buck tooth look.

the league of inter-dimensional gentlemen

hello one and all, any one who popped over to this blog later on yesterday might of witnessed the new blog header adorning this site now. I felt its time to put the last one to rest since it was created during the minor refresh when my actual site still had its grey background. in the new one I decided to downplay the 'scott balmer illustration' part to something that can be seen but doesn't overpower the piece, I was also considering leaving the text out altogether but felt it was better to have some reference on who's blog it is.

Anyway, since finishing off the piece for the Wizard's Hat issue i've been playing with using linear forms with a mixture of geometric shapes to make interesting comps and thus 'the league of inter-dimensional gentlemen' was born. I seem to like giving things long names maybe for my next piece i'll devise a name that will be the longest subject title in blogger but we'll see.

As for the wizard's hat and a few other commissions, i'll post something (including roughs) about these once they have been featured in their intended publications before revealing anything about them.

all toasters, toast toast apparently

Hey all, been busy working on commissions along other projects and still am but thought it might be better to put something new up on the blog for all to see.

The image above was going to be used as a new set of promotional postcards focusing mostly on different forms of hand generated type for something a bit different. If you're wondering why using text such as 'all toasters, toast toast' then you obviously haven't witnessed the abomination that is Hotel Mario on the philips cdi. the game, much like the cdi zelda games are so bad that they're good. Both feature fully animated scenes but the dialogue in all three games are just plain stupid. Don't believe me, search for zelda cdi and hotel mario in youtube to see what i mean.

Anyway, this gem of a quote stuck in my mind as it was fantastically a stupid scene (from Hotel Mario) with a stupid quote but also brilliant in itself. This image uses a photograph of an actual piece of toast (got weird looks for taken a picture of toast but hey you get away with doing weird things in this business.) with hand painted type and some simple shapes to finish it off.

The one below is also done in a similar way but with a potato instead. This time the quote is from one of the zelda cdi games in which the king seems interested more in dinner than saving some far off land.

There are other gems (ganon seems quite daft with his grrrrrrrreatest pronunciations, he also says die a lot) I might make a few more based on these quotes.

more from Zine A

Above is my copy of zine A from Jake Blanchard through the outfit named Tor Press. I thought that since I have received my copy that I would show my contribution to the zine. I always think its better to wait until the publication is out before putting anything up since the exclusiveness should really fall on the the client, event or group rather than putting it up before its even out in the wild.

below shows my contribution to Zine A (the image on the right) along beside Jake's nice african tribal piece.

This image was created by using nothing by triangles, it may look a bit different from what I usually do but I don't see it that way as I work with shapes, all of my pieces are about how one shape relates to another while also considering the negative space around said shapes. I like to think of it as putting together a jigsaw puzzle where parts have to feel right and relate to one another within the space.

here is a closer look at the image I contributed to the zine.

One more thing, there exists another image similar to the one above which will be appearing as a screen print and should be available through the Tor Press website in the not too distant future. So until that time, I'll show it to the world when its been green lighted but I will say that it is another animal in the form of a water based one.

Another thing is that I'm also planning on making a series of these animal type images and possibly something in the form of prints but we'll see.

Zine A by Tor Press

Zine A is the first in a series of zines by Tor Press, each zine will focus on one individual letter of the alphabet where artists/ illustrators/ designers create imagery around the letter stated for the zine.

Zine A features imagery created by the 23 selected artists/ illustrators/ designers (including myself) around the theme of the letter A.

Contributers include:

Stuart Kolakovic
Jake Blanchard
Bjorn Rune Lie
Ornamental Conifer
Matthew Green
Sophie Kern
Lizzy Stewart
Tom Fewings
Edward Mcgowan
Seiko Kato
Rachel Lattimore
Partly Civil
Wizards Hat
James Lunn
Richard Clarke
Nicholas Saunders
Scott Balmer
Gemma Correll
Eleanor Grosch
Holly Wales
David Callow
Bob London
Marcus Oakley

Zine A is now available to buy from the Tor Press online shop.

For anyone that wants to visit the Tor Press website can find it here.

FFF brand spanking new site

Hi there, FromFiftyFive has just removed the covers from its newly designed website today. For those who don't know FFF is a design / creative / inspiration blog which showcases a mixture of creative content from around the world. FFF is not just another design blog though as it also allows through its interactive elements storage and exchange of ideas while also getting creatives together encouraging collaboration and then some.

Through the TOY label, Me and the other members of TOY were asked to design the image header at the top of the site, the idea was that FFF would invite folk to design the header which would then change now and then. And TOY was selected as the first to design the header. My design is up first and will then be followed by the other members of TOY.

All the headers are linked to the creator's site so in this case this will take you to the portfolio on the TOY website.

Couple of illustrations done for The Guardian

Hi all, above is an illustration that was done for the Guardian which was featured on Monday's G2 supplement. the article was fro the Digested Read Column which was featuring the Book 'Voodoo Histories' by David Aaronovitch.

In short the book in question's subject matter was that of conspiracy theories. Because the column itself is more quips on the book in general, there was a lot of different and interesting subject matter written for me to work my magic on.

The General idea was to make the image in the same vain as a james bond/spy type of thing with different references to parts of the article such as aliens, secret cults and mystic orders, the all seeing eye, WMD's deaths and mob connections all thrown into one image.

I really enjoyed working on this one, its always good on getting something interesting to illustrate and with a bit of the bizarre thrown in for good measures.

here a Second illustration done for the Guardian featured in last Friday's G2, as part of the Anti-natal Column. this time is was an article based on subtexts form within children's books.

for this one it was a combination of theories based on the children's stories mentioned mixed with a more suitable children's book type of illustration, innocent in part and dark in others.

Again, this was another one that I enjoyed creating, this one s already up on my newly designed site and will be adding the other one soon.

Out with the old...

And in with the new website filled with new work and with new visuals around the whole site.

About last week I was thinking about putting up a screen grab of a part of the new design to show that it was near the finishing stage as a sort of preview but thought it would be best to post about the new site when its live.

One thing to note is that i have decided not to have a splash screen this time round, so if anyone linked to the main page to avoid the slash screen will need to change it so that they can see the new site.

And finally, the Story Motel Exhibition Starts Tonight at the Owl & Lion Gallery which will showcase artist's books and zines from around the world.

Story Motel Exhibition

Hi all,

The Story Motel exhibition is a collection of artist's books and zines created by participating Artists/illustrators from around the world. These self published works range from the low level zine to different forms of artist's books. In sort its a celebration of the book form as a means of artistic discovery.

for my contribution to the show, I have produced a screen printed zine going by the name of 'Untamed World'. This book is mono in colour to stay true to form of the zine, each book is also unique to one another because of the screen printed nature due to the way the ink has settled on the paper. Another thing is that there are only 36 of these zines up for grabs.

so where and when is this exhibition? its at the Owl & Lion Gallery in Edinburgh opening on the 14th of May and running until the 12th of June. heres a link to the Owl & Lion site.

And heres the address below:

OWL & LION

15 Grassmarket

Edinburgh

Scotland

UK

EH1 2HS

Above is an albino version of the character on the front cover that have I just made, later on I will be uploading parts of the book in all its glory in the not too distant future.

marvin's magical squeeze box

Hi all, still got a lot of things to do and still got to get the finger out and do some minor updates to the site such as adding new work. I've also created a flickr account though haven't added anything yet so once there are images up there i'll make a post and also create a link in the side menu.

the maps haven't been printed yet due to printing problems but they should be out soon so no post on the images just yet. I'm guessing that early may will be when they are released into the wild for all to see.

i'll keep you posted on things going on and to get this blog back to having regular posts.

I'm not dead yet...

...just been super busy with things.

I was going to put up some roughs and images that were created to be used for two travel maps for London though because I honour the fact that the client should at least be the first to unleash these images to the world, i can't put anything up until the printers have got their fingers out of their asses and printed the maps ready for them to go into the wild.

above is another commission, this time for the new NYT blog called 'The Choice' where i was tasked with designing the logo. The blog, along with the writer appeared on 'The Today show' in a short interview where there was a few screen shots of the blog and of the logo. which was nice.

for anyone interested. here is the link to the interview.

as for other things, still a lot to do and so little time.

A sailors life is a life for me

Heres a new image which was mostly inspired by the character design of Popeye or mostly his bulging fore arms. The character design of Popeye is an interesting one, he is probably the only character that I have seen where they have used large fore arms against the pole like biceps. 

On another note, I am planning on updating the work on my website soon. I prefer doing hearty updates so this will include a lot of new work both self promotional and Commissioned pieces. I don't know when the ETA will be but more likely to be in a few months time.

Target Practice

I initially started this image with the intensions of creating a very muscular indian behind possibly a small indian chief (might still make another image based on that concept) but after cutting out the shape of the head, it seemed to better suit that of a child and so i developed it further with the 'william tell' esque idea of the apple on top.

As for the background, the idea of the tepees, trees, etc in the background was already set but at first i was going to keep most of the back ground white. further down the line though, after adding the stream it seemed better to add a nice neutral colour to help bring out the nice vibrant colours in the character in the foreground.

Do Bears Poop in the Woods

Here's a bit of fun using only two colours.

This is Toy

This is Toy is a collective of illustrators for commissioned projects. working in the range of collaborative projects involving motion, print and screen. 

The website has now gone live and showcases fantastic work from the likes of Jean Jullien, Jon Boam, Chris Martin, Chris Grey, Nicolas Tual and many more including myself. I am honored to be part of an amazing group of talented illustrators.

The Toy site can be found here.

dandy lions

hi all, here's a new image that i have just finished recently. for an added kick, the background shapes are made up of the remaining bits of paper that where used to create the dandy lions with. 

Christmas bobbles for the YCN

Hi all, here are images of the bobbles that I painted on for the YCN Christmas Tree. I was emailed asking if I would be interested in sending them a decoration in exchange for a gift under the tree, the decorations were done just for fun but also could be seen as a bit of promotion at the same time.

First off, I spent a day to decipher what form was the decorations going to be, are they going to be made out of paper, maybe papier mache, what about using something like wood and finally what about using old decorations to make new ones.

After looking around I came across some old bobbles which I decided to go down this path of making the bobbles for the tree, I also thought it would be nice to make more than one to make it a series rather than just sending one to the YCN.

I have to say paining on them is one thing but drawing was a bit awkward in some places as the bobbles weren't perfect spheres but more like that of a disco ball in that both are made up made up of little hexagons. they have come out quite well though and hopefully the YCN are happy with them.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful christmas and a happy new year.