creative storm

The First Batch of icons

For the first batch, I have made some shapes with paint to create these simple but eye-ctching icons which are now available to download from today.

Both screens show the 12 icons for all versions of mac osx (snow leopard pictured above) and also different flavours of windows (windows 7 pictured below.)

Some Drawings

here are a few drawings I have produced recently, a mixture of pencil and posca pen images mostly created for the show at Berlin.

if you want to see more drawings like this, they have been added to my site or you could have a wee peek on my flickr account as well.

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.

imaginary friends

Recently, I have been rummaging around in old biscuit tins and photo albums, flicking through old polaroids and other old formats which have now got a nice warm yellow cast to them. You know the images that i have been looking at, the ones with the retro charms, the amazing decor, bad taste in clothing and the unintentional compositions taken as more of a snapshot but offers endless possibilities. 

it was with that notion that i decided to draw some of my favorite family photos and illustrate them further. 

here is the first one that i have produced which was an old polaroid of my brother's birthday party, i have kept the drawing simple while also retaining the line in its pure form. the drawing itself is quite small roughly smaller than A4 in size.

it seems a shame that in this day and age of digital cameras the allure of the slightly dodgy photograph has come to an end. though some folk might of discarded the offending photo back at that time, it is still even easier today with just a press of a button. the creative folk of the future might not have the pleasure of marveling at that picture that was once considered awful. much as when i looked back at the images of me and my brother, decked out in home knitted jumpers, you know the ones. the ones with imagery of shaggy dogs with wool made as hair or something with birds (robins were usually the favorite) at the time, some jumpers were considered 'do i have to wear it?' followed by moaning of some sorts, but now i don't think children are even given home made knitted clothing or at least i haven't seen any wearing them. 

anyway, i will be illustrating some photographs which have said jumpers in them in the not too distant future, so stay posted.  

And also have a Happy new year and i hope that all of you have had a good time around this festive season. 

masked dog

just a quick post to finish off, here is another image that some might find strange. though i have finished one more image for the board game series. i am not going to post it until the other image is finished. i think i might end the series at six board games though this depends on whether i can think of other board games that would be interesting to illustrate. 

anyway, should post the remainder of that series mid-week.

icey breath

seems to be that i update this blog on a sort of weekly basis so today i am going to post two entries. for this image i have decided to also show you a close up just to see some of the details that might have been lost while reducing for this blog. i am also showing the original drawing which i altered to the finish piece above.

here is a slightly close-up of the image as i feel that some of the patterns and fine lines are kinda lost when outing them for the web. (in some cases)

And here is the original drawing of the boy.