Good/Bad weather

I Thought I'd better post something just to say that i'm still alive and that image making is still my game, for now anyway.

As with most of my work, this piece started off as going to be something completely different. Initially this was going to be a multi-coloured lightening bolt being held by a hand with some clouds at the base. but as always I just go nuts with my instincts and create things on the fly (which is something i do a lot, i guess i'm hooked on instant 'on the fly' decision making!) and came up with this above and below, an image that flips with the rain cloud and the sun acting as flowers in these chaps lapels. And thats not all, take a closer look and see the texture within that flash and all the other elements.

I need new postcards and this was the sole reason that this image came to be. Postcards to tell the illustration universe that i still exist so it looks like i'll be ordering them this week. along with other goodies/bribes for those art directors (if you want some of this gear once its in mineral form just email me and i'll send them over.)

Other things that i'm planning to make are desktop icons for both windows and mac and once i've figured it out, a screensaver (yes way make a wallpaper when you can make something that moves and at the same time make it ten times more harder for yourself!).

Introducing the Mr. Wicker-Man news widget

Just a small piece of news which is as of today, an rss news widget is now available to download. So if you are using mac osx (starting from tiger and above) and want to catch news about me and my work then this widget is here to help.

Here is a direct link to download the widget.

Another small piece of news is for folks using iphones,ipod touches and ipads i guess. I've now created an icon that is used if a link is added to the home screen. it is a handy feature if you visit any site often though I think once iphone os 4 is out these links could be organised into folders which is great for the folks on the go who want direct links to their favorite sites and have them organised in this way without going through each and every section of the home screen.

here's a small pic of the icon on it's own.

that's it for now. Once I've experimented a bit more there might be some more goodies coming this way.

introducing Mr. Wicker-Man

Its been something I've been thinking about doing for a while but I've decided to retire my previous logo for something else, so as of today I have started using the new design above.

Other things to sort out next is a complete revamp of the website which will happen soon once i've decided what is the best way to present the site to the masses.

Stay tuned for more info on this and other things that are in the pipeline.

Alas, our planes were no match for their mighty dust

I created this one earlier this week which was first seen on my flickr account, so that nobody misses out on seeing some of my work, i'm trickling it down the road of blogging and so on. Eventually appearing on a revamp of my own website at some point.

Anyway, this piece was made in response to the news late last week and early this week of all flights from the UK and other parts of Europe being cancelled over the volcanic ash descending from an erupted icelandic volcano named Eyjafjallajokull (bit of a mouthful, well to me anyway). The ban has now been lifted since then but has caused a large backlog of flights to and from the UK.

I created this piece with a mixture of paint, cut-paper while the up-side-down planes were all drawn with a posca pen.

Between the Time when the Oceans Drank Atlantis

When I was starting to create this one the debate was whether to make the character in the he-man universe or in Conan's. I think there's a lot of He-man based pieces floating and I'm sure I heard of an exhibition based on interpretations of the He-man universe so i thought I'd give the love to Conan instead. I admit that i'm not one for fantasy, its just that i wanted to create something in that setting for a change.

It Belongs in a Museum

Another one, this time in super wide-screen and also brought to you in glorious Technocolor.

As A kid I loved the Indiana Jones movies and still do (except the recent one which should of had a better storyline and created around about the time of the original trilogy.) This is not only referencing the indy films but also the old adventure reels which influenced the trilogy as well as the trademark outfit which was combined long before indy adorned that fedora.

I've made the image resolution a bit bigger to help show off some of the textures/details in this piece so everyone can see what went into this piece.

The Adventures of Link

Here's something that has taken a couple of days to finish to the piece that you see before you. It's made up of a lot of textures, paint marks, you name it, it's in there. I have to say my favourite parts are the bats with their mono-eyes and blue ears.

I'm kind of Fantasising here but I think these bats would make a great vinyl toy with wings which can be put into any pose, so that you could rap the wings around the body and so on. For the packaging I would have them hanging upside down for the fun of it (and to confuse the folks stacking them, ha ha).

Does anyone know or can give any advice on trying to get a vinyl toy made or anything about getting involved in the designer toy industry?