The Asahi Shimbun

You might remember from an earlier post that I did a cover back in Feb for the New York Times Magazine? Well its now also been published in Japan in The Asahi Shimbun. It came through the post the other day so I thought I'd take some pics to show you. Tidy.

Oh hello illustrations!

Another product I have refreshed in the Tesco Organic range. Its hard to see here, but the illustrations wrap around the sides of the carton. Here's the cereal bowl up close:

Spuds

Custard Cream!

Here's a little number I painted the other day, for a friend's wedding table plan. It's painted on a mini linen canvas board, they're so cute! There are more to come but I thought the Custard Cream is the daddy of biscuits.

Although personally I am addicted to ginger nuts.

Tesco Organic

Thought it was about time I posted about this! I've been working for quite a while with Tesco creating their artwork for the labels of their organic range.




This is the first product I worked on, a hard one to start with and it's always tricky painting something that is white with watercolour :-/ Below are some other options I presented for the composition with the coconut.

They've had a soft launch of these products so it hasn't been one giant replacement of the whole range...which works out well for me, otherwise I would have a big pile of foods to illustrate and no sleep for a while!

I'll post other illustrations up when they come out in stores. The next one after this was Organic Soya Milk...

Hope you like!

Gardens Illustrated Magazine - February

A little bit behind here woops but here's the spot illustrations I did for BBC Gardens Illustrated February issue. Like the idea of a dead hedge..if only I had some trees...

NY Times Magazine Cover

I was commissioned by Hilary Greenbaum to work on a typographic illustration for the cover of New York Times Magazine (!)

The article is about how your shopping habits can reveal even the most personal information...like when you're going to have a baby.

Here's a link to the article: How Companies Learn Your Secrets

Lots of comments on here too worth reading on the subject. Some people seem really shocked and disgusted, whilst others draw attention to Facebook and other intrusive companies.




Here's a close up of some of the letters made up of packages. This was a lot of fun to work on. wahoo!

Sneaky snippet

Here's a sneak preview at some fruit illustrations I've been working on recently.

Gardens Illustrated Magazine - January

This was published in January of this year, it's a new column by Lia Leendertz in BBC Gardens Illustrated Magazine, mostly about what you can be doing in the garden ( and kitchen) at each month of the year. parsnip cake looks like one to make :)

I'll be posting each issue up with my illustrations when they are out.

A new boozy painting

Commissions taken for your drink of choice x

Well HELLO its been a while!

Bit shocking to realise I haven't put any new illustrations up here since middle of November...ooops sorry followers. I'm not going to bombard my blog with excuses...that's boring.

Looking back 2011 was a really full on year - I had my first solo exhibition, I had a huge number of commissions which I totally wasnt prepared for ! Somehow managed to get it done whilst also marrying my Captain Fisheye in the woods at my mums house with just 4 months to plan everything.




It was such a special year and I was sad to reach the end of it, which of course lead to a BIG spell of January blues...urgghhh.

I felt I've learnt a huge amount this past year, the real aspects of working for yourself, as well as working in the illustration industry. Its not easy being the illustrator, the sales-man, the advertising-man, the social-media-man, and the accountant all at the same time as I'm sure many of you know. It's taken a long time, but I feel a lot more confident about my work, and also dealing with clients. Last year I won a nice big contract with Tesco illustrating all of their Organic Food labels, so I'll be posting those up when they come out.

I'm excited to see where 2012 will take me and my work, and what I will learn. I'm hoping to push out into new avenues and be more proactive with drawing. Drawing drawing drawing.

I've recently joined the twitter world and have also been regularly updating my behance portfolio site which I have found to be really good as its so a global.

Here are some links if you'd like to follow my updates.

Twitter
Behance

Please keep in touch and let me know what you think of any artwork I post up- good or bad! X

Illustration for TAM

What a nice thing to get in the post on a grey day like today. This issue of Tam Nas Nuvens ( the in-flight magazine on TAM airlines) was all about Mexico... so of course there had to be an article on peppers. I've illustrated 6 different types here, and also painted a giant pepper being carried by 3 Mariachi's.

The publisher even posted a mini photo of me with a silly blurb I made about how much I like chilli's. Hope you like!

Mini open studio event THIS WEEKEND.

This will be a Christmassy event held in my friend Sarah Harvey's studio, there are 5 of us all together so expect to see a lot of work... I'll have some original paintings, greetings cards and also a sparkly new set of giclee prints for sale.

The studio is part of the old timber yard in Eridge, which is easily reached behind Eridge train station, off the A26 main road which runs from Tunbridge Wells to Brighton.

Be nice to see you there :-D

New studio + painting + strawberry wine = good weekend.

Here it is..aint it cute?



I've been looking for a studio for ages, they're hard to find around here. but its finally happened... Theres no running water and it'll take a bit of getting used to but its very central so hope to be able to open it to the public some weekends.





Ive been painting carrots for a current commission, I cant show you all of it just yet!

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN....

Illustration from beyond the grave..wooo ooooo...

Pumpkin Soup time!

Thought I would post this up and then realised its quite fitting as its halloween soon of course.
This is a project I've been working on for a guy called Didi who is starting up an organic food and beverage company in Australia.



The logo and title of the soup are cut out of the illustration which works really well, I masked the text out with masking fluid and painted the pumpkin over the top. I like the hand-painted feel but the company wanted it to be a bit more slick so they decided to place the text digitally over the top of the illustration instead, so they look more like this:





It started with a pumpkin soup, and now the range has expanded to tomato soup, lamb soup, chicken soup, moroccan chickpea soup - and baked beans...more to follow when they go into production...

Illustrated M&S Cookery Bibles

Last year I was commissioned to create the cover artwork for M&S's series of cookery bibles which are published each year...and so you can imagine how excited I was to see them sitting proud on the top shelf in store last week!


The illustrations were painted using airbrush inks which give brilliant results & vibrant colours, once I get warmed up with painting the inks then go everywhere and that's when they get messy and splashy!


This was my favourite cover to do - the Baking Bible. I have to paint from life and real objects so had to make a big fluffy victoria sponge cake. I'm not the best cake maker but it rose up nicely and I'm pretty sure the number of eggs I used was unhealthy..
Here are some of the other cover pieces:

Thirsty work

I haven't posted in a while as I've been busy doing this...

and this!

The illustrations are for an outdoor campaign for one of Portugal's leading suppliers of drinking water - Agua Serra da Estrela. The artwork depicts the Portuguese mountain range, including typical cheeses, a shepherd with his sheep and the unusual dome shaped hotels found in the mountains.

I wasn't used to painting landscapes but I loved painting the water and of course daydreaming about holidays in Portugal mmmm.

I also hand-painted the lettering which translates as 'one of the best things coming from the mountain' . These are now live throughout Portugal on billboards, bus shelters ...oh yeah and online :)
A review can also be seen here

Olympics illustration No.2

Currently taking part in...

Find me at Saltmarsh Studio
32, Monson Road
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1LU
Monday to Saturday from NOW until 18th June!
I have lots of new work to see! x