Man and fish in Chip shop Queue....

I wonder what the fish ordered....

Hatch Show influences

These new illustrations were influenced by the Hatch show style, which is an American letterpress print shop that traditionally produced posters often for country artists', and have included work for Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and more up to date, REM.
The first illustration - Steve Cropper came very quickly - often the best designs do - but it helped that I had a clear and bold idea of what I wanted to do. The second, a little more subtle, but worked just as well.

Great British Birthday

3 of my favourite things plus the flag for simply the aesthetic value...

Love Union

Editorial work seems to be scarce at the moment, so I'm concentrating on designing loads of new greeting card designs hopefully to sell..
Mainly (though not exclusively) masculine captions as clients often ask me for these...
The union flag seems to be fashionable at the moment, this has to be a good thing, it is aesthetically pleasing.
See some more here

No no never!

For an editorial illustration about a designer showing his board something different .

Start the day

I always start the day off with a proper coffee - here's an illustration of it...

Print Pattern Book

I'm kind of a split personality when it comes to work.
I started off my professional career almost 20 years ago, as an illustrator, with a job for Granada TV, then an illustration in The Observer magazine, for 'A Doctor writes' column. The thrill of going to the newsagent and buying a copy, and seeing your work in print never really leaves you. I just had that experience when I got a copy of the new Print & Pattern book through the door.
The other part of my work is greeting card and wrapping paper, which I kind of got into by accident in the early 90's working for Lip International.
I started designing on the computer in the late 90's (used to paint before then - by hand) and had a few studio jobs, including Senior designer at Carlton cards
I few years ago I wanted to be freelance again.
This blog is mainly about my editorial work, but of course I still love doing cards & wrap.
So when the Bowie who runs the leading blog on this industry Print Pattern wanted to print my work in her first book, (a collection of the leading print & pattern designers) - I was really thrilled. To be in a coffee table book is a dream of mine, especially when it's of this quality, and other designers are of the standard of Orla Kiely! I really loved my page, how the pieces she chose sit together, and the way it was designed (the logo using my initials are a really lovely touch.)
There's a really interesting article about the huge influence of PrintPattern from last Sundays Independent here
You can buy the book at Amazon here
For anyone who has found this blog from the book, here's lots of more work:
Scott Rhodes Card designs
Scott Rhodes Wrapping paper

Robert Johnson

This was an interesting follow up to the last illustration I did last month about blues legend Robert Johnson. I needed to do it in the same style as it was a continuation of the article. The first attempt really worked, especially the use of the recently found photograph of the man - that the article actually mentions.
However I found out that The Robert Johnson estate charges a high fee to use his image, which ruled that out.
So now we had a problem - I have to illustrate an article about a musician, but we cannot use his image! We countered that problem last month with the brilliant idea of using his shadow on a dusty crossroads - meeting the devil.
However, I was able to replace his image with that of his replica guitar. Just replacing it didn't quite work though, so I had to re structure the whole illustration.
I made more of the envelope, stamp and map - this represented all the traveling he did in his lifetime - and we have the result.
Hopefully the image has the right feel to evoke the history of the blues legend.

Chemistry

For an article about band chemistry, the brief called for a hand drawing of test tubes in an old school rack with different coloured test tubes indicating each element of the band. I loved the idea, but thought a photo would be more effective, I could just picture it in my head. The only problem was that I didn't have any test tubes. After various emails sent out to friends proved fruitless, I took another trip out to Bygone times in Chorley. After at least an hours search and about to give up, I found a set of bath salts that looked the part. I bought some food colouring, but only used one of them (the bright red), the other colours are washing up liquid. After I designed the labels, I spent a day photographing the result, (and in poor light) - and one of the first pics I took had just the right light - after quite a bit of adjusting in Photoshop.
The result is satisfying and has that bright shiny, colourful scientific look that I imagined.
I would not class myself as a photographer, but I can effectively use photography in my illustrations. What's good is being given the freedom to use whatever method fits the specific brief best.

Crossroads

The brief was for an article about following in the footsteps of blues guitarist Robert Johnson and exploring the myth of him meeting the devil at a crossroads. Seeing just his shadow on a dusty southern crossroads was a challenge, but a brilliant idea by my art directors and suited the mood of the article.
I added the shadow of the devil as it needed something more, and was very pleased with the final result- it just had the right 'feel' to it.

Flyer 2010

I had to design a flyer to send to future clients, somehow linking all the elements of my work together, and showing all my skills, but still working as an aesthetically pleasing design that would attract people to my website.

Snowed in

Let it snow.....

Amazing amount of snow fell today.....

A load of old baubles...

The light was amazing today, so I went out to a local park to take these pictures in the snow - which of course reflects the light wonderfully. I hardly tweaked these photos believe it or not - they were pretty perfect from the off.
I was so pleased with the results, I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
You can see more here

Christmas Markets

I went to the Manchester's Christmas markets yesterday for the last time before they leave.
You can seem more Christmas photos here:
The snow is really coming down now....

An article about how a man is having a 'fling' with another guitar.
The 'comic book' style really suited this as a light hearted approach was what was needed.
My big addiction as a child was comics - this style is influenced by years of reading the Beano, Dandy, Buster,Whizzer and chips, and Whoopee!
Life could not really get much better than a pile of my favourite comics, and a bag of sweets!

Doing the Can-can

For an article about if people really can tell the difference in tone between a US made Gibson guitar and one made in the far east. Another great idea from my art directors over at Guitarist magazine. A take on the advert from the 80's 'take the pepsi challenge', the idea was to have two cans of 'tone' exactly the same apart from the 'made in...' at the bottom.
I bought a load of cans to photograph, but the one I used was an amalgam of a red stripe beer can (for the white and red colour) and a coke can - the size and can top. The type is actually the coca cola font. For the finished look, I wanted it to look hyper-real, I remembered some of the art of the photorealists which would often exaggerate the shine and reflections on the surface.
The subject matter reminded me of some of the photo realistic still lives, often things like sauce bottles (like that of Ralph Goings) the great american diner, and pop art.

A new editorial piece.
I really love using two colours and the combination of dots to create the tonal range.
I'm going to create a range around this design. Watch this space....

Nearly a healthy start...

These illustrations were very nearly going to be used for a very high profile advertising campaign for the NHS.
Although the agency chose my style, unfortunately the research carried out did not favour an illustration route in the end - shame, but at least I have some new portfolio pieces.

Two illustrations about killing

The first is a parody of the famous 'Home taping is killing music' from the 70's, but updated for the new century. I thought that a Banksy graffiti stencil style would be apt, interesting and challenging to me.
But it was important that a hand done look was achieved. So instead of doing it all digitally, which would have been possible - I cut out my own stencil and spray painted it, overlaying it on a photo of the wall in my back yard. The final touch of a blood splatter finished it off.
The second was about the 'death' of a limited edition Jimmi Hendrix guitar before production had even begun. It was a brilliant idea by the guys at Guitarist - of a crime scene. But they thought that the grave element was a bit too much. So I went out and took a photo of some flagstones - which I actually ended up preferring - as it's a simpler design.
What I love about having a regular column is having the freedom to answer the brief in whatever medium I choose or combination of. Bringing in more of my photography into the work is really satisfying and adds that further string to my bow.
Sometimes, I am concerned about having such disparate 'styles', as all the most successful illustrator's have a distinct idiosyncratic style.
But doing it differently each time keeps it fresh and interesting to me. In a way it reminds me of the Btec/Foundation course I did in my youth - where in the morning it would be printmaking, afternoon painting etc.
At the end of the day, it's the communication of the idea that counts more than the medium anyway.