Another photo from a beautiful beach in Menorca, with the most crystal clear turquoise water I've ever seen. I really like this picture of various tiny people seen from above - enjoying the water. I have to fight hard not to put turquoise into every illustration I do - it's my favourite colour.

The next commission was another one for Health and Fitness Magazine. I really enjoy getting free rein on an illustration and creating a visual solution for a large article, and this was no exception. It was about the environment harming your health in various different ways. In stark contrast to the previous job I completed (below) my other slightly more humorous style worked well, with the fast food, and all the nasty things chasing the jogger.
Using my old typefaces seemed to really bring the illustration together, and my craft paper base seemed apt for the organic food bit.
I love that base green colour (inspired by a burger t shirt I have)
Changes were needed - the main one being the car - I was dubious if I could get it to look right, to be a character and being cute at the same time, but I was very pleased with the results. The rubber stamp type addition at the clients request matches the font that is used in the article.

Not had chance to blog for a while, been so busy, with a backlog of work that came in all at the same time whilst I was away. First was this article about being control freak in the home for Sainsbury's magazine. The idea was from them, which is sometimes tricky making it work exactly how the client envisions it. I suggested the house like a dolls house - as I like to work from a central image - I find it aesthetically more pleasing.
This is the first draft before some changes were made, the house was moved to the side to avoid the gutter (something you have to remember) so everything was moved around slightly.
For the feel of the image, I was thinking about old Brad Holland illustrations from years ago. For anyone that doesn't know, I think he's the godfather of modern concetpual illustration. So many people have been influenced by him (some have based their whole careers on emulating his work). His style and use of colour of course is superb, but more important than that - it's the visual metaphors and striking visual ideas where he shines.

Holidays...

I've been away to sunny Spain,swimming in the sea - I'll post more photos soon.
Since I've come back I've been mega busy with loads to catch up on.
The heat in my little studio is amazing - it's super hot in the UK right now...

Illustrating an article about a "guitar that supposedly once belonged X, was stolen, found it’s way in to Y’s possession and was then purchased from Y by Z. Now X has recognised it and thinks it could well be his guitar and has decided to sue Z."
I did the guitar in question as a homeless tramp, using minimum colours and simple two tone design which I thought made a striking and successful illustration.

It's all about me!

Here's an illustration of what happens when you don't have a clear idea of how you want your illustration from the beginning. The brief was for "a guitar shape/silhouette which is entirely made up of lots of repetitions of the word “ME”. As in “It’s all about ME!”. Mixing lots of different typefaces and/or hand-drawn type."
I started the first one and was not happy with it, so from then on continued with various versions - none of which I was totally satisfied with. In the end I sent them all to the client for some art direction - he liked them all, and was a fan of the Saul Bass inspired ones. But in the end chose the bottom middle one as that seemed to fit the magazine and readership best of all.
Sometimes the simplest of jobs can be the most tricky, with all the elements not working exactly as they should. This is the nature of creative work, it's that ingredient x, that you're searching for, that moment when you just know it's complete.
Incidentally the font I used in the Saul Bass inspired ones is called Hitchcock by Matt Terich and can be found here

Various Characters

I've been doing more and more character work, especially in the US. Perhaps this happy, cute, sweet style acts as light relief against the glum recession news etc.
I guess my two slightly different styles reflect the two parts of my personality as well.

The Bottle

This is an illustration for Guitarist magazine, Art Directed by Phil Millard who came up with the brilliant idea of an elixir in an old apothecary jar, called 'vintage vibe' that would give the player an instant 'mojo' in the same way that reproductions of classic guitars claim to.
It was a great idea, and needed doing properly to justify it.
So I travelled up the motorway to a place called Bygone times in Chorley in Lancashire.
This is an old mill crammed full with loads of 'old stuff' for want of a better word, not really antiques, but really interesting.
They had loads of old bottles and I found just the one, and it was really cheap.
Next I bought some brown sugar and poured it in the bottle, to make it appear like the alixir.
I came home and designed the label, looking at old packaging, and making it look as authentic as I could, distressing the edges.
The next part, was actually photographing it with my trusty Nikon D50 camera.
I took 35 shots in the shoot, and of course the first one was the best!
But I did bring in parts of another photo which I like elements of (the shine and lighting, and the label was clearer.)
Opening the RAW file (essentially like a digital dark room) then cleaning it up in Photoshop was the final piece of the jigsaw.
Phil absolutely loved it, I've found that 99 times of 100, if I love it the client will, and is unlikely to change a lot.

For a magazine article showing growing your own veg, organic food labels, animal welfare, air-miles food travels, and supporting fair-trade schemes etc.
As there were quite a few parts to the illustration, and the client was not exactly sure about the size, I decided to arrange it in blocks, making it easy to change format if need be.
Also they can use parts of it as spot illustrations throughout the article. I was really pleased with the colour combinations and the contrast with the two somewhat disparate parts of my work - the cutesy, and the more serious montage. The client liked the bright colours, the use of the old lettering, and the hand made look in my work. And the craft paper suited this organic theme brilliantly.

This is for an article for Prevention Magazine on receiving computer mailed reminders for annual health screenings. A simple, bright and light hearted illustration was needed by the client. This is the initial piece I have just sent to them. If there are any changes, I shall post those as well, so you can get an idea of some of the amends required by a professional illustrator.

Vintage illustrations

The Encyclopaedia of Illustration compiled by Gerard Quinn has over 5000 illustrations, mainly from the 19th century. It is now out of print, but can be found on second hand book websites. I love it (especially the dog smoking on the cover) and have used it and other Victorian engraving books in my illustrations.
The Dover book shop in London is a brilliant resource for finding these drawings.
For this illustration, the client wanted that vintage look, so it was perfect a perfect job for me, and with the addition of the old distressed paper, the illustration was quickly and easily completed.

Dreams of an English Summer

I've not done any photographs for ages, I thought it was about time. As the summer approaches (thank god!) I created a collage of some pics I took last year in Brighton. I wanted to make the colours over saturated, echoing the picture postcards from the 70's, when the mass printing process always exaggerated the colours, especially the cyan blue skies.
I love the seaside, and all the paraphernalia in the beach shops, the day-glo buckets, spades and little flags. On this piece I've included the quintissential english deckchairs, the fish and chip shop, the pier and the english rose.
Alan Bennett our greatest living writer said that the Union flag always had the best colours in comparison with other countries. I have to agree with him. If you take the obvious connotations out of it, it is aesthetically beautiful.
Also of influence, is the brilliant Magnum photographer Martin Parr, and his book 'Think of England"
I love the over saturated colours and the use of the flag, gaudy exaggerrated pattern and flowers. It is comic, opinionated, and savagely satirical.
http://www.martinparr.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-England-Martin-Parr/dp/0714844543

Keep it simple stupid

An article for Prevention magazine, on the health benefits of part time meat eating, and 'flipping' wheatena cereal into your breakfast for the benefit of your heart. I was especially pleased with the way the colours really sing on the buff background colour. That simple colour contrast can really lift an illustration. I learnt to mix colours properly in cmyk mode several years ago when I first started working for UK greetings. Before then, colour for me was an afterthought. When designing a card range, I often start off with the colour pallette. This book, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Index-Jim-Krause/dp/0715313975/ref=sr_1_1/277-0755917-8532431?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238492197&sr=8-1 The Colour Index is an invaluable source for colour combinations. I tend to mix onscreen in photoshop as well.

I was again inspired by vintage Penguin book covers for this article about Plectrums. I started off with lots of Plectrums, but it didn't work, and was over fussy. It takes experience to say to yourself - this isn't working - start again.
I was really pleased with this simple design - and added the dog eared book cover bends to make it look authentic.

Stress!

This illustrates me perfectly recently (without the hair and glasses) - I've been juggling a few different jobs - both in North America though - so there's been the time difference - which can work to the illustrators advantage regarding deadlines, but it can mean that you're waiting all day for a response for roughs that you've emailed. This illustration is one of a series for the Indianapolis monthly magazine on "How to get rid of stuff" - this particular one deals with: "I am going to read/fix/organize all of that when I have some free time.” All good intentions, of course. But, let’s face it, that ever-rising stack of New Yorkers on your night stand is probably more of a stress trigger"
This is a subject close to my heart - I just love to throw stuff out/give to charity - and my work space has to be fairly tide for me to start work - sad I know! Clearly inspired by Edvard Munch's 'The Scream', I was really pleased with the simplicity of the composition, the balance of colours that really sing - and the addition of the New York Times text - on top.
As usual with the best of my stuff - it came to me quickly and fluidly - after an hour or so - it was almost done.
A few suggestions from the client (add hair and make less baby like) and it was complete.

Turn on, tune in.....

...Play out!
The article was about encouraging people to get out of their bedrooms and playing their guitars in public. I managed to find a fantastic photo from Image bank Corbis.
The style that was needed was 50's advertising. At first the client wanted me to reproduce a similar illustration to 'Lets Rock' (http://scottrhodesillustrator.blogspot.com/2008/12/lets-rock.html) I was happy to do that, but felt like I didn't want to repeat myself - and I could just visualise the illustration more or less as is. This is always a good sign - the most successful illustrations come with a clear idea of what you want at the very beginning. If you don't then messing around for hours with no clear idea is a real bind - and often results in a less strong images (though sometimes happy accidents happen.) Also my best illustrations are executed very quickly because of this.
There is so much inspiration on the Internet, no illustrator has any excuse to be uninspired (though it happens to us all.)
Here's some vintage cigarette ads that were an influence on this project:
http://flickr.com/groups/13876518@N00/pool/

It was a real thrill to do a piece illustrating Motown's unsung musical hero's of mine The Funk Brothers, the studio band who played on all of those tracks I love so much.
I incorporated parts of their signature style - the stars and text and graphics from those wonderful vinyl records, and melded them together using my signature style - old paper and a vintage feel that really suited the subject matter celebrating 50 years of Motown.

The simple (still) Life

And now for something completely different:
I 've long loved still life paintings, since I used to be a painter myself. I'm a much better digital artist though. I love the speed which I can create on the mac, I went back to painting a while ago, and couldn't believe how long it took! It was quite theraputic though.
I've created these works, using my own photography, but with the feeling of those old masters works. I went to a wonderful exhibition of these in 1995 'Spanish Still Life from Velazquez to Goya', at the National Gallery London (book available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Still-Life-Velazquez-Goya/dp/0300063563 )
I was especially taken with the work of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598 – 1664) less well known than his contemporary the great Velazquez.
The book cover above has an element of a still life by Juan Sánchez Cotán who was an major influence on Zuberan's work.
This painting created in 1600 has such beauty in its visual impact and the compostition is thought to have been created under strict guidelines of mathematics and geometry.
The natural order, simplicity and balance appeals to me and is something I always try to achieve in my own work.
I try to not put too much in that over complicates, and spoils the composition.
I love a lot of modern digital illustration (Vault 49 et al) This stuff is amazing and beautiful.
But it is not me - I like really simple composition and work.
What is not put in is as important as what is put in.

I ate all the Pies!

I consider myself a bit of Pie connoisseur - the inspiration behind todays illustration.
http://www.pieminister.co.uk/ make excellent ones, available at many summer festivals, but the best Pie I ever ate was at the Windmill Pub in Mayfair London, they call their Steak & Kidney variety an "Institute of Pie Excellence" http://www.windmillmayfair.co.uk/

Owls

Part of my on going Hi Cutie range - it's great to do a card range that is none Birthday/Christmas related. Key elements - simple, cute, minimal colour, screen print look, and 'hand painted'.
Even though it's created digitally - I work hard to make it look hand done. I start off with simple clean lines then paint over them for that rough edge. There has been a move away from that 'perfect' finish recently - it just looks to clinical and soul-less.