G&B.

So here's some of the pieces I did for the Christmas period! A little trio of portraits of my friend's Greg and Bee for Bee's Secret Christmas Present of Awesome. As you can imagine I had to keep pretty quiet about it up until Greg had given me the all clear.

More to come soon! (It should be more pieces but it'll most likely be me sharing my knitting prowess with you. But there was stripes. That deserves a post.)

See you soon!

H

Christmas Cards 2011!

Hello all!

Sorry I've been quiet for so long - it's been a rather hectic month I'm afraid. 

I've been working to finish my research paper (which is finally done and dusted!), make quite a lot of Christmas presents for people (which will be uploaded once they've been opened by the recipients), working on a few commissions (I'll upload what I can), working and (obviously) making Christmas cards for people. 

I was perfectly fine with this workload, but my body organised a mutiny and punished me with a rather nasty dose of Tracheitis.

I'm currently bundled up in bed with a mug of hot Ribena (throat soother of champions) and strong antibiotics. I've actually been stuck in bed since last Tuesday with the monotony only broken by two doctors appointments and my mum turning up at my house, rolling me in a duvet, and driving me to hers to be fed chicken soup and worried about at a shorter distance. I must've looked (and sounded) pretty rough on Skype.

Anyway, that's enough of that - I thought this year instead of the usual style of Christmas card I'd go a slightly different direction and do a narrative based comic-card. Undoubtedly the many new graphic novel artists at uni this year are having an influence!

It's designed to be printed on both sides of an A4 sheet, slit in the middle, and folded so it creates a little book that can then be unfolded to see the poster inside.

This little piece is done with black and grey ink pens on paper and then photocopied on to some nice laid paper (I love that stuff). There was a run of 50 in total.

You might recognise it coz it's the same process I used for the 'Le Petomane' piece in my portfolio that Jonny Hannah taught us at Kingston Uni.

See you soon! Sooner than last time in any case ;)

H

Hannah for the Hub!

Incredibly exciting! I got to go on a TV show at the National Film and Television School called the Hub and do a live piece! They made me a massive board to work on - 6ft by 3ft - I started at half two and finished it on the show at half 5. I was so incredibly nervous, especially about the interview part but it went really well.

I really like how the piece came out (obviously looking back the next day I can already see things I'd change lol) but considering I was trying not to pass out from anxiety I'm pretty chuffed.

I've never really worked this big before, or really in this way (colour first, then line) but it's actually really fun and I think it works for my work. Maybe I'll get the chance to work like this again in the future - I certainly hope so!

This fellow is done in a mix of emulsion, acrylic and Posca pens.

I'm still waiting for the footage to put on here but I'll keep you updated!

See you soon!

H

Symposium DRAW DRAW DRAW!

Hellooo!

So I've started back at uni now for my final year (eeeky squeal!) and it's brilliant to be back. Everyone that's joined the course this year a really high standard as I learnt when we sat in the studio for two days and went through everyone's work. There are about 50 new people so it was pretty intense, but good. To help me get better at drawing people quickly (and to give me a sporting chance with everyone's name. I am pants with names.) I drew everyone as they showed their work.

This resulted in what I would term my scrappy MUST DRAW QUICKLY way of working, and also gives you a bit of an insight to my inner monologue (and which parts I pick up on when people talk), for which I apologise profusely.

I'm currently trying to knuckle down and get on with my research paper, so posts may be slightly less frequent in the next few weeks until I've finished that but enjoy!

See you soon!

H

So yeah. I made this.

In the slightly odd place now where I want to show you guys this, because it's something I made and enjoyed making but I'm also slightly embarrassed about it coz the whole idea was a bit... nice. And for some reason I, in all my Britishness, go all pink when people catch me being sweet and mushy.

But anyway.

I made this book for my friend Shannon (who has appeared several times throughout this blog and is, as i have mentioned, the awesome artist of shannondtaylor.com) because she went back to America this autumn (...fall... whatever.) to get married. And as San Francisco is quite far from London, and she's left a lot of friends behind, I thought it'd be nice if she could have a book of all their wishes for her on her wedding day. (Although apparently her mum gave it to her the day before so she wouldn't cry all over her dress.)

Thanks to all who were in on the secret and wrote in the book and special props to Mamma Ingraham for being super-sneaky-awesome about the whole thing.

Enjoy... and I promise to upload something grittier next time lol.

See you soon

H

Bears and Bones

Hello there!

Just a little look at some sample pieces I did for a client's possible collaboration with Converse. They're not going to use them now, but I liked them so much I thought I'd pop them up here!

Crazy busy at the mo, just enrolled for my final year of MA so time to get stuck in! Nerve-racking, but good.

See you soon!

H

National Museum of Scotland

Hey hey!

Here's a little location piece I did while I was on holiday in Scotland. Went to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and it was abso-bloomin-lutely fantastic. I was only there for a day so unfortunately I didn't get to go round all of it, but I'm definitely going back if I get the chance!

So here's my scary, smiley crocodile, and I'll see you soon with more work!

H

Nightmares at the Museum of Childhood

Hey hey!

So I went to the Museum of Childhood down at Bethnal Green today with fellow illustrator Shannon Taylor (Ingraham as was - ch-ch-check it - shannondtaylor.com) where they have their current "Stuff of Nightmares" exhibition on. At first you think it's kind of funny with its mismatched dolls and papier mache trees and ravens, but if you sit there for a long time with all these creepy misshapen toys staring at you while the eerie woodsy sounds play it actually makes you feel a bit weirded out.

Kudos to the V&A: they actually managed to get me to draw something vaguely tense and foreboding instead of colour-happy-joy-joy.

Hats off also to all the parents not afraid to risk the screaming of their children. Although there's a distinct possibility that all parents loose all ability to react to loud noises. The ones today certainly seemed unconcerned at the din of what felt like several hundred kids in one large, but confined, space.

Anyways, see you soon!

H

Work In Progress - Henry VIII

Hey hey lovely people!

Here's the sneaky peek I promised you into the work I'm doing for my MA project! This jaunty Henry is going to be part of M's page. Yeah, you guessed it... Matrimony! Definitely his favourite thing.

I wanted to wait until the page is done but every time I look at him I giggle a little bit so I had to share it with you.

Enjoy! And see you soon!

H

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Hey hey!

Here's the piece I entered into the Penguin Design Award this past year! I'm really pleased with the outcome - this one was a lot of fun to do! I didn't get shortlisted but I'm pretty much just planning to continue entering until I do (Take note Penguin, you're not getting rid of me that easily!).

Anyway! Been beavering away on my MA project and i'm planning to give you guys some sneaky peeks into the soon.

See you later!

H

I like to move it (move it)

Here's a little selection of one of the many things I've been doing recently. It's actually pretty nice for my atrocious lack of updates to be because I've been legitimately busy.
Because some of those things are for clients and are yet to be published, I can't actually show you those, but here's a little side project that I had going on for a little numbers books with dancing animals.
There's actually a whole story about dancing animals that this came from, but I won't go into that. For now, here's a Charleston-doing crocodile, some Tango-ing tigers and some rhinos doing the robot.

Hells yeah.

H

Trip to Wellcome

Hey hey!

So here's a little piece, hot off the... sketchbook, from my trip to the Wellcome Collection this very morning. Crazy place, full of random medical history bits and other oddness, but well worth it (another free museum - hooray!).

This particular gem was a snuff box... made of a real ram's head. Whatever floats your boat.

See you soon anyway!

H

The Jellyfly Cometh!

Hey hey!

Behold the jellyfly! Arch nemesis of the butterfish! And also one of my many aliases.
Explaining this one is pretty difficult, but suffice to say that the type of conversations that *this* came from make me very glad to be working where I am.
Also, I want this on a t-shirt a little bit.

H

A Piece for Mr B

I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is Andrew Bird. His music makes me feel happy in my soul. In fact it makes me feel like the image above. The only downside to him is that he doesn't appear to do many appearances in the UK (lame!).
I attempted to send this off to him via his management to say thank you for being amazing; I hope he gets it (and, you know, likes it). If I hear anything I'll let you know!

Speak to you soon!

H

Dad's Day Card

Another year, another father's day card! I love that my dad understands me enough to know that it's a good thing when I say I love him more than Midsomer Murders. I also had great fun making the envelope looks like a 6 year-old had done it.

H

Trips and Comic Strips

Hey hey!

I was looking through one of my old sketchbooks the other day and I found this... a little comic strip documenting my last visit home. It's pretty rough, but it gives you an insight into what my sketchbooks normally look like... and how my mind works. I'm particularly proud of the "Ode to a Frappucino" part.

You'll have to click on each pic to zoom in and see it properly I'm afraid, but hopefully you'll enjoy all the same!

H

Antlers

Hey hey!

Something a little different to my usual - I feel it incorporates the way I work from observation to the way I work regularly on full pieces from my imagination. I had fun doing it anyway!
This is pencil coloured and arranged on Photoshop. The only real problem I had with this piece was the sheer amount of options I ended up with colour and tone-wise. Narrowing it down was not easy, especially as I had quite a strong red in mind for the background. I think I prefer this though.
Drawing inspiration both from my visit to the Museum of London and the amazing costumes on display there and some rather fantastic comic books artists I've been looking at recently.

Let me know what you think!

H

H-Bomb and the Palindrones

This is a little piece I promised to a friend; a poster of H-Bomb and the Palindrones, a fictional band we made up after deciding a nickname suggested to me sounded like the lead singer for a rock band. Find represented Punk (in H-Bomb herself), Glam, Metal, Grunge and Pirate (yes, it's a legitimate rock sub-genre)! If you come up with names for the others then let me know!

H

Goldenface

Hey hey!

So here's a little piece I've done that started as a doodle and just kind... grew. For me she ended up being how I always imagined the magic mirror in Snow White; a character I always felt a little bit sorry for. She doesn't too happy about the whole situation either, but then again, neither would you if you were forced to help evil queens on a crazy rampage of attempted heart-eating and apple-poisoning. Bless 'er.

A little angst is good, but hopefully my next piece will be a little more cheery.

See you then!

H