this northern boy

Illustrations for an imaginary age

Category: fantasy

October 6, 2016

Isometricness

As I mentioned in my last post I’m drawing a month’s worth of little isometric buildings for this year’s Inktober project. I’ve started off with some medieval / fantasy type buildings, and I’m planning to delve in to sci-fi, WWII, and perhaps Victorian eras too.

Here are the first five. All my Inktober illustrations go on sale as soon as they are posted on Instagram (a couple of these first few are still available) for the price of £31 (including UK postage. Overseas will be a little extra).

I’ll be drawing each building on Daler Rowney cartridge paper, using Rotring Tikky and Copic Multiliner pens.

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September 26, 2016

The Village

I’ve started a little side project, something to work on here and there between commissions, commercial work, and freelancing as a designer. It’s nice to have something on the go that I can draw with zero time pressure, or worrying about whether or not the client is going to like it.

So I’ve started an isometric drawing of a fantasy / medieval village. I haven’t really done any isometric stuff since I was at school, but it’s something I’ve always enjoyed seeing in other artists work. At college I discovered the work of Takenobu Igarashi, and not long afterwards I first saw the work of eBoy, entirely different artists but both working in that geometric, axonometric, 3D space. I’ve been a fan ever since.

The village is currently one sheet of A2 cartridge paper that I’m filling with little fantasy buildings, all aligned on a 30º plane. I’m going to fill the whole sheet and then after that, I might do some standalone illustrations.

It’s lots of fun so far, but I’d forgotten how complicated it can get drawing in an isometric view.

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The village and associated sketches and thumbnails on my desk.

Initial doodle that sparked the idea.
Details.
Sketching.
Progress.
Details.
A hamlet.
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September 14, 2016

Cloudtop

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High up in the clouds, buoyed by anti-grav generators, floats the shanty town of Cloudtop. Scratching a living from processing rare elements from the atmosphere, or providing weather data, a community of brave souls lives at 55,000ft. Engineered through black market gene therapies to be able to survive in the super thin atmosphere of the stratosphere.

Drawn with a Carbon Platinum fountain pen, and Copic Ciao Markers, in a Moleskine sketchbook.

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August 16, 2016

August blogfest – day 16

Virgil Finlay

Virgil Finlay was an American illustrator, specialising in super detailed pen-and-ink drawings with astonishing stippling and cross-hatching.

In his 35 year career Finlay created more than two and a half thousand illustrations, mainly for pulp science fiction, fantasy and horror magazines.

Have a look at some of his work… I think it’s absolutely incredible.

Art by Virgil Finlay for the 1949 Memorial Edition of “The Ship of Ishtar” by A. Merritt
Art by Virgil Finlay for the 1949 Memorial Edition of “The Ship of Ishtar” by A. Merritt
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August 9, 2016

August blogfest – day 9

If you follow me on Instagram, or are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know I have a thing for weird tentacled islands. There’s just something very cool about a seemingly idyllic little place – but underneath the ordinary facade there’s horror!

I did this sketch last night in my Moleskine using Rotring Tikky, Copic Multiliners and Kuretake No 8 brush pen, and there’s definitely a bit of influence from Notes from the Shadowed City – it’s a bit blacker and more angular than my typical stuff. As always, something like this is a lot of fun to draw.

Thorn-Tree

The Thorn Tree.

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July 31, 2016

Rocks

Drawing lots of weird little floating rocks at the moment. Not sure what I’m doing, or where I’m going, with them. But I’m having fun.

Drawn with Blackwing or Lamy pencils in a Moleskine sketchbook.

 

Rocks
Seven Sentinels
The Broken Rock that Flies
The Rock that Floats
Aggregation
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June 22, 2016

The Lighthouse

This is one of the most enjoyable illustrations I’ve done. Mark, who commissioned me, wanted a drawing of a lighthouse – with his daughter at the top – for a tattoo. The final illustration, now winging its way to Tewksbury (Massachusetts not Gloucestershire), will be framed for Mark’s daughter’s room. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this looks when Mark gets it inked.

Final-Finished

Final illustration.

Initial sketches.
Details.
Final sketch.
Lighthouse work in progress

 

If you’d like to commission an illustration (or a tattoo design) from me, have a look at this blog post and get in touch.

 

 

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May 6, 2016

What’s been going on…

I’ve been reasonably quiet on the blog recently, and I’m determined to post more regularly for the rest of the year.

As a bit of a catch-up post, here are some pictures – illustrations and photographs – from the last couple of months.

A little view in to my studio/office set-up at the moment.
Tools of the trade.
Pens and pencils.
The slip case for Taschen’s amazing book on 2001: A Space Odyssey.
A fairly typical, and amazing, spread from the 2001 book.
I met a parakeet.
Shadows in the walled garden at Ham House.
Ham House under a brooding sky.
What we do in the shadows (take photographs).
A seventeenth century teapot at Ham House.
Nothing vile about a classic Penguin book cover.
A flavour of the excellent Monotype Recorder.
Sketching some sci-fi scenery for a commission.
Doodling spaceships.
Spaceships.
More spaceships.
I’ve been freelancing here, on Eel Pie Island, for a couple of weeks.
Eel Pie details.
Eel Pie Slipways.
Ship chains.
I was featured in this month’s Artist & Illustrator magazine.
Big sky, big clouds.
Beautiful light in Bushy Park near where I live.
Green Woodpecker (or Yaffle) in flight.
Green Woodpecker.
Red deer in Bushy Park.
Bushy Park.
Sketching landscapes for a commission.
Griff Gristle
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April 4, 2016

A Big City Triptych

I love drawing city scenes, which is why it’s always been one of the options I’ve offered for my illustration commissions.

Last year Rob Harris contacted me to commission a medieval/fantasy street scene, and he must have liked the result – because he came back for two more illustrations.

This was the first image…

Big-City-2

I loved putting in as much detail as I could, making it seem like a place that had a story to it (even without the addition of any people). Rob then asked me to do another illustration, continuing the scene to the right…

Big-City-1

It was fun to be able to tell more of the story of the town, adding in the celtic style cross, the strange section of bridge, the silhouette of a figure in a window. Finally, just a couple of weeks ago Rob asked me for a final (I think) illustration to continue the scene to the left of the original image…

Big-City-3

This has been my favourite commission so far, I had a great time producing these for Rob and I’m delighted he liked the first one enough to commission the second and third.

Seen together I think the three illustrations look pretty good…

Big-City-Tryptich

If you would like to commission a street scene, or anything else, from me – have a look at this blog post for more details.

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March 22, 2016

Horror

A couple of recent sketches, a little different to my usual stuff. A pencil sketch of H.P. Lovecraft – with added tentacle, and a pen drawing of my version of Frankenstein’s monster.

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H.P. Lovecraft

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Frankenstein’s monster

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