fantasy | this northern boy

July 20, 2015

Imagined Places

I’ve drawn a fair few cityscapes and imaginary places over the last few months, some of them purely personal, some have been commissions, some have been posted here before, some haven’t, so here they are collected in one place.

The first, City on the Edge of Nowhere, is one of my favourites.

City on the edge of nowhere.

: Stilted City

: The City and the Tree

: The City and the Tree II

: The Light on the Rock

: Stilted City II

: Sky Town

: Two Sides of the Street

: Stilted City III

: Stilted City IV

: The Island. 4788 likes on Instagram.

: Sky Town II

: Nobody Gets off this Rock

: Fragment of Laputa

: The Giant’s Ring

: Slater’s Bridge

: Stilted City (coloured)

8 Comments

June 3, 2015

Commissions update…

Recent commissions

UPDATE: Due to demand, and the amount of time I’m spending on each commission, I’m increasing my prices. My standard commissions, as described below will now be priced at £60.

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I recently announced that I’m accepting illustration commissions and the response was fantastic. I’ve completed over 40 illustrations so far, and still have a few more booked in. If you’d like to own some original art by me, here’s how it works…

I am now accepting commissions.

I’m keeping things quite strict though, so this is how it will work if you’re interested in owning some original art.

If you would like to buy an original drawing, email me at rob [at] thisnorthernboy [dot] co [dot] uk , you can request one of the following:

A robot
A Spaceship
An imagined place

What you’ll receive will be a black and white pen drawing, on an A4 sheet of good quality, 200gsm cartridge paper. The artwork will be approximately A5 in size, centred on the paper so you can frame it easily if you’d like to.

You can also request for the illustration to be landscape or portrait in orientation.

Any other requests – type of landscape, style of robot etc. can be made, but there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to take this into account. I know this sounds a little strict, but I only want to accept commissions that I’ll enjoy drawing right now, and in return you get a lovely surprise when you open your finished illustration.

What will this cost?

I’m going to charge a flat rate of £60 including post and packaging for the UK. And a rate of £60 + post and packaging for the rest of the world.

When you email me to request a commission, if you can include the country you’d like it shipped to, I’ll work out the cost of postage and let you know. If you’re happy with the overall cost I’ll accept payment by PayPal.

When will you get your drawing?

I’ll aim to complete and post all illustrations within two to three weeks of receiving payment.

What might your commission look like?

Well, it could look a little like these…

: Imagined Landscape 1

: Imagined Landscape 3

: Spaceship 1

: Robot 1

: Robot 2

So if you’d like to own some original art, and support me as I work at being an illustrator – drop me an email now.

Thank you,

Thisnorthernboy

May 26, 2015

Some recent commissions

I recently started taking commissions, on the themes of robots, spaceships or imaginary places. It’s been a pretty good response so far, and it’s been really enjoyable creating work to order – but on subjects that I love.

Here are a few recent illustrations…

: The Tree and the City

: The Light on the Rock

: Sky Town

: Stilted City III

: Droid 4

: Robot One

: Robot Two

: Easter Island Robot

5 Comments

May 18, 2015

Illustration Timelapse

I filmed a few time-lapse videos while I was drawing a recent commission. It’s of a stilted city, similar to a couple I’ve drawn before. I’d already sketched it out in pencil before I started filming, but I’ll try and do the whole process from start to finish at some point.

The first shows me putting in some initial lines with a fine pen. This is how I usually start inking any of my drawings. It’s basically outlining all the main elements at this point.

Illustration timelapse 1/4 from thisnorthernboy on Vimeo.

The second shows how I add a nice thick line to foreground elements, to areas I want to highlight, and in this case a key line around the whole illustration.

Illustration timelapse 2/4 from thisnorthernboy on Vimeo.

In video three I add detail, texture and any odd little bits of grit and noodling I feel it needs. All with a very fine 0.03 pen.

Illustration timelapse 3/4 from thisnorthernboy on Vimeo.

Lastly I add in some clouds and birds in the distance. I love drawing clouds. I actually added a couple more bits of detail after this – drawing in some barnacles and seaweed on the submerged bits of the drawing.

Illustration timelapse 4/4 from thisnorthernboy on Vimeo.

Here’s the final image…

Final illustration

This was drawn on Daler Rowney, Fine Grain, 200gsm cartridge paper. I used Copic Multiliners in thicknesses of 0.03, 0.05, 0.25, and 0.5.

1 Comment

April 14, 2015

Fragment of Laputa

A floating island, or a fragment of one. Not unlike the Kingdom of Laputa described by Jonathon Swift in Gulliver’s Travels.

Fragment of Laputa.

Rocks.

Lonely tree.

Drawn with Copic Multiliners on cartridge paper.

Floating islands are a continued theme with my drawings, more here and here.

8 Comments

April 4, 2015

The Towers

I’ve been working on a couple of illustrations of medieval(ish) towers over the last couple of days. I have a little project that I’m thinking about – and these fit in to that in some way.

Drawn on cartridge paper, using Copic Multiliners and Staedtler Pigment Liners. Coloured using Copic Ciao markers.

The Towers

Sentry in clour

Watchtower in colour

10 Comments

April 2, 2015

The Giant’s Ring

The Giant’s Ring is a neolithic henge at Ballynahatty, on the southern edge of Belfast. The site dates from 2700BC – making The Giant’s Ring older than the pyramids.

The illustration below was inspired by a great photograph on Instagram by my friend Jonny. I’ve taken a few liberties with the landscape though.

This illustration continues my fascination with stones and henges.

The Giant’s Ring

Cloud details

Stones detail

2 Comments

February 19, 2015

Sketching by the pool

I’m currently on holiday, spending a couple of weeks in the Maldives, and enjoying the chance to get away from the day job for a while.

I can’t stop drawing just because I’m away though, in fact if I don’t draw for a few days, I get a bit cranky.

Here’s a little sketch that I did by the pool. The subject was suggested by my wife, and inspired by being surrounded by ocean.

6 Comments

January 24, 2015

The Street

The Street.

Continuing my doodles of odd little medieval/Tudor/olde/fantasy streets and buildings.

Drawn in pencil, inked with a Copic Multiliner and Staedtler Pigment Liners, coloured with Copic Markers. All in a Moleskine sketchbook. I do love Moleskins but I wish the paper was a little whiter.