Chillin' St Nick

Found this whilst clearing up my desktop... jiggered if I can remember what I did it for, but I kinda like it.  If you squint it could be Santa getting toys ready (big complaints from my kids if a model ship's heading their way!), but works equally well as a representation of my psyche!

A Little Bit Bunny

A while back now I joined an ace blog called "A Little Bit Bunny": it's pretty simple ... each month a different animal is picked and the illustrators involved submit a picture to do with that animal. I have been meaning to add something to the site forever.... I think I got round to it before the road to hell was fully paved!  Here's one of 'em - for the other you'll need to Bunny it up!

Field notes..

A little page from my field sketchbook.  Recently had to do some research (scribbling) at Durham Cathedral.  There are some some lovely Norman illustrations in the cloisters there chronicling the life and times of St Cuthbert (the cathedral was built to house his shrine).  Reading up on it, it seems his sainthood is pretty much down to the devout way he lived his life, and exemplary services to Christianity.  You've got to have a couple of miracles though...here's one that tickled me.  I tried to copy the expression as accurately as possible.

I can thoroughly recommend a trip to Durham by the way, it's a beautiful place.

Filler!

This fell out of my drawer when I was looking for something else...by the looks of it I did it around Christmas time.  Whenever I'm working I always tend to lose one sheet of nice paper when the doodles take over, both of stuff i'm meant to be working on and other random brain rattles.

Sketch

Sorry to have been away a while again folks - I am currently frantically scribbling for a job (usual rules apply and I can't show you any of it!).  In the meantime here's a study sketch I did the other day that I quite like. Karisma pencils on Chartwell Lab Book paper possibly more satisfying than drawing on bananaskin with a biro. Watercolour pretty satisfying too...you can see the moment I realised these things fairly early on in this (fairly battered now) sketchbook....

A little bitta fun..

I recently contributed to a game of online consequences that was started by Frances Cony on the South West Illustrators blog...it was a bit of a rush job but i quite like it.... hopefully it'll take off!

Kizoa slideshow: Consequences 1 - Slideshow

A bit computery...

Eyop-

If any of you have returned to my blog after ANOTHER recent and fairly long period of absence then thankyou!! I have been pretty busy since Christmas with illustration projects, which I'll share as soon as I'm able. Though it's a bit slack, in busy periods I'm going to haul a bit of stuff from the archive (need to do it before my Mac dies too!) -so here's one; it's an ident for Rabbit Stew, an alas shortlived illustration collective..

Blimey - postarama!

I must have found myself with a spare few minutes, as i'm posting my proverbial off! Here're a few from the Birsotl Drawing Club night I mentioned earlier. Check their blog for more..

Monster I up!!

Just seen a blog called monstersinrealplaces (somoene please show me how to do links!!) which is ace. As i haven't yet sorted any pics to go on it, I thought I'd bide time with a cover I did for a band I was in (further enquiries will be met with wall of silence!).

An oldie (but goodie?)

Here's one of my personal favourite pics -getting a bit old now but then so am I! One of the reasons I like it is that I'd forgotten doing it and I'm not really sure what the thinking was behind it - it was a surprise when going through one of my sketchbooks. I dimly recollect that it was an experiment in drawing with the lights out.....

Jesse's sketchbooks

This week oi av been using mostly.. Moleskine sketchbooks! They are great but you can always see what you drew on the last page through the one you're drawing. Sometimes it works alright mind.......
I'm very into doing quick journalistic drawings at the moment - these ones are of the house band from the other night - more stuff to follow...

I have been working honest!

Sorry again for the long gap between posts... Just to show you that I am still here, here's some sketches I did earlier this week. They're for a couple of story ideas I've had knocking round in my head for longer than I care to mention (more to follow hopefully). Also bought a half decent camera the other day, so the days of crappy 6 scans pieced together photoshop efforts like this one could be numbered (yay!)

Sir Tiny Doodles

Feeling lazy again so here's another one found during my big clear out. These are some edge of page doodles I did whilst working on the Sir Tiny story for Storytrain. A visit to my old friend the 'Big Book of How to Draw Horses' swiftly followed.

Little things please little minds....

Clearing out the fortress of solitude this weekend I found this picture I did of a sloth. I turned it upside down and it looks like he's dancing. Makes I chuckle.

And another couple..

I went with the big bad wolf for the last post -heres another from the 'popular tales' file (from the vault I'm afraid).

Wolf gets bad press

Sorry it's been so long since the last offering - I'll be back soon to tell you all about it!

Right then....

Phew, feeling better now! Just finished a job I've been working all year on which helps too.

Any way the plan with this blog is to give a home to all the nice scribbles, pet projects and half formed ideas that haven't got a place in my regular portfolio (I'm running out of drawer space for them too). So that'll be doodles etc as they happen, as well as older pics when I'm feeling lazy! Which I am now, so here's an oldy! This one I did last year, and comes from a quick sketch of a bloke I saw on a Michael Palin travel thingy (he was in a bazaar in Turkey or somewhere). Promise to be less slack tomorrow.....

Helloo

Look Mum I'm blogging! I've been inspired by my good friend Lauren Tobia to get meself on the bloggomejig (apparantly it's what all the kids are doing)- now I'm here it's like trying to think of what to say after a gulp from that helium. So a squeaky hello from my desk, and er, here's a pic from my desk, and um, more tomorrow when I've calmed down!