New project

Some new images for a commissioned project, which involves doing illustrations for a Cornish family archive.

Goache and bleach

Goache has proved more useful in portraying movement in figures than quink, pen, charcoal or anything else I've used so far.

For now it will still be just in black and white.

These images are from a made up scene which may be used before something on the Foundling Hospital. Before such institutions were set up, illegimate infants would be left on the doorsteps of the wealthy or in church doorways in the hope that someone else may be better able to look after the unwanted child.

(The scene at the top is purely made up and painted just as an exercise in light and shade)






This is an idea for the protagonist and the kind of clothing he may have been wearing once he gained fame and fortune.

This is with black and white goache with pen for the waistcoat.
















Ideas for the clientele at Bartholomew Fair, London, c.1720.




These were fun to make and are based on the shows at Bartholomew Fair. They were produced using bleach on black paper with black pen for the details.

This is one of the ideas I have for the apprentice years. The studio would be small and cramped and filled with tools, engraved cutlery, plates and other silverwear.

The Resurrectionists II

The Resurrectionist books were made from an etching, then the prints were cut out, folded up and stuck together. The story is meant to be read left to right, starting with Victorian policemen (with lanterns and riding penny farthings) on the hunt for graverobbers. Most of the action is in the centre of the plate, with figures digging in a kirkyard and dragging bodies through the narrow closes and staircases. The final scene should have included a hanging of some convicted bodysnatchers, but I ran out of space on the plate...

This is a scan of half of the print. (A lot of the ink is still left on the plate before it gets put through the press)

Below is a picture of the whole book folded out. More books will be made for the Bristol Artists Book Event at the end of April 2011...

Back to the 1700s:

This was done with pen and bleach drawn on grey paper. The bleach gives a glowing, feathered look when it's applied but it doesn't always scan in too well. This was done quickly before the project hand-in a few weeks ago.


Character ideas for Ellis Gamble, engraver and teacher to my protagonist. I had Jones from Dad's Army in mind when I was sketching these.


Lord John Hervey: aristocrat, supporter of Walpole and a very colourful character. I'm tempted to give him a more prominent part in the story, just because of all the outrageous things he said and did.


A few more hasty drawings with pen and bleach again.

The Resurrectionists

Photos of the first few 'Resurrectionist' books, based on the Edinburgh bodysnatchers of the early 1800s. Only seven books have been made, but more to follow as they are starting to sell.

Currently on sale at the Poly in Falmouth, Cornwall until Sunday 27th March.









More images and info to come later!

Gobbledegook

Some sketches from a debate at Cambridge last week ('This house believes that the veil empowers women') . . .






. . . and some faces in the crowd at a live music night at Miss Peapods a few weeks ago -

New work (and prints)

Hemming's Rents, a small lane. Drawn in black pen and quink. There were few paved streets at this time in London:

"...in other parts of the city each house and shop-owner cared for the patch outside the door; fops in red heels would stumble and sway between gleaming slabs and dusty ruts, stepping delicately past the piles of rubbish, ashes and oyster shells."
(Jenny Uglow, 'Hogarth: A Life and a World', page 297)


Some prints from the mono-printing workshop, above. (And these were the better ones!) Below are a couple of other things from my sketchbook. I'm still trying to work out the best materials to use for this (this is a mixture of black pen and quink) :





The Wolfman

This was from a workshop we did a week or so ago. The piece is unfinished, but it is based on one of Sigmund Freud's cases, the Wolfman. It was great fun to illustrate - we each had to illustrate a part of the case.














The original drawing (unfinished and hastily done I know):

This was unintentional, but when folded round on itself, the picture told a different story - ...Freud's legs matched his client's body:

More new work

Charcoal drawings, characters, etchings and other imagery.


Below are some prints from an etching, based on Edinburgh's Old Town. At first this was an experiment in drawing the Cowgate area in Edinburgh as a gothic labyrinth, but soon turned into a tonal exercise. I discovered that removing all the ink from the areas on the print I wanted to keep light, and leaving the darker areas more inky resulted in the finished print looking more dark and atmospheric:



Below is an experiment drawing in putty rubber on a charcoal surface, drawing only the highlighted areas.


Here are more characters and a rough idea for a sequence:

This is an idea for one of the main turning points in the graphic novel, where our (anti) hero elopes with his employer's only daughter. The elopement caused a rift between bridegroom and father-in-law for some years:

I'm not sure that this image scanned in so well, so I've included a couple of close-ups.