The Wildings
I keep on writing ‘Wildlings’ instead of ‘Wildings’ – this is a scene from Nilanjana Roy’s book, not George Martin’s. I’ve never …
Lilith
Occasionally I delve into writing – usually when I’m not trying to build an illustration portfolio – and Lilith is one of …
The Hobbit : Smaug
My design for the front cover of The Hobbit. I’ve re-used Smaug’s wings for Arthur’s cloak in another drawing – for this …
The Hobbit : Gollum
Gollum was my choice for the rear cover design for the Hobbit, though I may shrink him down a little to allow …
The Hobbit : Beorn
Working in pencils (on what turned out to not be the best choice of paper), Beorn was my second choice of a …
Into battle
I’d never intended to follow the medieval romantic aesthetic of the Arthurian tales – at least in terms of costume design. Certainly …
Arthur and Mordred
I’d already drawn the aftermath of Camlann but really wanted to draw a scene from the battle itself. I’ve been developing my …
Tristan and Iseult
The classic Arthurian tragedy, though not originally part of the saga. I wanted this to be anunpleasant, tragic romance, but not brutally …
Guinevere and Lancelot
Certainly a bit more YA than my usual illustrations, but myths and legends are all sex ‘n’ violence. The sword symbolism and …
Crow’s Dinner
Crow’s Dinner is a short story written for my daughter by my Dad that I’ve illustrated. It’s a rather grim tale with …
Jim Hawkins and Israel Hands
Another memorable scene in the book and an obvious choice to illustrate – I’m not sure if this scene would be allowed …
Blind Pew
Blind Pew always left an impression on me – as a villain, he’s a brilliant and quite understated character and probable the …
Treasure hunting
I hadn’t done a ‘framed’ piece for a while and this seemed a good opportunity seeing as I couldn’t get Flint’s skeelton …
Meeting Long John Silver
An experiment in a character-driven piece rather than an action scene, as well as allowing me to play with creating distance using …
Abandoning the Hispaniola
I bought a pad of sepia paper on a whim and decided to use it to add an extra layer to my …
Another review
I recently attended another portfolio review at the House of Illustration arranced by the SCBWI – in attendance were representatives from the …
The Hobbit. Journey to Rivendell
I’ve just moved back to colour pencils and it’s been one of those “where have you been all my life?!” moments. When …
London Book Fair 2018
I’d never visited the LBF before, so it was an interesting experience taking part this year and having some of my art …
Cyber Tiger!
I’m going to work into this some more, probably with brush and ink. It’s intended as an enemy encounter illustration for a …
Confronting the hunt
The last of my Hunt of Smoke and Shadow series, this is an illustration from the closing chapters of Nevermoor and I …
Escaping the hunt
What do you need most in an emergency? How about a giant clockwork spider powered by magic to escape in? Yep, that …
The Hunt of Smoke and Shadow
Nevermoor : The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend has been a recent source of inspiration for me. The Hunt of …
Hotel Deucalion
One of my illustrations inspired by Nevermoor : The trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. I completed a couple of silhouette …
Airship
I followed up the Northern Lights drawings with this digital piece. Based on the airships in the story, I wanted an excuse …
We need more kittens!
Any excuse to draw kittens
Witch and her cat
This website needs more cats. Even this wee kitty makes all the difference. The drawing, by the way, was intended for a …
Dealing with ups and downs (and 2 unpleasant stories)
J K Rowling will most certainly go down in history, but when she does, I’m positive that it wont just be down …
Canvas prints
Wow – I must be doing something right, because I got a repeat customer! I also got a lesson in canvas printing …
Wow – I made it!
I reached the Undiscovered Voices 2018 final lineup! Well, firstly a big thank you to Working Partners Ltd and especially to Chris …
Drawing Excalibur
I’ll be writing a longer blog post in regards to Undiscovered Voices, but this is the work that got me to the …
Camlann
I completed two pictures from the Arthurian legends for Undiscovered Voices 2018, and this was the companion piece to my competition entry. …
The stone table breaks
My second Narnia piece and another painted silhouette. I’ve toned down the bright yellow in the sky and I’m glad that the …
Edmund and the White Witch
Drawn – appropriately – over the Christmas holidays, I’d originally planned to illustrate scenes from Voyage of the Dawn Treader which is …
Lyra
I returned to Northern Lights because it gave me an excuse to try a silhouette and cityscape combination – another experiment at …
Iorek Byrnison
An evening holiday drawing that earned enough good feedback to make it into my portfolio. I got some praise for the pen …
Toad hog!
My second Wind in the Willows piece. As well as captuing the action, I also wanted enough static detail to expand on …
Ratty and Mole
A departure from my fantasy work, this was one of a series inspired by the first Undiscoverd Voices 2018 brief. I wanted …
At the bonfire
Another dark fantasy piece. This one was directly inspired by the Dark Souls series of videogames – itself inspired by the Fighting …
Brigand
My monster illustrations were a trip back to my childhood spent reading Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s ‘Fighting Fantasy’ series. The silhouette …
Red Riding Hood sets out
My final Red Riding Hood piece for now. This is close in composition (though it has fewer frames) to the drawing that …
Railhead – The Damask Rose
I’m still kicking myself that I met Philip Reeve and completely forgot to bring my copy of Railhead along to get signed. …
Quidditch
The last of my Harry Potter images for now. This was another earlier piece that I drew to test out ideas for …
Perseus and Medusa
Intended as an interior book illustration, my intention with this was to play around with perspective using silhouettes. The scene shows Perseus …
I’m on the longlist!
Now, firstly, the important stuff. Is ‘longlist’ even a real word? Every spellchecker I use says ‘no’ (but they also say spellchecker’ …
That December feeling
Well, it’s getting close to the close of 2017 and it’s been a rather interesting year. Aside from getting lots of extra …
Expecto Patronum!
I returned to Harry Potter for an action based scene to illustrate. This one gave me the opportunity to play around properly …
History of Magic
Another silhouette piece and an illustration from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. I chose this scene because it’s character based …
Theseus and the Minotaur
Preparing for the 2017/18 Undiscovered Voices Competition (yes, I’m giving it another go), I decided to move my work in a new …
Going climbing
As well as my myths and legends illustrations, I also had a go at drawing some other children’s book scenes with brush …
Baba Yaga
One of the last of my Inktober works, I used my ‘Once upon a time’ poster as the jumping off point as …
