Mermaid
I’m not sure why I got the inspiration to draw mermaids – I was doodling before a training session at work …
Bowed but not broken
Worn out by too many battles and hopeless quests…
Morrigan and the Baz Charlton Five
Morrigan finds that life in the Wundrous Society isn’t all fun and games, facing off against bullies. With throwing stars.
Sunrise over Nevermoor
I decided to draw this after the launch party for the paperback of ‘Wundersmith’ by Jess Townsend (thank you Hachette Children’s books …
The Green Knight
The Green Knight invites himself to Arthur’s new year’s feast.
Merlin imprisoned
This was a return to a more symbolic piece rather than a literal scene similar to the ones I’ve been working on …
King Pellinore and Arthur
Arthur is given a much-needed lesson in humility by King Pellinore. This was quite a tricky composition – I had considered drawing …
Field of battle
I had intended to take a break from the Arthurian drawings, but here we are again. I think I’ll just keep going …
Guinevere and Lancelot (colour)
My second take on the Lancelot/ Guinevere romance and I wanted to keep Guinevere in control of things. It’s the beginning …
Into battle (colour)
A colour re-working of an earlier silhouette piece in the style of my digital watercolours using Rebelle3. This composition translated well – …
The Sword in the Stone
“No one shall wield Excalibur… But me.” The scene from Boorman’s Excalibur where Uther – wounded and dying – thrusts the sword …
Arthur
I’m in two minds whether this is the onset of winter, or a bleak spring at the beginning of Arthur’s tale. The …
Merlin and Nimue
Fairly bleak autumnal overtones going on here, though it’s about this time that Nimue betrays the wizard. The mist reminds me …
Yellow king
Not intended to be the The King in Yellow – I’m working my way through the colour wheel in Rebelle3 and reached …
Uther
High King Uther, in his prime, but close to his fall. This was another digital sketch that inspired me to create another …
Mad Eye
I was influenced by – of all things – a Warhammer 40K painting for this image. I wanted to do something a …
Railhead : Snow and ice
Inspired by the second book in the Railhead series, Darklight Express. My intention with this painting was to keep the colour scheme …
Railhead : Into the unknown
This was directly influenced by a scene in the book, though it’s been over a year since I read it – and …
Railhead : Cityscape
Railhead builds quite a fascinating sci-fi world. It’s a long way from Reeve’s Mortal Engines steampunk, it feels more like a classic, Asimov …
Railhead : desert planet
Learning to use Rebelle 3 brought me back to Railhead by Philip Reeve. I had a plan for a short animation with …
Howl’s Moving Castle
Binding design for Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, for the House of illustration Competition 2019. This was my third concept …
Flowers in the waste
He swung out an arm and his black sleeve disturbed several hundred blue butterflies feasting on a bush of yellow roses. Howl’s …
Magical combat
But almost as Michael and Sophie arrived, the clot of magic took on the shape of a misty bundle of fighting snakes. …
Catching a falling star
The bright shape was coming down slowly now, and it looked as if Michael might catch it. Howl’s Moving Castle. For the …
Holding Wunder
“Morrigan felt panic creep in. it had all felt so right, just a moment ago. She was holding Wunder in the …
The hunt and the bonesmen
“The huntsman waited, perfectly still, hand outstretched. Not a threat. Not a command. An invitation.” From Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend Photoshop …
Wundercats!
“He leapt from her arms a yowling cub. But by the time he had landed on the ground he was a towering, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
Baba Yaga
One of the last of my Inktober works, I used my ‘Once upon a time’ poster as the jumping off point as …
Little Red and the wolf
My final Red Riding Hood ink drawing for the time being. This was my experiment with coloured inks that I’d forgotten I’d …
Red Riding Hood Revisited
I revisited the Red Riding Hood story after completing my previous pen and ink drawing from the story. I much prefer the …
The soggy bad wolf
I was inspired by ‘Inktober’ last year, and started to work on a series of brush and ink illustrations. This was one …
Witch
One of my Inktober fairytale sketches. I was exploring ways of adapting the style that I’d been playing around with for …don’t …
Troll
Edited to add colour. Trolls and ogres are some of the most varied fantasy creatures in terms of artists’ and writers’ interpretations. …
Harry Potter Sketch
I’ve been running in ever decreasing circles since a portfolio review earlier this year which could be summed up as “we like …
Let’s dance
A return to Inn from the cold and a change of media. I’m probably going to have to digitally colour this one …
