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 of …
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 …
Broomsticks are so middle-ages
I probably shouldn’t have got my hopes up too high in regards to the SCWBI Undiscovered Voices competition, but of all my …
Bringing down the moon
Scattering is the working title for a series of illustrations exploring magical and mythological creatures inhabiting modern cities. Aside from being a …
Orc soldier
A more conventional orc – this one straight from my ten-year-old self. It’s nice to be able to go back and properly …
Orc chief
This was my fairly unconventional (by the conservative standards of the genre) take on an orc chief. I’ve always associated the look …
Lizardman
I’ve always felt sorry for the lizardman in the fantasy genre as they always seem to be overlooked, despite being used to …
Goblin Ballista
A non-character based fantasy piece, this was to illustrate goblin technology which I feel is criminally underrated by some scholars.
Goblin Archer
Traditional design of a goblin soldier
Goblin Shaman
The goblin shaman was an early drawing for my creature encyclopedia. Goblins are great characters because there’s such a rich background to …
First author/ illustrator visit!
Well, the Mighty Thumbslurp has been printed at last! To celebrate this momentous event, Janet and myself have just completed our first afternoon …
Task 3: Vanquish dragon
The final task for our heroine before she can sit down and enjoy the nice cup of tea
You’re STILL a Pest!
In honour of the imminent (well, fairly imminent) publication of the printed edition of You’re a Pest, Betsy Thumbslurp! here’s a sample …
