Ernie the Singing Vulcher

Say hello to Ernie, he’s a vulcher who loves to sing. Despite protests from his dwindling number of friends, Ernie has insisted on singing whenever possible from an early age. Ernie’s deepest desire is to have vulchers as recognised for their remarkable singing skills as larks and to win X-Factor… Ernies friends and companions deepest desire is that one day soon Ernie will realise that he is tone deaf and take up a more vulcherly pastime such as scrapbooking or cataloguing rotting entrails.

Exodus – Roller Derby Decal Commission

I was absolutely over the moon a couple of weeks ago, when after finishing Ratty Babes roller derby decal, I was approached by one of her team mates who wanted one of her own.

Unlike Ratty Babe who was happy for me to head off and doodle something I though would work, Exodus knew exactly what she wanted and I don’t mind saying that after reading the description, I had a moment where I simply started at the paper and wondered how I was ever going to fit everything in.

Luckily after several cups of tea and some scribbles in a writing pad (Why is it always easier to layout a design when you’re scribbling in the margin of a ruled pad?) I had a fair idea of how to do it.

I like to get my cartoon style illustrations down on paper before inking and colouring digitally, so I used my handy circle template (a old side plate) to set the boundaries of the decal and set about work out the design. The hardest part was the waves to either side. I wasn’t entirely sure how those were going to work until I inked in the lines, but once I picked out the shapes and removed the inner wall of the white border I loved the silhouette they made.

The colouring of the decal was probably the easiest part if you don’t count the row I had with Photoshop over which colour green I wanted to use. (You may have won this battle Photoshop, but the war is far from over!)

Roller Derby Decal Commission

 

 

After a slow few weeks I’ve been back at my drawing tablet in the last few days to complete a commission that has been lots of fun! The brief required me to create a T-Shirt / Helmet decal for a roller derby girl to fit with the name “Ratty Babe”. The client had a rough idea of what she wanted but having chatted about it a little she was happy to let me go off and do what I thought would work best. Luckily when I came back with the rough sketch for the image above, she was more than happy.

Personally, I just love the “cheese and cross bones” on the socks!

Christening Colouring Sheet

Last week I found myself working on a rush job for a local church. The client was putting together a pack for the children who would be at a Christening and asked me if I would be able to draw her a colouring sheet for the pack.

Simple? You’d think so but the problem is that she needed it within the hour, so no time to go home and collect supplies. I had to make do with a blunt pencil and some printer paper!

Despite these trials the client who had asked for a picture of a young boy walking away from an alter with footprints walking beside him, was very happy with the resulting sketch.

The above image was scanned from one of the photocopies and very slightly tweaked.

Yawn… So tired

No daily sketch today for as the title suggests I am very tired. So instead here’s a ratty.

Bunny Doctors and the Big Stick

Sunday, 10 January 2010
Bunny Doctors and the Big Stick




This is the finished article of “Bunny Doctor and the Big Stick”. This picture came about after I overheard the following conversation at work…

“I’m going to the doctors today”
“Really, well you know what happens there don’t you?”
“Go on then”
“They have big sticks… and they poke you with them”
“Really?... Well they didn’t do that last time”
“No, well that’s because they only do it the second time you go”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh yes, definitely… and there are bunnies too. Lots of bunnies, and they make them chase you”
(I will not be held responsible for the accuracy of the above conversation, in fact I may have imagined some or all of it… you really never can tell… but I’m sure the bunny part was real!)