Serran the Dragon Slayer

A real oldie, originally done for a character of the week challenge on Concept Art. I'm kind of reworking it a bit at the moment. I like Serran. She lost both her hands in a dragon attack, and now has sworn eternal vengeance on all their ilk... in a pith helmet!

Smaug and the Nephilim

If I update I should stick a sketch in at least. Here's a rough of Smaug for the Character of the Week on Concept Art. Unlikely to finish it as I'm very busy so here's the doodle:

Went to see Fields of the Nephilim in London on Saturday. First time I've seen them since about 1994. I used to follow them everywhere in the late '80's and love 'em! For all his gloomy sepulchral singing Carl McCoy is a cheerful chappie, and was filming everyone as they went into Shepherds Bush Empire. They played Sunday too, but I had to get back home. Sigh... Great gig!

This is an old pic and the line-up has changed but they are a fun bunch! I used to dress like this... er, still do some times!

Beastly Child

The Upsetting tale of Little Michelle will shortly be complete, at least the written version.

Robot Piercings

Developed from a doodle, she's a robot who's just had her nipples pierced! The doodle didn't look like one of the usual girls I draw, so I went with it.

Memento

She's called Memento Mori. Another doodle...

Thunderdome Scrappers

Whilst I'm in a posting mood, and Concept Art and CGSociety are out for me right now (dunno what's going on but I can't seem to access any graphics site tonight), here are a couple of my Thunderdome pieces for the recent Concept Art challenge, that I ended up scrapping for various reasons, but will still finish off anyway. The first is kind of a nod to Norman Rockwell, and the second just plain weird... I don't know what was going on in my head when I started this one... The theme was Outbreak.

Up Up and Away

I've been drawing girls in flying gear for so long it's about time I started to refine a character I think. This is Valerie... a very quick lunchtime doodle.

Trashy Pulp

This is an old image I thought might make an interesting pulp cover. She was originally for one of the Character of the Weeks on ConceptArt.org, and she was called Petra Hepburn.
Still listening to Swans a lot, and an old band I discovered years ago, Pain Teens.

Also, went to see Chemical Wedding the other day. Very bizarre! This was a movie with Simon Callow as a university professor who is for all intents is re-incarnated as Aleister Crowley. It's produced by Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, and although he obviously has an affection for his subject, it's essentially a metal bands impression of the man: all the salaciousness and none of the subtlety. Callow is great, and the film held my interest; noticing all the in joke references to Crowley's life is fun (names like Victor, Leah and Haddo himself) but I'm still waiting for a less OTT film about the Great Beast!

Today I am mostly listening to...

...Jarboe and Swans. Sitting at home with Photoshop in front of me I've had both these on loop from MySpace. Jarboe's voice is haunting and wonderful. And I love Swans cover of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division, one of my 'Desert Island' records. Anyway... must draw more, but here's a pic of Jarboe...

To Hell They Belonged

Oh dear... here's another Pulp C0ver. This was a bit of an experiment to see if I could do this in a day. It took a bit longer as I spent a while trying to find particular fonts, and the original sketch was a bit older, but most of the painting took a day. Not quite sure of the girl on the left's pose...

A Pocketful of Death

I was just playing around with an old image for another project and decided to adapt it into another mock pulp cover. It sort of works... Quite on oldie really...

A couple of recent bits...

I love Pulp covers, so here's another one in my intermittent series... Got a couple more in the works... The other image is the pic that was accepted for Spectrum! It's Lucy Westenra from Dracula, at least my take on her! Post beheading! How pleasant... ;)

I Done a Book

Last year I was asked to author a book for Ilex Press and Harper Collins in their series. Including Fantasy Art Now. Mine was to be Erotic Fantasy Art Now. I didn't have the time to do it alone so I asked my good friend Jonny Duddle, Duddlebug to co-author it with me. We had three months to produce a book which should have taken over a year, and in the end I think we did pretty damn well. We gave the publishers a list of artists we'd like in and they either said yay or nay. In the end we worked with some of our favourite artists, and made plenty of contacts, all who agreed to submit art, mainly new, some specifically for the book, and some older pieces.

Thanks to Henning Ludvigsen and Natascha Roeoesli for the name drop, but mainly thanks to all the contributers for making this a fabulous and perhaps too tasteful a book! ;)

If you fancy a copy it's available from Amazon UK and US:

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

Last Man Standing

This was my final submission for the LMS on Concept Art. Not the one I started with, which I as good as finished, but felt unsure about at the last minute. I finished this one off in a couple of days although had started it at the beginning of the competition. ( I seem to be drawing girls on beds a lot right now! :) )I'll post the first version, a different picture when I tweak it some more. There is a third, but I have no idea if I'll finish it. There were two other fabulous images in my match from Kirtz and Sept13. Sadly Shelly Wan was unable to submit, but I would love to have seen what she would have come up with. Oh well...

Dorian Gray

With my Last Man Standing pic starting to go pear shaped for the Concept Art contest, I'm going to work up a sketch of Dorian Gray, from Oscar Wilde's story. Like my Oscar image I'm going to make him/her androgenous and paint it in the style of Henrique Medina's paintings of Hurt Hatfield as Dorian from the 1945 movie. I can't find much reference for either of the two he painted for the movie. There is plenty of Ivan Albright's corrupt Dorian (who I think looks like Father Jack from 'Father Ted'), but very little of the younger one. Apparently there were two, one which was later bought for Hurd Hatfield, a completely uncorrupted version, and another known as the 'sneer', where Dorian's expression is turning as it begins to show the evil. I guess a good examination of the movie is in order! One thing I love about the film is the fact the whole thing is in black and white, except for the paintings which are in colour!

Taurus Bar

Well, my wife and I put the piccys up in Taurus Bar. Here are a couple of images from the morning. Only got a few 'photos as guests were arriving and I had to disappear off. Thanks to Ian, the manager, for wanting me back. Should be able to return sometime and make a better record, as there are more I didn't photograph.

The Guardian/Independent listings got in touch so there's a chance I'll be in their magazines this weekend. Which would be nice! :)

Quiet Day

Some days you mean to get a lot done, and then find yourself blobbing in front of the TV. Today was one of those. A bag of Twiglets, The Longest Day followed by The Princess Diaries! Anyhow, here's a reverse gender portrait of Oscar Wilde as a woman, for a 'Character of the Week' on Concept Art.org.

Dave Stevens

On March the 10th Dave Stevens died of Lukaemia, at the ridiculously young age of 52. A massive fan of his work, particularly 'The Rocketeer', and his wonderful playful pin-ups, his passing is a sad loss. Thoughts and condolences to his family and friends.

Spectrum!

Woke up to a great bit of news this morning in that I've got something in Spectrum! Woohoo! Don't know what yet, but I guess I'll find out soon. Made my day to be honest! Chuffed is only half of it!

An Exhibition!

Sat and watched 'Hairspray' with the missus tonight, the original. Not seen it before, and really enjoyed it. Not had much time to do other things, such as paint this weekend, but hopefully I can find time to get on with my new Last Man Standing piece this week. However I've got an exhibition coming up in Manchester UK throughout April. I had one there this time last year and it worked out pretty well. I'm never really sure my stuff is the kind of 'art' that people want on a wall, but I've sold a couple. :) Click the image for a big one!

Dead LMS and a couple more.

Well I might as well add a couple more whilst I'm awake and eating pistachios.

One of my earlier 'Underneath it All' compositions. I'll finish it, maybe. But I go a bit lost whilst working it up...





Another image I produced for a project I did with another artist, my good friend Jonny Duddle, Duddlebug. More details of that later. Didn't turn out quite as I expected, but there were bits I liked...

That's Shalott

A picture wot I done to start off my blog. Seen on Concept Art.org, but now seen here too!

Well I'm through to the next round of LMS on CA.org. Quite how I dunno, but there you have it. The next round'll be fun. I'm up against some very fine artists including Shelly Wan, an illustrator I vastly respect. I also have a comic book cover to do for a US based publisher, which is nice!