How to Design your Dragon 2D

A few months ago I agreed to do some character development on a pitch for a children's show involving a young dragon called Alan, along with a variety of dragon classmates and teachers.

I came up with a design for Alan that was ultimately not what the brief called for, but I've included it here because I think he's pretty endearing.

Here's a selection of some of the other original character designs:

I'll be putting together a one-sheet of the finished designs and sending it off - if you're interested, any progress on the pitch will probably be posted here.

When Larry met Monty...

I put this together for a friends birthday, as a way of combining Larry David and Monty Burns- it didn't really come together as well as I'd hoped it would, but the idea kind of works in theory.

I mean, they're both bald rich curmudgeons, right?

Gingerbread Academy

Gingerbread Academy is a nursery under development, and once finished it'll be located round the corner from my flat.

I was asked to provide an artists impression of what the building would look like once all the scaffolding has been taken down, which would in turn be thoughout their promotional material.

(Whilst scouting out the location I met the owners dog, Casper, and I would have much rather provided an artists impression of what he would look like sitting on my lap.)

Panic on the streets of Liverpool

Once again, I did a run of posters for the recurring '10 Bands 10 Minutes' gig that we put on every few months at the Masque in Liverpool - this time the theme was The Smiths, and as per usual it was a belter of a night. The line-up was as follows:

Mark Magill
The Readymades
Cavalier Song
Town Bike
Go Heeled
Sparkwood & 21
Puzzle
Hillary and the Democrats
House That Jack Built
Married to the Sea

Click on the links for some videos from the night, and make sure you come to the next one - we're thinking Neil Young, David Bowie or Prince.

All I know is... there were rumours...

It's that time again - we're putting on another 10 bands 10 minutes show, and this time everyone's going to cover Pixies songs. Playing on the night are:

Married to the Sea
Voo
Elle S'appelle
House That Jack Built
Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies
Cavalier
Dire Wolfe
The Loose Moose String Band
Hillary and the Democrats
Stephen Hudson


I've done a black and white poster to promote it around Liverpool, and I'm working on ideas for a colour version to sell on the night. It's going to be absolutely boss.

Back in Blue

I'm back on tour again with The Bluetones, so I've done another Charley Harper inspired poster* - this time we're doing 18 dates, which is plenty of time to either become best friends or mortal enemies. So far, so good...

* not that there's any link between him and the band - he's just a class act, and I figured it was a more grown-up audience than usual who might respond to a mildly classy illustration.

That pesky giraffe...

Here's a couple of short-notice posters I put together without much time to spare - all I could think of using was this dinky little giraffe in both cases, although I managed to pop some support from a monkey and frog into the Bright Light one.