2nd October 2008 I've been waiting a while for this one! 'Highway Robbery' was the second book that I produced black and white illustrations for, but it's still one of my favourites...
It's the story of a street urchin who is asked to hold onto Dick Turpin's horse, written by Kate Thompson and published by The Bodley Head (or Kids at Random House). One of the reasons i'm so chuffed with this one, is that it feels so nice. It's got a soft velvet-y cover, it's quite small and there are 44 black and white illustrations, which means there's almost an illustration on every double page. I like illustrating this period too, with all the tricorns and long coats, so i really enjoyed doing the work... And the story's a great read too. Go buy it!
11th September 2008 Not wanting to go too long without a new book on the shelves, i've just received my free copy of Terry Pratchett's 'Nation'. I even saw a display in my local book shop! Eeek!
Cover by me, and 22 black and white illustrations. Most of them are quite small chapter headers, and there are three big maps which i'm quite chuffed with! (They're not terribly accurate, but i think they look pretty good!) Funnily enough, the cover art was actually a colour rough, which seemed to go down quite well, and was used without changes. And I was invited to a lovely evening at the Royal Society to launch the book and celebrate 25 years of Discworld.
31st August 2008 And here's the second instalment of the 'Benjamin Piff' series! 'Wishful Thinking' is written by Jason Lethcoe, and published in the UK by Stripes Publishing. There's this cover to look at and sixteen black and white illustrations on the inside... And there's an exciting story to read too! Bargain!
8th July 2008 It's been a long time coming, but i finally got myself on the 'Imagine FX' cover! Hoorah! The latest issue features a wraparound cover with the rather lovely Misty (the barbarian), applying her freshly sourced dragon's blood lipstick. Inside there's a workshop which explains how i went about creating the image, with some high-res photoshop files on the accompanying DVD. Along with my piece of nonsense, there's also lots of great work by other fantasy and sci-fi illustrators and artists... Buy it now from your local newsagent!
7th July 2008 It feels like a very busy winter and springtime are suddenly filling the bookshops, and every week i'm receiving copies of a new book that's ready for the public to enjoy. And this week it's the turn of 'An Awfully Beastly Business' written by the Beastly Boys, and following the adventures of a young werewolf, called Ulf. The first two books 'Werewolf vs Dragon' and 'Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies' are published today by Simon and Schuster, with swanky hologramatic covers that change as you tilt them around (see below!), and fifteen black and white illustrations in each. This will be a series of six books, and i'm actually working on the cover of the third book this week. They're a gruesome read.....
3rd July 2008 'Olaf the Viking', written by Martin Conway and published by Oxford University Press should be hitting the stores today. This was actually the first book cover I painted, after Arena took me on as an illustrator last summer. I was pretty happy with this one, especially the ravens flying ahead of the ship (on the back cover). I'm going to be working on a second book cover in the series later this month.
19th May 2008 It was my birthday this week (I'm not telling anyone how old I am anymore), and also time for another book publication! 'You Wish: The Misadventures of Benjamin Piff' is a story about a boy who makes a wish that changes his life forever. It's a funny fantasy adventure, with dragons, flying chairs and funny 'spidermonkey' creatures, and is the first in a series. It was written by a former Hollywood storyboard artist called Jason lethcoe, and published by Stripes Publishing. This one is a bit different, because it's my first published book with black and white interior illustrations. There's fifteen illustrations inside (drawn in photoshop, but in a 'pen and ink' style), as well as the cover art.
3rd April 2008 Random House asked me to do another cover, for a great story called 'Nest of Vipers' about a gang of young fraudsters in 18th century London, written by Catherine Johnson. I had fun designing the characters for this one. It's a time period that I really enjoy illustrating, whether it's pirates, highwaymen or sneaky pick-pocketing kids.
2nd March 2008 Another month, another book... But this time it's full of lots of other people's art! A good friend of mine, Aly Fell, was invited to put together a book of 'Erotic Fantasy Art' by the UK publisher, the Ilex Press. Aly didn't think he'd have time to do it all himself, so he very kindly asked me to help him out. We spent most of last summer emailing artists all over the world, who contributed an amazing collection of fantasy art, and you can now purchase the fruits of our labour. But be careful, there's some saucy ladies in this one... Here's the cover by Henning Ludvigsen:
7th February 2008 My first published book cover! Hoorah! Well, actually there are two of them. There's the paperback version of 'Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools', and the paperback and hardback versions of 'Sebastian Darke: Prince of Pirates'. They follow the fantasy adventures of Sebastian Darke and his friends Max (a Buffalope) and the diminutive warrior Cornelius. Both are written by Philip Caveney, with interior illustrations by Julek Heller, and are published by Random House. Here are the two covers minus titles,and there are higher-res versions in the Gumpf section...
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