Illustration Friday: Swamp

Well well well, hasn't it been a long time since I drew something... prompted by my friend Kris-Tea's return to the Illustration forum this week, I decided I couldn't let her have all the fun.

This week the word provided by IF was 'Swamp'. When I first saw it I knew immediately that with it being a none-abstract noun the majority of entries would be of the literal variety, so I had a quick think (a very quick think) about what spin I could apply, and realised that the word swamp is used quite frequently as a description of an individual/department's workload. At the place I work during the day my colleagues and I are often swamped by the workload so this in itself provided all the inspiration I needed.

Because I haven't drawn for a while I decided I would bypass the usual planning stage and simply draw the first image that came to mind, so I sat at my drawing desk (for the first time this year) and just kinda doodled. As the doodle progressed I started to fine-tune and amend it, and boy did I punish that piece of paper with a myriad of additions and removals! There's so much used rubber scattered over my desk it looks like it's been snowing!

Anyway, I only began this image yesterday after I got home from my day job so it's kind of a rushed affair and isn't likely to win the Turner prize, but I believe it to be of sufficient merit to enter.

Next week Kris-Tea...the battle continues...

Budleigh Photograph Expedition

In late June 2011 I embarked on a mini break to Devon. I stayed in a delightful village named Budleigh Salterton, and when I went down I took an assortment of stationary with me in case I felt compelled to be creative. I also took my camera in case I felt like taking some snaps. In the end I opted for the latter.

On several occasions I went for a long sojourn along the estuary path that leads to Otterton and took many photographs in course. I have no grandios illusions about being a professional photographer, and the vast majority of my pictures were meagre 'happy snaps' However, I figured I'd post a few random pics just to show some signs of creative life. Enjoy.

Attack From Above 2009/2011

Those of you who frequent my blog on anything like a regular basis may find the above image somewhat familiar. The reason for this is that it's an image I completely re-draw every couple of years. I first drew it in 1998, then again in 1999, 2000, 2004 and the above image was drawn in 2009. However, the latest version was never quite 'perfect' because at the time I drew it I was begining to slow down creatively. Consequently; I ended up drawing the image okay enough, yet never produced the rest of it to any degree of satisfaction. Following this image, I didn't draw again for approximately 10 months.

I've gone through the creative cycle a few times since, and now that I'm entering into a new one, I figured I'd give this the once over. While the whole image has now been subject to subtle tweaking and fine-tuning, the central character of Biggins was completely re-scanned and re-coloured. I've also softened and darkened the whole image to make it more visually appealing.

Now - time to begin preparing for this week's Illustration Friday entry...

Illustration Friday: Stir

This week the word on Illustration Friday's website was "Stir". I was initially in two minds about whether to sit at my drawing desk tonight as the word didn't provide me with any immediate inspiration. However, in the end I quantified the definitions of the word and devised a basic scene where somebody is simply stirring something - very straight-forward, eh. The result is naturally the picture you see above.

I know - it's not going to win any awards, but considering it was conjoured up entirely in the space of a few hours, it's not half bad. I hope you like it anyway and I have to admit - in the end I had a lot of fun doing this one.

Illustration Friday: Warning

Hello folks. Man, it's been ages since I entered Illustration Friday! To tell the truth I've not been drawing much lately but I'm determined to begin a new creative phase.

For IF this week we were given the word "Warning". I actually managed to scrape a few half-decent ideas together for this, but all were too ambitious - you know what it's like when you've not drawn for a while; you get rusty - lazy!

Well, in the end I plumped for the above idea. It's a fairly weak concept - the idea being that the gate has a "Beware the Dog" warning sign, and yet ironically, one can see the dog and there really is nothing to be warey of. That said, it's not bad for a couple hours work, and I am pretty rusty. Maybe next week I'll be forthcoming with something more deserving of merit.

So how are you?

My First Colourisation Tests

Hey all. Has it really been over half a year since I blogged my guts out? Guess I've been having another "fallow period", but I'll be participating in Illustration Friday this week so keep your eyes peeled.

Until then, I'm afraid I don't have any new artistic creations to share, but I have recently been expanding my Photoshop knowledge: in particular with regards to colourising black & white photographs.

Last month my grandfather died and while this has naturally been a sad occasion for my family, for a number of us it has created a renewed interest in the old family photographs. During the last few weeks a small number of photographs have surfaced that I've never had the privalidge of seeing and while it has confirmed my fear that there aren't a great many photos of my grandfather in existance it did make me eager to try out a "colourisation" process that I've recently been reading up on.

The photograph below was taken in about 1957, and features my grandfather, my mother (on the left) and my aunty (on the right). The picture quality was fairly clear and so it was an ideal candidate for my first colourisation attempt.

Having completed the above test, I continued to "tweak" until I had a more vibrant spectrum.

Having completed this first example and being somewhat happy with the results, I decided to take a picture of my father taken in about 1968, and not only colour it but restore the damage to the hard copy.

This was how the original was scanned in. It was done at a rather low resolution and it was immediatly apparent that this would place some limitations on how clear I could get it to look. In the end I repaired most of the damage, but owing to the contrast level of the hard copy, I found it a lot more challenging to colourise. My father's the one on the right incidentally.

Having completed these two tests, I shall soon embark on restoring the oldest and most fragile family photo album. Who knows, I might even take a few colour photographs and desaturate them - sometimes black & white really does do more poetic justice to a photograph than "florid" colour.

Character Design for Local Take-away

I've created the above image this week as a response to a possible brief; A local take-away restaurant near to me currently has a menu featuring a cartoon chef on the front cover. However, the image currently used is, shall we say, somewhat lacklustre. I have therefore taken it upon myself to create something based on their existing image, but have made something (I think) more refined and thought-out. I shall broach them with it this week and see what happens!

Illustration Friday: Linked

Right, Illustration Friday, Linked, right...
Having had a month's sabbatical from drawing, when I eventually set upon the task of tailoring a new image for Illustration Friday this week I had intended that I should keep my labors to a minimum. I amassed a bunch of serious contending ideas, but in the end I decided I would do something subtle... and as you can see I decided to illustrate "Linking" by depicting a simple scene in which two people are linked via their hands. It may not be the most original idea but I had desire to push forward my understanding of cartooned-anotomy as well as basic composition. As a result, my machinations of creating a simple product ended up being quite an intense but thoroughly enjoyable learning curve. In any case, I'm in the market for opinions, so feel free to offer them. The more constructive and/or critical the better.
It's good to be back.

My New Online Portfolio

Hey everybody,

I am now the proud owner of an online portfolio. It can be found at:

http://www.jimrowland.carbonmade.com/

I'm presently gearing up for some new illustrations - my month off has been surprisingly fruitful - so I hope to be rejoining the great creative collective very very soon.

Illustration Friday: Propagate

I didn't much time to enter IF this week, so tonight's effort is only equal to half an hour's work.
It's possible I may not be entering IF next week due to work commitments, but I hope to be back soon with a more praise-worthy offering.

Have a good week all!

Illustration Friday: Adrift (My 100th Post)

Greetings fellow illustrators. This week's "IF" word is Adrift, and having originally planned to do a boring rowboat scene, my idea progressed to the above image - in ancient times when some people (but not many aparently) believed the world was flat...what did they think would happen if they sailed off the edge? Being as such beliefs probably existed centuries before Newton discovered the laws of gravity I doubt they'd have realised that by sailing off the edge of the world they would've been weightless and adrift in the zero gravity of space...

Illustration Friday: Muddy

Here were are at the end of our "Muddy" week and I've only just completed my entry for Illustration Friday due to technical problems with my computer.
I've noticed a few illustrators have drawn pigs in mud for this topic, which is only natural. However, my excuse is that the pig in this picture is Charlie; one of my oldest and best character creations - and he was due for a new outing!

Illustration Friday: Focused

Okay - time for a weird one. This week the word Penelope shot at us was "Focused". Ironically this week I haven't been feeling particularly focused... so decided I wouldn't spend too much time pulling my hair out over what idea to do and just get something down on paper quickly and efficiently. The result is the above (somewhat weird) image.
It shouldn't be to hard to determine the link between focus and hypnotism, but I would forgive anyone for wondering why the hypnotist looks like a demonic cross between Super Mario and Saddam Hussein. All I can say is I've drawn this image tonight while drinking gin and Mickey Finn, so my faculties may be compromised.
Anyway, the pencil work seems quite natural and it was a pleasure to draw so hopefully that will translate across to you.
Now to check out what everyone else has done this week....

Illustration Friday: Clumsy

Here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday. The word we've been thrown is "Clumsy" and I wanted my image this week to be a quick one-night effort. The above took a couple of hours with no preparation before drawing commenced. Until I finished it just now, I had no idea how it would turn out.

The main character is Georgie, who I introduced last year and who has never been far from my mind. His canine companion has now been given the designation of Bruno, and this clumsy scene depicts my young lad dropping his ice-cream onto his pup's head.

All comments are welcome!

Illustration Friday: Wilderness

Hi all and here is my entry for Illustration Friday this week; the week the word was Wilderness.
It was touch and go whether I would find time to enter this week but low and behold I managed to scrape a few hours together and was able to produce this.
Given that I've created this over several sporadic bursts, I've not really had the opportunity to stand back and examine it properly to assess it's impact(s), but my initial opinion is that it's an acceptable punt. In any case, I have at least illustrated the correct word this week, and I believe I've captured a sufficiently wild atmosphere to warrant an entry.
The image has a slightly sinister effect; due in part to the fact it's all HB pencil, which I dare say you will agree often lends a dark quality if used in mass quantity like this.
Anyway, I've had my rattle now, solet me know what you think of this; I would class this as my first picture deserving of feedback in 2010, so let me know if it's stupendous, stupid, or just somewhere in between.

Illustration Friday: Contained

Greetings all, and to all a good day! This is my first original Illustration Friday entry since last April, and goodness it feels good to join you all once again. What I have I missed? Whats the gos?
I'm joking of course, I'm a man and I don't do gossip.
Okay, now I will stress that since I've been out of the loop as it were, I've not practised my art very much, and as such I am apocoliptically rusty! I would therefore ask that viewers of this piece be somewhat forgiving - I can do better!
"How does this represent CONTAINED"? I hear you yell in my left ear with disgust! Well...take notice young urchin; for the image is actually rather simple. The main character (albiet drawn badly) is smoking.... and the words...well there's roughly 600 of them and they are the ingredients that 1 cigarette contains! Gosh!
Anyway, no way will this be Illustration Friday's pick of the week this week because Brianna's got more taste than that, but let me know what you think of it as an idea.
Next week I will be back and a little bit better. Lock up your daughters, etc etc.
Jim.

15/01/10 (13:56) Note:
It has only just occured to me that the word on I.F. this week is Confined and I have illustrated Contained. I've never done that before and must admit to being a supreme plonker. Oh well!

Cat Doodle

Hello everybody. It's been a while since I added anything on here because I haven't been drawing much recently, but I'm now back on the horse with the above image.
It doesn't really have a title because it's essentially a doodle that's been tarted up in Photoshop.
I drew it tonight and coloured it in. In total, the whole image took about 3 hours to create and I'm actually quite pleased with the result. The two cats are based on my own; Harry and Hendrix (who at this moment are a few feet away fighting over the litter tray).
Anyway, let me know what you think as a little bit of constructive feedback wouldn't be a bad thing at the moment and would certainly inspire me to continue picking up a pen.
In any case, I promise not to leave it so long before adding a new image next time.

Illustration Friday: Strong

Rumours of my demise we're greatly exaggerated! After a summer hiatus I'm back with a new entry for Illustration Friday, the topic being "Strong". I've been out of the illustration racket for a few months now, so this entry was always going to be a foot in the door first, and a credible illustration second. The picture itself doesn't require much explaining; I think most of you possess enough imagination to inbue the strength in it. With the next topic I hope to hit the ground running and be hot on it's tail from the get-go, so I hope to catch up with you all very soon!

The Silbadors Revisited

Right! I've had a few months off drawing to concentrate on a few other projects I've had up and running, but my drawing desk is once again calling my to pick up a pencil. Historically I've always had fallow periods in the few months before the summer equinox, and have always found my pace again just as the nights start to get darker.

Anyway, to keep my blog ticking over until I have a brand new piece, I've decided to post something from my archives. This image depicts a 'fake' band I was in with my colleague Raoul McGurk back in 2007. The band was a cross between the Gorillaz and cheesy Spanish ballads, and the ten songs we recorded were intentionally daft and frivolous. The members of the band were The Donkey (Raoul), Lawrence Scorpion (me) and a third member called Chob (the bald one) who was a silent partner played by nobody. There's a Silbadors's myspace page which gets about 1 play a fortnight. Had we not been more concerned with our proper band (Karousel) I may have gone so far as to produce an animation of the characters.

Illustration Friday: Theater

I couldn't really think of any ideas for this week's Illustration Friday topic - at least none that inspired me to pick up a pencil. So, this week I've polished an old turd (so's to speak) and used one of my older stock images involving a movie theater. It's from the epic Biggins versus Burrow 13 comic. I'll be back on the illustration scene properly next week and will present something more deserving of feedback.

Illustration Friday: I'm Possibility

This is my late entry for Illustration Friday this week. The word was "Impossibility".
I decided to cheat and added an apostrophy and a space to the word to make it "I'm Possiblity". The picture I've drawn is an optimistic image - a young boy (Georgie) looking into space and musing upon the notion of what he's possible of. When I was younger I used to do this all the time... sitting on the swing in my garden looking up and thinking about what lay ahead, and later, what lay out there. Although some things are impossible in the real world, as a child the word 'impossibilty' itself seems impossible to me.

Attack From Above 2009

This is my most complex image of the year so far! It's called 'Attack from Above' and this is the fifth time I've drawn it. I first drew the image back in 1998, which at the time was the first full colour page I'd ever produced. I've since re-drawn the image in 2000, 2001 and 2004.
The scene takes place in New York and despite the 9/11 attacks, I have kept the Twin Towers in the background as a sort of dedication.
Even though the image has been drawn on A4 paper, the attention to detail and line quality means that it looks good even when zoomed right in (as these close-ups will testify);

Charlie Pickles.

Manikin Man

It's taken me better part of a week to get this image finished. The final Photoshop image contains 30 layers and I had to create the spaceships in a 3D program. All in all, I think I've raised my personal benchmark and it'll be at least another 5 years before I attempt this again.

Illustration Friday: Fleeting

I haven't had much time to illustrate this week, so for this week's Illustration Friday I had to come up with something quick and easy. The above image is the result of that hurried effort. I just sat down at my drawing desk about 20 minutes ago, came up with the idea and drew it straight out. The idea behind it being that I am presently aware that this year is zooming by at an amazing rate. 2009 is fleeting!

Book Sale

Here is an image called Book Sale. I've drawn this for my department at work who are having a book sale this week to raise money for the Marie Curie charity. What was meant to be a simple project turned out to be rather...complicated! Drawing the main image took very little time, but when I came to colour it, the detail of the books gave me an overwhelming sense of having shot myself in the foot. It's not one of my greatest images, but it was quite fun to produce, and hopefully it will be put to good use later this week.

Illustration Friday: Talisman

For this week's Illustration Friday theme (talisman) I decided to do something really simple.
Instead of drawing good luck charms, religious icons, etc, I realised that the simplest form of talisman that we can all do (except for some unlucky war veterans) is the elegant crossed fingers. How simple is that??

Georgie and the Trampoline

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Georgie and the Trampoline. This is an idea I've had for a childrens book, and I've drawn this image to see how it might look. I've tried to make the drawing a little bit more stylised than my usual output and although I've by no means achieved a perfect end product, I reckon I'm moving in the right direction.
You will notice that I've now given Georgie a canine sidekick. I'm afraid I don't have a name for him just yet. Maybe Geoff? The Adventures of Georgie & Geoff? No... no... I will have to keep thinking...

Illustration Friday: Poise

Following on from my last post, I decided I would like to enter Illustration Friday this week using a more children-friendly image. This is a new character called Georgie and I created him specifically to test out some illustration techniques, so although he's not the most original character, we may see more of him. This image took about an hour to draw and colour in so it's rather a swift piece, but as I'm slowly discovering, sometimes perfection is imperfection and the natural linework adds to the drawing's accessibility. Let me know what you think anyway.
Incidentally - has anyone here ever used acrylic paint? I used to use watercolour a lot, but I want to do some drawings and colour them in with nice solid colours. Is acrylic good for this? I never learnt how to paint things without you being able to see all the unsightly brushmarks at the end. I've tried guash in the past but with my lack of skill, the results were...messy!

Billy & Tinker (Illustration Test)

Here is an image I just whipped-up. For a while now I've wanted to branch out into the competitive world of illustrating childrens books. My style has never really been geared up for the task, though. Well, tonight I thought it was time I began exploring some possibilities. The above image was the first of several experiments, using a new drawing style (for me anyway) and some new production techniques. It's quite basic and not too enthrawling, but considering everything about this image was concieved through experimentation, it could've been a lot worse.

Illustration Friday: Subtract 2

As I'm not too blown-away with my entry for Illustration Friday this week, I've decided to enter a second one and hedge my bets. Interestingly, this is my first ever fully-computerised entry. The heads are recycled from the edit files of my film Waking Up In Wonderland. I had thought them lost until I managed to find them on an old scratched disc last week. The background was an experiment I did last week to see if I could create grass (seen in my Legendary picture).
After I made this just now, I realised that the characters bodies have been subtracted and thus, this image is applicable for this week's topic. I only wish I'd made this image first as I quite like the colourful disposition of the characters and background.

Illustration Friday: Subtract 1

For this week's Illustration Friday I wanted to make something quickly and intentionally-basic. My last four entries have been a little bit on the complicated side so I fancied a change. This is one of the quickest pictures I've drawn in quite a while so I'm not expecting much kudos back regarding it, and in any case, I have a full plate this week - this is the best I could manage!

Some More Texture Tests

Having recently discovered the joys of adding paper texture to old drawings, tonight I conducted a few more experiments. Here are two of the better results:

This is a piece from 2001 entitled "Eleventh Hour". There is a more completed version of this on file, but I chose to use the early pencil version in this instance. The results appear encouraging.

I then went on and tried applying texture to a 2004 drawing called "By The Fire" and this time tried to make it more natural looking. It almost looks like it was drawn on the back of an old envelope!

Whether using paper textures will work on some of my more flamboyant pictures remains to be seen. Watch this space!

Illustration Friday: Legendary

I don't know why, but this week's Illustration Friday word just didn't seem to inspire me that much. Nonetheless I've had a bash at it. I was originally going to do a Samson & Delilah theme, but changed my mind at the last minute and decided to do a King Arthur picture... specifically the legend that refers to the Lady In The Lake giving Arthur his famous Sword. I may've been slightly influenced by Monthy Python and The Holy Grail as I seem to have recreated Graham Chapman's beard to an uncanny degree. From the outset I wanted to do a high-grade image (like my Intricate or Instinct pictures) in the full knowledge that next week I'm going to attempt something more natural. So to help me along this week, I've used a bit more Photoshop than usual. I just hope the image doesn't look too...artificial.

Unfinished Drink

After playing around with old images and new textures on the previous image, I dug out this picture. It's an unfinished drawing I did of Biggins drinking a cup of coffee. At the time I abandonned it to draw another more energetic image (which some of you may have seen on my blog some weeks ago) simply entitled "Coffee". When I stumbled across this image the other day, I found myself wishing I'd competed it.

Biggins Vs Burrow Revamp

This is an old image that I just decided to re-vamped for a bit of fun. This image has been subject to a few experiments over the years (partly because it's a nice clean drawing). I was going to develop it into a more extravagant Boxing Promotion poster, but I stopped because I liked what I'd already achieved.

Illustration Friday: Intricate

This week Illustration Friday gave us the word "intricate". Following on from my image last week I felt encouraged to draw another vocational scene and it struck me that flying a plane (with all those complicated controls) must be quite an intricate process. As it turned out, the logistics of drawing a cockpit full of buttons proved to be slightly more challenging than I had expected... so in the end I scaled-back the details to make the image more managable. Additionally, in certain places the perspective got a wee bit out of hand and I had to be careful about how I coloured things in. Ultimately though I'm rather pleased with this, especially since I threw it together over 3 short evenings.

Illustration Friday: Breezy

For this week's Illustration Friday topic ("Breezy") I came up with about 20 ideas. I spent the whole of last Sunday thinking about which one would be best and as is typical, I simply ended up doing the first idea that had come to me. As you can see, I went for a weather forecast idea, and drew the forecaster in a very breezy pose. In England weather can sometimes be erratic, hence why in the picture I've drawn the wind directions in a very bizarre patterns... this is what it's actually like! I hope you like it!

Starhog 2009

Here's a pimped out copy of my CGI Starhog - with vector accesories and enhanced in Photoshop.

Starhog - CGI

Following on from my blog below - here are some images of Starhog drawn tonight using a CGI program. This is the first image I've ever drawn in CGI with any degree of success. The fact Starhog is made up of four big circles helped...but still...it's a big step forward for me.

Biggins & Company Vs Futurama

Okay - this is just for a little fun. Having just watched the latest Futurama film, I thought it was time to set the record straight on something that's been bugging me for a number of years now.
I'm a fan of Futurama and have watched it for a while now. However, the one gripe I have (not with the show itself particularly) is that Futurama and Biggins and Company have some..."similarities"!

Check out this comparison of the two respective main characters; Fry and Biggins. Is it me or are there some vague similarities? If there are I'm only too happy to point out they are co-incedental as while Futurama has been around sine 1998, Biggins & Co has been knocking around since 1996. Therefore, this interests me because it is a good case study for parallel evolution.
So I believe it's a case of co-incidental design, which encourages me because Futurama has proven there's a big market for this sort of thing - which can only be a good thing for Biggins & Co. Another similarity between the two concepts is their use of spaceships to get around. While in Futurama you have the Planet Express Ship, Biggins has the Starhog. For a little bit of fun earlier, I created the following image;