Cucumber & Chilli Pepper tango

I was recently commissioned to draw a cucumber dancing with a chilli pepper. Helpfully I have drawn dancing vegetables before! The client requested various details and features that referenced the people these characters represent. Hopefully they will appreciate the sentiment though it is hard for me to know as I am not part of the private joke going on here! 

Here is the final result:

Some early sketches of various poses:

Here is an older drawing I did on a similar theme. 

The Dance of the Condiments:

Inorikaze - Prayer Wind

My talented friend Nobuko Miyazaki is a New York based flautist, shinobue (Japanese bamboo flute) player and composer. Her latest project is an album of her own compositions recorded with a variety of professional musicians and collaborators, including the Manhattan Symphonie Orchestra, entitled - Inorikaze - Prayer Wind.

You can hear a sample of her music and find out the stories behind each composition on her website here: http://www.nobuflute.com/ 

Nobuko asked me to design a CD cover for this album. She wanted an image of a young girl playing a flute. The girl represents herself and was inspired by a photo she took of a girl she came across in Japan whilst doing voluntary aid work there following the earthquake in 2013.

The music is represented by ribbons of colour, swirling into the sky:

An early title design with brushwork type:

The final artwork:

To buy the album click here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/inorikaze-prayer-wind-ep/id961365698
http://cdbaby.com/cd/nobukomiyazaki2

A portion of sales go to children's charities.

Nobuko worked tirelessly to put this album together and I am very proud to be a small part of her continuing success.

Matte painting

Recently I have been working as a matte painter/background artist for an animated commercial campaign made at Picasso Pictures for the directing duo Jens and Anna. The campaign included various 30sec commercials as well as online web films with information about new healthcare initiatives in Kentucky, USA. I began working on the campaign last summer (2013) when I was asked to create high resolution images from details in the commercial that could be used for the accompanying print campaign. This year I was asked to do backgrounds that were used in the actual commercial. My images were then projected onto the 3D elements of the scenes with 2D character animation added from Flash.

I was given wireframes of the scenes from the CG animators which I then painted in Photoshop according to the project style. Below you can see an example of a wireframe and then the finished background:

The images are created at a size that allows for camera moves within the shots. For example, the image below is wider than the TV ratio because the camera move goes from left to right within the image. I also had to draw more information on layers so there was enough imagery as the camera moves around revealing different parts of the picture.

I was also given matte references for the 3D objects to help isolate areas for colouring:

Additional shadow layers were added by the CG programme (Maya) into footage that was then composited together and colour graded for the final output. Here is the finished commercial:

Here is a time lapse video of a background I made for the most recent commercial:

Artificial Things

In 2012 I created a resource pack (35 illustrations and layout) for Stopgap Dance Company - click here for more information.
This year they asked me to create flyers and a brochure for their current touring production called Artificial Things. I made A4, A5 flyers and an A2 poster with cast and production information on the reverse side that folds into an A5 brochure, see below:

(The photographs are by Chris Parkes as Christography)

Click here for a trailer for the show.

I visited the show at Sadler's Wells last night and it was a wonderful performance. A visual and visceral treat. I definitely recommend it. They are touring the UK with this show into the autumn - for more information click here: Stopgap Dance or visit stopgapdance.com