A Merry Christmas sneeky-peek!

Hey everyone - just to say hope youse-all have a great festive break with those who mean the most and that your stockings overflow with Santa goodness. In a perennial show of seasonal un-preparedness I haven't designed or drawn a personal greeting to upload so you'll just have to make do with a sneak-peek of a piece I've had knocking around my hard drive for way too long. It's 95% done but I've just been so busy with other stuff it's been somewhat overlooked. But watch out! - he's gonna escape sooooon, heh, heh.  Merry Christmas!

Barry White

Lionel Richie

Michael McDonald

Smokey Robinson

More first stage artwork for 'The Canvas'

Brian Hanrahan

...the well known BBC journalist who's died.

Evil Dead Ash

"We're gonna get you..."

Here's Bruce - in situ - as promised.

Sam Allardyce x2

Apparently he's topical at the moment. I just liked the face - good for 2d sculpting.

Commission

Don't put much commission stuff up...but here's one.
A recent job for a groom who wanted to give it as a gift for his best man.

It's ink outline with pencil in-fill which I've never tried before. The customer suggested it and I was dubious at first but I liked the result so I'll probably do it again.

Bruce Campbell

ASH! - the chisel-chinned dispatcher of the undead!

I recently completed this for Loopy Dave (check out his amazing work here) for his generous gift of a year's membership on Deviant Art; though his version doesn't have a large watermark over Bruce's ample chin - heh! See what you can get if ya good to me?!!! ha,ha!

It was good fun to do and I rediscovered my love of the greatest horror/comedy flick in the process.

Currently workin' on an expanded 'movie-still' version of the above: so stand by!

Richard Thompson

More quick sketchin'

Mark Rothko

Just sketchin'...

Lindsey Buckingham (young)

Finished rough for 'The Canvas'

Well, I did say in the last post I love drawing hair...

Billy Joel - (canvas commission prep)

Another worked up prep for the big bad canvas. It's come out a bit straight for me; more like a portrait; so I may re-draw for the final piece. However, I quite liked certain parts of it so it was saved from the trash for a post.
Love drawing hair but salt and pepper stubble is a nightmare to try and get right. Never drawn a greying short beard I've been happy with. So; plenty of summits still to reach.

Al Green

I've recently been commissioned for a canvas of 2.5m x 1.5m to show 65 characters: all to be painted in acrylic (Al Green is one to be included).
They are to be mainly rock 'n' roll; pop 'n' soul luminairies and it'll take me half way into next year; so that's going to keep to take up a large chunk of my time. I'll upload roughs and progress shots where I can but obviously I can't give too much away before the deadline has been reached. I won't be roughing all the characters to the level of the above, but where I feel I want to inlude one as a post then I'll take it to a more finished stage and upload it. I will have a feature on it when I've finished - if I haven't been sectioned by then - which will include roughs, colour close ups; final shots - all punctuated with tales of desperation and joy, in equal measure I'm sure, ha, ha! No doubt I'll be breaking off here and there to do other personal pieces but this is how it will be for the coming months. Tally-ho.

Stephen Baldwin

Holy Big Brother! It's the godly one out of the Baldwins. Dawg!

Evolution - Sean Penn

For those who like to see this kind of thing I thought I'd put this little progress montage up of the painting I posted recently of Sean Penn.
Like most images it started off as a digital pencil sketch although you'll notice the pencil stages are more cropped compared to how the final image was realised. Originally I'd set out to do just a pencil drawing but then I thought I'd give it the full paint treatment. It was at this stage I thought I'd expand the composition as Mr Penn still sports a fine head of lustrous hair and it seemed a waste not to put that all in. So it was just a case then of placing the drawing in a new document and, well, painting over the top...just as you see it above. No student would be told to follow me as an example of how to paint a face as quite often I don't bother to build up a base or work out colour values from dark to light. I just pick a start point and jump right on in, ha, ha!

Diego Maradona

Here are a couple of studies I did recently. They were painted in photoshop so they don't have quite the crispness of vector rendered artwork but with my wacom pen I can work quicker and it's more comfortable. Horses for courses, I guess. I painted the top one which was...ok, but I really wanted something a bit more cartoony so I did the one underneath with the cheeky maestro showing off his infamous hand.

Harry Shearer

Hadn't done any drawing for a couple o' days so I tried to do something fun and quick without getting swallowed up into overworking it - too late in the day for anything too involved. Just sorta scratchin' an itch really. Job done - time for zeds.

Tchaikovsky

Continuing the list of the fantastically follicled music maestros, it's a sketch of ol' Pete himself.
May colour him up at some point...we'll see.

Vincent Cassel

Been a fan of Vincent Cassel since first seeing 'La Haine' all those years ago. He's been on my 'to do' list for way too long (along with a gazillion others)...and he's married to Monica Bellucci - c'mon!

Janis Joplin

Cintiq + photoshop

No! It aint another Ozzy! But it's rock 'n' roll madness all the same...

Gabriel Faure

Wild hair and big 'taches; ya gotta love them composers - always good fun to draw.

Sean Penn...

...or is it some hideous amalgam of Robert De Niro and Hugh Grant?
Digital airbrush/paint isn't my usual (virtual) medium of choice but since I near bankrupted myself with the cintiq purchase back at the start of the year, curiosity go the better of me and I thought it would be good to experiment. I'd also had a couple of commissions asking to use this process so I thought I'd better get busy with it. Can't say it'll become my favourite process for caricaturing but I know I shall be givin' it another go before too long.

Cheerio Cyril Smith

(28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010)

Graeme Swann

Julia Gillard

Australia's premier female premier - if you get ma' drift...

Michel Platini

Cinitiq with Photoshop + Illustrator

Platini's gonna sort it out...

V.S. Naipaul

Cintiq + Photoshop

John Turturro

Digi pencil - cintiq + Photoshop

Jaz Coleman

Killing Joke main man; Jaz!

Vladimir Nabokov

The genius writer + little friend.

Toshiro Mifune

Got Rashomon on my 'too watch' list as I've never seen it.
And I call myself a film fan...cuh!

Jesse Jackson

Cintiq + Photoshop

Joseph McCarthy

 "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

Who'da thought it (apart from Joe)? According to David Aaronovitch's Radio4 programme last Sunday there were reds under the bed after all - and J-Mac was right all along, blimey! The thorny plot of the McCarthyite witch-hunt era has been dug over with a result that some awkward truths have been uncovered - which annoyingly challenges the long accepted script. Fascinating stuff which is sure to resonate stronger Sate-side than here in the UK.

Giacomo Puccini

 A quickish sketch of the Italian composer.

Vectortuts+ interview

Well, waddyaknow? You hang around for ages and then suddenly two come along at once. I'm talking on-line interviews, and if you really felt the last one left you wanting more then you can (apart from possibly getting out a bit more often!) click on this link to Vectortuts+ for some more ramblings by me regarding how I pitched up at the point I currently find myself.
Seriously, Vectortuts+ is a great site which like Vectelligence promotes designers and artists and gives advice and tutorials regarding vector based softwares. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's a state-side based site as some of my spelling has gone trans-atlantic, ha, ha! Check it out and hope you enjoy it!

Hurricane Higgins

Alex Higgins, who's hung up his cue for the last time aged 61.

Yo! Dave Grohl!

 

Here's Nirvana's ex-sticksman and drum-maestro for hire; Dave Grohl. Would 'Songs For The Deaf' and 'Killing Joke' sound quite the same without his perfect paradiddles? No, I don't think so either.

James Joyce

Time has been tight here in Cook Towers with little time to spend pursuing the more enjoyable things in life; like grapplin' with the likeness of the great writer, Mr James Joyce; a free painted caricature awaits anyone who can prove they've read 'Finnegan's Wake' from begininning to end more than once!
Sorry, only jokin' with that last bit, heh, heh!. Anyway, currently working on an involved colour piece so hopefully it won't be too long before I can launch it into cyberspace.

Keep on scratchin'!

Interview with vectelligence

©Copyright vectelligence 2010

Just to let you know I completed an online interview a few months back and it has now been posted on a new site called 'Vectelligence'; a forum showcasing news, tutorials and discussion within the world of design and illustration and run by Ilie Ciorba. Check it out here!

Diego Forlan

The aquiline Forlan, who with his explosive acceleration and awesome striking power, has been for me the outstanding player of the 2010 world cup.

Evelyn Waugh

Cintiq + Ps

Vinnie Jones

It's been emotional...

Adrian Chiles

British tv's everyman: Mr Chiles.

Jim Jarmusch

The great American indie film director who has the coolest grey hair on the planet.

Nick Cave - scratch

...A microscopic scratch in my catastrophic plan, designed and directed by my red right hand...

Robbie Williams - scratch

Keepin' on scratchin' with Robbie!

Ledley King - scratch

A quickish scratch of the latest call up to the England squad, Tottenham's Mr Ledley King.
Come out a bit clean for a scratch... but there ya go!