Spock

Ah, the great Leonard has left us. Probably remembered by most for one role only - but what a role! There can't be many people in the world familiar with western culture who do not recognise the iconic character of Spock. I can't confess to being a trekkie but I've always loved the first groundbreaking series so it was good fun to do this tribute to him.

Tools: Sketchbook Pro + PS

Mario!

MARIO BALOTELLI

This is my third Mario...why always him?

Click on image for larger version.

Tools: Sketchbook Pro + PS

Jamie Hewlett

 

...talking of heroic comic book artists, here's another homegrown great: Jamie Hewlett. Creating and posting the image of Brett Ewins a couple of days ago jogged my mind that I hadn't got round to caricaturing his comic star cohort. Remember, without Hewlett: no Tank Girl! - or not as we know her now. This pic was long overdue but good fun to make.

Brett Ewins RIP

Sad to hear of the death of artist Brett Ewins this morning - one of the true 2000AD originals. His artwork on 'The Haunting Of Sector House 9' still disturbs me to this day! Weird, macabre and brilliant. Thanks for all the great art, Brett.

Here's a sample of one of his great spreads from that series:

Lance Armstrong

Not too chemically enhanced to get caught by a digital pencil! Got a great idea for a full colour image with him and Walter White that I'd love to make the time for...

Website Updated!

My caricature website has been updated and expanded with a whole new look. I liked the design of the old one but it needed reconstructing and future-proofing so I took the opportunity to give it a cosmetic overhaul as well. New galleries have been introduced and many more caricatures have been added to them, so it should provide easy access to the best images from the archives. Still got a bunch of faces to add to various galleries (at the time of writing) but I wanted to get the thing up and working as soon as was possible - so hang tight for a bit if a specific image you're looking for isn't there. Like all new sites there have been teething problems and there still may be glitches that need addressing, so if you discover any links or elements that aren't working then feel free to drop me a message and point out the error(s).

Thanks for viewing!

Mick Jagger

 Sketchbook Pro + Cintiq

Marvellous Mick! This was a pleasure to create as it was a bit of a leap forward in experimenting with using software in a different way to improve ease of application as well as increase the speed of execution. In the past, a caricature like this would have been created by me entirely in Photoshop, but this one was created almost entirely in Sketchbook Pro (with only a bit of touching up in the background with PS). SBP has a very intuitive layout for adjusting palette colours as one works. When combined with ease of tool adjustment it makes for a very speedy process. I'll be carrying on trying to hone the process in order to gain faster and more pleasing results.

The image is based on an old acylic painting I had knocking about which was never completed as it didn't seem to be working. So, not exactly a 'finishing-off' of a languishing work (like my recent vector-based Slash portrait) but I'm glad I managed to complete the image, albeit in another format...

Benedict Cumberbatch

Tools: Sketchbook Pro + Photoshop + Cintiq

Slash!

Had this image of Slash uncompleted on my HD for the last three and a half years! I was originally going to expand it though I always liked the letterbox-crop I'd started off with. After looking at it again after so long I thought (in the persisting absence of a better idea) to go with my original plan. I've got a bunch of images in similar states probably going back just as far. Maybe 2015 is going to be the year I finally clean out my cupboard...

btw: who knew 'slash' meant something else in the art community? Ha ha! Boy, am I behind the times - too many sub-genres for me to keep up. If I make a caricature of Slash & Duff being friends does that make it a Slash slash? Guess so...

Louis van Gaal

Dutch soccer manager 'Louis'

Tools: Sketchbook Pro + Cintiq.

I Publically Condemn...

Support freedom of expression, spending whatever time you can give, wherever it can be given.

Eddie Redmayne

Sketchbook Pro

Happy New Year! I'm kicking off 2015 with a digital pencil caricature of 'actor of the moment', Eddie Redmayne, who I've managed to make look quite skeptical for some reason.

Avatar Commission

A recent job: request for an avatar

Over at my other blog...

Click on image and let me take you there...

JJ Abrams - A force for good?

Like many of you I've watched the new teaser trailer for the next film in the Star Wars franchise: The Force Awakens, and...hmmm, well, not sure what I think. I do feel wary after watching the incredible visuals of each of the prequel trailers, when they were first shown years ago, which proved that not even they could convey how hokey some of the final effects were to turn out to be, not to mention the plotting, the dialogue, the acting, or (how can we ever forget/forgive) some of the new characters!

My personal bug-bear is the tinkering with the lightsabres. OK, Maul's double-ended sabre was a nice touch but now we're looking at the possibility of some kind of cruciform version. Leave 'em alone!

So, we'll just have to wait and see - but I really hope that Mr JJ Abrams proves to be a more welcome addition to the much-loved universe than Mr JJ Binks.

Work In Progress

Detail of some WIP...

Peter Cushing

 

Star Wars' Grand Moff Tarkin -  as played by the great Peter Cushing. Taken a long time to get round to caricaturing this fantastic face.

Bela Lugosi sez Happy Hallowe'en!

Wishing blog visitors a gruesomely happy Hallowe'en from me (and Bela). A bit of a rush job this, as I wanted to get something done this evening before the clock struck midnight, so not as much titivatin' as I'd've like to have done - but it's all good fun.

Furious Pitt In Pencil

Mechanical pencil on paper

Quick sketch of Brad in his latest big screen role. I haven't done a caricature in 'proper' pencil for a helluva while and quite fancied it. The main reason is that I didn't want to spend too much time on it and pencil always takes less than half the time than its digital alternative: probably because with digital I spend to much time cleaning up and exercising the freedom of choice to change stuff. So the above is very sketchy, but that's OK...

Derek Bauer post - updated

I have updated my post on cartoonist Derek Bauer as I noticed that the image links were broken due to their source site being taken down - therefore, I've uploaded scans from my own book. Bauer had a big influence on my style and the keen-eyed will see where I've cribbed from him. Hope you enjoy it.

If anyone has issue with copyright please email me.

Guy Martin

If you are a speed freak/TT racing fan/adrenaline junky then I recommend the film 'Closer to the edge' which is a documentary covering the Isle Of Man TT races and follows the fortunes of the (then) leading riders; of which Guy Martin was one. It's a funny, shocking and engaging watch - and you don't have to particularly like bike racing as it will satisfy anyone who loves well-made doc's.

Are Strandli & Kristoffer Brun

This is a commission I was asked to complete for the designers of a website dedicated to the two Norwegian rowers Are Strandli and Kristoffer Brun, back in the spring of this year. They recently got the website finished so I feel at liberty to post the artwork. Good fun to do.

Click on image to expand for larger and clearer view.

Roy Hodgson

You would not believe the amount of trouble trying to capture Roy Hodgson's face has given me! I think I've sat down on about five occasions to fix a caricature only to have each session ending in failure. Always strange to find out which subjects end up being the most difficult to caricature. It's not that he doesn't have strong features: the bags under the eyes; the large rounded ears; the architecture of the jowls - that nose! Sometimes the most 'obvious' becomes the most difficult. The above drawing is the nearest I've come and it's still not quite 'spot on'! Oh well....

My My, Ma Ma lives!

More WIP for upcoming Dredd-related work I'm playing around with. Still needs some tweaks - her left wrist needs thickening up, for instance - but this should work for the final composition. Still not 100% sure as to which technique I'm gonna use for the final...

Urban-ity WIP

Sneek-Peak of a Mega City three-hander (hopefully) coming soon-ish