CROWLEY NOW!

Microfiche and Microfiction

2011-10-06T00:35:00.003+01:00

Hello Crowlers and Crowlettes, a little experiment this time around. Playing around with microfiction and text design, came up with this. Turned out okay, it might well be something I develop further. Though naturally I should really just be doing some comics or something proper like that. Let's see if I manage.

Arson About

2011-09-12T10:59:00.004+01:00

Hey hey hey, long time no see. No, I ain't been inside. No, I ain't joined the navy, neither. Here's a little bit of old material, a couple of posters designed to promote a course production of Max Frisch's The Arsonists, also known as the Fire-Raisers, the Firebugs and the Fire-Starter-Twisted-Fire-Starter, yuk yuk.

This was the teaser poster with a little slogan the production team came up with, which works pretty well, reflecting the tone and subject matter of the play. It does 'wry' and 'sinister' well.

This was the finished article, plastered all over the walls of York University to advertise our bold new step forward in theatre. That being "make a set, get people near to it, say the words loud".

Serial Failure

2011-07-14T10:31:00.004+01:00

Hello team! Sorry, I forgot and was busy. These are the reasons nobody ever succeeds at that "I'm doing one thing every day" self-imposed blogging challenge. So instead I'm going to do what everybody else does: shove stuff up here as and when it suits me. So today your treat is a lovely Fringe Festival preview!

The talented people at Jackinabox Productions wanted some original logo and illustration work done for their physical and dance adaptation of Hokey Cokey Andersen's The Little Mermaid, so I did this for them. They seemed pretty happy! I hope you like it too, whoever you are out there in radioland.

Fun with the Lights Out

2011-07-07T17:28:00.004+01:00

Only a little update today since I'm swamped with producing new stuff for to take to the Fringe Festival. For now here's the poster I did for a York production of Black Comedy that I was in. I can be seen at the bottom left of the photograph in character as Colonel Melkett. It was a big host of laughs and everybody said I was extremely convincing as a shellshocked racist.

I did all the text with my brush pen, inspired by some old film posters of the persuasion "just paint over a production still", and I think it turned out okay! Not quite convinced by the colour on the drop shadow on the title, looks a bit "shitty gold", but never mind, eh. The lighting design and photograph on the poster came courtesy of its sexy dangerous production team, Sam Briggs and Katie Lambert.

Shedding my Responsibilities

2011-07-06T00:35:00.002+01:00

Technically this is already late since it's now tomorrow. Nonetheless, here we go!

As the poster claims I also wrote and directed this play as well as designing the poster, in a stunning break from habit. Since it's late, here's the trailer I shot and edited as a special bonus feature. (Audio stolen from the Dead Pirates)

Updatez

2011-07-04T10:50:00.004+01:00

Things change. People change. University courses end and suddenly people have time to update their art blogs even though they've been busy little beavers. It's in the spirit of this that I promise to upload one image per day from the last year's backlog of fine posters, illustrations and sketches until such time as I run out. Starting NOW!

This is a blue and red pencil/marker pen illustration of Roseanna Brear in her role as Philomele Smith in good friend Heather Wilmot's play Knightingale. The front lobby of the Drama Society's Barn venue was covered in sheets of paper and dolled up to look like it was covered in the childhood drawings of Phil and her brother Sam, and looked brilliant.

Kicking and Screaming

2011-03-30T15:28:00.003+01:00

Hello, that title not only relates to the act of acquiescing to progress, but also suggests the kind of conditions under which I ever put anything I've done on the internet.

HOWEVER! I've just got one of those handy-dandy fancy-pantsy smartphones, with one of those facilities for taking an image and putting it on what's known, these days, as the Internet! If that's not "smart", I don't know what is. However, all this is built more around the device known as Twitter and its limited capacity for self-expression, so the bottom line is that while I'm going to try to get any big finished projects up on here, you're more likely to find tasty little nibbles like what's below at http://twitter.com/crowleeey in the coming age of technological enlightenment. Hopefully this means I'll actually put something up occasionally! WE'LL SEE!?

Anyway, enough hollow promises (echoing as if from the deepest, driest well), this is a page of sketches from today, done in the Caffe Nero in Muswell Hill. Stalkers take note.

Paperclip Jones #4

2010-08-02T23:59:00.002+01:00

This only took me two hours! Well, two hours and ten months since the last one. But after I got over that whole no-action-for-nearly-a-year hump, it was barely any time at all.

No Sugar, Sherlock

2010-08-02T19:31:00.002+01:00

I'm really enjoying Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' new Sherlock series. Yet more evidence that someday Moffat might save British television. Or at least the BBC's output.

Brotherhood of the Leaky Boot

2010-07-30T17:19:00.004+01:00

This is what's been taking up all my time for the last Nearlymonth and will continue to feel the full force of my love and effort for the next month and a week at the Edinburgh Fringe! Promotional material below, all wrought by my own fair hand. Show info here: COME SEE IT FOR FREE! (A bargain at twice the price)

Back of the flyer!

Front of the flyer!

The poster!

If you're thinking we're an attractive bunch of young men with some exciting new ideas, then you are a very astute person.

Edinburgh Flyer Dump

2010-07-30T10:26:00.002+01:00

I am having a dump all over your computer monitor, of all the design work I've been doing for various Edinburgh shows. See if you can spot how many of them selfishly credit myself for making them!

Pekarrotype, Inglorious Technicolour

2010-07-30T10:03:00.002+01:00

I stole that joke from Paul Putner's new Edinburgh show, so sorry Paul.

Pekarrotype

2010-07-26T11:44:00.003+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, Harvey Pekar, jazz curmudgeon, indie comics pioneer and cultivator of fine eyebrows, 1939-2010.

A man so deserving of tribute that it made me update my blog!

Brotherhood of the Leaky Boot!

2010-03-20T09:07:00.005Z

Hello you,

Very soon indeed, with the onset of the Easter holidays, my day-to-day life will be made of sketching and attempting to write this: http://www.twitter.com/leakyboot

"Brotherhood of the Leaky Boot" is the project I'm working on for the Fringe Festival 2010 (under the auspices, and what auspices, of PBH's Free Fringe). It's award-almost-winning stand-up comedian Nathaniel Metcalfe alongside Four Sad Faces' me and Tobias Neutromino Wilson in a mixture of sketch, stand-up and live stunt weaving (if we can get the loom rights). If you want to follow our progress or have a butcher's at any of the inane rubbish that's floating around our noggins, follow us on the Twitter above. The only actual material we've got to show is a tiny drawing I've done for the Fringe brochure. So here it is!

Christmas!

2009-12-26T11:47:00.004Z

Post-its are well behind, but I'm willing to excuse that because I've been doing masses of drawing anyway! Here's a little thing I threw together as an all-purpose gift tag/Christmas card design.

Not incredibly fancy, but it looks pretty nice all printed out. To anybody who didn't get one on a piece of card - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hundred Days - Day 4

2009-12-04T17:55:00.003Z

In a coincidental move, here's day two of a miniature Lebowksifest.

Hundred Days - Day 3

2009-12-03T18:35:00.001Z

100 Days to Make Me a Better Person - Days 1 and 2

2009-12-02T14:05:00.004Z

Spearheaded by the wonderful comedian Josie Long, the Hundred Days project is a splendid exercise in personal discipline and random acts of will. The idea is, you pick one task to perform once every day for a hundred days from the 1st December. I've chosen the task of drawing a birthday post-it every day for either somebody I know or some other personality (probably found via IMDB or Wikipedia). I've started a day late, but here are my first two days of cards: the 1st December for Stephen Poliakoff and Woody Allen, two of my favourite writers-of-Jewish-extraction-whose-work-has-recently-gone-off-the-boil, and the second for Heather Wilmot, a fine writer, actor, comedian and good pal o' mine.

Mostly Posters

2009-12-02T13:54:00.003Z

One for a Dramasoc Open Drama night, a small, no-budget production of Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog which went down pretty well, evilly masterminded by the marvellous Stuart Hall. Prettily-penned review here: http://www.theyorker.co.uk/news/theatre/3839

Another for a show happening tonight, a big double-header of two of Comedy Society's most popular events:

Fly Poster

2009-11-11T14:56:00.003Z

Here's another simple York Uni Comedy Society poster I threw together. I'm acting in a couple of sketches for Sketch Hopper so helping promote it wasn't exactly a selfless action. Oh, it's tonight. Better run!

Campus Livin'

2009-10-29T11:51:00.004Z

The University of York Fresher's fair was a couple of weeks ago and I produced promotional material for two societies - Filmmaking Society:

Pretty simple concept, pretty simple poster, but it turned out nicely. More exciting is the Comedy Society's events flyer, since the Chair knew about my fixation with The Comics, hence:

They both went down pretty well, now I gotsta do a proper poster for that Sketch Show event you can see listed up there. Have your people call my people, we'll do lunch, ciao.

Scribbly Niven

2009-09-28T23:47:00.003+01:00

Hey, ever wonder what it looks like when I draw David Niven while I'm in a giddy state of glee having just watched A Matter of Life and Death and drunk several glasses of wine? WELL

This image was in part brought to you by Justin Richards and Chris Lean of excellent comedy group The Wogans whose film night, Liberty Street Films, is soon to take its rightful place as the swingingest celebrity hangout in the history of London town. The film even came with a free activity sheet (shown in small part above)!

Let's Rave On

2009-09-23T00:30:00.002+01:00

I love the Raveonettes and their trip-hoppy rock-n'-rolly B-movie-y stylings. I mean, just look at this music video!

Brilliant! New album's out soon, and there's a song on it called Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed). I'm excited!

WHISKAAAAAY!

2009-09-18T23:51:00.002+01:00

Matt Berry is the modern generation's quirky lounge Jesus. I love him in particular for the sometimes-slightly-mixed-but-mostly-just-a-barrell-of-laughs sketch show Snuff Box, but I've drawn him here in his sharp-suited role as a shadowy boardroom executive in the film Moon. It's not a big part for him, and you certainly wouldn't recognise him if it weren't for his sonorous bass vocal work, but it'll always be an important role for me. Why? Because him being in Moon is what first alerted me to its existence, all those months ago. Finding that kooky indie sci-fi Brit flick listed on IMDB was, for me, like finding King Solomon's sweaty, geeky mines.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart!

2009-09-18T17:26:00.003+01:00

HEY! The good people at Threadless confirmed my design as Something That Is Worthy Of Consideration For Voting! As such, I now insist that every follower of this blog IMMEDIATELY goes to the button below and votes as honestly as possible, with no hint of corruption or nepotism (FIVE FIVE FIVE FIVE FIVE VOTE FIVE).

Paperclip Jones #3

2009-09-16T18:42:00.003+01:00

You did NOT see that coming, oh no.

Junior

2009-09-14T11:07:00.003+01:00

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted any drawings on this blog, so to make up for that I bring you what is WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT the best drawing I have ever done

of Sammy Davis Jr.

Heart Beat

2009-09-10T15:00:00.004+01:00

In an effort to try and make money from pretty drawings, I've submitted this design to the good folks at Threadless, along with a punlicious title and description to go along with it. Find it here and leave some feedback! It's your right as a free-willed human being!

Paperclip Jones #2

2009-09-07T18:29:00.003+01:00

I need a header. I'll get around to it.

Big Burgh Sketchorama

2009-09-05T16:14:00.003+01:00

As in 'sketch panorama', not 'lots of sketches'. This is what happens when the hustly-bustle of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival becomes too much to bear and the warm embrace of lounging-about-in-the-flat beckons. There are a lot of happy memories hidden in these three pages! Enjoy them responsibly.

Paperclip Jones #1

2009-09-02T00:45:00.003+01:00

Ha ha! Silly, right? Then why am I so DEATHLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS?

Bad Cover Version

2009-08-30T00:28:00.004+01:00

Actually this is the best cover version I came up with. It's just a Pulp song. It's off We Love Life. The single was pretty big. Remember? Fine, here's the picture. Jeez.

I like how the way it's turned out it looks like I'm looking perplexedly at the weird little rant at the start of the post. I like that.

Concordant with my expectations

2009-08-28T10:42:00.004+01:00

Just finished this this morning, as both an experiment in doing pencil line caricatures and using a number of blocky hand-drawn elements stuck together on the computer (example: the frames, initials and wallpaper were all just blocks of black on the original page). Also trying to find a more sort of 'complete' illustration style, hence the picture frame gimmick. BOOM!

Boris Karl Orff

2009-08-27T15:57:00.003+01:00

And there it is - some of the best inking I think I've ever done. I've also been playing around a lot with style. I'm trying to cultivate something a little more personal from the ground-up, and I think I'm getting somewhere. What do YOU think?

Here's the clean inks as well, because I like 'em:

E-Din-Burr

2009-08-05T20:17:00.004+01:00

I'm disappearing for a couple of weeks to do a show in Edinburgh. If you're reading this blog, I suppose you know already, but if not, CLICK HERE! And yep, that's my poster there. Once I'm back I'll post the artwork for it and another Edinburgh show I helped with such design stuff.

Before I go, here's the first in a series of experiments in design I'm going to do based on Another Drawing Of La Roux I did. A man wiser than myself once said that the best thing for a young artist looking for work to do is "grab an NME and get sketching". If you wish to commission the artistic services of Thomas Crowley Esq. then murble mumble crowleeey@gmail.com yeh?

Prepare to Meet your Marker

2009-08-02T13:11:00.005+01:00

About a year ago I bought a bag of Letraset coloured markers.

Then I put them away again because I was afraid of wrecking my drawings with my inexpert colouring-in. Then recently I remembered I had them and started experimenting. Here's a page of the results.

Yeah, that's her from La Roux. She has good hair. The other guy's hair isn't as cool.

The Sketchbook of Doctor Caligari

2009-07-31T00:34:00.003+01:00

Yup. Been studying some stills of the old shadows-painted-on-the-sets classic and drawing cartoons off the back of 'em. AS FOLLOWS:

The astute reader will notice I have favoured Werner Krauss as Caligari himself (OR IS IT???). This is because he is ace and amazing. There are a couple of abortive attempts at the soppy main character, and a little ink sketch of the lady which I quite like. Look close and there's also a drawing of a rabbit that I copied off Steve Purcell. I have no shame.

Salut Serge

2009-07-20T20:02:00.003+01:00

Done for the excellent Jonathan Edwards' excellent Draw Serge! blog, and should be turning up on there sometime over the next few weeks - but go there NOW and look at all the lovely other tributes to the break-beatin' jazz-fusin' hip-hoppin' songster supreme.

I'm quite happy with this - I'm a fan of simplicity in colour schemes in finished artwork, but this I think falls more under 'I see what you're trying to do'. Still. Very happy with the inked source image. Someday I'll nail this whole colour malarkey.

Xavier's school for gifted Frenchmen

2009-07-14T14:18:00.004+01:00

Okay, so there's a story behind this one. A friend of mine works in a cafe in the holidays, and there is, in this cafe, what she described as a 'grumpy French chef with the hair of a Native American squaw who turns up to work on a motorbike'. Then this happened.

Andrew Designed Only for Killing

2008-10-04T19:50:00.004+01:00

If any of you haven't met MODOK, you're missing out. And if you haven't met Andrew "Grizzled Salmon" Salmond, you're missing out even more! This is the combination of the two. Feel your life improving as you gaze upon its majesty. It was originally supposed to be a gift to make up for my missing his wedding... two months ago! I am fantastic.

Sad Alien Man: The Apotheosis Contingency: The Movie

2008-05-27T23:48:00.002+01:00

This is going to blow your minds right up, right here.

I am pleased with this, a lot! I usually am when I do some colour work of some description. Especially since I've discovered that using a high-opacity brush in Photoshop is much easier with a tablet than marking out areas with the lasso.

The actual drawing's not great (his face is way off-model, especially when compared to my original concept sketch), but it started out as an exercise in working out some 'civvy' clothes for the guy, and nailing down a dress code for the universe he inhabits. Turns out, if you take clothes from our own present day and add kneepads, it becomes SCIENCE FICTION. I might still put some more effort into that sorta thing, but I can't imagine believable characters slobbing about and watching TV in sci-fi jumpsuits, so it'll take some finesse.

Just a couple more notes: if you click the picture for a bigger view, you might notice I've given him kind of a froggy/orangey mottled complexion, which I hope works. Also, I've done a cheating coloured outline - cheating in that I just pasted the line art over in a different colour, instead of repainting the lines the colour of the shape they're around. Or whatever. Maybe next time.

Henry, The Sad Martian

2008-05-17T23:27:00.002+01:00

"Hey Tom. Why?"
I don't know. Why not?

Henry today is sporting a development of the shading rendering I used in my first comic, heavily inspired by my greatest hero and idol, Steve Purcell. I'm thinking of developing this alien sucker's backstory and universe to do a Suitcase Nuke issue based solely around his adventures! I have so many PLANS. What do you folks think?

Dream Casting

2008-04-27T23:32:00.004+01:00

Re-watching some old Batman Animated Series episodes and listening to Gnarls Barkley's outstanding new album, I came up with the greatest bit of casting ever to happen. Pay attention, Chris Nolan:
Cee-Lo Green as The Penguin. No need to thank me, Hollywood, just wire me my fee.

Sketchdump!

2008-03-05T22:56:00.007Z

Finally some new stuff. Oh, I've been sketching, I've just been too busy with comics to update the blog. Now I'm going to indulge you because I'm so nice.
Here's a page I did while I was watching Ratatouille. I would like to be able to draw like Pixar's various character designers and story artists because they are psycho art junkie geniuses. Included is a Hellboy drawing I am actually happy with!
Above is a somewhat rubbish set of sketches what I did when I was watching the film Six String Samurai. The sketches are rubbish because after 15 minutes I was enraptured utterly by the wonderful film, sent to me by Mister Peter White for my birthday. However, I later went back to Six String Samurai to bring you this...
Phwoar. Eh? Phwoar.
Then I went off the rails and drew a laughing skull and two members of the Fantastic Four. Best Thing Yet! And that's all you get because I'm just not very excited about the rest of the contents of my sketchbook.

Inkapalooza

2008-02-15T23:06:00.009Z

I went nuts with the inking today, inspired by a bunch of blogs I was looking at ranging from Scott C to J Bone by way of Graham Annable. You'll notice I was inking on top of blue colerase pencil, which I've been loving. To the extent that I think I'm going to need to start doing that always, as it would probably improve my comic work no end. ANYWAY, to the sketches:
Up first is Ben Grimm once more, saying 'shorts', although it looks like it should be 'shirts'. Ah well. Also his chest is brought to you today by P Mondrian.

Eric Powell's The Goon, so surprised in the second half of the drawing that his hat has disappeared! Oh my! And since I felt I was developing something of a theme:

Some tuff guise! You'll notice an uninked Hellboy in the middle there, which is because it's rubbish and I didn't want to. I am, however, very proud of the right-hand Hulk. He's class.
Here we go. Ever seen This Island Earth? Well, there's your man with the big head and that, accompanied by arbitrary Stan Lee quotation. And because I thought things were going a bit dude-centric all of a sudden:
Lauren Bacall, ladies and gentlemen, with a lame joke stuck on as an excuse for drawing a fit woman out of the 40s and getting all fancy with the hair there.

Some satirical whatsit about the post-Iggy-Pop ideal male form. You see these sods, stalking about on their freaky stilt legs and you think 'what the hell is holding them up'? Eat parody, you emo junkies.

One hour in a coffee shop

2008-02-11T16:40:00.000Z

Couple of pages of random crap done in a little notebook while getting wound up nice and tight on two big cups of coffee.

Couple of Things and a Pavarotti for good measure. The Things were interpretations (if you can call them that) of some of the sketches in this gallery, which proves two things: 1) if you want to get some juice out of a comic artist, ask them to draw The Thing, and 2) Frank Cho likes drawing buck nekkid chicks.

Some peoples in and around Costa coffee, and of course Gino. Anybody in doubt of who Gino is should hit up the relevant coffee shop chain and behold the shrines to his visage. Oddly, the drawing I'm happiest with here is the mumbling old man at the top left, who is entirely of my own invention. There's just something about him. Also Freakazoid is there.

Based on a True Story

2008-02-10T20:45:00.000Z

Poster done for perpetual collaborator and all-around splendid man Tobi Wilson, for his excellent student radio show available here. And not only does the show broadcast live, it's also archived on the site! How 'bout that jazz, huh?I tried to do justice to the show's willingness to break boundaries, its capacity for discussions of any topic and music of any genre, and its unspoken love for pirates. But it probably just comes off as advocating music piracy. Ah well.

That's a very Mignola-inspired sea monster, by the way.

Yeah, I know...

2008-02-10T20:32:00.000Z

Yeah guys, you can stop emailing, I know, it's been quite a few seconds since the last post and still no new sketch. Sorry, but what with work and my other projects, I just haven't been able to keep it up. I'll try to get something up soon, but I guess the schedule will have to be a little more flexible and a little less strenuous.

Sorry again guys!

A sketch every second!

2008-02-10T20:30:00.001Z

That's right, everybody, you heard me. A brand new sketch on this blog every second. Everyone always says that it's important to get new stuff out as often as possible, and get pieces done quickly, so this is my incentive. Every second from the next second, there'll be a new sketch, nothing too impressive of course, but a NEW SKETCH on this page!

Watch this space!