Paperclip Jones #1

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

Bad Cover Version

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.