Wednesday 16 October 2013

Mapping a Legacy

I have drawn a few maps, including the world-renowned Lap Maps. Usually they are a cartoon take on geography, occasionally the map is more idiosyncratic.

Earlier this year I was contacted by Emily Brewer of Legacy Storybooks. Emily is based in the USA and has just started a rather unusual business. She works with clients to assemble a story about their lives which can be produced for her clients' children, friends and local community.

Emily is writer, designer and history enthusiast who has found a way to launch an exciting new business by drawing the additional talent she requires from around the globe.

Her first book is Howard the Boy and it required a map of Pennsylvania which had a storybook look to it. Emily found me via my website and got in touch with a very detailed brief.

The project was great fun to work on. I know some of the area being covered and working with US clients is always a delight for a number of reasons: They're unfailingly enthusiastic, I get 5 hours extra on the daily deadline and they spell color sensibly (go away UK spell-checker).

This is the result (click the map for a larger image):



You can find Emily's website here.

And a few more of my maps on my site here.

Friday 11 October 2013

Cartoon workshop - Neolithic Art

I'm pleased to be able to announce that I will be running another workshop for the Natural History Museum, London. It takes place on 9 March 2014 and will tie in with their exhibition: A Million Years of Human History.

As part of the pre-publicity, I've just drawn a cartoon for the Museum's Evolve magazine.

It started out with my customary Derwent blue pencil scribble:




That was imported into Illustrator and the main lines inked in with a brush tool:



Another import, this time into Photoshop to add flat color:


A bit of background color for the cave and we're almost there:


To jazz it up, I added some patterns to the neolith cave-artist's bearskin, some shadow and finally a thin white highlight, to make our two stars leap out:


Keep an eye on my workshops page for how to book and I hope to see you there.

PS If you can't wait, I will be running two workshops at the International Comic Art Festival on 19 and 20 October 2013. And don't forget my competition to win free tickets to one of the inaugural evening events.