EMELBI

Digital Artist and Illustrator

EMELBI

Snowdogs Support Life – Kirkless – Impact Report

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Key findings and statistics from the Snowdog Support Life, Kirklees Art Trail showing how fantastic the event was for the local community.

The Snowdogs encouraged almost 40,000 visitors to explore Kirklees. This impacted directly on our local towns and villages with extra spending estimated at £437,000 The community came together in a big way and the trail created a huge buzz. Everyone seemed to be talking about the new sculptures that had popped up all over the region. This went a long way to helping raise awareness of the work that The Kirkwood does in the local community.

Local businesses, artists, volunteers and schools all came together to make this fantastic trail happen. All manner of networks of people got involved to bring this fantastic show of creativity to the local area. 

See the final report below which outlines the overall impact of the trail and the positivity that came form this wonderful event.

Click here for the Kirklees Snowdog Impact Report PDF

Cinderella – Production Design

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All Stars Performing Arts Presents – Cinderella

Production Design

I love working with this performing arts group. The productions are always fantastic and the young people involved with the group put their hearts and souls into every performance. The adults that get involved are fabulous too.

All Stars Performing Arts recently put on a production of Cinderella at the Bradford Playhouse. I was asked to look after production design which entailed flyer design, T Shirt design for the troop, stage setting design for projection, programme design including all headshots of the cast, social media banners etc. I also got to be a stage ninja too, which is helping out with prop placement and removal between scenes among other activities. The whole production was such a lot of fun to be involved with.

My approach to the main design element very much reflected upon the two sides of Cinderella within the storyline. The Downtrodden Cinders, forced to look after her evil stepmother and stepsisters who treated her like a slave in her own home. Drab, dowdy and covered in muck, but still showing the beauty that she is. Then the other side of her story. The beautiful girl who eventually captured the eye and heart of the prince and goes on to live happily ever after. It occurred to me early on in the design process that this could be reflected within the one portrait image of her character. The two sides of the story split down the middle. Then it was just a case of making it work and balance as a single image while still showing that inner beauty that we all have come to love about Cinderella’s character.

I’m pleased with how it turned out. See how the image came together in the video below…

Flyer Design

Programme Cover

Programme Inner – Spot The Difference

The Pumpkin

The T Shirt Designs

Stage Set Design

The other part of the production that I was involved with was to make the stage set images which were projected onto the back of the stage during the performance. I didn’t want to over complicate the designs and tried to keep them as simple and classic looking as possible. They were a whole lot of fun to put together and they worked brilliantly for each of the individual scenes. Projection technology is getting better and better and it is amazing what you can do with performance spaces these days.

City Slither Boi Seth

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Character Illustration

He might be a snake, but he is the best snake in town. Seth is his name and he’s all sorts of urban cool. Bang into his Hip Hop. B’ Boy exsssssssssssssstraordinaire. Slithers here, slithers there and does a mean moon walk. He truly is the king of all snakes.

OK, it’s becoming a major obsession, but I am fascinated by multiple versions of one image. To be honest, I’m only really scratching the surface. Imagine the colourways that could exist if you just kept exploring. Imagine a slight graphic change and then starting all over again. Imagine that again, and again… Mind boggling.

Original Illustration

This is a quick illustration in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on the iPad Pro. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Initial image is the original illustration followed by subsequent colour versions.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

See how this illustration came together on YouTube

Original Image and other Colour Versions

Top Bun City Prince – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Top Bun City Prince

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This guy is a human. His nickname is The Top Bun City Prince. His real name is Skip Warrington. He looks out for everyone, both human and machine. He can fix just about anything and is an adept hunter. Extremely effective with a sling or a bow and arrow. He usually travels with a dog, a tough looking springer spaniel named Jess.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Humanoid Cyborg System CCC_333 – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Humanoid Cyborg System CCC_333

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This CCC unit is an early humanoid prototype. Originally built to help in kitchens and perform basic catering functions. This one got a major upgrade 5 years into its service and can now cook just about every known dish in existence. It is particularly skilled in the brewing and distilling of alcoholic beverages. It is affectionately known as Bubble and Squeak.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

See how the illustration came together in the video below.

Initial Procreate Illustration

Colour Variations

Finished Illustration Mastered in Photoshop

Colour Variations of Finished Image

City Cyborg Renegade – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

City Cyborg Renegade

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

This character is called Scoop. He used to be a government cyborg and had a specific function. His job was to round up trouble causers and rebel factions intent on causing specific insurrections, specially skilled in security preventing government transport disruption. Usually food haulage or credit, gems and bullion transportation. His success rate was 100%.

That said, he was turned by a highly skilled human rebel operative called Mouse. Taken out by an EMP Drone during his last operation, and reprogrammed to help in the hijacking of the things he used to protect. He still has a 100% success rate.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Post Apocalyptic Utopia – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

Post Apocalyptic Utopia

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

Cyborg Medic, serial number 108-C9-XX. This humanoid unit has the long nickname of ‘Post Apocalyptic Utopia’, but is mostly referred to as PAU. (Pronounced ‘pow’). It is an extremely adept surgeon. It does however have rather an austere bedside manner. That said, it is known to make really bad dad jokes in order to put its patients more at ease. This has varied success rates.

It works in the heart of the city looking after rebel factions who have been injured fighting against government battle droids.

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Procreate initial illustration and colour variations

Photoshop finished illustration and colour variations

With Any Luck – The Upshot Perspective

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The Upshot Perspective

With Any Luck

This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images in this series will have multiple colourway versions, exploring different moods in the resulting imagery.

In a world where nothing is what it seems, keeping your perspective and having a good grasp on what is real and what isn’t, is the best function you can have.

This character is an ageing cyborg who’s primary function is to serve as a bridge between reality and cyberspace for its masters. If you own one of these biomechanical constructs, it will help you navigate between augmented reality and reality. They tend to be safe and extremely reliable. This one is called ‘Bridget’!

Initial image produced in Procreate. Colourway edits produced in iColorama on both iPad Pro and iPhone. Other colour corrections and finishing in Photoshop.

Check out how this illustration came together on the YouTube video below.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Clifton B Boy

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When I was a kid I used to frequent a place that was locally known as ‘Browns Subway’ near Clifton in Nottingham. So called, as the underpass was located quite close to a bakery called ‘Browns Bakery’ on Abbeyfield Road. These subways were a hub of creativity for any budding graffiti artist. As far as I am aware, they still are. The bakery however, has long gone.

When the graffiti that we associate with Hip Hop culture first came to prominence in Britain in the early to mid 80’s, I was a young lad growing up in Nottingham. At 14 years old I was just beginning to truly find myself and fathom out what it was that made me tick. I was particularly interested in the breakdance scene and listened to all manner of electro Hip Hop. Especially the STREET SOUND ELECTRO set of albums. I also fully immersed myself in the emerging street art scene. Dazzled by the huge, bright typographical scrawls and stylised characters that came along with the culture, I started out on a journey that would end up influencing my artwork to this day.

This character is called ‘Clifton B Boy’ and is a little nod towards those early days of influence.

At some point soon I will da a more comprehensive post regarding Browns Subway, as I have some brilliant old photo’s of the graffiti in that subway from way back in the mid 80’s to the early 90’s.

Check out the YouTube video at the bottom of this post to see how this character came together.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Enzo Valentino – Character Illustration

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A recent illustration of a character that I sketched on a spare piece of envelope while on a conference call. I photographed the sketch and took it into Procreate on the iPad and embellished it with colour and texture. Using a limited colour palette of reds and blues, I went on a bit of a creative journey and ended up with this character, which I ended up calling, Enzo Valentino. I also ended up creating two or three symmetry version also, which has been another of my recent obsessions in the creative process.

Check out the video below for how this character came together.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

333 – Three lots of the Magic Number

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For a number of years now I have been including the number 333 in the images that I create. Sometimes subtly, other times quite blatantly. Some images will include the number as digits, other times it will be a series of dots or marks. Three lots of three dots, or three lots of three marks.

One of the reasons I started to do this was because I noticed that the number had started occurring over and over again in my life. More or less wherever I looked.  It would appear within sequences of numbers, printed on packaging, on car number plates, every time I looked at the clock etc. In fact it still occurs in my life sporadically. I am not necessarily a superstitious person, but this reoccurrence fascinated me. So I started to incorporate it into the imagery that I produce.

After having done a scant bit of research on Google, it turns out that the number is considered auspicious and could mean a great many things.

At times it is referred to as the ‘Angel Number’. Some say that the number 333 can also encourage us to put our plans into action or indeed let our personal strength be our guide. Apparently, it is a number that can encourage us to trust ourselves and our own intuition and is largely connected with creativity, optimism, growth and joy. It is also said to be a catalyst for positive change denoting a period of self fulfilment where one might strengthen ones connection with the physical universe.

As we all know, because De La Soul sung about it back in 1989, 3 is indeed the magic number. By numerous accounts the number 3 is a divine number, certainly if we think about it in terms of the Trinity of gods in Christianity (The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost). It also crops up many times in biblical scriptures in a positive way. In the Hindu belief system there are three main gods also (Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva). And, if that’s too spiritual for you, we could think about the number 3 where our physical being is concerned when we talk about the (Mind, Body and Spirit). The number 333 is also connected to the idea of strong or positive communication within relationships.

Obviously, I was delighted to discover all these things about the number and it sat very well with me and my own convictions. So this is why I decided to incorporate the number into my creativity.

Look out for it in my images in the future and see if you can spot where I have placed this auspicious set of digits. Remember, it could be the physical numbers or a repeat in occurrence of a graphic.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Gabriel Barak IV – Character Illustration

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Character and Portrait Technique

Currently looking at a new technique of making portrait images. I have dabbled with this process before and want to refine it. So you will be seeing much more of this style in the future. Using the procreate app and a limited set of brushes, this type of image is a process of layering texture from simple beginnings. Much like you would if you were making an oil painting or an acrylic painting on canvas. There was no reference material for this character. Gabriel Barak IV came out of my head. But this is a process I am going to use more and more often from now on when looking at digital portraiture in general. An exciting new journey.

Again, as ever, I have explored multiple colour grades and texture finishes to this images, ever fascinated by multiple outcomes of a single image.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

 

Peyton Orme

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Digital Character Illustration

As ever, I love to produce multiple version of some of the images that I create, and sometimes characters just spring up form nowhere. This character fell out of my head and onto the iPad screen in Procreate while I was semi watching Star Wars the other day. He’s some kind of Goblin Prince. A real friendly one at that. He travels a lot and likes to watch the folly of humans. Sometimes laughing out loud at their antics. He quickly disappears if anyone hears his belly laughter. Maybe you’ve heard him before?!

Using a limited colour palette, of mainly blues and reds, (a swatch I seem to be favouring at the moment) I added depth and texture to the simple line character I had drawn. After I had finished in Procreate I took the imagery over to Photoshop and added extra textures and elements over these the multiple versions. I love this way of working, between these two brilliant applications.

I like how this character turned out.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Mind Jazz – Jason Ginnelly

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I was recently contacted by a lovely chap called Jason Ginnelly, who asked me to design the book cover for his up and coming publication of poems and prose. I really enjoyed designing this book cover and made sure that Jason was completely involved with the design process from the beginning, right to the end. The resulting cover very much reflects Jason’s personality and equally, the contents of this lovely book. This was a self publication project and it was important for me to get the right result for Jason, understanding what a hugely personal project this was.

You can get you own copy here: Mind Jazz

See a brief synopsis below…

Mind Jazz is a riff on reality and the nonsensical rhubarb we all encounter every day. It takes us on a journey through experiences and emotions, from our parents to love, loneliness to depression, to joy and laughter.
Encapsulating life in all its sadness, surrealism and silliness. Mind Jazz reveals life’s light and shade, its blacks. whites and greys with its serious heft beside the topsy turvy fanciful fluff that provides the mood music to our loves.

The Hill Primary Academy – Portrait Illustration Workshop with EMELBI

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Here are some fabulous images made by the year 6 children at The Hill Primary Academy in Rotherham. Using photographs of themselves, the children made some super line illustrations using pencils and pens. Looking at certain aspects of the portrait process, year 6 focused on dominant aspects of their features and looked to capture a true likeness of themselves using a certain set of techniques. Afterwards, the children coloured their images using a limited colour palette of acrylic paints. The results were absolutely fabulous. I had great fun working with them all and the work that they produced over the course of the day, was brilliant.

Snowdogs Support Life – Kirklees – Snowdog Auction 2022

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A couple of months ago, my wonderful Snowdog, ‘Two Tone Textile Tilly’ was sold at auction and fetched an impressive £2,300 This money will contribute to that fabulous work that The Kirkwood do in the local community. ‘Tilly’ was purchased by an anonymous online bidder during the auction event so, unfortunately, I have no idea where her new home will be. All 30 of the large dogs were sold over the course of the auction event, and a grand total of £78,950 was raised.

This has been such a hugely positive project. Wild in Art, the organisation behind these wonderful art trails have been a pleasure to deal with and between them and The Kirkwood, the whole experience has been brilliantly creative, extremely well organised and a pleasure to be involved with from start to finish.  People have reached out to me from all avenues and offered their wonderful compliments and positive feedback regarding my Snowdog and the trail as a whole. I was pleased that I submitted my design, glad that I got through the sponsor process and was chosen as one of the artists to receive one of these iconic sculptures. One of the best blank canvases I’ve had the pleasure of painting. I had the most enormous amount of fun during the painting process and I got to paint my dog at Gomersal Primary School which was my temporary studio during the creative process. Thousands of people travelled from miles around to take part in the Snowdog trail. For a while, there was a fantastic buzz in and around Kirklees as everybody talked about the Snowdogs.

I would like to offer a massive thank you to my sponsors Kirklees Council (Dewsbury Creative Town) for their support. They were the ones who spotted my design and made the initial investment to kickstart the whole creative endeavour.

You can read more about my Snowdog and watch the video of how she was created here.

 

 

East Ardsley Primary School – Space Illustration Workshop with EMELBI

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One of the most important skills in art, is drawing. You can create wildernesses, vast landscape, detailed cities, fabulous creatures and just about anything your imagination can muster. Allowing yourself to be free to ‘JUST DRAW’, no matter where it takes you, is a freeing experience and it will always throw up surprises in term of what is created.

So many people say to me “I wish I could draw, I’m rubbish at drawing!” and I always ask, “Well, how ofter do you draw?” to which the answer is always either “Never.” or “Not often.” We get good at doing things by doing those things. You will never get good at anything by not doing it. Except perhaps, doing nothing.

This workshop has been devised to make the drawing process really free, where mistakes are encouraged and exploration is the key to making a collaborative piece of art. It’s always fun and the overall effect is fabulous, as a huge pice of cartridge paper is filled with wonderful and incredibly detailed drawings. The workshop is always fun and all the participants are always fully engaged and excited to create more and more.

This particular workshop at East Ardsley Primary School was based on the theme of Space. Below are a set of images taken from the collaborative piece of work that the children created over the course of the day. There are some fantastic characters and wonderfully brilliant and  imaginative spacecraft within this imagery. When you make a process fun, inhibitions always seem to dissipate, leaving you with pure creativity.

The children also took photographs of the collaborative artwork and made digital edits of the imagery using various apps.

Birkby Junior School – Y4 Digital Graphics and Photography Workshop with EMELBI

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Making digital graphics from simple digital photographs with Year 4 at Birkby Junior School.

This workshop was all about making striking digital graphics from a really basic set of digital photographs. Using iPads, the children were encouraged to take a series of photographs of every-day, mundane objects. Objects that would usually seem humdrum and perhaps largely taken for granted, like sinks, radiators, window cills, light switches, air vents, skirting boards etc.

Using the apps Pixlr and Snapseed on the iPad, the children manipulated the images, taking them through a series of treatments in order to enhance the imagery and create a set of striking graphics from those mundane beginnings.

Here are a sample of the fabulous images that they created during the workshops.

Birkby Junior School – Y6 Digital Portrait Illustration with EMELBI

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These fab images are a sample of the digital portraits recently created by the Year 6 children at Birkby Junior School. They worked with iPads and the program Procreate. Using their own portrait photos as reference, the children were taken through a series of processes and techniques in order to make these beautiful illustrations.

It was fabulous to work with them all and the images that they created are striking. I am always stunned at the diversity of image and the variety of different outcomes that young people come up with. Even though the creative process is the same, each individual artist brings all of their own ideas, experiences and flare to arrive at each unique outcome. This is the beauty of the creative process.

Friday Night

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A recent simple line illustration of my wife. Dozing on a ‘Friday Night’ after a long week.

My wife and I were just chilling out watching a bit of Friday night TV. I looked around and she was absolutely sparked out. So I took a photo of her and made this illustration from the photograph. I love how it turned out. I am a sucker for detail, texture and a multitiue of colours. That said, sometimes it’s nice just to do some simple line work with some muted colours. These can often be the most powerful of images.

The original colour image is the vibrant orange one. I then messed around with it a little and came up with the other colour versions. My favourite being the muted pink version. It’s always nice to explore different colour ways. The colour can make so much difference to the mood and feel of an image.

© EMELBI 2023 – All Rights Reserved

MYRIAD FRONTIERS – Future Gaming Concept

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MYRIAD FRONTIERS

Concept art and idea based on future gaming.

© EMELBI 2022 – All Rights Reserved

Portrait illustrations based on the concept that we will soon live in a world where gamers will be able to connect to internet streamed game systems using cybernetics and control their digital environments in real time. Users would have a small set of surgical implant modifications. These modifications would allow them to connect to the gaming domain at any time. There would be multiple games to choose from, each with vast amounts of choice regarding gameplay. The game platforms would be constantly transmitted over the internet and/or other broadcast mechanisms. Gamers would possess heightened perceptions via their mods which would give them the ability to tap into an array of alternative existences. Pressure sensitive body suits would also enhance physical interaction within gameplay allowing users to physically interact with other digital avatars, creatures and habitats.

Optional layers of engagement would grant gamers the opportunity to encounter either a fully immersive experience, or alternatively, exist in a more augmented reality. If the gamer’s preference was a fully immersive experience, they would be rendered motionless and be in a sleep-like state in the real world. Those that choose the augmented reality gaming experience would interact with digital gameplay in waking reality. Gamers could have both experiences within the same game play at different times, where they would encounter multiple challenges and levels in which they could achieve a set of outlined goals and gain digital mods or tokens. All modes of gameplay would give gamers the opportunity to unlock vast layers of functionality and help them build and progress. 

 Gamers are simply known as, ‘Myriad’.

Check out the YouTube Video below for the illustration process.

 

 

Pleckgate High School – Digital Portrait Illustration Project

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The illustrations that the year 11 students created at Pleckgate High School in Blackburn, are outstanding. I worked with them for a day looking at portrait illustration techniques using the iPad and the Procreate App. I often work with young people delivering creative workshops in order to inspire and share the skill set that I have acquired and developed over the years. The beauty in sharing is watching young people pick up those skills and do something completely different with them, often with brilliant and stunning outcomes. In turn, I end up learning a thing or two from them in the process.

This is the beauty of creative learning. Through the shared experience of creative exploration, so much is learned on a myriad of levels. I really enjoyed working with this school and the artwork that they produced in such a short space of time, was nothing short of brilliant. Check out some of their work below.

Making Layered Portraits – Horsington Church School

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I got a lovely surprise in my inbox recently. A group of year 5 and year 6 pupils from Horsington Church School in Somerset, had been following my Drawable ‘Making Layered Portraits’ resource on the AccessArt website. They sent me a handful of the images that they had made. I was thrilled to receive these brilliant artworks. They’re so full of energy and character. Inspiring creativity in young people is one of the most rewarding aspects of my own creative journey. I love to see how young people respond to my own creative endeavours. The wonderful artwork that they produce in response to the things that I create, always makes me smile . Check out their images below. I think you will agree that they are fabulous.

Thank you so much for sharing these with me. You should be very proud of your work as these are fantastic.

See the resource that they followed here.

St Mary and St John Catholic Primary School

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Procreate Portrait Workshops

I recently had the pleasure of running a weeks worth of workshops with all the children in St Mary and St John Catholic Primary School in Wigan. Working with Reception children, right through to Year 6, we used an app called ‘Procreate‘ on the Apple iPad. Many of the children had never seen or worked with Procreate before so there was a steep learning curve regarding some of the technical aspects of using the app. I am pleased to say that they all took to it like ducks to water and the strength of creativity speaks for itself.

The project was tailored to look at self portrait illustration, to think about the structure of the face and what it is that makes us look like us. Working form their own photographs that they took themselves, the children explored their face structure, examining strong lines and also the negative spaces in the construction of their imagery. Working over multiple layers they eventually finished off by delving into the world of colour where we discussed colour palettes and what sort of hues worked well together. The emphasis was always based around the notion that ‘less is more’. This was a deliberate exercise throughout the workshops, simplifying the process of the illustration in order that the students ended up with the strongest lines. There are key, dominant marks that are the critical elements that make up the character of the face. They inform the viewer about certain expressions and the overall personality of the portrait that they are viewing. The children went through the process of learning to identify these elements and incorporating them into their illustrations.

The students and staff at this school were a delight to work with. I was with them for a whole week and was able to work with every student in every class. The work that they produced is exemplary. Fun, bold, really exciting and full of energy.

Years 5 and 6 also got to work with me in the production of some hand drawn portrait illustrations. They photographed their finished line images on the iPad and worked into them digitally using and app called PIXLR.

Procreate is an app that runs on the Apple iPad. It is an exceptional bit of kit used by many illustrators working in the creative industry. It is intuitive, powerful and exciting to use.

Check out some of the work below from each of the year groups and also some photos of the children working.

RECEPTION

YEAR 1

 

YEAR 2

 

YEAR 3

 

YEAR 4

 

YEAR 5

 

YEAR 6

The Beautiful Mundane Project – Birkby Junior School

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This was such a fun project with years 4 and 5 at Birkby Junior School. All the children were introduced to the process of making striking digital graphics from really basic digital photography.

STAGE ONE – THE PHOTOGRAPHY

Using iPads, the children were encouraged to take a series of photographs of every-day, mundane objects that would usually seem humdrum or of a dull subject matter. Things like light switches, radiators, air vents, skirting boards etc.

STAGE TWO – THE IMAGE TREATMENT

Using various apps on the iPad, the children then took the images through a series of treatments in order to enhance the imagery to make it a little less dull, introducing textures, colour overlays and light leaks to name but a few.

STAGE THREE – THE TEXT LAYOUT and GRAPHIC DESIGN

The children were then asked to produce a poster for a mock local event using one of the images that they had made as the background. They were given the choice of either:

1. A Music Festival

2. A Technology Convention (Tech Con)

3. A Horticultural Show (Flower Show)

4. An Art Exhibition

Using the same apps that they had used in the creation of their graphics; but this time using a different set of tools within those apps, the children created some wonderful work based on these mock events.

The graphics that they produced and the subsequent posters are full of colour and energy. They have vibrancy, great structure and beautiful detail. The whole workshop was to show that you can create beautiful graphics from bland imagery with a bit of imagination and technical know-how. The workshops were a great success and the children really enjoyed that whole process.

Best comment: “I didn’t know that you could create amazing things from nothing!”

IMAGE MANIPULATION DAY

GRAPHIC DESIGN DAY

Ash Croft Primary Academy – Digital Lift Off Day

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In this recent workshop, the year 5 and 6 children at Ash Croft Primary Academy made some strong graphics from hands on illustrative beginnings. Starting with their own portrait photographs as reference material, they made some detailed portrait illustrations of themselves using biro pens on heavy cartridge paper. Exploring a series of techniques, these images were then worked into with thicker pens honing the major detail. Special attention was paid to the areas that make characters and features stand out.

Once this stage was finished the pupils then photographed their images using an iPad and worked into them digitally using various creative apps, exploring and experimenting with textures, colour overlays, light bleeds and numerous other layers. The outcomes were a series of strong digital graphics based on their initial drawings.

The school and staff were fantastic and a pleasure to work with.

Jazz Pizzazz

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This is a recent illustration created in Procreate on the ipad and finished in Photoshop on the iMac. I love working between these two platforms. It’s a real organic process much of the time and a slightly different way of working than I am used to. That said, it is quickly becoming one of my favourite ways of creating striking graphics and laying down ideas for numerous projects.

Here are a few different treatments of the same character. As I have mentioned many times before, I am fascinated by the infinite possibilities of how one image can be manipulated. The many different ways one can arrive at either a slightly different or vastly contrasting outcome. Something as simple as a subtle colour change can present a distinctive mood and change an overall feel to an image. The possibilities are literally endless. Exciting stuff.

The YouTube video at the bottom of the page shows how this character was put together.

 

Geoff McGeoff – Bodaciously Boho

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This dude, who I have affectionately called Geoff McGeoff, was created on the iPad Pro using Procreate. I was messing around with just one brush. The ‘Syrup’ brush, under the ‘Inking’ menu of brushes. I love hard line illustrations. It’s probably because I have always drawn with pens and markers. This technique in Procreate, using two different colours for the hatching, reminds me a lot of wood cut work. Positive and negative space is apparent in this type of technique.

The beauty of doing this kind of work on the ipad using an Apple Pencil keeps it feeling really organic as if were created with pens on paper, even though it is completely digital. After drawing this BoHo dude I exported the file from Procreate as a PSD document from the iPad into Photoshop on my Mac to further work on the image.

I love the way these two platforms work so well together. It really suits my style and the way in which I work. Such great fun and simple yet bold results. Check out the YouTube video of this image being put together below.

Red Ed – Two Minute Time Lapse Illustration

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This image was made as part of a new series of two minute time lapse illustrations that I am embarking on for my YouTube Channel. I’ve called this one Red Ed.

As part of this journey, I want to explore a variety of different mediums again and become a bit more exploratory concerning image making. Way back in 1994, I did my Art Foundation where we were encouraged to look at all aspects of creative processes and practices. From Fine Art, Printmaking, Photography, Costume Design, Sculpture…

The list is exhaustive. But it was brilliant and ridiculously informative in terms of enrichment and discovery. One process informed another and thus the understanding of materials became constantly enlightening and ideas flowed in abundance.

It’s extremely easy to get bogged down in one set of processes and stagnate. Due to the fact that I have been working with digital images for so long now, I feel that I need to get in touch with real hands on materials once again and explore mark making in a very real sense. Im looking forward to this journey of discovery and challenging myself to use materials I haven’t used before or indeed materials that I’ve not used for a long time. My aim is to explore a combination and variations of paints, inks, pens, collage, print and whatever other new and interesting materials I can get my hands on. I will still be working digitally and where applicable, I will incorporate the two processes.

Much of my digital artwork starts off as pen and ink drawings and many of the textures I use are hand produced and scanned before using them as part of the digital process. So I am used to creating with real hands on materials, but for many reasons I feel I want to delve a bit deeper into the word of illustration and image making by looking at new techniques and trying out varied approaches to creativity. All of which will hopefully inform and enrich my established creative process. Let face it, it can’t be a bad thing!

365 Sketchbook 2021

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I have decided to undertake a 365 sketchbook. An illustration/sketch a day for a whole year. No rules, multiple mediums and any subject. I will draw whatever comes into my head on each particular day. Just for the sheer love of drawing and for the exciting journey of exploration and discovery.

To challenge myself, my first sketchbook has got recycled paper that’s quite thin and acts a little bit like blotting paper. This makes for some interesting ink spreading. When that sketchbook gets filled I will chose something a little bit different to carry on the project.

I will add new images to the gallery as and when I get time to post them up. These are all rough ideas and not finished pieces by any stretch of the imagination, such is the nature of sketchbooking. Some of them may well get turned into artworks, or characters in artworks at some other time.

The Laughing Boy Project

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I was recently invited to collaborate on ‘The Laughing Boy Project’ by the artist and photographer Hersley Casero. Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Dumaguete City, Philippines.

He and his partner Toulla contacted me through Instagram just before Christmas and asked if I would like to create  my version of The Laughing Boy.
The invite came at a time when I was looking to get involved in more collaborations with other creatives, so the timing of this invite was spot on.

The Laughing Boy Project is a positive ongoing project that advocates the freedom of self expression through art. Art collaborations can be a powerful tool. Connecting people and ideas, towards positive change, on a global scale.

I really enjoyed making this image as my contribution to the project. You can see how it was made as I also put together a YouTube video of the digital illustration process, which you can see below.

To find out more information about The Laughing Boy Project, you can visit www.hersleycasero.com/ or check out the Instagram page to see all the collaborations so far instagram.com/laughingboyproject/

The image I made was hand drawn, scanned and then worked on in Adobe Photoshop adding textures, colour and other graphic elements to arrive at the finished outcome.

Below is the final digital illustration outcome along with the initial hand drawn illustration.

Hands Up For Equality – Silkstone Primary School

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Here is an art project recently undertaken by the Year 3 children at Silkstone Primary School in Barnsley. They created some interesting illustrations based on ‘Equality’ using the outline of their own arms. The children made their images using words/text to form some strong detail for the inside of their arms. Adding various textures with pens, and colour from a limited colour palette, they came up with these striking graphics. The limited colour palette was used to form a modicum of uniformity throughout the images. The colours are also based on the school logo. This was a great project and I love the energy in the resulting imagery. They’re all so very unique.

Silkstone Primary School was a lovely school to work in. The staff and children were brilliant.

Unique and Equal – Silkstone Primary School

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These self-portraits were made by the year 4 children at Silkstone Primary School in Barnsley. This project was a creative experience that brought about some inspiring results. Based on their own portrait images, the children explored the line and structure of their own faces, through a series of drawing techniques. These techniques were devised to examine parts of the face that form the true character of who they are. By paying careful attention to the dominant lines, shading and using a limited colour palette, they formed these portraits over the duration of the workshop. It was brilliant to see how these characters emerged over the course of the day. I was particularly impressed with the strong and bold marks made during the painting process. The best comment of the day: “I didn’t know that I was good at art until today.”

I had a great couple of days working at Silkstone Primary School. A smashing little school. The staff and children were fab.