Dec
17
Seasons Greetings!
Hoping all my followers have a wonderful festive season filled with starry dreams!
Dec
13
Ho.. ho.. oh?
Hush! What's that sound? A strange old man with a long white beard is creeping through the night.
Dec
7
Under Siege by Sound
My house and studio is an island in a raging sea of noise. Right outside my window the builders are digging up the road yet again. The daily cacophony of tractors, diggers, clanging scaffolding and other commotion from the building site over the road has been a constant companion ever since we moved here in July, and there's a long way to go yet. The house feels like a refuge.
Nov
26
A Father's Diary
Illustrators can be a lonely bunch, one cog in a production process involving a team of people you usually never meet. More often than not you deal with an art director, designer or editor, just one or two staff members who are merely the tip of an iceberg of people involved in the project. Others might include creative directors, producers, authors, copywriters, designers, marketing staff, printers and distributors.
Oct
28
Stone Giant
The Giant has awoke!
Stone Giant - Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be, written by Jane Sutcliffe, has been my biggest illustration project of the last year. Although the book was commissioned from the US, the first version to hit the shops is in Japanese - in order to tie in with a major exhibition of Michelangelo's work at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Komine Shoten have fast released their edition of the book in advance, it's now on sale throughout Japan.
Stone Giant - Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be, written by Jane Sutcliffe, has been my biggest illustration project of the last year. Although the book was commissioned from the US, the first version to hit the shops is in Japanese - in order to tie in with a major exhibition of Michelangelo's work at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Komine Shoten have fast released their edition of the book in advance, it's now on sale throughout Japan.
Oct
22
News Without Words
Last Sunday the biggest daily newspaper in Japan, Mainichi Shinbun, included a special pull-out poster feature - Moji no Nai News "News Without Words", consisting of a large map of the world showing current events, local features and so on. I created the whole poster map, with direction from Tokyo Planet Design.
There is a lot of detail to see, the best way to view it is with the zoom-in online version here! (click on the image to bring up the zoomable version).
There is a lot of detail to see, the best way to view it is with the zoom-in online version here! (click on the image to bring up the zoomable version).
Oct
12
Catching up!
Ah, back at last!! I've been avoiding social media for a time, chiefly due to a series of hurdles following our big house move, volunteer commitments, and recently more than anything just catching up with illustration deadlines. These last three weeks in particular have seen the studio candles burning very late into the night on my latest job, in fact through the night on a couple of occasions, all for a single newspaper job.
Jul
10
Summer Greetings
Wishing all of my friends and readers a fabulously lush and verdant summer!
As some will know, I've recently moved house just in time for the sunshine. It's a brand new house right on the very edge of the city of Norwich, so we're surrounded by a building site at the moment, with bright yellow diggers roaring past my door, and a constant cacophony of clanging and banging all day. But when all is settled life here will be a rustic dream of bucolic calm...
....Or at least so I'm dreaming.
As some will know, I've recently moved house just in time for the sunshine. It's a brand new house right on the very edge of the city of Norwich, so we're surrounded by a building site at the moment, with bright yellow diggers roaring past my door, and a constant cacophony of clanging and banging all day. But when all is settled life here will be a rustic dream of bucolic calm...
....Or at least so I'm dreaming.
Jun
4
The Grimm Road
This year celebrates the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Grimm Brother's Household Tales. To commemorate, here's my latest editorial cut from the regular series of monthly illustrations I draw for ANA's in-flight magazine Wingspan.
May
27
Some more images of Yanesen in 1987-88
Here are some more comparison photos of lost Yanaka and Nezu, "then and now". (Part 1 here)
Over the years I experienced a lot of things in Japan, many of them amazing, and occasionally disturbing. There have been a few things that truly shocked me, but the destruction of the old buildings of Yanesen is really heartbreaking.
Yanesen was not like other areas, it was a survivor, with a culture and charm of it's own.
Over the years I experienced a lot of things in Japan, many of them amazing, and occasionally disturbing. There have been a few things that truly shocked me, but the destruction of the old buildings of Yanesen is really heartbreaking.
Yanesen was not like other areas, it was a survivor, with a culture and charm of it's own.
