Cartoon stoyboards.

Versatility is key in this job. You're often asked to draw in different styles, and as a true artist to the very core of my being, my reply is always the same - will that be cash or cheque?
I have always loved cartoons, drew them constantly throughout my youth and originally thought that might be where I would end up. It never happened because I had a foretaste of animation at University, and realised it wasn't for me, and also I preferred the idea of drawing cartoons for fun rather than for a living.
But even though cartooning is a very specialised field, the agency that held the Kelloggs account seemed to like my stuff and so for a number of years I found myself facing Tony the Tiger scripts every few months, featuring our hero in numerous heroic or James Bond-type scenarios. These were great fun to draw, as was a one-off Scooby-Doo idea, but having said all that - this one at the bottom showing a cartoon style is for Honey Nut Loops, as all the Tony the Tiger stuff is temporarily unavailable ( ie: In my shed. In a box. Getting damp...), and the colour one is for Shreddies featuring Dexter - the Lab kid not the serial-killer-killer.

Cubans, Easy Riders and Cowboys camping it up.

These few pieces are random marker visuals - the Cowboys were for an animatic for Esso, the moody Havana one was an idea for Bacardi and the Harley Davidsons cruising en-masse down some two-lane blacktop was a private piece for a friend and his business partner who were attempting to sell an outsize Harley sculpture they'd had done in bronze to the USA. In the end, sadly, they didn't succeed, but it was an admirable effort and they got a lot a lot of publicity in the States, because the damn thing really was HUGE. He tells me its now one of his garden ornaments, and I honestly don't know if he's kidding...

Sci-Fi Channel thingy...

This is a storyboard sequence for an ident for the dear old Sci-Fi Channel from a few years ago. Shades of La Femme Nikita and Aeon Flux!

The Emperor's New Clothes.

This storyboard was done for a prospective film about Napoleon quite a few years ago now, when the story was in place, but not the casting. It ended up being made as The Emperor's New Clothes in 2001 with Ian Holm as Napoleon, and the idea was that Boneparte switched places with a double in order to live out his life in freedom. When his double is exiled and dies on St Helena, he has to choose between France and the love of a good woman - should he return "from the dead" to lead France once more or retire to a life of quiet anonymity? I saw the last third of the movie a couple of years ago - and it wasn't bad at all, but I've no idea howmany of these storyboarded sequences made it through to the final cut. The part of movie I caught, though did have the ingenious idea of having Napoleon declaring his true identity and then realising that the hospital where he was taken to "rest" was in fact an asylum, where numerous inmates wandered around the misty grounds with their arms stuffed into their inside pockets muttering that they too were Napoleon. A very eerie and existential moment, and I recall that Ian Holm was over that loony-bin wall quick smart once he clocked that lot.

It's Alive!! Pass me the Goalie gloves, Ygor..

Frankenstein frame was one of several for ADIDAS, the DELL Banquet scene was done ages ago now but is here because I think it's quite purty, and the other Listerine Tooth Fairy is here because I like his face. He looks like he has really bad piles from sitting on toadstools all day.

Look out - it's a Metaluna Mu-tant!

Still one of my favourite movies, even though I can never watch it in the same way since Mystery Science Theatre did a number on it (Heil Hitler!...) but as I type this I am looking at the Metaluna Mutant action figure above my desk and can't shake the feeling that he was one of Universal's very best monsters, and always reckon Tim Burton had him in mind on the day he thunk up old Edward Scissorhands. Sadly, I never got around to adding him to this - which I did for a laugh one afternoon.

Yet more samples...

Another selection of stuff- clients ranging from Argos, Kingsmill and the NHS to Kelloggs and Action Aid.

A few samples for starters...

Right - I thought I'd begin my first ever blog with a rundown of the kind of stuff I do for a living, and post a few samples .

On a freelance basis, I have provided visuals, storyboards and illustrations to various studios, advertising agencies and film companies since 1977. I take a brief either in person, by phone, on conference call or by email. With film work, it's always better to sit down with the director and draw up his ideas in front of him and then go away and finish the storyboards up, whereas with advertising work, the deadlines are usually so tight that such an intimate relationship is difficult to achieve. Most importantly, without the symbiotic relationship between the artist and the studio rep, you could never earn a living. As intermediaries, they take the brief from the art director, brief you in turn and then deliver the job, enabling you to avoid forever travelling or sitting in agencies waiting to be seen.
These days, there seems to be less demand for my fully finished work in colour so I tend to produce more b/w linework . This is down to budget restraints more than anything, coupled with the fact that I tend to steer away from fully computer-colouring my work. - something agencies do seem to favour lately over the old style utilising magic markers and paint. I part-colour my work on the mac, but prefer to colour on paper rather than on-screen. Also - when it comes to drawing, I have the advantage of being fast, enabling me to make a living without having to colour-up all the time.

Anyway- enough ramble - here are the samples. They show a variety of styles, and different degrees of finish - the latter always being determined by either time , budget or art director preference. Bear in mind - this isn't finished art - it's visuals and storyboard work.

I'll continue to post stuff in batches until someone asks me to stop...