Posted Friday 13 August, 2010
Coming back from a Bad Taste Bears signing in Vienna, I'd just gone through passport control at Birmingham airport and a gent, who turned out to be a West Midlands Police officer said "Excuse me sir. Could you tell me where you've travelled from?"
I tell him that I've just returned from a business trip traveling from Vienna via Zurich.
It's all very pleasant and polite and I'm thinking to myself "This is a different experience I wonder what's going on".
This nice guy with the Police ID hanging round his neck then asked what it was I did for a living, so I told him.
At this point he became more intrigued and asked if I had any examples of my work.
I didn't, but I said I could draw him a bear, which seemed to be a good option.
He then asked me if I was famous, to which I replied I was hardly a celebrity, just an illustrator with a few crazy, enthusiastic collectors of my work.
I guess at this point, some travelers, after sitting in an aeroplane for hours before queuing across the hall for passport control, would start to see this as a damned inconvenience and they'd get a bit tetchy, but I enjoy little adventures like this.
So I was taken into a small office at the side of the hall and the police officer found some A4 paper for me to do my thing.
He told me that if I did a drawing for him he'd auction it for the Help for Heroes charity.
Coincidentally, on my flight out, I'd spoken to a guy who was involved in the logistics of feeding the armed forces and was on his way to a stint in Afghanistan. He'd suggested, once we'd exchanged details of our individual functions, that making Bad Taste Bears depicting the lives of the soldiers in Afghanistan would be a great success.
So, with this in mind, I decided to draw for my Birmingham bobby, the old Irish mine detector joke of a bear with its fingers in its ears about to 'locate' a landmine by stamping on it.
As I scribbled, I learned that Paul's job (I never got his full name) is to select random travelers to answer a couple of questions. I feel flattered that out of the heaving hall full of glum arrivals, I was worth stopping.
We chatted as I drew and I lost track of how long I was in there, maybe twenty minutes, half an hour or so. Interestingly, once I completed the drawing and gave it to the officer, the hall at arrivals had totally cleared and the staff at the passport desks turned and watched us emerge from the interview room.
The officer, who's name was Paul, shook my hand and thanked me and I said I was glad to have helped but for the benefit of the staff watching, as I walked away I called, "It was a pleasure, but next time could you use a bit more KY?"
I like adventures, me.
Posted Monday 09 August, 2010
I had no idea that the Tall Ships event is such a big occasion. I got to the marquee where the signing took place a few minutes before I was due to start and a queue had already formed, so it was straight into it.
Nice to see so many familiar faces and also great to meet some people for the first time.
I scribble and signed stuff between 11.30am until 4.30pm. It always goes so fast. I did have a 'minder' to ensure I didn't babble to everyone for too long, so the queue was kept moving.
A good day and I didn't make anybody cry. The one little girl in tears was already upset when she got to me, honest.
Here's a pic of me in full swing with Wayne Taylor the sculptor 'fettling' a bear sculpt for production
Posted Thursday 08 July, 2010
Last night saw me complete the art for the limited edition print for the Tall Ships Race weekend in Hartlepool. I'm attending a signing on the Sunday and will be scribbling on a variety of goodies.
This image, whilst not strictly maritime in its theme, ties in with the launch of a some new Bad Taste Bears figurines and lets face it, given the choice of painting sailors or zombies...No contest. Zombie sailors? Hmmm.
Details for those that like them. Painted in acrylics (Liquitex) on smooth CS2 watercolour board. A4 size.
Posted Monday 28 June, 2010
Occasionally I see an image that I feel compelled to paint. Such a moment came recently in the form of an image by French photographer Virginie Dubois. Apart from some illustrations from my days in advertising, I've never painted in black and white, so it's going to be a departure for me. Virginie has kindly given her blessing for me to do my thing. So I immediately walloped out this small 200mm study in oils. I'm planning to do the final piece about 900mm, eventually.
Posted Monday 24 May, 2010
Still hammering away at the next book pitch. Most pages are roughed out and pencilled. I now have to pin down the manuscript.
Over the weekend I took a little break from page building to play around with a few faces. Working from photo reference, I tried pushing features toward caricature, yet keeping the values from the reference. Good fun if you can find the time.
This girl, done in pencil is only around A5 but is about as finished as I need to go. They are only exercises, so no point in getting too involved.
On this coming Saturday and Sunday I'm signing stuff at Collectormania in Milton Keynes, so I need to do some preparation for that. I usually give away a drawing in a prize draw, so I need to turn out a little something. In addition, I'm putting together a selection of drawings made over the last couple of years.
It should be a fun weekend.