Last Indy of 2009

In actual fact this is my last Indy illustration of this decade, something that only dawned on me in the last few days. In the busy, mad year that 2009 has been I hadn't even realised that the noughties (I hate that term, but it does the job) were drawing to a close. It's been an interesting decade for me and maybe I'll write a proper round up in the next few days, but for now I'll post today's Illustration and urge you to read the article here, as it is an interesting read.

The brief was straightforward, I had to visualise a book that should act as a glowing beacon drawing society towards it. So rather then worry about constructing an idea that communicates, my focus here was on producing an image that was powerful yet ethereal, suggestive but simplistic and most of all filled with hope and redemption. I was pretty pleased with the result and happy that I had created the right sort of atmosphere using the minimal colour palette I had chosen.

Here's the image for you to look at and see if you agree:

Christmas week Indy..

but unsurprisingly my brief was nothing to do with the impending festivities, which was a shame given the snow covered ground outside my home and decidedly Christmas feel all around.

Instead I was asked to illustrate the perceived failure of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. It was quite a specific brief this week; to create a distressed, cracked and patched up version of the Mermaid of Copenhagen. I was happy to oblige and did so in the manner shown below:



The article is here

I'd also like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

December update?

As I remarked to a friend recently, it seems I went to sleep one day when it was October and woke in December! I honestly have no idea where November went, but I do know I spent a lot of it working flat out on various creative projects. The Indy continued weekly, but I also created several images for an agency pitch in NYC, did a couple of editorials and carried on teaching and working at Oil. Busy times.

Obviously it's been a little difficult keeping the blog and website updated, but hopefully the New Year will see me get back on top of it. For the first time since I started freelancing I am taking a full Christmas break (well, bar the Indy) for two weeks so after Friday I won't be accepting commissions until 2010. This should give me chance to relax and recharge, tie up some loose ends and finally iron out any things on my to-do list.

I'll post my Indy illustrations over Christmas, but besides that I don't intend to do much blogging. So until those messages have a great Christmas (or winter holiday), enjoy the New Year celebrations and keep an eye out for 2010 calendars featuring my artwork and supplied by my agents NB Illustration

Finally here is a snap of yesterday's Independent illustration, accompanying this article with the brief for me being 'dishonest labour, a general take on cover ups, spin and deceit featuring Iraq, the pre-budget report, Brown, Blair but not showing the people specifically' so a shot of Labour MPs walking over (and discarding) newspapers with negative headlines emerged: