Back to life, back to reality..

not only a Soul II Soul reference but also a fair reflection of how I've spent my time since returning from the U.S.A. Accounts have been sorted, meetings had and various bits of administration dealt with.

Amongst all of that I had some excellent news on the Illustration front, I found out that my Pedal To Enlightenment image for the Ride Journal has been selected for American Illustration 29. Here's the blurb around that:

"From an impressive 8,033 pictures...the jury selected only 388 images by a majority vote or better to appear in the book and represent the best images from 2009. AI29 will be printed in full color and distributed world-wide in hard-cover immediately after The Party, November 11, 2010, again as part of Illustration Week in New York City...
A slide presentation announcing the winning images will be sent to all entrants and to our member list of over 30,000 creative professionals in May."

Obviously I was pleased to be selected as previously I've only been 'chosen' which means you get to be on the website, but not in the book. Alongside the kudos of being selected it also helps on the promotional front as hopefully a lot more people in the US (and the rest of the world) will get to see my work now and fingers crossed it will lead to some commissions. Here's the image again as a reminder:



I think this means another trip to New York is on the cards for November, it sounds like Illustration Week in the city could provide good promotional opportunities.

In other news I've also done some new work for the Indy, this week I was asked to create an army of Tories in suits using the Tory Party rosette as a pseudo shield. It was a straightforward brief as the writer had this visual in his head as he was writing the article so all I had to do was bring it to life. I was really pleased with the result, especially as it was tricky doing that many people in such a short space of time!



The article is here and unusually my illustration is also online alongside it.

I think that's it for now, I'm currently in the process of updating the website in preparation for a massive promotional push, but if you like what you see you don't have to wait for that, instead just commission me now!!

Enjoy your Thursday (and don't forget the televised pre-election debate on ITV).

Indy 18th January

As is to be expected the front pages of today's Independent are dominated by stories about Haiti; the earthquake, the aftermath, the politics and the recovery. Since my association with the paper began the depth and readability of its international news coverage has been the thing that has impressed me most and the coverage of Haiti has been first rate. The other thing about the Independent that really appeals to me is the bold use of the front page, the paper isn't afraid to make a statement with both picture and words and today's cover is no exception:



But enough of the Independent love-in and instead let's move onto me! So as you may have guessed my illustration yesterday was about Haiti and the brief I was given focused on the notion that Haiti was a disaster area long before the earthquake. Not knowing enough about Haiti, beyond it being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, I decided to do a little research on the topic so that I was better able to visualise how and why the country would be described in such a fashion. I discovered some truly awful statistics: Haiti is approximately 98% deforested, with most of the land reduced to rubble, meaning food is scarce and approximately 80% of the population live below the poverty line, with a 75% unemployment rate. A legacy of corruption and political instability contrives to hamper any attempts to push forward, thus the country was ill-equipped in terms of infrastructure (both physical and political) to deal with another natural disaster.

Armed with this information I tried to generate roughs that would loosely suggest such points without contradicting an article that may follow a different narrative. I presented an idea that depicted the Presidential Palace with piles and piles of shacks, huts and crumbling homes perched precariously on top (in a Jenga fashion) with cracks rushing towards it to suggest that there was a physical instability relating to the country's leadership over the years. I also showed a map of Haiti being squeezed by a fist and cracking to suggest how violent dictatorships had weakened it.

But the idea the art director preferred was more suggestive. It shows a hand reaching up and out for help, a hand which shows roughly healed scars and badly stitched up wounds and one large open gash that is bleeding. This image was intended to be a visual representation of Haiti's problems, the old scars being the legacy of french occupation, which still looms large over the country today and the badly stitched wounds representing the democracy that replaced dictatorship and hasn't really solved the problems. Of course the open, bleeding gash is a symbol of the earthquake, currently an open wound and occurring within the same physical boundaries of the previous issues. As an extra touch I tried to make the hand roughly resemble the shape of the country, at least in terms of the thumb's position, and have the cut be vaguely in the area of Port-Au-Prince.



I was really pleased with the way it turned out (considering I found out that scarring is a really tricky thing to recreate quickly) and happily the layout of the column really enhances the image (as I hoped it would) all in all creating rather a dramatic spread.


I'm sure many casual readers will just assume the hand is meant to show someone reaching out for help, someone trapped in the rubble, which is fine, it kind of does and I always intend for my images to work immediately. But the thought process leading up to the artwork was more complex then that and it's nice that having a blog such as this allows me to share that.

The full article is here and if you should wish to donate to the International Aid effort then the Global Giving website is a good place to go for more information and to make a donation.

Independent 11th Jan

Hello,

I'm back on the blog with today's Indy image and last week's too. It's election fever in the opinion columns (and will continue to be so for a while) so the images I've been asked to create recently have been quite abstract visuals alluding to power; more specifically the inability to grasp it completely (David Cameron) and the ability to hold onto it (Gordon Brown) despite multiple attacks on the leadership.

The political climate is really rather interesting at the moment, it reminds me of studying European Politics in my History A Level. Though I have to say the attempted coup last week was a lot less bloody then those of the French Revolution!

Without any further ado here is today's image:


This was quite highly art directed, I was specifically asked to show a rose (symbolising Labour) growing tall and strong despite axes attempting to chop it down. With the image functioning as a spot illo (in the paper text flows close to it) I decided to have the axes broken and wrapped up in the flower, rather then hacking in the air, as I thought this would work better.

This is definitely one of those images that works better in context and I'll take and upload a picture of the paper later today. The article is here

Last week the focus was on Cameron and that he "still has yet to show his authority/ convince the electorate that he is a leader in the making". Often when the brief is centred around the personality rather then the party or wider society I am asked to try and avoid drawing the protagonist, as my illustration's proximity to the daily cartoon in the newspaper can mean that it becomes a little repetitive. This was one such case, hence I was asked to focus more on the action of asserting one's authority. The resulting image was a pounding fist, simple, but again due to the layout, effective in context.

This is the image:



That's all for now. I must now attend to my various portfolio sites and update them with all of the work I have done in the last few months.

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:

Double Indy.. a Dindy?

Last week was a blur of busy-ness and most of it business, hence the lack of posts, it really is a manic time of year.

So (with a small build up) here is last week's Independent image; a vision of the realities of the Iraq war being erased as a response to my brief, which was 'The Chilcott inquiry - it shouldn't be a whitewash'. My interpretation was that the Inquiry owed it to the soldiers and families of soldiers who fought, suffered or died in Iraq to be thorough (and hence not a whitewash) so I wanted to show that they shouldn't be erased from history by a politically driven Inquiry. Simple idea and a simple execution. It's rather difficult to show an image being erased without actually doing so, hence I had to keep the actual image quite flat and shape-based to help create the 'erased' textures.


I was pleased with it, especially the colour combination, but it wasn't as nice in print, which is always a shame. The article is here

However, today's image I am much happier with. It looks really atmospheric in print and is one of my recent favourites. I can't say this is because it's highly conceptual or astonishingly intelligent, rather it's nicely composed with limited colours and containing several of my favoured elements (moody urban structures, figures and a sense of foreboding) when I'm illustrating.

The brief for today's illo focused on the Conservative party and the Centre for Social Justice Think Tank (run by Iain Duncan Smith). I was asked to visualise this as an attempt by the Tories to 'go red' to reach out to the poorest parts of society and was given quite strong direction that the red of the image should focus on the Tory figure and not the background. The image below was the result and both the art director and I decided the background should be quite foreboding to suggest the Tories reaching out into unchartered, potentially dangerous (given that they could alienate the base) territory.


The article to this is here and it's an interesting (if somewhat complicated) read.

Hopefully I'll have a few non-Indy related posts soon, but at the moment everything else I have to share is still unpublishable until it goes live or the pitch is over.

Have a great start to December!

Independent 16th November

Super quick update with today's Independent image, as time is something I don't have at the moment!

My brief had 3 options to it, and for this illustration I chose to work with 'How it's the UK's mission to restore peace'. I went with the idea of rebuilding Afghanistan after it had been (metaphorically) shattered into a thousand pieces. Conceptually the image isn't too complicated, but it's nice to change the pace and instead this week I spent a lot of time experimenting with the texture and feel of the visual, rather then communicating a complicated message. The full article is here and the illustration is below.

Independent 9th November

As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know this has been a manic work week. I completed some broad development roughs for a pitch piece, did the artwork for my agent's promotional 2010 calendar and created an illustration for the Independent.

I can't post the first two examples of work just yet, but I can bring you the illustration that appeared in yesterday's Independent.

The brief was related to the Fort Hood shootings and raised the issues of how to deal with being a Muslim in the West in the wake of such events and also the more specific question of what was in the mind of US army major Nidal Hasan. I did not want to speculate about the motives for such actions, given that I have no knowledge of what occurred beyond what has been reported in the press, so I kept my artwork relatively abstract. I also generated some roughs about the difficulties facing peaceful, law abiding Muslims in the West but the Art Director chose to go with the idea about the motive and this is what I created:



The image ties in quite nicely with the article's headline (about not knowing what the motives were) and similar to last week allowed the text to run around the image. Unfortunately the article doesn't seem to be online, which is odd. But I'll add a picture of the paper this evening for context.

Update-arama

Hello, hello.

I have recently become a little bit of a liar, all these promises of updates 'later' and then later never seems to arrive. But despair no longer, the images I have been promising (bar one) are featured in this blog post.

First up is my image for The Ride Journal, a cycling magazine with an emphasis on storytelling and experience swapping nestling amongst beautiful design and evocative illustrations. Happily I was asked to contribute an illustration to the Journal to accompany an article called 'Pedal to Enlightenment' which told the tale of the writer's fight through the pain barrier to a zen like feeling of calm as he rode the roads of California.

So the art director asked me to do something a little more abstract then my usual work, focusing on my love of colour and strong compositions to convey the feelings referenced in the article. I had great fun doing this and was really pleased with the end result. It was nice to do something a bit more experimental and I got to play around with all of the textures that I collect on a daily basis to build up hundreds of layers which then come together to create the overall image.


This image will feature in The Ride Journal III, which is launched this week at the Pebbledash Gallery in Stoke Newington (London) on Friday at a Private View of the 116 TO SEA exhibition. To quote the site 116 TO SEA is "an exhibition of photography by Joe McGorty in collaboration with The Ride Journal. The Dunwich Dynamo, the annual 116 Mile all night bike ride from London to Suffolk coast, took place on the 4th of July 2009 the Saturdays nearest full moon. Joe McGorty's distinctive photographic style captures the spirit and fell of the unique ride."

I'm looking forward to the Private View and will report back with some pictures (promise). If you have a moment over the coming week the exhibition should be worth a look as Joe McGorty's work is really beautiful.

On a slightly different tip, the image below is my recent-ish one for The Sunday Herald about teen drinking. It talks about the contradiction between adult attitudes to teen drinking and their own vastly different actions, which set a bad example, and the lack of understanding of the serious effects of teen drinking on the still developing brain. This was more of a classic Jemillo illustration, lots of figures and a strong narrative underpinning an image of composite scenes around the same theme, all combining to convey the contradiction visually (I hope). So in a nutshell we see the adult hands appearing to toast the drunken antics of the youths on the right hand side. Colour wise it is a lot darker then a lot of my work, deliberately, to show the behaviour that tends to occur mostly in the evening and also to suggest the negative implications of such actions.



I also spent a great deal of time creating artwork about Washington for the Urban Land Institute in America, but alas I am still unable to publish this image online as the work is not yet in use given that it advertises the 2010 ULI conference and the 2009 event has not yet taken place! But the minute I get the nod I'll pop it up here. I do have roughs for two alternative ideas that I will publish when I pull them together.

Finally then I have added two of the three images that have been selected for Images 34.

These are 'PDA', the image from the 'We Have A Nice Day' project that responded to the statement:

"My life is a public spectacle.
Enjoy the show.
I’ll be here all week."



The second image is 'Storm', also from We Have A Nice Day and this image responded to:

"Close atmosphere today.
Need the rain to breakthrough.
Heady, clammy, intense air.

Storm on in."


Many thanks to Michelle Bower aka Bowerbird, regular commentator on this blog, friend and collaborator on the We Have A Nice Day project. Her clever, thought-provoking or inspirational words were an instrumental part in my selection for Images 34, as without them I would not have had the starting point to create some of my favourite pieces of work, so thanks to her.

Finally the third selected image was my Harry Patch illustration for the Independent. I was really pleased that this image was selected as again it is another of my favourites and also talks about a serious subject matter, which I think is important to recognise in Illustration awards as sometimes the serious gets overlooked for the shiny, showy or shallow and it is nice to see something less 'trendy' be recognised. Especially when it's my work, ha ha. Anyway the Harry Patch image is already on the blog, so if you wish to see it please scroll down!

That's it for today. Phew. As mentioned on yesterday's posts the website has been updated so if you want to see all my work in one place please visit

Have a great Tuesday!

Today's Indy part 2

The brief I received yesterday began as the Tories v Europe, but quite clearly from the image that was published in today's paper that brief was shelved in favour of the story that broke over the weekend about Professor David Nutt's sacking from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the subsequent resignations (and threat of resignations) from other council members.


It was a really open brief, I was asked to create something about the story that conveyed the notion that the cannabis comments had lit a blue touch paper to a wider issue within the government about advisors and policy. Originally I had the spliff in the image dropping ash onto a 'normal' Houses Of Parliament building (which is just starting to set alight, to suggest the idea that the cannabis issue is going to grow into a full inferno - which judging by today's news reports may just be the case). But at the rough stage the art director asked me to make it more druggie and create a building from cannabis plants and leaves. This took a while and required a lot of pieces in various green tones to create a depth to the shape and make it visually interesting, rather then just being one shape repeated ad infinitum.

You can see a close up of the cannabis plant based Houses of Parliament below:



As you can see in the post below I'm really happy with how the image has appeared in print. I sent the art director both an image with a background and one without, so that if the opportunity arose the illustration could be set into the text a little more and cropped to fit. He took the opportunity to do this and thus there is less dead space in the paper's version and the composition is a little more dynamic. Obviously with the nature of the grid it is not always possible for the images to appear like this so when they do it just gives my work a little extra oomph and takes it away from being a standard rectangle.

The article is online here and the picture in print can be seen below or in more detail over on twitpic

Today's Indy part 1

A brief post about today's Independent; here's a quick snapshot of the image in the paper. Loving the art director's crop and placement of the image, really makes it work as a composition.



I'll upload the full image and discuss the brief when I can...

Freedom of speech

This week's Indy illo is about freedom of speech, and more specifically about the recent Jan Moir Daily Mail article and the upcoming appearance of Nick Griffin (the BNP leader) on Question Time.

The rationale presented to me was that Jan Moir has been labelled homophobic and taken to task by the blogging, commenting and twittering community for her article about Stephen Gately. Yet in contrast the BNP get away with much more openly offensive comments and actions with a lot less furore.

Interestingly and unusually I considered my personal response to this statement before I began my ideas, just because the argument had piqued my interest. I wasn't sure how I felt as I think the BNP do get a lot of negative media coverage and I also thought Jan Moir's comments were nasty and snide and I agreed (in principle) with the shocked response (if not the faux outrage that accompanies these things once the mainstream media report it) but of course I could see the point of the argument. As much as the Daily Mail article is hurtful to friends and family of Stephen Gately and offensive to a wider audience by its very nature as an opinion piece it has limited influence and is much less dangerous then the BNP, who as a political party have the potential to affect and influence Government and the wider European community. Thus the response to the two things should technically be proportional to their power. But that's not how things work, emotionally charged arguments always win out and the entertainment industry will always trump the political arena when it comes to popularity.

So these were the thoughts swimming around my head as I worked out my roughs. It took me almost double the time this week as I tried to create a composition that would effectively convey the argument and be visually interesting and not repeat any of the elements I featured in my recent illustration about free speech.

Finally I settled on an image set in Trafalgar Square, imagining a scenario with a large outdoor BBC screen I set about creating a world where Nick Griffin on Question Time was ignored in favour of protesting against Jan Moir. This image gave me a chance to reference the two points made in the brief and hopefully sits well when given the context of the article.

I'm writing this blog post without the final article for reference, so I am not sure how pointedly Jan Moir or Nick Griffin will be referred to, or if the article will be more generalised. Hopefully the article will do enough to ensure my image makes sense. I'd also like to point out that I am not attempting to link Jan Moir and the BNP or commenting on the death of Stephen Gately. As I've discussed on this blog previously my visual responses are just that, visual responses to the brief I am set, this one may have caused me to consider whether I agree or not, but that has no real bearing on the images I produce.



On another note after completing the illustration above I settled in for a night of XFactor and noted this beautiful advert for American Express during the commercials. I think it's gorgeous and wanted to share so click the screengrab to see the full advert over at the 'Add A Dog' website, credits can be found there.



Finally the website update is underway, should be live by Tuesday.
Updated: the article is here now.

A random tuesday

or if we are to be exact Tuesday 13th September, the birthday of one of my good friends and two days before my sister's birthday (an event akin to the Queen's birthday in her eyes!) so this week I have been mostly present ordering and card buying (to steal an old Fast Show line).

However, inbetween that and my little jaunt to Paris I did my illustration for the Independent. I can't say this is one of my recent favourites, sometimes an image that works well with the brief just doesn't inspire the same affection as a piece that resonates with your personal interests or develops over a longer time frame. But both the Art Director and I were happy with the outcome and it looked good in print yesterday, so that is the main thing.

The article for this image discussed the lack of ethnic representation in the recent party conferences and subsequently it seemed silly not to work in a two colour image, with white being one colour and using a slightly murky red (to suggest the blue of the Tories mixed in to Labour's red) as the other.


Besides the Independent I am back at Loughborough teaching there and things are hectic as they always are at the beginning of term, I am also still working at Oil. But I intend to do a full update of the website this weekend as I have both my macs working and ready to go! So check the website at the beginning of next week to see all my recent work.

Yesterday's Indy

Internet access is a bit of an issue at the moment so my apologies for the continued lack of updates, I do intend to update the website and this blog with non-Indy images but for now I'm afraid you'll have to make do with the limited posts.

This week's image centred around the economic ideas and opinions of George Osborne and resultingly I was asked to focus on imagery that communicated the idea of economic policy and how central this will be to the Tory party in the next few months.

I came up with a few roughs and the art director was really keen on the image of a fruit machine, designed to suggest the idea of gambling and taking a chance on change and raising the question as to whether George Osborne will be able to 'hit the jackpot' with his policy and help the Tories gain power at the next election.

I was pleased that the art director went with this idea and I was also happy with my execution, I think I managed to get a sense of energy into the artwork and I also had fun with the elements of typography. Overall this was a fun image to create and it is always pleasing when a good idea fits with the text and also allows me to have fun with the artwork.

As always you can see the article here and the image below:

Independent

Back on track with an illustration post today. I've completed my Washington DC illustration and that has been approved by the clients, which is a great feeling after all the hard work that went into the image. I'm really looking forward to seeing pictures of it in use...next year!

That's the nice thing about editorial illustration, the immediacy with which you get to see your work in context and obviously the work I do for the Independent is an extreme example of this. Today's image was a bit different in that I received the full article to work from, rather then just a direction. However, there was an overriding theme of 'how the liberals have given up on freedom' so I read the text with that in mind, looking for lines which provoked visual responses that were simple enough to work in the newspaper. It's important for me to remind myself not to over-complicate the image, as I am so used to working up multi-layered images (the Washington project was over 500 layers and a GigaByte in size!) that I have to distill my ideas into their purest form to make them work in this format. There are several reasons for that; the size of the final artwork, the quality of the paper it is printed on, the complexity of the ideas discussed in the column and the time I have to do the artwork in. All of these factors make it crucial to have one strong idea in an image, rather then numerous pockets of information and to this end when I do get to work from the article I have to break it down into single statements of inspiration.

So I created my roughs and the idea that was selected for artworking was inspired by the idea of taking away civil liberties from the people, in order to balance out the free reign given to bankers and other industries throughout Labour's terms. The exact paragraph is here:
"A party that should have intervened for social justice and greater equality instead allowed the markets to let rip. Having raised the white flag to the bankers, ministers instead sought to exert their power elsewhere, at the level of the citizen, seeking ever more ingenious ways of watching us, listening to us and telling us how to lead our lives. I am no Freudian psychoanalyst, but I can find no better example of displacement theory in modern politics."

I was visually interested in the notion of psychoanalysis and a sort of automatic response, which lead to the idea of scribbling. Combining the theme and the visual inspiration I worked towards the image shown below, a vision of people walking on an average street with their mouths closed up by red crosses. The idea being that even when going about our everyday lives personal liberties have been removed in an almost childlike, ill-considered manner. The colour usage is deliberately muted to add to this feeling of being repressed.


The full article is here

Poor neglected blog..

It's only been a week since my last post, but I phoned it in a little last week so I feel neglectful. Unfortunately the functional updates will continue for a while longer as I work my way through the last stage of several long term projects. So...

I completed the artwork on Friday for the large image I was working on for the Phoenix Creative Group, on behalf of the Urban Land Institute. A bit of a dream job for me as I had to create my own interpretation of Washington DC, which is the sort of thing I love doing. So the image contains people, buildings and transport system signage. Fabulous! A lot of hard work and research required but the final image is, in my opinion, one of the best things I've done so that was pleasing. I can't post it here yet but when I get the green light to do so it will be uploaded. I also have the two alternative ideas to post too, once I've neatened them up and I am thinking of making them limited edition prints.

I also did an illustration for the New Statesman towards the end of the previous week and over the weekend whilst I was in Cannes (contrary to what this blog may suggest I don't spend all of my life travelling..) this can be seen online here and the full image and what I hope appeared in print is below, I shall find out when I collect my copy later.


This was quite a tricky brief as it accompanied a rather complex review of a book discussing theories about uncivilisation and how society would cope if civilisation (as we know it) collapsed, and if the notion of a stable society is actually a falsehood and that civilised life is a transient entity. So not a jolly walk in the park, but a great theme to get stuck into and I was really pleased with the rather dramatic image that I produced. I have to say that I've seen it online for the first time as I'm writing this post and the colours really sit nicely with the text (and surrounding adverts, who would have thought it would complement EasyJet's orange so well!).

Besides that I am just in the process of creating artwork for Nursing Standard magazine and also need to check if the Velocity magazine I illustrated a month ago is out yet so that I can post the image here.

Obviously as it's a Monday there is an Independent illustration to post and this one is about the Government creating a Nanny State. I didn't have much more to go on then that yesterday so I haven't yet checked to see what the tone of the article is, but hopefully they will be harmonious. I went with the idea of a looming, dictator-esque shadow sitting above a crowd of people going about their daily journeys.


I've also been pulling together the final bits of picture research for the current Laurence King title I'm working on and starting my blog posts for a trend website, more on that soon. I think that brings us current in a quick round up way.

I hope you've enjoyed these images and there should be a few more appearing soon.

All the way from Nice airport...

no, actually that's a lie! I began to write this post in the airport but then my internet allocation ended, so the title was as far as it went. Now I'm back in the UK and snowed under with a million and one things to do, but I wanted to get this week's Independent image online for anyone who didn't see it in the paper yesterday, so here it is. The image was a response to the Edlington torture case and the factors that are often inevitable in cases relating to child violence.


This is the article that the image accompanied.

It was an odd thing to be illustrating from a beautiful location in France and after a delightful wedding (more on my trip to France sometime this week - hopefully) made more poignant as Doncaster is my hometown, so I knew a lot about the case through friends and the local press. A thoroughly sad situation for all involved and a tricky one to work with visually.

Bank Holiday Independent

Controversial was my first thought when I got yesterday's brief for the Independent. I was asked to illustrate the view that releasing the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the right thing to do to protect British trade/economic interests. Having just logged onto the Indy's website (as well as the BBC, Times and Guardian) I was aware of the storm brewing over the leaked letters that insinuated such an opinion was in fact, a fact, and this knowledge contributed to my initial response.

I am often asked if I have ethical problems with any commissions I receive, or if I illustrate my own opinions and I always say that in commissioned work I create to the brief set by the art director. This was the case here, it is (in my work for the Independent) not my job to make judgements or comment on the issues, my job is to find a visually satisfying way of depicting the opinion articulated by the author on each given week. Until my name is attached to the words I am comfortable visualising their opinions, whether I agree or not. But it does concern me that sometimes people might see an image I create with a particularly strong sentiment and assume that it is my own personal opinion. I am not egotistical enough to believe that my work could ever garner such attention on a large enough scale to cause me any discomfort, but in the age of far reaching technologies one does consider this more then before. I guess that was one of the reasons behind my decision to start this blog, to give any visitors to the website a chance to learn more about the process of creating my imagery.

Generally for the Independent I am given something akin to a statement of intent, one line or sometimes even a mere word that I am asked to generate ideas around. Sometimes it is quite abstract, other times more descriptive such as this weekend's brief. But in all cases my position as illustrator is to do just that, illustrate, not push my own agenda. That is what self directed projects are for!

Some might argue that my position is a cop out, that I have a platform to say something important, but I don't view it that way. I have a role to perform and people have their right to agree or disagree with the views I illustrate on behalf of the newspaper. It is after all an opinion and debate column, not a fact and truth one, thus the ideas outlined on the page both in words and pictures are there to be discussed, ruminated on, shouted at or applauded. If comment is free (as one other newspaper declares) then I am happy to be part of that process.

Now saying all of that, yesterday's process actually went a little awry, in that the brief I was given and the direction I took became a little too similar to that given and taken by the cartoonist on the page adjacent to mine. So an 11th hour rethink was required, not the most fun of events but something to get the adrenalin pumping! I was asked to think about Gordon Brown's involvement in this scenario and after a little discussion both the art director and I decided to work with the notion that Gordon Brown had hidden the truth about the motivation for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release (that it was for trade purposes).

A quick round of ideas ensued and after another rapid discussion we decided I should move forward with the image that appears in today's paper; that of Gordon Brown up to his neck (or in this case nose) in oil, holding up his hands in a show of surrender or pleading innocence, depending on how the viewer sees it. Brown almost drowning in the oil is intended to have political implications, the idea that this is another case where his political career is likely to be even further damaged and that he is metaphorically drowning as PM. It is also meant to be inferred that this is another sleaze type allegation, that leaks (oil spill > leak) from within Government show up more of Brown's perceived inadequacies and that once again the Labour party is linked with behaviour that one might call oily. Obviously the most overt reason for the spilt oil is the idea that the true reason for the release of al-Megrahi was all about oil and that this truth has now been leaked. Simple really!



As for opinions in my work, sometimes I agree with the authors, sometimes I don't, but I pride myself on the quality of the work being consistent irregardless of what I personally believe.

Finally, here is a little picture of the 'oil slick' I created at the last minute yesterday using vegetable oil and cocoa powder (for colour), I was quite pleased with my ingenuity (she says modestly) and this picture provided the right texture and outlines for the final image. Illustration can be a ridiculous thing sometimes!

Inky fingers

Firstly I've just finished updating my website so if you want to check out some new pictures then please give it a visit

Today's illustration for the Independent focuses on Afghanistan, in particular current events there and how the author's support for the war has wavered in recent years. I was asked to reflect the elections that took place last week by creating an image made out of a fingerprint.

This was tricky (and messy) work, as not only did I have to compose the image I also had to make it work within the fingerprint shape and make the contours bend to show the figures. The messiness came from fingerprinting myself which I did with very little skill, leaving my finger and thumb a nice blue shade (including the fingernail). So if you should see me out and about in London this week please remember that it isn't dirt, it's just very stubborn ink!

The image itself turned out really well, again I was pleased with the sense of drama and atmosphere I managed to create. It's much more abstract then the piece last week, but generally that tends to be the way when I don't need to discuss or suggest specific people.

Enjoy!