New Work: Financial Times

A nice job in from the Financial Times to accompany the announcement of George Osborne's so called 'Kill or Cure' Budget. The idea was to portray two characters that would be given food for thought by the new Tory measures - one a Flash Harry city type, the other a diligent middle-aged, middle Britain, pension holder. The pink newsprint sucked the colour out of them a little bit, so here they are in all their digital clarity. Thanks to Kevin Wilson for his supportive and constructive art direction.

Appeared in the FT on Wednesday 23rd June.

Influences: Max Beckmann

Self Portrait, 1922, Woodcut

For my next choice I've chosen the artist that has been the single, biggest influence on my choice of career and on the development of my style as an illustrator: the German painter Max Beckmann. It may not be immediately obvious when you compare his work to mine - the subject matter of my work being a lot lighter, generally speaking, and executed with a different hand and in a completely different medium - but I maintain that his work has been a constant inspiration to me ever since I first laid eyes on it back in high school.

Some questions answered...

Recently, an illustration student got in touch with me to ask me some questions about my work and how I feel about the increasing use of digital techniques within illustration. I thought it'd be good to post up my answers here. Thanks to Steven Marsden for the insightful questions.

New Work

Another piece of personal work, completed in between commissioned pieces (more on that later). The sheet music on the piano is the Beatles' "Love Me Do", and so the circle is complete. My idea for this piece was to let the style run wild and hopefully turn a simple composition into something quite esoteric and personal. A bit indulgent perhaps, but sometimes that can lead to the most memorable and meaningful images.

Influences: Eric Gill

Self Portrait (Final State). 1927. Wood engraving

I've decided to add a bit more variety to the content here on my blog. As part of this, I'm going to occasionally post about artists, illustrators and designers who have significantly influenced my work. Initially, I had intended to put together a list of five or so key figures, but when I started thinking about it I realised that the idea would be better covered by an ongoing series of posts. Firstly, because that will give me the chance to cover each of the artists in a bit more depth, and secondly because there are just so many artists and designers that I admire that it seems a shame to limit the list to such a narrow selection.