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Welcome to my web site. Click on the gallery link above to see my images. Click the thumbnails on the gallery page to see a bigger view of the images. 10th September 2015I've scanned in many of the images contained in my current "pub" sketchbook. These are done in a moleskine sketchbook with a couple of decent mechanical pencils. Simply add time + Budvar. I'll be developing some of these further soon with colour in Painter 2016. Click for bigger.
8th September 2015Oops! It's been a long time since I've updated this and it's starting to look a little dated. A full new site is in the works. In the meantime I'll post a couple of photos of some hand-made boxes I've been making. A mixture of oak, maple and walnut wood with etched aluminium. They, or some of them, might actually end up finished soon, but I'm having more fun making than finishing and I'm learning things with every one. They are designed to be vaping devices... the thing that's successfully kept me off nasty cigarettes for almost two years now. Click to see bigger.
I'll probably do a step-by-step of the making of one of these soon. The most up to date ones combine digital art as the patterns for the resist in the etching stage are drawn in Corel Painter 2016. Now I just have to get my shoddy soldering practiced and learn to drill holes and cutouts for buttons and screens more accurately :) 30th October July 2013I created a video to show off how useful Painter X3's Perspective Tool can be. Click here to see the final image.
21st July 2013Here's a video of me creating one of the illustrations for my prop Necronomicon. Coming soon will be a Latin version of the book - mainly because I want/need one for myself, and bookbinding was such fun that I have to try it some more. :)
Click here to see a low res, reduced size image of the final illustration. 21st June 2013The prop 'Al Azif/Necronomicon' is finished. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. All the calligraphy/writing, full page illustrations of Cthulhu Mythos deities and diagrams and images were made in Corel Painter 12. I documented the creation of the book in photos, from staining the paper with coffee right through to finishing off the bookbinding. I also video captured the process of creating some of the illustrations. I'll start sifting through all that stuff shortly and get it online. For the moment here are some of the photographs - click for bigger :)
19th May 2013I'm working on creating a prop book for a film set in Edinburgh. It's to be an old arabic version of the infamous (and completely made up) Necronomicon, as featured in the writings of HP Lovecraft and others who set their stories within his Cthulhu Mythos.
I'm recording much of the process as I go along - still photographs for the paper making, and later the bookbinding, and some video of me greating the illustrations for inside. 7th April 2013A zombie book cover done for a friend - published by Severed Press. Clean version without text is in my gallery.
13th February 2013I've added another video to my Tutorials page here and on my Youtube channel. Sadly, I didn't get around to recording narration for it yet. Next time... I promise :)
26th December 2012I've recently put up some video process videos on Youtube - showing how I work with Painter 12. I've added them to my Tutorials page here and removed a couple of my older Photoshop vids. I'm working on this funny looking bearded creature at the moment. My plan is to record a narrated video showing the process of taking it to colour from the greyscale drawing. As soon as I get the drawing finished that is :) I've recorded a few small chunks from the drawing stage... that I'll tack onto the front of the video. Click for a bigger view. The original is A3+ size - I need to make something to print out on my A3+ size printer :)
2nd November 2012Fantasy Artist's issue 39 is out, and it's a cracker. There's some great stuff in it this month, my favourite being an article on Julie Dillon, who created the wonderful artwork featured in the Corel 12th Anniversay Edition Painter 12 Can (which takes pride of place on the software section of my bookshelves). I have a six page Painter 12 tutorial on steampunk technology (which was great fun). The other news in this issue is that the lovely April Madden is heading off to become Editor of Imagine Publishing's Digital Photographer magazine. I wish her all the best and thank her for all the wonderfully imaginative tutorials she asked me to do... from a giant pink octopuss right through to this month's giant steampunk robot, they have all been inspiring and fun to do.
10th August 2012Fantasy Artist's second issue is out. It's packed with some really good stuff. I've got a short two page tutorial on creating a troll in Corel Painter 12. I managed to capture this process in video while doing it, and that video is on the magazine's cover disc. It's sped up and doesn't have narration (next time maybe) but hopefully it reveals enough of the process (warts and all) to be of interest. I've also updated my gallery page with some of the recent stuff done for Digital Artist/Fantasy Artist
9th July 2012Digital Artist magazine is relaunching as Fantasy Artist. It should be available in all the usual places come Thursday 12th July, but I was lucky enough to get my subscriber's copy through my letterbox today. I've got a science fiction themed tutorial in the first issue: Using Blender and Painter 12 to create an image. It was great fun. The magazine looks great. I can't wait to see next month's :)
24th May 2012A new issue of Digital Artist magazine is out. I have a wee two pager in this issue, which was a lot of fun to create. It's a great issue - loads of quality stuff in it along with a big announcement which is exciting.
24th May 2012Imagine Publishing's Digital Artist magazine have one of those bookazine thingies out at the moment called Digital Artist Collection: Volume 1. It's a nice thick 227 page glossy magazine featuring some of their favourites from the first two and a bit years. It showcases the magazine's diverse range of digital art styles and genres, and covers Painter, Artrage and Illustrator and mobile apps as well as the more familiar (to most people) Photoshop. There are some great tutorials from: Sara Biddle, Simon Wild, Abi Daker, Bao Pham, Phil McDarby, Sam Brewster, Francisco Perez, Paul Cartwright, Amber Hill, Joe Cummings, Tim Shelbourne, Simon Dominic, Jon Hodgson, Mary Winkler, Geo Law, Nigel Hopkins, Andy Hau, Liam Smith, Oliver Munden, Neil Stevens, Susan Murtaugh, Matthew Watkins, Patipat Asavasena and I'm lucky to have 14 pages worth of stuff too. It's an ideal way for anyone not familiar with the magazine to see the kind of range it covers...
7th April 2012I'm liking Blender more and more as I learn to use it. I'm currently working through an interior tutorial from Blender Cookie... although I've gotten a little side-tracked adding my own content. Great fun though. Blender Cookie is a very worthwhile site for Blender users.
7th March 2012Got a brand new custom PC from PC Specialist last week. I am blown away by how much of an improvement it is :) Great for Painter 12. 20th February 2012Issue 30 of Digital Artist popped through my letterbox this morning. It's a Steampunk themed magazine this month. I've got a 4 page tutorial in this issue.
21st January 2012Issue 29 of Digital Artist is out... for lucky subscribers anyway. I always like getting it delivered a day or two before it hits the shops. I've got another Corel Painter 12 tutorial in this issue. There's some lovely stuff in this issue, the other Painter stuff being my favourite of course - Great tutorials by Carlyn Beccia and Amber Hill. I must say though that the most striking thing about this issue is the cover. Having the cover entirely black and white is a bold move, but it works very well. There's also a Painter video tutorial on the magazine's cover disc by Andrew Jones which is a nice bonus as this is normally a paid for tutorial from ConceptArt/Massive Black/The Art Department.
22nd December 2011Issue 28 of Digital Artist has just dropped through my letterbox. It's a fantastic issue with a great cover and a wide range of tutorials. There's a nice tutorial by Joe Cummings which pointed out to me that there are whole areas of Painter that I never venture near, an excellent tutorial covering illustrating for children by Bryony Crane, and a load of others covering diverse styles, subjects and techniques. Digital Artist magazine has also revamped it's website recently and is worth a look. The new style places great importance on reader submitted art. Now that issue 28 is out I've added my Sketchup/Painter image from issue 27 to my gallery. 9th December 2011It's been a while since I did an update. Issue 27 of Digital Artist magazine has a tutorial of mine on combining Google's free 3D program SketchUp with Corel's Painter 12.
16th July 2011A couple of updates. I recently finished a caricature of The Cult's singer Ian Astbury. It's in my gallery. I was also pleased to see a couple of my images in an Imagine Publishing bookazine-thingie (Fantasy Art Volume 2).
5th April 2011I got one of my recent photographs published in the Herald today :)
23rd March 2011I've closed my Zazzle account - after a bizarre email exchange with them. Apparently one of my caricatures of Nick Cave violated his "Rights of Celebrity/Publicity". They couldn't tell me why one caricature did while the other one didn't. They'd had no complaints from Nick Cave's management, who've never even heard of Zazzle. If there's anything in my gallery that anyone would like a print of then get in touch. I can do my own fine art prints on high quality paper up to A3+ size. 1st March 2011I've added a caricature I completed recently to my gallery. It was for a 40th birthday present and it seemed to go down well with everyone. Looked nice printed on A3 and framed too. 6th January 2011Issue 15 Digital Artist is now available in the shops (subscribers will have got it earlier). I've got a 6 page tutorial in this month's magazine, combining Steampunk with neon and finishing off with a cracked glaze effect.
23th November 2010I've decided to offer a limited in number edition of giclée prints of my latest Nick Cave caricature - The Zazzle prints mentioned below will still be available, but sadly these can't be signed or customised (unlike the prints I can produce myself). I'm only doing a very limited edition of 30. See my Prints page for details. 16th October 2010I got a couple of prints of my Nick Cave caricature from Zazzle.co.uk - I'm very impressed with both the quality and the price. I got a mix of poster prints and matte prints. I'll definately be using them again in future and anything suitable will be available for all. There's also a US Zazzle site as well as Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and France - if those links don't take you to the appropriate page then click on the appropriate flag at the foot of their page and type "Nick Cave" into their search bit.
It looks great hanging next to my Emek screenprint above my computer. 2nd October 2010I got my copy of Sci-Fi Art Now by John Freeman yesterday. I'm astounded by both the quality of both the book itself, and the quality of all the artwork in it. It also has an introduction from the legendary Chris Foss. It's a really nice quality hardback book, and comes in at just under 200 pages. I am slightly biased mind you - it's got three of my pieces of artwork in it :) To be perfectly honest, even if I wasn't a contributor, it would have ended up on my bookshelf anyway. I own a couple of books from Ilex Press but this one trumps them all. It's available now from Amazon for £13.99 and really is a must have for lovers of Science Fiction artwork. Here's a sneaky peak at the cover, a couple of my images and a random page from the book.
30th September 2010I've finished my new Nick Cave caricature, which is in my gallery. The full size image is 4961 x 7016 pixels in size which is A2 print size at 300 dots per inch. I used Painter 11 mainly to create this image, with a little back-up from Photoshop CS5 when needed. It's available as a print from my DeviantArt page, and also in my store at Zazzle.co.uk which is probably the best option for people living in Europe or the UK (like myself). 24th September 2010I've set up a store at Zazzle.co.uk so that I can make some of my stuff available as prints. The only thing I've added so far is the old caricature of Nick Cave I did a while back. Please contact me if there's any of my images you'd like to see added as available prints. Their prices seem very reasonable for those of us living in the UK and Europe, and I'll be ordering some prints myself shortly. I'm having great fun working on a brand new Nick Cave caricature, which will be available shortly. 20th August 2010There are four new images in my gallery. The image I mentioned entering in Corel's contest, a design for a dwarf beer label which came runner up in a DeviantArt contest, a depiction of the Greek God Pan - for a mythology contest at Worth1000 and an reptilian alien gladiator for one of the weekly contests over at ImagineFX. 28th July 2010I've entered one of my most recent images into Corel's 25th Anniversary contest. I'd love it if you would go an give it a vote here. (You can also feel free to vote once a day until the end of August - and pass the link on too). :) I also entered a 'toe fluff' creation to Steve Rack's wonderful Toe Fluff project. That was fun to do and hopefully Steve will make some money for Great Ormond Street kid's hospital. 7th May 2010I recently received confirmation that several of my images are going to appear in a Science Fiction art book to be published by ILEX later this year. There's a webpage to support the book and that will be updated as the release date for the book gets nearer. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon. 1st April 2010New image added to my gallery. A freaky looking alien. 26th January 2010Added an image to my Gallery from the second issue of Digital Artist 25th January 2010Found issue three of Digital Artist waiting for me when I got home from work today. Glad I subscribed - it should be on sale in a day or two in the shops. I have a 6 page tutorial in it :)
4th January 2010Got a copy of Digital Artist issue two today, in which I am lucky enough to have a one page commission. I'll post that image here in my gallery towards the end of the month.
11th December 2009One more Worth1000 illustration added to my Gallery page. Also, I'm delighted that one of my older images has been published in a new UK based magazine called Digital Artist.
28th October 2009Another batch update. Four new images including the last cover I did for Markets Media Magazine. On the Gallery page as usual. 17th July 2009Been a while since I've had time to do an update, so there's a batch of new images on the gallery page. 6th April 2009Finally got round to finishing a more in depth tutorial or walk-through video for this image. This time, despite hating the sound of my own voice, I managed to do some audio narration - hopefully you can understand my accent without subtitles. The video is in two parts and is embedded on my tutorials page. It's the complete process from start to finish this time. Or, you can stream or download the videos from Vimeo (HD). 5th April 2009Completed my third magazine cover for Markets Media Magazine. Thanks again for all involved for giving me the opportunity to work with you again. See it in my gallery. 15th March 2009I've uploaded an HD version of the video below to Vimeo. They managed to process it much quicker than Google Video and didn't mangle it. 15th March 2009Added a portrait of an ugly monster/alien to my gallery. I captured the first hour and a half as video, and sped that up by 2x to create a 45 minutes video. You can see that here. Google Video managed to spend about 8 hours making it horrible, small and pixellated, so I'll see about uploading it somewhere else. 14th March 2009Have done another cover for the magazine 'Markets Media Magazine'. It's in my gallery. Thanks again to all at MMM and Trungale Egan. 17th January 2009Got my first proper piece of freelance illustration completed. It's a cover for the January/February edition of the financial magazine 'Markets Media Magazine'. I'd like to thank both the Editor-in-Chief Natasha Gural and David Fields of Trungale, Egan & Associates for creative direction - in what was, timewise, a very challenging project. I'd also like to thank Markets Media for allowing me to show the image here on my website. You can see it in my gallery. 16th January 2009Added a caricature of the singer Nick Cave to my gallery page. This was used in a Worth1000 contest to illustrate a celebrity. 12th December 2008Added two images to my gallery page. One from a Worth1000 illustration contest - the other was my attempt at a caricature of a friend. 8th October 2008Added two images to my gallery page 31st August 2008Added three more images to my gallery page. 19th August 2008Added a video tutorial to my tutorials page. 16th August 2008Added my 'Airship' image to my gallery page. It was created for a Worth1000 illustration contest with the theme 'Airborne'. 1st August 2008Added a larger animated work-in-progress of my Carrier image to the Tutorials page. 31st July 2008My most recent image of a huge carrier type spacecraft has been added to the gallery. I'll see about hosting a decent size WIP shortly, but for the moment here's the smaller one created for Worth1000. 9th July 2008Added the Photoshop layered PSD of my 'Blind Dragon' image to my Tutorials section. 9th July 2008Added the Photoshop layered PSD of my 'Corum' image to my Tutorials section. 4th July 2008Finally got my web site started and online. Much of it is still a work in progress and under construction, but I hope to add more content to it with each passing week. I've roughly arranged my gallery with the newest items first. I've added small icons to the thumbnails indicating if it won a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place at Worth1000. For more details on these see my Worth1000 stats page - that way you can see the image in the context of the contest it was in.
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