Delivery by Owl for the Big Hoot 2015 in Birmingham

 

This is the design I entered to decorate an owl sculpture for the Big Hoot, a large scale art event across the streets of Birmingham in 2015. The brief was very open, the design could be based on anything to do with Birmingham, or owls, or really anything at all that you fancied (so long as it wouldn't cause offense!)

 

I started by researching things to do with Birmingham. I had no idea just how many interesting things were connected to the city, or how many inventions were created there. I ended up with quite a long list, and didn't really want to leave any out. The postage stamp was invented in Birmingham and covering my owl in stamps gave me the perfect excuse to include them all.

 

 

I worked on decorating my owl at home, in my living room. I got used to having him about and had a bit of empty nest syndrome once he was taken away.

 

The stamps are based on: Birmingham Sea life centre had Olive the psychic octopus (I think she was inspired by Paul the octopus that predicted the world cup scores).

 

Birmingham also has an International Military Tattoo (that the little owl stamp is dressed up for).

 

 The other owl is dressed as Sherlock Holmes as Arthur Conan Doyle lived here when he had his first work published.

 

The wizard is there as the writer of Lord of the rings JRR Tolkien spent his childhood here.

 

Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park has Capybaras (I love these giant guinea pigs).

 

The satellite dish is there as a key component of radar was created here.

 

 

 

What big eyes he has.......all the better to see you with!

My owl has a canal boat on his head as Birmingham is also known as 'canal city' (it has more canals than Venice)

 

 

 

Two great bands from Birmingham, Dexys Midnight Runners and Black Sabbath (I had 'Come on Eileen' as an earworm for sometime painting this).

 

Also did you know there is a crater on the moon called Birmingham?

 

 

 

 

The tower at the bottom is Perrott's Folly, which JRR Tolkien lived near as a child and said it inspired his novels (it isn't actually white, that was a bit of artistic licence on my part-you could say the magical lightening flashes are turning it white).

 

The first x-ray was taken in Birmingham too.  

 

 

 

There used to be a King Kong statue outside the old bull ring shopping centre, he looked great from the photos of him I've seen, so I had to include him.

 

Novacon is an annual science fiction convention that started in Birmingham in 1971 (I'm sure a dalek must've attended at some point)

 

To me the bull statue at the new bull ring centre looks a bit miffed. I think he gets a bit tired of all the tourists wanting to have their picture taken with him, but it's his own fault for looking so great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birmingham planetarium is definitely worth a visit.

 

The University of Birmingham has a robotics laboratory, you can also see some great robots at the Thinktank science museum.

 

This lizard is a Blue-Tongued Skink (one of the best names I've ever heard so I had to include it just for that), it lives at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park

 

 

 

 

The top one on the side is a sculpture at Moseley Bog, a place that is said to have inspired the Old Forest in Lord of the Rings

 

 

 

You can find the Emperor Monkey at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park too (who could resist a monkey with a moustache?!)

 

Birmingham's Castle Bromwich factory produced over 10,000 Spitfires, including the one at the Thinktank science museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have added some work in progress photos below too

 

 

 But it felt a bit slow so I alternated between colours in the end and it made him come to life a little quicker.

 

 

I started by adding all the areas of the same colour at the same time, one by one.

 

 

 Once I had all the sketching out done I could start with the blocks of colour. Each colour took a few layers to properly apply, but it was a nice smooth surface to work on and quite therapeutic.

 

 

After working out what was going where, I started drawing in pencil. The drawing flowed quite nicely but the frilly edges were slightly troublesome at first.

 

 

 

 

 There's a big difference between drawing on a flat A4 design and painting a curved owl that's bigger than you, so I spent a bit of time working out layout and sizes. The original paper template was front and back only, but I'd had some extra stamp designs I'd had to leave off, so I was happy to add them back on again to the sides of my owl.

 

 

Unwrapping my owl in my living room, such a lovely blank canvas to work with!

Mummy and Me Bake (DK Books)

I was very happy to get my copy of this book, it’s my first book for DK Books that I have been the sole illustrator for which was exciting!

 

For this commission I worked with another great senior designer, Hannah Moore. Hannah would give me a brief for the illustrations she wanted and then she added the photos and the text. I really like the way she added the photos of the veg underneath on this one.

 

 

I really enjoyed drawing the little bouncy olives

 

 

I think the veg pages were my favourites!

 

 

Keeping the illustrations very simple, with any people drawn in a childlike style, was key for this project. It was also good practice for me in drawing in a freer, doodling way.

 

 

I loved how playful and inventive Hannah was in adding the photos, the broccoli trees are brilliant (I do love broccoli though so I might be slightly biased)

 

 

As well as all the great recipes it also has some good educational sections

 

 

The teddy bear crops up a few times throughout the book. I love the cheerfulness of this page design, think I might make that cake myself too!

 

 

Here he is in a few of the other pages

 

 

I also enjoyed adding a few little bees and bugs to a page on making 'blossom biscuits'

 

 

 

I like the idea of a building made out of blocks of brownies, would be a bit too hard to resist though I think!

 

 

This book was great fun to work on, doodling over the top of these pasties to turn them into chickens didn't feel like work at all!

Ultimate Factivity Dinosaurs

 

Another educational activity book by DK Books, I really enjoy working on these titles.

I worked with another brilliant designer, Ria Holland on this one. She would send me the brief for the illustration, and then add the text and the background. I really like the background for this one, I think it's my favourite page design in the book.

An illustration to be coloured in. I like adding little details, in this one it was the tiny dino hitching a lift on a slightly bigger one. This series of books have a lot of stickers in the back to be added to the pages, I used to love stickers as a child (my bedroom door was covered in them) and would've loved these books.

    Another fossil themed spread, I couldn't resit having the small dino fossil biting the big one!

 

I also had some of my little illustration peaking out in some of the other pages, these two were my favourite

Heather the owner of Dr D's Tasty Treats (healthy treats for horses) commissioned me to illustrate a series of cartoon strips based on her story ideas involving a group of horses known as the 'treat hunters' who often tried to break into her factory as they loved her treats so much.
This was a fun brief to work to, and I enjoyed translating her stories into images.

This was another private commission, to create a picture to be framed and hung in a baby's bedroom. She was 6 months old when I made this for her, and her mum told me she would point at the different animals and laugh, which to me is a massive compliment.

I was asked to hand paint a mug design of someone's pet dog as a gift for them. I was sent a photo, and I asked if her pet had any habits, and was told she liked to pull all the cushions on the floor and sit on them in a big pile, so that is what I painted. Her owner was very happy, and sent me a photo of her dog modelling with the cup. She's a very sweet looking dog, but she doesn't look overly impressed!

Illustration Commission

This was for a private commission as a present for someone leaving work to start a new job. I was given a list of her favourite things/things about her and asked to make a picture out of it. They didn't specifically ask for Brad Pitt in 'Burn after reading' but this was the first film I'd seen him in for a while that I'd liked. Apparently when work got too stressful she used to start a conga around the office, I think maybe that should be a policy for every office. I loved that Alistair Brownlee called his brother a numpty on national TV, no-nonsense northerners always make me feel proud to be northern. And Spock just does rock.

'Sharks, Dolphins and other Sea Creatures' latest children's educational activity book for DK Books

I recently received my copy of the activity book 'Sharks, Dolphins and other Sea Creatures' by DK Books, which also includes stickers! (mine are the killer whale and beluga whale illustrations).

I had no idea how cute Beluga whales were until I was asked to draw one, I would love to be able to see one now, they really do blow bubble rings, how ace is that?

This is a little illustration for a grid based game. The brilliant senior designer Sadie Thomas would give me a brief to work to, then she would take my illustration and add the photos and text to turn it into the completed activity page. The killer whale stickers are to add to this page too.

 

This spread included large stickers to stick in place, then the whole page could be coloured in. I originally drew the walrus waving, but was told to alter it as it is an educational book so should be more realistic, (which is completely fine but secretly I like to believe that if you met a walrus in real life he might wave at you)