Music themed illustration

I've been so wrapped up in various projects that I've had nothing much to post here for a while.  Thought I'd show some work in progress today though, just to show everyone that I am indeed doing things.  I'm pretty pleased with this image.

This is some work I've been doing for Edinburgh based musician Will Pickvance.  I previously illustrated a flyer and poster for him.

Rob St.John

The final musician portrait for the upcoming Screen Bandita folk and film event.  I've been drawing the performers for a information flyer that's going to get handed out on the day.  This final artist is Rob St. John, a Scotland based musician who you can find out more about here.

Now I need to pull these illustrations together in the flyer, styled around the event's themes of maps, landscapes and place.

Cath & Phil Tyler

More folk musician portraits for the Screen Bandita event.  These artists are Cath and Phil Tyler, folk musicians from Newcastle.

Alasdair Roberts

This is portrait two for the Screen Bandita event in September.  The musician is Alasdair Roberts.

Wounded Knee.

I'm illustrating another flyer for my awesome-good friends at Screen Bandita, a sequel to a job I did for them almost two years ago.  Some of the very first illustrations I posted on this here blog were from that job, and it's a bit of a strange, sentimental, return-to-sender type moment for me doing it again.  It really makes you think...

I'm illustrating four bands/artists who'll be playing alternafolk in time to amazing Scottish Screen Archive footage at the event, which will be in Edinburgh later this year.  I'll post details soon enough, but right now here's an image of Drew Wright, A.K.A Wounded Knee, whose music you should listen to.

Will Pickvance and Friends Flyer Design.

I was recently asked by Edinburgh based musician Will Pickvance to design a flyer for his upcoming Fringe show.  He asked me, having seen my work illustrating him for the Screen Bandita's 'Eruption of Kilauea' event.

"International pianist and entertaininer Will Pickvance raises a merry Hell bang in the middle of St. John’s cavernous crypt for an enchanting two hours of candle-lit carnival.

Stride piano outbursts one minute, heart-breaking laments the next, Will invites concert violinists, todays’ troubadours, the talented, the skilled and the thirsty to entertain you with Festival Vaudeville and Helium Karaoke.

With different acts each night, selected from the cream of this year’s Festival, you never know who you’ll be sharing a table with.  Come and see the Albert Hall squeezed into your local pub."

The visual idea came quickly, based on Will's descriptions of his mad, chaotic, carnivalesque shows, and the revelation that Will often wears a grotesque pig mask for parts of his act.  I developed the idea from an initial sketch (seen below) and then drafted it out properly, before inking it (partly with a new brush pen I'm experimenting with).

However, this first version wasn't quite doing it for Will, or for me.  After some tinkering, we came up with the image below.  The crowd is now full of interesting characters, instead of gray silhouettes, and the addition of a major female presence balances out the image better, and adds more visual variety.

Also, spot the little cameo!

Will's show should be quite an event, and I'm excited to be going to see it, having already illustrated it blind.  Check out the poster for details, or visit www.mostentertaining.com.

Latitude Report

This weekend I was at Latitude festival with Tom Humberstone, Philippa Rice, Anne Holiday and Matthew Sheret.  It was a We Are Words + Pictures event, and we were there to give passers by a wee chance to do some comic drawing, as well as providing access to WAW+P's extensive library of small-press wonders, all from our event tent situated amongst dozens of other arts events that the festival was playing host to.

The event went down really well I think.  It was great seeing the huge amount of work that came out of it, from children and adults alike.  People seemed really engaged with the whole idea, and one or two children told me they had been inspired to pick up drawing again, having had previously lost interest or confidence.  We were able to give the young folk some advice and encouragement to keep drawing, and guidance to parents on how to foster their kids' interest in comics.  We all worked very well as a team, and it was wonderful getting to hang out with other comic artists and chat about what the future holds for all of us.  All in all, a great success!

At the same time, I got to do some drawing of my own, borrowing Tom's pens to do some brush pen experimentation, and Philippa's glue to do some My Cardboard Life fan art!  And then there were the bands of course, a personal favourite being Saturday night's Belle and Sebastian show.

Appearances 2010

I'll be making my first two appearances as a comics artist this year.

Latitude Festival - Thursday 15th to Sunday 18th July.

I've been invited to help out with We Are Words + Pictures' comic drawing workshops and drop-in and draw events at the festival.  We'll be there from Friday to Sunday so if you're there, come on by.

Come and join some of the UK's finest small press illustrators and help create a unique comic to celebrate Latitude 2010. Drop in to polish up on your drawing skills, relax and take inspiration from our library of 'zines and comics or help fill pages with colourful characters, tall tales and fantasy lands while we spin a yarn in the Suffolk sun.

We Are Words + Pictures are a group of illustrators and writers creating comics throughout the UK. Since 2008 they have worked with the ICA's Comica Festival, Brick Lane Market and comedians Josie Long and Robin Ince.

Thought Bubble: Leeds Sequential Art Festival - Saturday 20th November.

I've also booked a table for my first ever convention, the one day Leeds Comic Con.  I'm going to have to work hard to have more stuff to put on my table, which is a good thing I think.  If anyone fancies sharing a table, just get in touch and we'll see what we can do...

Raise Your Hem Unite: Red

Couldn't resist doing one last image on the 'red' theme.

Raise Your Hem Unite

The final colour image for the Screen Banditas event. Each band member was drawn separately but they seem to unite pretty well in the same image. The original pictures were taken by Evi Tsiligaridou on Portobello beach in Edinburgh, right near my childhood home!


I'm looking forward to the event:

The Eruption of Kilauea and Other Treasures.

Venue: St Cecilia’s Hall (Niddry Street, Edinburgh)
Date: 30th October 2009, 19.30
Tickets: £4/£3 (Can be bought on the door or in advance at Edinburgh Filmhouse.)

Raise Your Hem.

Various projects on the go at the moment, but nothing to put on the blog just yet. Still drawing those Edinburgh bands for Screen Banditas. Will have the rest of Raise Your Hem to post tomorrow. I tell you now though, drawing a double bass is tough!

Also working on a new film theory comic. I won't be putting it all up online, as I've got something special planned, but maybe I'll stick up a sampler in the coming days.

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

A favourite current technique is to scan in crumpled paper textures to give an image a bit of tangibility. It looks really good on this image. It looks a bit like I just found the picture in the bin and stuck in online.

I love their name by the way...

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

The last band for the Banditas event: Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Raise Your Hem: Red.

The red design version. Was thinking of doing a series of images of the band: the person in silhouette against a different colour background, with their instrument foregrounded and lit up.

Raise Your Hem.

An image for the Screen Banditas event, 'The Eruption of Kilauea and Other Treasures'. One member of the band 'Raise Your Hem'. More of the band still to come! I used a ripped up piece of corrugated card to create that interesting sand texture.

Will Pickvance Red

Will Pickvance.

Another image for the up and coming Screen Banditas event. This is of the Edinburgh musician Will Pickvance.

Zorras Red.

Another version of the Zorras image.

Zorras Unite.

I'm working on something for Screen Banditas at the moment and I'll be drawing portraits of a number of Edinburgh bands. Here's the first one, and although the final will be in black and white, I thought I'd try giving it a little colour. It's the Zorras.



The original it is based on is here.

Living In The Dark

Last year I designed the album art for a friend's band: Pheonix Street. Below is the concept I mocked up for them...



And here's what they ended up with. It's an epic image that took a lot of tweaking to get right. I was a little disappointed to see the final product in a sense, since CD cases are so bloody small! It would look amazing as a vinyl sleeve. Click on the image to see it nice and big!


The song the cover was inspired by is a really claustrophobic, mournful song, their title track. I think I managed to capture a sense of overwhelming painful memory with the piles of scrap paper, photos and trinkets. I found all the polaroids amongst my parents old photographs and had always wanted to do something with them. All these weird test images from their years of professional photography.

Photographs © Peter Ross and Margaret Drysdale 2008.
Cover art © Edward Ross, Tom Sharrock and David McRae 2008.