Monster Fact: Monster breath is terrible. Many beautiful would-be monster relationships are de-railed early on by halitosis*.
(*See also monster diets)
Showing posts with label children's illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children's illustration. Show all posts
Tuesday 22 July 2014
Monday 21 July 2014
Thursday 17 July 2014
Monster Facts #6
Monster Fact: Monsters love ice cream, but mainly when it's somebody else's ice cream.
See also monster diets
Labels:
children's illustration,
heatwave,
ice cream,
illustration,
monster,
monster facts
Monster Facts #5
Monster Fact: The dark is composed of at least 70% monsters (& at least 10% horrible creepy crawlies) - very much like the percentage of cocoa solids in posh chocolate but much SCARIER!
Labels:
children's illustration,
chocolate,
dark,
fact,
illustration,
monster,
monster facts,
monsters,
pen and ink,
shadows,
steve may
Wednesday 16 July 2014
Monster facts #3
Monster fact : Vegetarianism is EXTREMELY uncommon. Their favourite dinner is invariably YOU!
(yeah, yeah, wear the monster deflective tofu armour if it makes you feel better #futilegesture)
(yeah, yeah, wear the monster deflective tofu armour if it makes you feel better #futilegesture)
Labels:
children's illustration,
futile,
illustration,
meat,
monster,
monster facts,
monsters,
pen and ink,
steve may,
tofu,
vegetarian
The Wednesday creature
Monster fact : Bloodthirsty monsters always have Wednesdays off to catch up on laundry / e-mails etc.
Here is a candid pen & ink picture of a monster washing his smalls (the artist was nearly devoured in the process of drawing this, monsters are NOTORIOUSLY touchy - I don't make this sh*t up you know!)
Here is a candid pen & ink picture of a monster washing his smalls (the artist was nearly devoured in the process of drawing this, monsters are NOTORIOUSLY touchy - I don't make this sh*t up you know!)
Labels:
children's illustration,
creature,
fact,
illustration,
laundry,
monster,
monster facts,
pants,
pen & ink,
underpants,
Wednesday
Monday 14 July 2014
Thursday 10 July 2014
How to draw Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Me pulling some stupid faces & demonstrating some drawing stuff & nonsense
PS...this is my REAL drawing face
Monday 7 July 2014
Silly Name for a Monster!
The fact that I laughed out loud when I first received the text was definitely a good start & I thoroughly enjoyed illustrating this. It's a hilarious book with a big scary monster, some cowardly knights & a little boy called Stinkpot. Can he succeed in defeating a monster with such a silly name?
I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to wait until August 7th until it's actually released so there!
In the mean time, here's a sneak preview...
Friday 13 June 2014
Full moon tonight! Altogether now... "AAAAWWWWOOOOOOO!"
I know LOTS about werewolves but very little about astronomy but apparently...
'A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years.
But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one.'
(thank you National Geographic)
(illustration from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates)
Tuesday 20 May 2014
cat trumpet
The man in the Apple Store asked me what I was drawing.
I explained it was Tuesday morning so naturally I was drawing a cat playing a trumpet.
That seemed to satisfy everyone. : )
I explained it was Tuesday morning so naturally I was drawing a cat playing a trumpet.
That seemed to satisfy everyone. : )
Labels:
animals,
cat,
children's illustration,
illustration,
pen and ink,
sketch,
steve may,
trumpet
Wednesday 14 May 2014
Monday 12 May 2014
The Diary of Dennis the Menace - Beanotown Battle out now!
The second Diary of Dennis the Menace 'Beanotown Battle' written by Stephen Butler, illustrated by me & published by Puffin books is out now. In this one the boring Mayor has entered Beanotown in a flower comptetition, & you know what flowers attract? SOFTIES!
Dennis & Gnasher have to think of a brilliant emergency menacing plan to save Beanotown from the softy invasion! (warning some of these images may contain SPOILERS!)
In this book I got a chance to draw some of Dennis's friends who might look vaguely familiar & as with the previous book I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to reinterpret some iconic Beano characters again. Stephen Butler's writing is nicely funny & anarchic & great fun to illustrate & again a big nod to Mandy Norman the designer because the books look great!
You can order the book online but why not pop over to your nearest PROPER BOOKSHOP & buy it from there because that's a lot more fun than being hunched over a computer any day!
Dennis & Gnasher have to think of a brilliant emergency menacing plan to save Beanotown from the softy invasion! (warning some of these images may contain SPOILERS!)
In this book I got a chance to draw some of Dennis's friends who might look vaguely familiar & as with the previous book I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to reinterpret some iconic Beano characters again. Stephen Butler's writing is nicely funny & anarchic & great fun to illustrate & again a big nod to Mandy Norman the designer because the books look great!
You can order the book online but why not pop over to your nearest PROPER BOOKSHOP & buy it from there because that's a lot more fun than being hunched over a computer any day!
Monday 17 March 2014
Thursday 6 March 2014
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Friday 28 February 2014
Werewolves, killer tomatoes & mummies...
A werewolf trying to find a job, a sad tomato & a mummy wrapped in pink toilet paper from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates.
Labels:
children's books,
children's illustration,
horror,
illustration,
killer tomato,
monsters,
mummy,
sheep,
steve may,
tomato,
treetops
Tuesday 18 February 2014
Splashing into the streets
Wet night in Soho last night reminded me of the line 'The boys just dive right off the cars
And splash into the street' from Time by Tom Waits (very little relevance apart from that but it's always good to have context)
And splash into the street' from Time by Tom Waits (very little relevance apart from that but it's always good to have context)
Labels:
children's illustration,
creatures,
fishing,
illustration,
monsters,
pen and ink,
rain,
sketch,
sketchbook,
Soho,
steve may,
street,
streets,
tom waits
Thursday 6 February 2014
Diary of Dennis the Menace - available now!
Some time in early May last year I was contacted by my agent to say that Puffin were looking for someone to give a 'new illustrative approach' to Dennis the Menace for a series of books written by award winning children's author of 'The Wrong Pong' Steven Butler.
I paused from sipping a large gold flecked martini on my yacht, waved away a palm frond bearing serving girl & thought '...hmmm, draw one of my childhood heroes...HELL YEAH!'
*montage of furious scribbling, various life events, getting an invite to the Beano 75th birthday party, uplifting music etc.*
...& so, the first book, The Diary Of Dennis The Menace is published today, it's very funny, keeping the right level of mischief & chaos (you bumfaces you!) nicely designed by Mandy Norman, & the pictures ain't too shabby either.
Has been an extremely enjoyable job, I dearly wish my mum was still around so I could proudly present her with a copy.
Here's a few of the pictures (I got to draw a few other old favourites too! : )
(Puffin Books, TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)
I paused from sipping a large gold flecked martini on my yacht, waved away a palm frond bearing serving girl & thought '...hmmm, draw one of my childhood heroes...HELL YEAH!'
*montage of furious scribbling, various life events, getting an invite to the Beano 75th birthday party, uplifting music etc.*
...& so, the first book, The Diary Of Dennis The Menace is published today, it's very funny, keeping the right level of mischief & chaos (you bumfaces you!) nicely designed by Mandy Norman, & the pictures ain't too shabby either.
Has been an extremely enjoyable job, I dearly wish my mum was still around so I could proudly present her with a copy.
Here's a few of the pictures (I got to draw a few other old favourites too! : )
(Puffin Books, TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.)
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