More people

...is so bracing

Dreaming of the seaside - my drenched Soho homage to John Hassall's famous Skegness design

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)

More (late) valentines beasties

Some valentines based beasties drawn on a wet Valentines Friday afternoon

Happy V*lentines!

Celebrating (monster) diversity

Reward - a diamond dog

I always like to promise a nice reward to anyone who returns a lost sketchbook*

* the 'gold helicopter' I promised in another book hasn't tempted anyone to return my lost sketchbook from the summer last year : (

Cross robot/lizard hybrid

Today...so far...

Ruminations on the interweb...

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.)

Gloombrella

Today was one of those days.

Pensive monkey

I dreamed about lots of brilliant monkeys last night but was too slow to photograph them in the dream. I feel a bit sad about this today

I've just received my copies of Diary Of Dennis the Menace!

Very excited to have just received my copies of The Diary of Dennis The Menace written by the very funny Steven Butler , drawn by me & published by Puffin books. They look superb, congrats to Mandy Norman for a lovely design job - it's published on 6th February so I shouldn't really give you a peek but I'm very excited...this is how I feel... DING! DONG!* : )

*If you're a fan club member you'll KNOW what this means!

Cyber Streetwise campaign

Here are a few of the posters I created for the government's Cyber Streetwise campaign.
Commissioned by the agency, M&C Saatchi, with Picasso Pictures I  created illustrations for the interactive website, print and poster Cyber Streetwise campaign &  I also designed & directed 6 short animated clips showing how people take risks with web security that they would never take in the real world. The work was written by Matt Beaumont and art directed by Phil Reedy & my producer was the brilliantly unflappable Melissa Venet at Picasso Pictures. 

Cyber Street Wise posters

I was recently commissioned by M&C Saatchi to design 6 posters & direct 6 short animated spots for the government's Cyber Street Wise campaign through Picasso Pictures. The posters seem to have taken over the London Underground (& a fair bit of overground too!) Here's a few examples that have been photographed by several of my spies around London to be going on with - more soon...watch this space...

Diary of Dennis the Menace...coming very soon!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace is out on the 6th February published by Puffin books - the very clever Steven Butler (@sbutlerbooks) done the writing stuff & I done all the pictures - save up your pocket money kids!

Chicken Hat

Quasi-religious bird based titfer... every home should have one

Dogs & demons

More over Christmas sketchbooks, I bought a new fountain pen after forgetting my usual one, it's made me go all cross-hatch-y!

Arrrgh!

Sketchbook pages from over Christmas - psychoanalyse that!

Advent of Unwanted Gifts #24 (slight return)

Superfluous smellies. (& you wanted a f***ing iPad™)

Why not collect the series of Unwanted Gifts?

But remember, just be nice to each other & give the rampant consumerism a miss huh?

Merry Christmas! x

Diary of Dennis the Menace in The Bookseller

Fame at last!* Article in The Bookseller about Diary of Dennis the Menace by Stephen Butler, & illustrated by me - out in February!

(* not strictly true, I won a tenner for a drawing of Judge Dredd in the 1982 Judge Dredd annual too & I've been on the telly!)

Halloween garage band!

Happy Halloween!

My monster from The Big Draw at the Discover Story Centre

Had a great time at the Big Draw event at the Discover Story Centre yesterday, organised by my agents Arena Illustration & thoroughly enjoyed watching other people draw for a change!
Jonny Duddle, Adam Stower & Thomas Flintham all did a fine job & was great to meet author Timothy Knapman who I'm going to be working with on a new book for Scholastic.
(I drew a monster too)

I didn't win a prize. Upstaged by 7 year olds! ; )

Confronting the imaginary fear beast

(he IS imaginary...isn't he?)

'deceived by his monkeys'

I was rather entranced by a quote on Radio 4's In Our Time this morning (or, 'The-Melvyn-Bragg-Clever-Programme' as I like to refer to it, because it always makes me feel at least 33% cleverer by proxy after listening!) referring to Galen*, the Roman physician and medical theorist as being 'deceived by his monkeys' 

*nope, no Roddy McDowell references you ignoramus!

Striped crittur

Striped crittur in slight wardrobe malfunction

Beware giant hogweed!

Walking by the River Tees in Yarm (which is a wonderful name for a town!) I saw a sign warning about the dangers of giant hogweed.

Apparently the reality is slightly less 'hoggy'

Laughing rat

Anyone else find the idea of rats laughing when they play on this morning's Life Scientific on Radio 4 rather enchanting?

Tap-headed villain

Looks like a rum type if you ask me...

(& smoking ain't cool kids)

Rude monster

"when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad" - this reposte usually works!

Big monkeys for The Economist

I've put my 'extremely knowledgeable about financial stuff' hat on & drawn some big monkeys for this weeks edition of The Economist - to read the proper article without any of my nonsense go here

Scary yeti!

Does what it says on the tin...

Vehicular mayhem!

I've had some stupid fun creating these hybrid modular vehicle prototypes for a game project with the lovely people at Mudlark enabling you to mix & match components / drivers etc.  & design your vehicle of choice.

Don't try this at home kids...

It has been scientifically proven* that Y-fronts are the undergarments of greatest comedy value. Q.E.D.

*look it up, do I have to do ALL the work?

The Diary of Dennis the Menace

Very excited to say that I've been let loose & allowed to get messy with one of my favourite comic characters! I've been extremely thrilled to be illustrating the covers & insides of this new series of Dennis the Menace books written by the very charming Steven Butler - here's the first cover.
Very pleased to announce that Dennis is at his menacing softy-baiting best!

You can pre-order a copy here or else go & buy it from a PROPER bookshop which is a far more edifying & enjoyable experience, you might meet somebody nice or find another book that you'd have never seen otherwise!

Long yetis & short yetis...

I've been colouring in yetis on holiday, who knows what yetis look like anyway?