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

Silly Name for a Monster!

I just received a copy of 'Silly Name for a Monster' by the very funny Timothy Knapman which I illustrated earlier in the year.
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...

Happy Tramp

A while back I was approached by Inbetweeners movie director Ben Palmer & Zeppotron co-founder Neil Webster who were in the process of launching Happy Tramp, a new independent production company specialising in scripted narrative comedy to design a logo which would work for print in various formats with the idea of making it move at a later stage.

Armed with only a copious amount of extra strength lager (for research purposes) I initially sketched out a few ideas... & we fairly quickly decided on the finished logo. I tried a few handwritten typefaces but we settled on trusty old Gill Sans

 After the Special Brew hangover died down a few months later I took the character & directed & animated the short clip. I sent the guys an initial animatic to which they replied -

Thanks for this. We've got a lot of notes...
1. We love it.

Why aren't ALL jobs as fun  painless as this?

You can see the clip here

Happy Tramp from Steve May on Vimeo.

LOOK! NEW ANIMATION!

I have become acutely aware that to  iPads/ iPhone users the little 'Bat Van' animation on my website homepage which has served me well over the years has been unviewable due to technology issues too dull to be spoken of here. (something to do with a hissy fit between Apple & Adobe etc. etc.)

Basically, instead of a pleasing animation loop all the Apple device based punter would see was a white space...now I like minimalism as much as the next person but...


....LOOK! NEW ANIMATION!

 I've just introduced these little rascals in preparation for a bit of an overhaul of the site in the next few months - do come in & have a look at http://www.stevemay.biz

Stranded pachyderm

Werewolf? There wolf!

One more lycanthropic image inspired by Friday 13th's full moon (which I completely failed to see due to my impossibly glamorous social life ; ) - Happy Monday!

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)

Felt tip RUMBLE!

(no made-up beasties were hurt in the making of this image)

Brave (& rather literal) bear saying 'boo' to a goose.

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. : )

Fry ups (& bad language)

Drawn waiting for an Apple 'Genius' to look at my IPhone this morning whilst pining for breakfast

It went that-a-way!

Subtitle for the hard of thinking

Bad hair day.

Monster on vacation

I spilled espresso on this I'm afraid. Am pretending it's an artistic effect. Shhhhh!

Ineffectual beastie

Chinese burn...don't do it kids

(Don't say I didn't warn you)

Skelly-cycle

Out-take from a job I did a few months back.

I usually hate drawing bicycles*

This was more fun.


(*unless I can make them up!)

Meet ze monster(s)

On Britishness... passive-aggressive tutting - a guide.

(see also 'Epidemic of tuts')

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!

Tolerance

Be nice to each other y'hear? x

Epidemic of tuts 2 - the Medusa™ comb-over

Epidemic of tuts

There's been a lot of talk about air pollution but this morning on my walk into the studio there appeared to be an epidemic of tutting in the  London air (or maybe I'm just being super-annoying today & don't realise it?)
We really should make tutting an Olympic sport. The GB team would clean up!

Scuba & orange squash bottles

...& now I'm off to learn to scuba dive for real finally so no more post for a couple of weeks

Unruly eyebrows & earwax placement

I live in fear of the day my eyebrows take on a bristley unruly life of their own but who tangles them in the night huh?

Group of critturs

Sullen rock teen

Following on from the ageing rockers in a previous post...

Dinner time (with octopus)

A particularly 'grappley' meal.

Mind that seagull!

Some experimental colouring in with beasties & cross seagulls*

*seagulls ALWAYS look cross

Old rockers never die (they just appear in more documentaries)

I love a good rockumentary, was watching various '70s survivors in varied stages of 'ageing pantomime dame mode' telling their stories on TV the other night...


'Spurious Gack Anecdote', really ought to be a name of a band

Happy World Book Day!

It's World Book Day!

Fat Tuesday!

Yay! Pancakes!

Happy birthday!

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.

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)