•GAMES

I really enjoy illustrating and designing children's games. 

I've clocked up quite a few now including Battle Decks, Hotel Las Vegas, Feeding Froggies, Tumblin Monkeys, Quackshots, Splobs, Tumba, Pizza Topple, Hook a Fish, Pig Tails, Turtle Shells, Discovery Garden, Battle Tops, Monkeying Around, Wiggle Giggle Caterpillar, Wok n Roll, Honey Bee Tree, Musical Melody MAker, Walk the Dog, Ghost Tops, Frog Tennis, Pop up Pirate Treasure Island, Pop up Pirate, Pop up Pirate Electronic, Rumble in the Jungle.

•ADVERTISING

I was ready to leave school at 16 when I discovered that the navy wasn't such a great option and that there was something called 'Art School" where I could go to and develop my artistic talents.

Having studied at the school where the classic Kes was born (Barry Hines taught there) getting good career advice was paramount.

But before making my decision to go to Art School I had written to around a dozen or so advertising agencies in the Sheffield and Leeds area asking for a job because "I liked to draw".

Most replied, remarkably enough, and all recommended further studies before embarking on a career in advertising.

Good advice and most satisfying to have actually illustrated for some of the longer standing agencies that were still around after I graduated in the '80's.

I've worked for local companies, national big names and international giants, and still do of course.

The Nationwide posters depicted here were from this summer (2010).

Please feel free to click on any image to enlarge but remember all are strictly copyright.©

•PRE DIGITAL

QUEEN POSTER. 1979

This is the first illustration I ever sold. I started it during the summer months of 1979 whilst still in my final year at Liverpool.

I watched Wimbledon on TV as I painted and airbrushed this piece from photographs I'd taken myself when we saw Queen live at the Empire in Liverpool the year before.

I travelled to London to meet Peter Small and Mal Burns of Communication Vectors. (what a name) and they paid me in cash - £160 for this and for a Pink Floyd poster too.

I travelled back to Liverpool with a pocket full of tenners, the promise of a printed poster and a huge, satisfied grin.

They also commissioned 2 more posters/bands for Visions of Rock (Proteus Books) and my Police and Yes posters were the first book work that I had published.

Please feel free to click on any image to enlarge but remember all are strictly copyright.©

•BARNSLEY BEER

Can you imagine anything better than being asked by a brewery in the town where you live, to create a whole new brand for them?

Then illustrate all the labels and pump clips plus marketing and publicity!

And it's happened to me twice!

The Barnsley Beer company liked what I'd done for Wentworth but wanted a totally Barnsley sound to the names of the beers.

Hence COIL OIL which I'm proud to say was one of mine.

I don't suppose anyone outside the S70 postcode has a clue what it means, suffice to say, it's where a miner's allowance of the black stuff was stored, usually in a bunker outside or in a cellar or shed.

The strapline to Barnsley Blonde is, as Billy Casper would have said, a little belter. "Who wa she wi? She wa we er sen".

We are actually recruiting for a new batch of names so please feel free to assure me someone is reading all this by getting in touch with some suggestions.

Please feel free to click on any image to enlarge but remember all are strictly copyright.©

•CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Generally I'm not hugely superstitious but when it comes to children's picture books I so desperately want to get one published that merely writing about the fact that so far I've failed - might jinx my prospects in the future, touch wood.

I love picture books, they are a perfect art form. A stage on which one can create and enact a film script and story within 32 magical pages that can entrance and transport a child, of any age, to totally new worlds and experiences. Or, help explain and present common experiences in such a way that they are enlightened, satisfied, wiser, entertained and moved.

I have reviewed children's books for local papers, I have collected picture books. I have been the 'artist' present at various children's book events and have illustrated many educational books.

To date I have worked on a good dozen or so educational titles and illustrated other non-fiction books but I'm still chasing that elusive 'holy grail' of the self-written and illustrated picture book title.

In 2008 I illustrated 52 small hardback ABC and Counting picture books, each with four pages of artwork. In 2009 I illustrated a charming froggy love story - Ga Gunk for an American writer and also started work on Wally Woppapotamus for Helen Bonney. The collaboration with Helen has lasted right through to the present and only this morning I was working on the final pictures for Wally's 2nd book.

However, the latest of my very own stories, featuring the greedy frog BUG BELLY, has yet to be taken up by a publisher. Lots of good things have been said about him over the last 12 months and he got as far as the next stage editorial meeting at Random House, but success still eludes me.

As a member of British SCBWI - Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, I have learned a tremendous amount about the business and I'm determined to succeed, it's one of my main ambitions in life.

Please feel free to click on any image to enlarge but remember all are strictly copyright.©

•PACKAGE AND PRODUCT

I suppose that the bulk of my work over the last 15 years or so has been illustrating food to go on packs, or designing the packs themselves.

Supermarkets place tons of work with design agencies and design agencies often don't employ enough in-house artists to carry out the demand of work.

I've also found myself being pushed into a narrower gap of being a 'photorealistic' illustrator of food and agencies certainly don't have many of them on their books, so luckily they turn to the likes of me.

Every couple of yers the same range of children's cereals is re-designed and freshened up to compete with other supermarkets and the big branded products so there is a constant supply of work.

Trouble often is that it's wanted so quickly that it's impossible to accept any other jobs whilst rushing flat out to turn round 24 cereal packs in 2 weeks or 50 medication boxes in 10 days.

I remember being terrified when I got the job to illustrate 36 packs of bulbs for Asda. Glass and reflections were something that I'd not quite cracked at that time but having collected just about every pack I could lay my hands on, taken 100's of photographs of bulbs and bottles I realised that it wasn't as difficult as I'd first imagined. In fact glass is quite simple to illustrate, so long as you don't make it too complicated.

My accountant usually has a wry smile when filing my expenses as there's always chocolate samples, beer samples, fruit, trifle, cakes, juices, toilet rolls etc etc, all legitimate purchases for photographic reference.

Please feel free to click on any image to enlarge but remember all are strictly copyright.©