•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.©

•MORE PRE-DIGITAL WORK

My preferred medium of choice before pixels came along was water colour. Dr Martin's watercolour inks is a fantastic range of brilliant colours and when combined with coloured pencil work they gave me all the freedom and detail I needed to create my first greetings card commissions and posters. Airbrush always played a major role in poster work too. I employed a small variety of styles that included black and white pen work. The brush pens with the rubber tip were excellent for freehand work.

In this set of pages you'll see some of my early efforts, whilst researching and collectingwork for this anniversary blog I was amazed firstly by how much work I had saved, and secondly by just how much I'd totally forgotten ever doing!