Wednesday 20 September 2017

Game Of Thrones & Secret Illustration Process



It's been a fair few weeks since we waved goodbye to season seven of Game of Thrones on tv; but I wanted to finally share my Thrones-inspired illustrations with you, and give you a peek at my process!



Working pretty neatly within the 'Ice and Fire' framework, I decided to illustrate Jon Snow, and the 'Mother of Dragons' herself, Daenerys Targaryen - what a, um, pair! So, as a little heads-up, these are inspired by the Game of Thrones characters, not direct portraits, so yes, there's a bit of artistic license here!



These were both illustrated using a combination of watercolour and digital illustration, which is my favourite way to work at the moment! For the first time ever, I created a video showing my entire process (from digital sketches, to traditional painting, then back to digital!) for my Daenerys illustration, and you can watch it here! Sneak a peek :)



Both the Daenerys illustration and Jon Snow print are available in my etsy shop at the moment, and you can pick them up at Thought Bubble comic festival this weekend! Woop!


Thursday 14 September 2017

London Film & Comic Con 2017


With only a few weeks to go until Thought Bubble Comic Festival, I thought it was high time I give you a round-up of London Film and Comic Con!

So despite a growing list of comic festivals under my belt, LFCC was my very first London / three-day convention. So I arrived at the con with some seriously late nights of preparation, some analytics studying, a tum full of butterflies, and a whole batch of freshly printed comics!


It was SO much fun getting to know the other comics guests, they are seriously some of the most lovely and talented people I could have hoped to meet - Aneke, Guillermo Ortego, Emma Vieceli, Will Simpson, Lew Stringer, Ben Templesmith and my #1 table neighbour Dani Strips just to name a few! ❤



The convention was heeeeaving with celebrities and fans stampeding to meet them - which made everything quite surreal! I'll admit I had one or two squeako moments being in a lift with Benedict Cumberbatch; having my portrait of Mads Mikkelsen handed to him; and getting helped off the coach by John Rhys-Davies (Gimli!), who happens to be, almost officially, the nicest person in the entire universe.

As well as selling all kinds of prints, comics, books and original art on my table; I also spoke on a panel discussing 'Creating worlds for children'. The speaker line-up was stuffed with talent from the children's comic and publishing worlds! We chatted in front of an audience on everything from digital media vs print, what we enjoy most about working for a younger audience, to how we develop our ideas! It was great to discuss so many of the key issues in the children's illustration industry right now, especially given the breadth of perspectives the panel formed, and the insightful questions from the audience!


The festival comic zone was put together by the brilliant Tony Lee, and it was great fun to sneakily illustrate this family portrait (above, centre) he'd asked me to draw as a present for his wife! Live portraits and commissions have always been one of my favourite things about festivals, it's always so great to see the reactions people have when they see the finished pieces!



The festival was an exhausting but fantastic three days - I felt so welcomed by the other guests, and so looked after by the festival team! They were all absolutely incredible, and I came away completely brimming with inspiration and ideas. Roll on Thought Bubble, the convention bug has seriously grabbed me again!