Well, we're in the last days of 2007, we hope you've had a good year. 2007 was great for Cool Surface, the work came in thick and fast, we got loads of new clients, Sarah joined the art team full time, we completely refitted our office, got a Cintiq, and in between the intensive workload, still managed to find the time to get married!
With the 1st of our five books for Kingfisher/Macmillan out in the next few months, art in an Ilex Press anthology and lots more magazine work, we're already looking forward to what the Cool Surface team will be bringing you in 2008!
Hope you all get what you want for Christmas, we'll see you back here in the New Year!
Have fun,
David
Apologies for not posting much recently, Sarah and I have almost finished our first book for Kingfisher/Macmillan, so that's taking up most of our time. I finally invested in a Cintiq the other day, I was really hoping that I could improve my workflow by pencilling straight into Photoshop, but was concerned that it may take some practice. I needn't have worried, drawing on it is a dream! This was my first test sketch which I thought I'd share with you...
The latest issue of Digital Arts is out and features a tutorial on how I made this image, plus how to lay art out for your own badges! Take a look at the background for all of the monkey themed jokes...
Something quick I knocked up for Love to Post.co.uk. Markers on Postcard.
This illustration can be found accompanying the "2nd Opinion" column in Computer Arts (issue #140 on sale now). The article was called "the top 10 fun things to draw" which were: 1. Robots 2. Monkeys 3. Female Figures 4. Skulls/Skeletons 5. Monsters/mutants 6. the paranormal (eg aliens, angels demons) 7. Surrealism 8. Dogs 9. Human heads/faces 10. Birds
My favourite part was where they called me a "long-time friend of Computer Arts"! Cheers guys!
This is one of my submissions for the upcoming book from Ilex press called "Erotic Fantasy Art" by the excellent artists Jonny Duddle and Aly Fell. This is "The Djinn"...
Apologies for not updating for a while, I had loads of work to do before getting married to the lovely Sarah and jetting off on honeymoon!
Speaking of jetting off ...(you've missed my seamless segue's haven't you?) this is my latest piece of work to appear as a tutorial in Digital Arts magazine, out in shops as we speak, so go pick up a copy! You can also view the tutorial on their website here!
Have fun,
David
This image just won a public voting competition for Advanced Photoshop magazine! Expect to see it printed in issue 33...Thanks to everyone who voted for me!
Computer Arts recently held a competition to design their cover, perhaps you can guess who won by the oh-so-subtle header to this post?
Another typical Saturday night in Swindon...
I managed to edit the blog template to have the gallery permanently embedded in the right hand frame. The things I do for you...
Thunderbolt George here is my entry to Computer Arts "design your own original game character" competition. As far as I know, there has never been a game featuring a flying rat in an old pilot's jacket, so that's pretty original right?
PS, do you like the new gallery viewer I've added to the blog?
I've been meaning to post this image for a while now, but kept making small changes to it. I've finally decided to call it a day on the image so can finally post it here, hope you all like it.
Something more painterly...odds are at least one person is going to get sea sick!
Thought I'd share a warm-up sketch of a quasi-futuristic mechanic with you seeing as I won't be able to show you what I'm working on until October!!! (How many of you thought of Austin Powers when they read "quasi-futuristic"?) Comments,as always, are welcome.
ImagineFX magazine ran a competition recently to draw the editor in a comic style (there's going to be a special on comic art soon) so this was my very comic themed entry.
The guys at Swin City liked the images I did of them so much that they wanted a comic themed poster using the artwork, so here it is. You'll recognise the girl in the box as the character I designed for the shop a while back. She's actually been made into a 5" standup model!
For those of you that don't know (shame on you!), a Korok is a little guy from the excellent "Zelda: The Wind Waker"
game that my fiance loves, so I drew one for her birthday.
Two pieces that are a bit different from what you are used to here. First off is the new Frequency Magazine launch issue cover, featuring my lovely fiance. It's a bit more graphic design inspired than my usual work, but it's still got some of my lines and an attractive woman in it, so maybe it's not that different after all!
Secondly, I've been trying out some custom brushes in Photoshop recommended to me by my good friend Tom Scholes. It looks like living in the countryside is starting to influence me!
Digit magazine (IDG Publishing) now joins the likes of Computer Arts: Projects, ImagineFX and Advanced Photoshop by including my work this month. Go take a look.
Happy New Year! Hope that you're not suffering too badly if you were out last night. I haven't updated any sketches here for a while, so thought I'd share these with you. Hope you like 'em!
