Not my gumdrop buttons!

I became an uncle earlier this year and wanted to create something for my twin nieces nursery. It wasn't the strictest brief I've ever worked to, I think whatever looked good would have sufficed (I wasn't expecting my new born nieces to be my harshest art critics) but their mom Erin suggested a theme of favourite nursery tales which helped me zero in on an idea.
One of the first and only tales which sprung to mind (my memory is quite foggy about that period in my life, its going back a few years now) was the gingerbread man. I decided that two pictures, canvas mounted, would look better then one, and could position the gingerbread man on his own, with some of the animals which chased the poor guy on a second picture. With this being the result!

Tumblr Portfolio

I'm  using my Tumblr page to act as a portfolio until my inevitable .com website goes up. It has the same work you can find on this blog, albeit in a format which allows more immediate access to images, and features far less waffling, so its win win.

http://markusmotum.tumblr.com/

Little White Lies

LWL is a film magazine based in the UK. Every issue collaborates with a particular artist to design and illustrate that particular issue, which produces gorgeous covers and articles, making each issue far more then just a magazine reviewing the latest films. They have taken to setting one hour challenges on their Twitter and Facebook pages. Today's brief was to sketch an image inspired by the Michael J Fox classic, Teen Wolf. Here's my submission which I had to complete and submit in neck break speeds ( compared to my usual rate of working). I would've loved to have attempted Michael J Fox himself, but without a tablet, 'sketching' at speeds using a mouse is pretty tough, so I limited myself to this design to make sure it would be something I could complete on time. The basketball itself could act as space to put the films title or article header inside.

And talking of competitions, Youtube channel The Yogscast have released a video of many of the t shirt entries they received.I didn't win but my design was included in the video, which after being uploaded yesterday has recieved 327,000 views, so as consolation prizes go, its a pretty good one!

Charlie Pringle's design was one of the runner's up, meaning her t shirt has been produced and is on sale now at http://yogscast.spreadshirt.co.uk/. Look carefully and you might be able to spot her design being modelled by a rather familiar face... Fame and infamy at last!

More sketching

There is a very fine line between something looking cute and something looking terrifying, hopefully these guys tread on the right side of that line. These were my first forays into drawing stuff for a (much) younger audience.

And now for something completely different

Trying out some children's style illustration

Posters

So I managed to get 12 copies of this poster of just in time for The Dark Knight Rises release day yesterday.

The shooting in America has turned this otherwise exciting time into a tragic one, but just as Warner Brothers decided they wouldn't stop showings of their film (which was contemplated it seems) as a result of the tragedy, I still want to share these posters. They're A3 size, printed on 180gsm paper, and turned out pretty okay in the end. Now I just have to decide what to do with them!

Official graduate!

So New Blood and graduation has come and gone in a flash, both of which were great.

Gearing up for New Blood was fun, putting together my first proper portfolio and printing business cards to hand out all made me feel like a proper illustrator! Graduation felt pretty special too, besides my mortar board being way too small for my giant head (now that I've realised that, I can't un-see it in every photo) but the important thing is, I didn't trip over my gown up the stairs to collect my diploma in front of everyone. That and getting to see my fellow graduates, friends and family all in one place, all there to celebrate our degree's.

I also have my final major project back in my possession, so here are a few spreads.

  

 That's all over, so what now...