"Breakfast" for Illustration Friday

Not done Illustration Friday for ages and ages! This week's theme reminded me of this breakfast table illustration I did : no Photoshop - all acrylic paint and ink!
Hello again IF-ers!

The Singleton Years

I am attempting to sort through all the STUFF that was moved out of my studio during the great Studio Ceiling Disaster, in an attempt to chuck or save it before I move everything back in to the now lovely, crisp white room.
Anyway - got distracted as I found some old, old artwork, so I thought I'd share it!

I used to draw a cartoon for The Scotsman magazine called The Singleton (yes, very Bridget Jones). I was given free rein by the art director, Sandra Colamartino, who trusted me for some reason (despite my NEVER having written and drawn a cartoon before). She also had a very awkward little space to fill on the horoscopes page!
There are millions of these little ink drawings, all of the characters are based on friends and real life happenings. The idea was that The Singleton was a girl about town, but not as sassy as the Sex and the City lot...more jacket potato and a pint of shandy kind of character.
Date on this one - 2001...and it is number 53!!

New work for Dickson Lewis

A nice wee job came my way a few weeks ago from David Reid at Because Brands Matter, based in Edinburgh.
New start-up accountancy recruitment company, Dickson Lewis, wanted a friendlier, more funky look for their website and chose an illustration route rather than the usual "business" themed stock photos that we see too much of.

My work had been recommended to David (word of mouth works!) and he managed to persuade his client that I could provide business themed illos, but with an added edgy dash of inky digital to provide interest! I kept the colour palette limited (dark gray, blues, purples)and tightened up my drawing style just a touch* to keep the whole thing looking sharp and clean. Blocks of colour are created using the polygon lasso tool and colouring in with my favourite Photoshop custom brushes!
I like this here accountant chappy - he's meant to be 35, so I hope he looks it!

*OK then, quite a bit...

Incy Wincy Spider...

quite like this spider I did for NMS...
put the leaves in to show it wasn't a massive, big 'ol Aussie man-eater of a thing, but rather a proper little British spider.

Massive garden illustration for NMS

Now, this is a work in progress and is still being added to, tweaked and bits deleted, so if you come along to the museum for the Garden Detectives opening in June, you probably won't see this version.
This is the big 'ol illustration that will cover up to 8 metres by 2.6 metres (yes, 8 metres) of wall as you enter the Garden Detectives exhibition. I admit it has caused me problems in the making, as I am putting it together on Photoshop CS4 at a smaller scale, but superhigh resoltion (1200dpi). I was saving a version the other day and didn't Photoshop go and tell me that it didn't save files higher than 2GB? I'll not repeat what I said to Photoshop...
I can't wait to see this super-sized, as it is so inky and colourful. The designers at NMS did a test print of another big image and it looks amazing at room height, I have to say.
There are going to be a few other massive illustrations for other zones in the show, aswell as smaller images such as my toad (see previous post)
Deadline-wise I have just over a week to get it all done, so it's time for a mug of tea, a biscuit and on with iTunes (Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto, "the Emperor" to kick me off today then perhaps a bit of Leftfield)