Images of Undiluted Love

Latest illustrations for my friends at New Scientist. This time illustrating an intriguing short story by Joanna Kavenna titled Images of Undiluted Love. Quite aptly Chritmassy don't you think? no? … well it's got snow!

Bye for now x

Never Blinks

I have started an inspiration blog over at tumblr called Never Blinks. Please check it out, the talent I am finding is humbling and will either make me give up or strive like a man possessed to get better. It certainly makes me want to get that canvas that is lurking in the corner of my studio up on an easel but don't expect me to show the results of that anytime soon!

Bye for now x

Slip

A return to my photography at last. I have been mainly concerned with my illustration and  more painterly work over the last couple of years and whilst I have tackled a few commissions photographically I have not produced any personal work for a good while.

This is essentially a piece I did to practice for a slightly more complex image I have planned.

Model is Sarah ♥

More soon x

Hollow

After illustrating The Owl Service I am very happy to say the Folio Society returned and asked me to illustrate a short story for their magazine. I think I may have mentioned before but I love illustrating short stories and this was no exception. It was a dark, grim and gritty tale called Hollow by the author Breece D J Pancake. Here are two illustrations from the series of double page spreads I created.

I like characters in stories that I essentially dislike, loathe even but whom I can perhaps feel for at the same time, perhaps even understand why they are as they are however abhorrent that is to me. The Bunny Munros, (as in The Death of), Eucrid (And the Ass Saw the Angel), Frank (The Wasp Factory) Hollows Buddy is similar. I will be reading more of the late Breece Pancake for sure.

New Scientist - Bloody Mary illusion

Two illustrations for this weeks New Scientist. A suitably creepy halloweenesque piece on research into the eerie visions that can occur when staring into a mirror.

'So professor, we just popped round to see how your research was going? what have you been up to over the last few months? you've been what? you had some people over to stare in a mirror until they saw scary faces? I see. Why has all of your litmus paper got smiley faces on?'

I am being silly! The experiments in fact have some fascinating results confirming the perception of faces (even our own) is not a stable thing shedding light on the volatile process of self identity and even having use in the treatment of post traumatic stress and schizophrenia.

The Owl Service 2

 

Here are five of the interior illustrations I produced for the Folio Society edition of The Owl Service, there were 8 in all including the frontis piece. They are best viewed in situ though, in the book, Folio books are just such beautiful objects!

Vapours

Sometime in my murky past I read a book called Automated Alice by Jeff Noon, it is testament to the Author to say I thoroughly enjoyed it because I have been known to be rather fierce in my opinions of Alice in wonderland / through the looking glass adaptations and sequels. I am quite protective of those books, they are amongst my most loved stories.

So I was delighted when Arc magazine asked me to illustrate a short story called Vapours by Jeff Noon for the forthcoming Arc 2.1. It was a good one too! it's not often I get to illustrate a naked purple lady but I am always happy when I do.

The Owl Service 1

Late last year I was commissioned to illustrate a book for the Folio Society. I am a fan of the their beautiful publications they have produced some wonderful editions with some wonderful illustrators so while fifteen years in illustration have helped me in confidence I can't deny I was a little nervous when an e-mail dropped into my inbox titled 'Folio Society job for you'.

The process of producing a Folio book is unlike any other publishing work I have done but thanks to my Art Director and Editor it turned out to be a thoroughly pleasurable experience, they worked with the lightest of touches and I really felt I had room to interpret the book in my own way. While in recent years I have found the Art Directors I work with leave me to my own devices to interpret briefs as I wish this is still unusual for me in book publishing so I was delighted at the amount of freedom I had, just the appropriate nudge from time to time.

The book I was asked to illustrate was The Owl Service by Alan Garner. It was not a book I was familiar with but after a day reading it I knew Folio were also adept at placing the right story with the right artist. It was very much my 'thing' dark, surreal but landed in the everyday. Perfect!

Mr Garner I hope I did your strange tale justice.

I have posted the cover and the frontis piece here. The cover in particular took me away from my usual approach, I wanted to take advantage of the block print and was limited to two colours and the cover material. This turned out to be a really nice limitation, I chose to drop any photographic elements for this and hand draw the whole thing as I felt it would work well with the flora and give me control over the thickness of the lines which was important.

I will post some of the interior illustrations soon!

Bye for now x

Museum of Childhood

What happens when your art director is 8 years old? you get a brief with a purple mutant turtle and find yourself immediately out of your cozy little comfort zone that's what.

In celebration of their 30th birthday my agent Central Illustration are holding an event at the V&A Museum of Childhood and have handed out briefs written by children to more than 30 of their artists.

Here's a tiny preview of my mutant turtle to see the full A3 image along with all of the others pop along to the V&A this Saturday where as well as the pre briefed works 12 artists will be drawing live!

Find out more here

Tending

Bit of an absence from blogging but you can stop worrying I am back now, I was off on holiday and then straight into a commission for Arc magazine, I will post the results when the mag is published. In the meantime here's a personal illustration. It does not belong on any series, just an image that had been floating around my head which gave me a chance to experiment with introducing some ink and Chinese brush work into the mix.

More soon! bye for now x

Slurry

This is the fifth in the series. It is titled 'Slurry' which accompanies a very short poem by the same name.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I may leave this lot for a while as I intend on developing my landscape series, it is my longest running series and I have not done much with it for a while and, well, I feel like I need to get out of the studio a bit. That said, I was rooting through my notebook and came across a short poem that I wrote a couple of years ago that will lend itself well to the series I have been working on so there may be a sixth before I let this lot rest for a while, it will be returned to when I have produced some more writings to illustrate which as I said is a slow business for me!

I will post these with their texts, poems and flash fictions ... when I am feeling brave enough!

Bye for now x

Lethe

There has been a lot of personal work on my blog of late so here's a commissioned illustration, a book cover for Lethe press. Actually there is lots of commissioned work going on but it is all rather secret so I can't post it just yet.

Bye for now x

About Time

The passing of time (and all of its hideous crimes?) is a regular undercurrent in my personal work, literally in a recent piece if you look closely. it is a strange substance that flows faster the more it goes by, seems more finite the more you notice it.

42! where did all that time go? I preferred those figures vice versa but still, with age comes wisdom and I have attained a certain dignified maturity, erm? No ... no I haven't ; )

Bye for now x

So far ...

Well, here's the series so far. Ego, Flood, Stretch, Jam. There is another in progress 'Slurry' and then I think I am going to leave this lot for a while. I only write occasionally so generating the texts that these accompany is slow, besides I have a few other things I want to give some attention to, the afore mentioned photographic pieces and also I have been thinking about getting back so some very early ideas to do with landscape and geometry and how I might bring some of my landscapes together with my painting and drawing. Quite besides the commissioned illustration work! so little time.

Bye for now x

stretch

Latest in the series of images inspired by my writing. This one is accompanied by a very short musing I penned last year. Probably around this time last year, I can see a lake and three ponds from my studio window. Spring is a beautiful time, an eruption of life but there is also so much death.

'I hope your few days stretched out like sunny months to you'

was the line of text that resulted in this image. 

The egg like shape which fits neatly into the birth / life / death cycle was actually accidental in that I have had a nice oval antique wooden frame knocking around the studio which I wanted to use.


60 x 50 cm

19.7 x 23.6"

Bye for now x

Jam

I recently finished this piece which accompanies a piece of flash fiction I wrote a while back entitled Jam.

Mixed media.

11.7 x 14.9 "

More soon! bye for now x

@DarrenHopes

I have joined the flock of twitterers

https://twitter.com/darrenhopes

If my waffle here leaves you wanting then you can read more there!

Bye for now x

New Scientist - The Self

New Year, new job for New Scientist.

Not satisfied with making me question the nature of reality the guys at New Scientist are now asking does 'the Self' really exist as we think it does? lovely, I probably am not what I think I am in a universe that probably does not exist in the way I think it does, a universe that, I might tell you, could pop out of existence in favour of another one so I read.

I have done myself no favours by recently reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. Before I had a massive identity crisis I managed to create three illustrations for the magazine so here they are.

Right! I'm off to put my cat in a box.

Bye for now x

Telegraph - Cyber Stalker

Great start to the new year. Aside the longer job I am working on two new commissions form two of my favourite regulars, the Telegraph and New Scientist.

Three illustrations for the Telegraph to accompany an article about the poet and writer James Lasdun and his experience with a cyber stalker. In the article he discusses how his stalker set about destroying his reputation which he describes in his book Give Me Everything You Have.

Here's the main illustration which was a double page spread.

I will post the New Scientist pics soon.

Bye for now

AOI and Miroir Magazine

Happy New Year!

Still busy working on the project I mentioned a couple of posts back so no new work at the moment. Tweaking website and generally getting stuff sorted for this year.

In the meantime here are a couple of links to an interview at the AOI and a magazine feature that happened towards the end of 2012.

AOI Feature is here

and

Miroir magazine is here. Some of my slightly older photographic work. It is available in print and digital, if you can tear your gaze away from the beautiful Mark Ryden paintings my stuff is in the later pages.