Commissions still open

Here's a picture of one of the commissions I did in the run-up to Christmas, of a cat called Smartie (apologies for the photo quality).

If you'd like a portrait done then get in contact -- prices listed below.

A6: £20
A5: £40
A4: £60
A3: £100
A2: £200
A1: £300

Portrait Commissions OPEN

So, you've seen my portraits of Winnie The Dog (above), and Frankenstein's Monster, and Marconi, and Sole, and Alan Moore (the little version and the big version) and you're thinking 'Wow, those are kind of neat'.

And then you realise that Christmas is coming, or it's someone's birthday, or something like that, but you don't know what to get that person.

Well, do you know what? You could ask ME to do a portrait of them! Sizes availalbe range from the very small (postcard or A6) to the frankly unfeasibly large (A1).

I'm pretty reasonably priced, too -- the cost will vary slightly on how much work I have to do to comlete, and that can be agreed on nearer the time, but here are some base prices to work from:

A6: £20
A5: £40
A4: £60
A3: £100
A2: £200
A1: £300

I'll include p&p in the price too, and probably chuck in some other stuff I've got lying around at the same time.

All I'll need is a photograph and a little bit of time and I'm good to go

Please email me at gareth@grthink.com if you're at all interested.

Frankenstein's Monster

Click on the image for a bigger version -- you can better appreciate the detail in the shadows when it's up close.

I did this for Ballad Of's Little Book Of Horrors open submission call, which has since been renamed 'Ballad Of Petra Doe'. Because of the conditions of submission I couldn't share it until it either got printed or I found out it didn't make it in... Found out last night that the latter was the case.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised, as it's not quite the sort of thing I'd expected them to include. But I'd set my sights on doing a portrait of Frankenstein's Monster (aka Adam) and this is what happened. I'm still really proud of it, and am really happy I can finally show it off. I still love Ballad Of and think it's a great site and resource, and I'll definitely try to get into the next book.

And I'm looking forward to seeing the finished Petra Doe at the Launch Party - whether I dress up for the 'wake' is still up for debate.

Portrait series - sole

Now that the Chelmsford Arts Trail is in full effect and I've got my display at Man About Town is set up (photos to come as ssoon as I find the camera cable...) I've decided to do a series of portraits of artists/people I admire. The first is sole, a rapper I've been a fan of for a long time now (about 10 years... goddamit I'm old).

I've posted my first attempt, which will probably act as a sketch and a lesson on how not to go wrong. For one, when I 'finished' it he still had he whites of his eyes, but without pupils looked a bit like a zombie. So I added pupils and any intensity in the portrait vanished. So, I filled in the whole of each eye and now it looks worse -- for one thing, there's a shape underneath the eye on the left of the frame that is eye shaped, so it looks like I've put  the eye lower down than I actually did. I'll probably do some work on the shirt, hair and beard next time too.

Anyway, thought I'd share. It's kind of what this blog's for, right?

Newstuff July2010

It's been a very long time since I last posted anything, and it feels like I've got a lot to update...

I've done some more illustrations for Amelia's Magazine, the best of which is one of Seasick Steve, above. I don't know why I did him in green, but I think it looks cool.

I've also sent a picture of John Stonehouse to Magpie Markets as part of Cut-Click's travelling mailart show. It took me ages, and I loved it, but for some unknown reason I didn't scan it, just took the crappy photo presented below. I'm hoping to do a lot more of these in the future.

Oh, aand in very exiting news, Cut-Click's first printed issue is on sale here: http://cutclick.bigcartel.com/ and it's AWESOME. Really.

I've contributed a panel to Abstract Comics's ABCOLAB2 project, which didn't take very long but was very fun to do:


Aaaaaaand I've posted three new pages to The Intercorstal!

Cut-Click Printed Issue

Back in March I posted about having been invited to contribute to Cut-click's first printed issue. I had some of the postcards from St James Infirmary (still to be finished) featured back in Cut-Click 17, also.

Well, today I got an email from Caroline at Cut-Click with a copy of the proof for the printed issue attached, and I'm very exited. I'd submitted two portraits, one based on a photo of me and one based on a photo of my son Bill, and they went for the one based on me. I've posted my portrait of Bill here, right there, at the top of the page. I'll wait for the printed issue to come out before I post the other one.

Both portraits were a combination of my usual swirly detail style, but using faces as frames to work on rather than geometric patterns. I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and rate tham among the best stuff I've done. They took ages which is why I've dodged doing any more of them since...

Once it's printed and I've got a copy and it's available elsewhere I'll post again to remind everyone... for now, here's what to look for when you're out in the world (cover by Tigzy Rice)

Sketches for Cut-Click

I was asked earlier this month to provide an unpublished artwork for Cut-Click's first printed issue, and jumped at the chance. The brief was pretty open... A6 and portrait, which I misread as 'a portrait, A6 sized'. I did two portraits in the end, one of them a self portrait and one of my son Bill, and have sumitted them both, so I won't post either until the issue's out (if I've been accepted). However, before I settled on doing portraits of myself and Bill in the style that I did, I did a series of quick sketches to generate ideas... and here they are. I like some of these, they might crop up elsewhere.