The second best Venn Diagram ever

The best Venn Diagram ever

365 Doodles - Day 303

Doodled while on the phone. The happier face of Halloween.

The Halloween Nightmare Art Challenge! - The Results!

So, you spooky lot, this is the AMAZING pile of submissions I received for this challenge. Staggering stuff! Clicking on any of the pics will make them larger. Enjoy!

The brief, as you'll recall, was to show me your nightmares. And you did! Often it was all about what scared you as a child, like this Roald Dahl Queen Witch drawing by Chris Woodfield, the madly gurning face of Ken Dodd by Julie-Ann Maddison or the angry, sword wielding skeletons of Ian Dryland.

Slightly more traditionally scary were dreams about spiders by Phillip Groombridge, a scary scarecrow by Zoe Page, and Sarah Pannell's monster emerging from the closet ...

The newspapers can be full of nightmare too, not least this headline from Andy Kerr and the terrifying prospects for the next US president as envisaged by Iain McCulloch. And how would a tabloid break the news of our imminent death by contagion? Stephen Dray reckons he knows ...

Mo McFarland created an entire horror film with her six frame submission ...

And, had there been a poster, I'm pretty sure that Jamie Roberts would be a good person to call on to do the artwork:

Of course, some people's nightmares are REALLY weird, like this zombie Fozzie Bear by Angi Lamb or the Oliver Postgate-themed bloodbath by Claire Chambers, or the monster pink bunny menace portrayed by Brooke Sheldon or even the real horror of a Dora visitation as pictured by Nerys Watts:

Mar Dixon found horror in shop window displays while Danielle Walker found it in a make up box. And I pity poor Christine Bryant who, upon, looking in a mirror, realised she was turning into a fly:

Some really flesh-creepingly spooky stuff here now in two photos by Mark Sunner. He really should have checked out the neighbours before moving in ... zoom in and prepare to be freaked out by what you see ...

Laura Brown wasn't scared of her kitchen though she does find certain academic subjects a nightmare. Charlotte Dixon shows her affinity for pumpkins rather than cupcakes. Just don't let Sarah Hook near the cheese grater ...

Being lost and all alone can be a nightmare, as demonstrated here by Mike Harman. And the last thing you'd want to bump into would be these guys as drawn by Lisa Hunter.

The final joint submission is this movie made from most of the entries that people sent in. My good friends Steve Hills (video) and Terry Bergin (music) pulled this together in an indecently short time despite their very busy lives. Because the only window in which to do it was Sunday afternoon, some of the later last minute entries couldn't be included. But isn't it great?

I'll be contacting all who submitted very shortly to arrange to send them all a unique hand-drawn doodle to say thank you.

Next challenge in a few weeks. Why don't you get involved next time?

Oh, and Happy Halloween!!!

365 Doodles - Day 302

A little photo-collage self-portrait for Halloween tomorrow. Wooo!

Click on the pic to see a larger version if you dare ...

365 Doodles - Day 301

Here's the finished horse cartoon I started yesterday (click on image to see a larger version).

Plasticine never looked so brilliant

I cannot wait for this in 2012!



And the new full trailer:

365 Doodles - Day 300

I'm working on a cartoon for a friend at the moment and her idea was for me to do something humorous connected with horseracing. So I started doodling ...

I liked the idea of the horse refusing at a jump and sending the rider flying. I wanted the humans to come off worse. I am actually HUGELY opposed to steeplechase and events like the Grand National where a monstrous number of horses are killed every year for our entertainment. I blogged about it with some passion here. The stats are terrifying and largely unknown by the public. I imagine there would be fewer office sweepstakes if people were better informed.

Anyway, I liked the image of the rider going 'over the handlebars', as it were. And so I doodled some more:

I'm now working on the final drawing and will post it as tomorow's doodle. And today is my 300th doodle! I've broken the back of 2011 and there are just 65 more before it all ends. What a marathon it's been!

A look around Ron English's Studio

I love Ron English. He's naughty and subversive.

Ron English is a Texan artist and urban ‘popagandist’ who first made a name for himself in the 1980s by altering or substituting large-scale advertising posters with his own work. Invariably, the messages on his posters and hoardings attacked US government policy, multi-national corporations (such as Disney and McDonalds) and harmful products such as caffeine, sugar-rich children’s drinks and cigarettes. English also draws upon the icons of popular culture for his work and subverts them to get his messages across. Thus, he has painted Mickey Mouse crucified upon a mouse trap, an obese Ronald McDonald and grotesque parodies of Apple’s ‘Think different’ campaign posters substituting murderer Charles Manson and Apple nemesis Bill Gates for the usual images of people like Gandhi or Einstein.

Do visit his website here. And there's a fantastic slideshow visit to his sttudio (where these stills were grabbed from) on the always excellent ItDrewItself site.

365 Doodles - Day 299

The final illustrations for my friend Tim Weaver based on the sketches you saw a couple of days ago. He's part of a band called Fat Busted (website here) that plays weddings, pubs etc. Great fun. This is a new design for their website, T-shirts etc. Great little job to do.

365 Doodles - Day 298

Here's a little oddity I found buried under a pile of old stuff in a portfolio. It's a certificate granting the honour of Honorary Couch Potato (click on the pic to see it larger).

The calligraphy was by my good friend Chris Hale. I can't quite remember why we did it. i suspect it was a leaving gift for a colleague. I also worked up this colour version of the crest: