this seemed appropriate today (again!) but you can't have too much Tom Waits can ya?
'When it gets too hot for comfort
And you can't get an ice cream cone
T'ain't no sin to take off your skin
And dance around your bones'
Tom Waits
Friday 10 August 2012
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Cartoon Kid book 4 - Emergency!
Jungle whales |
Tiger / kangaroo cake fight |
Cow wars! |
Disgruntled fairies |
Hungry chameleons! |
School catering... |
The new Cartoon Kid book by Jeremy Strong which I illustrated has just been published by Puffin. You get pictures of vampires, cows, fairies, unlikely whales, arguing tigers & kangaroos & more! How can you resist?
I'd humbly suggest you employ shanks' pony & purchase it from your local independent bookshop or else be a lazy a*** & get it off the interweb
Labels:
Cartoon Kid,
children's books,
children's illustration,
cow,
fairies,
Jeremy Strong,
jungle,
kangaroo,
publishing,
Puffin,
steve may,
tigers,
vampires,
whale
Friday 3 August 2012
bird hat
These are going to be EVERYWHERE in 'London'strendyDalston'™ by about next week - you saw them here first kids!
Labels:
bird,
Dalston,
East London,
hats,
hipster,
London,
sketchbook
Gold medals for Story Lab!
We got there first with the old gold medal malarkey with the kids (& cat) in Story Lab for the Summer Reading Challenge! Yay!
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Olympic facts #3
Seeing as we just got our first gold in rowing I thought it'd be pertinent to mention how swimming & rowing were intertwined in the 1900 Paris Olympics where the swimming events took place in the river Seine including an obstacle race which swimmers had to clamber over & under rowing boats(!)
(& don't get me started on ducks!)
(& don't get me started on ducks!)
Labels:
1900,
ducks,
fish,
gold medal,
illustration,
London 2012,
moustache,
olympics,
Paris,
rowing,
swimmer,
swimming
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Olympic Facts #2
Ok, we just got a silver medal in equestrian thingies - as I remember showjumping was on the telly ALL OF THE TIME* in the early / mid seventies - FACT!
*Apart from when the creepy test card girl was on
*Apart from when the creepy test card girl was on
Labels:
1970s,
2012,
animals,
equestrian,
horses,
London 2012,
olympics,
silver medal,
sport,
television
Olympic facts #1
At
the 1900 Paris Olympics they used live pigeons for the shooting event. 300 birds were
released and Leon de Lunden won gold when he shot 21 of them.
(surely London 2012 definitely missed a trick here - certainly give old Nelson a break?)
(from Fitter, Faster, Funnier Olympics: Everything You Wanted to Know About The Olympics But Were Too Afraid to Ask - by Micheal Cox, A & C Black Publishers Ltd)
(surely London 2012 definitely missed a trick here - certainly give old Nelson a break?)
(from Fitter, Faster, Funnier Olympics: Everything You Wanted to Know About The Olympics But Were Too Afraid to Ask - by Micheal Cox, A & C Black Publishers Ltd)
Monday 30 July 2012
KAPOW! FREE Superheroes in Newham!
Get your capes on! If you're a Newham resident you get FREE entrance to the Discover Children's Story Centre until Sunday 12 August - including the Superheroes exhibition I illustrated & designed for! How good is that?
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Olympics for TFL
Breaking all the health & safety rules known to man for TFL's in-house (station?) magazine (now will you PLEASE stop those annoying Boris announcements on the buses?!?)
Labels:
2012,
black cab,
boat,
bus,
equestrian,
gymnastics,
horse,
illustration,
London,
olympics,
pole-vault,
routemaster,
sport,
taxi,
Thames Clipper,
trains,
Transport for London,
tube,
underground
The Summer Reading Challenge - Story Lab
Here's some more of the Story Lab artwork I produced for the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge which launched across UK children's libraries on July 14th 2012 - (click to enlarge as usual - there's lots of little details on this one!)
Monday 16 July 2012
The Summer Reading Challenge
I spent a couple of months at the beginning of the year creating all the characters & scenarios for print and online illustrations and animations for this year’s Summer Reading Challenge – STORY LAB – for The Reading Agency, whose aim is to to get kids reading books.
The Campaign, launched on 14th July has wide press and TV coverage and is featured in UK libraries this summer encouraging kids to read 6 books over the summer holidays.
Here's a few pieces from the campaign
The Economist - Eclipse of the PLC
Ruminations on the difficulties of the public limited company for The Economist magazine (I know, I just draw the pictures. my old man was an Economics lecturer though, does that count?)
Tuesday 3 July 2012
Cartoon Kid is July's poster boy!
I'm July's poster boy for my agent Arena Illustration's calendar - illustration was commissioned by The Times for their Campaign For Fun which searches for the most fun school in Britain*. It features characters from Cartoon Kid, the series by Jeremy Strong,
published by Puffin Books which I'm about to begin illustrating the 5th in the series - yay!
* It definitely wasn't the one I went to.
* It definitely wasn't the one I went to.
Friday 22 June 2012
Cerberus the hound of hell (or a hell of a hound)
I had the delight last week of seeing some very talented kids at the Discover Childrens Story Centre drawing their versions of Cerberus after some superhero / Greek mythology related drawing workshop shenanigans. Have been pondering the disadvantages of owning a three headed dog since then... imagine the food bills : (
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Cat with balloon
Labels:
animals,
balloon,
cat,
children's illustration,
party,
pen and ink,
sketch,
sketchbook
Monday 18 June 2012
Wednesday 6 June 2012
'insert war here'
Labels:
animals,
balloon,
illustration,
monsters,
sketchbook,
steve may,
war,
wheels
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Not so smug™ now huh? (interesting fridge)
Was deliberating about how to make a a drawing of a fridge interesting & seemed appropriate on a day like this
Friday 25 May 2012
Glass half-full
Labels:
animals,
booze,
character design,
glass,
monsters,
sketch,
sketchbook,
teeth,
wine
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Butcher's Dogs
'When it gets too hot for comfort
And you can't get an ice cream cone
T'ain't no sin to take off your skin
And dance around your bones'
Tom Waits
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Troll pic-nic
Had completely forgotten drawing this & stumbled across it this morning - it was part of a story that I never finished writing a few years back...maybe I should finish it, watch this space...
Labels:
animals,
children's books,
children's illustration,
dogs,
island,
monsters,
pic-nic,
troll
Monday 21 May 2012
Aminals...
Labels:
aminals,
animals,
illustration,
ink,
monsters,
Pen,
sketch,
sketchbook,
steve may
Murder & Chips
I just received copies of the new Micheal Lawrence Jiggy McCue book Murder & Chips which I drew the front & back cover artwork for - (very pleased that they let me get away with my appalling 'Deadie's' Sauce' pun on the ketchup bottle too)
(thanks to Thy Bui at Orchard books for book design - you can order it here although I'd always urge you to get off your a*** & walk down to your local bookshop rather than buy it online )
Tuesday 15 May 2012
Elephant jazz
Labels:
animals,
drumkit,
drums,
elephant,
illustration,
jazz,
noise,
onomatopaeia,
sketch,
sketchbook
Monday 14 May 2012
Infinity
My dad taught me how to write the sign for infinity.
One night when I couldn't sleep I attempted to count up to it thinking it was like other numbers.
It wasn't.
One night when I couldn't sleep I attempted to count up to it thinking it was like other numbers.
It wasn't.
Labels:
dad,
illustration,
infinity,
numbers,
science,
sketch,
sketchbook,
steve may
Saturday 28 April 2012
Skellington Keys
Nefarious robber-type goings on...work in progress (click to enlarge as usual)
(for an earlier version see here )
(for an earlier version see here )
Labels:
animals,
cat,
city,
dogs,
elephant,
illustration,
key,
mask,
meat,
piggy bank,
Rabbit,
robber,
skeleton,
skellington,
urban
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Eyeball man
Spotted & drawn in pub in South London pub. I don't know if Eyeball is a band, but if it isn't, it bally well should be! Who wants to join?
Labels:
eyeball,
glasses,
portrait,
pub,
sketch,
sketchbook,
South London,
t-shirt
Rock star hair
Drawing somewhat inspired by Dave Hill of Slade's '70s haircut, A stunning (if rather unwise) barnet that of of late I've become become rather obsessed with for reasons beyond my understanding. There's a certain rather brilliant home-made quality to '70s British glam rockers which makes it all the more endearing...
Labels:
'70s,
electric guitar,
glam rock,
hair,
hairstyle,
illustration,
Noddy Holder,
platform shoes,
rock,
seventies,
sketch,
sketchbook,
Slade
Monday 23 April 2012
Happy St George's Day!
(I have contributed to suitable dragon-cruelty charities & will politely draw a veil over the fact that Saint George never actually set foot in England...shhhhhhh!)
Labels:
dragon,
England,
english,
ghost,
illustration,
monster,
Saint George,
steve may
Sunday 22 April 2012
Superheroes Exhibition launch party
Our hero with assorted superheroes
Our hero modelling a very fetching cape (photo Sarah McIntyre)
Photos © Tim Mitchell
Me with the Discover team (photo Sarah McIntyre)
Great launch party last week for the interactive Superheroes exhibition that I just finished working on with the lovely folk at the Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford so here's a few photographs of the exhibition (& a couple of me looking silly too!)
Big thanks everybody at Discover for being delightful to work with & for all their brilliant work in making the exhibition work so well
Images courtesy of Tim Mitchell, Arena Illustration & also thanks to Sarah McIntyre, monster illustrator extraordinaire who has kindly let me nick some photos from her blog
More images here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)