Damned lions!

For old times' sake I bought a ticket to see The Damned a couple of days back then due to another conversation I was inspired to think about how a lion with Dave Vanian's* hair would look - goth lion anyone?

*Could also apply to Morticia Addams & possibly Caitlin Moran

Permeablity technologist at work

Musing at breakfast over the weekend at the optimum time for tea bags to be infused & realising how unsung the job of the Permeability Technologist is.

It's Thursday! Jump around in your pants!

It's Thursday, the sun's out, it's probably the only sensible thing to do. Tell your boss 'Steve said it'd be fine'* grab a glass of something cold & head out there!

*NB 'fine' can be a somewhat moveable feast

When cocktails talk back

Monster Facts #8

Monster Fact: Monster breath is terrible. Many beautiful would-be monster relationships are de-railed early on by halitosis*.

(*See also monster diets)

Monster Facts #7

Monster fact: Up to 95% of domestic 'lost sock' incidents are the result of monster activity

Monster Facts #6

Monster Fact: Monsters love ice cream, but mainly when it's somebody else's ice cream.

See also monster diets

Monster Facts #5

Monster Fact: The dark is composed of at least 70% monsters (& at least 10% horrible creepy crawlies) - very much like the percentage of cocoa solids in posh chocolate but much SCARIER!

Monster Facts #4

Monster Fact: You know when people say "they won't hurt you they're just being friendly"? * or, "they're more scared of you than you are of them"?*

These are abject BIG FAT LIES. Run away now!

(*see also big vicious dogs with dumb owners)

(*see also spiders)

Monster facts #3

Monster fact : Vegetarianism is EXTREMELY uncommon. Their favourite dinner is invariably YOU!

(yeah, yeah, wear the monster deflective tofu armour if it makes you feel better #futilegesture)

Monster facts #2

Yep, sorry to break it to you kids, I'm not making this up...

Sleep tight huh? x

The Wednesday creature

Monster fact : Bloodthirsty monsters always have Wednesdays off to catch up on laundry / e-mails etc.

Here is a candid pen & ink picture of a monster washing his smalls (the artist was nearly devoured in the process of drawing this, monsters are NOTORIOUSLY touchy - I don't make this sh*t up you know!)

Disappointing sandwich

We've ALL been there.

How to draw Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Me pulling some stupid faces & demonstrating some drawing stuff & nonsense

PS...this is my REAL drawing face

Silly Name for a Monster!

I just received a copy of 'Silly Name for a Monster' by the very funny Timothy Knapman which I illustrated earlier in the year.
The fact that I laughed out loud when I first received the text was definitely a good start & I thoroughly enjoyed illustrating this. It's a hilarious book with a big scary monster, some cowardly knights & a little boy called Stinkpot. Can he succeed in defeating a monster with such a silly name?

I'm not going to tell you that. You'll have to wait until August 7th until it's actually released so there!

In the mean time, here's a sneak preview...

Happy Tramp

A while back I was approached by Inbetweeners movie director Ben Palmer & Zeppotron co-founder Neil Webster who were in the process of launching Happy Tramp, a new independent production company specialising in scripted narrative comedy to design a logo which would work for print in various formats with the idea of making it move at a later stage.

Armed with only a copious amount of extra strength lager (for research purposes) I initially sketched out a few ideas... & we fairly quickly decided on the finished logo. I tried a few handwritten typefaces but we settled on trusty old Gill Sans

 After the Special Brew hangover died down a few months later I took the character & directed & animated the short clip. I sent the guys an initial animatic to which they replied -

Thanks for this. We've got a lot of notes...
1. We love it.

Why aren't ALL jobs as fun  painless as this?

You can see the clip here

Happy Tramp from Steve May on Vimeo.

LOOK! NEW ANIMATION!

I have become acutely aware that to  iPads/ iPhone users the little 'Bat Van' animation on my website homepage which has served me well over the years has been unviewable due to technology issues too dull to be spoken of here. (something to do with a hissy fit between Apple & Adobe etc. etc.)

Basically, instead of a pleasing animation loop all the Apple device based punter would see was a white space...now I like minimalism as much as the next person but...


....LOOK! NEW ANIMATION!

 I've just introduced these little rascals in preparation for a bit of an overhaul of the site in the next few months - do come in & have a look at http://www.stevemay.biz

Stranded pachyderm

Werewolf? There wolf!

One more lycanthropic image inspired by Friday 13th's full moon (which I completely failed to see due to my impossibly glamorous social life ; ) - Happy Monday!

Full moon tonight! Altogether now... "AAAAWWWWOOOOOOO!"

I know LOTS about werewolves but very little about astronomy but apparently... 

'A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years.

But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one.'

(thank you National Geographic)

(illustration from 'Making Monsters Happy' by Susan Gates)

Felt tip RUMBLE!

(no made-up beasties were hurt in the making of this image)

Brave (& rather literal) bear saying 'boo' to a goose.

cat trumpet

The man in the Apple Store asked me what I was drawing.

I explained it was Tuesday morning so naturally I was drawing a cat playing a trumpet.

That seemed to satisfy everyone. : )

Fry ups (& bad language)

Drawn waiting for an Apple 'Genius' to look at my IPhone this morning whilst pining for breakfast

It went that-a-way!

Subtitle for the hard of thinking

Bad hair day.

Monster on vacation

I spilled espresso on this I'm afraid. Am pretending it's an artistic effect. Shhhhh!

Ineffectual beastie

Chinese burn...don't do it kids

(Don't say I didn't warn you)

Skelly-cycle

Out-take from a job I did a few months back.

I usually hate drawing bicycles*

This was more fun.


(*unless I can make them up!)

Meet ze monster(s)

On Britishness... passive-aggressive tutting - a guide.

(see also 'Epidemic of tuts')

The Diary of Dennis the Menace - Beanotown Battle out now!

The second Diary of Dennis the Menace 'Beanotown Battle' written by Stephen Butler, illustrated by me & published by Puffin books is out now. In this one the boring Mayor has entered Beanotown in a flower comptetition, & you know what flowers attract? SOFTIES!

Dennis & Gnasher have to think of a brilliant emergency menacing plan to save Beanotown from the softy invasion! (warning some of these images may contain SPOILERS!)
In this book I got a chance to draw some of Dennis's friends who might look vaguely familiar & as with the previous book I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to reinterpret some iconic Beano characters again. Stephen Butler's writing is nicely funny & anarchic & great fun to illustrate & again a big nod to Mandy Norman the designer because the books look great!

You can order the book online but why not pop over to your nearest PROPER BOOKSHOP & buy it from there because that's a lot more fun than being hunched over a computer any day!

Tolerance

Be nice to each other y'hear? x

Epidemic of tuts 2 - the Medusa™ comb-over

Epidemic of tuts

There's been a lot of talk about air pollution but this morning on my walk into the studio there appeared to be an epidemic of tutting in the  London air (or maybe I'm just being super-annoying today & don't realise it?)
We really should make tutting an Olympic sport. The GB team would clean up!

Scuba & orange squash bottles

...& now I'm off to learn to scuba dive for real finally so no more post for a couple of weeks

Unruly eyebrows & earwax placement

I live in fear of the day my eyebrows take on a bristley unruly life of their own but who tangles them in the night huh?

Group of critturs

Sullen rock teen

Following on from the ageing rockers in a previous post...

Dinner time (with octopus)

A particularly 'grappley' meal.

Mind that seagull!

Some experimental colouring in with beasties & cross seagulls*

*seagulls ALWAYS look cross

Old rockers never die (they just appear in more documentaries)

I love a good rockumentary, was watching various '70s survivors in varied stages of 'ageing pantomime dame mode' telling their stories on TV the other night...


'Spurious Gack Anecdote', really ought to be a name of a band