ZooLoo Dawn

And this, naturally, is the less successful sequel post to the original ZooLoo.

ZooLoo

I had tea and crepes at the Savoy with Jet from Gladiators in 2005 where I happened to nick a silver serving fork and a bottle of vinegar. I secreted the items about my person and forgot about them for months.

And you should also know that by keeping my wits about me I'm proud to say I've only ever been locked in a public toilet six times in my life. I'm not counting an incident in the urinals opposite Rochester Adult Education Centre as the cleaning staff have won awards for their work and my incarceration was voluntary.

In Feb. 2006 I happened to be sketching the animals at Howletts Wild Animal Park. I remember it well because the weather was unseasonably chilly and unusually dark and windy. As you know, the cold can play havoc with a weak bladder and I addressed the situation in one of their dank cubicles. I couldn't shut the cubilce door because the hinges had rusted up on it rendering it beyond my strength to close. However, nature is an even bigger mother than I am and the wind slammed the door shut as I was mid-flow. Startled, I jumped and made a right mess.

The force of the slamming door completely jammed the iffy lock and I had no visible means of escape. Panic began to set in. Cubicle doors don't go all the way down to the floor for some reason and I might have considered slipping through the gap underneath but was put off by the thought of clambering about in what was once the contents of my bladder. I'm many things my friends, but I'm not uncouth.

So I stopped, took a deep breath and asked myself, "What would Jet do?" Well she'd probably kick the door down but what else might she do?

Of course! The vinegar and silver serving fork! Still hidden away in my coat pockets was the former property of the Savoy. I emptied the vinegar over the hinges and it dissolved the rust. With the fork I unscrewed the hinges from the door. The door fell from it's frame and I made good my escape.

And I did a bit of drawing too, see above.

Jack And The Beanstalk

Here's another of the Jof the B illo's. Deadline's fast approaching!

Farm Poster

This is my latest piece of work. If you want to see a full description of what went into it, please see my blog:¬)

Well my friends have gone and my hair is grey...

...and I ache in the places where I used to play so that's why, every opportunity I get, I'm on my patio (excuse the mess) with charcoal and an easel. This drawing is of Leonard Cohen and I'm doing it for my little brother who's a big fan of his. It's far from finished and I'm leaving his lips 'til last as I find lips a bit fiddly but I'm taking my time anyway and maybe spend only 20/30 minutes on it a day. Providing it's not raining.

I don't know about you lot but taking a break from the desk and taking to the easel is something I look forward to a lot. When them deadlines are a looming and things are getting pressured and when the going gets tough, the tough sketch Cohen.

Did you see what I did there? Ahhh, you'll come for the drawings but you'll stay for the weak puns.

Current Projects

I had an email from a design studio I worked with on my last commissiom. They said the author didn't make clear what he wanted when he asked for a shellfish as a thumbnail image. I had photographed my crab from a different angle to the main illustration but they really wanted a Scallop or something similar. So I created one in plasticine. I modelled the basic shape in white, then put some pink clay through a pasta machine and layered this on top. I then cut away strips of clay with a scalpel and incised grooves into the surface to blend it together. It's only going to appear as a small image so the detail should be sufficient.

Below the scallop shell is an image of three armatures for the current commission. They are for the hen, duck and horse. Below that are the animals at various stages of development. The horse and duck are semi-roughed out. I modelled the hen's body but decided I would need more detail for the head. So I did that separately and added it to the body in Photoshop! Shown at the bottom of this post.

Money, money, money.....

From 1988 until 2004 I was the "court-illustrator" of a small fantasy family-themeparc, called "het Land van Ooit". In English one would translate this as "the Country (Land) of Ever". This theme-parc presented itself as a country where "children are in charge". It was inhabited by all kinds of fantasy characters like the forest-elf "Sap the Earthroot", a talking horse called "Kos with the Moustache" (who in fact was an enormous Shire-stud), giants with trees growing out of their heads and a variety of knights, sorcerers and vagabonds.
This country was ruled by the Governor, because the heirs of this country - the Count and Countess - were bewitched into black and white swans, which can still be seen in its Coat of Arms. Visitors could only cross its border by first learning its very special greeting-ceremony and by buying a so-called visa.

One of the more rewarding projects I did quite some years ago - at the end of 1989 to be precise - was designing its own currency: the "OoitSenten", which could be purchased at "the Bank of Ooit".
I'm proud to say, that these banknotes were printed by the printing-house, where also the dutch national banknotes and passports were (and are) printed: The Royal Joh. Enschedé in Haarlem , founded in 1703, one of the ten oldest family-businesshouses of the Netherlands.
That's why the OoitSenten look so beautiful (at least in my opinion) with their special iris-print; the gradual change in colour in each note.

Unfortunately this parc went bankrupt a few months ago, leaving many, many fans orphaned. These "old-Ooiters", as they call themselves, are finding each-other again on a few fora on Internet and for them - and for anybody who is interested - I started a special weblog where I'm presenting in a more or less chronological order, all my artwork I did over the years for this sympathetic little country.
So if you like, check out: ooitgetekend.blogspot.com
Only in dutch, I'm afraid, but with loads of illustrations.