Props graphic design: Song of the Kraken

Prop graphic design: 

I designed this book that our main character Niko is reading in feature film The Winter. 

We've even had a few people ask where they can buy it to read it.  

'Song of the Kraken'

Sketchbook: Tudor portraits

A lot of writing and shooting lately, between matte painting, but I finally got a little time in for ink drawing.


Nearly finished:
Jane Seymour
Tudor Portaits gel ink and ballpoint pen
Inspired by: Holbein's painting of Jane

Sketchbook: Markers

As a passionate user of watercolour, and a frequent digital board artist, it's always nice to work in a new media.  I've been working on a job this month that needed to be in marker to match with previous shots, and it's been a nice change.

Starting with toned greys and ink, I then used the same technique for the base of digitally painted design renderings. Quick and simple, easy to use when I'm working away from my desk.  What's not to love? 

Sketchbook: Julius Caesar

Working on an illustration of the notorious Roman Dictator:

Sketchbook: Opera Illustration Series

Opera Illustrations created exclusively for The Metropolitan Opera

Das Rheingold

Framed inside the golden Ring is Freia, the Goddess of youth and beauty. 

To preserve her services in Valhalla the gods seek out the Ring that will shape their own demise. 

From: Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen 

Sketchbook: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18

By special request, I created this artwork for Sonnet 18.  Playing with Elizabethan lace as the graphic inspiration, I tried to weave elements from the visuals of the poem: flowers, wind, and the warmth of the summer sun.

The original sketch is worked with fine pencil, then overlaid in black ink.  I then work watercolour and Sennelier inks over the lacey  lines for the full colour finish.

This sonnet is a part of my ongoing drawings of Shakespeare in a series I call 'Immortal Longings.
You can see all the Shakespeare art at www.immortallongings.com

Feature Film Concept/Pitch Art: Framilik

Feature: 'Framilk'

Children's feature film project.
Concept & Character Artwork
for Pitch Package
Poland 
2011

Short Film: Suspension

In 2006, my solo animation project for the Glasgow School of Art 'Suspension' premiered at Darklight Film Festival in Ireland.

Blending my traditional hand painting methods with 3D, a painting unravels onscreen.

The curtain rises, clouds pass, a tower flies into the night. Swirling through a nighttime landscape, the film follows a shadowy female form on a windswept quest chasing a star. 

Feature Film Animation Design: Gamerz

Feature: 'Gamerz'

Low Budget Feature Film
Directed by: Robbie Fraser
UK, 2005

Geeky and charming Scottish feature film, live action film.
I created traditional hand-painted watercolour backgrounds for animated/shadowplay sequences in a gothic/expressionist style, working with animator Konstantinos Koutsoliotas.

'Gamerz' received great positive critical feedback for the animation sequences and was nominated for the Méliès d´Argent Award for best European Fantasy Film 2006.

Scenic Rendering: Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler, Set Design, Gouache. Elizabeth E. Schuch 2000

Scenic Design for Hedda Gabler.  Concept Rendering.  Using a muted palette and a round room to increase the sense of being trapped and depressed, as an echo of Hedda's current view of her life.

Theatre Set Design: Mother Courage Scenic Rendering

Mother Courage Scenic Rendering. Acrylic on Matte board

Inspired by the wonderful renderings of Franco Zeffirelli, I created this version of Mother Courage.

The set, comprised of the debris of the never-ending war, has a flexible turntable for the procession of time and events.

Mother Courage

Scenic Rendering