Back In Black

Well, hello :) It's been a while - lots going on behind the scenes here so we have some catching up to do. How are you doing ? Good I hope.

Probably the biggest single thing that's changed is my UK website, I started over with Wix and have been able to add lots more features so the site is now a proper studio tour.

 From the beginning I wanted to make more of a connection between you the viewer seeing the artwork and me making it so that's one of my front paws right there on the home page :)

Stephen now has his own corner of the website - as his file continues to grow with contributions from other talented creatives and fans, I wanted somewhere to share and showcase new elements as they are added. If you'd like to play along, go see.

I've built up a complete collection of my crow drawings and added a new line in printed loveliness. Pocket mirrors, notebooks and prints are now available to buy here. I have more designs and products coming over the next few months.

In the bag

Following on from my last post, I did finally finish my illustration for Sean Walters story 'An Invited Guest'. It's now available to buy printed with the tale in my Etsy shop. 

This was an interesting piece to work on - featuring a non traditional representation of death as a dark figure, his features hidden beneath a sack. I wanted the image to have an overall recognisably human shape but with a touch of otherness so I built a foam skull, working from a deer skull I had. I added suitably pointed teeth and covered it with the sack.

 To create a dark image, I photographed the piece in a black mirror so only the highlights would show. A lamp picked out the fine details such as the wispy beard I had given him.

 The drawing itself was done in charcoal and carbon on watercolour paper. I got through a lot of carbon on that background :) The finer details were picked out with a knife blade.

Now framed, I'm quite pleased with the overall effect - I've also gone on to do a lot more photography using that mirror. More on that in my next post. The image itself reveals more the longer you look at it. I exhibited it at this years Dark Arts show as part of the Bram Stoker International Film Festival.

Monsters everywhere !

Total chaos here this week as I launched a new Kickstarter campaign for the monsters. I'm going to be showing them at Dark Arts again this year here in Whitby and after thinking how interested people were in their individual stories, decided to make something of it. In this case, more monsters and, if we do well enough, a book about them.

We wanted to the project to reflect what it's like to live with these things so made our own short video black and white movie style, complete with wibbly stop motion. You can see that here.

We also used the time to create an entire folder for our favourite monster, Stephen, including a map of the asylum where he lurks, newspaper cuttings and patient files.

We've also tried to explain what it's like dealing with these things day in, day out ( hence Rich in full monster wrangling outfit). We love what we do but it can be hard work, they come and go when they please and make working with children and animals look like a breeze. So, if you have a minute to do something fun, pop over to our page and if you can, support us - either by pledging or sharing on social media. It all helps :)

Meet the monsters :)

It's all go here as I prepare Stephen for his first public appearance at the Dark Arts exhibition in Whitby. The show runs from October 24th-26th at the Spa Pavilion, free entry so do come along and say hello if you're in the area.

I've not taken my nightmares out in daylight before, so it will be interesting to see how folks react up close and personal. It's fantastic having a show like this on our doorstep, though a little nerve wracking allowing strangers access to such personal pieces.

I've got some prints and of course the original drawings but I'm also prepping some pages revealing Stephens history and showing some of the research/prep work that goes into creating something like him.

I may even take along sketchbook and pencils so I can do some drawing while I'm there, so long as the organisers don't mind black fingerprints everywhere :) 

Something under the bed....

 Most of you will be familiar by now with the great and terrible Stephen. It's been a while since I had the time to work on a new nightmare so I'm especially pleased to announce the completion of the first picture of Stephen in his natural habitat.

 He's always clung to the shadows, I don't think he likes being around people so an abandoned building seemed the most appropriate hiding place for a shy monster. Given the uncertainty as to where and what he came from, an old asylum had the right combination of creepy and isolated.

 This is my biggest piece to date, worked in carbon pencil on watercolour paper. Rich and I made a scale model bed and set up photographs to get exactly the shot I wanted. Stephens shadow has always fascinated me and so we backlit the frame to reveal just his hands and the shadows reaching out toward the viewer.

I added in peeling wallpaper and a couple of objects for Stephen to play with - he's inquisitive and with all those hands, likes picking things up.  I'm hoping to have prints done of this one soon - in the meantime, you can buy the original Stephen drawing here.

Sing a song of Stephen

 Like many artists, I sometimes 'see' things that aren't there. Or maybe they are. I don't know. Anyhow, of all those lurkers in my peripheral vision, the one that I get asked about most often is the great and terrible Stephen. So, here's his full story for you to...um...enjoy ?

Stephen charcoal drawing

It all started with a song - the actual track by Alice Cooper is titled 'Steven' but I changed the spelling as otherwise there may have been a terrible temptation to address him as 'Steve' and I don't even want to think about what might happen then.

Should you decide to dip a toe in the water, you can find it on YouTube along with 'Years Ago' which was another of his personal anthems. It's best listened to at good volume with your eyes closed, it's actually a fantastic piece of music once it gets going but it is very, very creepy.

Prep work for Stephen

I'm still not sure where things like Stephen come from. When I'm working on them they are as real to me as the chair I'm sat in but whether that just means I'm barking, I have no idea. I find they tend to come around in the early hours when I'm alone. I like to have my headphones in to cut me off from the rest of the world so I'm not distracted. It's often as if there is a quality to the music I have on that attracts them in the same way that different aromas will draw in different animals.

The first impression I got of Stephen was of something squatting with his hand against a wall or a door, as if to keep something else out. I drew more hands and arms thinking I was looking for the right posture when I realised they all belonged to the same thing. I still couldn't see how it all came together though. I tried adding a spider body but that wasn't right so for the next year or so I spent a lot of time experimenting with different arrangements in the hopes it would become clear.

Stephen never really went away and I kept returning to my sketches, gradually pairing up arms and getting a sense of how he moved. A good couple of years after I'd first started work on him, I had what has to be the most disturbing nightmare I've ever had.

Stephen early sketch

He was in the house and started coming out of one of the cupboards, arms first. His limbs unfolded and extended which is when I first knew he had that extra joint in each one. I ran away but something made me go back, I think I wanted to make him leave but each time I found his hidey hole I would suddenly find myself standing outside the house in the dark. This happened again and again in different rooms and it became apparent that he was somehow in control, was making me lose time and keeping me away.

When I woke, I was in a complete panic and Rich had to get up and search every inch of the house with me. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night after that.

Stephen arm bones

That whole experience did however give me most of the information I needed to start putting together a plan of his anatomy. I always test my initial sketches by working them from the bones up, to be sure I have them right. Only if the blueprint for want of a better word matches the proportions of my original drawings do I consider them to be true and go on to do a finished piece.

His head was the last piece of the puzzle - for a long time I wasn't even sure he had one but as I got closer to a complete image, I could see him in my minds eye moving around and realised that his head was slung low, which is why his eyes are on the bottom half of his face.

Stephen portrait

The picture you see on Pyewackett and Pecke of him side on is, to me, the single most important piece I have ever done. There will be other images of him in abandoned buildings but that particular drawing is when I was closest to him and he came all the way out into the light. It's also when most of my fear went away.

Stephen is an odd one - we've learned to live with him but he's still unsettling. It would be strange without him though. I get the feeling he was maybe a person once but has been by himself for so long he's become confused, something else. Not a creature you could or would want to engage with but he's done us no harm so we just live around each other.

High society

Well, we've been busy. Recent changes to Etsy have meant we are now able to use print on demand services to create all kinds of fun things using our artwork and photographs.

We joined Society6 and now have our own shop over there which is serving as a gallery shop featuring all our works under one roof ! It has other benefits too - we're in the UK but most of our work goes to customers in the USA. Fine for originals which are worth the shipping costs but not so handy when someone is looking for a birthday card or a small print to fill a space in their wall. 

It has been so easy to use and frankly a lot of fun watching our designs turn into everything from cushions to mugs, it's got my partner Rich drawing again - in fact our first sale over there has been a t-shirt featuring his giant horde print on the clock above :)

Remember our puppets ? Well, funny bunnies are taking over as well, we're hoping to get some more photos done this week. They are so expressive and a joy to photograph so we had to include them too !

It's also meant that artwork which has been sold is now available as prints too which is very satisfying :)

Scarecrow puppet

We'd like you to meet a friend of ours :) 

As most of you probably know by now I work with my partner Rich on all sorts of nonsense projects but this time I think we've rather outdone ourselves with our first scarecrow puppet.

Hand made with a wooden frame powered by a simple pull cord, he's made from carefully chosen scraps of fabric and felt all delicately hand stitched together.  We are only making these little guys to order so if you'd like one too, head over to our puppet shop

Though he stands just 16 inches high, we managed to pack in lots of amusing details, from his fingerless gloves to patches in his coat and a pocket full of hay...

We also made a short video of him in action :)

K'wi

Remember K'wi ? He used to be in my art shop gracing greeting cards.  He's a funny little object, with his soft body and curved beak and like most of my monsters, has become a permanent part of the family.

So much so in fact that Rich has made one :) He started with a wire frame covered with plaster bandage then papier mache painted in acrylic with a clear layer on top. His beak and claws are black enamel and his bristles black plastic.

 He's amazingly detailed, from the wrinkles in his skin to the texture of his claws.

 We also had an awful lot of fun setting up his very own photo shoot showing K'wi in his natural habitat, complete with ferns and a pool...

 K'wi is now available to buy along with other friends over on our other Etsy shop here.

Eyeing up

There's great excitement here as we the launch of the Forgotten project- a joint venture between myself and Caroline Willmot looking at the mythological creatures of Britain. This has been a huge amount of fun to do as it's given me free reign to dismantle those creatures and rebuild in a way that works. 

The really fascinating thing is that when we started looking at all this from a scientific point of view - location, distribution, feeding and mating habits then building the anatomy - so many of these fantastic creatures suddenly became much more plausable. So, throw out everything you thought you knew about mermaids, fairies and goblins because they just got real !

 This drawing of a mermaids eye complete with protective membrane was done in charcoal and carbon pencil on Fabriano watercolour paper. It was a challenge to do as the face shape and skin texture are different to ours- they also have no hair. I could go on for hours but that's what the projects is for so you'll have to wait :)

We will be publishing this project in stages- one paper for each creature, which will be available from my Etsy shop. It's such a mammoth project that we decided each species deserved its own turn in the spotlight. 

We also need to say a huge thank you to my partner Rich for his imaginative input (many a happy hour spent discussing critters over a glass of wine or three). You can follow regular updates on Facebook.

Making my dream a reality

 Here in the studio it's grow-your-own-monster time again. Stephen is ready for his next drawing which means digging out all my original reference materials and sourcing any additional bits I might be needing. The first drawing I did of him was my usual side on shot with no background. These are like the studies of animals and plants in journals, giving a clear view of the whole thing.

 From there, it's about bringing him to life so everyone can see him the way I do- moving about, doing his own thing.... 

 Happily, this time I have a scale model of Stephen to help me figure out things like perspective and play with light sources. All of my monsters start out life in my red sketchbook.

 Once I've got an idea of who I'm drawing and what they're up to, I look up all of the bits of anatomy I'm going to need to make sure that what I'm doing is actually possible - one of my main rules is that each creature must function. They may have supernatural aspects such as Stephens' ability to misdirect but that's no excuse for my being sloppy and getting his shoulders in the wrong place :)

With my current drawing, I started by using my original layout for him which is a simple straight line drawing to scale of all the important bits- head, torso, limbs. Using the photo of my model in a similar position, I made adjustments for our imaginary camera angle. Then it's starting with his skeleton to position everything correctly.

That's important because that affects what muscles are working and so the surface appearance. The muscles are noted on an additional layer then the outline of that becomes my blueprint for the final drawing.

It's in the final version that the whole thing is skinned over and things like wrinkles, veins and hair are added to make it real. I'll be posting the progress of that final image as I go so you can watch him come out of my imagination and into our world :)

Shadows

More fun with monsters here this week- I've done the first prints of our model Stephen for me to draw from. Not only have they made life a whole lot easier in terms of getting perspective and lighting right but there have been some unexpected bonuses...

Probably the most fascinating thing I've seen so far is how his shadow changes depending on how I light the model. Sometimes it's very spider-like as with the picture above, other shots have a man shaped shadow like the one below (which I'm sure is sneaking off on its own).

He's not attached to a base because we already have plans for a bigger, more mobile version which is a slightly worrying thought. For now I'm making good use of my paper stubbies by way of props.

Because these pictures are just for reference I also don't have to worry about them being perfectly crisp which means I've been able to play about with my camera and get some interesting shots of him creeping about in the dark - the one above is a test for one of him looking in a window. He does that...

Portrait of Stephen

 As promised, a follow up to my last blog post on Stephen - this time, a bit more about his fantastic face. 

One of the reasons he took so long to complete was the difficulty I had getting his head right. In my dreams, he was always coming out of a dark space and it was hard to see clearly because of the angle of his body.

 I also kept trying to make him too human but as you'll know if you read the last post, he only started out that way. It turns out his eyes and mouth had grown over, healed up if you like because he just didn't need them anymore. He moves like a spider so he gained a set of arachnid eyes which are somewhat creepily dotted around his jaw- when he has all eight hands on the floor that means they are looking forward and slightly down so he can see where he's going...or what he's eating. Not that we want to dwell to much on what that might be.

 He now has a soft mouth in his throat so those feeding arms can post things in easily. I've never heard him speak so am guessing he's lost his vocal cords too. In fact, the only sound I associate with him is the soft patting noise of clammy palms on the wall....