Category Archives: Art

Open Call for Book Cover Design

19 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by in Art, Birmingham, books, competitions, creativity, Drawing, get published, Publication, The Arts

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This is a great opportunity for a design or illustration student to have their work on the cover of a new book due to be published this year. The successful submitter will receive a copy of the book and an invite to the book launch in Birmingham. The opportunity has been offered to students at BCU in Birmingham but it is open to anyone in the West Midlands area – people further afield are welcome to submit but they may struggle to get to the launch event.

There’s not much turn around time on this as the deadline is the 20th of February 2023.

If you are interested the full brief can be found here or you can scan the QR code below. Any questions can be posted below.

Yakking About Writing.

18 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by in Art, Birmingham, comissions, creativity, Mantle Lane Press, Music, writing

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Following on from my visit to the University of Leicester last week here are some pics of me in action and a link to the podcast that came from the day. Scroll down for the link.

Definitive book-pointing pose.
Reading to 3rd year creative writing students.

Click here for the Golden Room podcast featuring me interviewed by Dr Kevan Manwaring.

I’m pleased with the podcast because I don’t sound like an arse and you can hear that we genuinely get on and enjoy talking about writing – there’s quite a bit of laughing, which can’t be bad. There’s also a couple of old songs from me, not too cringeworthy, as well as some recordings of the work I read on the day.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Leicester answering questions from the students and sharing my limited insights into the world of writing and publication. I hope you enjoy the podcast and pictures, well, the podcast more than the pictures.

Overhear

03 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by in Art, Birmingham Literature Festival, Short Stories, writing

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It’s the perfect supplement to the Barry Flanagan exhibition that is currently on at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Yes, you’ve guessed, it’s my short story, Ikon. Simply get the Overhear App, visit the Ikon Gallery, and download an audio file of me reading the story at the Ikon. Sorted.

Submerged.

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by in Art, creativity, Drawing, Short Story, writing

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My latest short book, submerged, is due to be released in early March and I’ve just had a look at some of artist and illustrator Jessamy Hawke’s initial ideas.

These, as you can see, are rough sketches, but Jessamy’s finished work is rather wonderful. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished cover.

You can check out her work including book covers, illustrations, and comissions at her website here.

2nd Panel – A Walk In The Park

14 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in Art, Birmingham, Comics, Drawing, Inktober, writing

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Following on from yesterday’s post here’s panel number two.

I split the panel in two and put two different scenes in the background to give the impression of movement.

The far leg isn’t great, and we won’t talk about the hands, but it’s looking okay in regards to comic books and storytelling.

Two more panels to go and then I’ll have to think of something else to ink.

Panel Show

13 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by in Art, Birmingham Literature Festival, Comics, Drawing, Ikon Gallery, Inktober, The Arts, writing

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Yesterday, No.1 Daughter and I went to a marvellous workshop at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The workshop was run by Dr Nicola Streeten and Cath Tate as part of the Birmingham Literature Festival.

We looked at visual story telling through greetings cards and graphic novels. Cath talked us through her work and considerations for greetings cards and Nicola the same for graphic novels. The two hours flew by and incorporated some fun and challenging drawing activities. The culmination of this was all of us producing our own four panel stories. The daughter and I agreed to leave our work there as a backdrop for a talk today, so I’ve recreated/completed the first panel above here.

Here are some pics of the work we produced on the night.

Hey!

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Art, Drawing, Inktober, Sketchtember

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Here’s a drawing done entirely in ink – no penciling out before hand. It’s not too bad considering. Knowing that whatever mark you make is permanent sure makes you look a lot more closely at what you drawing and the marks that you’re making.

Jude

It has a sepia tint because I shot it on my phone under the yellow lighting of the back bedroom. I used the Tombow flexible brushes for the majority of this – a black and a selection of greys. In fact, the only fine line work I did was on the hair and that was with the trusty Staedtler pens – a 0.5.

I quite like this, but I’m sure my son will hate it.

I’m finding Inktober a bit harder to be consistent with compared to Sketchtember. I’ve missed four days so far!

New Pens

07 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in Art, Drawing, Inktober

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This isn’t a great likeness of the subject, but I think it captures some of their character.

Also, it would seem that I’ve been rumbled – Brian the cat does all the sketches!

I was up town yesterday and bought a couple of Sharpies and these Tombow flexible brush pens. They seem okay. I’ll have to try drawing with them directly. I’ll see if I can squeeze in another drawing later on as I’ve missed a few.