For a number of years in the early noughties I produced a weekly illustration for The Daily Express to accompany the 'doctor page' where each column discussed remedies for particular medical issue. While thinking back to those times recently it occurred to me that button phobia, or koumpounophobia to be precise, had not come up. If it had done here a couple of new illustrations I would like to have supplied.
Security Management magazine got in contact to ask if I could produce an illustration for their cover based on an article about medical professionals who are stealing drugs from the workplace.
I started by considering the ways that liquids could be stolen and this lead me to thinking of petrol siphoning. I then knew that the concept could be effectively realised by depicting a combination of medical equipment and the act of siphoning. The sketch was approved and I worked up the illustration.
Security Management position their cover images against black backgrounds and this helped to give the illustration just the right touch of a surreptitious night-time activity.
Ben from Vegas Seven got in touch and asked if I would be interested in doing a cover for them on the subject of plastics and electives ((plastic surgery and aesthetics to you and me). They were not looking for a typical plastic surgery cover but were thinking more along the lines of a vintage Sci-Fi like take.
From the off the description and subject matter gave this the feel of a dream job. Having said that it is a sensitive subject and so I wanted to avoid anything too repellent but at the same time was looking for something thought-provoking. I came up with this image which felt about right. The sketch was well-received and after a tonal version was worked out it was then a case of choosing a nice colour palette and producing the final (click sketches below to view).
This is a reboot of an illustration recently done for D magazine about the effects of back pain. Occasionally I feel the need to rework images, usually for no other reason than to explore other approaches. In this case the original is not too different but I was drawn to realise it in monochrome rather than the full colour treatment the client requested.
From my earliest days as an illustrator and working with Rotring pens I was always attracted to tone being rendered through points. I like the inherent contradiction of softness being created through something so hard. This enlargement (click image above to view) is a good representation of an area I would like to explore further.
Experience Life called me recently and asked if I could illustrate a feature on blood flow and exercise, a full page image and some spots. Something descriptive was asked for rather than anything too conceptual.
Above are the initial pencil sketches and the finished artwork - essentially an exercising figure with swirls of movement around them suggesting the flow of blood emanating from the core. Although the pencil sketch was approved I only had the vaguest idea in mind about how the tones and colours would would work.
With some illustrations you know instinctively, or can see in your mind, how the finished artwork should look, so the job is essentially one of replicating that image on the page. In other instances though it becomes a question of 'finding' the image, trying different approaches, colours and tones, until the image starts to gel. That was the case here, the only thing I knew for sure was that the colours would be green/blue as the figure was running outside. Also I needed a look that would work across the spot images too so that they would all read as a set.
