Seamonster Feature and near win!

I recently entered a seamonster competition on shadowness.com .  I unfortunatley didnt win first place however I was considered for it. I was Shortlisted by the judges and I'm very pleased at just getting noticed and catching their eye.
I have also been featured here > http://monstersandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/07/sea-dragon.html < at the seamonster database :) .

Here is my seamonster :
The sea dragon hides at the depths, and camouflages well into its environment down at the coral reefs. when it surfaces, it leaps and dives scaring the people on the shore. It would be hard to defeat this fast furious deep sea creature. 

Snake Kiss

Okay well, bordom lead to me doing a digitial piece, hopefully will be entering this into the Imagine Fx rising stars competion for august.  I was just playing around looking for new experiments I could have with textures and I came out with this ! (click on it for full view)

Enjoy! 

Rift Competition

"Gaea" collossus for the Life Rift. She uses her hand that is a wild willlow tree to sweep enemies to the ground, then uses her club ( a tree trunk ) to whack down upon them to defeat them. She stands tall amoungst the trees. She blends in well to her enviroment and any hit she strikes has massive destructive damage.

Created in paint tool sai and photoshop , looking at nature and tree's for influence and the idea of mother nature being life.

Interactive map of Japan for Children

Ok, it is all pretty much there now. I'm early finishing this final piece which is something that does not happen often. So now this is done I can polish up all my other works that have to be submitted for Friday the 5th.

Anyway, here we are .. some of my images of Mizuki on her noodle dragon in search of the Makura Gaeshi, to find her pillow that he stole.

It is all now in a webpage form, but I will upload the images of those seperatley when it has had its last

polishing

Torii Gates - Kyoto

Mount Fuji

Makura Gaeshi sneaks into the house

Flying of into the Japan moonlit sky

Makura Gaesha steals pillow

Mzuki- lantern festival Yokohama

More to come soon!

The Japanese Map... "The Map Project"

This is my image that will be turned into an interactive map on a children's web page. I will place in location spots so as you can click to see that area on a separate page. I will be creating the web page area around it as this is only the small interactive element. It will not be full screen...

I used fairy lights and layered photos of them to create a population density and then the clouds are made from watercolour and neocolours ..  

More to come soon, watch this space!

Makura Gaeshi - The Map Project

This week I have been experimenting with my designs for a Makura Gaeshi , a Japanese spirit that steals your pillow in the night and moves it to the bottom of the bed. Only Children can see them, they are known to be mischevious and sometimes have a rainbow glow to their eyes.

The map project which I am doing at the moment focus's on maps, and I had chosen to do Japan and focus on its culture and folklore's and it's story telling. I looked at studio Ghibli for influence into storytelling and came up with a crazy idea that would appeal to children. This would give the map a narrative to aid the visuals . The idea is that a small girl is sleeping in her bed, finds that the spirit has stolen her pillow and has taken it to a location in japan.

The small girl wishes for magical intervention, she wishes she can fly but it doesnt happen immediatley, then she goes to the kitchen, makes a bowl of noodles and the noodles turn into a noodle dragon which takes her all over Japan to find her pillow, so as she can return to sleep.

The map will be interactive as it will be a web page on a childrens website. It will be educational as every location you visit will give information on that area or landmark.

Here are my designs for the makura gaeshi... 

"Makura Gaeshi - The Map Project-Japan"

Futher work for this project will be up soon!

Label Magazine Issue 12

The recent news of the possible ban of religious headwear such as the Burka has made it it into the news section in Label Magazine this week. I took on the illustration for the article, knowing that this was a sensative topic to handle, yet couldnt be avoided without raising some questions in the lllustration.

I wanted to focus on the eyes and show the beauty but at the same time not hide the worry in which these people are facing if this is part of their religious life in those countries. Illustrating an actual Burka was too literal, therefore thought a sensative way way was to use a pair of hands to make a frame for the eyes. This illustration didn't have to be complicated as the main focus were the eyes. Here is my end result. Done in paint tool SAI and Photoshop CS5.