Year of the Horse

Today, January 31st is the Chinese New Year. It's year of the horse so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to draw my own vision of a leaping, galloping, frolicking horsey. Here's how I did it...

The above artwork shows two peacocks fighting and the punning title: keep it play-fowl. A twist on the well known jiu jitsu catch-phrase Keep it Playful.

I originally wanted to draw two turkeys fighting but I have already drawn a turkey recently (see below) plus peacocks are more fun to depict with all those crazy tail feathers.

The peacock art was very quick - just four stages. From small thumbnail sketch, to A3 sized sketch, tracing paper and fineliner art and then scanned and coloured in Photoshop. Click tge image below for a bigger image.

Thanks for following my art blog, I wish you all a happy Christmas and creative New Year!


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Typhoon Haiyan Fundraiser T-shirt

I collaborated along with my BJJ artist friends Bong Abad (Gawakoto) and Matt Benyon (Scramble) to produce this t-shirt. All profits raised will be donated to aid relief organisations who are working right now to bring help and repairs caused by the devastation of by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

The t-shirt is available to buy here - http://store.gawakotoclothing.co.uk/Pre-Order-Fundraising-Shirt-Stronger-Braver_p_45.html

Here is a little more information about the creative process. This was my first involvement in a three-partner design collaboration.

Heavenly Wristlock

Heavenly Wristlock is the next in a series of geisha vs demon artworks I am exploring. I first began the series with my Gentle Omoplata design last year for Tap Cancer Out. Earlier this year, I created the Heavenly Footlock fundraiser t-shirt. For this followup I wanted to continue the serene and elegant poise of the previous characters so I chose her applying a wristlock technique. Wristlocks are powerful if applied correctly and cause immense pain. They are also quite handy for maintaining the character in a graceful posture - unlike techniques where she would have to unfurl her kimono and generate more body pressure on the demon (which might look less graceful).

So with the idea in my head, I quickly sketched out some very rough doodles in my notebook...

The Manual T-shirt Design

My new t-shirt is inspired by and pays homage to both the car workshop manual and the BJJ instructional book.

It is available from my store here.

I created the diagram using Adobe Illustrator and based it on an old photograph I took several years ago of my former instructor Eddie Kone and Royler Gracie...

Halloween Wallpaper Art - usage guidelines for sharing artwork

I was delighted to see so many followers both here and on my Facebook page share and enjoy the Halloween wallpaper art (above) I created but there were a couple of examples where the artwork had been amended and altered quite drastically. Before I go on a boring long rant, I thought I would begin by posting a brief guide on good practice concerning shared images (which applies to all original content, not just mine):

1. On Facebook, it is completely fine (ie positively encouraged) to use the ‘share’ function and show off the artwork on your timeline. We love this!
2. In cases where the ‘share’ function does not work (Facebook can be annoying like that) then downloading and re-posting is also fine, but do include a link or tag the author/artist.
3. Sharing on Instagram is fine too, just do a screengrab and post on your IG account, but don’t forget to hashtag the author/artist.
4. Written content on blogs should not be repeated in full – instead, post an opening paragraph and link back to the original blog. This way we all get to share a little link love.

The upshot of these basic guidelines is that sharing, tagging, linking and other forms of credit and acknowledgment to the original artist/author/creator helps us promote our work to new people. I make no apology that whenever I offer wallpaper artwork, it is in effect a cheap way to advertise my brand. I hope that by offering something cool and unique, the tradeoff is accepted. For people who do want to amend and alter the design, or perhaps use it as a tattoo etc then I’m not hard to contact – a simple email requesting permission to use the art for this or that and I can usually respond swiftly.

A bit naughty

Whenever something of mine has been purloined and used inappropriately, I try to defend my IP quite vocally. In the course of doing so I have met with many responses that attempt to justify the actions of the content pilferer. Here are some commons responses:

Chinese Phoenix snapback

Following my excursion painting designs onto canvas shoes I bought a blank snapback from Ebay with the intention of drawing something on this too. I never got round to it and left the hat on my bookshelf for ages until a chance conversation with one of my customers gave me the inspiration to draw a phoenix on the hat.