Valentine Vultures

February 14th, Valentine's Day, what better than the share the joy of love than by drawing some black vultures!

Despite feasting on rotting carcasses, black vultures are surprisingly loved up creatures. Once they find a mate, they stay together for life. Black vulture culture (note the cool rhyme!) frowns upon extra-marital relations. If a member is caught in flagrante with another outside of his partner, the other vultures will attack the offending participants. Crazy!

Here's how I pieced it together:

Ministry of Jiu Jitsu

The Ministry of Jiu Jitsu is a government department I invented that would be solely in charge of furthering the development of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The coat of arms was heavily inspired by the Royal Coat of Arms and the Ministry name was inspired by the UK's Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice.

Here's how I put it together...

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...