The Great Christmas Sprout Divide - which side are you on?

Sprouts or No Sprouts? That's the big Christmas question. Which side are you on?

Eek! Here comes the Zombie Toast!

Halloween starts at breakfast! Witness the advance of the toasted zombie hordes as they home in on their poor victim! Mmmm... yoooolk....

Where does punctuation come from? - A comic strip

This is the third of the one-page comic strips I recently drew up, and probably my favourite as it involved more writing that the others. I think this may have potential for a series, we'll see but I certainly plan to do a few more like this. Click on the image to view it larger and actually read what it says!

Late Night Visitor - A comic strip

The second of three one-pager comic strips I recently created. I'm pleased with the simplicity and colours in this one, and the premise is simple but nicely surreal I think. Click the image to view larger, natch.

The Proposal - A comic strip

The first of three comic strips I recently created and submitted to OFF LIFE comic for inclusion in their issue #7. This was my first attempt at storytelling/sequential/narrative imagery for a very long time. I feel it just about works, though it rather resembles a series of animation stills rather than actually flowing as a story. Not too shabby a start though. Click on the image to view it larger.

Illustration Friday - Underwater

Another quick image created for Illustration Friday for this week's theme, "Underwater". As ever any feedback and comments are welcome.

Illustration Friday - Hidden

Another Illustration Friday picture. I haven't posted an illustration for Illustration Friday in quite a while, but managed to find time to produce the above image for this week's theme of "Hidden". As always any comments are welcomed.

Waiting for Eureka - illustration

We've all been there - sitting facing the tyranny of the blank page, wondering when inspiration will next strike and where the bloody muse has gone. Each of us has a different strategy for dealing with it - a cup of tea, a packet of chocolate digestives and then dragging the dog round Walthamstow Marshes often does the trick for me.

Beyond Thrilled featured on Design Juices

Chuffed to be featured last week on the excellent Design Juices website - "an online creative blog which showcases the best inspirational designers, artists, photographers & more". Nice to see some of my work amongst such great company. The site is well worth a follow.

JazzAndDraw - illustration for Keith Jarrett's "Autumn Leaves"

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Philippe at the great JazzAndDraw blog, asking if I'd provide an illustration for a jazz track of my choice. I chose Keith Jarrett's great "Autumn Leaves" track and did a quick reworking of a screenprinted image I did a while back.

Oh Comely magazine - alien illustration

For their Space issue (published August 29th) Oh Comely magazine asked illustrators and doodlers to illustrate a piece of text about an astronaut called Alfred and an alien he encountered on a visit to Mercury. The quick doodle above was my submission to their challenge, and the other entries can be viewed on Oh Comely's Facebook page.

Soviet Space Posters

Came across this great set of Soviet Space Posters on the fantastic Retronaut website this morning. Makes me nostalgic for the optimism engendered by space exploration in the last century. The full set can be viewed here.

Happy New Years Kids!

Let there be peace!

The way for man is open!

In the 20th century the rockets race to the stars,

Illustration - Seven Deadly Sins

A new Beyond Thrilled illustration, just for fun, illustrating the classic Seven Deadly Sins; Greed, Lust, Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth. I've opted not to label them - you'll just have to guess which is which.

Vintage British Airways Posters

There's a great collection of classic airline posters from the 1920s to the 1970s here on the British Airways website. Not just British Airways posters, but also from previous incarnations and other airlines such as BOAC, BEA, Imperial Airways, Quantas and Wilson Airways. They're all available as reprints from the British Airways Heritage Centre. I think the four I've selected here are probably my personal favourites.

Londonscreenprints.co.uk launches

While I was moving my Beyond Thrilled website the other week I was offered a free domain name by the hosting company, and to my surprise Londonscreenprints.co.uk was available, so I took it. I thought it might be quite useful to put together a showcase of screenprints of London by other screenprinters, and to see if having the all in one place would benefit us all in terms of exposure and sales.

The website went live yesterday and has already had a good bit of attention on Twitter. It currently includes prints by Jayson Lilley, Emily Parker, Kim-Leigh Pontin, Todd Stewart, NigelDK and Ork Posters, as well as my own London screenprints, and later today I'll be adding several screenprints by LucyLovesThis. Hopefully there will be other screenprinters out there who will be happy to be included in this little project.

New Beyond Thrilled website

Ta-daah! The new Beyond Thrilled website is now live, showcasing my screenprints and illustration work. It's actually been half alive for a few weeks but I had a some teething problems when it was hosted on a friend's server. I bit the bullet though and got paid-for hosting with www.ovh.co.uk (recommended) and the problems have been resolved. It's a lightly tweaked version of the Infinity WordPress theme from ThemeTrust. So, finally everything (well, most of it) is in one place. Go feast your peepers.

New screenprints - Highgate Cemetery

I've just finished printing two new screenprints in my London Undertheground series. Highgate Cemetery in London is one of the group of Victorian Cemeteries known as “The Magnificent Seven”, The East Cemetery contains the grave of Karl Marx amongst others, while the West Cemetery features the Egyptian Gateway. These hand-pulled screenprints are part of an ongoing series of prints featuring these wonderful London landmarks. Both prints are screenprinted by hand using non-toxic water soluble inks on 300gsm Fabriano 5 paper, and are available now from my online shop along with the usual stockists.

The Apostrophe Cowboy

One for the sub-editors and punctuation pedants - say hello to the Apostrophe Cowboy.

Recent illustration work

Just thought I'd post a couple of recent illustrations I've produced. I may at some point think about printing them up as screenprints if I think there'd be any interest in them - as they're both designed with a limited colour palette/overlays - but for now they'll just be added to my portfolio on the hireanillustrator website. 

Promotional postcard printing

Recently signed up with the Hireanillustrator.com website, so I'm getting some tasty promotional postcards printed to be distributed with their regular mailshots...

Illustrators designing rugs - Kumbeshwar Technical School

About a month ago as I was packing for a trip to Nepal to trek the Manaslu Circuit a friend sent me a link to the great social business that is Node. Set up by illustrator Chris Haughton and Ashkay Sthapit, Node "aims to connect a worldwide network of designers and artists with traditional Nepalese carpet makers to create beautiful handmade rugs". 

The rugs are hand produced at Kumbeshwar Technical School in Patan, one of Kathmandu's neighbouring cities, and as I had a few days in Kathmandu at the end of my trek, I contacted Chris to ask if I could visit the school and see the production process. He put me in touch with Satyendra Khadgi who kindly gave me a guided tour  of the school and explained how it - and the school and orphanage it helps to fund - operates. The rugs are hand knotted - using pure tibetan wool and natural, non-polluting dyes - by disadvantaged Nepali women who are trained in the different processes involved, before being washed and finished. (the rugs that is, not the women). The results are quite beautiful.

Node has recently worked with a group of illustrators to produce a series of rugs which are now on sale in the Design Museum. You can see - and buy from - the selection here in their online shop.
Node also offer the opportunity to design and have custom rugs made, something I'll definitely be working on over the next couple of months.

Logo and business card design

Rough designs for a logo and business card that I was commissioned to produce for a soon-to-launch online business selling vintage items and curiosities.

Illustration & Design for The Preventers' "One Last Night" single

Back in December I was asked to design and illustrate the forthcoming single from The Preventers - "One Last Night b/w Irreplaceable Love", and the above was the design that the band chose. The launch date for the single has been announced as March 22nd. More about the band on their Facebook  and Soundcloud pages.

Hand lettering and hand drawn fonts

Been playing around with some hand lettering recently, drawing up my own fonts, something I've always enjoyed doing.

Custom poster for Net2television.com

I recently produced a pair of posters for Net2television.com in the US. One was a custom version of my Visit Alexandra Palace screenprint, (as you may know, Alexandra Palace was the site of the world's first regular public "high-definition" television service, operated by the BBC) and the second was this one above, showing the San Mateo History Museum in Redwood City, California where Net2tv's Portico Studios are based and from where they have recently launched a new, cloud-based television service.

Headphones - illustration from the sketchbook

Another recent uncommissioned illustration I thought I'd put up here for now rather than let it languish in sketchbook obscurity. Again, it may one day see the light of day as a screenprint.

Bad breath - illustration from the sketchbook

Quick sketch from the Beyond Thrilled sketchbook. Had plans to screenprint this one up a while back, but it's been gathering dust for a while now, so I thought I'd just blogpost it here instead.

Firewood Poem screenprint

New year, new print! This two colour screenprint illustrates the traditional Firewood poem, written by Mr. Anonymous, and comes in two gorgeous colourways. Perfect for that little bit of wall next to the fireplace! If you'd like to buy one, it will be in my online shops very shortly.

Firewood

Beechwood fires are bright and clear, if the logs are kept a year

Chestnut's only good they say if for long it's laid away

Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house shall be

But Ash new or Ash old, is fit for Queen with crown of gold

Birch and Fir logs burn too fast, blaze bright up and do not last

It is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread

Elmwood burns like churchyard mould, e'en the very flames are cold

But Ash green or Ash brown is fit for Queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke, fills your eyes and makes you choke

Applewood will scent your room, Pearwood smells like flowers in bloom

Oaken logs if dry and cold, keep away the winter's cold

But Ash wet or Ash dry a King shall warm his slippers by.

Anonymous.