The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Like to draw? You'll love this…

Isn't it great to see good old fashioned drawing skills join with new technology so seamlessly? The new Wacom Inkling works on the premise that your best illustrations always start with a simple sketch or doodle. This great new illustration tool from Wacom promises to be affordably priced (approx. £150.00). The neatest feature for me has to be the sketch to vector export. Pretty impressive stuff – if (like me) you carry a sketchbook everywhere you go, this is one Wacom gadget definitely worth further investigation.

 

 

Dan Dare to the Rescue!

The Kinks prints from my last post sold really well (sold out in fact) and I've been beavering away on some new print designs to release by the end of summer. This one is actually for Planet Pulp's August submission (the theme is fictional travel posters). I've researched my old, childhood favourite Dan Dare and created a Space Cruise Poster based on an old Frank Hampson strip from the 50s called Terra Nova. I've not printed it yet – I'll let you know when it's available though

God save screenprinting…

So it's August and it's time to step on the gas and get some new work up and out of the new studio. This is a new 50x70cm (19.5x27.5 inches) print I've produced at my local printworks, printed on Fabriano cream 220gsm. This typographic study using Avant Garde and Trade Gothic is inspired by an old design/slogan used in USA promotion for the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society LP. I've been a big Kinks fan all my life (I even moved to Muswell Hill on the strength of Ray Davies coming from there). I'm releasing 15 of these prints at £30 each in the next few weeks (just waiting for a delivery of postal tubes). Each one is hand pulled by myself, and as such, no one print is visually perfect, but that's what I love about screenprinting – all the little shifts and imperfections make each print a true original.  

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation (Part 1)

Hey again, whilst I'm taking paternity leave, there's another exciting arrival that's getting fitted out. It's the new Hand Drawn Creative premises! Located within easy walking distance of my previous office space (which will now be Jack's nursery) the new HDC Centre of Operations is nestled at the bottom of our garden and will be up and running in August. The bulk of the exterior work is now complete, leaving the electrics and insulation to be completed this month. Hats off to Adrian at Smylie Sectional Buildings for the build. My Father and I spent some time sketching up a design we felt would look good and Adrian ran with it - adding neat little embellishments and finishing touches I didnt expect (but was very happy to see). Check out Smylie's site here 

Jules et Jack

Exciting times again at Hand Drawn Creative as my son Jack was born on 29 June at 10.58am. He's a whopping 9lbs 1oz and I'm pleased to say my wife Jules has a made a speedy recovery over the last few days and is settling into motherhood once more, whilst our beautiful toddler Melissa runs rings round us both as we change the nappies! 

 

Wacom Live Draw Weekend

I had a pretty busy weekend at the Sea Bangor maritime festival in my role as a Wacom Evangelist. Two solid days of showing the general public all the Wacom tricks I know whilst simultaneously creating an original illustration to commemorate the event. Good fun but hard work, I'm still reeling from it and it's now Tuesday!

I'm going to work further on this piece – there was a lot of glare in the marquee over the weekend, so I couldn't really get a great view of what I was actually drawing. But given all the chatting to interested parties and mini tutorials, I don't think this was too bad for a few days work…

A Great New App from a Trusted Client

I've worked with the folks from mytourtalk a few times over the last year or so now and have been really pleased to watch their business take off. They work really hard to provide a great product, always seem to be in great spirits, and are always so polite in all their dealings with me. I've designed a number of maps with them (and will be continuing to do so in the near future) it's not easy work, but it's tremendously satisfying to look over the finished result.

I'm over the moon to see their app go live in iTunes this month. I know this has been an enormous undertaking with a huge amount of content to cover. This'll come in so handy for summer excursions around Northern Ireland this summer. And if you're a tourist visiting N.Ireland, the mytourtalk app will be nothing short of invaluable.

Jason

Had some good feedback regarding this fella, so I've decided to release an iphone wallpaper for all the HDC / Battle of the Planets diehards out there. Download the file below or visit my flickr page and download it there.

 

 

New A3 Prints released!

It took a little while but they're finally here. My illustrations of Madmen's Betty Draper and Gundam's Princess have finally broken free into the world of print by way of Belfast's Northside Graphics. I've invested a few quid in this print release, using a fine textured paper (Nettuno Bianco Artico 140gsm).

Both these illustrations have been doing the rounds recently – "Princess" is now the most viewed image on the glorious Planet Pulp website, whilst "Betty" has been featured on the Madmen Recap podcast

Both these Prints are now available to purchase at the Hand Drawn Creative Store for $30. Remember, there are only 20 copies of each print available.

New work for KIA Motors & Comic Relief…

This is a brief I completed in January for KIA Motors through my client RLA Group. KIA are sponsoring Comic Relief this year and I was approached to provide some 'colouring-in' illustrations featuring their current range. Quick turnaround, great fun, happy Client. Here are the results…