Some more assorted furry/anthro characters from my #weretober adventures. I had less time in the latter half of the month so they weren’t full drawings. Still, some good friends!
Excited to announce that I've launched a Patreon! I'm offering behind the scenes looks at personal projects (Real Monsters and books), digital rewards and creative mentorship. Any support is welcome and hugely appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/zestydoesthings
Studying is good for the bones. The hands were based on a photo of my own hands and the jellyfish based on a google image find. For anyone wondering, I paint in greyscale first and then add colour on top of that version with a “colour” effect layer.
Land of I AM, the next in the series of children’s (everyone’s) books written by Katie Mullaly and illustrated by me, Toby Allen is up for preorder! Order now for a free Yabbut magnet!
This one is about learning to accept your own reflections, whether it be that of your physical or mental self (or both). An important but difficult life lesson.
Alice in her evolved form, with her Vorpal Blade. Alice: Looking Glass Legends is turning into quite something- can’t wait for you all to be able to play it!
Follow Bear Hug Games on twitter for all the juicy updates, and be able to vote on future evolutions or characters!
My contributions to Character Design Masterclass Book One. I was asked to be a part of this and I am so honored to be featured in the book alongside amazing illustrators from around the world.
We were all asked to design our own versions of the characters from Robin Hood, and here are my designs!
Check out more here- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1302528630/masters-of-anatomy-book-2-and-3
More revisions of my 3 year old Pinocchio designs. Pinocchio himself, in his smarmy brat-ness and the Blue Fairy or the Girl with Turquoise Hair, as she is in the book.
The Fox and the Cat in Pinocchio are two of my favourite classic characters, so I wanted to redesign the versions of them that I did during my degree, and give them a bit more of a visible backstory.
3 year old version on top, newer designs below. I’d love to recreate that original illustration If I get the time.
Selected character design sketches for Baby Cthulhu, an unreleased children’s book I illustrated in 2013.
Refer to my previous post to see them in context and find out more! http://zestydoesthings.tumblr.com/post/143952009644/as-promised-some-previous-unreleased-work-from
As promised, some previous unreleased work from 2013.
Baby Cthulhu. This was a project to illustrate a children’s book written by Shaeli Joya, inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft. It follows the titular baby eldritch abomination on his adventure through time and space, meeting up with friends and foe along the way.
It was incredibly fun to reimagine Lovecraft’s creatures in a children’s book style. Can you name all the horrors I've shown in these 4 illustrations?
The book has not been published yet (to the best of my knowledge), but hopefully I can show you the rest of the illustration sometime in the future.
Thank you for the support of my website! You can still head over and click the heart icon, it really helps me out. http://www.zestydoesthings.com/
I’ve been in an art funk recently, not feeling too confident about my work so I decided to take some time out to relax and refresh my creative cogs. So here are some landscape/architecture studies based on various photos and bits of artwork, rendered with ballpoint pen and watercolour.
I'm already feeling much more confident and feeling ready to get back to work on some tricky projects. If you’re ever not feeling positive about your art, do something like this (preferably in a medium you don’t work in often) and I guarantee it will help!
I was reminded of a wonderful collaboration I did with composer and music genius Paul Wendlandt a few years ago. Its a long piece but he did a truly amazing job bringing my characters to life through music.
Sit back and enjoy!
The official promo illustration I created for Alice: Looking Glass Legends.
I’ll be sharing more information about the game as we continue to work on it. For lot’s more updates be sure to follow Bear Hug Games on twitter so you don’t miss out on anything!
I am so thankful for all the fun opportunities I was a part of in 2015. It was a brilliant year for my career as an illustrator and I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing people, on some truly brilliant projects.
Two picture books, Real Monsters volume 2, another successful Inktober, a couple of personal projects, Johto Pokemonathon and a good portion of an iPhone game I’m working on with Bear Hug Games.
There’s so much to look forward to in 2016 including the aforementioned game, Alice: Looking Glass Legends! Thanks for all the support in 2015, stay tuned for plenty more good things coming this year!
Hello! It’s been a little while. I’ve been busy with some super fun projects that I hope I can share in the new year. (Take it from me, you’re going to love them!) Here are some visual development sketches I did when designing Land of AND, the second book by Katie Mullaly and myself. The speedpaints at the top were drawn from various photographs and sources, some were even from screenshots I took myself when playing The Witcher 3, which is gosh darn beautiful.
Land of AND is out VERY SOON! Pick up a copy here- http://www.landofchildrensbooks.com/shop/
Little John by James Castillo from Character Design Masterclass - coming to Kickstarter November 17th. Featuring over 130 character designers who've worked for Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Animation, Marvel and DC. Support the Kickstarter here - http://www.mastersofanatomy.com/book2and3 #characterdesign #characters #sketch
I’m going to be in this book! Exciting!