CHRISTMAS IS COMING (SOUPA MARKET, YOU SAY?!!) !!!

I've been a bit lacking with the posts recently, for which I can only apologise, but in my defence, I have been really busy with various things, and, of course, the little holiday which is heading our way.

Basically, the little stick man is for my friend Fran. I can't remember if this is exactly how he looks, but this is the vision which haunts my nightmares.

And the second illustration is of Father Christmas. He's stocked up on the brandy, cuz he knows this is going to be a long one...

Oh, and the Soupa Market opens tomorrow, which is why I have been away from my computer and busy trimming, packing and labelling all manner of handily crafted things, all ready for last minute crimbo gifts. Or something like that...

Christmas is coming...

ARGH! Apparently it's Christmas already?! When did this happen? Although the shops of my lovely town have been playing Christmas music since the beginning of November, so I shouldn've seen it coming. But as it's December, I reckon it's legally time for all things Christmassy.

And as such, here is one of the greetings cards I'll have for sale at the Soupa Market (http://soupa.wordpress.com/) this month (one of 3...ooooooo), and another flyer for the wonderful folks at White Rabbit Promotions! That gig is on at The Horn in St.Albans on the 18th of December and features the JBM...my very own band. Busy month indeed! Noel, comrades, noel.

SoupaMarket Poster!

SOUPAMARKET!!! AAAAIIIEEEEE!!!

It's all go as of the 17th of December (yes, I do believe I got the date wrong in my last post!). It's gunna be especially fantastic, so please come on down! I'll be manning the stall alongside awesome illustrator Elissa Elwick (www.elissaelwick.co.uk) on Thursday 17th (the opening, ALRIGHT), as of 6pm, so please do come and say hello if you can! Do it, baby.

Soupa Market.

Along with the other wonderful folks at the Soupa Network (www.soupa.co.uk), we shall have a 'Soupa Market' stall at the Brick Lane Christmas Market this year, as of the 18th of December!

A lot of the artists and creatives from Soupa will be selling handmade products such as greetings cards, tee shirts, screen prints, prints, original artwork and all manners of various gifts and cool things that no self-respecting human should go without. If you can, please come down, at least to say hello!
Here is the special location of the market, and by special, I mean really badass.

F Block 1st Floor.
Entrances from Ely’s Yard, Brick Lane and Hanbury Street.

As well as greetings cards and prints, I shall also be doing some mini-comics. I'll post more about them closer to the time, but here is a sneak preview of one of my mini-stories. Yup, It had to happen, it was more of a question of when. I present to you; STEREOTYPICAL ENGLISH HAMSTER.

More Mischievous Mogs (Sorry, I had to...)

Here he is, Splodge in his current incarnation. Look at him go! I think I'll upload some more of his progress leading up to this point, but this is what he's currently looking like. It's weird, I'm not very used to using watercolour, I'm definately more in my element with digital painting, but I'll tell you what, I had so much fun using the REAL paints. It's been a suggestion for a while to add more of a 'children's book' feel to my work, so I'm doing a bit of experimentation to mix digital and watercolour together. It's nerve-wracking yet exciting times!

Introducing SPLODGE (VERY initial designs...)

Must-keep-up-with-blog...
Here are some very initial sketches of a new character (new in the sense that I haven't really posted anything to do with him yet, I've been working on him for a few months now, it certainly feels like we've bonded and made the beginnings of a beautiful friendship...) called Splodge. Who is a cat. Quite a grumpy, devious one at that. Hopefully you'll be seeing more of him in the near future (i'll post up some more recent designs soon, he's gone through a few design changes...), I'll keep my fingers crossed. For as I said, Splodge is quite grumpy, and will not be pleased if he remains confined to my sketchbook and computer.

Limited Ink Voting

Hey hey, this is quite quick, but it's another call to arms!!

If you would be able to help me out, and believe me, you would be massively, you could sign up to the great new clothing label Limited Ink and vote for one of two of my designs up on their page to go forward and become part of the companies next clothing range.

The link is as thus:

http://www.limitedink.co.uk/voting_area.aspx

My designs are called 'Mammoth' and 'We're gunna need a bigger boat'. Thank you so very much, kind public and blog watchers! It is immenseley appreciated!

Halloween Flyer

A new White Rabbit Promotions flyer...

BLEEEUURRRGGH, I believe they would say.

A Variety of Things for Your Viewing Pleasure...

Here is the finished article...the final flyer for the RIVALS night. I'm rather chuffed with it all, I must say.

The design above it of the whale is for the clothing line Step Up, which is a company who deal with social and ecological issues, with all profits and proceeds going to charities around the world. I'm not going to get into any big political debates on my blog, but I do feel quite strongly about the whale hunting trade, as I mentioned once earlier in my blog with a similar illustration i did. To watch a species dissapear off the planet for cash is a sickening thought. This design will eventually be a tee design...when the company finally gets up and running (fingers crossed it will be soon.

By the way...I don't only draw animals. Although I do draw a lot fo them. Maybe I should post something else next time...? Either way, here's a sketch of a bear, which is different to all the sea creatures I draw, at least. Although he has been soaked by rain.

Rivals Flyer

A cheeky flyer I did for my friend Amandine and her promotions company Rivals! If you happen to be in the Old Street area of London on the 9th October, make sure you get down there, it promises to be awesome! The link to their myspace is thus:

http://www.myspace.com/rivalsclublondon

I imagine this shark having a pretty mighty tenor's voice.

Sketchbooks and Agents!

Ah, I'm here, I'm here! Ooops, bit of a delay in posting, but I have been immensley busy trying to get back into the swing of being an illustrator!

Whenever I'm cruising round blogs or artists' sites, I often find the most interesting and inspiring stuff are sketches...the artists imagination and thoughts put down on paper, no strings attached. So I thought I'd try and upload a few more sketchbook pages from now on...my sketchbooks are extremely messy and don't follow any particular pattern or order (infact, there's about another sketchbooks worth of loose paper sketches which I have to shove in the back of the book itself...), but I hope you'll enjoy it! The above are sketches for the Wolf idea I've been working so relentlessly over.

And in other news, I am thrilled to say I have just signed up with Jodie Marsh at United Agents for representation in all things children's books! Hurrah! The link is right over here:

http://unitedagents.co.uk/books/childrens-authors/jamie-littler/

Til next time...

Autumn leaves, surely summer isn't coming to an end?

Here is a little potential chapter cover for Mobius Strip. I'm trying a few different ones at the moment, but this is the only complete one, so I thought I'd show it the light of day on the blog, and it's very thankful for this fact.

I HAVE RETURNED.

Whoa. Wow. Phew. I'm back, after 5 weeks and 12 countries, I have finished having a little backpack around the lovely continent known as Europe. It was an incredible trip, a real education as well, where I met the coolest people and experienced the most amazing things...and also suffered from a huge lack of sleep and salad.

Buuuut anyway, I'm back, and I couldn't be more raring to get on with the illustration and what not, I'm actually very excited to be back at my desk with a pen in hand...

And because it's been so long since I've posted on this baby, I thought I'd stick up a few sketches i made along the trip. I did a lot more, but some didn't work out great, others aren't that interesting and some i couldn't be bothered to scan. The hurtful truth. But here is an example of some of the people I saw whilst on trains and ferries...and shops and cafes and probably a beach.

Another page preview

Here is another preview page from the infamous graphic novel Mobius Strip. I've been working on the graphic novel quite a lot recently to actually feel like I'm getting somewhere with it, but behind the scenes I am actually working very hard on children's books as well...ARGH, busy, busy! I actually really enjoyed doing this page, all the previous pages have pretty much taken place indoors somewhere, so it was nice to get a bit of rain involved. The character actually makes a comment about British weather here, but looking out of my window right now, it's absolutely amazing weather and couldn't be more different to our typical 'rain, warm, rain, rain, rain' pattern us Brits are so lovingly used to.

I am already sporting some tasteful extreme tan lines. Check me out.

Children's Book Ideas in Progress.

Poor, poor wolf. An 'in the making' illustration from a children's book idea I am working on. It involves a wolf. And snow. And a moon.

Tobacco Road Album Cover

The above is a cover I have recently done for a rockin' band called Tobacco Road. The one below is a variant I did...slightly more abstract I feel, but the one at the top was the chosen, final design. It was very weird for me to do, I don't usually do portraits so I was a bit scared to draw the band (I love drawing people, but as soon as they want a likeness to an existing person I begin to tremble) but hey, it worked out much better than I thought it would and it was a great experience to give it a go!

I'm gunna be doing the ol' rite of passage travel around Europe for a month in two weeks time, so I'm gunna try and post quite a few things before I go, just to give you something to digest whilst I'm away (don't worry, I'll have my sketchbook and will be brimming with art and ideas when I get back!).

Mobius Strip Coloured Page.

Aaaand without further ado, here is the finished page! Minus the text. TADDUUUUMM! It's actually looking quite a lot different to how I imagined it in my head, but hey, that goes for pretty much every single illustration i do. Ahhh...the mind's eye, what a fine canvas...

Graphic Novel in Development.

Here is a page from my graphic novel, which is going to be titled 'Mobius Strip' (it makes sense in the story, you'll have to trust me, I haven't titled it with a 'crazy' name to try and be cool...i hope...), in development. It looks pretty bare and boring, but I thought it might be interesting to show how I go about doing comics. Perhaps I should have scanned in my pencils before i inked it up, but that would have been me thinking ahead, and unlikely situation.

These are my inked drawings, awaiting my wacom tablet to colour them up, but I'm gunna go get some ice cream before that happens. There will eventually be a forest in the background, but at the moment my characters will have to just enjoy floating about in space. I know I would.

Giant Squid has his Apologies

Goodness, it's been a long time. Sorry about that. I did want to post some things more regularily, but I've been at that annoying stage that I don't want to post too many of the images i've been doing for 1) I''m worried I wouldn't be allowed and 2) I've been doing a lot of storyboarding, which would look better posted together with sketches and the final pieces for comparrison etc etc. There's some of my excuses over...I'll try and upload some character designs and general doodles I have been doing, but for the time being, here's a giant squid.

I don't know how well this works, the idea is that the sailors are mistaking the tip of the tentacle for a giant shark, ala the Jaws quote, but little do they realise they have a much LARGER problem. A bit like the MASSIVE cat watching me outside my window. Visious, cat stare. Whenever I show this piccy, people seem to miss the fin element, but hey, squids are waaaay up there on things I would be terrified to be 'got' by in the sea, so i enjoyed drawing it. BAM.

Wolf Cub. Man Cub.

Ideas and such like. I'm currently swimming up the waterfall that is the initial stages of story and character ideas.

Threadless Scoring

http://threadless.com/submission/208717/Painting_Pandas

This is the very destination to find my tee design should you want to score it. I think you may need to register on the site, but it's free and easy, so if you have any time for scoring, you would be helping me out a whole load....

Thank you!

Threadless tee design...

I've submitted a design for the great clothing site threadless.

It's awaiting scoring, I think it will go up on the site in a few days, so if you are chillin out on the web and feel generous, why not take a peek at my design in the 'Participate'- 'score designs' section over here:

www.threadless.com

Who knows what could happen.

Reality, Simulation, Life... Exhibition

ARGGH! Just in time. I have the Poole details. The exhibition theme is 'Reality as a Simulation.Life.' and it will contain the work of lots of Arts Institute at Bournemouth graduates, including some friends of mine, so it should be a good'n.

It's being held in an old, converted shop called Music Zone which is on Poole Highstreet.

The private view is on Tuesday 28th from 5 to 7 pm. The exhibition will run from Wednesday till Friday from 9:30 to 15:30.

So if you're in the area, please stop on by! I'm currently trying to plan a route there and back myself. Nice one.

White Rabbit Promotions Flyer

I've got a few things I need to update on this blog, such as when this Poole exhibition will be and the like, but I need to get a few details straight before I make any bold statements. I also need to upload some photos from the Gramaphone show, which I will do, I have just been crazy busy (is that a real phrase?) with my graphic novel and designing tee shirts for various outlets, which I will eventually post on this blog. Phew. It's like an endless cycle of posting...or not, as the case may be.

In a desperate attempt to distract you from my lack of solid, interesting information, here's a flyer I did for a promotions company called White Rabbit this month.

Raccoon

Where have I been all my life?!

Busy, busy, I didn't realise how long it had been since my last post. I've been doing quite a variety of things at the moment, including tee shirt and flyer designs, an exhibition piece and more book projects...phew. There's going to be an exhibtion in Poole soon which I'll post more details about closer to the time, but in the meantime I did the illustration above because of a burning, un-relenting desire to draw a raccoon. Mission successful.

Graphic Novel...

Well, I was holding on for quite a while, you gotta admit, but I can'ts takes no more! Here are two preview pages of a graphic novel I am working on, and which I am very excited about! These pages don't reveal that much (asides from many cloaked figures), which is kinda intentional at this stage. I have to say, I alsways knew doing a graphic novel would be hard work, but I never realised HOW hard. It's taking me bloody ages. But I am loving it, and will keep at it until it's OVER. I can't even imagine the day.

On other news, my site was recently updated, so check it out if you can! I still need to upload some new sketchbook pieces, but my pencil is calling me...

Sorrow

Soupa Network

Hey ho...let us continue.

I've just been added to the creative network of Soupa, which is awesome! It's a site full of artists and designers from various fields, demonstrating what they can do. Definately check it out, and, why, it's only over here:

www.soupa.co.uk

Thanks for that Jo!

More editorials...

Aah. Editorial images.

The unfortunate house at the top has become victim to the turbulent house market in the UK at the moment, and the lower image is the Imperial Dragon of China having fun gripping the mountains of Tibet in its awesome, serpent like grip, whilst laughing manically, like a dragon should. Or roaring. Dragons laughter and roars sound so similar to me. I don't know about you.

Magical wardrobes and sunshine

Firsty, gorgeous weather today.

Secondly, here's an old illustration i did roughly last year (I'm gunna be honest, i can't remember), where I tried doing some covers for classic literature. This 'ere one is Narnia, The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Hence the Lion. And the wardrobe, now that you mention it.

Whaling

ARGH! Time certainly flies by. Time for another post.

I haven't got a lot of new stuff to show at the moment, mostly because I can't, at least, not until all the various bits and bobs get further down the line. I definately look forward to that day. But in the mean time, here is an editorial illustration I gave done recently concerning the Japanese whaling fiasco which began last year, involving the hunting of hundreds of whales for 'scientific' reasons. I'm relatively happy with it.

On a happier note, I've done another version of this illustration for a clothing company as well as quite a few others which will be released soon, but I'll save another post for that. And I'm a lot happier with THAT version of the above illustration.

In the mean time, however, please, live long and prosper.

Old man...

Ahoy, ahoy,

I've been quite busy with various thingies and lots of majigs, but I thought I'd better post something this week! This is a drawing I did of an old man because they are definately interesting to draw, every wrinkle a story as they say...but I think it's clear that this man knows something...and I don't like it. Watch your backs.

...and how.

An alternative alphabet. Head to The Gramaphone on Commercial Street in London as of the 25th to see more such musings on life and rantings of a crazy illustrator chap.

Kingfisher Books Concept Art

This is some conceptual art I did for Kingfisher Books last year. I won't divulge too much at the moment, but the actual book has the go ahead for later this year which I'm very excited about!

There were changes to this illustration, but there's something I like about this version, so I thought I'd post it up! And yes, your eyes aren't decieving you, those are Scottish warriors haunting a moor.

Some Fings.

I thought I'd actually better post some illustrations, so...voila!

Firstly, a rather cheerful editorial response to a news piece about Uganda's struggle with what to do with the death sentence in their country.

And secondly, the mighty feathered serpent Aztec god Quetzacoatl. Beware his delightful and heart-warming wrath.

The Exhibition Flyer

Well, here it is, the loverly flyer supplied by the luverly illustrator Cath Watson!

If you're in the area, definately come down to it, it will be really cool!

The Gramaphone

The wind is stirring.
The storm is coming.
There will be an exhibition soon.

It's going to be in a great venue called The Gramaphone on Commercial Street, London. They have a website:

www.thegramaphone.co.uk

There's gunna be a collection of illustrators there, and it's gunna be awesome. I'll post the flyer as soon as it's done with all the details. I'll be exhibiting a mix of final pieces and sketches, one of them being everyone's favourite black and white bamboo eating endangered animal. I'll leave you with that. x

Site Updated

Just a quick one to say my site has been updated!

It's there, right there...where? Over there...

www.jamielittler.co.uk

There's a few cheeky new images and a reworked contact system which should make life easier!

Cheers!

Moss Magazine and Other Such Things

Happy New Year! It's all on, 2009. I've been very busy recently, mostly eating and drinking far too much and having good Christmas times. It's definately a hard life.

But due to such events, it's been a while since I've updated this blod, so here we go!

I did an illustration for a mate, a wonderful artist named Jason Kerley (whose tasty site can be found right here: www.jasonkerley.co.uk), who has had a genious idea; dedicate an entire magazine to the wonderful stuff of moss. This is my input, hope you enjoy!

The other images are scans from my sketchbook, mostly of this, but there is definately a bit of that in there as well. One represents the cold, cold weather we're all currently enjoying in merry ol' England...except this character is not me. In any way.

But enough of my ranting, have a good new year!