Spokit says 'Good Day' (and other such Phoenix related news items)

And here is Sprokit! Hopefully you will become the best of friends.

In Cogg and Sprokit related news (totally freakin' AWESOME news, more like), The Phoenix comic is now available for subscription on the website (Jumping camels!!) Check it out, you guys, right over here!

And that's not all! Oh no! You can also get a free copy of the special, limited ISSUE 0 (cue thunder and menacing laughing) as of TODAY!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! With lots of samples of the incredible comic strips which will be appearing in The Phoenix as of this January. I am actually so excited, I could bake a canal boat.
To get your free Issue 0, best follow these instructions, which will explain it a lot better than I could in my ink-induced, half-salivating, half-dribbling, semi-sane state.

Ciao bellas.

Cogg says; 'Alright?'

Ssssssss'up.

As promised (ages ago, I know...), I shall now begin posting up some designs for my upcoming comic series 'Cogg and Sprokit'. Look at them go! Without wanting to give too much away, hopefully these drawings will just start to show a little about the characters. Maybe. Who knows, eh?! It's so weird looking back on these now that I am well underway working on the project and am used to drawing the characters...they were so new to me back then. I suppose that's because I'd never drawn them before. Did you know I am a part-time detective?

Aaaaaaaanyway, without further ado, here is Cogg! Tah daaaaaah! Sprokit will be soon to follow as well as a few other tidbits, and don't forget that January is when this comic will first see the light of day, like a dinosaur hatching from the egg. I can't wait!

I'm still here!

Hello hello!

I must apologize for the HUGE silence this blog has had, but rest-assured, it is still alive. ALIIIIIIIIVE I TELLS YA.

I have been very busy recently, very, very busy indeed, with work that, yes, you've guessed it...I can't show you yet. So to compensate, and to actually put something on this god-forsaken blog in the month of October, I have posted these concept pieces which for various reasons won't see the light of day in the book they were meant to be in. They're quite old now...from the beginning of last year, but I have so many of them I thought it might be cool to show them on this blog.

I have been working on many a project, comrades, many a project, including: 'Cogg and Sprokit', my very own mini-comic series which I have mentioned in the previous post which will be launched in The Phoenix this coming January (more concept art to come in the coming months! Oh yeah, I can almost cut through the anticipation with a knife, and serve it on toast to some very well-to-do guests in my toast resteraunt. Oh, and don't forget to sign up to their mailing list...it's chock-full'a good things, including all the incredible-looking new comics that will feature in The Phoenix), two children's fiction books to be released in February (links and more info to come soon, you eager beavers) and my debut children's book (I have been saying that for some time now...but this time it's FOR KEEPS) with Hodder Children's Books, which I'm currently working on but unfortunately won't be seeing the light of shelves until 2013...but still...EXCITEMENT. So...thought I'd say hi, touch base, have a chin-wag, and hopefully it won't be so long until my next post. But if it is, hopefully you'll understand. Until then, life long and prosper!

Introducing: 'Cogg and Sprokit'

Hello fine readers! And may I say you are all looking mighty fine today indeed. I have some splendid news! In fact...I should have revealed it last week, but I'm rubbish! At last; I can reveal one of the projects I have been slaving over recently...my very own comic mini-series! YEEEAAAAHHH!!

It is called 'Cogg and Sprokit', and will be serialised in the up-coming, awesome, splendid, FANTASTIC British story comic 'The Phoenix', which will be launching this January. I've seen some of the comics that will be within the pages of this weekly comic, and let me tell you; they look incredible. Why, you could see samples of them yourself, as there is a Phoenic newsletter which you can subscribe to on the site. Good times, ahead!

But yeah; Cogg and Sprokit! My very own story about adventurers Cogg (a rather gentleman-like Hippo with a penchant for gadgets) and Sprokit (a lively youngster with the incredible ability to wear a scarf no matter the climate or weather!) Together, they quest on many an epic adventure, discover many a forgotten treasure and vanquish many a devious, malicious foe. Sometimes. For the time being, Cogg and Sprokit will be a 4 pages long mini-story running roughly every few weeks (details to be confirmed), and let me tell you; I have had the time of my life working on it, I hope you guys enjoy reading it! I'll be updating this blog with more information as I get it, and with a few cheeky bits of concept art.

Until then: take care, amigos!

BLOG POST.

Hello!!

Oh my goodness. After all of those 'Doodle-a-day' antics and regular blog updates, my blog has suddenly become dry as a desert! I must apologize for this. I have disgraced myself. But in truth, I was on a very important expedition that could finally result in the discovery of the yeti (aka; The Abominible Snowman). We are so close.

That, or I have been EXTREMELY busy with work. Yes, that one. But hopefully these lack of blog posts will be made up for when loads of my ACTUAL proefessional work is released...and soon! Woooopheee!! And in this spirit; I get to make an announcement later this week about one of my projects. HUUUZZAAAAHHH!!! I am finally allowed to start revealing some things! So as soon as I get the go-ahead, BAM, it will be omn this blog. Until then; thanks so much for sticking around, and here is a speed painting I did before I disappeared into the depths of deadlines. I think practice is in order when things quiet down...

Ammo Magazine Contribution

This month in the wonderful Ammo Magazine #7, you will find an illustration by none other than myself. I was really chuffed to be able to contribute to Ammo; I think it's SUCH a nicely designed little magazine showcasing some jaw-dropping work, and so I was flattered to be able to take part. The piece I did for the magazine can be seen above, titled 'Flight'. I was so pleased with the way the colours printed on the mag too; it looks just as it did on my Photoshop screen. Also in this months issue are glorious pieces from my fellow YARNfest dude-ios Hidden Dingbat Collective and Twitter friend and illustrator-maestro Gaia Bordicchia so you know it's going to be sweet. As sweet a deal as you can imagine for a few hard earned quids. If you would like to buy the issue, or at least see more of Ammo Magazine, you can over here, my friends, you can over here. Photos courtesy of Ammo Magazine.

Website Down...FOR NOW.

Hi guys!

Just a quick note about my website...it expires today, and I am still in the process of updating and rebuilding a new website, so it will be down for a time. I do have an under construction page, but my URL host is messing me around a bit right now and isn't allowing me to link the page to my URL...yet. Blimey, excuse all this rubbish I'm writing; basically, my site will still be www.jamielittler.co.uk but will take a while to come back online. The best place for news and new artwork will be this blog for now, and I'm still more than happy (chuffed, some would say) to read and reply to emails on my usual address: jamieillustration@gmail.com

Thanks so much for your patience! Hopefully it'll be worth the wait; the new site I'm building is a lot simpler and will allow me to update it A LOT more regularily. Good times ahead, eh?

Here There be Faeries...

Hello, hello!
I've been mega-super-busy doing black and white illustrations for an upcoming book series which is so, soooooo cool, I really can't wait to reveal more. But in a panic of not having updated my blog for a while (I was doing so well last month...but then again...there were'nt evil, ominous deadlines looming over me...), here is an illustration I did JUST before I started on the comissioned illustrations.
It's for an idea I've had for a while...something I tried to do in comic form, then as illustrations...then I was thinking maybe a web-comic...but, for reasons usually related to work-loads etc etc blah blah...not much has happened with it! So for the time being, at least; I hope you can enjoy this as a stand-alone illustration.

Until next time, comrades!

Certain Things and Lizards.

As I'm doing a lot of black and white drawing and digital colouring at the moment, I'm trying to keep up the watercolour in any spare time I get! Practice makes perfect, and other such cliches.

Thanks for stopping by, troopers!

RAAAARRR.

A little bit of morning watercolour and pen and ink.

Pointe Blank - Coppelia Final Piece

Hello there!
Here are some things for you. If you follow me on Twitter, you're probably sick to death of this image by now, but if you don't; here's the final illustration I did for the Pointe Blank Coppelia project. I was very happy with it, all in all! And it was actually immense fun to do, the whole project was wonderful to be a part of. For the other entries (and believe me, they are all really, really beautiful), check out the online exhibition of the project here!

I went for a kind of 'dark, fairy-tale' vibe with this one, and this is always an ingredient to have great fun with. Darkness and despair, that's what I like to see, as I wear my black cape and stand at the top of my tower laughing evilly at the dastardly things I have planned. But yes, it's not meant to be that nasty...just to evoke a sense of Eastern European fairy tale, as the tale of Coppelia itself is rather lovely.

Also, I have begun doing some 'speed-painting' exercises...I've been reading lots of blogs and listening to various animators I respect with all my heart, and a lot of them recommend to just sit for half an hour and speed paint a scene...it teaches you a lot, or so they say (and I believe every word), so...here we go. Half an hour. Painting number 1...I have a lot to learn...but here's hoping it's a step to VICTORY! If only I had a better digital tablet. Mine is so bad, and so un-responsive. Sigh. To have a cintiq...what a beautiful dream...(and to stop blaming my tools...siiiiigh).

A Nice, Summery Picture.

A villianous-type indeed. This is a bit of personal work I did, which is also a bit of practice for some visual development portfolio stuff I'm trying to get together. Who is this mysterious lass? I have a few story ideas at the moment, and I'm just trying to feel my way through them and decide which one to follow (all for personal fun, of course, but I would like to do something with it all once and if it ever gets done). She's basically a nasty piece of work; you wouldn't want to bump into her on a jolly walk through the frozen tundra, let me tell you.

Doodle #25

Have a good weekend!

Pointe Blank - Coppelia

Hey hey!
I thought I'd write and tell you a bit about a really cool project I have been working for recently. It is a project called 'Pointe Blank'; a real mix of absolutely great, talented artists who have been called together by the Birmingham Royal Ballet to create a piece of artwork inspired by the ballet 'Coppelia', which the group will be performing soon. It can be in any style we want, depicting any part of the story we want or any feelings/imagery the story provoked in our heads. It doesn't need to involve the ballet itself; unless you want it to.

I'm not going to lie to you; I've heard of Coppelia but have never seen nor read about it. Which is a shame really, becasue now that I have, I realise it is a great story. Let's see, it has;

1) Magic

2) Alchemy

3) A mad scientist

4) Love, romance and intrigue

5) Eastern Europe

6) Bringing automatons to life

7) A whole village dancing about the place

What's not to like, here? The artwork will be revealed live at the Hippodrome in Birmingham on Monday 13th June and the exhibition will remain up for 2 weeks, and will be online at the Pointe Blank link above indefinitely. It's going to be really great, I'm sooo excited to see the other artist's spins on the story. If you're in the area, PLEASE do come down, it should be really inspiring! If you would like to see some teasers of the artwork by the artists, check it out here at the Pointe Blank blog. Mine is there, but I've posted it here too. Enticing? Maybe.

The very kind and talented Claire Hartley got me involved in this project, so a massive thank you to her, and also, my friend and fellow illustrator Harriet Gray will be exhibiting, so there are many reasons to check it all out. If you can. Of course. Y'know. If not, no worries. Y'know.

Doodle #24

FOR NARNIA!!! I mean...NATURE!! Just a red squirrel commander doing his thing. Sorry it's not in colour...I have been mega-hard at work today and my eyes are burning and sometimes they scream at me to stop drawing or looking at computer screens. I'm sorry, eyes, I'm sorry. (If there's time in the future though, I may slap a bit of colour on this guy!)

Doodle #23

RRAAAGGH.

Doodle (actually...more like a character design) #22

If I've learned one thing in all my years of drawing, it's that I love drawing scarves.

Doodle #21

Doodle-puss.

Doodle #20

Foxy.

Adam Had 'Em Flyers

Wahey! These aren't doodles, I'm afraid, but actual flyers I did last month. It was a real last minute job, and considering, I think they turned out okay. The actual prints the promotor got made came out so dark the illustration became almost unrecognisable...but hey, the client was happy, and that is what counts. I actually enjoyed doing these, I think, with a bit more time, the 'ship front' theme could be quite fun for the future flyers...we shall see. On another note: The Carolines are my brothers band, and they do truly rock. In the most old-fashioned, rocking sense of the word. Do check them out, if you enjoy the odd bit of rock and roll.

Hope you're all doing well!

Doodle #19

Hello.

Doodle #18

I had quite a lot of fun with this one...nice and easy going!

Doodle #17

Quick (reeeeal quick) Sunday sketch. This is an old character that I'm re-working. It's not going to win any awards yet, but I already, in this loose format, prefer this version of the character to the one I designed 2 years ago. Hopefully I've started on the right lines! Happy Sunday to you all.

Doodle #16

Easy...eeeeeasy...

Doodle #15

This was an experiment. This experiment did not work. :(

I'm actually not a fan of drawing 'nature documentry' illustrations...I think if the animals look too close to life, you may as well look at a photo. And yet, here I am. Drawing animals relatively realistically. Sigh. I blame it all on the fact that it's a Friday night...(I always do, even on a Tuesday...)

Doodle #14

Another quick drawing, I put a dash of colour in it to make it a tad more interesting...but I have been colouring all day and couldn't face a tiny bit more. I'm sorry, I cracked! *Cries into hands*

Doodle #13

A real quick one today...
Thanks for stopping by, you guys!

Doodle #12

It's been a while since I've drawn a raccoon, so I thought; hey, why not?!
I'm a bit disappointed with the way the colours and textures scanned on this one, but hey, here it is!

Doodle #11

Well THIS took longer than expected...phew.
MUST GET FASTER. BBBRRMMM.

Doodle #10

Eeeeeeeeyyyyyy...

Quick Sunday sketch. I hope you like it!

Doodle #9

This one's a bit different from my usual stuff, but I hope you like it! I was watching a music video of a girl running through a Scandinavian wildiness, and thought to myself: 'That might be quite nice to draw.' True story. So here it is...but really, it was just an excuse to smudge all my pencil lines.

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday too, there were a lot of problems with Blogger as I'm sure you know. I will do an extra doodle to make up for it! Thanks, as always, for visiting!

Doodle #8

Quick watercolour toucan today. TOUCAN PLAY THAT GAME.



...........................................Sorry.

Doodle #7

Here we go! This is waaaay more detailed than I intended, but let's just say it's too make up for yesterday's rather rushed effort. It has to be said though, that I'm not so sure I can keep them up at this level of detail, I think it may kill me. Hah. But I hope you like it!

I went to 'The Making of Tangled' this week; a presentation by some of the Disney movie staff at the Curzon cinema in Soho, London, and it was incredible. Really, really incredible. So inspiring, the artwork and animation was horrendously brilliant, and I got to meet Animation Supervisor Clay Kaytis, the Look and Lighting director Mohit Kallianpur and talent development director Dawn Rivera-Ernster...all of whom were absolutely awesome and friendly, in equal measures. So i thought I'd do a little Rapunzel of my own today, is it was on my mind...

Doodle #6

Oooo...another one just in time. A bit rough around the edges today as I've spent the whole time frolicking in London, but I plan to get it all back on track and have coloured doodles tomorrow!

Doodle #5

Bit of an Indian theme going on today...

Doodle #4

But this is what he REALLY looks like.

Doodle #3

I've seen a few artists drawing their dogs recently, so I thought I might jump on the bandwagon, as it looked like a nice bandwagon to be on. Here's my dog; Max (Maxamillion Decimus Armacaninus)

Doodle #2

Doodle a Day: Day 2. Going well so far. Playing around with Photoshop brushes!

Doodle-a-Day...Begins Today!

Hello everybody!
I'm going to try and do this 'Doodle a Day' thing in an effort to keep this blog nicely updated and to keep me experimenting and drawing different things whilst working on comissioned work I am as yet unable to show you lovely readers. I may do it for a few weeks...or even a month...I'll see how it goes. I hope you enjoy them!

I am usually a pretty slow illustrator, so this may be quite a challenge for me (this is also an exercise for me to speed up with my colouring...the part of the process I am slowest at...yeeesh, look at me; using words like 'exercise'.), I beg of you not to tar and feather me if I crumble and collapse under the weight of my insane doodle-a-day ambitions. The amount of times I have had to wash tar and feathers off this year is just getting ludicrous, as I'm sure you guys know. This first doodle is a bit of a cheat, as it's also being used as the banner for the Soupa Network website this May, but hey, I maaaay need a headstart. START YOUR ENGINES! Bbbrrrmmmm.

Paper Cub

Hello there, hello there!
Ooops, it's been a bit of a while since I last updated, and for that; I really must apologize.
BUT I do have some news! Roll up, roll up and prepare to be wowed and astounded, fair citizens! I have joined forces with some incredibly talented illustrators and writers for an online magazine called: 'PAPER CUB!!!!' Just not in capitals or with the ridiculous amount of exclamation marks. It's an online magazine for children of ALL ages, and will have regular content uploaded, inclusing illustrated stories, poems, games, comics and everything in between. But don't listen to me go on about it, it's probably best if you go check it out!

http://www.paperfoxpress.com/aboutpapercub/

The piece above is the illustration I did for the ever talented Robin Boyden's poem '(Too Much) Space', and it was a really great fun brief, hopefully the first of many for this wonderful magazine. I will also hopefully be writing my own stuff for the magazine in the future too, so keep those eyes peeled! It also involves the work of the incredible Laura Anderson, who is as talented as they come, and twice as lovely. So please be sure to check it out! Thanks very much to both Robin and Laura for getting me involved!

In other news, I am working incredibly hard at the moment, and STILL can't show too much, so I was thinking, for the sake of just keeping this blog updated, that I may try and start a 'Doodle a Day' kind of thing...and try my utmost HARDEST to keep up with it. Y'know; draw whatever was on my mind that day. This could get weird. Please check back soon for more, and as always: thanks for stopping by!