London Underground Drawing - Crowded Northern Line in Rush Hour. "Mind The Gap"

Tube drawing captures the folly of the London Underground

I have been traveling on the London Underground for years and despite the fact that it is a travel nightmare, most people avoid social interaction and a bit smelly! It is a fascinating place.

I felt inspired to draw a scene of the rat race capturing the annoyance, the displeasure and the all round chaos that unfolds in the morning and evening's getting from A to B - you should hear some of the expletives I mutter under my breath. With this drawing I felt compelled to share a sense of immense overcrowding, irritation and the general lack of personal space.


In this picture
None of these people are faceless numbers, each person is an individual with a story to tell. To pick a few faces out of the crowd: you have the builder getting to the site with his huge toolbox, both him and it covered in bits of muck and plaster. You have the woman in the middle trying sandwich herself on the already crammed train and the other woman to the right desperately trying to force herself and her luggage onto the carriage, in doing so obstructing the doors so nobody gets to where they are going but ironically she is frowning at someone else. You have the 'Turtles' (i'm guilty of this) sticking their backpack into other peoples personal space and also reducing the total capacity by a few – oh the joys. And lets not forget that stranger on the left holding a bin liner with a sword hilt inside... weirdo. This is all but a fragment of who and what travels the perilous London underground. These brave souls must venture to their place of work battling odours, the ignorant and tourists with selfie sticks, whats not to make you blow your lid!

This picture was illustrated on my travels from South Wimbledon to Honor Oak Park.

Happy new year all!

If you would like more information on this drawing be it a print or a commission feel free to get in touch.

London Artwork!

Business Card Sized Mini Prints. Artwork samples & illustrations. 1st Run

Mini Printed Pictures

I printed these mini business card sized pictures with idea to hand them out as sample prints to prospective businesses and to canvas for private commissions. Being pleased with the general quality of these miniature reproductions I am offering the last of the first run (1st Run) to the open market. Being satisfied with result of this batch I intend to print another batch although the characters and prints themselves may well be different in the next set.

Displaying the complete range of the first run

Top left to right : Bloated Zombie, The Poet, Golemn the cat, Madman's throne,
Gorian, Tulip, White hare, and the reverse of the card

About The Collection of Artwork

The collection of a printed cards consists of a range of illustration work taken from my portfolio, also available for viewing on JD illustration - my commercial illustration portfolio blog. Drawings and artwork vary from monsters, folklore to everyday characters. Some of the pieces have featured in exhibitions in the North and South East Cornwall.

The White Rabbit

The Poet

Gorian - The Miserable Imp

Can I buy These Cards?

Yes, although these cards are now in limited supply and once the first run from which there were 50 cards, there will be no more of these cards (1st Run) . Should you wish to purchase these cards I will sign the reverse before sending them to you via recorded post. The other 'Samples' do not have a signature which were sent out for canvasing purposes.

Please contact me for further information and which cards you would be interesting in buying from what is listed above.

http://jdillustration.jimmsdesign.co.uk/contact-freelance-illustrator.html

Character Sketches From Train Journey To Work - Random faces, Wimbledom Imp

Wimbledon characters and random sketches

Do you ever find one random sketch leads to another..? These are some faces that I have taken from my sketch book en-route to work in the London rush hour. The man sitting on the bench is based on an actual person I've seen sat outside Wimbledon Centre Court with his stomach hanging from under his shirt, smiling to the world - he reminded me of a happy gnome! Apparently, completely oblivious to the fact that all was hanging for the world to see in broad daylight, it was a spectacle to behold and slightly strange.
put it away! (Yet, I felt the need to draw this!)

Thanks,

Mechanical Pencil, HB

Character faces and sketches from my A4 Sketch Pad

Sketch book - Character Faces

I felt my blog lacked this kind of thing, sketches, work in progress WIP's etc. So I wanted to start adding this kind of thing. People, faces, expressions and characters are just some of my areas of obsession, I get my kicks and from drawing gravely faces, ladies, scars and anything that comes to mind.

Back tracking slightly... somebody asked what was my favorite thing to draw - a tough question with more than one answer. I would say story telling, characters, hero's, villains, thieves, rogues, monsters, beasts, ladies, history, a scene the list goes on and on. I like to draw detail!!!

I'm quite liking the mean old man character and the lady eyes.

HB mechanical pencil

And yes... I do, do a spot of people watching... I get a lot of inspiration from crowded places.

Thank you for reading.

http://jdillustration.jimmsdesign.co.uk/

Gadget Factory Theme - Satzuma

The Story
In conjunction with the brand. We developed a back story and established a creative process from there – step by step.
The Satzuma men come from their own world, where they make these wacky-cool-stylish gadgets (the products) , an exciting prospect to begin with. The Satzuma people, need to build and source the gadgets. From there, we took a few logical steps; a warehouse? Too limited, overseas? Very literal and not very exciting, we need something where the user experience can be greater, pull them in and walk them around the Satzuma world, this concept is to engage the fans and the businesses - this needed to be the next step from Gadget Garden… A factory!

With all that leaping about spitting ideas about the place in a mammoth brainstorming session, (not all on one day and there might have been actual spit) we needed to consider how this would work in terms of brand, construction and applying the Satzuma effect. This idea needed to push the brand and ultimately, sell the product.

From The Ground Up – Planning
Step 1) Products – how will the theme frame and display the products
Step 2) Brand – Stick to brand guidelines whilst stretching them, remembering it has to be commercial.
Step 3) User experience – how will this make the user feel and imprint our brand as one of the memorable experiences of their day at the trade show.
Starting with the Diamante products, the creative process evolved from there, the crystals would be mined ( where else could the Satzuma people get those semi-precious gems!) or quarried, giving an excellent starting point from a theme, the factory gets its raw materials.

What about the other products? That zing, that craziness which epitomizes Satzuma, Where do they come from what is the origin of this madness… the Satzuma Juice! The products are pulled from this viscous orange liquid that is chemical composite of fun, gadgetyness and placed into the range, still warm!
So based on this back story we needed; Conyeyor belts, mad machines, logos, juice, boxes, pipes,signs, engines, steam, vacuum chutes and pressure gauges and so on!

Below are some examples of artwork used in the project Copyright Satzuma LTD.

Conclusion(ish) – Design – UI – Marketing – Interaction - the entire process
The chance to conceptualize and develop a wacky theme idea into the existing brand has been an exciting experience, the Gadget Factory has proved to be challenge in terms of practicality and how we would deliver this in a real world environment. We needed to make this work across multiple platforms in print, exhibition design, Illustration, marketing artwork and online media (flash animation and interaction) there will be more of this to come in the near future.

Illustration Meet Ups in Central London - network with other creatives and expand your business

Yoillo! Illustration Networking

Last Wednesday, I attended another Yoillo meet up in the quiet upstairs pub of the Yorkshire Grey. A traditional comfy pub tucked away in the back streets of central London. I sat there drinking my cider, waiting for the other attendees; slowly they trickled in, with the organizer Rob Barrett being the first.

The 'Yoillo meet ups' are basically the chance to network with other artists and illustrators and talk about random everyday stuff, or your latest project with like-minded people. I work as a Designer and Developer in gadget company producing artwork web bits, so I'm always looking for edge. In other words, I work across a wide area of creative projects; they call me ‘Art Guy’ at work, a Mr Crayola of the company. I found this get together to be an refreshing way to chat and network in an informal and relaxed way with industry professionals. These types of artists ranged from cartoonists, gothic artists, designers of various genres. This was great way of feeling inspired and keeping your ear to the ground.

On both occasions (October and November) 6 + people have turned up to the event, (25 plus at its biggest so I’m told) we exchanged business cards, flyers, did a bit of show and tell and picked each other’s brains about the industry and what is going on in the world at present. Ultimately it’s a great chance to get out the house for a chat and drink... so come along and bring others.

Professionals and hobbyists welcome! Usually around the middle of the month after 7pm.

Thank you Rob!

My character illustration and freelance work

**the group**http://www.yoillo.com/

The Launch of Mr Jenkins - A Comic E-story

This is something I have been threatening to do for years and have now, finally, got round to redesigning and illustrating the Wondrous Adventures of Mr Jenkins for digital download.

This silly story follows the life of a man who has fallen onto unfortunate circumstances as struggles to go about his everyday life. Mr Jenkins is a tale a of woe, joy, blood and even handlebar moustaches!

I have compiled this story into a PDF format. The story is narrative text with daft colour illustrations to pull you along the story by you eyelashes - or even you optic nerves!

If you like things like weebles stuff, Monty Python, salad fingers then this could be the treat for you my friend! The PDF is £1, which is paid into my paypal account! An amusing laugh!

Heads will be flying in this strange story!

Download and read now>