Good on Paper

I've been testing different papers to see what yields the nicest result for printing watercolour paintings and concluded that Hahnemuhle 'Matte Museum Etching 350 gsm, 100% cotton' is the one. It has a silky finish and a texture a bit like watercolour paper.

So - job done - I'll be able to send prints of the fairy-tale tree to all who pre-ordered one.. or you can find a new shop I've just opened here.

I'm also starting a new painting this weekend and will share it here on my blog soon. My aim is to create a lot of new artwork for 'The Hidden World' over the coming months;)

In other news...

Things I love about LA? Aside from accessibility to the film industry, creative people, climate and Mexican food? It's the fact that people host spectacular balls from time to time. I attend the 'Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball' each year (previous post here), but this month I discovered the Edwardian Ball...

Bought a brilliant silk ballgown (which was strictly speaking more Victorian than Edwardian, but the best I could do at short notice) and felt like Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I'. The stage performances were fantastic, the 1920s venue (Fonda Theatre) is a favourite of mine and the DJs were pretty good too. They even had a cocktail which may as well have been tailored for me - something called 'Tea Thyme', which was tea vodka shaken over ice with honey syrup and muddled with sprigs of thyme. Everyone made a huge effort with costumes - much as they do for 'Labyrinth of Jareth' and we all had a ball.

Find out about it at their website and scroll past my print images to see photos from the event. I took some, but the superior ones with copyright notice were taken by a brilliantly talented photographer - Marco Sanchez, who kindly gave me permission to share.

People are Strange

Waking up in the wee hours of the morning, 3 or 4 hours before the alarm is set to go off can be a blessing. Yes, I'm tired after 3 hours sleep, but waking up suddenly and with energy makes me feel like I've stolen time. Magically I have an extra 4 hours to work on something I wouldn't otherwise have had. However I probably wouldn't be writing this drivel if I were better rested and more switched on.

In my stolen time this morning I quickly (emphasis on quickly) finished off that blasted watercolour (mentioned months ago here) which was such a relief. I hate unfinished tasks, plus it was good for me. I'm so completely out of practice (at painting anything and with any medium), so it's good to get back to it, even though the painting isn't what I wanted it to be. I've included some image details, plus entire painting in this post. Last image is just a 5 min mock-up for 'The Handbook to the Hidden World' -for fun.

Found out today that scanning large artwork in LA costs a small fortune, so I captured my painting in a series of photographs taken with my Canon DSLR and then 'stitched' them together in Photoshop. Brought the background to pure white but didn't edit it in any other way. Wondering if I should try to enhance it using Photoshop? Advice on the topic would be great! 

The past week's been fairly eventful. I was granted my Greencard on Monday and met Nicholas Cage and Chris Sanders that evening at a party on Sunset Blvd. On Tuesday I met the remaining members of my all-time favourite band - 'The Doors'. John Densmore and Robby Krieger told stories about how Jim Morrison wrote 'People are Strange' whilst hiking up Laurel Canyon at dawn. He had been feeling completely depressed but that creative outlet - coming up with that song - turned his mood around. Sound familiar to any other creatives out there? Certainly does to me. Next day I met Joe Letteri at a pre-screening of 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' and enjoyed hearing him talk about the making of the film, despite the fact that Weta abandoned miniatures after the LOTR trilogy. Had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Fiennes last night and hearing him talk about directing his second film 'The Invisible Woman'.

I love LA.

Brushing up - with Watercolour

It's been so long since I painted with watercolour that I felt quite nervous opening my ancient box of paints (which I've had since I was a child) and starting a new painting for 'The Hidden World'.

Still... I need to brush up and create some new artwork for this project so I forced myself to knuckle down at the weekend. This painting is going to be of a magical tree - an Oracle from 'The Hidden World' but this particular image wont make it in... it's a warm-up. I used reference photos of trees and bluebells (some taken in my Grandfather's garden in England this May) as a guide.

I'll share the finished painting in a day or two. Criticism and advice always well received. :)

From the Dragonkeeper

Lucian 'the Dragonkeeper', as he is known by his friends and enemies, keeps in scarce contact this time of year. Knowing that it is the time of year the dragons hatch their young he's wise to do so. None can get close to the nest of a dragon like Lucian and fewer have a scorched tale to tell of failed dragon egg theft. He has sort of a knack for it and if you're in need of a dragon egg then there's only one wizard to go to.

Draco Niveus - the dragons of the Nordic mountains... Draco Serpens which slither in the low black rocks of China... Draco Albion - the great beasts of the British Isles... name any of the seven species of dragon and Lucian knows where and how to steal their young.

Enough about the sordid Dragon Trade. If you want a crate of eggs you know who to come to. I am selling them at my online store and here's the photos for the project they were originally for. Shot them yesterday and now I really have to get moving as I have biiiiig wholesale orders for Toronto and Paris. ;)

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Interested in the making of? I blogged about them a few weeks ago here and it's worth remembering that a full tutorial will be available in Aug/Sept in a miniaturist magazine (I'll share it when it's out) and an expanded dragon project (still in progress) will be in my book which will be out later this year.

Standing on the backs of Giants

As the 12th century philosopher Bernard of Chartres put it, "nos esse quasi nanos, gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvenimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea."

...translated from Latin...
"We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. "

It's often misquoted as 'standing on the back of genius'. Today would have been Jim Henson's birthday. He was one of my major influences - the genius I stand on the back of, the great inspiration in my life.
He was the reason I looked for fairies in the copse behind my house and water nymphs in the river Thames... the reason I built a cardboard cinema when I was 9 to show the films I'd written, the reason I chose a film degree at university... and finally an inspiration behind my own fairytale book and TV series ('The Hidden World' - in progress).

Influenced and inspired by such works as 'The Storyteller', 'The Labyrinth', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Dinosaurs'... my aim has always been to do great things within entertainment. To create worlds and stories which are fantastical, enchanting and unique. Take a look at the pictures below; the Jim Henson influence is definitely there in my work!

Happy Birthday Jim.

By the way, the above image of goblins from The Labyrinth was a drawing of mine using watercolour pencils when I was 19. It did it for fun in my dorm room at uni when I should have been focusing on an essay. ;)
Below are images from my own project 'The Hidden World' and images from Jim Henson's work with Jim himself grouped in with The Dark Crystal pictures...

See more images of my concept artwork here and more sculptures here.

Fantastical Beasts and a Journey into the Hidden World

Well I have to begin this blog somewhere. I'll start with some images probably familiar if you came here from my Tall Tales Productions website. 

These are characters I created for the book and episodic series 'The Hidden World'. It's about the magic hidden among us in the real world - just out of sight. These are watercolour character designs.         

I created natural habitats for 'The Hidden World' characters. 


                  



This is a collection of articles and instruments I designed as part of my 'Hidden World'. Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.