jonmoss Illustration 2.0

To rapturous fanfare and applause the new flash version of my illustration website finally went live on Monday and fingers crossed it seems to be working well and with the absence of any major glitches. Feel free to comment on your user experience particularly if you had visited the old site. I would appreciate all constructive criticism and opinion. The new format should help make it easier to update content and keep the site fresh, particularly with the Blogger and Twitter embedded widgets. Right back to the real work of illustrating, content is king, after all.

The Motley Project

I've been quite diverse recently taking on many different projects, this being a good example of that. I was asked by proud parents to do a caricature of their 3 beautiful kids. The brief asked for bold, colourful and fun, I soon realized that a traditional caricature wasn't gonna do it. So after toiling away with several different techniques I eventually settled with this 'graffiti style' which seemed to tick all the boxes. I drew all the outlines in Illustrator first then imported to photoshop to add the vector like colouring. I was pleased with the final image, as were the parents, more importantly!

British BodyGuard Association Illustration

I have an affiliation with an organization called the British BodyGuard association and they commissioned me to do an illustration for an article in their quarterly, industry leading, publication - 'The Circuit' magazine.

The article was discussing whether the conventional and stereo typical doorman could fill the shoes of a hostile environment bodyguard.

The exposure from the illustration has led to many more offers of work and it appears I am now the resident illustrator for the publication! Funny how things happen.

Anyway, check them out at http://www.the-bba.org.uk/ and if you have any bodyguard needs, you know where to go...

Dave the Mong

I done this cartoon/caricature of one of my friends. The idea was to ridicule him and open his eyes up to the fact his arms are stupidly out of proportion to the rest of his body. Typically though, he loved it and his ego absorbed it relatively easily. But it still makes me laugh so though I'd share it.

Anderson Cooper -Caricature

Anderson Cooper has always refused to comment on his personal life, leading to speculation that he is gay. This uncertainty didn't prevent OUT magazine ranking him second in their Top 50 most powerful gay men. But what is greater? Anderson's desire to put the record straight or a man's ego.... after all who want to be a runner up in whatever category?

Madking Caricature - Please Draw Me!

A very cool site called 'Please draw me!' is about the close down after I only just discovered it. As the name suggests it is a place for people to go and submit photos of themselves and wait to be drawn whilst they attempt caricatures of the other contributers.

Prior to the announcement that the site is to terminate I had already done a bunch of sketches and will be publishing them through my blog, as, when and if I get round to finishing them. Here's one I done of a guy known as Madking.

Check out the site before it closes at: http://www.udgang99.dk/pdm/index.php

Anderson Cooper Caricature

Here is the rough value painting of the journalist Anderson Cooper that I'm doing for a personal request. I'll hopefully be posting the final finished piece in the next couple of days.

Hopkins - Detail

Such a fun face to paint!

Hopkins - Bedtime Stories - Final

Well, here is the finished illustration for my final submission on the caricature course. Little has changed in terms of structure between this and the value painting but I got to have fun working on the details such as the texture of the leather chair and the wrinkles and crease's of Lecter's face.

Hannibal- Phase 2

Phase 2 of my Hannibal picture. Without getting too detailed I done a full black and white value painting. I would have liked to have rendered it to a higher degree but time is against me and today will see him getting some colour applied.

I made some structural changes through the painting process most notably to his head. My photo reference was relatively low quality so I put my hand my pocket and paid to download the movie Silence of the Lambs from iTunes and was able to get some good screen grabs, which has really helped. Still toying with the idea of throwing some 'props' into the picture, so dont be surprised if you see a bottle of Chianti in the final.

Everything has to start somewhere

Well, its the final week of the Seiler course on Schoolism. After doing a few studies of various celebs I've decided to go with Anthony Hopkins for my finished piece. Here are my modest beginnings and the initial sketch I penned out for the painting I'm currently working on. I should have a black and white 'value' painting up in a few days and god willing the final colour painting by the end of the week.

I'm using photo reference of Hopkins from the film Silence of the Lambs and putting him in more comfortable surroundings and narrating from a child's nursery rhyme book, quite a disturbing thought I'm sure you'll agree

Initial draft Ideas - Final Assignment

Here are two ideas I was working on towards my final assignment for the Schoolism course that didn't quite make it past the draft stage. Barack Obama and Anthony Hopkins, I wonder how many times we'll hear their two names together in the future, not too many I suspect.

I'm still keen on doing a Hopkins/Hannibal painting but looking at it from other angles. As for Obama its all a bit too cliche at the moment, though I have a feeling we'll all be drawing him a lot more over the coming years. Are caricaturists the only people who will be sad when Bush steps down?

Bruce Willis Caricature - Week 5, painting techniques

For my Bruce Willis caricature I wanted to work from photo reference which portrayed him as the action man we've come to know him as. So what better than a screen shot straight from Die Hard 4. I loved the lighting in this scene and enjoyed painting it. My process for this, the first full colour caricature in the course, was to do a detailed black and white value painting. I spent the majority of the overall time working on this stage. Next I painted a layer in colorize mode blocking in with my split compilation palette before returning to normal mode and detailing the piece in a direct painting style. After a bit of horizontal flipping and a few structural changes I was now happy he no longer looked like a distorted potato and pleased with the finished result.

Dave B - Week 4, Continuing with values

This painting of 'citizen' Dave B was done with a monochromatic palette taking the lessons learnt with value painting further.

Gary Value Painting - week 3

In week 3 of the caricature course Jason articulates the importance he places on getting good and correct values in his work. For the assignment we used a quick pencil sketch he'd done of a friend called gary and built up a value painting in greyscale using photoshop.

Pope Benedict XVI - Week 2, Understanding Shapes

This is my finished rendering of Pope Benedict XVI, done as part of the assignment for week 2, understanding shapes.

Tom Hanks Caricature - Week 1, Introduction to Caricature

Week 1 of Jason's course on schoolism.com titled 'introduction to Caricature'.  Each week there is a new video to download where Jason talks you through his techniques and thought process.  You then put what you've learned into practice by completing an assignment based around what you saw in the instructional video.  Week 1, Jason discusses the weight of a persons face and exaggeration and asks you to sketch the faces of 3 citizen's and a final rendering of celebrity Tom Hanks.  So this was my submission. 

A Beginning

Well, I've finally taken my first baby steps in this blogging world.  I hope to use this as an outlet for my sketching and painting and to put it out there in the public domain. Feel free to give me feedback and interact. It'd be cool to hear from other artists.

I'm currently a student of the fantastic Jason Seiler. I'll be posting the outcome of the assignments he sets us here in my blog, so look out for updates on that. For more information on Jason's caricature course check out www.schoolism.com