IF: Magnify

New drawing for Illustration Friday theme, 'Magnify'. These are some of the little germs, bacteria and other little beasties you might see through a super high strength microscope. My girlfriend suggested I should title it 'Petri-fied'.

Travelling Moleskine

A wild moleskine recently knocked on my door and asked me to draw in it. There's lots more great doodles to see in the Culture Vultures Flickr pool. Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/groups/travelingmoleskine/pool/

IF: Caution

Tried my hand at a bit of painting this weekend - this is inspired by the view from my bedroom window. A red sunset sky always reminds me of the cautionary saying;

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight
Red sky in the morning, sailors warning

Today also marks the end of my two and half week summer holiday. Back to work tomorrow. I've uploaded a few of my pics from my recent trips to Cornwall and Prague to Flickr. Also discovered I'm pretty good at baking bread!

IF: Modify

The first idea I had for this week's theme of 'Modify' was of four-legged fish turning into monkeys and then evolving into humans. I then continued this train of thought into humans evolving into super heroes with special powers. Probably also inspired by the Wolverine cartoon I saw this morning as I'm on holiday!

IF: Idle

This is inspired by memories of a night out in Idle a few months ago. Idle's a village on the outskirts on Bradford and some friends who live there took me to a biker pub with a live band. It was also a fun way to idle away a few hours on a Friday night.

Tribute to Bradford

I've had this image floating around in my head for a few weeks now and I've finally put pencil to paper. As it's often said, nothing is original, and this image is no exception. I think I first thought about drawing the city of Bradford after seeing this painting by Jane Fielder hanging in the Starbucks on Centenary Square. I love it's simple shapes and bold colours, reminiscent of Lowry.

The colours for this illustration come from the yellow limestone and grey concrete that create the city. Architecturally, Bradford is pretty amazing. Everyday I notice some tiny detail I've never seen before in the ornate classical design of many of the buildings. There's a fair bit of brutalist concrete, but even the 'alien spaceship' design of the currently vacant Highpoint building has it's charms.

The best thing about Bradford though has got to be the people. Most people are pretty friendly really, kind of down to earth and self-effacing. There's something about the city of Bradford that cuts through any air of pretension. I miss it when I'm staying in any big, metropolitan city. Plus the curries are the best you'll get in the UK!

IF: Tango