Friday, 7 February 2014

DICE Awards 2014 Little Golden Books

Final artwork cover mockups for a project commissioned by iam8bit. One of the most enjoyable projects I've ever worked on.





They are based on classic children's 'Little Golden Books' in style and are blank inside to be used as notebooks. The theme was to capture four unique moments in gaming history.

Copies were printed and put out on tables as freebies for the 14th annual DICE awards show, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences annual awards ceremony honouring the gaming industry held in Las Vegas on the 6th February. 

Turnaround was 5 days.

When Quarters were King - the coin-op/arcade industry of the 70s/80s.
Acrylic and photoshop.

A Flood of Fun and the Folly that Followed - the onslaught of consoles that caused the great video game crash of the early 80s.
Watercolour and photoshop. The idea for the illustration is based on the landfill site in Alomogordo, New Mexico that buried millions of unsold Atari 2600 ET game cartridges in the early 80s.

From Pixels to Polygons - the transition into 3D, when flat, pixelated graphics of Super Nintendo were replaced by the Playstation generation.
Digital.

The Great, Big Online World - the industry gravitating towards online play, building persistent, gargantuan worlds that simply weren't possible before.
Digital.

The Little Golden Book reference was thought up by the client and came about as it tied into DICE's 2014 theme of "The New Golden Age".

Here are the final books (with DICE's motif used as a repeat pattern for the foil binding) and actual LGB's from my collection I used for reference:






Tuesday, 13 August 2013

The Music Of Merseyside group exhibition 2013

Two pieces on show at the Liverpool Academy of Arts, Seel Street, Liverpool. Exhibition runs from 13th August - 29th August 2013. Open Tuesday - Saturday 12pm-4pm.


'Help The Beatles' (2013)
acrylic on canvas
120x30cm



'Magical Beatles' (2013)
acrylic on unpainted canvas
100x25cm

The piece below mine is called 'Ballooning Over Merseyside' by Charles Hughes.




Friday, 7 June 2013

2013 Liverpool Open exhibition at Editions Gallery


'Salted Sea Dog' (2013) Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20cm.
On display at Editions Gallery from Friday 14th June until Saturday 20th July as part of the 4th Liverpool Open group exhibition.

Editions Gallery
16 Cook Street
Liverpool
L2 9RF




Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Q Magazine illustration Glastonbury 2013

Glastonbury map illustration published in the July issue of Q - pages 92 & 93.





Friday, 5 April 2013

Help the Beatles painting

My second piece for the upcoming Beatles exhibition being held at the Liverpool Academy of Arts this August.

'Help the Beatles' acrylic on canvas, 120 x 30 cm.


Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Magical Beatles painting

My latest painting for the Beatles Come Together exhibition in August (a way off but I want to put in three pieces this year). Based on scenes from the Magical Mystery Tour film.

John as the Eggman from the 'I Am The Walrus' video, Paul from the 'Fool on the Hill' video, George (unmasked) from the album cover and Ringo who appears as a wizard during the film.

'Magical Beatles' 100 x 25cm, acrylic on unpainted primed canvas. The rainbow trails continue under the canvas along the bottom edge.


Colour rough:


Ricardo Autobahn album cover

Recently a friend of mine bought one of my Merry ZXmas cards from the Winter Arts Market for her brother who asked if I could modify it for an album cover. Can't say no to that really.... Its an instrumental electronic album by Ricardo Autobahn.