EVERY LITTLE 8-BIT HELPS

The wonderful people at Guardian Weekend commissioned me again. This piece was about a new website called 'If This Then That' (IFTTT) which uses a cause & effect system to automate your digital self. For example, if it is forecast to rain in your location, you can set it to email your phone with a reminder to take your umbrella with you

OUT ON THE TILES

This is a downloadable tile desktop wallpaper. Just drag the image to your computer and set it as your desktop wallpaper (as the tile setting) . It will look something like the image below it

GIVING VOICE

The Feed rebooted their 'This Summer' post for halloween. People sent in their tweets and received a spooky MP3 of their Halloween plans. The image below was used to promote it on Spotify

YOU HAVE A GIFT?

Another image created for Orange; this post is a chance for people to win personalised gifts for people for Christmas

VERY ANIMATED

This animation was created with the very talented Tim Ruffle for the very awesome Feed

ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING

This was a logo I created for a Burlesque show.

GET A MOVIE ON

Another piece for Orange

COSTA THE EARTH

A new map created for CSMA Club Magazine of Costa Rica

TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL YOU

75 artists were asked to create a portrait of the award winning architect, Sir Peter Cook for an exhibition in Brisbane, celebrating his 75th birthday and raising money for charity. You can join in the auctioning by going here and bidding online. You can also see the full list of awesome illustrators involved. My contribution is below:

GOOD KNIGHT

I've had some wonderful reviews of my new book, 'Knight Night', from a variety of sources and I thought I'd share some quotes with you:


"Beautifully illustrated in autumnal oranges, burgundies and browns by Junior Design Best Newcomer Winner Owen Dave, Knight Night has a simple narrative about a boy’s bedtime routine. Yet in the illustrations, we see our hero imagining he is really a brave knight, climbing mountains on his trusty unicorn, saying Night Night to his pet dragon and tidying his precious things away into a mysterious treasure chest. A wonderful way to turn the daily bedtime ritual into something far more exotic for children with vivid imaginations." (Junior Magazine)


"This is his second children's book and his distinctive style effectively brings to life a tale which is simple yet brimful of detail and adventure. One of the strengths of the book is how the author plays with the boundaries between reality and fantasy. The palette of colours used by Owen Davey, is as in Foxly's Feast, striking and original, especially for a children's picture book. It is limited, with shades of brown and orange and a variety of warm colours. The effect is not only beautiful, but also particularly fitting for a bedtime story, as those tones ooze a relaxed mood." (Library Mice)


"This picture book has some of the most utterly beautiful illustrations I've ever seen...It's pretty much the perfect book for any little kid who loves knights and castles. (And are there any little kids who don't? I'm sure there must be, but I haven't met them yet.) My little boy adores it." (Stephanie Samphire, Amazon)


"Knight Night was an enchanting and enjoyable book, perfect for any little boys (or budding knights!). Its readers can follow the brave knight on his quest to bed through forests and past crocodiles and up a castle wall. What I particularly enjoyed was the blurred lines between reality and fantasy. It created the perfect story world for all to enjoy. The book helps make bedtime more fun and enjoyable, whilst still keeping it about the task at hand. The full and busy pages keep children easily engaged, with plenty to look at, whilst teaching them that yes, even brave knight’s have to brush their teeth. Knight Night was an absolute pleasure to read. " (Pamela Roach, Good Reads)

ALIKE IT OR NOT

This was yet another project for Orange: The Feed, where I was asked to create some character designs for a post. I won't tell you what the idea for the post was, in case they ever use it, but as it doesn't look like it's gonna crop up any time soon, I thought I'd share my illustrations with you. Enjoy

POKE ME IN THE ICE

I recently dabbled in the world of Illustrator to create some imagery for Orange: The Feed. To cool people down during the (not so hot) summer, The Feed sent an Ice Cream van to four cities to give people free ice cream. I created the series of maps of Manchester, Birmingham, London & good old Brighton, which people then chose the area in the city they wanted the van to visit. 

I was also in charge of designing the exterior imagery for the Ice Cream Van. I did a bunch of illustrator stuff that wasn't actually used in the end, but I wanted to share it with you anyway.

The final decision for the van was to have a more hand-drawn feel to it, so I created the work in my traditional way, then converted it into an Illustrator document. You can see the results in the below video:





It was great to have a bash at creating things digitally. I'll definitely try more Illustrator stuff in the future.  

TEN PACES & DRAW

I have been working like an illustration beaver for the past month but unfortunately, I can't show any of it to anybody. Except for this mini project I did with Ten Paces & Draw. Ten Paces is an awesome blog set up by Alyssa Nassner (whose illustrations are superb), where illustrators are asked to create sketches based on a subject, which are then passed onto another illustrator to finish off in their own unique style. It's a very clever way of approaching collaboration and produces some wonderful results. 


We were given the simple brief of Monsters. Below is the draft that I came up with, finished off by the ace illustrator Lydia Nichols (I've loved her work for a long time so I was chuffed when I found out she'd finished mine off). There is also a draft from Kyle Fewell (again a very talented human being) and the finished image I created from that.


The Medieval Monster I designed is also available to purchase here.


The whole experience was great, and despite it being very awkward timing (in the middle of about 6 commissions), I'm very glad I did it. Hopefully I'll have time to contribute to the blog again soon

AS GOOD AS NEW (ENGLAND)

Another map commission created for CSMA Club Magazine

Call It A Night

Here are a couple of reviews of Knight Night, posted on the Templar Website:

I remember seeing Owen Davey’s work for the very first time back in Foyles Gallery after his first roughs for Foxly’s Feasthad been highly commended. It really stood out. Alongside his fantastically bold style it was a real breath of fresh air, having no text at all. Don't get me wrong I like a good piece of text, and love the way text is integrated into most picture books. Yet this really drew me in, I was amazed with the amount of information I could read from Owen’s illustrations alone. It reminded me of being young ‘reading’ Raymond Briggs’ A Snowman story in my head, making up my own lines and conversation as I flicked through the wonderfully descriptive illustrations. Knight Night, like Owen’s first book, demonstrates this great ability to tell stories using very little if any words at all.

Knight Night is quietly humorous from start to finish, as the Little Knight's imagination is truly reflected by the imaginative pictures illustrating the little boy’s real world, alongside how it is seen through his playful eyes. It really made me smile and it has all the charm of Oliver Jeffers' work.

Kids are truly the harshest critics and my nephew went straight to the kitchen cupboard for the colander (or should I say knight’s helmet) so I think that’s two big thumbs up!

Kristyna Litten

Knight Night was an enchanting and enjoyable book, perfect for any little boys (or budding knights!).

Its readers can follow the brave knight on his quest to bed through forests and past crocodiles and up a castle wall. What I particularly enjoyed was the blurred lines between reality and fantasy. It created the perfect story world for all to enjoy.

The book helps make bedtime more fun and enjoyable, whilst still keeping it about the task at hand. The full and busy pages keep children easily engaged, with plenty to look at, whilst teaching them that yes, even brave knight’s have to brush their teeth.

Knight Night was an absolute pleasure to read.


Pamela Roach

A WORLD OF THEIR OWN

My lovely agency Folio got me this job. I have no idea who it was for or what the hell it was about...nobody did. But I like the colour palette.

A SONG & DANCE

I was commissioned again to create the third single from The Leisure Society's new album, Into The Murky Water (listen to or buy it here).

NO SPAIN, NO GAIN

I was recently featured on a Spanish website called End Topic. Thought I would share it with everyone. Visit the site here to see what they say about me & look at some more of my work.

KNIGHT NIGHT

My second Picture Book with Templar is out and available for purchase here. There have already been two wonderful reviews of it here & here. Below are some photos of the finished book, but it looks better in real life, so GO & BUY IT!

IN MY GOOD BOOKS

I recently had the chance to create a bunch of book covers for an Orange: The Feed post. This was a ridiculously fun project. Here they are:

AN INDIAN SUMMER

I was commissioned to create a map of Kerala which is an state in south-west India.

NATURE CALLS

The Leisure Society have released a digital single called 'You Could Keep Me Talking'. It's awesome & you should buy it here.

SET UP SHOP

I've set up an online shop, selling my work. Purchase stuff here.

'BRAND' NEW

I've been doing some branding for myself recently. Here are two logos I've created for myself.

GOOD KNIGHT

My new book! Available for pre-order here.

ON THE SPOT(IFY)

Cameron Steward (Two Ducks Disco) used his eagle eyes to spot my work appearing on Spotify to advertise The Feed post about Voiceovers. He nabbed me this screen shot and sent it to me.

SELF IMAGE

I really hate press photos. I especially hate them of myself. They either look posed, weird, cheesy or all of the above. So I decided to draw myself instead, and hope that people will use this instead of any bad photos. 

Disclaimer: I do not have pink hair. I am brunette

HOME ALONE TOO

 An article for BBC History about the rising trend of people living alone and large houses being converted into smaller apartments for single occupants.

BEARS IN MIND

YouTuba are a tuba quartet that try to experiment with their albums & performances, and this time around, they have enlisted the help of Simon Callow & Ian McMillan to tell a story about four tuba players summoned to the woods to help open a mysterious chest. This is the flyer for the event, but I will also be creating the album artwork and a digital press release. I've loved having the chance to design the whole thing myself with a load of creative freedom...awesome clients indeed.