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