Darts Knight

Where did the game of darts come from? Some say medieval knights threw them at moving targets in jousting tournaments. Did they have the beer bellies though?

workload rising

A very quick turnaround for BMA News review but very pleased with the outcome!

Clogged up

In Lancashire the menfolk settled disputes by the means of clog fights (or 'purring' as it was known). This involved lots of drinking and the fighting and the gambling that went with it was highly illegal. By all accounts the fights were done in the nude apart from the said clogs. One version involved the two fighters sitting on the rim of a large barrel and hacking each others shins until one submitted. The winner was the best of 3! Sometimes I love my job!

Hamish returns

I've recently been given a link to a version of the Hamish game which I did for Crieff Hydro Hotel that I've not seen for a few years. Have a go!
http://www.crieffhydro.com/hamishBigAdventure.html

Macannibals

Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean who holed up in a cave with his wife and 6 daughters and 8 sons (the sons and daughters then produced 32 grandchildren). They story goes that they ambushed and robbed (and ate) hundreds of travellers.

inner space

Wellcome Trust Big Picture number 11 on genes, genomes and health. This one was to show the bugs we have in our intestines

Hitler's Deficiency

Never ever thought I'd be drawing an illustration about Hitler's supposed deficiency. Had to keep this one clean so only a suggestion of the subject!

I want my medicine mummy

Seemingly in olden days they used powdered egyptian mummies in an assortment of medicines. Very odd but lends itself to a good pic!

Ya Beauty

Panto poster for the Tron Theatre Glasgow. They wanted something a little bit 'anarchic' showing the characters in the Panto. The anarchy and the number of characters on the poster were reduced as were the boobies on 'Bunty' but it still ended up a fun pic!

Hercules a jolly good fellow

Working on two books for Oxford University Press at the moment. 'Thor and his Stolen Hammer' and 'Hercules' as pictured here in this rough. Many, many illustrations and only a few weeks to do them!

The Virginians

Two pics from a series for a design company in Kilmarnock, Virginia, U.S. The images are being used as email adverts to promote the local area website.

You win some...........

Pitches - bah! Just worked on a project to develop some animated characters for NHS Choices with an old colleague Trevor Pake. Didn't make it to the next stage of the pitch though which is disappointing as I think we produced a great presentation and a Trevor created a great script - even though I do say it myself. Would have been great to bring this fella to life! Never mind - bring on the next project!

Historic visits

Did UFOs appear in historic times? Proof that they did....

Drug's in Sheep's Clothing

A take on the saying 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' for BMA News to show how drugs bought on the internet aren't necessarily what they say they are.

The Died Laughing Cavalier

The Q&A for this month's BBC History asks 'Has anyone ever died laughing?'
Thought the Laughing Cavalier was a good pic to parody here!
Maybe the return of putting collage in my pics...?

p-p-p-pick...

Sometimes you just feel you need one...

ey? oh! aye...

I realised that I've been a member of the AOI (the Association of Illustrators) for a long time but I've never added a folio onto their website. Anyway, I've remedied that now and I've added my pics. Have a look at aoiportfolios.com. There's some old favourites and some previously unseen pics (in webland that is)

Cheap Coronation

It seems William IV was concerned about not spending too much on his coronation in the 1830s.

oops

Just realised I haven't posted for a while so I'll put one of the recent BBC History pics on the blog. This one was asking who was the first British person we knew by name. The answer it turns out was a King of Sussex that the Romans had dealings with. I thought it'd be fun to have him as the first British holder of an identity card - getting some topicality in there too!