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Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:59:00.007Z

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog as it's been a crazy busy summer. I've been super busy on various projects (I finally finished my first ever book last week!) and getting appendicitis just after my last blog post didn't help didn't make things any easier! Amongst it all, I've been meaning to post these pictures.

This halloween all the Marks & Spencers halloween range of packaging and in-store graphics have featured my characters and artwork. It was a project I did earlier in year, and it was hard to wait until the end of summer before the finished results started to appear in-store.

Here's a lovely picture my agents took feature a sample of the products that have been available:

Below are some examples of the different characters and creatures I provided them with:

I'll post some pictures of the packaging soon, in the meantime here's a couple of shots of some of the various items on the shelves:

The Cardturner

2010-06-03T20:11:00.009+01:00

'The Cardturner' by Louis Sachar is finally out in the UK, and with the cover I did for it, it marks the first professional Illustration job Ive done since graduating thats actually out there all finiahed and printed and stuff. Im very chuffed with it. I thought I'd put up some better pictures now that its out.

Like a Pokemon game the book comes in two different colours, the red one above, and the blue one you can see below. In Pokemon the red version is the fire version, and the blue is the water version, for this cover though it represents the two different coloured decks of cards you usually get, as its supposed to look like the back of a card (see my earlier post for the full description, here)

Below, is the back cover. This version is different from the actual printed version as it doesn't have the barcode, and the text is hand written by me, rather than the typed font used in the finished version.

On the finished frontcover, the central blurb is handwritten by me, as is the bit of blurb at the very bottom. I although the finished cover uses typed font, I also produced two hand written options for the authors name and title. Below is the sans-serif version:

Here is the serif version:

Im really happy with the finished item, and it was really nice to go out and see something I've done out there, all ready to buy. Here it is in the big Waterstones (other bookshops are available) near Piccadilly Circus:

Here it is in the Waterstones (other bookshops are available) in Covent Garden:

Here it is up north in my home town in the Waterstones (seriously, other bookshops are available) in the fine cathedral city of Lincoln:

My version of the cover is only for the hardback version published by Bloomsbury in the UK. The American cover is quite a different approach, using a photography instead. Its interesting to see the difference. Here it is:

If you're interested in buying a copy its available now from all good book shops. The amazon.co.uk link is here (other online retailers are available).

P.S. this will be the last blog post about this now unless something super happens to do with it. Ive gotten abit carried away maybe, mainly because its nice to actually have something from the last year that I can show. Hopefully I'll be able to post about some other projects soon. Well soon-ish....

My First (Audio) Book Cover

2010-05-26T20:47:00.003+01:00

Today I got a nice surprise in the post, the audiobook of the Cardturner, with an adapted version of my cover used both on the CD cover and the C.D.'s themselves. I'd not given the audiobook any thought, so it was an especially nice thing to find amongst the post.

If anyone is interested the book is out on June 1st, the audiobook is due on June 7th.

My First Book Cover

2010-05-17T11:24:00.005+01:00

A few weeks ago, I received my advance copies from Bloomsbury of 'The Cardturner' by Loius Sachar, which I have done the cover for. In all the excitement of seeing my first ever book cover published, I forgot to post any pictures.

The idea was to create something like the design on the back of a playing card, with elements from the story turned into symbols in each corner, instead of the traditional hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds. I created a kind of road map pattern for the rest of the design, again in reference to the story (click the picture to see the detail better).

The book will be available in two different colours, like a blue deck of cards and a red deck of cards. Below is the back cover which I designed to look like the ace of spades. This is not in reference to the track by the band 'Motorhead'. I tried to work in a few more story elements into the pattern, can you see a compass and a car wheel?

Im very happy with the final thing, its really exciting to finally see some of the work I've been doing over the last year finished, printed and ready to show about. Im really looking forward to seeing it in the shops. The book is released on June 1st here in the UK (heres the amazon link). I'll put up some better pictures once the book is out properly.

One detail Im particularly happy with is this, my actual name, in actual print, on an actual published book! whoop!

Bologna 2010

2010-04-07T23:48:00.005+01:00

At the end of March the annual Bologna Children's Book Fair took place in Bologna of all places. To quote wikipedia's description of the fair "It is the meeting place for all professionals involved with creating and publishing children's books, and is mainly used for the buying and selling of rights, both for translations and for derived products like movies or animated series". While I wasn't able to attend myself, this was the first year that some of my work was over there. One place it could be found was on the cover for Scholastic's 2010 rights guide.

The illustration on the cover is taken from 'Super Amazing Mazes', a book I'm working on at the moment with Scholastic, which was amongst all of the other tops things inside the catalogue. They even let me do the lettering. I was really honored that my work was chosen for the cover, and It was lovely to see the finished catalogue. It was really nicely printed, with a glossy varnish used on the bear and the ground, which looks particulary swish.

Today my agents sent me an exert from industry magazine The Bookseller's coverage of Bologna 2010 which even mentions my book! Im very excited to have gotten a mention! Click the pic below to take a closer peak.

Adam B WIndow

2010-04-04T23:34:00.004+01:00

One of the problems with finding things that I can post on my blog is that there is often a big gap between me finishing a piece of work and it actually appearing where it is intended to appearing. Here is a good example, a window display I worked on last summer for Adam B, a printers near Tottenham Court Road in Central London. Here are some pictures I snapped on my phone when I happened upon it all printed and all put up, last week.

Here is a distant view:

This is what I saw when I walked a bit closer:

The image goes across two separate windows. Here is the left window:

Here is the right:

Now I'm walking away:

Im further away now:

They also used the picture on a window along the side:

Here is the original:

I also did a black & white option:

Here is a photoshop mock-up that I made to show how it would look printed and put up. Im happy at how close it matches the reality:

Here is another mock-up:

Im not sure how long it will be up for, I think it my be semi-permanent for now. If you want to go see it, you will find it here.

P.S. This is my 100th blog post! Hooray!!!!

EDIT: Here are some extra photos that the Swishly talented Mr Augustine Coll sent me (he's the chap in the photos). Point your eyes at them then point your eyes at his website too (here).

Yuki Wallpaper(here)=Yuki Wallpaper (now)

2010-04-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

Hello there. I've not posted here since Christmas, and today its Easter which is very bad and naughty of me. So to make up for it I am doing a blog now. I have been very very busy, but its just not really stuff that Im allowed to be showing around at the moment. As soon as I can show anything I certainly will. Here is something kind of new I can post up.

The last blog I did was a Christmassy desktop wallpaper, and I dont have any Eastery desktop wallpapers, I do have some Yuki-ery wallpapers. Yuki is one of my super talented friends and I made a big picture for her birthday (see this blog post). I recently got round to sending a copy of the file and edited a couple of different desktops for her, and she said I could share them on my blog. I hope you like them. Also you should really check out Miss Nishimura's website to see her illustrations.

Cheerio :-)

Christmas Gift 2: festive wallpaper

2009-12-24T07:30:00.002Z

Happy Christmas! Here is another virtual gift, a festive wallpaper for your desktop. The image is from the cover of the sadly unfinished Super Christmas 2009 (currently cover and back cover finished+a 50 page story with every page started but none finished, time has not been on my side, I need a super christmas miracle!). This image was also used by my agency on their christmas cards. Hope it helps your computer get festive.

Super Christmas 2007

2009-12-24T07:23:00.003Z

Happy Christmas everyone!

As a kind of virtual present here is my Super Christmas 2007 book for you to read. I hope you enjoy it and it helps you feel festive! It is missing one page I'm afraid but it does effect it too much.

Merry Christmas you!

1 Month to go.........

2009-11-25T02:47:00.001Z

Arena Illustration Agency

2009-11-23T09:13:00.002Z

Although I might have mentioned it in passing in a previous blog post, I thought today would be a good day to specifically announce that I have joined Arena Illustration Agency. I chose today as their new website has launched with my page as part of it. have a look here. I have been working with them for a few months now and while Im not able to show you (yet) some of the things we've been working on, I will do as soon as I can. Hooray.

More Animations

2009-10-27T22:15:00.002Z

I thought following the few animations In my last post, I'd post the rest of the animations I did at while studying Fine Art at De Montfort university.

Here are some animations from the second semester of my second year in 2002. The animations were projected on to larger sheets of fabriano paper alongside a series of similar pictures drawn on to fabriano paper to match. In these drawings and animations I was creating large detailed patterns using common elements from my doodles. This was the most successful of all my projects on my fine art degree and I'd still like to return to it at some point. Because the animations where supposed to work like the still drawings they were made of short loops so they could be constantly projected onto the sheets of paper.

The following animations are from the last semester of the third year. They are taken from a follow up project to the one mentioned above. I didn't get to project them onto paper and ended up just having a showreel playing on a tv alongside my other drawings that wern't really connected to the drawings. As a project it didn't work aswell but I still quite like the animations themselves.

Thomas Flintham vs Pixar

2009-10-22T18:24:00.014+01:00

I recently had the pleasure of watching the new pixar film 'Up' and recomend it highly. It is swish, especially the first 15 minutes which have some great storytelling to go with the great story. 'Up's story of a flying house reminded me of a project I did way back in the second year of my BA Fine Art studies at De Montfort University in 2002 called 'The Flying house'. Below you can see both the series of drawings I did and my first brief experimentation with animation aswell.

click the area below to browse all the images full screen.

I can't really claim that pixar stole my idea as my version itself was not the most original idea ever, being inspired by books such as 'The House That Sailed Away' by Pat Hutchins, and 'Laputa Castle in the Sky' by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Also despite the fact that I did upload all the images onto a website in 2002 I don't think pixar would have seen them.

A couple of semesters after I did the 'The Flying house' project I created my first ever comic called 'Momo and the Little Bird'. Soon after I finished at the beginning of 2003 I started to think of ideas for another comic. One of the main ideas I liked was called 'ROBO' about a robot made by a scientist that outlives not only his creator but all of mankind aswell. So a story about a robot left all alone on earth carrying on its work all alone.......which is just like Wall-e, those pixar scoundrels!

Although apart from this detail my story was going to be quite different, but I was still abit annoyed by the similarities as I still had the idea in mind when Wall-e came out. I never got further than the cover for 'ROBO' the comic, I instead decided to animate it instead. I planned to animate the whole story to the song 'Eric the Gardener' by the Divine Comedy, matching the progression of the story to the changes in the music. I had the whole thing planned out but never got further than a very small section at the beginning showing ROBO being built. I turned the small section I did do into a small looping animation of a series of ROBOs being produced, using a sample of 'Eric the Gardener' within it. I also did an a brief follow up, another short looping animation showing lots of ROBOs called 'ROBO Parade'. You can see them both below:

Although I still like the idea I had for my ROBO story, following Wall-e I'm not sure if I'd ever do it the way I intended, but I might incorporate it into another story. Those darned Pixar people, always 120 steps ahead......

The Art Book 2010 Cover

2009-10-12T21:20:00.009+01:00

The above image is a rough sketch/layout/doodle for an image I entered into a competition this summer, to design the cover for the 2010 edition of The Art Book. The Art Book is an annual illustration showcase produced and compiled by a number of agencies featuring a selection of the Illustrators they represent, which is then sent to a range of art directors and clients. You can look at the previous editions online at www.theartbook.com. (Just as a note the competition and the opportunity to have a page in the book is only open to illustrators represented by the agencies involved)

Im not sure if you can tell from this stage that the main part of the cover features a maze like what I did in 'The Amazing Giants Castle'. It even features the same boy and his dog. I appraoched this as a kind of re-interpretation/follow-up but at a more widely useful size.
From the basic sketch I expanded it to included the spine and the back cover too. See below:

To enter the competition you could enter an unfinished design, which due to a lack of time is exactly what I did. I sent the above sketch to give an idea of how the front and back cover would work. I also sent the image below, which is a more worked up version of the front cover, specifically the maze itself:

I was happy with the design at this stage, but I wasn't happy that I hadn't had time to finish it before sending it off, which made me doubtful of my chances. I was surprised however to find that my entry had gone through to the second stage and was one of the final six based on the voting to that point. All the judges then voted on the remaining six to choose the cover and although I didn't win in the end I did get runner up, which I was very happy with.

I was still happy with the design and decided to finish it so that I could use it on my page in the finished book. Below is the finished version:

Because the image was no longer going to have the back cover part, I decided to move the monster in the fog behind the island, as he was one of my favourite parts of the original design, and i wanted to keep him in. I also zoomed out a bit to both make room for the monster and to show abit more of the island and the sea. It was tricky to get right but I'm happy with the end result.

Below is a weird version that happened when I tried to upload a CMYK formated version for this blog post. I quite like it though!:

Postcard 1

2009-10-09T10:59:00.004+01:00

I've not been good at updating my blog for a while and so I've got a few things to catch up with. Here are the images for my very first promotional postcard that had made up in time for my MA Final Show this July. Below is the main picture from the front and is the first ever non-Christmas Greg:

Next is the first ever Ghost Boots strip. Miss Ghost boots has a cameo in The amazing Giants maze (see here and here and here) and is a character I'd like to do more with. I drafted her in here for advertising duties. The postcards were colour on the front and the back is Black and White (and grey). See below:

Although I was happy for Ghost Boots to be Black and white I also did a colour version which most likely will not be used ever. Here it is:

I hope to do more postcards in the future they're fun to make. I hope to start posting more often but some of the things I have done can be posted here for various reasons. At least not yet.......

Happy Belated Birthday Yuki!

2009-10-08T22:25:00.006+01:00

Here is a picture I have made as a birthday present for my very talented friend Yuki Nishimura (see her work at www.yukinishimura.com). What started off as a simple drawing to a simple poem that I wrote (inspired by her own work illustrating nonsense poems) kept growing and growing, and getting bigger and bigger until many months had passed with the picture still being unfinished. In the end I decided that I had to draw a line somewhere and I have declared it finished at last. Although I would still like to add more......

Happy Belated Birthday Yuki :-D

Click the above image or here to see a zoomable version. (sometimes you might need to click refresh to get it to load properly)

to see the swish picture Yuki made me for my birthday go here.

The Amazing Giant's Castle

2009-07-22T10:02:00.003+01:00

The final show for my Illustration MA is finished now, all the work has been taken down and all assesments are over. So I thought its about time I put up my the main piece I made for the show, see it above. It is the piece I have been showing bits of in my "sneaky peak" posts over the past couple of months.

I printed it at 200cm by 70cm, its abig pic! you cant really see the detail in the picture above but I have put a zoomable version up on my website see here.

So thats that, the MA is over. I got my results through and I've somehow manged to pass with distinction which I am super happy with. As well as being happy with that, Im sad its over and scared senseless about whats coming next. I set this blog up as I was required to as part of the course, but I have enjoyed it and found it helpful so I plan to keep going with it.

Whoop.

MA final show opening tomorrow!

2009-07-13T20:51:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow night is the opening night of the MA final show at the Camberwell College of Art, and as a graduating student my work is there amongst all the other swish and talented people exhibiting. Check this site for information on the illustration part of the show:

camberwellmaillustration.blogspot.com

The work I am showing has been show in parts in numerous previous posts look at may and junes blog posts its the sneaky peak ones. I will show it on here after the show, thought id save it for the show though.

The show starts tomorrow (Tuesday) and runs until Sunday (Sunday)

As well as my work I will be selling the first copies of my new book "Super Japanese: Text Book 1" and also my first ever postcard will be available free of charge, gotta collect em all? start with the first!

Hope you can come to our show, we have put alot of work into it so we hope you enjoy it. If you come. Which I hope you do.

You should.

"Super Japanese: Text Book 1" Launch Party news

2009-07-13T20:40:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow night is the launch party of my brand new book "Super Japanese: Text Book 1". The party is at the Camberwell College of Art, between 6-9 and is accompanied by some kind of an exhibition of various peoples work including my own. See here for details:

click here

There will be 15 copies up for grabs, price undecided as I'm trying to make it as cheap as possible while also covering costs, and it cost more to make each one than I thought it would. Its my first ever full colour book. I hope to make more when I can afford to email me if your interested at tommyflintham*AT*hotmail*DOT*com

Also new and tweeked portfolio is now up on my website. check it out:

www.thomasflintham.com

Cheerio.

Happy Birthday Me!

2009-06-21T10:45:00.004+01:00

Normally I only use this blog to show my work but I thought I'd make an exception for this super swish picture that my super talented friend Yuki made me for my birthday. Its me and one of my bunny friends dressed up as the two most bestest characters from one of my most favouritest tee-vee programs One Piece. I'm dressed as Monkey D. Luffy, who in turn is dressed as me, and My bunny friend is dressed as reindeer/man/pirate Tony Tony Chopper. Needless to say the picture is amazing and I feel lucky to have such a present. To see more amazing pictures by Yuki head over to yukinishimura.com. Thank you Miss Yuki!

Also here is the aMAZEing card the talented young mister Paul Shinn drew for me. Point your faces here for his blog: lookwhatidrawed.blogspot.com. Thank you Mister Paul!

Also thank you everyone for a lovelly day in the midst of the season of stress.

Here is a sample of the great one piece, although its only when you get stuck into the story that you see how truly great it is:

The same and but different

2009-06-19T00:56:00.003+01:00

While trying to layout my portfolio 2 images fell together that caught my eye. The one on the right was made in march 2008 the one on the left was made January 2009. I don't know what i think when I see them together, but there is something there in the differences and the similarities. I was not thinking about the older one when making the newer one, but they are related.

p.s. laying out a portfolio is not an easy thing. i wish i had fewer a4 shaped things,and more landscape shaped things.

Last Sneaky Peak

2009-06-12T15:45:00.002+01:00

For the past 5 weeks I've been working on something for the final show for my MA illustration degree. Ive been posting some sneaky peaks up on the blog. Here is the very last sneaky peak of it, im not going to show the full thing until after the show. This little guy was the last thing i did for it. If you do come to the show see if you can spot him. End of sneaky peaking.

A day moon at Castle Hill

2009-06-09T17:23:00.001+01:00

Fly! You!

2009-06-05T23:49:00.000+01:00

Is he great?

2009-06-03T21:31:00.001+01:00

Colour clash at castle hill

2009-06-02T20:33:00.002+01:00

a sneak and a peek but cant reach

2009-05-30T10:50:00.000+01:00

this guy and can you see that guy too? a sneak peek.

2009-05-29T17:49:00.000+01:00

Sneaky Peeking Foxes

2009-05-29T11:51:00.002+01:00

Sneak peek at finished Miss Ghost Boots

2009-05-28T10:45:00.000+01:00

Those Ghost Boots sure are sneaky, can you peek at them?

2009-05-28T09:21:00.003+01:00

twit-twoo (sneak-peek)

2009-05-28T08:37:00.001+01:00

sneakers peekers

2009-05-27T20:29:00.001+01:00

Sneaking peeking pals

2009-05-27T11:57:00.003+01:00

sneak and peek and chase

2009-05-27T09:29:00.001+01:00

sneak, zoom, peek, zoom, look....

2009-05-27T00:35:00.001+01:00

Even more sneaky peeking

2009-05-25T23:10:00.003+01:00

Is that Mister Sneakerson Peekerson? No it isn't.

2009-05-24T00:12:00.002+01:00

Sneaks and peeks

2009-05-22T16:13:00.002+01:00

More Sneaky-peeking

2009-05-21T09:06:00.002+01:00

Freddie and the Fairy

2009-05-19T23:03:00.004+01:00

Here are the images I submitted for Waterstones 'Picture This' competition, the winner of which will get to illustrate 'Freddie and the Fairy' the new children's book by Julia Donaldson, writer of 'The Gruffalo'. For the first stage of the competition I needed to do a full 2 page spread (see above), and character sketches of Freddie, Bessie Bell the Fairy, the Fairy Queen and some of the animals that turn up in the story (see below). This was the picture that I showed a sneaky sample of a couple of posts ago.

The deadline was yesterday and after getting home from work sunday night I had to work through most the night to get it done in time to get it printed and travel to brentford to hand it in. I'm quite happy with the results. On Saturday 6th of June they will announce in The Telegraph the 6 illustrators that go onto the final stage to see who wins. It would be swish if I was one of them. Yup.

Another Sneaky-peek

2009-05-05T01:14:00.004+01:00

Here is a picture of a tiny bit of a much bigger picture I'm working on. At the minute I'm working on a number of things that I don't really want to show too much of until they are finished, but I still want to be posting stuff, hence why this blog post and the last have been abit mysterious. Perhaps for the next 7 weeks as I get close to the end of my course this blog will mainly be one big tease. Who knows. I don't. To be honest I've got enough to be worrying about with out thinking too much about this kind of stuff. Its probably best to just see how things pan out I guess.

To sumarise: here is a little bird in a tree.

pixelation fun

2009-04-26T11:40:00.004+01:00

Ive not posted anything on here for a bit so I thought I'd show a sneaky sample of something I'm working on. Ive zoomed into a low res version of it an I quite like how it looks when its all pixelated. Click the pic to see it big in all its pixelated shinyness. Bye.

Worse Things That Happen at Sea Again

2009-04-11T12:03:00.005+01:00

The picture above was the very first picture I popped up on my blog. It was commissioned and drawn alongside "The Giant", (which I've recently redrawn, see my last two posts), by the lovely and swish Daydream Network (see here) for an exhibition of art in response to the credit crunch. Both were drawn on large boards with edding pens. The originals are no longer in my possession, and as I have no good photos of them I decided it would be worth redrawing them for portfolio purposes and because they were both images that I was very happy with. Ive already posted 2 different versions of "The Giant", and here are my recreations of "Worse Things Happen at Sea":

Here is the original uncoloured dip pen and ink drawing. Ive stuck fairly close to the original, the main differences being a change to a new character away from the originals Mr Bankerman, and an inclusion of rain to the stormy clouds. The original was about the size of a sheet of A1 paper, this remake was drawn at A4 size.

Here is the final coloured version. I tried to keep the colours fairly muted and simple as i didnt wanted to make the colour fight with all the busy pen marks. I'm happy with it, and feel ive managed to recapture everything that I was happy with in the original with a few extra tweaks to help it work. Ive been working on the newer, smaller piece on and off for a few days, overal it took more time than the original which I did in an afternoon and an evening.

Splashes and rain? Oh no! I hate being wet! A monster? yes.

Also while I'm talking about the Daydream Network, the new Daydream Network book, DD06, features one of my pictures alongside the work of many others artists and writers. You should consider checking it out. Its not up on the website to order yet but I'm sure it will be soon.

The Giant returns again: Redux

2009-04-09T00:39:00.003+01:00

In this version I've tweaked the text to go along with the perpective. I think it helps the image. Not sure if it helps those who want to read the text. hhmmm.......

The Giant returns again

2009-04-06T16:48:00.003+01:00

Here is another version of the giant picture. I tried in the original to give a sense of scale and perspective, but I don't feel it worked particularly well. This attempt isnt perfect but I'm happy with it. Overall I think the second version is the most succesful version. Yes.

The return of the Giant

2009-04-03T00:01:00.003+01:00

Here is a new version of one of the first pictures that I posted on this blog, back in November last year. Because the original was a large drawing on board that i had no great pictures of, and that I no longer own, i thought I'd redraw it so that it could potentially be put in my portfolio. Above is the finished piece. Below is the original dip pen drawing.

Below is the original drawing that was done with pens on a fairly large scale.

A scribble boy

2009-04-02T16:31:00.003+01:00

Oh, and photoshop said unto me "scribble and lo, a scribble boy shall appear", and I did an lo here he is. Yes? of course!

Dip pen+ink+photoshop+wacom pen=this

2009-03-31T11:27:00.003+01:00

This is one of the first pictures I've done using a dip pen and ink. I'm quite happy with it. Also features a new way for me to draw shoes. hmmm? Yes.

Learn Japanese - Numbers=Suuji

2009-03-26T23:27:00.005Z

Angel found in space

2009-03-17T11:25:00.007Z

The above picture was taken by the hubble telescope. Originally believed by scientists to merely be a billowing 90 trillion kilometres high (9.5 light years) tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. However Scientist Rick Bishop took the image and filtered it through a computer simultaneously with a page of the Bible. Revealing the startling image below (please click to see a bigger version):

Originally scientists thought it could even be a picture of God himself, it turns out its actually a giant space angel. The area of bright light on the angels shoulder is currently thought to be the entrance to heaven itself, which is contained in the body of the angel. Scientist Rick Bishop has named the angel Rick Bishop the Space Angel.

Of course I'm being silly, but I really like the hubble's holiday pictures from space, and this one in particular. So I decided to mess about with it. I'm feeling good about this picture.

Here is another swish picture from the Eagle Nebula, everyones favourite Nebula:

Ichi=one=1

2009-03-14T00:17:00.004Z

Today I started to play around with how to show nmbers in my series of pictures illustrating Japanese words. The image below is a early go at ichi, number one:and below is ni, number two:

I was going to add another character until I had a wee crowd. I wasn't really happy with this approach, it didnt feel like the most interesting way for me to go, or the most challenging. After an afternoon of playing around a finally settled on another picture of a whale (my new favourite thing to draw). With each image another fish, or maybe sea creature will be added. I will try and show the whale in different positions in each one to give the series abit of range, it will be hard though while keeping the image this cramped, I don't want to zoom out too much or the inside of the whales tummy and its contents will be too small. Im happy with this picture, and am hopeful that the number series will come out okay.

Playing with photoshop

2009-03-10T23:44:00.003Z

Here is alittle quick bit of playing in Photoshop. Its ok but looks a little bit like felt tip pens on the hair, which is not what I really want. I like the nose.

Meet Mister Scribbles

2009-03-10T09:27:00.002Z

Here is mister scribbles. I don't know why I'm putting him up. but I am .

A Super Christmas picture book: a sneaky peak

2009-03-09T21:19:00.003Z

Here is a sneaky peak at a story book I'm working on. This image is just a quick experiment looking at what the pictures will look like. The story is based on a story that appeared in Super Christmas 2007. In that version the look and feel was dictated by the fact it was drawn fully in black and white. I want to use colour and more varied compositions this time. i think it might be worth using some line work with the colour. Below are some pictures from the original, the second has been coloured on photoshop for use as a portfolio piece.

Japanese Lesson 11- Days of the week

2009-03-02T21:40:00.007Z

I've not done a new learn Japanese picture for a while so I thought I oughta. Here are the first drafts of the days of the week starting with Monday, ending on sunday. Im going to add more pictures to each day to capture better the sense of days passing, rather than just a load of stuff happening. Im still trying to illustrate the words without writing the English, in this case its been tricky.

All kings fear the Whale King

2009-02-25T19:52:00.007Z

Here is a picture Ive submitted for the new book by the very nice Daydream Network. I had to produce it especially as I don't have many pictures in landscape. Also it required a bleed area, an area that goes beyond the part of the image that will be on the page, that is cut off after printing. If the image didn't continue into this area, when printed you risk having a blank part on the page, if the image doesn't line up perfectly. So you need some image in this area but nothing that will be missed. Its been a good bit of practice, and its something I will keep in mind when making future work. Below is what the image looks like with the bleed area taken away.

Flintham: the font

2009-02-20T16:33:00.005Z

As Ive put alot of old work up today I felt I should put some thing new up. This is something I've done this week after wanting to for a long time, it's a computer font using my handwriting! It will help me when doing work on the computer to write stuff quickly and consistantly. Im still fine tuning it here and there, but its as good as finished. I have named it "Flintham". Here is some tests Ive done in photoshop.

More random old stuff

2009-02-20T14:22:00.003Z

Here are a few more random old things I've found while clearing the images from my facebook. I like doing charcoal drawings but they are to messy to do without a studio.

Bit of Skirt window displays

2009-02-20T13:23:00.013Z

Bit of Skirt is a very nice little girls clothing shop in the fine city of Lincoln. If you go to Licoln you should go have a look at all the nice stuff they have. Between Christmas 2007 to summer 2008, while I was living back in Lincoln, I was their offical window display chap. It was something i really enjoyed doing. the shop was just around the corner from my studio, now I live in London however Im no longer able to do it. Which is a shame. Here is what I did:

Window number 1 Christmas 2007

Window number 2 Valentines/Spring

This window began as a valentines day window, but it became a springtime window with just a few changes. Its like Transformers.

Valentines day gave way to Easter with the introduction of the Easter Bunny

When Easter went, these Dandee-lions came to celebrate the spring time.

Window number 3 summer: Here come the sun!

Click the picture above for a detailed close up made out of several pictures.
This window is based on the a1 brush and ink drawing below, both feature the same basic composition and the Great Rabbit himself

here is another picture of the same drawing when it was half finished. It took ages to ink this, mainly due to its size and the number of stars.

king Jeff: King of Leicester

2009-02-20T12:27:00.008Z

The first project i did with the DOT group was Dot Arena. For this project each of the five artists had to provide work on Leicester which was then presented as one whole. It was at the Phoenix cinema leicester 2005. I created a series of photos onto which I had drawn King Jeff the king of Leicester, these were integrated into the main piece with the work of the other artists.

I also made a stuffed life sized King Jeff which stood in the corner. He is made of canvas, which I have drawn on with fabric pens. Here he is below. He is well over 6ft with his ears up.

Here is a picture of the whole piece. The big red dot had lights that lit up in turn going around it. Can you see Jeff in the corner? the Pheonix is a nice cinema, I think its going to close soon due to relocation.
In the picture below, its the opening night and we are presenting our work. The people stood with me are Ed Orton and Sally Renner, organizers of the exhibition, and founders of the DOT group.
On the night I was selling official hand drawn King Jeff stamps for 1p each. Some wiseguy 10 year old came with a load of small change.
The following year DOT did a second DOT arena. This time they filled a whole empty restaurant with a fully 3d cardboard recreation of Leicester, which they then filled with loads of artists works. This time I made Anthony Philips the moon of Leicester (see below for some pictures taken from the artstalker blog) Also look at this BBC article about it.

For the catalogue I produced the following page all about Anthony Philips and myself.

Funston Parade: all the fun all the funston!

2009-02-20T10:02:00.012Z

Funston Parade was my first ever Solo show. It ran from march 2006 to May 2006 at De Montfort Hall in Leicester. While it was on the main show at De Montfort Hall was Cats.
Im currently taking all pictures of my artwork of facebook because of the curfuffle about their rights to images, so I thought I'd put them up on here. there will be more to come.
Funston is not a place. It was rumoured in the press (I managed to a get in mentioned in The Metro, the Leicester Mercury and the Guardians's Guide magazine) that funston is the name of the world my drawings depict, but that is wrong. The things I draw are (unless specifically stated) set in our very own reality. Funston is just one of the words I like to use. I have a note book of drawings from summer 2002 called funston, and Richard Peel used to give me some space for my drawings in the first few issues of the fantastic (and sadly no longer produced) Magic Life zine, these pages where titled Super Funston. The Following images are from Funston Parade, they are all acrylic paint on flattened cardboard boxes, that i got from my old job at HMV (top dog for music, dvd and games). Cardboard is way better than canvas:

Here is a self-portrait. Its me. I did it. It wasn't actually a study using a mirror, I did it using a picture I found inside of my head. Pretty much all of Funston Parade was not drawn from life and came out of my head. It started off as a painting of a rabbit. I didnt fully cover the ears as some people called me Tommy Rabbit at the time I thought it wouldnt hurt. I nearly went for www.tommyrabbit.com for my website. Tommy rabbit is rhyming slang for pomegranite.

This is pretty much the first funston parade painting I actually did. I did it at the Dot Open Studios day in september 2005. Its actually two seperate boxes. It is now the property of a Mr Mark Brown.

This was the first painting I did after I'd been asked by Hugo from Leicester's City Gallery if I'd like to do a show in the space. Thanks Hugo. Hugo is a very nice guy. I got the news just before Christmas and it made me very happy. I'd actually failed to get some of them in the city gallery's annual open exhibition, but failed. While they were in the process of being denied entrance Hugo saw them. I didn't get into the open exhibition but got a solo show instead. Hooray!

This guy is one of my favourites, and its also one of the biggest paintings it was based on a sketchbook drawing I'd done in 2003 see below

This is my favourite Funston Parade painting, and it currently hangs in my livingroom. Its called Log, which is the name of the main guy. The background is based on the background of the Mona Lisa by an artist called Leonardo Da Vinci (see below). When I was doing my A levels we had to do a portrait painting about a famous painter, I spent ages recreating the background from the mona lisa to go behind Da Vinci (I made his face in 3d relief and painted the body, I remember it being quite good especually one of the hands but I think my memory of it is rose tinted). Ever since ive been really fond of the background hence my using of it here.
Da Vinci was popular in the old days for doing paintings and pretending to invent stuff like tanks and the helicopter. His work is still popular today despite being old fashioned and religious. Splinter named the turtle, Leonardo, after him. Da Vinci placed clues about the true history of Jesus Christ in the mona lisa (see the Da Vinci Code by historain Dan Brown)

This one makes me think of russian dolls and world war one. I always felt that people didnt like this one. I entered this one in the 2006 open exhibition. it didnt get in.

This one is nice and pink. I was happy to keep the cardborad box exposed in places and I think it works well on this one.

This ones painted a bit differently from the others. Its a flower head, which i used in one of my second year projects on my Fine Art Ba.

This painting is called Lampy Lamp. This was the painting the showed in the metro. I like it but felt it didnt represent the whole show. Log would have been my choice.

A little guy. This one is abit closer to my drawing style. With these paintings i was trying to connect the drawings I did with the kind of style I used to use in my life paintings. My drawings were always clear and precise. My paintings abit looser. All my paintings are done with the same fairly big brush. Its the only one I like to use.
This ones a bit wierd.
This one I'm still not sure on. It had a really colourful background, but I got rid of it.

Here are the paintings at De Montfort Hall. Hooray!

Finally here is the poster. At the time I put this up all over myspace.

Owls

2009-02-01T23:26:00.005Z

Here are two quick pictures of owl what I've gone and done. The first one I did was the top more realistic one, I'd looked at some pictures of owls on google before drawing. The second picture was drawn in response to the first.

Me in the Kitchen doing some drawing (Final stages)

2009-01-30T13:08:00.006Z

Here are the final stages of the picture of me in the kitchen (see last post)In this version I've added colour to me, and have coloured the lines of the sketch, it looked odd with the black lines. Still not happy with the lines though, I think line work will always be better done away from the computer, it always looks too computery.
In this version, which i'm happy to consider as the finished piece ive got rid of almost all the lines and I think it works fine. Im quiet happy with this little experiment, its quite good fun drawing from memory. It isn't a study, even though I was sat in the room I drew, I sat as depicted with my back to the room. Below is a picture of the reality of the scene, taken just after i finished. The only alteration I made was that I changed into a matching Tee-shirt. Can you spot the differences? Overall I think I did a pretty good job of representing the scene. This kitchen is my current studio (between meals). I wish I had a proper studio again.

Me in the Kitchen doing some drawing (in stages)

2009-01-30T01:06:00.011Z

I thought it might be fun to show the stages of a drawing as I make it in illustrator. I'm not saying this is a how to, because I don't really know 'how to' properly anyway. It more of a how I did. If anything it might help me realize later the point where I started to over work it.

The picture is me in the kitchen in my house drawing. even though I was sat in that very position it was all drawn from memory, only occasionally looking round to see how close I got it. In this case I started with a line sketch drawn straight into the computer. I don't normally do this but its worked out okay. I normal just start by blocking in shapes and colours, I guess the main advantage of doing a bit of planing at the starts it helps get the layout right from the get go. Soon I'm going to start playing with bringing in sketches and doodles I've scanned in.

then in a layer under my sketch i put a wee bit of colour about. Just some rough blocks to help give a base to build on. A bit like how they used to do on 'Watercolour Challenge' on Channel 4.

This is what it looks like at this stage without the sketch on top.

I then work into this abit more to give it a bit of detail and hopefully make things look abit more solid. I've tried to get some sense of light as well. The windows on the door are north facing so light never comes in like this normally but that doesn't really matter. It was dark when I drew this anyway.
Again without the sketch on top.
Here it is again with the full sketch, me included this time.
Lastly here is the most finished picture so far. With me as a Drawing Boy rather than a real person. In its own way it kind of works, but eventually id like to get it working without any of the lines. Still need to do some work on the background, e.g. put some Cds on the CD rack, a load of stuff on the bottom shelf near the bin and make the bin look like a bin. So far though its going OK

Boy the Giant Robot and the Helicopter

2009-01-28T23:30:00.001Z

Man with scarf

2009-01-27T16:44:00.004Z

Here is another test (see "the Boy and the Rabbit Plant". Im also trying to show people of different ages. Below is another version, without the paper texture and slightly stronger colours.

The Boy and the Rabbit Plant

2009-01-27T15:40:00.003Z

Here is a wee experiment. Firstly I'm keen to play with my characters a little. How I mainly draw people isn't working quite how I want in some of the pictures I've done lately, i think due to the different media I've been working with. The result is this boy, a slightly more realistic depiction. Its not a complete departure from my style and there was a point a few years ago where I'd draw people like this alot. I like him. The second part of the experiment is the use of a texture within the picture, in this case a wood texture. Ive not spent much time integrating it into the image but I think its going to be something worth playing with.

Boy the Giant Robot and the Orange and the Cloud

2009-01-27T14:23:00.001Z

Boy the Giant Robot and the Tree

2009-01-26T21:27:00.004Z

Boy is a Giant Robot. Boy is a machine. A machine is an object. Boy can talk. Boy thinks that all objects can talk. Boy is silly.

The Secret Film Society

2009-01-26T00:25:00.006Z

This is a weird picture for me to have done. Its a logo I made for my friend Simon Hill. I decided to draw it all with the shapes you get in illustrator alongside other features I wouldn't normally use for my own work. Its a wee bit sinister and very much not part of my normal ouvre, I think I spelt that right.

2009-01-26T00:11:00.004Z

I decided on this colour bear in the end. Its slightly redder than the orange one I did previously.
Here you can see all three bear colours. Click the picture to get a wallpaper size version.

Brown Bear and Orange Bear

2009-01-25T16:59:00.004Z

Here is a picture. It is of a bear. I did one version of the bear in brown. I did another orange. I actually did the the orange one first. I couldn't choose which to use so I've used both. Which do you like the most?

The half Empty glass

2009-01-23T13:23:00.004Z

Here is a picture I've done for an exhibition at uni called "disappearing". It is a strange picture I think. Its not brilliantly drawn, but its all ways good to try something a bit different.

The Disappearing Galleon

2009-01-23T10:52:00.002Z

Here is my latest bit of experimenting. In this one ive tried to keep things simple, and as a result this one is a step closer to my older images. Im quite happy with the result. Ive played around with the character also, he's ok but still not quite there. I like the sea in this one.

The boat and the sea and the storm clouds and the crow

2009-01-21T21:09:00.005Z

Above is version 2, underneath is version 1.
As I wasn't completely happy with the first version of this picture I thought I'd go back into it. the main area I felt needed to change was the sea. It wasn't working like I wanted it to. I'm much happier with the second version. The crow below is my favourite thing in this picture.

Bee is for b

2009-01-21T15:35:00.004Z

Here is my letter what I done for an alphabet project what people on my Illustration MA are doing. I like it.

see the whole set of alphabet pictures here.

HERE IS A MONSTER!!!!

2009-01-19T21:11:00.002Z

The boat and the sea and the storm clouds

2009-01-19T20:54:00.004Z

Here is my latest experiment. I'm quite happy with it, but overall it doesn't quite work how I wanted it to. Mainly the sea and the main character. I am more happy with the top half though. Especially the crow.

The Sunset and the Whale

2009-01-15T16:08:00.006Z

Here is another bit of adobe illustrator practice, and again another character from my sea rabbit story. I'm happy with this image just because I feel I'm starting to get to grips with illustrator, as well as using colour and putting backgrounds into my images. Its another step in the right direction, and its a bit of a different kind of picture for me to be making, which is also a good thing. Below are some more examples from my website to help illustrate the contrast between these experimental pictures and my usual way of working.

Old Picture of SeaRabbit

2009-01-15T10:31:00.008Z

Here are two images I used on my website showing the same Sea Rabbit character but drawn in my more traditional brush and ink way. Although I'm happy with these images it is much harder to create a sense of underwateryness in solid black and white. even with the flat colour it still doesnt quite get there the same way. Although I'm happy with the work I've been doing for the past few years, and I still like the work I do with brush and ink, this is a good example of how moving into other areas will help me do things that where harder to do in the past.

Ive not really mentioned my website much here, go to www.thomasflintham.com and take a wee gander at what I done.

Underwater Rabbit

2009-01-14T13:32:00.006Z

The learn Japanese pictures what I've been putting up have both helped me with my learning of Japanese but have been a good way of getting used to using adobe illustrator. Here is another bit of practicing. It features an underwater rabbit from a Super Christmas 2008 story that didn't happen because I couldn't quite get the artwork working. its very hard to draw underwater scenes in solid black and white. Its only a first attempt but I'm fairly happy with it, its certainly the most successful depiction of anything to do with this story outside of the basic doodles of the characters I've done. Im not sure what I'll be doing with this story at the moment but I hope to take it further at some point in the next 60 years.

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 10 the colour pinku

2009-01-10T15:45:00.001Z

Look the moon! Look stars! Look a city! Look I'm on a hill! Look pink!

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 9 the colour chairo

2009-01-10T15:09:00.003Z

Even though its springtime everything is brown! I don't know why....

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 8 the colour orenji iro

2009-01-10T13:04:00.001Z

Is the sun rising or is it setting? No, It is orange.

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 7 the colour haiiro

2009-01-09T21:54:00.002Z

It is raining. It is grey today. Hooray!

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 6 the colour kuroi

2009-01-09T10:14:00.003Z

He has many arms? He is the colour black? Yes.

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 5 the colour shiroi

2009-01-08T21:28:00.001Z

Here is white. It will look more like white when I get round to doing grey.

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 4 the colour kiiro

2009-01-08T20:43:00.002Z

This is yellow. Its supposed to be an egg. Hello and yummy. Im quite good at doing egg in eggcup, its all about the timing ad dont forget the soldiers.

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 3 the colour aoi

2009-01-08T18:01:00.001Z

Hello! Hello Blue! Here is Blue! The cloud is Blue!

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 2 the colour akai

2009-01-08T16:10:00.005Z

Here is the colour red. Hooray

Tom Learns Japanese-lesson 1 the colour midori

2009-01-08T13:08:00.005Z

I am currently trying to learn Japanese, I have a nice and helpful shiny Nintendo DS game what I got for Christmas that is helping me. I thought it might help me to learn if I made pictures of the things I now know. Here is the first one it is for green, which is written in Romanji as 'midori'. If you want to describe something as green you pop a 'no' in between the words, i.e. 'midori no ringo' means green apple. yum. I will be putting up more of these as I do them, you can look forward to more colours and some numbers too. Hooray!
PS if anyone who does know japanese spots any errors i'd be super grateful if you could let me know. There will be errors.

All shiny and all new Super Christmas for 2009

2009-01-04T13:29:00.004Z

Here is the first Super Christmas 2009 image, its the earliest I've ever started a new Christmas book, having only finished the last one three weeks ago. The reason for the early start is that I'm ready to change Super Christmas in many ways this year and its going to take a bit to get used to it. Here is the first experiment, its the first super christmas picture made in colour (some old ones have been through photoshop but im not counting that) and the first to be drawn entirely with my trusty computer. Its also a rareity for me in that it is a landscape picture (I got asked for one a month or so ago and could only find two good ones in my portfolio so im trying to make an effort to make some). As an experiment Im pretty happy with it, Im not sayings its perfect (I'm not sure with how the text works within th picture for starters) but I think its a good road to keep following.

Super Christmas 2008 prep work

2008-12-19T20:38:00.004Z

Here is a page with some early character designs for a story in this years Super Christmas. Below are two pages of the story.

An old story about a box

2008-12-05T09:25:00.003Z

Here is an old story that I just found on my computer. I did it about 5 years ago but never did anything with it. Click each bit to make it bigger so you can read it.

An old animation

2008-12-03T15:29:00.004Z

Here is an old film of an even older flick book that I drew the summer of 2002. I kinda forgot id put it online. It loops around and starts all over again. The end

Another recent drawing

2008-11-28T11:05:00.002Z

Here is another drawing I've done for the 'Don't Bank On It' exhibition. It's called 'The Giant'.

a recent drawing

2008-11-28T10:26:00.001Z

Here is a drawing ive done for an exhibition called "Don't Bank on it", the theme of all the work is the credit crunch. This piece is called "Worse things happen at sea".