• ICONIC EARS •

No prizes for guessing who I did this small job for recently. I was tasked by Forrest Pruzan in Seattle to take their raw 3d scan artwork and 'juicify' the shiny sheen on these plastic game ears. So keep an eye out for it appearing on the shelves in a toystore near you!

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• DISNEY PRINCESS •

• DISNEY PRINCESS •

This was a smallish but satisfying job involving adding these smart Tiaras to the heads of the dancing girls. Though I wasn't sent a Tiara, just a photo of the product and the girls dancing. Forrest Pruzan in Seattle are also excellent at sending finished product samples over and this one arrived just in time for my niece's fourth birthday, just perfect!

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• FINDING DORY •

• FINDING DORY •

Last month I had the pleasure of working on a spin-off of one of my favouritist films ever. 

Wouldn't it be great to post how I'd actually worked on the new Disney Finding Dory?!!? 

But I'm afraid this is as near as I'll ever get to that dream, but it's still very satisfying to be illustrating such well loved characters.

(film trailer here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNLwlcPBPI)

The commission came from Forrest Pruzan once again - they DO get some fantastic jobs - and called for some colouring skills to create a science-based boxed game spin off to the new film. I was supplied with the raw 3D renders and some cmyk breakdowns, and of course there was plenty of excellent reference on the internet.

Having coloured up Dory using paths for the various patterns and shapes, and added some nicely realistic CG eyes and bubble, I illustrated a seabed background of my own (using Photoshop brushes for the seaweeds).

Here's how the busy full box cover looked at the final stage. The other plastic elements in the science kit all needed cleaning and smartening up.

I thought all was well until the AD got back to me to say that a new, slightly different pose was favoured, so could I re-illustrate Dory! So I had to go through the whole process again to illustrate Dory at this new angle. 

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• More Miles from Tomorrowland •

• More Miles from Tomorrowland •

More samples of the games I'd helped produce arrived just before christmas.

Here's another from the Miles' series. There was an incredible amount of detail (and therefore time) invested in this artwork. The biosphere 'egg-shaped room, for example, took 2 or 3 days to illustrate. I had loads of fun experimenting with foliage brushes in Photoshop though and learnt quite a bit.

You can read and learn more about customising Photoshop brushes in these two articles in Words and Pictures magazine ...

http://www.wordsandpics.org/2014/03/photoshop-brushes.html

http://www.wordsandpics.org/2014/05/photoshop-brushes-part-two-lets-make.html

Forrest Pruzan in Seattle commissioned half a dozen spin-off games and when I get around to photographing them all I shall be featuring them here.

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• MORE COCO POPS - MIT MILCH •

• MORE COCO POPS - MIT MILCH •

Spotted this new Coco Pops box whilst over in Hamburg. It's one of the 5 that I was working on earlier this year. I'm not so sure that the German text fills the spaces as well as it ought. The central part of the illustration was helped by modelling in Form Z and then the whole image was finished in Photoshop.

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• COCO POPS PUZZLES SET •

• COCO POPS PUZZLES SET •

I can now post and finally show off this fun series of cereal packs illustrated for Kellogs and Coco Pops.

Commissioned earlier this year by brand giants TAG Worldwide, here are the first 3 of 6 boxes that I helped liven up with an exciting set of puzzles and games.

The size of some of the finished puzzles belie the sheer amount of work that went into creating them. See the detailed 'spot-the-difference' for example.

Although hero character Coco the monkey already existed I had to create the remaining characters from a collection of TV ad stills and other screengrabs.

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• FIRST AID FRIENDS RESOURCE PACK •

• FIRST AID FRIENDS RESOURCE PACK •

Following on from the launch last month of Felix and Flip's first story adventure comes this exciting resource pack for schools.

"The pack provides teachers and school staff with up to date knowledge, skills and confidence to plan a comprehensive and informative first aid programme for children that can be delivered flexibly in a variety of ways. These include a series of short sessions, workshops and activities and also includes a mixture of theoretical and practical elements. It is aimed at children across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and supports a variety of learners including those whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard and those who have low levels of prior attainment."

More information can be found on the First Aid Friends site, where teachers can buy the books and pack directly.

http://www.discoverytraining.org/shop/

For me it was another wonderful opportunity to design and illustrate some stimulating lesson plans and exciting, fun games and puzzles.
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•SNOWPERSONS WINTER WONDERLAND•

•SNOWPERSONS WINTER WONDERLAND•

Here's another great Imaginetics magnetic sticker set for Interplay. It's the 2nd christmas / winter themed set that I've produced this year. I loved creating the snow people characters and would have liked more penguins too, but simply ran out of space.

I developed a useful new brush in Photoshop to 'paint' the woolly scarf textures.

And this seems like a good time to mention an article all about Photoshop brushes that I've written for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

You can read it HERE and find out how to brush on fur and leaves for example.

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• PET SHOP MAGNETIC SET •

• PET SHOP MAGNETIC SET •

I've been a bit remiss in posting new work here of late, partly due to a couple of long winded projects and partly due to having most of August off!

However, I can post these three details from one of those projects - a new Imaginetics set for Interplay. This was another fun filled and busy scene where children can play and stock a pet shop with all their favourite pets. Parrots, puppies, kittens, hamsters, bunnies, frogs and more.

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•NEW GAMES WORK •

•NEW GAMES WORK •

Here are a couple of games I've just worked on for clients over in Seattle.

Now I'd love to say I illustrated Captain America, The Hulk or even Tommy and Tallulah, but the truth is, I added a bit of extra pizzaz to the look of these games.

Often they are brilliantly rendered in 3D but lack that extra bit of sparkle and dynamism.

So with a few motion blurs, spins and shines it all comes together to tempt you to PLAY!

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 • CONSTRUCTION TRUCK CHARACTER SET

• CONSTRUCTION TRUCK CHARACTER SET

Another wonderful job for the Imaginetics playsets for Interplay. A folding diorama scene is the background illustration and these magnetic trucks can be assembled and moved around all day.

Also shown is one of the many reference shots I took, set in a mini construction site area built from sand and rocks. Thanks to Archie for lending me the diggers.

I'm hoping I can get some more mileage from these sturdy little characters in a construction story app that I'm working on.

Colin the Constructor? Can he rectify the situation, you bet your monkey wrench he can!

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•GAMES, GAMES AND GAMES GALORE!

•GAMES, GAMES AND GAMES GALORE!

More games this month, and for the last couple of months. Some of these were shown in part as i finished them, but now they are in production so I get sample copies of each.

These are from Interplay in the States and they really make an excellent job of the packaging, nice strong glossy board with colours that seem to be brighter than your average cmyk.

One of my most recent jobs was for research and pitching by a client so unfortunately will not get seen in this blog.

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•PUPPIES & KITTENS

•PUPPIES & KITTENS
Here's a novel take on the classic game Connect 4.
I illustrated this just before the end of the year for Interplay in America.
When I say 'illustrated', I expect many of you think this is just photography, but there's a hell of a lot of retouching goes on with a job like this.
Each of those individual tiles has to be drawn as paths so that their perfect plasticity can be achieved, as with most of the cut-out holes in the rack.
The kittens and puppies themselves needed no retouching as the artwork for these existed already from the previous iteration of the game. The are very cute I think, I wonder who did them.
I am just about to launch my portfolio on Play.com, where I should pick up more of this kind of work.
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• FROGGY FEEDING FRENZY



























• FROGGY FEEDING FRENZY
Here are 3 of the 5 new games recently illustrated and artworked for Interplay. The froggy feeding frenzy game is a new take on Hungry Hippos and a sheer coincidence that they chose Hot Frog for the job, well apart from the excellent reputation for professionalism and brilliant creative skills of course, : )
The great thing is I get six brand new copies of the games when they appear AND they pay me for doing it!
The 5th game which has not been cleared yet was a mammoth job and features more detail and characters than I've ever included in a game, it rivals Hotel Las Vegas (one of the very first posts on this blog) in complexity.
Hopefully early next year I'll be able to feature it here.
Also new for next year will be a Hot Frog children's book blog where I'll separate all my children's book work from the other illustration jobs that pass through this studio.
And since Hot Frog graphics will be celebrating 30 years in business in 2010 I'm planning a special anniversary blog too.
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•ROCK AND ROLL PIZZAS











































•ROCK AND ROLL PIZZAS
Last month I completed work on these two games for Interplay in New Jersey. Immediately I wanted to fly to New York and visit Vesuvios restaurant (from the Sopranos) to take some reference photos. Seemed a bit extravagant, so I opted for creating the ambience in Form Z. I've included my 3D setting as it came rendered from Form Z, before adding a little Photoshop magic. Because it featured only ever so vaguely in the background I knew I could get away with a fairly 'wooden' table and chairs. (pun intended)
The first visual I submitted for the Pizza Pile Up was summarily rejected on the grounds that the mushrooms were too suggestive! Hence they are all facing downwards and not as excited in this final piece.
I wonder if they do liver?
Wok and Roll was much more straightforward, though I did feel a little worried that these luscious little chunks of plastic look a just too delicious and edible for small children, though an age range restriction is evident on the final box design.
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