Banned by the BBC!

Yes, it's true! After many years in the illustration business I've finally been banned by the BBC for a cartoon that they commissioned in the first place. Here's the story-
For a few years now I've been producing comic strips for the weekly BBC football mag Match of the Day. A few weeks ago they were planning their Christmas issue and asked me to draw a double page spread showing the Nativity with footballers and MOTD presenters taking the place of the three wise men, shepherds, Jesus etc. So I drew up a rough for approval before going ahead with the finished illustration showing Wayne Rooney as the baby Jesus, Mario Balotelli as the Angel, Sir Alex Ferguson as Mary etc...
This was approved by the good chaps on the magazine so I drew it up (see below) then got an e-mail back saying they loved it but when they showed it to the MD he said they couldn't use it as "we could be accused of inciting racial hatred." EH? How? But you can't argue with the MD so the mag asked me to change it from a Nativity scene into "I'm a Footballer Get me out of Here!" with the background changed into a jungle, Mario's angel turned into an eagle and Wayne's baby Jesus as a kangaroo!
I protested that would be almost a complete redraw and they agreed to pay me a bit more but Blimey O'Riley, how sensitive are the BBC getting?
Below are the before and after cartoons.

Amy (I think)

I managed to fit in half a life drawing class yesterday afternoon inbetween Christmas shopping and doing the Sleazy and Cheesy Christmas Podcast with Mark Harrison. The model who's name, I think, was Amy was a new one on me and very lovely to draw she was. here are the best of a small bunch of mainly 3 minute poses.

Zoe

Finally got around to doing some life drawing after most of the Christmas deadlines have been met.

The model at Bill's Tuesday night session for The Sussex Arts Club was the excellent and lissome Zoe who I've drawn a few times before and she's a very good model. I felt exhausted after the class, though as it really demands total concentration and if you haven't done it for a while it can tire you out. (No sniggering at the back!) Had to repair to Chez Cemmo afterwards for  a stiff glass of Vino Collapso.

Gormenghast

I went along to another of Jake Spicer's themed drawing events at The Old Market last night. It was in conjunction with the Brighton Illustrator Group so there were some familiar faces there including Geo Parkin (showing off his prowess on his iPad), Joe Moore, Amy Rogers etc...
The theme this time was Gormenghast which happens to be my favourite book (well, trilogy, in fact.)

by the genius writer and artist Mervyn Peake. Four models posed as the characters Steerpike, Fuschia, Cora and Clarice. Jake, who is also a huge fan of the books wants to stage a bigger event, possibly in the open air, next year incorporating more of the characters. If anyone can do it Jake can, so I'm keeping everything crossed for that. Here are my best efforts from the night.

Nadia

I had my lovely new friend Nadia round the other day to model for me. I'm trying to work up a new style and she was good enough to agree to pose for my attempts. During our conversations it turns out that she's as big a nerd as me and loves sci-fi and Marvel comics but her big passion is wolves! She's such a sweet person that you'd never guess such dark waters lurk beneath. Hoooooooooooooooooooooowl!

Digital dabblings

Having been getting into producing digital paintings in Photoshop for a few months now, I thought I'd try expanding the possibilities with a new drawing programme called Artrage. I downloaded Artrage 3 from the internet having read a bit about it in Imagine FX magazine. It takes a little while to get used to a new programme's interface but luckily for my pea brain this one was quite easy to pick up and soon I was experimenting. The two things I like most about it are the way you can get brush strokes in the oil paint brush setting that look really real and also you can get a nice smooth line with the pen a setting which I haven't been able to get since the programme I used to use -Streamline went
kaput! I'm informed by cartoon buddy Geo Parkin that Illustrator can do this but I don't have Illustrator.

Anyway, here are my first stumbling attempts at starting a painting in Artrage and then tickling it up in the more familiar (to me) Photoshop. I'm having great fun with this and hope that one shining day I'll be paid to work in this style.

The Magnificent Miss Magness

For last night's life drawing session at The Sussex Arts Club our model was Charlotte, or as I'm going to call her from now on -The Magnificent Miss Magness! I've drawn her before and even tried to book her for a private session (stop sniggering at the back!) so I know she's a good model but last night she held a 10 minute pose that looked like agony for any normal person. She must have adamantium bones or something. Anyway, here are my best efforts. Afterwards, I walked home with fellow Wick Hallians, Hamza and Kate and stopped off in the Bee's Mouth for a couple of wonderful warming mulled wines. They make it themselves and I reckon it's the best in town. One small compensation for the encroaching horror of Christmas.

The Divine Miss Potts again!

I went along to Kate Shield's life drawing session at the Marwood (the funkiest cafe in town) last night to draw the fabulous Lucy Caitlin Potts for the second time in as many weeks. She's one of my favourite models as she has a timeless quality and knows how to pose interestingly and holds it like a statue.

My old mate and fellow cartoonist Geo Parkin was also in attendance having a brief respite from his demanding work schedules. He's one of the best in the business so it's hardly surprising that he gets a lot of work. We repaired to a local hostilery after the session to discuss all and sundry (especially sundry) over a couple of foaming noggins. Here are my best attempts at capturing Lucy's loveliness.

I hope Obama gets another turn.

Great Greta

The lovely Lithuanian Greta was our model at last night's life drawing session at The Sussex Arts Club. Here are my best daubs.

The Divine Miss Potts

Had a great day yesterday when my old mate Chris Hipwell came to visit with his brother Steve. I was at college with Chris who is now a genuine MadMan on Maddison Avenue in New York. He says it's hard work and long hours and you don't spend all your time drinking, smoking and shagging. Another illusion shattered! I tried to persuade them to stay for the Tuesday night life drawing session but they had to go. Unfortunately for them and luckily for me, the model was "The Divine Miss Potts".

Here are my best efforts to capture her fabulousness.

Spanish Caricatures

Ive just got back from a month in Palma de Mallorca where I was alternately working, socialising and trying to drum up some Spanish illustration work. To that end I produced some caricatures specifically for the Spanish market and here they are. The victims are Charles Bukovski (OK he's not Spanish but he's very popular there),  Rafa Nadal (Mallorcan tennis player), Rossy de Palma (Spanish actress and model), Rajoy (politician),  Rubalcaba (another politician), Penelope Cruz and Jose Morinho (football manager). I'm hoping that my friend Jean who runs Norma Comics in Palma can work his magic and get me some work out there. Well, you've got to try these fings, in't ya?

Missions impossible (well, a bit tough)

The lovely people at SFX magazine who give me a regular spot in their fine organ every month, recently asked me to do a couple of extra pieces for two specials they were planning (out now).
The first was for a horror special and I was asked to replicate those brilliant fold-ins in the back of Mad Magazine created by Al Jaffee. I've always been a huge fan of Mad since I started trying to draw caricatures like Mort Drucker in my teens so I immediately said "YES!".
Blimey O'Riley it was difficult. My respect for Al Jaffee went through the roof.
What SFX wanted visualising was the film Piranha 3D, a wonderfully cheesy exploitation movie featuring lashings of gore and nudity. The recent sequel, Piranha 3DD was apparently shite.
It was to be set in a waterpark with loads of nubile beauties being chomped on by piranhas and then when you folded the page in it was a large image of a fabulously endowed babe. See the results below.
The second near impossible job was a DPS for the current issue of SFX which features a celebration of 50 years of James Bond. What they wanted this time was a map of the world with every (official) Bond film portrayed in location. There are 22 Bond films not counting the first Casino Royale, the Connery break-away film- Never Say Never Again and the new one Skyfall. A great fun job with a very tight deadline. See below how it turned out.
The next impossible task SFX have lined up for me is a Hollywood version of the unbelievably clever upside-down drawings of Gustave Verbeek. Sounds like a challenge!

Zoe poses!

On Tuesday night's session at The Sussex Arts Club our model was the slim and lissome Zoe who is great to draw and I felt I was on form that night. Some night's you're hot and some night's you're not but I was pleased with some of the sketches of Zoe. Hope you like 'em!

Sarah Jane!!!

The beautiful Sarah Jane, who has just returned form six months teaching English in Guatamala where her front door was riddled with bullets (thinks- not gonna be my first choice for a relaxing holiday!) modeled for me and Alexa Garside on Sunday afternoon. It was great to draw her again after about a year. I hope there's not such a big gap 'til next time.

Rosy Carrick!!!

Last night at Kate Shields' local celebrity drawing session our sitter was the beautiful and talented poet Rosy Carrick. I've drawn the stunning Rosy a few times before and she's always an inspiration.

Here are my best efforts. If you want to see Rosy in MC-ing action go along to the poetry bash at the Komedia tonight.

Alice themed drawing night

Last night there was another of Jake Spicer's themed drawing events. This time the theme was Alice  in Wonderland and we were treated to 4 different models (Lucy, Laura, Frankie and Ian) dressed in the style of some of Lewis Carroll's characters. The evening was great fun although personally, I was fading fast after a heavy work load and was feeling a bit "drawn out". Anyway, here are my best efforts tickled up a bit in Photoshop.

4 Lucys

Despite battling an almost impossible deadline (more of which on a future blog) I hoisted a drawing session at my place for me and Alexa. We hired Lucy Victoria Sponge to model for us. She's always a pleasure to draw and we both got some good work out of a fun session. here are my favourites.

Big Emma

Last night's life drawing session featured Big Emma. It made a nice change to draw a larger lady after all the slim and lissome lovelies that we normal have to suffer here in Brighton. Here are my best efforts.

Men in Hats

I seem to be following a theme of men in hats at the moment. Here's Don Draper from the sublime TV show MadMen and the Basil Rathbone version of Sherlock Holmes. I'm working on a bigger digital painting of my 4 favourite Holmeses and Baz is the first one.

Mucking about with textures

In my ventures into digital artwork I thought I'd try beginning with a texture and working it up in Photoshop. These are the first efforts. The one on the left is a mash-up of noir characters in a sci-fi setting. I call it Space-Noir and it's probably been done before but not much. The one on the right was inspired by a short story by award winning writer and poet Lorna Kent called The Flying Baby.

Kate Shields

In yesterday's life drawing session at The Sussex Arts Club the looooooominous Kate Shields was our model.

I've drawn Kate a few times and she's always inspiring. Here are my best efforts.

The Flirtinis

I went along to last night's new session organised and hosted by the fabulous Kate Shields at The Artist Residence hotel here in Brighton. Our (clothed) models were the burlesque duo known as The Flirtinis who struck a series of interesting poses first dressed as naughty nurses then in gorgeous satin ballgowns. Loved it!

 

 

Voluptuous Lucy

Last night's life drawing model at The Sussex Arts Club was the voluptuous Lucy who was lovely to draw. Here are the best of my efforts.

King Ian

Although I generally prefer drawing women, occasionally I get to draw a strapping geezer like Ian.

This is from Jake's Thursday lunchtime session. Please don't look at his willy. It's rude!

Chadha

Last night my friend Chadha came round and allowed me to draw her.
She's a fierce critic though and the session was interspersed with comments like
"Those aren't my lips", "Why have you given me witch nails?" and "Do it again only better."
It's like trying to draw Brian Sewell although Chadha is MUCH prettier. She a total sweety but a
challenge to draw.
Here are the best ones. She liked the top left one best.

Charlotte

Last night's life drawing session at the Sussex Arts Club was graced by the presence of the beautiful Charlotte. Here are my best attempts at capturing her loveliness.

Happy Birthday my Liege!

My old mate Forbes Collins who played King John in the brilliant kids TV series Maid Martian and her Merry Men had a birthday the other day so I thought I'd adapt a couple of pages from the Maid Marian comic books I'd drawn for the series as a card for him. Here it is. He's a lovely fellah

and loved the books so it's the least I can do. Happy Birthday, my Liege and long may you reign!

Afternoon delight

Went along to the afternoon session at The Sussex Arts Club yesterday where there was a delightful model posing who was new to me. I didn't get her name but she was lovely to draw with great poses and amazing dreadlocky hair. Here are my best efforts.

Turning Japanese

Bill's Tuesday night life drawing session featured a Japanese model who I hadn't drawn before. It was inspiring to draw a different girl as I've become quite familiar with most of the local models, lovely as they are. Alas, I can't remember  her name but here are the best efforts from that night.

Visions of Johanna

The sinuous and svelte Johanna returned from Edinburgh for a visit and some modelling at Jake's Thursday lunchtime session.
She's always great to draw. Here are my best efforts.

Lost Toys of the Imaginarium

I went to my first life drawing session in 5 weeks and only drew one nude! It was Jake Spicer's 

Lost Toys of the Imaginarium.

at The Old Market off Western Road. Loads of drawers turned up to draw the dressed-up-as-toys models and it was great fun. Here are my best efforts.

 

What I did on my holidays

Well actually it was a working holiday (more of the working, less of the holiday) in my flat in Palma de Mallorca.
The weather was scorching hot for the whole month but I have my weekly comic strip to produce for Match of the Day magazine as well as my monthly spot in SFX magazine and a couple of extra jobs so I didn't see much of the beach.

Here's my output for the month which includes a self portrait in acrylic and photoshop painted on my birthday because I've never done one before. There's also a picture I did for my Palma pal Daniel as a thank-you for repairing my laptop when it went Kablooey!

Batman

In the current issue of SFX magazine the best Sci-fi mag in the world (OK I'm biased) as well as my usual spot illustrating The steamed Nick Setchfields words for Deveopment Hell I was asked if I'd like to do 6 drawings of Batman for an article about what it would really be like to be the Caped Crusader.

They didn't want my usual cartoony line and wash style but something a bit more Neal Adams so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out my new skills as a digital painter. And here are the results. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out though Batman's torso on the Psychiatrist one is a bit shit. I should have just modelled his rippling muscles myself. Yeah, right! We all have our delusions.

A fan at last!

I very rarely get any feedback from all the comic strips and cartoons that I do for various publications but this response from a reader of SFX magazine makes up for it. Glowing, I think, is the word. Posting this is shameless trumpet blowing but why the hell not?

From the SFX inbox:

Please convey my note of appreciation to your amazing ilustrator of the "Alien Bestiary" (SFX 222, pages 64 and 65), Mr. Paul Cemmick, it was a superb piece of art and one of the most beautiful things I've seen in your magazine, in over 10 years of reading and subscribing it.
Even that nuissance of a character, ALF, was superb!
I imagine the drawings were done in India Ink, but they were so vivid and so detailed, I could almost smell the hydrosulphuric acid dripping out of the Xenomorph from "Alien"...

Well done!


GASPAR GARÇÃO
Portalegre, Portugal

Greta

At last night's life drawing class a hot roomful of sweating artists (well, I was perspiring delicately) struggled to capture the Lithuania curves of lovely Greta. I'd decided to get out of my comfort zone and try a medium I hadn't used in years- charcoal. The results are mixed, I think but it's an interesting challenge. I'll have another bash at it soon. Here are the best efforts.

Bill Carman

Lately I've been finding a lot of talented gits on the internet whose work I've been blissfully ignorant of until now. It seems there are many talented gits out there producing fabulous work and here's my latest discovery- Bill Carman.
Maybe you've heard of him before but I hadn't and his work is strange, weird and beautiful all at the same time . Reminds me a little bit of two other heroes- Sean Tan and Carlos Nine. You can see more of his stuff on his blog at-
http://billcarman.blogspot.co.uk/

More digital paintings

I'm still trying to get to grips with the fine art of digital painting. It's good fun and I think I'm making progress thanks to the tutorials in Imagine FX magazine. Here are my two latest efforts. I found a great shot of the young Orson Welles (I'm a huge fan of the huge man) and fancied trying a speed painting of it in an hour. It was a few minutes over the hour but possible in that time as I was working in black and white which speeds things up a bit. Then after seeing George Parkin's Facebook posting about seeing Elvis Costello live I got the idea for the other one. I've long been a fan of the Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein's monster so this was a good excuse to paint him. I was hoping to bash this one out in a couple of hours but it took most of the day. Anyway, I was quite pleased with it so I think I'm making progress. More tomorrow.

Frankie

At Jake's Thursday lunchtime class yesterday the model was the amazing Frankie whose hair reaches nearly to the ground and who always reminds me of a silent movie star. She's always a treat to draw and here are my favourites from the session.

Johanna

In last night's session at the Sussex Arts Club we were once again lucky enough to have the elegant and wonderful Johanna as our model. She's shortly moving to Edinburgh with her partner and she'll be missed in Brighton. Here are my best efforts. I may take a leaf out of Geo Parkin's book and try to work one up in  a more graphic style. But then Geo makes it look very easy and I'm sure it's not. Hey ho!

Digital dabblings

This morning I did another digital speed painting. It took an hour an a half and is a caricature of the Twilight saga actor Taylor Lautner. This is my third speed painting and about my seventh digital painting overall. The advantage of the speed painting exercises are that you have no time to get bogged down in irrelevant details you just have to bang on with it. It's a great way to learn and it doesn't get in the way of other work and deadlines. I intend to carry on doing one a day until I've learned how to do it to my satisfaction or I'm bored shitless with it. Yesterday's subject was Liam Neason who I painted before watching him in a great film called The Grey last night. It's about wolves so maybe wolves are becoming an unconcious theme for some reason. There was also a wolf in the caricature I did of Amanda Seyfried. Hmmm. Well I am very hairy. Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The divine Miss Potts

Saturday afternoon was the last in the Museum of the Muse sessions presented by the models showcasing influences and muses from the past. Lucy Potts chose as her influence Olga Desmond who was the first woman to ever appear naked on stage. This occurred in St. Petersberg but her first appearance on stage there was also her last as further performances were banned by the mayor.

The divine Miss Potts, who reminds me of those fabulous photographic models from the 50s, was illuminated by light from below which made for very interesting shadows.  Here are my best efforts. I'll miss these inspiringly different Saturday afternoon sessions but I'm sure the ever inventive Kate Shields will come up with another fascinating idea soon.

SFX

This months issue of SFX has three (count 'em!) THREE articles illustrated by yours truly.

I have a regular spot in the mag called Development Hell written by the legendary Nick Setchfield where I illustrate a film that is in development. This can mean that we don't know who is starring or directing or even what it's about. Sometimes we only have the title as in last month's article which was about a film called Boy Scout versus Zombies.

Anyway, this month was about a sequel to the old movie Twins with Danny de Vito and Arnie. It's to be called Triplets and has Eddie Murphy joining the others as the third triplet. I was also asked to draw famous aliens in the style of a Victorian etching. That was fun! And finally a mock-up poster of a 1920s version of War of the Worlds which was planned but never filmed. So my thanks to SFX for three really fun jobs.

Sophie

For yesterday's session at Jake's studio the model was the beautiful German girl Sophie who I last drew when she was covered in paint swirls at the Grimm's Fairy Tales event. She's great to draw. I think I'll have to lay off the life drawing soon before I become addicted and have to attend Life Drawers Anonymous- "My name's Paul Cemmick and I'm a life drawer." Oh the shame!

Speed Painting

In an effort to learn digital painting I've started doing a one hour speed painting every morning before I start work proper. I've done two so far and I find that it's a great way to learn a new working method quickly. The end result will vary and sometimes it'll be shit but that's how you learn. I intend to carry on with this until I feel I've acquired some sort of competence with, what is to me, a new method of working. The weird alien was fun and I managed it quite comfortably within the hour but I think I was a bit ambitious trying to do four portraits even in monochrome. The bottom right one is supposed to be Marlene Deitrich but it doesn't look much like her.
Tomorrow I'll do just one which should be easier. We'll see!

Kate the Great

Last night's session at The Sussex Arts Club featured the fabulous-to-draw Kate Shields.

Here are my best daubings.

Emma- lady in red paint

Yesterday afternoon myself and a small coterie of fellow daubers braved the appalling weather to attend the penultimate session of Kate Shield's Museum of the Muse in which a different model (or models) each week chooses a theme for the event. This week it was the turn of the lovely Emma Sandham-King who decided to paint her hands and feet in red paint then do a series of 2 minute poses so that her body become progressively covered in red hand prints. Towards the end she looked like a scene from Dexter but it was an interesting an vividly visual experiment. Here are my best ones. Next week, for the final session in this series, it's the divine Miss Potts.

Sonia

I'm making up for a three weeks break by getting as much life drawing done as is humanly possible whilst still meeting my deadlines in order to keep make some money for the taxman which he so richly deserves. These are taken from Thursday afternoons session with, new model, Sonia at Jake's studio in New England House . It was a very enjoyable session and all the assembled scribblers and daubers thought Sonia was great to draw. The only problem with churning out all these life drawings is that they take ages to scan into my pooter and tickle up in Photoshop. I have two more sessions of stuff waiting to be scanned. Hey ho-so it goes!