Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tiddles the third


The feline fiend makes a third outing.
I like it when words and pictures work together.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Word Play

Last week, I submitted some designs for Christmas cards. The client - a well known high street stationer, in response to my initial designs, asked perhaps could I provide some one-liner jokes and an accompanying description of the image. I realised at that moment that this particular client is more concerned with the text than the image - which is fair enough. At the same time, I baulked at the idea that I could be happy to deliver a gag without the image. For me, the two are a symbiosis - one cannot exist without the other. So, even though it meant spending far more time in getting my idea across, I continued with producing pen and pencil roughs with accompanying caption.
In recent weeks I've been putting quite a lot of thought to Christmas card ideas for specific areas. A by-product of which, while I'm tuned in to the whole festive vibe, I came up with this image.

Imagine if I'd captured that thought with this:
Caption: "Tiddles wishes you a very Happy Crisp Mouse"
Image: Cat holds a dead mouse on a skewer over a candle.
See what I mean? It takes away the impact, a little, don't you agree?
My chums at Heritage Crafts have since snapped up the design and have created a kit enabling you to do some festive stitchery - see http://www.hcrafts.com/new.html

The design has been so well received, they asked me to do another. Here's one I finished off yesterday morning. Interestingly, I had to draw thirteen different fish before I arrived at a couple I was happy with, but the cat came out right first time - weird.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ding Diddle Ing Ding....

Special Agent?
A long time ago I had an agent. As I see it, an agent is meant to do all the legwork that an artist would do to sell their work if they weren't too busy being an artist.
Imagine doing a piece of work that you're quite pleased with and that you believe is suitable for some commercial application or another. What you have to do then is tell the commercial world what a loverly thing it is. So, you have to put your salesperson head on and start showing it around, discussing deals, applications, territorial exclusivity and a ton of other stuff that you have to do if you're going to benefit from your toils.
About ten years ago, my agent and me split because I was working like a nutter, but he wasn't doing all the twiddly things that he was supposed to.
I'm a busy little sausage and I know what Tigger does best, so this year, I decided I need someone to do the legwork for me. I found an agent in the form of Advocate (www.advocateart.com) that fits in nicely with the way I work. So far it's been very interesting and the work they've asked me to do is very enjoyable.
I never realised how far in advance companies prepare for Christmas. It's now October 2008. For the past few weeks I've been producing ideas for Christmas 2009. Talking about thinking ahead!
With global markets in freefall and banking systems crumbling, at least I can look forward to next Christmas!