Pirate Game Book

Hi chaps,

Look here's an actual copy of the pirate game book I illustrated with the guys at Hallmark.
This is a picture book with games in it as well. Like the Mouse's birthday book I posted about before.
But I think it's worth having a bit of a look at, worth showing you a few pictures, because the design is really interesting.

To start off with, it's got a nice big cover, which has a spinner on it, here designed as part of the steering wheel. So you don't need any dice that might get lost, you just need a couple of counters.


And you can open it up and read the story as with a normal book.
Like this.


But, here's the interesting design bit. The cover has an extra fold on its edge, so you can fold it out flat like this.
Which means you can still see the spinner when you reach one of the games, like so.

And you can then carry on reading the story with the spinner there.

And it'll be there ready for when the next game comes up.


Clever huh?
But I'll post some pictures of the Mouse's Amusement park book as well soon.

More Pirate Sketches

Arrrrr, I left these scurvy pictures off my last Pirate Post, so here are a couple more.The ship and the captain.
I really enjoyed doing all the decorative woodwork at the back of the ship, and was pleased with how the angle came out.
And with the captain, I was trying to get a real rough seadog sort of  character, but make him young child friendly too.

Pirates, Arrrr

Hi Chaps,

Well, I've just recently been working on a Pirate book, which has been great fun.
And, an interesting spin on it, is that it's also a game story book.
It's got a spinner on the front, so you don't need dice, and three board games inside which I had to design and draw as part of the book, too.
A bit of a challenge, but fun, and also quick. Eleven spreads, and covers and title page etc, and  from sketches to artwork delivery in just one month, which is the quickest I've done a whole book.
It's been a bit of a push, but I don't feel it's been rushed.
It's been great fun designing a galleon and a pirate captain, and a bunch of pirates for the crew, and a pirate map and everything.
So, as I've suddenly got a bunch of new work, I thought I'd post a couple of my preliminary sketches.

And, a quick note -
In my research, I found someone who'd put 'Oooh Arrrr' for pirates.
However, this is actually farmers ( See 'Brand New Combine Harvester' by The Wurzels)
Pirates just go 'Arrrr'.

Website Update Alert

Just put some new illustrations up on my website.

There's a fair bunch, five new colour ones, and five new black and white ones. (I've made the new ones the first five in each section)

There's some Pirate stuff, Robot Dog, A boy and his dog Oakley, Lady Spamtwitch and her man servant Hugo, and some Cuddly bears.

Here's a link through a Gentleman Pirate

Have a look, I hope you like them :)

More Pirates, Arrrrrrrrrrrrr

Pirates, Arrrrr

Pirate sketches.

Here are two, more to come.