Recommended Wedding DJ

I get to see and hear so many wedding DJ's at the weddings that I draw at and now and then, one will really impress me.

Mark of Party Time DJ's is one such DJ who was really amazing!

Not only did he play great music and well mixed, he had a very cool set up that included a large flat screen monitor (tee vee) that he used to display messages and images of the very night! He had a camera and would upload the pictures he took as the evening went on, there and then to the large monitor! VERY COOL!

So please stop by his website to see more information about the great DJ service that he offers - click here!

Check out this link!

My good friend and absolutely AMAZING - TALENTED artist Tom Richmond had an exhibition at the request and invitation of Toonseum, which is a big success!

You HAVE to click here to go to the website that has a very cool video report from the Toonseum curator about Tom and his work on show!

Very BUSY!

Yes this weekend is mayhem with 6 weddings to draw at. That also means getting the paper printed for each wedding.

I am also handling enquiries at the same time, via email and telephone calls, so today is manic!

Apologies for the lack of post's over this weekend, I will try and get something up but next week 'normal service' shall resume!

My son is home from his month long holiday tour of the USA, he had a fantastic time and we shall be spending any free time catching up on his travels and the photo's that he took!

Would you eat this?

Last week we went out for dinner at our local TGI Friday's, with my wife's Sister and her family as it was our niece's 16th birthday.

We had a great evening and loads of fun but my Cheesecake dessert was a little unsure of itself!

As you can see from the picture, the chocolate sauce was presented what can only be described as 'Dog Poo'...!

It tasted OK but was a little scary to eat!

Tonight we pick up our son from London Heathrow airport as he arrives home after a months holiday touring the USA!

Busy busy!

Yes, although a few days without live gigs (they all start again tomorrow with 6 in total between Thursday and Sunday!), I have been working on commissions and spending some quality time with my loverly wife.

Cars cars cars..

Yesterday I attended the Rolls Royce and Bentley owners club eastern region meeting and rally.

There were over 50 cars there and some wonderful examples of new and old Rolls Royce cars and some beautiful old Bentley cars too.

In fact I was asked by the owner of the Mk1 Bentley Blower to draw his car for him, as you can see from the pictures above and he was very pleased with the result. It was a real joy to draw his car as for a change, the subject kept still for me!

My wife and I had a loverly day, loverly people, great weather and super cars to enjoy.

Where my work is used!

Click on images to view full size

I did this project a few months ago and now my client has gone live with their new website!

Mu caricatures of the team have been used on the their website and in their newsletter and I think they look great!

here is the link to the web page that has my caricatures on display - click here

Fly away...

This photo was taken when we had our trip to the Grand canyon, West Rim for the Skywalk experience, back in May this year.

Small planes and myself do not really get on as I suffer from motion sickness and we had a bumpy ride. I managed to get through it ok but it made my stomach turn over a few times and disorientated my brain!

It was worth it though and I can recommend the trip to anyone thinking about going to the West Rim!

Re worked bird

I had to re work my cute bird as the original was physically to small to be able to use on the internet for other uses!

Again, copyright text to help protect it, this is THE one illustration of mine that receives large amounts of hit via google images and I know that people are using it without permission! Some people do ask but not many!

And today is my 27th Wedding Anniversary!

New BONO caricature

I have been wanting to do this for a long time, using my old original Bono caricature from the U2 caricature I did some years ago, I have updated and given more of a true likeness, I feel, to Bono with this new caricature!

Sorry for the copyright watermark but I have to protect my work as many people visit the blog here to take my art and use without permission, it is difficult to police and prevent blatant theft of my work.

A 'clean' version is available on my store, see below......

For any BONO fans, you can buy a range of products with my new BONO caricature, available on my online store at Zazzle, so please click here to access the store and select something you might like!

New Book by Tom Richmond!

On Monday of this week the postman delivered to my door the new book by the amazingly talented Tom Richmond, entitled 'BO Confidential'

Apologies for the reverse image and also for my ugly mug, it may scare the kids, so be carful who you show this blog too!

Tom illustrated the book for MAD and I can now let you know that I had the absolute privilege back in May this year to be with Tom in his studio while he was still working on the book project. Tom very kindly showed me the color process on his MAC with photoshop and he also very kindly showed me the originals that he has created!

So now to actually have a personal signed copy is a really big thrill for me!

Buy your own copy NOW, what are you waitng for?

You can see and maybe order direct from Tom here

.

You can order from Amazon here

More photography

Click on image to view full size

This is another photo that I took while on my trip to Tokyo back in February.

I thought it was an interesting scene with this cute japanese boy having his photo taken by his grandfather at the back of the boat.

I took the original colour photo and in photoshop, converted it to greyscale to create a black and white image.

I cropped the picture as well so the focus was on the boy and his grandfather. I also adjusted the highlights and shadows until I was happy with the end result. Have to love those deep blacks in an image, give such contrast against the highlights!

Photo tech details of the original are:

Shutter speed - 1/160

Aperture - f/6.3

Focal Length - 50mm

ISO - 100

What I am reading

I thought you may like to know what I am currently reading. Although I am not a big reader, I do usually have a book on the go and sometimes due to my busy schedule, I fall behind and a book can gather dust on my desk!

But at the moment I am reading a very interesting book, but I must first share with you why I am reading such a book.

I am a person who is aware of a spiritual need in their lives. I have a spiritual hunger and find that I need to feed that hunger. I am a follower of Jesus but do not go around hitting people over the head with the bible, I prefer to show my faith in my actions and how I interact with people. In a nutshell, it's about love.

So reading 'The Flame of Sacred Love' by Brother Ramon is helping me feed my hunger (see the image above). It is a book that brings together a clearer understanding of love in faith and how the truth is not help exclusively by one group of people, be they religious or not. We all have something to give to each other.

As a creative person I have always had an awareness of my spirituality. Most artists usually do. You often find artists who have faith of some kind or belief that they will confess to playing a very important part to their life.

I guess it comes down to becoming a whole person and finding that wholeness that then gives you rest and a new strength to create art and all other types of creative aspects to life.

In my artistic life I need explore how I can improve on my skills and get better and then continue to improve. It is a process that never ends and I have really only just started after 40 years! It is not a short race but rather a long haul. Those who are ready to commit to the long haul find they will achieve the goals they have set out for themselves.

Ok, this week is another very busy week! I am drawing at events everyday from Wednesday until Sunday! These next two days will be spent getting paper ready and relaxing as much as I can after this past weekend. Then I shall be able to give my best each day when I am drawing!

Japan

Click on image to view full size

Here is a shot I took back in February this year when we were in Tokyo.

It is at the temple in Asakusa and the incense is supposed to have healing properties, so people get close and wave their hands so that the incense wafts over them!

Photo details:

Shutter speed - 1/30

Aperture - f/4.5

Focal Length - 40mm

ISO - 140

The Paper I use to draw on

Click on image to view full size

The paper I use when drawing live at weddings and events is made by a company called Mondi in Austria.

I use their Color Copy brand for digital colour laser systems as it has a shinning smooth finish/coating and that allows minimal ink bleed and an instant drying time for the ink once it has been applied.

I really like this paper!

I use two sizes, A4 and A3 but both with the same paper weight that is 100 g/m2

Here is the Mondi company website - click here

Where I purchase the paper from is Staples the office supplies retail store.

We have one in Basildon, close to where I live and I have actually got to know the manager there, we were on the same flight out this May, on our trip to Las Vegas and I said 'Hi' to a very surprised Tony!

Here is the Staples website - click here

Daily shout!

Getting ready for another weekend of weddings, so I have paper to print off in preparation and also need to go out and buy some more paper to top up supplies!

The weekend weather looks good so that should ensure the weddings will be fun!

Both my son and daughter are away on holidays with friends so it is just my wife and I at home. It feels nice to be on our own although I have to work over the whole weekend!

On Monday next week we have our first set of injections for our inoculations due to the trip we are taking to Sri Lanka next March. We watched Rick Stein last night on television as he was in Sri Lanka doing his cookery show. It looked wonderful and Sri Lanka is a beautiful country and the food there is fantastic, so my wife and I can't wait to get out there to sample the delights of the local cuisine!

I am also looking forward to taking hundreds of photo's with Nikon DSLR camera!

Photography

Click on image to view full size

This was shot a couple of days ago in my garden looking up to the sky in the direction of West and at approx 8pm in the evening. The sun was setting and the trees show a silhouette that brings out a new dimension to the detail of their leaves.

Using shutter priority here are the technical details:

Shutter 1/2000

Aperture f/3.5

Focal length 18mm

ISO 200

I am pleased with the result and thinking about my up coming trip to Portugal where I hope to get some really good photographs taken!

Black n White commission

Here is a black and white caricature that I completed this very morning! It was ordered via my website direct.

The idea is for this guy's birthday they are throwing a Karaoke party and what him as a caricature on the party invitations.

You can see my scanned in pencil sketch with a new layer added and my 'ink' stage to produce the final linework.

I then added another layer to draw the body on. I do this in separate layers so I have total control over size adjustments, mistakes or if a line just doesn't 'look' right.

Once complete I flatten the layers to one layer and save as a hi res jpg for printing by the client.

In the other picture is the complete finished caricature with body in pose!

All in all it took me just under one hour.

From Sunday night's wedding

I met Issy and Michael Sunday night at the wedding I was drawing at. They are a loverly couple and enjoyed the caricatures so much they came back for a second go! So as you can see from the picture, I drew them with a different slant!

It was great fun and they enjoyed it all as much as I did!

ISO on your camera

Click on image to view full size

Let me first say that I am no expert when it comes to photography, it is my hobby that I really enjoy, as it has that element of creativity at the heart of it.

I am learning more about the ISO or film speed as it most commonly known. This function allows greater control of shuttter speed and 'f' stops when shooting in various lighting situations and also can give a more sharper finish to the end result (e.g. 100 ISO gives a real sharp, clean and crisp result where 800 ISO can have some fuzzy or what is called 'noise' to the result), although today's digital SLR camera's can shoot at high ISO settings and still maintain a crisp image. So with a DSLR you are in a win win situation!

The picture above was shot last November while we on holiday with friends in Malta.

Here is the pictures technical data:

Shutter Speed - 1/320

Aperture - f/9

Focal Length - 18mm

ISO - 100

I shall be posting some more photo's soon tat have been shot at different ISO levels, so that I can show you how the ISO settings can make such a difference.

Another photograph..

Click on image to view full size

Here is another shot from my little walk the other day in the woods....

This was shot in the garden of the Dunton Essex Wildlife Trust shop at Dunton Plotlands.

Technical data:

Shutter speed- 1/320

Aperture - f/5.6

Focal length - 140mm

ISO - 400

Click here for the Essex Wildlife website, worth a look!

My photography

Click on image to view full size

One of my hobbies is taking photographs. I am a novice when it comes to photography and I have so much to learn (anyone fancy going out on a shoot to teach me more?) but I love taking photographs.

The above photo was taken yesterday in the nature reserve that is very close to my house, we can walk there in under 5 minutes!

I was using my Shutter Priority selection on Nikon and to be honest, not really sure what I was doing but the results were good in my opinion!

Anyway fo rthe above photo, here is the technical data for those of you who know what your doing with a camera...

Shutter speed - 1/320

Aperture - f/6.3

Focal Length - 300mm

ISO - 400

More Disney....

The new movie from Disney.......

Orlando 2010

Yes it is OFFICIAL, I shall be in Orlando in August 2010 with my wonderful wife and her Sister's family for a great vacation!

We shall be staying in a holiday - 'private' - villa in Indian Ridge, which is located south on Old Lake Wilson Road (look it up in Google maps!) and is only 10 minutes to Disney with the traffic on the 192! Sometimes faster if the traffic is light!

We are all very excited and my wife and I are so looking forward to catching up with our very close friends who live and work there.

So the villa is booked and we are just waiting for the flights to be available in October this year, so that we can book our seats!

That's my ugly mug above in the photo, taken in April 2008 when we visited Disney's Magic Kingdom park. Since then I have lost some weight, approx 28lbs, so my beer belly is somewhat smaller now!

I just can't wait to be out in Orlando once more! Disney has always had a big influence on my life, ever since I was a small child watching their cartoons on television and having the chance to watch the Disney movies in the late 1960's when I was a boy. I will never forget Jungle Book and Bambi! Those two movies had me in total awe of how cartoon illustration styles can convey life and I knew then I just had to draw!

My niece and nephew are very excited about the trip as well! It will be so cool to take them to places and show them around and watch them have a great time!

Orlando, here I come......

My NEW store!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Orlando 2010

Yes we are planning a trip to Orlando in 2010.

This will be a vacation with my wife's Sister and her family.

Universal will have the new ride open, Hollywood Ripe Ride Rockit

Click here for the rides website!

I love Orlando and always cherish any time I get to spend there, I have many very close friends who live there! So not only do I get to have a fantastic holiday, I also have the pleasure to catch up with my friends and hang out with them!

Once we have more firm plans I shall let you know when we are going to be there, you never know, yo may be out there at the same time!

Santa Claus?

If you should see Santa Claus around this summer, please tell him I would like a new Nikkor lens for Christmas.......

Last night!

This is a photo I shot last night of my cousin as he performed his Tom Jones tribute act. It was a great performance and we enjoyed an evening of great entertainment.

This was the first time I have shot in these type of conditions. It was a learning curve for me, trying different approaches with my camera using the shutter priority settings.

The result is OK but I have many more than are fuzzy as I was shooting with a zoom lens and the lighting conditions were really poor and a challenge to cope with!

Here is my cousins website click here