Archives
19/08: Waterfall wedding invite!
Congratulations guys! This is an invite I illustrated for a couple who were getting married in Wales at a venue with this amazing waterfall- could you ask for a better backdrop?
And this was the other side of the invite, obviously without all their details (you nosey internet people you!). Those are their pet cats (who were the cutest little creatures ever going by the photos I saw!) er, but that isn't their pet squirrel, he just crashed the party!
More invites will be coming fairly soon and if you are interested in your own fab invite,
email me!
13/08: Dinner with monks!
Another dinner doodle from Japan! We stayed at a Buddhist Temple at Koyasan, which was fascinating and very beautiful. Padding around the quiet hallways, listening to the morning prayers and soaking up the atmosphere (and soaking in the nicest traditional wooden bath ever!).Oh delicious veggie dinner! I still remember it so well! Without a doubt the best food we had while visiting Japan. It was quite cold and misty when we were staying there, so the hot gingery soup was so lovely! I would go back in a heartbeat.
Snapshot here, bigger image in the link below! You will see Steve wrote his verdict of yum or yuck again. I thought it was all yum, especially the tea!
Another lovely meal (click me!)
01/08: Ze Grindylow!
Ok, so it's not quite how JK Rowling described it, but I like the idea of a rainbow grindylow!
28/07: Squirrel!
Another little creature from a wedding invitation. The wedding is pretty soon now, so stay tuned for the full illustration!
14/07: A feast in Japan
I realise it was ages ago that I went to Japan but I thought I'd share a little sketch of this fantastic meal we had in Takayama just before we went to watch the festival! Mmmm it was great!
This is just a little snapshot. Click on the link below to see the whole sketch with all the little bits and pieces. Yey!
Lovely meal illustration (click me!)
19/05: Can you handle the cuteness?
Just a little sneak peek at an illustration I have been working on for someone's wedding invitation. I won't put the full image on the site until after the wedding has taken place, but wanted to share the little cat with you all!
14/05: Robot love- aka our invites!
As our guests have all received their invite now, there will be no spoilt surprises and I can add these to the site! We spent a long time wondering what to do and then decided to just go for the things that made us smile! Hurrah!If only the robot was really coming to the festivities though!
This is the first panel
The centre panel with some basic text
(I love you guys, but not sure I want to share our address with the whole interweb!)
The last panel
And here's a photo to see them all together!
So yeah, I've been busy as a bee! But if you are interested in getting some illustrated invites for your own smashing wedding, drop me a line! Some more invite designs will be appearing very soon!
25/04: Biceps! Guns!
Sorry for the long break from updates, I've been beavering away on some fun projects. They are nearly done, so new piccies on the way soon!
In the meantime, here's a weedy wolf! I had this song stuck in my head all day. And damn fine it is too! Want to hear what's been playing in my studio today? Clickety click! Good stuff from up and coming new thing, Rhythm.
Why not follow him on twitter? And while you're at it, follow me too. Ooo what fun!
13/02: Three spooky cats and one geek!
I was trying to be restrained with the colours this time. Aww look at that one little geeky guy sitting with the sinister cats!
21/01: Hooray for trifle! Om nom nom
Trifle, trifle, we all love trifle! Did I mention that I love trifle? I do.
This is a card I drew for Katherine. Hope she likes it! Yes that's David Bowie. I bet he loves trifle.
19/12: Christmassy to-do list (Illustration Friday: Undone)
This is the exciting life I lead. Thought I'd take part in Illustration Friday, after all, there are so many things I have left undone this week!
12/11: Tee hee, I made a bat!
Ok so it's a bit late for halloween, but I made it as a present for my brother and I wanted it to be a surprise!
01/11: Tea makes things better!
I have a cold and am sneezy and tired, ah but nothing cheers me up like a nice cuppa!
Oh hey, check out the Good to Know Zine, the latest issue is about feeling envious of other people's work- you can read lots of artists thoughts on the subject and see some great illustrations to boot! Even this little tea-drinking critter!
08/09: Introducing Gothic Bill - some nonsense for a friend
Spooky, but my, that's a down to earth hatVampire-tastic. But I'm sure Dracula never wore a hat quite like that...
06/09: Wedding invite design for a friend
I illustrated some wedding invitations for a friend recently- woo! They were designed to fold in like a double door.
The couple are getting married in the New Forest, so autumny trees seemed to be the way to go!
Have obviously removed their names and the details. If anyone out there is interested in me doing illustrations for their wedding invites, drop me an email! marmalade@toastmonster.com
01/08: Papyrophobia- fear of paper!
Argghhh! Damn, that's some scary paper. Luckily I do not have a phobia of paper.
I'm not too keen on clowns to tell the truth, but couldn't face doing a picture of those.
*shiver*
No I haven't seen all the horror films with clowns in- what kind of idiotic fool do you
take me for?
15/07: Day 14- Last day! Chased by the cops, had ethics discussion, ate a fish and didn't buy ugg boots
Ahh it's the last day from my holiday! What fun we had. If you want to see the diary from the beginning, go into the archives and scroll down to the first day, which was 11th April!
Ughhh note to self- re-do website!
28/06: Day 13- singing badly
Sorry for the delay- day 13 of the Australia trip! I like to sing songs, loudly and badly.
Steve is very understanding.
We also suddenly noticed that we had tans! The beaches were so pretty but the sand was like flour or custard powder, it was so fine!
07/06: Illustration Friday: Craving
I decided to interrupt my cartoon diary with an Illustration Friday -this week it is 'craving'.
I imagine these little cravings growing like plants, making a high pitched eeeeeeeeeee sound as they gnaw at you, demanding whatever it is they want! In my case usually cake...
04/06: Day 12 - Fun boat trip and mysterious disappearing avocado
Watching the dolphins swimming about was great! Later when the boat lady threw fish for the sea eagles we saw them snatch it out of the air so close- they are so nimble it's amazing. Steve took some good photos. Luckily none of me, because my hair was a mad frizzy mess!
I was sad about the avocado- where oh where did it go? Having it as a topping on the pizza didn't really make up for it- it's a bit of a weird mix!
24/05: Day 11 - storms and pink snappers, but not so pink lakes
It was a shame the boat trip was cancelled but I don't think it would have been much fun in the stormy rain. Then after a bit, it got sunny anyway so we didn't waste the day stuck inside. Steve was keen to swim in the sea but it was toooooo cold! I paddled, but brrr!
19/05: Day 10: fat sea-lions and the wooden hut of the 70s
The fat sea-lion just sat there snoozing in the rain. He didn't seem bothered. I was when I spotted a cockroach in the 70s hut... but I just shooed it outside and it didn't come back.
Or at least came back but hid somewhere away from me which is the main thing.
Mmm cosy hut, many cups of tea.
16/05: Day 9: rain and biiiiig treeeees and whupp ass!
Don't forget, if you want you can follow me on Twitter for tweety updates when I put a
new pic up. http://twitter.com/Toasty_monster
And if you want to see this diary from day 1 you gotta go to the archives!
10/05: Day 8 - trees trees trees
Walked along a treetop walk, climbed a big tree, slept in a room with treetrunks- it was all about the trees today! I was determined to climb the Gloucester Tree because I thought my brothers were bound to do it and I'd be damned to be the one who chickened out! But turns out they didn't climb it in the end, so I get tree-climbing head for heights respect.
Missed the beginning of this cartoon diary? Click the archives tab at the top to scroll down through all the older posts. (yes I know! Really must redo this entire site so it works better- it's on my to do list!)
04/05: Day 7 - Hangovers
Ugh a little hungover, with achey feet and stupid hair. A game of cricket and some pizza later and I was much better! Apart from the hair, which was stupid all day.
26/04: Day 5 -Flipflops rule
We stayed in Margaret River, soaking up the sunshine, eatin tasty food on the beach and swimming in the sea! It was here that Steve first invented the now well known 'Steve's Wave Crash' game.
Which mainly involves sitting in the sea and waiting for waves to crash into you. It shouldn't be, but is strangely fun!
19/04: Day 3 - drivin and drop bears!
Our satnav told us many strange things while we were driving. Often that there were wasps and grapes coming up on the road ahead. We didn't spot any though.
17/04: Day 2 - Perth is pretty damn good
We wandered round Perth. The sun shone, the salad was tasty and the art gallery was organised by theme, which I prefer. A mannequin in a shop scared me and the view from Kings Park was twinkly. The trees there are great!
14/04: Day 1- Visiting an island of small endearing rat-creatures
On our first day in Perth we visited Rottnest Island which is home to many small apparently rat-like creatures. They were pretty excellent and very tame.
I managed to ride a bike all day and Not Fall Off Once! Sadly for me this is a momentous achievement.
13/04: The Flights
Oops, sorry this is a bit late- day 2 of the holiday cartoon diary.
Ah the joys of flights!
11/04: Holiday packing can be tricky...
Hurrah, the first in the series of cartoon diaries from my holiday to Australia. Check back for a new day's adventures tomorrow.
Hmm now which of these did I end up packing? I will give you a clue, 12 of these things were things I actually packed in my backpack... but which things did I bring?
No I didn't bring George. He is just there in the top left corner looking hopeful.
15/03: Orange Cat of Wrath
Rarrrrrr! This is a kind of creepy cat. I think maybe it's just a bit frightened and trying to make itself look big and menacing!
Next week I'm off on holiday to Australia! Hurrah! This is why I am poor. So probably no more pics until I get back. Sorry, yes boo. But am planning to keep an illustrationy-diary type thing (technical term that!) while I'm away, then will post the pages up when I get back, so you can all see my jolly exciting adventures. Follow me on Twitter (here) for a tweety-tweet when I'm back and posting.
In other news- someone rang my doorbell today to point out that a pile of crud was on fire outside my flat, because that is just the sort of random thing that happens to me. Eep! So I went and got a bucket of water and put the fire out. Then the fire brigade turned up. I suppose one of our neighbours must have rung them. So they weren't too impressed to have been called out for a smouldering pile of rubbish.
09/03: IRIS poster
Heyyyy! Sorry, it's been a while again. I been busy busy, but with creative projects so you can't be cross! Hopefully will be putting some of the stuff up here this week. Starting with IRIS!
This is a poster I designed for Cambridge University Library, for the IRIS project.
As you can see, I couldn't resist getting a lil dog in there!
Also, I submitted my leaping dog (jog your memory here) for the lovely Pecanoot site. (yey!)
I recon we could all do with a little more cheery thinking- glad I could be involved!
02/02: Gardening dangers
A slightly cheerier pic for you. Well, I think it's quite cheery apart from the monster plant... but at least something grew! Better than my gardening efforts.
It has been snowing like crazy this weekend so this seems a bit out of season, but I didn't want you to have to wait too long for an update. This was originally a happy card for Sal. With seeds in. Did you see what I did there?
More soon. Can't wait? Follow me on Twitter for a note when a new pic arrives. Plus extra ramblings from me! How can you resist?
19/01: The rider of the pale horse (IF: Pale)
I spose this is a little bit morbid, (see I nearly said 'grim' but then stopped myself- dah there will be no puns! Will I keep NONE of my resolutions??) but I wanted to play with inky swirls and it seemed to fit!
Also it's Death from the Discworld so he's a pretty dapper guy. Haven't read a Discworld novel yet? Go read one. Now.
Go on. I'll draw something cheery while you go read it...
04/01: New Year Rabbit!
Toastmonster and this oddly patterned rabbit wish you a bloomin happy new year! Hope you had a good un.
This year I resolve to do more random pics, get em onto the site and maybe tidy everything up a bit round here. You try harder to email me nonsense? Deal!
16/12: Happy Christmas!
Jingle bells jingle bells and a partridge in a pear tree santa baby! Hurrah it's christmas. Have yourself a fantastic one!
30/10: Lonely robot
One of the best things I did in Tokyo was visit the Studio Ghibli museum! Am a massive fan and the museum was so cool! Just the building itself is really great to explore, with loads of little references to things in the films.
Also on the roof you get to meet a giant robot from the film Laputa- Castle in the Sky! I love those guys. So of course this pic was heavily influenced by that.
Dah, I want to watch the film Right Now...
27/10: Doodle a Panda!
Am back from Japan, which was an amazing place! So beautiful. Sorry for the delay, will put some proper new pics up very soon, promise! I'm just a bit busy, leaving my old job and starting a new job!
So for now here is a doodle of a panda, for Jen. Hurrah! Whenever I need cheering up, I doodle a panda. Going to miss you Camden office!
28/09: Be back soon!
Where are they??
Sorry! I am on holiday in Japan- back at the end of October. New drawings then, I promise!
15/09: Island and waves (IF: Island)
Yey, had a chance to do another Illustration Friday submission! Can you tell that I am looking forward to my trip to Japan in October? This was quite a change of style for me but I really enjoyed it!
11/09: Ian and a yeti
Hello, sorry it's been a while again- what with moving flat and having no internet, I haven't had a chance to put much here!
This is a pic of my old flatmate Ian, who has jetted off for a trip round Europe, followed by moving to Vancouver! The lucky devil! Am going to miss him lots, but am sure he is having a fab time! Ian is big fan of climbing and more generally just roaming around the wild- so I thought I'd do a pic of him off on one of his rambles, where he met a friendly local!
30/07: Will
Hey! Sorry it's been a while. Where have all the pictures been you ask?
Well, I was put out of action by the small matter of a broken hand. Rather embarrassing really, I fell down the escalator on the underground and broke a bone in my hand- so have spent many unhappy weeks in a cast, unable to draw anything worth looking at but am finally fixed, hurrah!
Here is an illustration of my lil bro Will who is in Singapore at the moment and who I miss loads. Hope you're having a fab time Will! I was trying out a different style again with this one, all done in Illustrator.
29/07: Canned Ghosts (IF: Canned)
I had time today for another Illustration Friday topic.
Morticia only buys the best!
14/05: Librarian Bear
Bring back your library books... or I may have to rip your face offfffff. Rrrrrrr! Bears make excellent librarians- no one ever forgets to return their books.
28/04: Too much on his mind- worrying gives you wrinkles! (IF: Wrinkles)
So, another Illustration Friday topic. I'm trying out a bit of a different style this time. I thought the image was pretty simple so maybe simple colouring would work well. I'm not sure now... I think I've been staring at it for too long so I'm just going to leave it be for now!
11/04: Failed bank robbery (IF: Fail)
Another Illustration Friday topic and gasp! I am early (ish) for once!
This is a painting I did a little while ago of a cheeky thief getting caught before he even got the cash! Not having opposable thumbs means the revolver is a bit of a useless weapon, really it was just for show.
One or two people mentioned that the zombie fish I drew last week was a little on the scary side- hope this is suitably non-scary to make up for that!
09/04: LovetoPost book
Hello lovely website visitors. You may remember that a little while ago I sent a postcard to the LovetoPost website. My postcard is here in case you are interested or have forgotten what I am talking about.
Well now there is a lovely book of some postcards from the website, (including little old mine, blush etc) which you can buy here. All profit will go to the NSPCC which is very groovy and another reason why I was so happy to be involved.
In other news, we have MarioKart for the Wii and Steve is addicted to it. I am typing this to the sound of a small green dinosaur going 'waahoooooo' as it zooms around a track and sometimes 'wawawawawawa' when it gets hit by a shell.
01/04: Arghhh! Zombie fish!
Yikes. Don't feed the fish!
Ok this isn't just another of my zombie nightmare obsessions. I was reading the excellent Bad Science blog t'other day. In a post about the Durham fish oil trial (or was that initiative?) there was a link to Holford Watch. Go have a look - it's interesting. The title of their post made me chuckle and the zombie fish was born.
25/03: Alright, enough of this nonsense. Get those paws where I can see em!
Fraid I haven't got the energy to do a more finished pic - feeling all flu-y and crappity. It snowed over easter but just a little bit so no snowmen for me. Droop.
So yes, this little bird is sick of the whole being stalked across the garden by a big fat cat and has taken matters into his own hands... or wings. Or whatever. Shh, I'm not well!
18/03: Heavy objects are no match for me! (IF: Heavy)
Ancient monster proverb: there's never a bad time to levitate an anvil.
In other news it is cold and wet and both of my umbrellas caused me suffering and distress. One dragged me into a shrub and promptly blew inside out, broke and had to be humanely binned. The other (possibly in retaliation for the earlier umbrella binning incident) tried to drag me under a bus and then snapped it's metal spokes in fury when I avoided said bus. I considered nursing it back to health but I think it's a gonner.
12/03: Catching your dinner the patient way...
He is thinking 'If I wait here long enough, dinner will just leap into my mouth!'
26/02: Many many robots (IF: Multiple)
They look a little bit sinister with their glowy eyes, but really they just came to say hello. I don't know why but when I was drawing them I had it in my head that they would sound a bit like the little green aliens in Toy Story, only more electronic... obviously.
21/02: Blob monster! (IF: Theory)
It's a giant blob! A friend and I had a conversation about Cloverfield, we were thinking the monster would have been a bit more interesting if it wasn't a dinosaur... also it would make a bit more sense if it was somehow absorbing all those rockets fired at it as opposed to mysteriously being unaffected. That's what we thought anyway!
So here is the blob. My friend wanted insect-like legs on it too, but I didn't feel like it. Sorry about that.
Coincidentally this is also my theory of how the world may well end. Get your helicopter now.
06/02: Illustration Friday - Blanket
When I read the IF subject this week, my first thought was about hiding under the blankets from scary shadows, but I wanted to do something a bit more cheery, so I was thinking of other things you might do with blankets, such as use them as a cape...
Tee hee, I wonder if dogs have dreams like this?
20/01: the Adventures of Fork-head and the Wolf - Don't drink that!
Wolf is a bit of a coward really and looks on worriedly as Fork-head braves the wrath of tea-drinking giants...
17/01: Ah crap. (Illustration Friday: Stitches)
I am clumsy. Not quite this bad, but still pretty bad!
I was washing up not that long ago and put a washed knife on the side to dry. It promptly slid off the side and into my leg. Ouch. I thought it was pretty funny at the time. Then I got blood all over my jeans and to add insult to minor injury, I had to wash up the knife again!
08/01: Monster Forest
Happy new year! Let us start the year as we mean to go on- with monsters in a forest...
I drew each of the monsters separately in illustrator (based on some doodles in my sketchbook) trying to make myself draw characters without any black lines. I considered just putting them up one by one but then thought nah! Let's just have em all in one big happy monster montage!
21/12: Angry Mumma
She's one angry octopus, rampaging through the land, looking for her lost kids!
Happy birthday to Zoltan for a bit later in the month, have an octopus-tastic day!
20/12: I like to juggle
I can't really juggle. I wish I could though, it looks great fun. What a mean wolfie thing though- juggling with bunnies!
12/12: Monsters
These monsters don't like being bullied and they have got their big brother to come sort you out!
It is cold cold cold. I am writing my christmas cards and feeling festive- hurrah!
01/12: There's got to be an easier way...
I was trying out cross hatching entirely in Illustrator and this is what I came up with. It is a very slow and fiddly way to work but I quite like how she turned out. I feel sure there must be a better way to do cross hatching though!
Have been trying out several backgrounds that were all too noisy and confusing which is why she has been languishing in my to-finish-off-at-some-point folder for so long. I finally decided to just put her on the site, maybe I'll come back to her and do a background if I have inspiration!
19/11: Hercule - Super Pigeon
This is another illustration I have done for my friend Martina. See the story here: click me!
What a pigeon! He saves a squirrel from a fire!
11/11: Tinny and Daz go to the mountains
This is an illustration I have done for a friend- check out her stories here: click me!
(scroll down to see the story about Daz and Tinny!) Aww so christmasssy!
04/11: LovetoPost
Here is the postcard I did for LovetoPost. I do love to post. Getting stuff in the post is great!
See all the happy postcards here: LovetoPost
02/11: Doodle olympics: Week two - monkeys
Another picture for the doodle olympics on the Computer Arts forum. Which is here in case you are interested: clickety click!
I am under the weather but drawing this wicked little monkey made me feel better.
Fly my pretties, FLY!
23/10: Doodle olympics: Week one- robots
Some bright spark on the Computer Arts forum suggested a doodle olympics, where we are given a thing to draw, a week and we can do whatever and post it up in a new thread each week in the forum. Which is here in case you are interested:
click here!
This week's thing was robots. I'm afraid I'm pretty busy doing various illustrations for people, so this really is a 'doodle' and not a beautiful masterpiece (unlike the other stuff in that forum, which makes me want to cry its so good!) But I thought it would be good to get me drawing lots of different things. I wouldn't usually draw robots, but I enjoyed this! Maybe when I get time later I'll come back to this image and make it good!
14/10: The Adventures of Fork-head and the Wolf - The shrunken head
Oh my god! Look at this shrunken head!
08/10: Tea Thievery
An alarming thing happened at work recently. My colleague Simon and I were making tea in the kitchen. Simon likes his tea well brewed so left his cup stewing on the sideboard while he perused the newspapers. Turning back, he discovered to his horror that the tea and the cup had mysteriously disappeared!
As we looked in vain for the missing beverage another colleague walked in and told us that the same thing happened to her! There is a tea stealer on the loose!
23/09: Random questions
Who would win in a fight between a T-rex and a giant crocodile?
I was thinking probably the croc, because they're pretty tough and have good ninja skills such as creeping up on things by pretending to be a log.
I drew this pic for my friend Katie, then we went to see dinosaurs in 3D at the imax cinema! Yey! The T-rex is purple because I was figuring they needed something to be fighting about in the first place, so perhaps the crocodile was teasing him for looking like Barney.
30/08: EXPECTO PATRONUM!
Sally requested a picture of herself and her lovely squirrel patronus and I finally finished it! Hurrah! Get away you rubbish dementors, you are no match for the happy squirrel!
04/08: Toothy monster
I finished the Potter book and I loved it! But I will be good and not say anything else about it in case I spoil it for someone!
I did this little fella yesterday, trying out different textures and brushes- I was quite pleased with him in the end.
22/07: Lil Potter
So yeah, I like Harry Potter. I'm a little busy right now reading the final book! So in case you were getting bored because no new pictures have gone up recently- I am putting this little pic of Harry I did ages ago. Enjoy!
05/07: Random Penguin
There was stuff in the news recently about a giant penguin fossil they found. It sounded pretty scary. This penguin isnt scary really but he has a spear so watch it.
28/06: Temperamental kettle
Our kettle has become a little temperamental. It sometimes just refuses to boil water for us and every time you click it on it turns off again. Curse you kettle. I feel a bit of a bully weighing down the switch with the sugar jar but I neeeed my cup of tea dammit all!
04/06: If you want to go on this holiday, you must get up at the...
Steve knows that I am not a morning person. That I do not rise with the lark, leap athletically from the bed and morris dance my way to breakfast. So when he wants to put me off something, he usually gives me the impression that in order to do it, I will have to get up AT THE CRACK OF DAAAAAWN! (dramatic gasp!)
02/06: Magic Poirot!
Use the leeetle grey cells Hastings!
This is my first ridiculous animation, I will try to do some more soon for your entertainment.
28/05: Wanderer
After a windswept and rainy bank holiday, I felt alot like this forlorn little beastie. Wandering sadly in the rain, dragging my abnormally long arms behind me in the mud...
25/05: The Gaze
This is based on a photo of Steve I snapped last year. I managed to catch his piercing look before he could hide away.
14/05: The yeast returns...
See, I think you all thought I was just kidding about the yeast.
Well, I wasn't. Pretty freaky looking stuff isnt it? EEEEEEEEE!
11/05: What is that strange smell in the kitchen?
It's YEEEEAAASSST! A bowl of smelly yeast bubbling up in a scary fashion. Ian makes bread. There is often smelly yeast somewhere in the kitchen ready to leap out at me and go arrrrrrggghh I am smelly and odd!
30/04: Dream Night- 9th May
I am taking part in an exhibition called The Dream Night, at the Miller pub on 9th May. Hurrah!
There will be an art exhibition, live bands, an interactive art wall and all sorts of other fabulous things.
My god, I hear you all cry, that sounds like the sort of thing I would damn well love to go to!
Well, come along!
Where can I find out more about this most excellent event?
Have a look at the myspace page:
www.myspace.com/thedreamnight
NOTE: thanks to eagle-eyed Ian, please note that this happy event is happening on the 9th, not the 90th... oops!
23/04: Biscuit spirit
My flatmate Ian may occassionally eat my biscuits, but he also displays the honourable spirit of biscuit purchase.
28/03: Scary invitation
Finally got round to putting this image up! I made this to invite people to our housewarming party in January - luckily our house isn't quite that scary looking, although there is a cupboard in the bathroom that seems to go on for miles into the darkness... I wonder if you end up being John Malkovich?
19/03: Christmas comes early and it's MEAN.
Haha! Reindeer doom! This was inspired partly by a conversation with Dan which somehow got onto the subject of me riding a giant pink reindeer, and partly after a particularly bad job interview I had recently.
27/02: Dinosaur my ass
As promised to Sal, here is that lizard. Who is not a dinosaur, no matter how much he goes grrrrr! GRRR I say!
27/02: Guest Artist - Crazy Doughnut by Ryan
The first in the Guest Artist series, this is an excellent angry looking doughnut.
Many thanks to Ry! Want to be a guest artist? Email me: marmalade@toastmonster.com
21/02: Lassie-wannabe
Just because he's a whopping great crocodile and not a long-haired, cute-looking dog, doesn't mean he can't be helpful!
04/02: Tsukiko
This is another character that developed from some rough sketches.
I have been under the weather since Tuesday, grr! Can't stop coughing away like a sickly wretch- so this aint too bad considerin!
Stupid damned microbes- I bet I caught em off some splutterer on the tube and now I've had to miss Jamie's wedding as too ill to drive! Well, I guess it's probably for the best, otherwise it would have been: Do you, Jamie, take this woman to be **COUGH COUGH SPLUTTER**
30/12: Lost bag
This little guy started out as a bear but after repeated tauntings from Steve and Nathan, I had to change him to a dog, since that is what he blatantly is. He is returning a lost handbag- what a little star!
19/12: Kasumi
This is a character I developed from some doodles and sketches. I'm not sure what sort of person she is just yet but I am pretty shattered this evening so will have to ponder it later!
16/12: Growling
Oops sorry it's been a while since I put anything new up here!
I don't know why but this wolfy dog keeps turning up in my doodles.
Yey! Sally spotted the doodle that this pic is based on, in a pile of crud on my floor. 10 points to Sal!
28/10: Raaaaaaaaaaa!
Eeee! Scary beastie leaps for your jugular!
This is a pencil sketch from a notebook I use at work- hmm a little worrying perhaps.
28/10: Sarah and the Raisins
My work colleague Sarah bought some chocolate covered raisins for her children. Ummm such tasty treats! But then all afternoon they kept calling to her from her bag under the desk...
We had an evil plan that she should open the pack and eat them, we would of course selflessly help out with this task. Then once they were all gone, her kids would never know and so they wouldn't be sad now would they?
Sarah held out though. I salute your self-control!
07/10: Sad day at work
Click here for giant custard creamIt looked so good, but it was just rubbish.
29/09: Front cover
This is the front cover design for Ian Bembridge's album ' The Photograph & Other Short Stories'.
Go have a look at his band's website: www.bullenbushmusic.co.uk
I wanted to get away from the traditional and old-fashioned style that folk music sometimes has and play with the idea that people hear things other people have to say but don't always listen properly.
The Identikit men in suits must have loomed out of some strange Orwellian daydream I think!
28/09: Sleeve picture of Ian
This is an image from the sleeve of the album. The sleeve had a lot of text as Ian wanted to talk a little about each of the songs.
27/09: Back cover
Those pesky big brother style men in dark glasses turned up again! This is the back cover- complete with song list and copyright blurb.
I liked placing the images in a looser way on the back, compared to the fairly formal front layout. This helped to balance out the chucks of orderly and regular text. Plus they just look like such cheeky little chaps!
17/09: Star Plants
Lovely Steve got me a graphics tablet for my birthday! It is super and this is the first pic I have produced entirely with the tablet. I need more practice, but it is hugely satisfying to use! What is this picture all about you ask? Well, I'm not sure. he's just a happy little thing contemplating blue star plants.
06/09: Grumble grumble!
This is a sketch from a book some friends and I wrote in while we were on our happy travels round Europe. My friend had just grumbled into the youth hostel room we were staying in, dripping wet and complaining of too much nakedness in the showers.
07/08: Sir, you are a cad and a bounder and I consider your comments about my choice of attire most ungentlemanly.
Viscious, knife-wielding, inappropriately pink polar bear, but so polite.
30/07: Why is it so damn pink here?
Have you ever walked into a room and realised that everyone else is dressed super-formally and you are wearing scruffy jeans? Well, this guy is in a similar situation, except with fluffy trees.
Damn, he is going to get picked off by a predator so easily standing out like that.
30/05: Regret
Gouache and acrylic on canvas.
What I like about this painting is that when people see it (it's currently up in my kitchen) they always have theories on what is going on in the painting. I have heard several and they were all pretty different.
Hey, have a theory? Email me: marmalade@toastmonster.com - the first person to have a theory closest to what I was thinking when I painted it gets a happy prize. And respect.
26/03: Tree branches in the wind
It's so chilly I thought I'd put something a little summery here to cheer us all up!
There are rows of blossoming trees near Regent's park which I snapped last year.
Roll on summer!
23/03: The leftover tea evolved...
Eeeep! Let that be a lesson to you to always wash up your teacup at work, and not to leave it sitting on your desk for a week or two. Who knows what you might discover on your return?
18/03: Behemoth
I read the Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) recently- it's bloomin brilliant! This is a sketch for an illustration of the giant black cat Behemoth. He is part of Satan's retinue, so is often up to no good, but he's a very appealing character- generally joking alot and acting the fool.
08/03: Troubled
Acrylic and mixed media
This is a painting I did while at uni. It's based on a much earlier sketch from ages ago. The weird reflective material is wrapping paper- you can't really see it well enough but I worked into the paper using wax pastels.
12/02: Blue rings
Woo paper mache is great! This is just layers and layers of paper pulp.
Steve took this pic with some strong blue lighting but the thing itself is white.
07/02: Listening...
This little fella appeared during another meeting. There's something ever so slightly sinister about him- I'm not sure what...
06/02: Run for your lives!
Mystery blue dinosaur eats unsuspecting coffee drinkers outside picturesque church.
04/02: Outlines
five band members on black illustrationWho said folk bands couldn't be cool?
Click on the link above and the image will pop up- unless you have pop-up-blocking-stuff in which case, it won't!
24/01: The red lady
Gouache on canvas
Hero is a bloomin brilliant film and its use of colour is just amazing. I wanted to do a painting with a limited palate, so it was a big source of inspiration. I know the face isn't quite right, but I had to stop because I was getting really fed up of re-doing it! I might come back to it later.
23/01: Steve and a flower
This is my fella Steve. And a flower. It's not mean to hold a flower in front of him and then put the photo on my site because I've made him look pretty tough. That makes up for it right?
I took this picture with my crappy little camera phone in Regent's park.
22/01:
Another doodle from the same meeting. Don't ask me what this is supposed to be- I have no idea! he's definitely a bad-ass though.
19/01:
Well here is a scary rabbit. I doodled him while at work, during a boring meeting. There were many doodles on my pad, I think some more will find their way here soon.
Scary rabbit demands some carrots dammit!
17/01: What's going on?
Well hello there. Thanks for visiting the happy world of illustrations, painting and fairly random cartoons also known as Toastmonster.com!I suppose I should explain myself a bit. I produce my pictures using photoshop, illustrator and sometimes a graphics tablet. When I get the time I paint and then the lovely Steve takes a photo using his swanky and complicated camera.
I haven't yet got the website to behave itself exactly as I would like, so in order to see everything, you need to click on the 'Archives' tab at the top there. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to get these filters to work properly *sigh*
I am very partial to biscuits.
That's about it at the moment. If you want to request a happy picture, comment on the excess of pink polar bears, or just pick my brain, email me!
marmalade@toastmonster.com or click on the word 'Marmalade' at the bottom of any of the pictures!
