FemBots CALLING OUT Tour

Something I did for the FemBots upcoming tour. Look out for them, they could be in your neighborhood even now.

MORE LOBLAWS

Something in the shops right now.

For Vancouver

A couple of Little Red Riding Hoods.

BOB LOBLAW

This is something I did for Loblaws. A tissue box design! A bit slick but its for kids.

THE BROWNS

Meet the Browns. They may seem a little down. Maybe they're just playing it cool like they're from Toronto or something. Probably vegans on their way to yoga. Eating a lot of mashed food. Slows you down I guess.

COWBOY IN A CAVE

The cowboy is back and he's wandered into a cave. Maybe he should have left the damn lamp alone. Usually he challenges inanimate things like rocks and trees and bicycles. Sometimes flowers. Layers and layers of tissue paper scanned to create this. It starts to look like so many levels of lettuce after a while.

EARLY THANKSGIVING

Just to show that I play fair, something for the vegetarians in my silent community.

DISAPPEARING LINE

Trying to move away from such a heavy use of line. Here are two examples of what I have been thinking about. There is no doubt that less is more. There is more room to shape an idea because it is less labour intensive and consequently much more fun. The guy in the hat is some sort of little Napoleon. Looks like he's either just come back from sea or he just can't remember where he parked his boat. The cowboy speaks for himself. He doesn't agree with cacti.

TANGLED

Also, I found this yesterday. I did it a while ago but the digital version I had was pretty fucked up. I boosted the color balance so much it looked like goat's head soup. I actually prefer this more retro feel, kinda storybook gone wrong. Tangled

SOMETHING FOR VEGETARIANS

Yes, thanks to vegans, vegetarians and animal rights activists rodents are ruling the streets at night. They have ruined my garden, raided my trash and I swear they have their eyes on my i-pod.

Been A Long While

Yes it has been some time since I bothered with this thing. Time that's been slow and time that's been fast but let's not get into that drivel. These are three pictures I did recently. Feeling a great deal of disatisfaction with my cumbersome style. About to let the weight drop.

TOY STORE

Finally, after weeks of doing things I grew to hate, I have an illustration I can almost live with. This is for the nb illustration calendar and I kinda like it. It still needs work but I am posting it anyhow. I have been pretty busy working in the animation world, slaving for a good friend of mine. Daniel Sumich is his name, a very talented fellow. Forget about that and let me know what you think of this boy in a toy store at christmas. The colour balance is still lacking and if you check the blog at johnkstuff.blogspot.com you will know what I mean. Now, thay guy is a genius. He makes a lot of us look like we are just playing around.

ROBOT STRANGLER

Here is an illustration I did this week overa couple of days. Quite simple but I kind of like it. I have returned to working in pencil rather than pen lately. The line is softer and smoother. It may sound boring to elaborate but I really enjoy working in 4B and 3B pencil. The stuff just flows. I have been working with pen for ages because it saves time in the sharpening department. But it turns out that pencil is much looser and the redundant sharpening somewhat rewarding. I've also been doing a lot of charcoal sketches emulating my favorite french artist Gus Bofa. If you don't know him you should really check him out. He was a master and a genuis.

CHARCOAL

These are some charcoal sketches I did last night. Charcoal is pretty different from drawing on a tablet. There's texture, resistance and vibration with conte and charcoal and pencil on paper, These drawings here are pretty retro but I think something is coming to life.

ORIGINAL FABLES

Initially I was working with black and white drawings like these. I still kind of like these as they are before I started mucking about with them. The obvious problem with all the white is that the image glares at you. At first I framed the images with a heavy vignette. Then I went to a painted canvas textured red vignette. Now I am working on the approach I mentioned below.

FABLES

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on this stuff. Taking artwork from an old film idea, adding more detail and changing the style of render. Initially, for the film I was making, it was just going to be black and white line. I tried a number of approaches and settled on this. What I consider to be fable like panoramics.

SKETCHES of SPAIN

Here is something I started on Wednesday afternoon and had to have finished for Friday. It is for a travel brochure published by conde nast. The image is a representation of an annual festival in Spain. I was pretty happy about it during the process of making it but in reflection it kind of bugs me. It reads a bit like a drunken photograph. Initially it had more flow through but I could have improved on that with a better distribution of the three grey tones. Instead I kind of drew as if I were within the party.It kind of lacks a real focal point. Is that a good thing? It makes the image more lively and more like a celebration but when I look at my favourite illustrators their work seems more orchestrated. Not contrived but evolved. I guess I am going to have to work on this. The picture with the heavier shadows is probably stronger because it reinforces the idea of the trumpet and guitar dudes as a starting point.

POLKE POGO

I did this some time ago. It's part of the Later Toots thing listed in the archives here... I guess it could be considered an outtake from the series I did. The style is some sort of homage to some really incredible domestic pieces that Sigmar Polke did.

MISTER BLUE

Here is something new I have been working on. A film idea. Based on a song by an old fifties band called The Fleetwoods. A song called Mister Blue. The film is very simple, mostly lip sync and acting. Not too many shots at all. Something I can produce quickly without too much deliberation and procrastination. If you know what I mean.

FEEDING FRENZY

Did this yesterday. May still add some patterns to the fish bodies to make it less like animation and more like illustration. Or just more interesting all around. This is the place where Doctor Suess and I meet head on. But it may still seem that George Grosz is winning the battle for the control of my disposition.

GANGSTER COLA

Whoah. Been some time. Lapsed blogger. Here is something that has taken me months to finish. I have worked on and off with this image since July. I must have done the figures twenty times eaach and I'm still not entirely happy with it. The blue longshot is called QUEEN SAYS TERRORISTS WON'T CHANGE OUR WAY OF LIFE. I was working on a series of roughs in a pub when this statement flashed up on one of those vulgar twenty-four hour news channels. They were so happy to have a new story to exploit and London had just been bombed. The queen, as usual, was oblivious.

CONFESSIONS

I have been zig-zagging all over the place wih this wesite, It is no longer an advertisemnt but a slow motion journal. Anyhow, I have noticed a strain in my comics which is confessional and testament like. Character driven stuff. I'm not catholic but I can live with this place. It is an allotment I can work with.

RAINY SEASON

This happened on a scribbly overlapping rainy sort of afternoon wherein I allowed my control to take some time off.

WASTED AND WOUNDED

This is a kind of pulverized wet on wet style that I have filled entire sketchbooks with. Very gestural, irreversible and immediate. Or so I like to think. Not like anyone is too concerned but I decided to re-open the comment section. This on/off thing I have been doing with the comments is pretty much a dialogue with myself...nonetheless some people have called me and said they weren't too happy about not being able to comment so it's opened again. This system just needs some sort of spam detector to ward off corporate vultures.

BRUISED COWBOYS

I did a batch of these bruised cowboy paintings a while ago. I made the background like a blood soaked dirty bandage on purpose but I suppose that is more than evident. On another note, I found a rep for my illustrations! They are N.B. Illustrators and I will be on their website soon.

BLUE

I guess I have been neglecteing this site, but it's not like anybody is looking at it much, and I have been busy with work and pitching for work. I have always hated that phrase "pitching for work". It is very sport oriented. Like baseball or lawn bowling or even worse, fucking cricket. (the assholes' version of baseball) None of which is the point...here are some blue things. Brush and gouache and a speedy delivery. If you have something to say to me I can be reached on tom-gravestock@yahoo.co.uk

MORE STREETS

These two images are part of the BUILDINGS AND FOOD style I posted below. They are quite large drawings, A3 size, and a real pain in the ass to scan on an A4 scanner. Currently I am working on drawings twice that size. How in the hell I will scan those in I don't know.

NO COMMENT

Hi, unfortunately I have been receiving a lot of comments from self-important assholes advertising insurance sites, dating sites and other things I have no need to see. Consequently there will be no further access to comments on this site as I don't appreciate wankers using my work as bait for their shady advertising endeavours. Contact me directly if you like at tom_gravestock@yahoo.co.uk

RED LIGHTS THIS WAY

This has got to be one of the angriest street scenes I have ever done. Again, it is in great debt to George Grosz and a liberal dose of paranoia. The other image, THIS WAY TO FUN is like when you come out the other side of the tunnel on your way to an awards ceremony or some such event...essentially another type of Hell.

NIGHT OWL

This is an image from a campaign I did for a bank in London. I like drawing over live action, not rotoscoping but
re-interpreting the live action or photograph. I started doing this years ago when I was in Canada when I would draw over blurred polaroids. The picture of the three dudes is one I did about fifteen years ago!I think my technique has improved slightly since then.

ANGRY TOWN

I am posting this because it reminds me of George Grosz. He is one of my favorite artists of all time. This was a pitch for a Honda job that never happened. A lot of things never happen. That's why these guys are so angry.

CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC

Continuing the black and red theme this is a painting of city life with a scrambled retro slant. I guess there is an element of hidden violence to it but it was nothing intentional.

FEMBOTS CD

This summer I designed a cd packaging for one of my favourite Canadian bands, The Fembots. I was very grateful to be asked to complete such a task. I only hope I did their great music justice. It was a lotta fun because I was able to do the entire package from cover to label with complete support from the group. Big up to Dave and Brian. I thought I qould repost this today as I have just received my copies of the disc this morning. It sounds incredible.

HAUNTING

I have been working on an idea like this for more than a year. Last weekend I made a card for my neice (Zoe) and then revised it, darkened it. Still working on a stronger composition, as you can see by the thumbnails.

PUZZLED

I painted these on some old puzzles I found. The landscape one is quite small, half an A5 I think. They are kind of for kids but I still like them. My preference remains for hand worked imagery and then taking it into the computer for refining rather that a lot of Flash/illustrator anonymous assimilation. Which is not to say thatI don't use those programs I just like hand worked stuff far more. Obviously, it's more personal. Even further I wonder if it is possible to ever really know the structure of something when the form is always prefabricated. It reminds me of the suburbs if that makes any sense.

BUILDINGS AND FOOD

I started making these images a while ago. They all come under of the heading CLUNT'S HOTEL for reasons not best mentioned. I make these enormous backgrounds, well A3 anyway, then I take a bunch of my loose character sketches, scan them in, and make a crowd. I like how the characters barely ever interact. It reminds me of most of the cities I ever lived in.

CAPTAIN ROCKET POSTER

This is a poster set-up for the ubiquitous Captain Rocket. Kind of a scrappy anime style I suppose.

LATER TOOTS

You might begin to think I am obsesseed with red and black but I think it is just coincidence. Anyhow this was a project I made for the windows of Hibbert Ralph Animation (HRA) in London. There were fifteen A3 panels telling the story of a land/space/underwater pursuit which culminates in a party.

THE REAL FIGHT CLUB

THE REAL FIGHT CLUB is the story of two cartoons that start a club due to the extreme boredome of their two dimensional lives. They don't fight for liberty just for fun.

CAPTAIN ROCKET: SPACE LOSER

Captain Rocket is like one of those old cliffhanger things they used to play at the movies well before my time. The hero always ends the film in what seems like certain death only to return the next week fit as a fiddle. Such is the neverending space quest of CAPTAIN ROCKET.

SLOW IMPETUS

Slow Impetus is the story of a guy with serious motivational problems. He lives in an apartment but spends most of his time resting in a handpainted cardboard box.

business as usual

Last summer I was working on a shabby little project in what they call The City in London. A lot of cheap blue suits and self-important soulless cretins running around. And thus: THE BUSINESSMAN RUNS.

Secondly

I like this particular image because it reminds me of old style chalkboard animation by pioneers like Emil Cohl.

To begin with

My name is Tom Gravestock. I am a director/illustrator living in London. I am starting with the posting of some illustrations and comics. I call the site suspended animation because after a very slow summer that's what I feel I am living in, suspended animation.