http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog The swanky blog of designer & illustrator Chris Spain Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:03:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/im-back Here’s something I did last year for some friends of mine; they needed an invitation made up for a baby shower and wanted something a little different, so they asked if I could do something with Totoro and pals from the (fantastic) Studio Ghibli movie My Neighbor Totoro. This was a lot of fun to [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/baby-shower-invite-totoro Currently working on a new set of comic strips for As You’re Up, along with a new site to upload them to. It feels like forever since I’ve drawn and inked anything completely traditionally (having been working mainly in digital these past few weeks), and I was a little fearful that I’d be somewhat rusty [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/comic-progress-inks Some more work done for Touchstones Marketing/Rainbow Seeker: a set of vector icon designs in a Celtic style, and utilising Celtic Knot techniques. Certain aspects of some of them became fairly frustrating to work out (for example creating the form of the Salmon without letting the lines get either too clutterd or drifting too far [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/celtic-icon-design A little doodle I did in a birthday card earlier this week — think they’ve got it by now so ought to be safe to post! (Birthday Hobbits are the done thing these days, right?) My Tumblr]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/sketch-hobbit-birthday-card Click to see animated! More Portal 2 art! Animated pixel piece of Chell and Wheatley this time, kinda inspired by oktotally’s kickass stuff. As far as I’m aware, this is my first attempt at pixel animation (or pixel art at all for that matter), kinda happy with how it turned out! My Tumblr]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/more-portal-2 So I drew Chell from Portal 2 during a sketch warmup, and then got a little carried away with it. (Click to embiggen) Posted this up on my new Tumblr, where I’ll hopefully be uploading some extra stuff from time to time, on a more casual basis!]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/sketch-portal-2-chell Touchstones Marketing asked me to design and illustrate a series of character pieces for use in a presentation for The Rainbow Seeker; these needed to communicate the overall message of each slide, whilst at the same time fitting in and around the main content, and corresponding to the individual slides’ colour schemes (each one representing [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/rainbow-seeker-character-illustrations I was recently approached by Joel from Anchor End Studios to create a logo and business cards for the design & printing company. Everything was designed with a semi-grungy, but still appealing aesthetic, in a “stamped-on” style to suggest a hand-made and original feel. This is taken further in the business cards, where the ‘oceans’ [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2011/anchor-end-studios Every year I do some silly Christmassy illustrations in the cards I send out — I only managed to scan a couple in before sending them all out, but figured I’d upload those anyway! I think it’s clear that I have the spirit of Christmas down in these cards: I hope everybody has had/is having [...]]]> http://www.chris-spain.co.uk/blog/2010/card-doodles