Alex Willmore Illustration

CD Album Artwork

2011-01-11T12:53:00.001-08:00

Album artwork for The Enid.

Water Colour Artwork: Alex Willmore

Digital image manipulation: The Enid

Drop Ship

2010-09-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

Script: Steve Tanner
Art: Alex Willmore
Letters: Jim Campbell

Shadow now on sale!

2010-08-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

Shadow the Dog went on sale yesterday. Cool! It's available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Waterstones online.

Story: Jill Bird

B&W Art: Alex Willmore

Colour: Lauren Anne Sharp

Aug 10

Bits and pieces

2010-08-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Phew - It's been a busy few months but I've finally got a few spare seconds to update my blog.

A while back I did some illustrations for a children's book by Jill Bird. Jill has now received the final printed copies of 'Shadow the Dog'. To celebrate here's a sneaky preview of one of images:

As usual the black and white inks are by myself and the colours are by my wife to be Lauren Anne Sharp.

Since my last post I've completed the illustrations for Shadow the Dog, continued to contribute to Publications International's puzzle books, produced a few concepts and mock-ups for Villa Drinks and produced art for Steve 'Time Bomb' Tanner's short comic strip, Drop Ship (preview of that soon). I'm also still working on Andrew Croskery's Kronos City and have produced a couple of images for Electric Sheep Magazine (See below).

That's all for now I think!

Aug 10

Chapter 5 Preview

2010-03-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

A splash page from chapter 5 of Kronos City

Script: Andrew Croskery

B&W Art: Alex Willmore

Colour: Lauren Anne Sharp

Letters: Jim Campbell

Insomnia Publications 2010

March 10

Quick character study

2010-02-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

Feb 10

2010-01-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Evelyn King of Kronos City

B&W Art: Alex Willmore

Jan 2010

Villa Drinks - Wild Juices

2010-01-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Label design and illustration for Villa Drinks' Wild Juices range.

Art, Character design, Layout and Text: Alex Willmore

www.villadrinks.co.uk

January 10

STCO

2010-01-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

Panel for a Sonic the Hedgehog fan made web comic.

B&W Art: Alex Willmore

Letters: Charles Ellis

January 10

Kronos City Preview

2010-01-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

A little sneaky peak at a panel from chapter 3

January 10

Publications International

2010-01-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

It's been way too long since my last blog post!

Here is a sample of some illustrations I did for a couple of puzzle books by Publications International. This was my first outing with creating puzzles and I had a great time doing them!

The top 3 and bottom right illustrations will be published in a book of adult puzzles and the 2 lower left illustrations will be published in the children's edition.

January 10

Daily Face

2009-11-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

This one started out as a drawing of America Ferrera as Ugly Betty. Half way through I realised it looked nothing like her but I was quite happy with the pic anyway so I carried on.

Nov 09

Daily Face

2009-11-17T15:00:00.001-08:00

I know I'm never going to stick to this but I've decided to try and sketch one face a day. Today is Earl (Jason Lee).

Nov 09

The Kronos City Art Process

2009-11-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hi folks! We thought we'd post a blog outlining the Kronos City art process. Above is the base of operations for Lauren and myself. On the right hand side is our lovely little Macbook which I use to view the script and find the odd reference image. (Also, note the lovely comic page by Nigel Dobbyn hanging above my desk - a continuing source of inspiration for me).

Anyway, on this side of the desk I take Andrew's script and from that make a quick sketch (too shameful to picture) to plan composition, flow etc. Once this is done I rough out the composition on the actual page. Once I'm happy with the sketch, I neaten it up with a mechanical pencil, scan it and zip it over to Andrew for approval (see below image).

In this instance Andrew had a few ideas about the page.

"Can you add in a couple of different shapes, like hexagons and rhombuses, rhombusususes, um, rhombi? Apart from that, this is good to go!"

Good idea Andrew - the page looks much nicer for it! Pictured below is the inked up version complete with background shapes!

The inking is done with a Pentel Pocket Brush. This lovely little brush pen was reduced from £12 to £6 and I LOVE IT! It may not be the most expensive brush pen in the world but it does the job just fine! It's really nice to use - much nicer than the cheap disposable brushes I used to use at uni! The finer details like the bubbles and shapes are done with a 0.3 and 0.1 fineliner.

Once the page is inked, I usually scan it, arrange it on the digital page and then Lauren does her thing. This page however is set under water and the colouring technique for water in Kronos City is a little different than straight forward digital colour. At this stage we need to take a trip to Staples - which is actually really far away! Here we get the page photocopied onto heavy weight matt paper. This is so that when Lauren adds the water colour the ink doesn't run.

I'll hand over to Lauren to talk about the colouring.

In Kronos City I used two different styles of watercolouring, messy and neat. In this scene Sally is fully in the water so I use a style that I hope shows this. It's done in the same way that the first few pages of the book are painted, as here all the images are formed from the water. In other scenes the Kronos water is just part of the images, for example page five of Chapter One, so the water colour is quite neat and contained.
When it came to this page, I already knew what colours I would be using as this page preceded a scene I had already coloured. So the blue and yellow? So far I've been told that the Kronos City colour seems to be brown/red. As this scene and the ones after are set after a huge storm I decided to give the next seems some fresh colours, to show how a storm can really change and cleanse things. I like to layer up colours to create more depth in the picture, which is something that can be seem in the bubbles and shapes in the water.

Back to Alex.

So there we have it, from pencils to coloured page!

And on that note, I'm off to pencil page 6 of chapter 3.

By for now,

Alex x

B&W art by Alex Willmore

Colours by Lauren Anne Sharp

November 2009 (Taken from www.kronoscityblog.com)

Karl

2009-11-12T03:04:00.000-08:00

November 09

An oldie

2009-09-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Found this one kicking around the internet - I hadn't seen it before

Kronos City - Chapter 2 Preview

2009-08-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here we go!

Script: Andrew Croskery

B&W Art: Alex Willmore

Colour: Lauren Anne Sharp

August 2009

Kronos City Chapter One

2009-08-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

The online preview for chapter one of Kronos City is now online!

August 2009

Kronos City - First coloured page

2009-06-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

The first coloured Kronos City page.

Written by Andrew Croskery

B&W art by me

Colours by Lauren Anne Sharp

June 2009

Kronos City - First Pencilled Page

2009-06-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

The pencils for page 1 of Kronos City

June 2009

Interview

2009-06-05T02:32:00.000-07:00

Lauren and I were recently interviewed by Dickon Harris of Strip! - 104.4 Resonance FM about our signing to Insomnia Publications.

Awesome!

You can listen to the podcast here.

Wrexham Foster Care work

2009-05-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

Some promo shots for Matthew and my campaign for the council.

May 2009

Freddie and the Fairy

2009-05-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

A concept for Freddie and a Gorilla for the Waterstones Picture This 'Freddie and the Fairy' competition.
May 2009

I found another one!

2009-05-16T13:33:00.001-07:00

I found another one posted up around town.

Insomnia Publications

2009-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone!

Lauren and I have been signed to Insomnia Publications. We're going to be working on a Graphic Novel written by Andrew Croskery, called Kronos City.

Here's the blurb:
In Kronos City it's not water running through the canals - it's time. It's possible to submerge your head to see visions of the past and future, although it’s risky. If you know how you can even manipulate future events, not just watch them unfold. Some say you can even change not only time, but fate..Finnegan Vedant, being an enterprising individual, sees here a business opportunity like no other, but when a mysterious client puts him on a case with bizarre consequences, he’s forced to face harsh truths about himself and the world around him. The game he’s playing is for much higher stakes than it at first appeared.

We're really excited to begin working with Andrew and the Insomnia team.

Go 'Team Kronos City'!!!

http://theredeye.co.uk/

http://laurenanneshap.blogspot.com

A few more images of my work for the Wrexham Council

2009-05-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Robot Invasion 2

2009-04-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

A few more double page spreads from my competition entry - Robot Invasion

April 2009

Robot Invasion

2009-04-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

A few double page spreads for a competition entry.
Picture book - Robot Invasion by Alex Willmore.
April 2009

Goodbye Hamster

2009-04-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

A few double page spreads for a competition entry.

Picture book - Goodbye Hamster by Alex Willmore.

April 2009

Foster care image

2009-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

The final full body image and in leaflet form.
April 2009

Billboard work

2009-04-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Woooo! I finally get to see my work printed as a rather massive billboard!
I've been working on this project with a graphic designer friend of mine to re-brand the Wrexham council's foster care service. I produced the Illustration while Matt sorted the type. The composition evolved through both of our efforts. This design, along with a full body version of the characters will also be featured on leaflets, posters and buses, so that's nice.
April 2009

Ladies of Covent Garden

2009-04-07T13:58:00.001-07:00

Misses S and B.

No.7 Windmill Street, Rathbone Place

Miss B is tall and thin, her complexion dark, her sister Miss S is plump and fair, keeps a certain musician to play her now and then some tunes; these ladies have seen their thirtieth, are still, however, agreeable pieces for the winter season, to those not over nice about delicacy, both illiterate and addicted to swearing, it is said they are very dextrous at the game of the birch rod, the price of these lecherous girls varies very much but half a guinea is always acceptable to them.
April 2009

Werewolf

2009-03-24T13:09:00.001-07:00

A quick concept for a Werewolf

March 2009

Ghoul

2009-03-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

Just a Ghoul

March 2009

Doodle Planet

2009-03-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

My page from Doodle Planet, Chester 05.03.09
Lauren drew the two rabbits in the big black section ^-^
March 2009

Robot the Boy Featured

2009-02-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late posting this but a double page spread from my second year uni project (Robot the Boy), was selected by a panel of judges to be featured in the Wrexham Open Exhibition 2008
December 2008

Past and Present

2008-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Me ^-^

December 2008

Fan Art: Sonic the Hedgehog

2008-12-20T17:57:00.000-08:00

B&W art by me, Colour by Lauren Sharp

November 2008

Third Year University project

2008-12-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas Card

November 2008

Character Study

2008-12-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

Dr. Manyheads

July 2008

Second Year University project

2008-12-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

A page from my picture book about a robot (Robot the Boy)

April 2008

Second Year University project

2008-12-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

A page from my picture book about bees (Untitled)

April 2008