Another Dylan

Recent commission for a portrait of Bob Dylan, on the back of my Dylan Thomas portrait.

I've done a bunch of other stuff lately that I'm not able to show or talk about yet but you'll see it soon!

God of War II, Ratchet and Clank 2016

Some more Let's Play banner art, this time for KalonZombie's God of War II and upcoming Ratchet and Clank (2016) series'.

Custom Birds!

Custom birds made on commission from this Etsy listing: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/265213696/bespoke-birds?ref=shop_home_active_1

 It didn't replicate so well when I scanned it (obviously) but this one has imitation silver leaf gilded onto the design!

Four beloved rescue birds whose personalities I feel lucky to get to know while making these.

These were made for Jill Strong, who is also a fabulous designer herself. Check her out: http://www.jillstrong.com/

Princess and the Fog book launch

To celebrate the release of my first published book, The Princess and the Fog, I will be hosting a special event in Cafe Parisien in Portsmouth on July 17th where there will be food and drinks, some lovely chats, and a chance to buy the book at a special event-only discount price.

I will also be selling leftover copies of two of my self-published precursors to The Princess and the Fog, my Hole In Chest zines and Short Term Diaries.

I will also have up for grabs a special series of paintings that I've created just for this event: (please forgive the cameraphone photos, many of these were too thick with collage stuff to scan)

I hope to see you there!

Designing The Princess and the Fog

The Princess

 I chose a princess as the protagonist of my book because it is an archetypical character in children’s fiction. If you know that a picture book is about a princess, you can infer a lot about what the story, setting and characters are likely to be based on the countless princess stories you’re already familiar with. I was then able to turn that on its head by introducing new elements to surprise the reader and make the main character of the story much more relatable.

Additionally, princesses are typically revered and looked up to by the children who read their stories. They are something that a lot of young girls in particular strive to be. If a princess can get depression, anyone can. I think it’s important that the children who read my story can relate to its protagonist in quite a personal way so that they know that they aren’t alone and that this thing that they’re struggling with that they can’t explain can happen to just about anyone else. Depression can make you feel very alone, so just knowing that there is someone out there - even a fictional princess - who is going through something similar can be a huge comfort. 

The Setting

The setting of The Princess and the Fog is a strange mix of traditional old-fashioned fairy tale and modern day. A huge purple castle sits at the heart of a bustling modern metropolis. The Princess rides horses, everyone else drives cars. Television and print media apparently exist but so do knights and adventurers with swords and shields. This, again, is designed to make the story relatable on a number of different levels. Children will find the fairy tale elements of the situations as familiar as the real life ones.

In my research into writing for children I learned of the importance of metaphor. Children do not tend to like stories with aggressive morals. While the book deals with real-life problems, I have managed to avoid “outing” the children who read it by disguising the issues that young readers may be facing behind metaphors. Readers may understand that the book is describing a situation similar to their own without feeling like it’s singling them out or trying to teach them a lesson. The story is designed to be enjoyed in its own right but with a hidden depth to it that should communicate with any young readers who are feeling the same way as The Princess.

The Fog

In my early design ideas for the book I was toying with various ideas for how to represent depression visually. I had previously used the idea of a hole in one’s chest and an obscured, scribbled out face in an earlier independent project called There’s A Hole In My Chest and didn’t want to use it again as I thought it would be too grim for children. Early ideas included some kind of slow, lazy slime monster not unlike The Doldrums in The Phantom Tollbooth, a hat or helmet of some kind that couldn’t be taken off once it was put on, and a ball and chain, but none of these quite described the feeling adequately. I decided that whatever it was it needed to be opaquely black, thick, impossible to remove and in some way at least partially obscure the protagonist’s head and face to create a sense of loneliness and isolation from the outside world. 

The title The Princess and the Fog popped into my head one day and it just fit perfectly. It ticked all the boxes, I could illustrate it in a similar frustrated scribbly way as the obscured faces in There’s A Hole In My Chest, and I just couldn’t resist the pun. The exact depiction of The Fog developed considerably  over the course of making the book before I settled on how it looks in the final product, particularly after notes that it obscured too much of The Princess’s face and could be seen as scary for some readers.

The King and Queen

It was important to me to have the King and Queen both appear very physically strong, in their own ways. The Queen is extremely tall with very large legs but she’s very thin and a little unbalanced, while The King is short and squat with diddy little legs but with a very large upper body. In this way, it shows that they each have their own strengths that make them a very well-balanced team, both as parents, supporters and as the co-rulers of the unnamed kingdom in which the story takes place. Most children will look to their parents as their first port of call in times of crisis and The Princess is no different. The King and Queen are the first two characters to offer help to The Princess in dealing with her affliction. Although they get it a bit wrong at first, they are an essential part of the large support network The Princess is eventually able to put together. I hope any parental figures reading this book will be inspired to be as strong and determined as The King and Queen.

The Supporting Cast

The other characters in the story that The Princess eventually enlists for her support network all play important parts in aiding her gradual recovery. Most of them straddle that same weird line between fairy tale and reality by representing both a trustworthy adversary one might find in the battle against depressive illness and a friendly fantasy character. The Druid, for example, brews up some potions for The Princess to try to help her fight away the fog.  

With his lab coat and diplomas, The Druid is clearly a metaphor for a doctor offering to help medicate the problem. But not everybody responds to medication. Everybody experiences depression differently and no one cure exists that will work for everyone, so I felt it important that the story never explicitly states which of the many solutions The Princess uses to try to rid herself of The Fog actually ultimately works.

Clearance sale commissions 2015

Some commissions produced as part of a recent effort to use up all my spare paper and canvases and as yet unsold paintings:

This sale has also seen an unprecedented resurgence in the popularity of my bird paintings, so I've spent a lot of time repainting ones that have already sold out.

This sale is STILL GOING. 15x15cm canvases of whatever you want (including a redoing of any of my old paintings that you might have missed out on) for only £8, postcards for only £5 and 20x38cm canvases for only £12. Get my Hole in Chest books for £5 each or £8 for both. Short Term Diaries are £1 each. Anything else you might want, send me an email at mcclloyd@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do for you!

avatar commission

Quick little commissioned portrait for a writer, blogger and interactive fiction creator's online avatar.

The Princess and the Fog is NEARLY FINISHED

My upcoming childrens' picture book, The Princess and the Fog, is coming to the last stages of its development and I couldn't be happier with how it's turning out! Here are some of the finished illustrations so far, totally out of context. Click em to big em!

And here are some sketchbook bits as well because I like posting sketchbook bits:

AboutMyArea Portsmouth

Profile/promo image made for the AboutMyArea Portsmouth Facebook page. Including some major and minor landmarks of the area and the owner of the page's dog who often features as something of an unofficial mascot.

Tried something a bit different with this one. Each landmark/component was drawn on different materials at different sizes and then assembled in Photoshop later to create a visually diverse style that reflects the bustling diversity of the city that inspired it.

Road to Blissfields 2014

Click to enlarge

Poster produced for the battle of the bands gig in the leadup to the annual Blissfields music festival. The winner of the battle wins a place in the festival lineup! The theme of the festival this year is "A Walk On The Wild Side." I had a lot of fun with this!

The Princess and the Fog

Some examples from my current university portfolio. I am working on the theme of depression. These are a couple of paintings I produced based on my own personal experience with the subject matter:

Close up on the middle bit of the second painting. A heart, in a box. Protected from the encroaching darkness but closely confined and not altogether safe:

Some sketchbook pieces. Exploring visual metaphors of depression. How it feels to carry this big burdensome monster around with you.

I'm currently working towards putting together a picture book for children. Up until very recently, it was believed that children could not suffer from depression. The story I am producing is intended to fill a gap in the market and to guide younger minds through a very difficult experience. As well as providing a talking point between young depressives, who may otherwise have trouble expressing themselves, and their parents or carers.