Let's Play Dead Space

So the same guy that I made these great backgrounds and avatars for: http://www.lloydjonesillustration.com/illustration/ssss.html http://www.lloydjonesillustration.com/illustration/tot.html has started a new Let's Play thread on the Something Awful forums here and he commissioned me to do the artwork. These two pictures sit at the front of the thread and I will also be doing sketchy thumbnail illustrations for every single video as well. Check it out: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3709890&pagenumber=1#lastpost

avatar commission

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

Tumblr Commissions

I recently put a call out for commissions on my tumblr.

I got a few responses, and these are the results:

A family portrait of the Wilson family from DC comics, struggling with their complex identities:

Some greaser bunnies, up to no good probably:

And a short picture book written for a guy's 1-year old son that you can read here:
http://lloydjonesillustration.com/images/books/thethiefofappleslite.pdf

Bye!

Xmas cards 2014

Made some Xmas cards for family this year, and one for our landlords!

Princess and Fog cutting room floor

Hello! Happy new year!

As I mentioned, my first childrens' book The Princess And The Fog is being published this summer after about a year in development. I thought I'd take the time here to show off a handful of my favourite illustrations that ultimately will not make it into the finished product.

The original front cover of the book. It has since been changed to be more dynamic and to more accurately reflect the contents. I still like this weird drifting, hopeless Princess but it doesn't really tell you anything about the actual story. I'll post the new one once it's finalised :)

One of the first images in my project sketchbook for The Princess and The Fog looked a lot like this. The idea was that the Princess's fog, a metaphor for depression, made it hard for the Princess to even see herself and how beautiful and amazing she really was. I ultimately cut this image because it was too sad and this isn't supposed to be a sad book. My publisher came back with a note saying that the fog completely obscuring the Princess's face was too scary, so this wouldn't have worked anyway.

 Another early idea that I'm sad I had to get rid of. This represented the idea that the fog made it hard for the Princess to enjoy herself. I thought the tangle in the string exactly mirroring the fog was cool but maybe it wasn't as clear of an illustration as I'd hoped. Also I had to make her head invisible to make it work and that's just weird.

A spread in which the Princess was finally provoked into talking about how she felt and found that she had more to say than she realised. Since the book is now being publshed by a specialist Mental Health-based publishing house, the story has been rewritten to make it a lot less simplistic and so this no longer worked as part of a solution to the story. Also, again, look at her totally obscured face. Creepy. Much too sad.

Another part of the much-too-simple climax of the story. The friend who helped the Princess through her problems gets called on for another talk. The cast of characters has nearly doubled since the original story I handed in at the end of my MA project this summer to incorporate a huge and varied support network for the Princess - an often essential part of developing a solution to living with depression. I loved the pictures on the walls. Oh well.

The Princess And The Fog comes out in June in the UK and US, and in July in Canada and Australia. More dates and countries to be confirmed.

Autism guide for FE teachers

As part of my teacher training I have been tasked with putting together a short guide for a chosen learning difficulty for teachers. It didn't have to be illustrated but of course I illustrated it. You can see the whole thing here: http://www.lloydjonesillustration.com/images/illustration/guide1lowrez.pdf

The Princess and the Fog release date

I am pleased to announce that The Princess And The Fog, my children's book about depression, will be released in June 2015 in the UK and the US, and July 2015 in Australia and Canada to Jessica Kingsley Publishing. More dates may be to follow as they have distribution offices in other countries as well. This will be a very important book to a lot of young people in a very difficult situation and their parents who may need a bit of help, as this will be one of the first books written specifically for children who are living with depression ever published. There will be a special guide for parents in there written by child psychologists Dr Melinda Nettleton and Dr Linda Bayliss, on how best to support a depressed child and to use the story in the best possible way.

Obviously I am WICKED-STOKED ABOUT THIS.

Most of the illustrations you have seen so far on this blog are in the book, but some have since been redone or updated or removed as some revisions to the story have taken place in the last couple of months but I assure you the book will be just as beautiful and awesome as it has ever been.

I'll post more dev pics soon. Spread the word!

Food Kiosks image dump

Some of the other concept illustrations and logo designs completed since April as part of my ongoing branding work for Food Kiosks inc.
Plus, a shot of the first open kiosk, opened in Southampton Central Station last month. I handpainted the sign, and handwrote the blackboards on the back wall and a lot of the display cards.

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:

Cucina Della Piazza food kiosks

Recent illustrations produced for a sales pitch. If it goes ahead, this will be the start of two new chains of food kiosks in and around train stations all around the country. They already had technical drawings and plans drawn up but I was commissioned to illustrate the kiosks in action. Certain details such as logos, uniforms, colour schemes are only preliminary but the idea was to give the viewers of the presentation a general feel for the environment the new kiosks would create and how people would use them.