GORILLUSTRATOR

Penguins

2011-12-14T10:25:00.002Z

Xmas Pop-Up Gift Tag

2011-12-09T11:50:00.010Z

Christmas approaching?
Got gifts to wrap?
Looking for some unique pop-up gift tags?
Well look no further, because by amazing coincidence here is a free printable and make-it-yourself Festive Robin gift tag.
Simply print out, cut, fold and stick on top of your gift, add a message to the back and voila, your horrendous attempts at wrapping may go unnoticed this year.
Download full size version *here*

Feel free to send me a pic with the tag in action.

Bits and pieces

2011-11-29T17:59:00.007Z

Some bits and pieces from a few different projects earlier in the year. Mascot design, achievement badges for a charity-based social networking site and some disco zombies...

Sticker Factory - Ipad Game

2011-11-29T11:51:00.007Z

Heres some work from an iPad game I worked on for the guys at WorryFreeLabs back in Spring and never got round to posting on here.
The game is a lot of fun, you have to match up the stickers on the constantly scrolling sticker sheets to the relevant outlines on the conveyor belt.I developed the stickers, backgrounds and titles for each level and the splash screen illustrations. If you have an iPad go and download yourself a copy via itunes.
Here are some level sticker sheets and splash screen design ...

Nursery Mural

2011-11-10T10:10:00.005Z

Heres part of a mural I painted in our nursery for baby Finn a couple of months ago. Painting at that scale was a lot different to how I usually work and was a tricky and messy learning curve.

Trick or Treat - Free iphone/ipod wallpapers

2011-10-30T11:57:00.002Z

Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat ...

Give me something good to eat ...

Here are a couple of iphone/ipod wallpapers Ive produced for Halloween, these are available for free download from Poolga Go grab yourself one.

Put em up

2011-09-16T15:26:00.002Z

Finn having a few rounds of light sparring before a nap ...

Untitled from Gorillustrator on Vimeo.

Gorillustrator Jr

2011-09-16T13:40:00.004Z

So heres my latest piece of work, finished 2 weeks ahead of schedule last Friday - Finn Alexander Cosgrove.

Monkey - Mini Print

2011-09-08T21:17:00.003Z

Here's another little print for the Baby's room.

Elephants - mini print

2011-08-31T19:47:00.003Z

Putting together some mini-prints to decorate Baby-Gorillustrator's room when he/she arrives sometime next month.
Heres one of them ...

Voyage of the Nauticus

2011-06-27T18:53:00.007Z

A little something I've been working on between jobs.

Katie's birthday

2011-06-21T11:22:00.007Z

Made this picture for my lovey wife Katie on her birthday last week.
Features include a) 26 weeks worth of baby bump b) Maude our overly inquisitive pet rabbit c) a yellow ragged piece of cloth called 'arm' which is a scrap of her comfort blanket from when she was a baby (which still gets used every now and then).

Finn MacCool - Oxford University Press

2011-06-15T09:02:00.004Z

I recently illustrated the story Finn MacCool for Oxford University Press' Traditional Tales series. The book isn't available in print yet, but is available to read online complete with illustrations, here.
Go take a peek.

Little rabbit guy

2011-06-02T22:50:00.004Z

LA Times Book Festival - Target Children's Stage

2011-05-18T10:15:00.008Z

I was recently commissioned by Target via the guys at the Oslon agency to create illustrations for the Target Children's Stage at the LA Times Festival of Books.
The images would be used to in print, on billboards around LA, and on the web to promote the event as well as being used for the backdrop and elements of the stage itself, where readers from Mo Willems to Jamie Lee Curtis would be appearing. They will also be used for the upcoming Washington and Minneapolis book festivals.
Here are some of the finished illustrations, process peices, a shot of one of the pieces in action on an LA billboard. (photo credit: Yvonne Condes). Oh and a pic of Jamie Lee Curtis reading in front of one of the illos here.

Free iphone wallpapers

2011-04-23T17:58:00.002Z

Both Volcano Bay and Skull Island are now available as free iphone and ipod wallpapers on the great site Poolga.com. Go visit and download yourself one.

Volcano Bay

2011-04-06T09:07:00.001Z

Another vacation snap ... this time from Volcano Bay ...

Skull Island

2011-04-01T18:15:00.002Z

Heres a photo from my recent vacation at Skull Island ...... lovely place.

Character Designs

2011-03-10T16:27:00.003Z

Heres some character design work I did for a Danone iphone app last year, the aim of the app was to teach about proper hydration so the little guy in question needed to be based on a water droplet.

Breakfast Adventures

2011-02-09T15:12:00.001Z

Recent work snippets

2011-02-03T09:47:00.005Z

Heres a few snippets of work I completed late last year for Pearson Education. Its not out for a while yet but my blog was hungry so thought Id post a little up.

Owls

2011-01-20T11:29:00.004Z

An update on an old piece.

Viking Tryptich

2011-01-07T18:52:00.005Z

Heres the third and final Viking. The first one was just a play around, but I enjoyed making him so decided to do another and then decided that one for the middle would be a nice finishing touch.
Heres the raiding party all together, off out on some harmless jolly japes I should imagine.

The ABCs of Northern Ghana - A charity picture book project

2011-01-07T11:40:00.006Z

Sometime last year I was invited by fellow Illustrator Mike Boldt to take part in a charity project to produce an illustrated ABC book to raise funds for school children in Ghana as well as to be used by the school children themselves.
26 artists were each assigned a letter to illustrate. My piece was the letter L, in particular the Larabanga Mosque which is one of the oldest buildings in Ghana as well as being an unusual looking piece of architecture.
The book isn't finished yet but there is some brilliant work coming in and its great to have work amongst that of the fantastic artists involved such as Alberto Cerritino, Alina Chau, Brittney Lee and more.
The Blog for the project can be found here.

More vikings

2011-01-05T22:06:00.004Z

On we sweep with, with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore

Hmmm think this Viking thing could be turning into a Triptych. Will see if I can get the third done by the weekend.

From the North

2011-01-05T17:34:00.005Z

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde and sing and cry, Valhalla, I am coming

The type of music Im listening to when I pick up my pen has a massive effect on what I feel like drawing, in this case Led Zeppelins 'the Immigrant Song' had me pillaging and burning villages, Viking-style.

2010-12-17T10:42:00.004Z

Wishing all my followers and readers a great Christmas and New Year.

Happy Trails ipad/iphone game

2010-11-25T10:52:00.010Z

Heres something Im currently working on with the guys over at FiveRedWoods, its an educational ipad/iphone game which takes players on an adventure through the state parks of the US, lots of fun ... visit the site and sign up for updates.

'All I Want For Christmas' charity card project

2010-11-05T10:29:00.003Z

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the All I Want For Christmas cards project run by the excellent Ben Steers It's an annual festive project in support of the charity Young Bristol, there have been some excellent artists involved in 2009 and 2010 including Jon Burgerman & Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack.
You can can visit the site and bag yourself a pack of the limited edition cards (a 500 run of 20 individual designs) over at the official site.
Heres a peek at my design which features in the collection...

Face Fest 21

2010-10-26T20:07:00.003Z

The Jack-o-lantern...

Been a bit behind with these of late, which is down to a busy workload (which Im not complaining about by the way). Anyway I'll be doing my best to keep these up through the rest of October when and where I can.

Face Fest - Day 20

2010-10-22T16:40:00.002Z

The Ogre...

Face Fest - Day 19

2010-10-21T11:45:00.003Z

The Samurai...

Face Fest Interview

2010-10-21T09:56:00.002Z

The lovely and talented Tara Roskell over at Graphic Design Blog has just posted up an interview with me about my ongoing October Face Fest project, go check it out.
Its a great blog in general with plenty of interesting articles so I suggest you all get it bookmarked.

Hobo Bot 3000

2010-10-21T09:20:00.005Z

Meet Hobo-3000. Swinging his bindle from robot-town to robot-town during the great robot depression, searching of a days work or just an unused power-outlet for the night.

Face Fest - Day 18

2010-10-19T14:00:00.001Z

The Tree...

Face Fest - Day 17

2010-10-19T10:50:00.000Z

The Boxer...

Face Fest - Day 16

2010-10-18T06:20:00.000Z

The Slime...

Face Fest - Day 15

2010-10-15T17:10:00.003Z

The Bumpkin...

Face Fest - Day 14

2010-10-15T14:24:00.005Z

The Yeti...

Face Fest - Day 13

2010-10-13T15:47:00.002Z

Runing short on time today , so a quick one.
The 'Granny'...

Face Fest - Day 12

2010-10-12T21:57:00.000Z

The Hog...
Oink.

Face Fest - Day 11

2010-10-11T14:36:00.002Z

The Creature...
(from the black lagoon ... or some other similar lagoon of ill repute)

Face Fest - Day 10

2010-10-10T21:34:00.000Z

The Cyborg...

Face Fest - Day 9

2010-10-09T21:31:00.000Z

The Tiger...

Pet-Girl

2010-10-08T14:44:00.006Z

A little something Ive been working on this afternoon ...

Face Fest - Day 8

2010-10-08T10:05:00.000Z

The Princess...

Face Fest - Day 7

2010-10-07T10:06:00.003Z

The Zombie...

Face Fest - Day 6

2010-10-06T12:05:00.004Z

The hermit...

Inspired by how I feel right now after experimenting with not shaving for 6 days.

Tortuga's journey

2010-10-05T18:48:00.007Z

Heres something Ive been working on today, its a childrens book idea Ive had bouncing round in my head for a while.

Face Fest - Day 5

2010-10-05T08:06:00.005Z

The Redhead...

Face Fest - Day 4

2010-10-04T10:23:00.001Z

The Astronaut...

Face Fest - Day 3

2010-10-03T12:08:00.000Z

The Pirate...

Face Fest - Day 2

2010-10-02T10:45:00.002Z

The Robot...

Daily Face fest - Day 1

2010-10-01T10:47:00.008Z

Ok to kick things off there are 3 faces for day 1.
I figured some of these faces would make fun mini business cards hence the dimensions.

The Ghoul...The Geek...The Bounty Hunter...

Face time

2010-09-30T13:07:00.004Z

Theres going to be a lot of new faces around here throughout October. Literally.
In an attempt to keep me blogging on a more regular basis amongst my freelance jobs Im going to be posting a new face illustration every day starting tomorrow so be sure to check back.

Book cover - private commission

2010-09-23T07:55:00.004Z

Heres a recent private commission - the cover of a self-published childrens book.

Brew time!

2010-09-20T12:42:00.006Z

Ran out of teabags this morning and fancied something different to the usual PG Tips. This olde fashioned tea should do the trick.

Stargazing

2010-09-03T16:31:00.002Z

This sketch has been hanging round on my desk for a while, thought I should do something with it seeing as its the end of the week.

Massachusetts

2010-09-02T14:13:00.003Z

I love maps. Also I love massachusetts.
Possibly the first in a series of maps I'll be making.

Movember Tshirt Design

2010-08-30T10:10:00.003Z

Movember is a worldwide charity event which highlights mens health issues, specifically prostate cancer by celebrating the moustache. The guys over at Spunky are running a Movember tshirt comp and this is my entry.
I got to thinking that there must've been some pretty important figures throughout history who were rocking a 'tache and this medieval coat of arms kinda acknowledges that.
Anyway guess I'll know in a couple of weeks whether this design is going to be getting printed up.

Nap time

2010-08-19T10:12:00.005Z

These 3 tired little guys will be available as prints when my new store is up and online - soon hopefully.

Diver

2010-08-06T12:15:00.004Z

This is Steve, he lives at the bottom of my fishtank.

Wall Street Cyclops

2010-07-07T23:24:00.005Z

Spotted a contest over on Sketchoholic.com with a few hours to go before deadline, the theme was 'Wall Street Cyclops', luckily yuppie-cyclopses are one of my favourite things to draw.

Conan

2010-07-06T17:02:00.006Z

General: What is the greatest thing in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of the women.
General: That is good. That is good.

Read today that they are remaking Conan the Barbarian, I doubt they'll be able to top the original but will be interesting to see.

Anyway this is my first picture done entirely in Photoshop, up until now all my work has been done in Corel Painter with PS just being used to do a few tweaks at the end but Ive decided Im probably missing out on a lot of cool tricks by swerving Photoshop.
So I'll be hoping to use it more and more in the future, I just pray to Crom that I'll be able to get to grips with it.

Oh and in case you didnt get it, the head in the background is James Earl Jones - Thulsa doom in the movie ...

Mohawk - Private Commission

2010-07-06T16:53:00.002Z

Heres a private commission piece I recently got through another job.
It was a fathers day gift, the father in question being a vietnam veteran, his plane behind him is Grumman OV-1 Mohawk.

Some work for GoThemeTeam/WorryFreeLabs

2010-06-09T17:10:00.003Z

Just completed a fun little job for WorryFreeLabs, a user interface design firm hailing from Austin Texas. They wanted an illustration showing a few members of the team with a 'special forces' video-gamey type feel kinda thing. Bit more comic-booky than the direction I usually like to take but fun nonetheless.

Illustration Friday - Ahead ... ahem ... A Head

2010-04-28T21:34:00.003Z

Ok so its actually A Head rather than Ahead.

Squidge

2010-04-14T18:05:00.002Z

Gorillustrators lunch break

2010-03-28T14:34:00.003Z

Part of my next promotional mailout.

Character design

2010-03-02T20:03:00.002Z

Heres some character design work I did for the British Heart Foundation, unfortunately they didn't go with my design in the end.

TigerTiger

2010-01-17T22:31:00.003Z

Just taking a break from work.

Pandora

2010-01-15T17:25:00.004Z

This was going to be an Illustration-Friday entry for the theme: Confined, in this case all the worlds evils cofined within one little box.
But real work got in the way so I missed the deadline. Nevermind, it can serve as a companion piece to my other bit of greekery - Atlas.

Also just to mention, you can now track my activity or lack of on Twitter

D&D

2010-01-13T21:17:00.005Z

Remember that cartoon show from the 80s about the dangers of unlicenced fairground attractions?

Jimmy Quantum

2009-12-27T18:36:00.002Z

Double Bookness!

2009-11-20T16:56:00.007Z

Yep, Ive been a bad blogger of late, I know.
But wait! Finally - proof that I have actually been working and not just sat staring at my pencil in a constant state of listless ennui ...

Both 'the Stonecutter' and 'Knight Fight' are available for pre-order on Amazon.
If you were any kind of respectable human you'd probably go and order one, no ... both of them, right now!

Microscope #2

2009-10-04T22:10:00.002Z

Microscope #1

2009-10-04T21:36:00.001Z

Aloha!

2009-10-04T15:52:00.003Z

Up with adventure

2009-07-07T18:21:00.005Z

Received my complimentary copies of an interactive book I've illustrated for Leapfrog Entertainment, its based on the latest Disney Pixar offering - UP! which looks great and I cant wait to be released over here in the UK.
To celebrate, here are some poor quality photos and microscopic spread samples for your enjoyment.

?

2009-05-28T22:43:00.004Z

... I have no idea.

Oz!

2009-05-25T22:34:00.004Z

More random pics, this time from Sydney and Melbourne.
Great beaches, great beers and all the koalas you can eat.

Tokyo!

2009-05-25T21:41:00.005Z

A collection of random shots from my trip to Tokyo last year.
Laughing pigs, happy faces, sexy pub zones = best city ever.

Atlas

2009-04-28T22:35:00.007Z

Atlas was a legendary Titan in Greek mythology. He was punished for warring with Zeus by being forced to support the earth and the heavens for eternity, though he was allowed to finish early on Wednesdays to see his chiropractor.

Inner workings of a dragon

2009-03-30T21:13:00.002Z

Danger - highly flammable.

Lee, Carrie & Isabella

2009-03-21T15:00:00.002Z

Private commission for friends.

IF - Legendary - Skoll

2009-02-18T00:23:00.008Z

In Nordic legends Skoll was a huge wolf who would chase the sun through the sky each day and at the end of time (Ragnarok) he would devour it, plunging the world into darkness.

Wolves in Snow

2009-02-14T17:14:00.008Z

the Factory

2009-01-24T18:34:00.003Z

Diode Lake

2008-12-04T00:20:00.004Z

Just playing round with some new textures 'n stuff.

The Owl and the King

2008-12-02T02:14:00.006Z

Quick play around.

Based on a sculpture by Jean Baptiste Clesinger (I think).

... back

2008-11-24T23:33:00.006Z

Yep, thats right - Im still alive.

Keep an eye out for more updates soon.

-Lee

Muchos Gracias Senor Dawson

2008-07-20T21:31:00.003Z

On my return to 'Ole Blighty' I was honoured to discover that talented illustrator Matt Dawson had nominated me as one of his choices for the 'Brillante Weblog Premio-2008'.

Its great to get recognition like this from fellow artists, especially ones as accomplished as Matt. Be sure to check out his fantastic blog and get it bookmarked pronto ... http://mattdawsonblog.blogspot.com/

2008-07-07T22:24:00.005Z

Firstly - thanks to everyone who has left comments on my last few pieces and apologies that I probably havent replied to them yet - been kinda busy, but I will get round to it.

Secondly - Im off on holiday for a few days - Woohoo!

Laters.

Pigeon Street

2008-06-03T21:36:00.001Z

Piece for the Pigeon Street event for the 'Loiterers Resistance Movement'.

2008-05-11T22:23:00.000Z

Private commission for a friend.

Queen of Hearts

2008-04-19T18:46:00.012Z

Playing around on Saturday morning!

Monstroville work

2008-04-17T22:39:00.002Z

Heres a background concept I did for Monstroville.
Its supposed to be the mad doctors secret halloween candy factory - some kind of twisted Willy Wonka setup I guess.
Crits welcome :)

2008-03-24T22:12:00.001Z

Website Update!

2008-03-18T21:59:00.001Z

The Gorillustrator website is now fully up and working.
Check it out at www.gorillustrator.com.
I hope to be adding more pieces to the portfolio section soon.
Any comments or suggestions welcome.
Thanks,
Lee

The McKnights

2008-03-05T19:36:00.004Z

Private commission for friends.

Happy birthday kids :)