Culprit Tech Update

Been messing around with some more Culprit Tech ideas - link here.

Robots!

Some ideas I'm developing for a friend - could potentially become a colouring book for kids ....

Draw Serge!

Mucker of mine and fellow Illustrator Jonathan Edwards has set up a new blog asking contributors to send in their own visual depictions of Serge Gainsbourg! Interested in submitting a piccy of the French crooner? Head over here.

This is my version - very rough around the edges .... quite shonky really (!!) and how well I've captured him I'm not quite sure - ah well .... you've gotta just cut the umbilical and move on sometimes ..... but there are some lovely images appearing already at the site which I heartily recommend visiting!

Cupcake Kitchen

Jess Gallagher kindly supplied the superb cakes at the Culprit / Mammal show the other night! To see the wonderful kinds of cake she makes visit www.cupcakekitchen.etsy.com, for orders, to get in contact and generally see what's up for grabs mail her @ cupcakekitchen@live.co.uk

Many Thanks

A big thankyou to everyone for coming along to the Culprit Tech / Mammal show last night - much appreciated!

Extra special thanks to the people who helped out -

Jess for the AMAZING cakes! Neil C who supplied the projector screen. Ben Soper, Katie Crook and Ross Christie for their tech support. Russell and Julie for hosting the event at Analogue. Armida Taylor for her help with the food / beer / gocco stall.

And last, but by no means least, the extremely talented chaps that are MAMMAL - thanks guys, you were awesome!!

Artwork Refined

That comp image tidied up - few minor changes .....

Freddie and the Fairy

Having a stab at the Waterstone's PICTURE THIS comp to illustrate Julia Davidson's 'Freddie and the Fairy'. Rough scribblings thus far .....

Culprit / 7vwwvw

Remnants Of Joona

Coming Soon

Best Coffee EVER !!!!

Whilst roaming the streets of Edinburgh today, with my good friend Benjamin Constant, I was introduced to the delights of Artisan Roast - if you happen to be in the Broughton street area and fancy a cup of the good stuff definitely check it out!!

New Tech

Fresh collage capers here!

Gene Splicing ....

Hot off the press - just done this illo for Fortean Times ... all about genetic mutations in evolution. Initially tried to conjure up a Giuseppe Acrimboldo-inspired depiction of Darwin, made up of various animals, but this rough, alas, didn't quite make the grade so jettisoned it in favour of the final snake / giraffe hybrid!

Back to scribbling ....

Bye For Now

Two Great Finds ....

Brilliant vintage design at Grain Edit and lovely imagery over at Cuban Posters blog too!!

Flyer Design

The latest Culprit Tech image for This Is Music club night here in Edinburgh.

Children's Book Project

A few teaser sketches and scribbles from a project I'm currently developing entitled 'Toru And The Little Firefly'- click on the image to enlarge.

New Culprit Tech Images

Updates aplenty over at my other blog - link here.

Rue Five Website

Up and running!! Nice one Jules! Link here.

Tempa Allstars Artwork

Give Up Art and Culprit Tech join forces for these images found on Tempa Allstars Vol:05

Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year!!

All the best for the festive season & 2009!!

Matt x

Seattle Metropolitan

Concepts and sketches for some illos just commissioned by the good folks over at Seattle Metropolitan - some used ... some escaped ....

Fortean Times Critter

Some sketches / artwork for FT about a microbe that feeds off trees .. a bi-product of which is biofuel excretions from the wee beastie .....

Blog Change - Weapon To Tech

Hi Folks! Just to let you know my other blog - We Are Weapon is now called Culprit Tech - it can be seen here!

ZONK

Meep Latest ....

Still chipping away at the kid's book idea / page layout - less is definitely more methinks!!

We Are Weapon Weirdness

More Vehicle designs and sci-fi-esque shenanigans over at We Are Weapon blog. Hit the link here!

Blue Iris Films Goes Live!

A few months back I worked on the logo for Edinburgh-based production company Blue Iris Films. They've now gone live - hit the link here!

Animal Farm

Just finished these images for a kid's playground mural here in Edinburgh at Gorgie City Farm - this is in conjunction with Kate Mackay at Alchemy Arts also based in Edinburgh. I've purposely left the images pretty loose / sketch-like as they're going to be enlarged / painted up onto wood then jig-sawed out and fixed in place by a team helping out at the farm - the idea being that they can have fun with these characters and not stick strictly or precisely to how I've rendered them but instead get stuck in with the paints and, hopefully, add their own personal touch.

And More Concept Cars ....

Well .... 'vehicles' rather than 'cars' .... but you get the idea!! Others hiding over at WEAREWEAPON blog - hit the link here.

Children's Book Spread

Finally got around to starting 'Meep' revisions - here he has a run-in with the robot fella I posted a week or so ago - be keen to hear any passing blogger thoughts!!

Concept Vehicle Pt.4

Hot off the press ...

Concept Cars Continued

Two more vehicles .... project taking shape nicely!

Robot Doodle

I'm currently revising the artwork for my children's book project 'Meep's Fun Flyby' and this fella turned up - I liked the look of him, gave him some colour and now he's going to be part of the story - 'Radar Risk Meep - Runaway Robot Rampaging!!'

Halloween Gig II - The Ladies Return!!

Our Ladies Of Sorrow create a synth rock opera to accompany imagery from giallo horror movies. Brilliant! Can't wait!! More info here.

Keep It Simple

Nice bit of design from friend and Typographer Seb Lester - see his site here!

Concept Cars

The concept work of Syd Mead has always inspired and excited me and forms the basis for a solo show I'm currently planning to put on, hopefully before xmas, in Edinburgh. It'll involve the cut'n'paste collage style I usually adopt for WE ARE WEAPON - seen here is the first of, hopefully, lots of outlandish and futuristic modes of transport compiled from cuttings and clip art cast-offs! Keep watching this space for details!!

The Next Step .....

Vdesign has just had a stereolythography resin model made up of the Culprit / Hoody figure - head over to Culprit Toys for more photos!! Thanks to Analogue for piccies / loan of camera!

Good Food Folk!!

Howdy! Some rough character sketches I've just done for a pitch about healthy eating for kids - burger dad is my fave!!

Kingfisher

Totally unrelated to Illustration this entry .....

Last couple of days, as I've been cycling to and from work along the Water Of Leith, I've been lucky enough to glimpse this beauty darting by - certainly brought a smile to my face! This photo was originally taken by Chris Grady - you can check out his brilliant catalogue of nature photography right here.

Paul Newman (1925 - 2008) RIP

MART

A young artist from madrid sent me a link to his work - you can check it here! Talented fellow!!

More Blue Iris....

Refinements .... getting there .....

Blue Iris Films

Some rough logo ideas I sketched up yesterday and today for a film company being set up here in Edinburgh by a couple of mates - should be posting up the final image before too long!

Culprit Toys / Artist Collaborations

Tentative plans are afoot for custom Culprit 'Hoody' figure range - here's an example of how a Culprit Vs. Jon Burgerman figure might look should they ever see the light of day!

Bull?

Matador and bull illos for Property Week Global!

Sneak Peek!

Some sketches from another upcoming Children's book pitch I'm working on - this particular story takes place in Japan ( a place I'd love to visit one day) and is all about a character called Toru and his love of flying kites ....

One of the characters he meets can be seen here appropriated for another potential project!

Time Traveller

Concept roughs thru to finished artwork for a Time Traveller's account of the ( somewhat dystopian) future as featured in this month's Fortean Times magazine.

Just Found this ....

Rummaging through my files and found this unused pic for an article on first-time property buying .... maybe it was too cute at the end of the day ... I quite like the simplism of it though which is why it's wandered onto the blog!

Festival Stereotypes

With the Edinburgh festival fast approaching these illos have been commissioned by The List to depict various characters who appear on the scene - these are the work in progress / roughs ....

Property Week Logos

Here you can see development stages - roughs through to artwork - for a logo for Property Week magazine - this job was good fun - cheers Richard!!

Endangered Species

Assorted critter logos for Fortean Times .....

Been A While ......

Since I last posted - lack of email, moving flat (twice in the last two months!!) .... so here's a few updates - first off ..... some illos / logos for The List magazine guide to property buying.

More Knight Pics ....

Those kids book roughs are shaping up nicely ....

Wacky Race(r)s!!!

May have posted this before .... can't remember! Hanna Barbera eat your heart out - think this line-up would make a fun poster!!

Fortean Times Roughs

Knight Studies

Scans from my sketchbook ....

Very ROUGH Roughs!!

Blocking out the composition on my latest attempt at a Kid's Book - all the artwork is finished pretty much and once I've finished the temp layout, inserted text and worked out how it's all going to fit together I'll scan in and bung the final images over the top before tweaking / rendering 'em nice and neatly in my regular styley!!It's been an on-and-off project for some time this one but hopefully get it finished this month before hitting the gold-paved streets of london to see if there are any takers down there in the publishing world!!

Seattle Metropolitan Pics

A rough sketch / initial idea , which wasn't used, and the actual finished artwork, as it eventually turned out, for a US editorial commission this week ....

Black Cape Image

My own interpretation of one of Iain Laurie's BLACK CAPE heroes .... The Hand Of Vengeance!!

Culprit Toys

An off-shoot blog exploring the collaborative process and design stages of toy / figure concepts I've developed recently with Vijay Paul at VDesign - hit the link here!!

Less Is More!

Just done this illo for the good folks at Property magazine - an article on reducing building carbon emissions - as you can see from the initial rough (top) I got a bit carried away and over-egged the pudding somewhat .... but then we trimmed, tweaked and honed it down for a much subtler and more obviously graph-like image which produced the end result below.

We Meet At Last ....

Hero Vs. Nemesis - Culprit Toys courtesy of VDesign!!

'Meep' Book

Things shaping up nicely at the moment with my latest kid's book project - here are a few roughs from this week .....

Felt Mistress

Some fantastic looking felt toy characters from the very talented Louise 'Felt Mistress' Evans - check 'em here!

Samurai Sketch

Found this image ( a rehash of some sketches I'd done previously ) kicking about on my hard-drive .... Samurai Vs. Sorcerer action!!

Green Illos

Another batch from work just before xmas ...

Last Commission For '07

A piece for Credit Today magazine .....

Elph Magic!!

Elph kindly gave me one of his delicious hand-stencilled stickers the other night - so cheers for that fella - top stuff!! A keeper for definite!! Now ..... what to stick it to?

Knitty Kitty !!

The very talented Catherine Walsh at work - click here to check it out - Go kitty!!!

We Can Work It Out

A group exhibition I took part in at the new GRV venue here in Edinburgh - peeps on show were Elph, Gregor Louden, Acorn, We Are Weapon ( uh?), Jetpac, Ruefive, Spie One, Carrie Maginn, Amy Whiten, Derm, Sole, Jekil and Klingatron.It looked great in the gallery space once all the pieces were hung although the bar and the rest of the place looked very 'Challenge Anneka' as I was leaving .... AND I missed the free booze!! Oh well - looks like Galletly and co. cleaned up on my behalf - check out these bevvied-up crazies!! Nothing quite like a sozzled artist!! I've tried to link up to all the talent involved but some are pretty t'interweb-elusive - sorry to those folks!!

WE ARE WEAPON

WE ARE WEAPON

Dan Mcpharlin

I love this guy's work - it's as simple as that - hit this link to see what I'm on about!!

Take To The woods

I'm fortunate enough to be taking part in the next Analogue Show - it's a great line-up of artists - should be good fun!!

Zeel Power!!!

A bit late in the day this post ... but always good to see Zeel in Action!! Not to be missed!!

Constructivist Foray ...

Magazine cover (+ colour variations) commissioned just this week ....

Halloween!!!

When I'm not drawing things ( and pretending it's a living) I like to revert to being 6 years old -
making pumpkin lanterns = FUN!!!!!!!!

Early Griffin

Julie Nicoll and Natalie Russell work closely with artists to produce a series of limited, but affordable, screenprints. Artists featured in the first series are Supermundane, Nigel Peake and Zakee Shariff - check out their lovely site here!!

Old But Gold

Quiet week work-wise .... so dredged the bottom of my hard-drive and salvaged some (still) half decent illos from yesteryear .....

Culprit Stickers

Just been supplied with some nice vinyl stix courtesy of Sticker Monkey!!

Internet Dating Anyone?

Black Cape Strip

Follow the adventures of a group of unemployed Scottish superheroes - words by Fraser Campbell and images by Iain Laurie - click here and here to witness the carnage!!

Big Geezers Tour

Looks like these critters are having fun - Microbo, Bo130, Will Barras, London Police and
many more packed onto a tourbus and hitting Europe with their art thang!! Check it!!

More Le Donk

The new 'Le Donk' comedy project filmed during he weekend of 23rd to the 29th of July shot over 5 days at the Arctic Monkeys mini festival at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester. The project with Shane Meadows had no script,funding and only a small crew.
At the moment it is uncertain as to whether this will become a short, TV pilot or full feature film.
Post production has begun.

Le Donk is a builder, a drummer, and roadie and will be played by Paddy Considine. Le Donk will feature The Arctic Monkeys!

YouTube clips here and here

Please note - the sound is pretty naff in these clips ......

Bumbershoot Food Pics

Food guide illos for Seattle Weekly

Mucking about with Type

Always fun to do - here's my attempt at capturing the likeness of a Spelling Bee champion ...

Finished Critters!!

Those Wu-Warriors in full effect!!!

Wu Tang Clan!!

Wu Tang, Miranda July & Janeane Garafolo pics for the Seattle Weekly Bumbershoot
Festival guide!!

Le Donk Le Movie

It's on - Le Donk Le Movie!! Paddy Considine + Shane Meadows = Genius!!
For the uninitiated check out Le Donk in action here presenting Le Donk's Break-Dancing
Master-Class Extravaganza!

More Follicle & Fettle Toy Updates!!

Shaping up nicely!! Modelling by Vdesign

RueFive In Blog-Update-Shocker!!!

The boy Jules posts up some sweet Tee designs! Check it!

JAKe StarWars Site

The Force is strong with this one!!

First The Book .... Now The Toys!!

Vijay Paul delivers yet again - Follicle & Fettle prototype figures ....

Culprit Prints For Sale

Limited number of screenprints for sale - check here! £30 ( & £5 p+p) -
Interested parties contact me direct - mattpatt.520(at)virgin.net

Microbo & Bo130 Show

Caught the latest Analogue opening last night and very glad I did so - a
great show from Italian artists Microbo & Bo130 - be sure to check it
out if you're in Edinburgh !!

More Tees Vicar?

The finished line-up for the Sportax range of shirts!

Tee Designs

Some initial sketches for T-shirt designs I've just been asked to do!

Todd James / Reas

Always liked this guy's work - check his blog here.
Particularly good is the Transformers clip ....

Show Prints

The finished critters looked summat like this ....

Thanks

Gallery space beginning to fill up ....

Various peeps enjoyng cocktails 'n' art ...

Dunno how this scruffy git got in ...

Team Analogue in tha house ....

A big thank you to all the people who turned out the other night, despite the rain and made it a very enjoyable evening - your support is most appreciated. Also an extra special thanks to Brian Mcfeely for his hard working in getting the prints ready on time for the show! For those of you who didn't make the private view, but still wish to see the work, it'll be on display until the end of the month - drop by , enjoy a nice smoothie, chill out in a nice relaxed environment and take in some art!! Thanks again, Matt

Toy Story

The very talented Vijay Paul has transformed some 2D sketches of
mine into rather nice 3D CG concept models. For further proof of his
midas touch click here.

Big Bird

Bart From EagleOwl with ..... an EagleOwl!!!

Exhibition - June 29th

On Friday 29th June ( 6 - 8pm ) I'll be putting on a show of screenprints @ Hula Juice Bar / Gallery in Edinburgh - if you happen to be in the area on the night please feel free to drop by and check it out!

When Is A Hoodie Not A Hoodie?

When they're a Jawa !!??!! Timeout Mascots revised + bit of mucking around!!

Alternate London Olympics Mascot ...

... for TimeOut magazine - particularly happy with how the Trafalgar
Square pigeon turned out ( especially his gammy leg!!!)

Jonathan E

Nice bit of blogging from the Boy Edwards - hit the link!!

Elph Pic

From Elph. Top image. Top photo. Nuff said!!

Supplementary Incomes

Illos for The List magazine hot off the press ...

Exhibition Ideas

Hopefully gonna be showing some work in Edinburgh soon - summat different ... found imagery
and old sketchbook cut-n-paste collages - these are a couple of ideas so far ....

List Magazine

Roughs / colour studies for an article about supplementary incomes and people juggling jobs -
1) Aerobics Teacher / Novelist 2) Electrician / Singer 3) Cocktail Waiter / Film Maker 4) Cleaner / Sculptor

Rough Book Layout

Think the format will be aimed at pre-school young 'uns with
a slight learning vibe to it ie. getting to grips with directions ...

Mock-ups ....

Or should that be cock-ups? .... Or ... Mock(ery)-ups?? Top image is
proposed cover ( please excuse the piss-poor typography .... never
really been a strong point of mine !!) and the reason Meep's pals look so
cheesed off ( bottom pic) is that he's just thrashed them all in a rocket race!!

Seattle Weekly Artwork

Fresh out of the oven ....

Editorial Roughs

Worked for this chap Chris McManus a while ago when he was based in New York.
He's since relocated to the West coast and here are some initial roughs for the latest
commission from him for the Seattle Weekly.

THEN and NOW

Tackled this idea, based around the day in the life of a knight, for a kid's book some time ago -
currently revising the visuals - whereas originally they were more angular / abstract (top image) I've now chosen to soften the characters up quite considerably. Kid friendlier I think!

More MEEP action ....

Another panel from Meep's adventures ....

MEEP takes shape ....

More preliminary character concepts ...

Latest Kid's Book Idea ( 4th time lucky?)

Character concepts for an ultra-simple Roger Hargreaves ( Mr Men) meets Paul Rand ( Design God) stylee children's book - whether anyone picks it up for publishing ( hint hint) remains to be seen ... hard nut to crack is the kid's book industry!!

Couple of old sketchbook images ...

Found these floating around .... scanned 'em in .....
pretty self explanatory ideas I think!!

Tee Design

For the DOG LIPSTICK clothing label .....

Shehzad Ahmed

Some brilliant new images from Shehzad Ahmed!

Logos / Idents Pt.3

Even more scribblings for the re-branding pitch!

Logos / Idents pt.2

Tentative roughs for a company re-branding commission.
Again - fun to do!!

Logos / Idents pt.1

Bit of design going on here .... friend of mine happens to be a tree surgeon and figured I'd have a stab at some log(o) ideas for him! Went for both traditional and more contemporary approaches ... dunno if they worked but fun to do nonetheless!!

Gocs Away!!!!

Managed to print about 100 of 'em in just under two hours!! Thanks again to Russell and Julie for their time, printing gear and patience!

More Gocco Ideas

A couple of different colour schemes for the next batch of prints ....

Gocco Prints

The Analogue peeps, Russell & Julie, very kindly let me print up some Gocco images using their home screenprinting kit - a few images from said experiment .....

Toot toot!!!

Barack Obama

I've heard it said that the way to spot whenever a politician is lying is to watch for their mouth moving!! Also - that a politician is someone who will lay down YOUR life for HIS country!!

I think Barack Obama might be an exception to these rules - I certainly hope he is
as genuine as he appears in these podcasts and that, if elected, he can repair the damage caused by the Bush Administration over the past 6 years ( not just to America itself but to the entire world !!!!!!!!)

It doesn't normally occur to me to feature politics on my blog but this guy seems the real deal - charismatic, intelligent and daring to be different - the kind of person who could really make a difference for the future - let's hope, come election time ( and if Dubya hasn't started WW III by then) that the American people think so too!!

Ok - I'll shut up now .....

Property Week Roughs

Nice messy quality to these roughs for Property Week magazine - a shame to have to clean 'em up for final artwork - the article synopsis as follows -

To obtain planning permission for a new development, such as a new supermarket or block of apartments, developers often have to agree to partly fund new public facilities to service the development. This is known as a Section 106 agreement. These facilities could be such things as a new road, bridge, extension to the local school or park with playground.

Because the government now insists on councils processing planning applications quickly, there is no time for many Section 106 agreements to be fully negotiated. An agreement known as a Unilateral Undertaking has become popular. The council will insist that the developer hands over the money for facilities without a guarantee that the facilities will materialise.

Happy Shopper

Elph has been busy - check out his new shop for exclusive and very limited goodies!!

Theo Jansen

Originally posted at the Running Amok Blog by Capitano Jings this guy's work has to be seen to be believed - genius stuff!! Check it here

It's A Cracker!!

Over-indulgence at xmas time ..... Sunday Herald Magazine / Health column pic

Fortean Times Spot Illustration

Bit of clip art action ... summat different ....

Trade Magazine Illos ...

Ralph Mcquarrie Scans ...

Surely how clonetroopers should have looked? Y'know .... like they ACTUALLY pre-dated episodes IV - VI ..... sigh ....

Friends Of Ken +

More Friends Of Ken Proposals .....

Been A While ....

Mucking around with images for a band called Friends of Ken. Not quite nailed it yet but getting there .....

Halloween Gig

Malcolm, my flatmate, is in a band Eagle Owl and when he's not busy hooting in the woods with his other feathered friends he likes recreating scary "electro goth rock with Giallo horror visuals", to quoteth the man himself. If films like Suspira send a tingle down your spine check out their Edinburgh gig this coming Friday - should be a corker!!! Details Here

George Dunning - Eat your heart out!!!

This rough for Fortean Times harks back to how I used to draw
when I first started out in the business - more organic, 'spose a bit
Vaughn Bode-esque ... definitely very Yellow Submarine!!

Scraping The Barrel ....

Another set of aborted book images ... these are from Follicle & Fettle which I attempted to get published absolute donkeys ago ... Nearly 3 - 4 years now I come to think of it!! Sorry - but it's been a quiet week work-wise ... not many fresh new pics to post ....

The Old Ones Are The Best ...

A women walks into a pub. She asks the barman for a double-entendre. So he gives her one.

Pinky show

Sewell & Mr Pinks in tha big smoke .....

Analogue Show

Latest Exhibition offering from Analogue ...

Gig Details

Some fellas. I know 'em. They play instruments. In a band.

Bushido Antics Part.2

More rough compositions for Toshiro's Journey

Samurai Sketches

An idea I had knocking around for a kids book .... On the back-burner for the time being but I'm sure I'll have a crack at it again someday soon .... when inspiration strikes!!

Rough Idea

Considered submitting this to the aforementioned Complete Control
exhibition but felt it didn't quite cut the mustard and time / work
commitments have scuppered me from doing anything else really ...

That said - the artist line-up, as it stands, I'm sure will pull out all
the stops and make it a night definitely worth checking out!! Good
luck to 'em!!

Complete Control

If you're in or around Edinburgh Fri 20th Oct check out this
exhibition hosted by Flesh Ltd. Featuring a plethora of talent -
Elph, Krisis, Carrie Maginn, Rue five, Gregor Louden,
Dermographix, Lucy Cursham, Concetta Barbera, Spie One,
David Galletly, One Neck + more tbc ....

Who you calling a spanner??

Spot Illustrations for Property Week

Bit of symmetry....

So much for getting back to proper work ...
Started messing around with this tag .. flipping and mirroring
the letters and came up with this almost decepticon / transformer-like character!
Robots in disguise? TYPEFACES in disguise!!! Woohoo!!!

Catharsis

That's it - finished the critter!! Now back to proper work - less of this doodling malarky!!

HellBoy Tribute

Inspired by Mr Will Kane to have a go at my own version of Mike Mignola's big red fella ....
Bit rough around the edges, needs re-working here and there ... but you get the idea hopefully!