How the work is made

For scale...tiny moon vs sharp nib. @bareps @ciablog

I usually photograph my own bits and bobs for illustrations! @bareps @ciablog

I try to make the work as good as it can possibly be, so there are no reasons to fire upon Photoshop apart from getting it scanned and sent off (and often, for adding the colour behind the image, depending on what the brief’s calling for). @bareps @ciablog

One section of a tiny piece underway.

"Ev'ry day I'm letterin', evr'y day I'm letterin'..." Well maybe not EVERY day but it's been pretty damn close. 1 of 6 sheets done for today's client #ernstandyoung I have literally towers of this stuff in my archive! Hmmm...Lettering Towers, there's an idea...

Extreme close-ups of the cover of Nature Magazine being made with gel pens, fineliners and acrylic inks. The finished piece is in my main site here! All made on an A3 sheet of paper, then scanned and an appropriately clean background dropped in.

It’s the drawing equivalent of taking a photograph and getting it right in-camera, the old fashioned way - though I’m certainly a whizz with the digital tomfoolery when it’s required, which it can be for all sorts of reasons!

Jampire!

Time lapse of the mural!

The grown-up Jean Louise being created for my Go Set A Watchman cover, for Open Books' edition.

Muji fineliner 0.5mm over original freehand pencil sketch.

This is one of my favourite poems, ever since reading Outsiders aged 14. What a book. I once created this really large on a wall inside an ad agency, but I prefer this simple version with my old fountain pen. I didn't realise I wrote quite so fast. If I closed down, it might be neater! And yes, my hands often do have that much ink on them...

The finished piece is shown prior to any scanning or tidying - which there was only a tiny bit of anyway.