Shakespeare Sonnet Project.
I was asked by the British Council in Toronto to work on a project re-interpreting one of Shakespeares sonnets, as an exchange with the Canadian cartoonist John Martz.
We will be introducing the results of this project on Sunday at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. I'l post more about the project following the event..
http://toronto.carpediem.cd/events/1295443-ifoa-graphic-sonnet-exchange-at-ifoa-international-festival-of-authors/

The Backs of Houses.

My LRB cover for last month, depicting a chair perched on a fence on the outskirts of Newport (seen from the window of a train). This began as a tiny watercolour sketch, and it took numerous attempts to turn into a full size artwork. 

I ended up using a black chinagraph crayon for all the mark-making, to keep some of the softness of the initial watercolour, I wanted the image to feel like a fleeting glimpse from the window, and somehow using solid black ink had too much finality, and made the image far too static.

This is the cover that I created for Richard Kings Original Rockers, published by Faber.

Original Rockers is a beautifully vivid and heartfelt account of Bristols Revolver Records, and the music scene that surrounded it in the 1990s.

I never had a chance to visit the store, as it closed before I moved to Bristol ( in the mid 2000s ), so I had the challenge of trying to depict the space from the descriptions in the book, conversations with Richard about the layout and atmosphere, and a couple of minutes of dizzying super 8 footage on vimeo. Below is the map I sketched following close study of the video, and then my sketches and the final inked artwork.

 Bristol Bands newsreel 1980 - Mike Leggett

Illustrations for the New York Times about American summer camps

Train View sketch - Bristol to Cardiff

TRAP

I had the pleasure of running a comic book workshop with Creative Youth Network in Bristol, as part of the Zine making course with Bristol Cable.

It was a really fun, energetic and creative day with a fantastic group.

You can see the full zine that came out at the end of the course ( including the comics from this workshop) HERE.

Treasure