Biscuit Bear character range for Tesco - just in time for Easter!

A while ago Tesco approached me to design them a traditional cute bear character for a new range of greeting cards.  It took a while to get there, but the result was 'Biscuit Bear' and his furry little friends.  I can't show too much just yet, but I'll post more illustrations as they hit store shelves (likely a few weeks before Father's Day).

Above are brand new designs just in time for Easter, so get yourselves down to your local Tesco and pick up a card or two (or three...go on!)

Shane

Little Oink Christmas illustrations

Here's a selection of Christmas images featuring my new cute character, Little Oink (he's a pig don't you know).  No pigs in blankets jokes please.

As with Ruffles the Raccoon, cards are now available in Tesco stores across the UK

Happy Holidays!

Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Ruffles the Raccoon Christmas Illustrations

Here's a sample of some of the Christmas illustrations I've created featuring Ruffles, my new cute card character.  Love this guy's weird head!

If you have a special someone with a fondness for cute and fluffy things the cards are now available in Tesco stores across the UK.


Happy Christmas!

Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Little Oink and Ruffles #cute

Introducing Little Oink and Ruffles!

I've been working on these guys on and off for the last year, and this Christmas they'll finally get to see the light of day on greetings cards in Tesco stores across the UK, followed by everyday designs early in the new year.

I'll post a more festive preview soon but, until then, here they are...

On a sidenote, I'm going to be redesigning my website and moving to a new host in the coming weeks, so it'll likely vanish temporarily in the process (this blog will stay put though), but I will be back!

Shane

www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Orca/killer whale traditional caricature sketch

I was obsessed with whales and sharks when I was a kid, I really should draw more of them now I'm supposedly grown up.


Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Noah's Park, my card range for Gemma International, has been nominated for a Henries award!

I'm pleased to announce that Noah's Park, my children's card range for Gemma International has been shortlisted for a Henries award in the 'Best children's range' category!

The Henries are pretty much the Oscars of the UK greetings card industry, so to have my first ever card range nominated for one is something I'm super proud of.  To check out the other finalists head over to the article.

I'll be talking a lot more about Noah's Park in future posts, but in a nutshell the range centres around a group of animals (Noah is the lion) who live on an island zoo which is smack bang in the middle of a theme park.  Eventually the plan is to have them leave their island home to explore the various regions of the park.


The illustrations are heavily inspired by CG animated characters, but are actually painted in photoshop (which takes a while!).

Can't wait to share more about this fun little character brand!


Shane
www.shanemadeart.com

Blue Nose Summer beach

Image courtesy of Carte Blanche Greetings

As the weather's so amazing at the moment I thought this painting would be approriate.  Enjoy the summer while it lasts!

I feel it's time I closed the blue nose chapter of my illustration career, so I'm only going to post a few more of my Carte Blanche images, after which it'll just be personal work and anything I get approval to post from my current job.



Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Blue Nose Friends Blossom Pond

Image Courtesy of Carte Blanche Greetings

A promotional illustration created for the launch of the included characters in plush form.  I always enjoy painting water and it was fun experimenting with different colours and levels of transparency in this piece.

Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Hello 2013...

Year of the snake and all that...

Hope you have a good one!


Shane

Sketch commissions

A few recent sketch commisions.

Want one of your own?  Send me a message and I'll see what I can do.

Shane

Blue Nose Friends Character designs Part 3

Images courtesy of Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd

Part three of the ongoing series where I post some of the Blue Nose Friends characters I have designed which made it onto store shelves in plush form.

From the top;
Float the Manatee
Ramble the Centipede
Shelter the Woodlouse
Treetops the Gorilla (actually based on an initial concept by my colleague, I illustrated the final design)
Ocean the Sea turtle
Foo the Pug

As usual, stop by Mybluenosefriends.com or your local card retailer (in the UK) to buy them!

Shane

Tatty Teddy and Blue Nose Friends Sky Scape

Image courtesy of Carte Blanche Greetings

An image used in a kind of trailer animation for the newly released Tatty Teddy and My Blue Nose Friends toys.

This is what I call the 'Sky Scape', an aerial kingdom found within the sky door (to be shown in a future post).

About the new toys, got to www.tattyteddytoys.com to check them out; Your small female relatives will love 'em!

Shane

Dragon VS unicorn...

Image and characters property of Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd

...in a battle of cuteness.  Sorry if you thought the post title would lead to the depiction of an epic and bloody mythical fight to the death - maybe next time.  :)


This was a promotional image for My Blue Nose Friends.


Love painting swirly clouds, a habit I haven't been able to shake since playing The Curse of Monkey Island in 1998.  Only now am I realising what a huge influence Bill Tiller's art has had on my work, shame I forgot to put him on my creative influence map, oops.


Shane

Baby Tigger Watercolour

Watercolour and coloured pencil illustration for a buddy of mine.

Part of a series with;
Baby Pooh
Baby Eeyore

To see some preliminary sketches of all three check out this previous post.

Shane S

Baby Eeyore Watercolour

Watercolour and coloured pencil illustration for a buddy of mine.  To see baby Pooh painted in this style check out this post, and here for Baby Tigger.

To see some preliminary sketches check out this post.

Shane S

Baby Pooh watercolour

Watercolour and coloured pencil illustration for a buddy of mine.  To see baby Eeyore painted in this style check out this post, and here for Baby Tigger.

To see some preliminary sketches check out this post.

Shane S

Baby Pooh and friends sketches

A couple of sketches for a buddy of mine that recently became a Daddy (congrats!).  He then chose one of each character to be painted in watercolour for his Daughter's nursery wall.

The designs he chose all painted up;
Pooh
Tigger
Eeyore

Which sketches are your favourite?

Shane

Diamond Doggy Jubilee

Image and character property of Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd

Jewel the corgi celebrating a four day weekend in style - enjoy yours too!

Shane S

Creative influence map

Loads more I wanted to include but decided to stick with the grid ‘rules’ on the bottom of the template instead.

I mainly included artists that have influenced my work and technique directly rather than just a bunch that I loved but didn’t consciously take anything from, hence no James Jean, Da Vinci or Watterson.

I'm always interested to find out the creative origins of artists I admire, so have been checking out a whole bunch of these things online lately.  A few highlights are those of Sam Nielson (surprising how similar my own influences are to his, unfortunately I left off Monkey Island but I haven't been able to draw clouds without including a spiral since playing MI3!), and Sebastien gallego.

Download the template file from the creator's DeviantArt page at http://fav.me/d2vx881 and create your own.

Shane S

Blue Nose Friends springtime pond

Image and characters property of Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd

Really enjoyed painting this illustration as it was a good chance to mess around with water effects, plus it's kind of two images in one which is never a bad thing if you enjoy a bit of variety.

Promotional image for the plush launch of these four characters.

Shane S