Long Absence - Busy, busy, busy!

Hi all,

First of all I would like to apologize for my long absence from the blog, I've been really, super, duper busy recently with my degree.  The upside is that I have generated a LOT of Illustrations.

Also, it is worth posting that I have a new website which I will be using as my portfolio!  Click here to visit it.

Okay!  So, here is some of the work that I have been doing:

Sequential Image Making

Thomas Gomes "Moth in a Bottle" 2013

My first foray into the world of comics and sequential images.  This is a story about a moth that becomes trapped in a bottle and cast out at sea.  I'm really please with the results of this comic, I love the colour palette and character.  My favourite part has to be the underwater panels.




Editorial Illustration

Thomas Gomes "Gadget Editorial" 2013

I have shown my interest in Editorial Illustration on this blog before, however I never explored it to the extent that I have with my degree.  Bellow are some illustration I have done for some articles (not real commissions).  Each one had its own set of problems to be solved.  Through all the stress I found out that I have a genuine LOVE of editorial illustration! 

Thomas Gomes "Net Generation Editorial" 2013

Thomas Gomes "Net Generation Cover" 2013

Thomas Gomes "Omid Editorial" 2013

Thomas Gomes "Privacy VS Facebook" 2013

 
Observational Drawings

As you might have noticed from my editorial work, my illustrations are following a very particular style, this is something that I am currently exploring with my work.  I have used this style of illustration on a couple of observational drawings:

Thomas Gomes "Apple Observational Drawing" 2014

Thomas Gomes "Tiger" 2014

For those of you interested in buying a canvas, t-shirt or ipod case of the "Tiger" illustration, you can go to my Society6 Page.

Phew!  Hope you like all the illustrations and I hope this update finds you all well in the New Year!

US Spying on EU - Editorial Illustration

----- Based on this news article from the BBC News website -----

After listening to the news and reading the above article I decided to do an editorial illustration based on the allegations that the US has been spying on the EU.  In the article it talks about how trade talks with the US has helped to soften the anger that the EU is feeling.

Thomas Gomes "US Spying on EU" (Editorial) 2013

So here is the illustration.  As you can see the American (Uncle Sam) and member of the EU (The old, bald man in grey) are at a poker table.  Uncle Sam is pushing money toward the EU (representing the trade talks) and is using a mirror to see what cards the EU member is holding (representing the NSA spying on the EU).  It's quite a simple illustration but I think it works well.  I find that the most important thing about an editorial illustration is to show a story visually but not make the article redundant.  I'm hoping that it's not immediately obvious what the drawing is about, particularly the imagery of the mirror and the money being moved.  I want the audience to use their prior knowledge and the information in the article to understand the illustration and give it some context.