The Bigfoot Blog is moving!!

In a bid to streamline my online venues the Bigfoot Blanket is finally being rolled up and all new posts, paper toy and illustration updates, will be published via my BIGFOOT STUDIO BLOG, link to the right >>>

This is after faffing about for ages trying to find economic (free!) solutions for a portfolio presence and a blathering presence online, and trying to run two blogs to cover both. But I've finally washed up on Weebly's shores and found useful and functional gallery features over there, as well as, oh joy of joys, the ability to post PDFs on the page! This has meant that I can post paper toys online as puckah files at last. Check out The Bigfoot Studio's new website!

So if you want to keep up with my latest 3D creations or illustration generally then hop over and subscribe to The Bigfoot Studio Blog. Thanks to you all for stopping by so far!

A boy and his pet...

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This is a piece created for a new artbook that my agent Advocate Art is releasing in a couple of weeks called 'Heads Up', featuring single characters from each of their artists. A little bit of "slugs and snails and puppy dog tails" from me this time. Thought it worth posting some rough/finished art samples just to give a bit of an idea of how I work...plus the fact my daughter always prefers my rough work to the finished article!

Old Cornwall remains:

Had to post this...photo by my talented bro Justin The Frame. We were out bimbling on the moors the other weekend on Kilmar Tor near North Hill and were delighted to discover the remains of these recent roundhouses on an original archaeological site at the foot of the tor. Magical moment!!
CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW.

Farouk Ibn-Ignelh: Occult Angler of Old Cthornwall

Apothecary and purveyor of occult fishing equipment to the alchymists, trawlerman and big-game anglers of Mevagissey, Farouk Ibn-Ignelh was a notorious seafront character of old Cthornwall in the first quarter of the 1900’s. Farouk’s ancestry in the county could be traced right back to the 1st century AD, when his illustrious forebear first landed on these shores as helmsman to Aramis of Josephathea, the noted Syrian perfumier and spice trader.

Originally apprenticed as a stockman and squid wrangler to Lord St Leviathan’s oceanic farm in Mound’s Bay, Farouk acquired much preternatural piscine learning and arcane mollusc law. Expert in the art of eldritch angling and sea husbandry at an early age, Farouk’s keen nose for business soon had him trading his skills independently to fishing communities the length and breadth of the Cthornish coast, eventually setting up his famed emporium in Mevagissey in 1924.

As well as selling equipment for the capture and netting of the vast range of monstrous and other-dimensional aquatic life in the county’s waters, he also became a noted specialist in the breeding of such creatures for alchymical rites and processes, as well as their preparation for medicinal and recreational purposes.

A seasoned and proficient angler in his own right he was often to be seen skilfully casting rod and line at the farthest reach of the Mevagissey harbour wall where, as an equally noted raconteur, he happily told strange and hair shrivelling tales of the deep to the village youngsters. It is believed that it was in this capacity that he was ‘rediscovered’ by the unsettling Dr Fostux, who it is likely he first encountered during their shared youthful employ in the service to Lord St Leviathan on St Michael’s Mound in the period 1907-13.

As a small historical footnote it was Farouk Ibn-Ignelh, through selective genetic crossbreeding, who first developed the notorious mind warming sea-tobacco which local fisherman came to refer to as ‘the Meva ciggy’.

Dr Fostux

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Mad scientist and organ recitalist extraordinaire, Dr Fostux was a figure of some intrigue, scandal and notoriety in early 1900’s Cthornwall. He was rumoured by some to be the secret lovechild of Lord St Leviathan and an unnamed other. Raised by the family of one of the Lord’s boatmen, his stepfather was a keeper of the giant squid pool at St Michael’s Mound. It was here the young Fostux developed an early fascination and aptitude for all things monstrous and scientific, working as night-porter, and then later apprentice, in Lord St Leviathan’s oceanic genetic breeding programme.

However, following an unspecified splicing disaster involving a young child from the local foundling hospital in Penzance, and a rare strain of lobster discovered in a flooded pitchblende mine, Fostux was banished from his home in extremus opprobrium , and was not heard from again for some time.

It was not until 10 years later, in 1923, that vague stories began to circulate about late night deliveries and unsettling lights observed at an old lighthouse in Restormel Bay. Along with advertisements in the St Austell Gazette of that year, requesting “reminiscence, relics and old toenail clippings (cash price paid in genuine coinage on receipt)” it became evident that Dr Fostux had returned to the county and was embarked upon a new vein of scientific enquiry.

Within months the fashion for highly addictive distilled and bottled ‘narrative essences’ began to sweep the county, causing much social malaise and domestic strife among the general population. With much of the local workforce swiftly addicted to such “chymical experience and virtual living” the Stannary Parliament of the time demanded the source of the outbreak be quickly found and cauterised. Much suspicion automatically focused upon the activities of the newly returned Dr Fostux, but only circumstantial evidence was ever uncovered, and that in the form of a discarded packing case for Bunsen burners and a sea stained receipt from the Vatican, for the purchase of fifteen shin bones of St George and a pornographic snuff box once belonging to Pope Pious IX.

The Rainbow Stone

My cover design and a selection of illustrations commissioned as chapter headings for Nan Rudden's children's book The Rainbow Stone, published by 'Palores Publications' in Redruth.

As well as the internal illustrations and the cover artwork I also provided the cover layout and the blurb for the back cover, as well as finally pinning down a format for the barcode and publisher's logo which Palores then adopted as a standard across their range of titles.

The tale itself is a marvellous story of dark ages adventure. This was Nan's first publication for children and she was a total joy to work for, displaying a wealth of charm, dignity and intellect that was a breath of fresh air to encounter in these bustling and technologically overwhelming times. A seriously recommended read!
'The Rainbow Stone' on Amazon

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Dusting off Drew

I've been getting such a positive reaction from having posted samples of my kids' book 'Once Upon A Winter's Turning' online recently that I decided it was time to dust off the original black and white line art and give young Drew a new colourful lease of life. |It was originally published back in 2000 by Wooden Books Ltd, who are currently big in America right now and being handled by Walkers (...well done John!).

I'm in the midst of colouring up several samples prior to submitting it around various publishers both here and abroad, John Martineau's deal with his original authors and artists being that they maintained the copyright to their work. You can sample the first arc of the story over on my Red Bubble pages.