Tom Bonson Illustration

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Bristol based illustrator. Contact me at tombonson@hotmail.com

Monday 12 December 2011

Business Reporter front cover




A Editorial Illustration for the front cover of the Business Reporter supplement in the Sunday Telegraph.


Thursday 1 December 2011

Friday 18 November 2011

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Dragon Slayer




A couple of characters I'm developing. Created more of a background than I usual do which is something I'm trying to get better at.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Eco editorial





Heres a editorial I did recently for the Eco Report supplement in the the Sunday Telegraph.

Sunday 30 October 2011

My first editorial illustration



Here is my first editorial that was in the Business Reporter supplement in the Sunday Telegraph.

This was good fun to do, especially the initial process of coming up with a fun idea for this rather dry subject. I definitely need to refine my editorial style of work though. I automatically started to do children's picture book type work which isn't really appropriate for a business supplement editorial. All good practice though.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Bear in mind




The old idiom, bear in mind. It just seems funny to me.

Fashion Illustrations




Have been doing some commissioned work for fashion designer and good friend Edward Lord.

Had alot of fun doing these, learnt alot too. It was nice to work abit more spontaneously and not fussing over ever little detail. Definitely something I'll keep in mind for future work.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Dave's Gift

King Arthur



Keeping with the whole drawing for a younger audience theme I did this book cover. Was looking through my work and noticed that I'll usual draw a character but never really develop much of a background behind. Doing these sort of book covers will help me in that aspect of my work I hope.

Monday 26 September 2011

Great Success!

Well I've been with them for a couple of weeks but it's taken a while to sort out the paperwork and all that kind of guff. But I now have an agent in the form of Advocate Art, hope it's a long and fruitful relationship.

Animals








Have been practicing drawing different types of animals for a younger audience. Started with the more exotic variety then had a go at some farmyard type critters. 

Dave the Cat



Dave is a character I like to draw every now and again. He is an absolute tool which is one of the reasons why I like drawing him so much.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Brave New Worlds Exhibition



A advertisement poster for the exhibition in Richmond that I have some work displayed.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Recent Sketches

Tree-School


Market


Earl and It


Patrick, Harold and Ethel


 Haven't done a post in a while so thought I'd put up some recent sketches for a personal project I'm currently working on. Two are location concepts and the other two are character concepts. Having alot of fun creating these people and places. When I've got it all worked out I hope to turn them into some sort of story book.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Cat on a mat




Definitely more of a dog person, but I do love drawing fat cats.

Saturday 30 July 2011

Brave New Worlds Exhibition


Got a letter through the post today from the nice people at Richmond Hill gallery in London saying that one of my pieces (see above) has been chosen to be displayed in the Brave New Worlds Exhibition that takes place 3rd September to 5th November. Very exciting!

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Self portrait



Quick, little self portrait I did while messing around with abit of a different style to my usual stuff.

Monday 16 May 2011

Sketches




These two pieces are a few of the sketches I did for my final exhibition paintings all mixed up and put together. I photoshopped the paper colour and texture to make it look abit like the old leonardo da vinci sketchbooks.

Exhibition pieces








The final paintings for my three characters. I Photographed them with quite a posh camera so the quality isn't so bad. Each one is 101cm high, 50cm wide.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Second character finished

Finished my second character today. I think the snowy background helps the figure stand out alot more than the pink clouds background. On to the third character!

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Working painting part 2

This is what my second character looks like at the moment. I'm not happy with the background as you see it. The pink cloud look isn't very relevant to my final project theme so I reckon I'll scrap that and go for a more snowy scene.

Monday 4 April 2011

Working painting





Just started painting the second character for the end of year show, it's the same size as the last one. Have thrown in a few sketches too.

Final project painting finished!





Finished one of my final project paintings the other day. It was really nice to do some proper painting again. The canvas is 101cm high by 50cm wide, the scale of it is abit lost in the picture I took, but you get the idea. I've also stuck a few initial sketches up so you can see how the character developed. Just got to do too two more now.

Open University Brief




The Lecturers gave us a bunch of competitions to possibly enter all connected to the YCN. I went with the Open University brief. They wanted something that would engage the young folk so I did abit of a silly piece with a cat loving weight lifter. A very photoshoppy piece.

EggMag competition




Found a nice little illustration competition set up by a London based magazine called EggMag. Thought I'd have a stab at it. The brief was to show the importance of having flower, trees and all that kinda stuff in urban areas. I went with the whimsical, wonderland approach. Was a pen drawing I photoshopped the hell out of.

Art for Nurture



In March got through to the regional finals of the Art for Nurture competition set up by Llyods TSB. Got the people's choice award for my piece and a hamper full of posh jam so was pretty chuffed with myself. I went with the theme, 'We succeed together'.

Insurance booklets














I recently pimped up some second year work. The original brief was to create Car, Home, Travel, Life and Pet insurance booklets for Barcleys Bank. They're watercolours fiddled with on photoshop. Got rid of the text that I photoshopped on them so that they make nice little A5 prints. Left one with text on so you can see how they used to look.