Ben Hillman Illustration

I’ve not been dead, just Hunt-housing

kozuekun — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:44:44 +0000

I spent a fair portion of my summer trying to find somewhere to live for the next degree in Cambridge – Which is more murderous a struggle than it sounds… The crazy time spent trekking back and forth worked out, and I lucked out on finding a place with two other course illustrators (The impeccable Jin Cho Youn, and the tirelessly energetic Courtney Dicmas) who were searching from abroad. Here’s some work out of summer projects – Some of which pertains to Camél Moineau and his misbehaving shadow.

(I’ve been slowly transitioning into Corel Painter- it definitely streamlines the colouring process into a swift matter of hours)

Another (wip)

kozuekun — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:13:31 +0000

I usually like to have six or seven things in varying states of messiness on the go at once – expect a few more in the next day or so – this is a page from a mini-book I started making to learn about printing and such.

Bug prince (wip)

kozuekun — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:46:36 +0000

This started as part of my entry to the Waterstone’s beauty and the beast pitch, but went off in a slightly different direction – not at all finished with it yet, but I wanted to start posting some more recent stuff- more shortly!

The general idea is that the spiny creature moves the bigger shell by passing through the gears : )

Up and Running!

kozuekun — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:11:23 +0000

Our opening night was brilliant fun, but if you haven’t had the chance to see our degree show yet, come on down! It’s on until the end of the week in the Morgan Arcade.

Also here’s a drawing from Timbuctales that won’t be at either our main show or the Howard Gardens opening.

Another little bit from our upcoming show!

kozuekun — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:36:26 +0000

Also if all goes well (with my colossal printing spree), I’ll be fortunate enough to be involved in a little side show with a few of the other UWIC Illustrators at Howard Gardens, with another view later on at the Wales Millenium Centre.

Our Show has nearly landed!

kozuekun — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:59:01 +0000

At the moment I’m scrambling along with my classmates to get everything finished and ready for our degree show in a week or so. It’s quite exciting actually – what with all the little features and mentions all over the place! Some details on that here. In the meantime, here’s a Timbuctales page I’m just getting round to working up.

Colour variance is evil.

kozuekun — Tue, 10 May 2011 21:35:45 +0000

Here’s a coloured HK page – I’m sorting my printouts at the moment, and starting to realize just how awfully inconsistent colour representation is – It’s a struggle to keep carefully chosen colours from looking terrible when put to print or even viewed on different monitors.

The two above are little excerpt from a timbuctoo side project imitating some of the wonky pulp comics I used to read in my teens. Actually in retrospect, they also borrow a little too flagrantly from one of my all-time heroes; Guy Vallez. So go check out his work here http://gaxix.blogspot.com/

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue…

kozuekun — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:11:46 +0000

After having a nosy peek at all the top-shelf goodness being blitzed out by my fellow Cardiff Illustrationeers, it’s definitely time I upped my game! This stuff’s nowhere near *there* yet, but regardless of that I’m enjoying trying some tutorials, looking at other artists and new approaches.

Click on this fellow below for a proper look ne?

I’ve been doing a bunch of these little short reverse comics as a fun morning warm up for a while now – The idea isn’t anything new, (the “if you watch x backwards meme” has been around for aaaages) but I’ve not seen them illustrated, so maybe if I get a pile of ‘em together I’ll throw up a separate blog.

I was also pretty chuffed (cheers Dom!) to get some Quench issues in the post with the Gair Rhydd issue they accompanied – I didn’t realise the little snippet at the top on the front cover was mine too!

Here’s a T-shirt design I dashed off for a CSAD competition

- Didn’t win. Cried for days. Obviously.

Next time expect some finished and colored Henchman King,

- see you in the week chaps (and chapettes!)

Whomping huge update on the way,

kozuekun — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:48:09 +0000

But for now, here’s a little piece in progress to wind back into things…

Odd socks that need a home

kozuekun — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:11:32 +0000

With module deadlines looming, I’d almost forgotten – I have a piece in the Cardiff School of Art and Design prospectus this year! Although it’s a piece I feel I moved beyond some time ago, it’s still really cool to see my own work in print.

This one below is a cover I did a little while back for Quench magazine, which was dashed off at quite some speed, but I had a lot of fun with.

Here’s one of a set of little doodles I drew to break up my “Real-World module” written report into segments – this one illustrates some of the changes in my process over the module.

And here’s a doodle I drew on the train back from the Falmouth Illustration Forum, which I decided to throw some very quick colour onto.

A while back I did a live drawing evening using a visualizer array with a couple of other students where we met Cardiff’s lord mayor and some of the CSAD’s other benefactors. This is one of the few photos I could find of the evening – Here I’m starting a warm-up sketch.