Gallows Crow

So this was a fun little project, and possibly one of the shortest deadlines ever. The versatile and talented Mr Hal Sinden of Eulogy Media and Talanas, the Debrett’s of Death Metal, dropped me a message one chilly recent Monday teatime, asking if I might be up for a bit of illustration work.

The job sounded right up my cypress-lined avenue – several illustrations of spooky hooded figures, pond creatures and shadowy Victorians, to be animated for an episode of the spooky Don’t Scare Claire YouTube series.

In this case, based on one of my favourite places, Highgate Cemetery, and its many spooky stories and strange characters.

The deadline, however, sounded even more terrifying than being stuck in a lift with David Farrant and Sean Manchester – “We need it by lunchtime, tomorrow”. I do like a challenge though, so I fired up the coffee machine, sharpened a pencil, and set to it.

Some time around half two the next morning, I fired off a zip of finished illustrations, and then fell into a dreamless sleep, leaving the production magic to Hal.

Considering I didn’t have time to rough out any of these images, I’m really happy with how they came out, and they’ve been used really well. I also found seeing my work go from empty page to published video in 24 hours or so rather thrilling.

Looking forward to doing more stuff like this, but in the meantime, take a look at this fun and enlightening episode of Don’t Scare Claire…