Occasionally, I'm asked by publishers to produce samples for a prospective title so they can decide which illustrator to go with to produce the cover or interior artwork.  Some of the ones that got away after this process include bestselling teen horror author Darren Shan's Zom-B series which deservedly went to Warren Pleece, my stablemate at Advocate Art.  Another time, I was commissioned to produce a contemporary book cover treatment for Mattel's American Girl franchise which unfortunately wasn't a total success - trying to shoehorn my illustration style into a Deep South historical context probably stretched things.  Nevertheless, being pushed into different media and styles is part and parcel of trying to be flexible to accommodate the client's wishes and to win that all important commission.

To carry on this theme, I have experimented from time to time with a Manga style when asked to by publishers, and although I didn't win the commissions, I'm still pleased with the results so have decided to post them here and to add them to my portfolio section.  Below are character sheets and sample comic pages for licensed characters Ben 10 and Redakai.  Produced mainly using a Pentel brushpen, with colouring done in photoshop.

Book titles: ​Writing Maps
Publisher Website: Rising Stars
Commissioning agency: Advocate Art

Here are the illustrations I've produced for Rising Stars as part of their Writing Maps series which has just been published.  Rising Stars are an award winning independent publisher of books and resources for primary and secondary schools. The illustrated maps feature in the Mystery and Science Fiction titles.