Old Blog, New Blog

Hello there.

I recently made a rather overdue move onto Tumblr for my main blogging purposes. In doing so I left this blog neglected and abandoned like a year-old mobile phone. It was a rather less elegant transition than I had hoped, for which I apologise. I may attempt to use both concurrently for a bit until I settle into something that feels comfortable.

My Tumblr is www.benjamintmills.tumblr.com - please come and follow me over there!

Massive thanks for every peek and view and read and kind comment I have received on here over the past few years.

Ben

Horse Portrait- Ella

A recent horse portrait. Acrylic on board.

TASCHEN Illustration Now 2014 Calendar

I received my contributor copies of TASCHEN's new 365-day tear-off desk calendar for the coming year. It features a few of my images. The illustrations of mine are taken from the Illustration Now book that was published a couple of years ago, so they're rather old images. But it's a lovely object, with some cracking artists inside.

Look out for me on Christmas Eve-Eve 2014.

Japanese Eki Stamps

A few ink stamps I collected while in Japan this summer.

Train stations in Japan each have an identifying ink stamp (an 'eki' stamp) that can be collected by those passing through. They're also found at temples, bridges, towers, parks, - more or less any 'destination'.

This is a pretty pitiful haul, though my girlfriend's brother Beam has an incredible book full of them.

Here's a good blog post I found discussing Eki stamps: http://denshadejapan.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/the-eki-stamp/

Round Round

Added a touch of animation to a picture of mine.

Authors 2

A couple more authors.

Philip Pullman is often asked what form his own Daemon would take (for those who've not read His Dark Materials nor seen that weak Golden Compass film, a Daemon is effectively the physical embodiment of a person's soul, taking the form of an animal). Pullman replies that his would be a magpie or jackdaw, a bird attracted to shiny things, like the nuggets from which he weaves his stories.

This last one is Hilary Mantel. I simplified this one down more and played with the colours a bit. It's perhaps less successful, but I'm attracted to this slightly less literal route.

Authors

The first two from a series of portraits of authors, working on a cleaner and quicker technique for illustration work. I've been using gouache lot more than acrylic recently. The opacity is really refreshing.

These first one here is Jack Kerouac, the second is Thomas Keneally, the Australian author who won the Booker Prize in 1982 for Schindler's Ark.

Thanks for looking!

Queen's Wood

Queen's Wood in north London is an ancient remnant of the Forest of Middlesex, which once covered what is now the north of Greater London. The forest passed into private ownership in the 13th Century, and was gradually deforested. A few small isolated pockets remain.

You can feel the age in the looming oak and hornbeam trees. It has that deep fairy-tale forest feel despite never being more than a big stone lob from roads and houses. The diverse and aged canopy supports a wide range of avifauna too- nuthatch, sparrowhawks, jays, parakeet, goldcrest and all three British woodpecker species.

With the sudden burst of foliage in the past few weeks, the wood is now rich with the smells and saturated greens of spring. Gorgeous in the dappled sunlight, though it's harder to see the birds.

Queen's Wood

Forest of Middlesex 

Rose Hip

Our small back garden is pretty devoid of plant life, other than 

a big rose bush that flowers all through the decent months of the year.

Owl Candle

Of my eye

Gonna get back into the ol' blogging game. Here are some still lifes. The second one is an apple.

Boston Globe Illustration in the Flesh

I received this in the post at the weekend. I was fortunate that a friend over in the US was able to pick up a copy of The Boston Globe from a few weeks ago with my illustration inside. So here it is. Turns out the picture eventually ran in black and white (I had to provide a colour and a B&W version). I think I quite like it in monochrome.

First post of 2013, so I should also add- Happy New Year!

Horse Portrait- "Midnight"

A final post of the year- here's a horse portrait commission I recently completed.

Hope everyone's having a great Christmas (or just a great December), and very best wishes for the new year!

Illustration for SCHOTT Glass Manufacturers

An advertising illustration I did a while back for SCHOTT North America.  The illustration formed an advertisement for the company's industry-leading green tech home glass appliances. The client had a pretty clear idea of how they wanted the image to look. Ad agency Doe Anderson shot the photography, and I painted in the rest of the image.

I was told that the animals must not look too 'Disney', as the advertisement was going to be used at an event held at Disneyland.

Cats

Had to pull some cat sketches together for a client. Thought I'd deposit them here too.

Illustrations for 'Silentnight'

I'm finally now able to show some illustrations I've been doing on-and-off throughout the year for Silentnight beds. I was asked to produce some new images of their familiar hippo and duck mascots in various scenarios, for use in brochures and print material. I'm not sure whether there are more of these to do or not.

'The Republican Party Isn't Dead' Illustration for the Boston Globe

This illustration appeared in the Opinion section of Sunday's Boston Globe. There was a very short deadline for this one- I received the job at 5.30 in the evening and (partly due to other commitments) had to have it finished by 8.30 the next morning.

The editorial piece discusses how the Republican party will move on after Mitt Romney's defeat, their need to attract a broader demographic base, and how the 2016 election will likely see a Republican presidential candidate far younger than the Democrat.

The art director was keen to use some kind of deconstruction of the Republican's famous elephant icon. I came up with a few ideas, and we settled on this, an elephant being rebuilt from lego-style building blocks- alluding to this more youthful future.

At the time it hadn't been decided whether the illustration would run in colour or B&W, so I had to make sure it worked well in both.

A tough night, but very pleased with the outcome of this one.

The complete piece can be read (alongside the illustration) online here

'Secret London'- Serco Prize for Illustration 2012

The 2012 Association of Illustrators Serco Prize exhibition is currently on at the London Transport Museum. This year's theme was Secret London, with entries tasked with exploring hidden and lesser-known aspects of the capital's history, culture and geography. My illustration, London's Ancient Trees, can be seen there along with the other selected entries until December 10th.

Many thanks to the AOI, Serco and the LTM for putting a great show together, and a brilliant opening night. Congratulations to the winners, and look out for Finn Clark's winning design on posters throughout the tube network.

Images 36: Best of British Illustration 2012

A couple of snaps of my picture 'Aquacat' in Images 36: Best of British Illustration 2012. This is the book produced to showcase selected entries to the Association of Illustrators' annual competition.

A great evening was had at the book launch & opening night of the accompanying exhibition, at Somerset House, the impressive new home of the AOI. 

The book, complete with stylishly minimal slipcase, is available to buy now, and the exhibition is enjoying its last couple of days. (I'm not in the exhibition, by the way, but it's well worth a visit this weekend.)

Fantastic to see my work printed in here! 

Next year's edition of the competition is being revamped in as-yet unannounced way- it'll be very interesting to see where they take it.

Many congratulations to all of this year's winners

Framing

Been framing up my print for the AOI Serco Prize exhibition at the London Transport Museum, opening next month.