A UK Essex born illustrator with a long history steeped in creative projects. From writing and
producing electronic music with all the cover artwork throughout the 90s, to web design work
and graphic designs for T-shirts, flyers and posters.
With a love of graffiti and it's many styles of which he briefly flirted with in the mid 80s, you can
see the influence it has had in his illustrations and in the colouring techniques he uses today. He produces
one off's or complete collections of original highly detailed illustrations ready to use or print.
"I work mostly in photo editing software to create my illustrations. Normally starting from
a very simple, clean hand drawn outline, then digitally colouring and correcting
to produce the finished artwork. I do some web work but my real passion lies in strong colours
and letting my imagination run riot which it frequently does!"
'Just one more Week' was the birth of a character called 'Big Ron'. The story
follows Ron for the week prior to his first holiday in many years.
Originally I created this character for a one-off piece that eventually turned
into this large format poster. Since the piece went public I have received plenty of
positive feedback on the story and character. Now I've developed the story into
a short graphic novel, of which I am currently working on. See 'More Big Ron' for some
of the more detailed parts of the graphic novel.
This is printed as an A1 to A0 size poster with the individual
pieces printed in A2 poster size.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'Big Ron' print gallery.
During the creation of the 'Ron' character the 'J1MW' (Just one more Week) story
evolved from the large format poster (previous screen) to graphic novel still a work in progress. The story is the same as the poster only in full, following Ron in the week
before his much deserved holiday.
Here are some of the more detailed full / half page pieces that go to
make up the story so far, along with the Cover artwork for the finished graphic novel. This project is expected to be finished and ready for the shelves in 2011.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'Big Ron' print gallery.
This story spawned from my love of chrome and robots, the perfect
match for each other in an illustration. One small kid, one big robot and
a hint of revenge is how the 'No pity' story goes.
As with all my illustrations, the individual parts are all hand drawn outlines,
digitally coloured and corrected. The text in the poster is a mixture of vector and traditionally drawn.
The 'No pity' story poster is printed at A1 or A0 and the individual
pieces are printed in A2 poster size.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'No Pity' print gallery.
Inspired by two old aquaintances known as 'The Essex Rockerz' who paved the way
with the 'organic' style in the Essex graffiti scene in the 90s. I came up with this little collection,
my spin on the organic incorporating metal, real life influences, the organic theme and a healthy dose of imagination.
These illustrations were done in the usual way with hand drawn outlines and digital colouring.
The 'Organic' Collection is printed in sizes A2 to A0.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'Organic collection' print gallery.
Inspired by the French film 'Nikita' I came up with this series of three
Limited edition prints. Everyone loves the idea of a hitman, stealth, no holds barred
carnage and looking good at the same time. This is another idea that I
will be developing into a short story poster in the near future.
The 'Hitman' Series of three are printed at A2. Limited to 50 prints each.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'Hitman collection' print gallery.
This is where the majority of all my illustrations start... pencil and paper.
Normally, I'll work from quick scamps then just draw up the outline and colour it. Here I have used some
more complete pencil sketches with a simple one colour overlay added for depth.
Originated for development of the 'No pity' story and the 'J1MW' characters.
These pencil sketches are all printed at their original size A3.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the Smacked print gallery.
Like the title says 'The Other Sides' is a collection of one off ideas for different
illustrations I've created.
Some of these were the fold-outs for album sleeves that were never used,
a homage to the spray can and a deck design for a friend's skateboard company. The others
are just ideas I've had for individual pieces. All of these were done with a printable use in mind, be it
a framed piece for the wall, artwork for an album cover or for getting thrashed on
the bottom of a skateboard.
This collection of illustrations are printed at A2 size.
Click www.smacked.co.uk to visit the 'One off' print gallery.
As an innovative person, I used to write electronic music as another outlet to channel those creative juices.
With that went the artwork for the covers and labels for each release produced for my self-funded label
'Smacked recordings'.
After many years I eventually closed the label to concentrate on other ventures.
Displayed are some of the used and unused cover designs I came up with for some of the releases.
"It wasn't about the money, or trying to be famous, just about producing something that I liked to hear on really big speakers."
Although I work mainly with photo editing software, vector
illustration has also been something I have used when designing. It's ideal for colour
layer positives for screen printing or for T-shirt designs and, more often than not, web design
where the flat accurate colour of vectors can be used effectively.
These are some T-shirt designs I have made in the past for a small independent clothing company. I used
vectors for all of the line work and blocking, then a small amount of airbrushing to add finishing touches.
As with all my artwork, at some point I need to colour correct parts of an image
or whole images and stitch two or more pieces together seamlessly to make one. Along with
retouching to 'cover up' blemishes and unwanted marks. This has
to be one of the more satisfying parts of the process in getting the right result, if a little time consuming.
Some 'before' and 'after' examples are displayed here. Included are techniques used with image stitching and colour management,
coupled with some intricate retouching for the finished image.
For commissions, work or more information, please contact Toby Willsmer. Once the form has been sent, you will be redirected back to the home page. I will reply to your email as soon as I can. Thanks for your feedback.
