TECHNICAL DRAWING: 2

The apprentice. Trying too hard.

A commission from The Partners Design Group 1985. for the 3i Annual Report. These are directors of The Frazer Nash Company. I remember visiting their HQ with the designer and stepping into a very sterile, clean, environment - so I guess that's why I got chosen to be the illustrator. A feeble attempt at humour infiltrates the drawing. We were being shown round by one of the directors and he was showing signs of agitation and impatience with me and the designer, whose name escapes me, (Bill someone?) as we kept falling behind and being distracted by god knows what and Alan (his name) was constantly ushering us to and fro hence I split Alan's portrait in two. It was all very top secret and hush hush. The chaps are standing around a missile launcher...And the little floating yellow square is my nod towards Grattan's or a Littlewoods catalogue in homage to their crisp shirts and neatly pressed suits.

Some clean hands for another Annual Report (1986) also commissioned from The Partners. My Albrecht Durer period...........

A couple of pieces for the Radio Times circa 1985/86 commissioned by Tim Walmsley after the so-called 'golden age' of Radio Times illustrations the Eric Fraser, Robin Jacques, Leonard Rosomann, Ronald Searle, Ralph Steadman, Peter Brookes Tony Meeuwissen years, see designer Mike Dempsey's excellent Graphic Journey blog

For a while I was Eric Fraser's postman 1975-77. His was a very fancy letter box.

From the vaults. The museum archive. 1985-1986. Miles Davis a bit later, a hint of free- form? 1989/90. for The Observer Newspaper, before my stint at a Doctor Writes 1990-1992 for the Magazine. Still that was then, all part of the learning process. All very tight. All very methodical.