Tom employs two divergent approaches for image making, digital (vector & bit-map), traditional pen & Ink examples can be seen on his website
b.1969 Beverley, East Riding, Yorkshire.
I have been a free-lance illustrator since 1995 working on editorial, fashion and music industry commissions for a long-list of clients, there are several examples of this work in the commission section of this site and it can also be tracked down in various anthologies that the work has been selected for over the years.
In 2006 i completed the Masters program Illustration : Authorial Practice at University College Falmouth and through that experience began to work with experimental drawn narratives, really trying to explore and push my drawing farther and harder then commercial briefs had allowed. This type of work can be by turns energizing and frustrating, often its two steps forward and one step back but always there is a feeling of experimentation and an unpredictability to the process that is very rewarding. I don't see this new work as non-commercial and actively seek out collaborators, art directors and publishers and researchers that are willing to go with something a little different.
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Current Research
A call for collaboration with researcher from other faculties to assist research on illustration through collaboration
A definition of collaborative illustration practice
Fiction or Non-Fiction texts and data contain the beliefs, implied imagery, concepts and narratives that fuel collaborative illustrative practice. Though the degree of collaboration varies between projects, typically the illustrator receives this material once it has been written and begins to create a visual response to it.
Research Question – Can close collaboration with the originators of research material enable the illustrator to create imagery that reinforces and intensifies the understanding of the research output, aiding its effective dissemination.
Tom seeks to collaborate with a researcher(s) at The University of Plymouth with whom he can work closely throughout the course of a clearly defined research project, creating a series of illustrations that communicate the shared vision of the researcher(s) to a specific audience.
Face to face collaboration with the originators of research from inception, allows tropes to be explored as they grow in the mind of the researcher(s), potentially allowing the illustrators visualization abilities to become part of the way the researcher(s) reflect upon the final dissemination of the output they are in the process of generating.
This methodology might employ any of a number of visualization techniques, allegory, synecdoche, metaphor and similar devices offer symbolic approaches for informative image-making.
Alternatively literal depictions, of situations real or imagined employ more emotive approaches that descriptively visualize, humor, tragedy, satire and pathos, to powerfully affect the viewer.
Once the illustration have been created Tom they would then be used as the foundation for further research.
Student involvement
The amount of research time Tom is willing to commit to the collaboration in order for the illustrations created to be successful is significant. And careful consideration will be given to each research project but it is unlikely to be possible to work with more than one project at the same time. However moving around the University and meeting with other faculties is in itself immensely useful potentially creating other opportunities for collaboration with students in the communication arts subject area ( BA (hons) Illustration and BA (Hons) Graphic Communications with Typography, MA Communication Design & MA publishing )
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Toms' work has appeared in several juried anthologies of illustration and text-books on the subject of illustration.
The Illustrated Ape – Issue 8 (UK) pub illustrated ape publications – 1999
LAB – issue 9 (UK) Lawrence King - 1999
100% Cotton by Helen Walters & Tim Fletcher (UK) pub Lawrence King
Ubersee editor - R. Klanten - (GER) Pub DGV 2003
Clin D'oeil: A New Look Of Modern Illustration (Netherlands/Taiwan) – 2003
CD ART (UK) – pub Rotovision - 2003
Fashion Illustration Next by Laird Borrelli (UK) pub Thames & Hudson 2004
Sonic-Visuals for Music - R. Klanten, H. Hellige, T. Hulan (GER) pub DGV2004
The Fundamentals of Illustration by Lawrence Zeegan – pub Rotovision (UK) 2004
Illusive – Illustration and its context – by R. Klanten, H. Hellige (GER) pub DGV - 2004
Wonderland by S. Ehmann, B. Meyer (GER) pub DGV- 2005
Into the Nature – Of creatures and Wilderness by R. Klanten,(GER) pub DGV - 2006
The Visual Dictionary of Illustration by Mark Wigan (UK) pub AVA – 2009
Basics Illustration: Global Contexts by Mark Wigan (UK) pub Ava - 2010
Retro Design (Ger) pub Hachta– by Sara Haussman- 2009
Graphic Beats Independent Record Covers and Packaging (Spain) pub Monza 2010