For the World Illustration Awards this year I have entered this piece; 'Bad Hair Day' which is loosely based on 'Lockdown Hair'. I hoping to at least get into the 'Long listing' (top 500) like last year.
With over 800 posts I have now 400 followers on Instagram. Many thanks to you all for following along on my artistic journey and the support and love you've shown, during my 3 years of regular drawing on Instagram.
Today marks my 4th Anniversary with Instagram.
It wasn't until 19 February 2018, that I starting drawing continuously, at first everyday for 32 weeks, thanks to the drawing prompts of Christine Nishiyama ( @might_could ). 3 years later and I'm still joining in, along with the many friends I have made. I'm not able to draw everyday but try to post at least one new piece of art every week.
Managed to complete my second year of Inktober, producing and posting 30 images within 30 days. This year I followed the preset Halloween styled prompts set by @mabsdrawlloweenclub.
It was amazing to be contacted by 3 artists via Instagram, after they had received a version of my' Chicken' artwork with their Paperlike purchases. They were thrilled for me and really loved the image. Many thanks to Amira ( @amirooze ) and Vin ( @ilyart ) for letting me share these pictures on my website and Instagram.
For the World Illustration Awards this year I have entered a piece named 'A Culture of Bullying'.
For Inktober 2019, I followed a theme set by Christine Nishiyama; Children's Halloween costumes, as I wanted to include children in the images after recently finishing the Make Art That Sells - Illustrating Children's Picture books (LIVE)class hosted by Lilla Rogers. It was good practice and was really fun to do. Where possible, I tried to include more than one child, so that they could interact in the image. After all, being able to draw humans interacting is what gets you commissioned for illustration work, so if you don't have much of this in your portfolio, then practise, practise, practise and show as much of this type of work as possible.
For this Inktober I managed a mix of 41 ink or digital drawings, which included 37 different children's costumes. I had hoped to do at least 50 images, but after 10 days, it was apparent I was beginning to burnout; reducing the workload to just one per night. This helped ensure I had the energy to finish the whole month and still be able to push myself.
So with more than 31 drawings, I smashed my second Inktober. During the later part of the month, you can see that many of the images seem to get more confident and more defined, the opposite of what I had expected due to tiredness, and had really pushed out of my comfort zone.
Anyway - do you have a favourite image or costume from this set of images?
I was thrilled (and a tad nervous) to be interviewed via Skype, by Paperlike. We talked about my art process
and inspiration. The in depth blog post, showing 5 pieces of my artwork can be found in full here 'on the Paperlike blog' (Link opens in new window) 
It was so nice to be interviewed and featured by Illustrator Lisa Bardot to help promote her products. Lisa creates some amazing Procreate brush sets, many of which I use everyday.
Lisa says in her post:
I love how this piece is the result of a habit! @martin_morrison_illustration draws every day, and he was just experimenting with his new brushes, and the textures inspired him to turn it into a finished piece. “I was trying to stay loose and not think too much,” Martin shared. As he was drawing this, he also was inspired by saturated and retro colors, grungy textures, overlapping colors such as in screenprints, retro printing techniques and the look of natural media. Martin’s best advice for illustrators is to find an Instagram group with prompts you can follow. “Draw every day even if it’s just for 5 minutes, for at least 30 days. After 30 days it should be habit,” he said. “Also stop trying to be perfect, as this is completely unrealistic and completely impossible to achieve. Imperfections are what help to provide character to a drawing and should be embraced.” Thanks for sharing Martin! Couldn’t agree more! #bardotbrush
Many thanks for the lovely comments Lisa. I look forward to seeing what amazing brushes you produce next.
A lovely milestone to celebrate; I’m now fortunate enough to have 200+ followers on Instagram. Due to weeks of fluctuating figures, it never felt safe to make an announcement, until now. With 232 followers, so I've finally managed to slingshot away from the gravitation pull of '200'.
I'd like to thank every one of you, amazing people, for your encouragement, comments and the pure love shown towards me and my art. It means more than I can put into words. Thank you all.
You can also see a version of this here → on my Instagram page.
So today (19th Feb 2019) marks the 1st anniversary since I properly started posting on Instagram. In those 365 days, while I wasn't being able to post every day, I did manage to post more than 400 times. My longest, continued, daily-posting streak lasted 32 weeks. I often had more than one different image per post; with seven being the highest. I tend to post quick drawings and experiments and some completed images, between 3-6 times per week.
If you'd like to see more please follow this link to my Instagram page.
I have chosen the two above images as my entries into the World Illustration Awards 2019. The deadline for submission was today (Sunday 17 Feb 2019). It's very hard to know how these illustrations will do, as this competition is open to Illustrators from around the world. I really like these images, so won't be disappointed if unsuccessful.
Wish me luck!
Above: the ten images supplied by Adobe Stock and how I used them (To the left).
How many can you spot?
To give you a clue - the yellow pier like structure was taken from the purple rock and water image above.
Creating something slighty different to how I'd usually work for this cometition entry for Adobe 'Create' Magazine. Using 10 supplied images to create an image based on the theme of 'zesty'. I usually prefer to work in Adobe Illustrator but as this task involve so many images, I used Photoshop instead. The letter forms were hand drawn and use many of the required photographs as textures
Hope you like it
I'm not known for my culinary skills, so how did I get asked to submit a recipe for a celebrity Cookbook, which includes submissions from Liam Neeson, Gino D’acampo, and Professor Brian Cox?
I was contacted out of the blue by one of the charities representatives and asked if I'd be interested in submitting a recipe for a charity cookbook. Was this for real?
Could this be a new trent in Nigerian phishing scams? Why would anyone ask me for a recipe. I'm not the type to post images of their dinner on Facebook! After a bit of research about the charity I learned that it was well supported by many well know, house-hold names all of which had provided their favourite recipes, and now I had an opportunitity to help out too. The charity aims to raise funds for the Nottingham Children's Hospital School, providing learning support for children and young people, aged 4 – 18, with a range of medical conditions and strive to provide them with a continuity of education whilst unable to attend school.
They try to get a range of people who young people might aspire to be, such as actors, sports men and women and realised that they only had one artist (the wonderful - Jon Burgerman). Searching throught the Association of Illustrators, portfolio website, it was my work they said "stood out", so contacted me with their request. After such a lovely compliment how could I refuse? The Cookbook, while delayed should be available sometime soon, (Still no news -Latest update Jan 2018) with the proceeds going to this wonderful cause. I urge you to give as much support as you can. More information can be found here www.qmceducationcentre.co.uk and also https://www.facebook.com/DucklingsCharity/
Images of my son, myself and my soup recipe (images copyright Martin Morrison 2017)
Just entered an adapted version of my Donald Trump image for the World Illustration Awards. As you can see I've tinkered with the first version sligthly, until I was completely happy with the result. (Hand drawn, scanned and them traced and coloured in Adobe Illustrator.
Wish me luck.
One of six images I've submitted to the Noise Festival (2014) has been judged as 'Outstanding' work by curator Denise Proctor (Professional Film maker and Screenwriter)
This piece of work, I call 'Euro Titantic?' looking at the effects of a financial crash of the Euro pitted against the U.S. Dollar.
I thought about how this would affect the lives of millions of europeans and dicpicted them as stranded passengers. This image was originally hand drawn and coloured/ edited in Photoshop and was chosen to appear in the Association of Illustrators Annual - 'Images 26' and travelling exhibition around the UK. I had recently updated it by adding a water texture to add an extra dimension. I think this helps the image look and work as I originally planned.
What do you guys think?
