Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'St Trinian's'

As well as designing the posters for all eight forthcoming productions by Newport Playgoers, I also agreed to do the one for Dolman Youth Theatre's 'St Trinian's' which is at the Dolman Theatre from 8 - 10 December.

My first attempt at re-creating
a Ronald Searle St Trinian's
schoolgirl

This was a joy to do as I've always loved the drawings of Ronald Searle who created the fiendish schoolgirls as cartoons for magazines and books before they were turned into a series of highly successful films.

One of my personal heroes, John Lennon said, "The two people who have probably had the greatest influence on my life are Lewis Carroll and Ronald Searle" and you can see that influence at work in Lennon's very loose, surreal drawings.

A hockey-wielding schoolgirl

Searle probably isn't as celebrated in the UK as he once was, but his influence has been immense - you only have to see his work to appreciate this. Another of my favourite artists, Quentin Blake, is clearly influenced by Searle.

Wouldn't want to meet her on a
dark night...

Among his other work, Searle created the images for films such as 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' and 'The Lavender Hill Mob' as well as scores of illustrations for advertising campaigns, books and magazines. Some great examples of his work can be seen on this excellent blog dedicated to Searle:  http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/

A blonde bombshell - originally
drawn by Seale smoking a cigarette
which I omitted from my version

For the poster I decided to do my own versions of some of Searle's wildcat schoolgirls. However, his very free style is not easy to imitate - it takes years of practice to draw in a style that looks effortless - and it took me many attempts before I was happy with the results.

When I had five that I thought were good enough, I coloured them in - using a similar watercolour wash employed by Searle - then composed the poster using InDesign. 

Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'Humble Boy'

First attempt at drawing the title character

I had never heard of the play 'Humble Boy' by Charlotte Jones when I began the task of creating a poster for it.

Once again the internet came to my rescue, providing examples of other posters and various synopses. Apparently it's a re-working of 'Hamlet' - and bees and bee-keeping play a big part.



Second attempt at drawing Felix



I decided that I needed to draw the title character, Felix Humble. He's a lecturer at Cambridge University so I added glasses to make him look academic.

The action of the play takes place in a garden so that's where I wanted to put him, surrounded by bees - possibly with a bee landing on his nose.



Coloured version



The cartoon bee





I wasn't happy with my first attempt at drawing him, so started again. I knew I wanted to create the face and the bee separately and then put them together when I composed the final poster.



For the second drawing of the face I added more detail and once happy with it, used Photoshop to add basic colours. I then drew a large cartoon-style bee and coloured that. After that, I drew some flowers and a swarm of bees; then put the whole lot together to make the poster below.

Creating Posters for Newport Playgoers - 'Fawlty Towers'

When I rather reluctantly agreed to design the posters for Newport Playgoers' 88th Season, I decided that, in order to avoid any problems with copyright, I would create the images for the posters myself.

Original line drawing of Basil

First production of the new season will be 'Fawlty Towers' featuring a range of instantly recognisable characters such as manic hotel owner Basil, his wife Sybil, hapless Spanish waiter Manuel and Polly the maid. There was plenty of reference material available for their faces - from photos to drawings.



Coloured and cleaned-up version of Basil

 The one I spent most time on was Basil, as played on TV by John Cleese. I decided to concentrate on the characters' head and shoulders, using simple clean lines.

 After doing a version I thought captured the character I put it into Photoshop where I added the colours, layer by layer.

As well as the characters, I realised it was also important to draw the shape of the iconic sign from outside the hotel for the title of the play to go in.



Cartoon in colour of Manuel
the Spanish waiter

 With all the artwork finished, it was then a case of importing them all into Adobe InDesign and playing with a range of different compositions  to create the final poster, which would serve as a template for all the other posters.

Next: Creating the poster for 'Humble Boy' by Charlotte Jones. Click here to read it.

Bad times in downtown Barcelona



Javier Bardem in Biutiful

Last night I went to see 'Biutiful'. Almost two hours of non-stop despair in downtown Barcelona. In its review, the Guardian reported, "A surface tension of liquid misery is stretched over this movie, like unshed tears on a brimming eyeball". Spot on. A barrel of laughs, it ain't, but it is a very powerful film that brings home the squalor and desperation that are an everyday part of the lives of many.

It had everything - cancer, alcoholism, drugs, bi-polar disorder, gay Chinese gangsters, illegal immigrants, communication with the dead, corrupt cops, misery porn-chic and dead Chinese being washed up on the beach.

Gwen Taylor and Keith Barron in 'Duty Free'

A very marked contrast to the episode of 80s Spanish-set sitcom 'Duty Free' which I had watched on daytime TV earlier in the day. Keith Barron was trying to cheat on his wife, the lovely Gwen Taylor, in a seedy tourist bar whilst being spied on by Pedro the waiter. Talk about chalk and cheese.

Random plot generation

Struggling novelists suffering from writer's block can now make use of online random plot generators. Click the button - hey presto, some ridiculous storyline is revealed and you can sit down and write a best-selling book round it. Last night, whilst channel-hopping to avoid anything to do with red noses and enforced jollity, I found a film called 'The Quest', the plotline of which must have come from one of these gizmos.

"A globe-trotting New York pickpocket is captured by pirates and enters a martial arts competition in Tibet".

It starred Roger Moore and Claude Van Damme, who funnily enough, is not the grand-daughter of Vivien Van Damme, owner of the infamous Windmill Theatre.

His proud boast was "We never closed" (or as the punters used to re-phrase it "We never clothed" as the non-stop shows mainly featured naked women). 

Hitler's bombs rained down and squadrons of Luftwaffe darkened the London skies but there was always a place where a man in a shabby raincoat could go to ogle naked women. Makes you proud to be British.

Jolson impersonations in Hitler's bunker

Just seen the photo of Eva Braun dressed up as the late, great Al Jolson. She looks very fetching, if you like that sort of thing.

It is particularly poignant that this was taken in the bunker during the closing overs of the war. Hitler was obviously feeling less than chirpy at this point as all his plans for world domination lay in ruins, and Eva thought that her famous rendition of 'Swanee River' might cheer him up.

History does not record the Fuhrer's reaction to this but suffice to say he put a loaded Luger to his head and pulled the trigger. "That could have gone better," she must have thought. That's show business.

Barry-bound on the trail of Gavin and Stacey

Knowing she's a big fan of  'Gavin and Stacey', we took our Australian friend Adrienne and her husband Rog on a trip to Barry to show them the exotic location where the hit TV series is filmed. 

Caroline, Rog and Adrienne get ready to order
breakfast at Big Dave's Cafe in Barry

Arriving at about 11.30am, we decided to dine out in style at Big Dave's Cafe where we opted for Nessa's Big Breakfast. Lovely grub although the fried eggs looked like the novelty variety you can buy in joke shops.


Adrienne in the booth where Nessa dispenses
cash for the slot machines

 We went on to the seafront - which was remarkably busy despite the freezing February cold. After buying a 'Oh! What's occuring?' fridge magnet, Adrienne was ecstatic when she was allowed to sit in the booth where Nessa dishes out the change in the slots arcade.


Adrienne in seventh heaven outside Gavin & Stacey's house

We braved the cold to play the Smuggler's Cove Adventure Golf course - which Adrienne won, much to her surprise. Then, we drove around searching for the house where 'Stacey' lives - 47 Trinity Road. Finding it, we parked up and took a variety of photos outside. As we were about to leave, the front door opened and a the ovner, Glenda Kenyon, invited us in to look around and take photos. Adrienne nearly exploded with delight.

Glenda is a lovely lady who spends hours every day showing fans of the show round her house - which is full of framed cuttings from newspapers about the show and her house.


Glenda Kenyon, owner of the house where Stacey lives in Barry

She is a great tour guide and told us how 'Gavin and Stacey' came to be filmed there and all about the show's stars. It was an amazing experience - and to top it off we drove to Gavin's house in Billericay, Essex - which is actually a couple of miles away in Barry.

Adrienne and Caroline on Stacey's sofa.

It was an unforgettable day, and Adrienne will be going home to Australia with a story and photos that will amaze her friends.