Making a Mishmash

Making a Mishmash!

Ever since I can remember, I have loved drawing. I enjoyed drawing little characters causing each other serious harm in meaningless battle scenes. One of my first school memories is being told off for drawing a castle under siege in my Maths book.

Like most children of the 80s, I was a huge fan of the Where's Wally books. My other passion was sport and football in particular. With these two hobbies set in stone, it wasn't until I was in my teenage years that I wanted to create a Football Mishmash.

Upon leaving Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001, where I 'studied' Illustration with Animation, I fell into the trap of thinking I would immediately find work in London. I picked up a few jobs illustrating children's books, theatre design work, t-shirt design and creating pages for several top-flight football clubs' match-day programmes.

 I started the Mishmash series in 2013 by illustrating the History of Football in one highly detailed image.

After approximately 1500 hours of drawing and countless hours of research, ‘Football Mishmash’ was complete.

Due to a surprise appearance on Soccer AM, a number of football clubs got in touch to create their own Mishmash.

This is how the Mishmash Poster series was born!

Each historical moment and character is hand drawn & then once inked, is transferred to a giant on-screen canvas where I add colour and give it a bit more ‘life’. I then move each moment around the main canvas until all pieces are in place. In effect, it’s like putting together a giant jigsaw....very slowly! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc9nodM9pEo&t=41s