The first illustration is Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson from The Case of The Blue Carbuncle, I spent a couple of weeks agonizing over this illustration and realised after a bit that I was trying to do something that was A, very challenging and B, not in my stle at all! So I simplified it and ended up with this. I really like the composition, and the background was fun to do.
The second illustration is Sherlock Holmes' desk from a bird's eye view, as I'm sure you can imagine it's one thing to look up reference images of items from the 1890s, it's another to try to draw them from a completely different angle! I did an awful lot of research, for both images really, but for this one I worked really hard to make sure that everything on the desk is something that, if Sherlock and John had been real, they would have had on or around the desk.
I also wanted to make sure that anyone who has read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories would be able to look at the desk and recognise items from some of the stories, my friend Faye was a great help here as she's read all of the books and so was able to give me a list of some of the things that I should add, for example, the 'Practical Handbook To Bee Culture, With Some Observations Upon The Segregation of The Queen' (it's a long title, so you have a book with bees on it), the Musgrave Ritual parchment paper, and the bust of Napoleon to name just a few.
It was an awful lot of work, and the desk was the second technical drawing I've ever done, so it took me a lot longer than I had hoped, but I got it done! :D
These two illustrations were done for a Sherlock Holmes graphic novel written by Luke Kuhns, called 'The Case of The Crystal Blue Bottle', it's out on the 10th of December! Go here to check it out! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Holmes-Case-Crystal-Bottle/dp/1780922965/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 and here to check it out on goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15834826-sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-crystal-blue-bottle Please do buy a copy, the proceeds are going to the 'Save Undershaw Preservation Trust'! Undershaw was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's home, and where he wrote a great many of the Sherlock Holmes books : )
