CHRIS KING
BIO
Chris King was educated at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, England, and earned a BA Hons in Media production. He Currently Lives by the sea in sunny Scarborough. Originally intending to pursue a career in animation, he found himself continuously drawn to fine art and illustration. Chris retains a rough hand drawn quality to his work often working with pencil, ink and paint and then taking it to the computer to compose and “tinker� with the image until completion. Developing his style through experimentation with many art techniques, studying Fine art, painting, animation, graphic design and photography, before settling on illustration as his chosen profession.
Clients
Konami Digital Entertainment. Oxford University Press. Rising Stars Publishing Boxfresh clothing Filter Magazine Umbro Arena Magazine Hachette Children's Books
It’s been a hectic few months of late. I have illustrated 13 books over the last 6 months, about 180 ish drawings in total, including a number of covers. Some turned out great and some….well didn’t, but its been a huge learning curve and has really pushed me further into being better at what I do.One of the most enjoyable was a series of educational books for Rising Stars called Shadows, written by Paul Blum, aimed at 10-14 year olds with reading difficulties. This was the second series of books I’ve illustrated in the shadows series. Here ‘s the blurbShadows is set in the near future, where an alien invasion has left the Earth devastated and a mysterious organisation called The Firm hold power. The series follows the story of Matt Merton who works for the firm and is trained to identify and kill The Enemy - the aliens among us ... And here is a selection of the cover work I did as well as a couple of my fav interior illos. Thanks go to Sasha and Jess at Rising stars and Tina at Pentacorbig for putting all together and the encouragement!
I was asked to do an illustration of Green day to accompany the review of their new album for the June issue of Spin magazine. I got my copy through the post this morning, and I’m quite pleased with the result, included here are a few of the roughs I did and how it finally looks in magazine itself. Thanks to art director, Liz McFarlane, for letting me have pretty much free reign on this , but at the same time keeping me on the right track from the outset.
Still in deadline hell at the moment so nothing new to show! But came across an illustration I did of Bat for Lashes (Natasha Khan) almost a year ago now I think? Don’t why I didn’t post it at the time, but there you go. And since me and my lass are going to one of her shows next month, It reminded me to post this !!
Here is a Pin-Up I did over a year ago; it was something I started, without really knowing where I was going with it. I got at the point were I was getting a little sick of looking at it, so I stuck some text on it and called it done. It was supposed to be a kind of a style taster for a comic book I was planning, which I eventually scrapped. Instead I decided it needed a bit more work, to finish it off as a stand alone peace, so I tinkered with the colours and dropped in the car, I think its complete now, so this will hopefully be the final edit.
Well here we go! It has taken a just shy of a month to colour this image, Far too long, but its been a matter of stealing what time I can in-between my current workload. It’s been great to do something, that doesn’t really have a purpose other than wanting to create an image that excites me. It has prepped the way for some new ideas, and given me a bit of a creative injection, trans dimensional assassins and intergalactic bounty hunters next up!