Luke Toomey
Skills
| skill | level | gained in what environment? |
| Pixel Art | Accomplished | Enthusiast |
| Character Design | Accomplished | Hands On |
| Sequential Art | Accomplished | Hands On |
| Photoshop | Accomplished | Academic |
| Freehand | Good | Academic |
| Illustrator | Medium | Academic |
| Copywriting | Developing | Hands On |
| Dreamweaver | Developing | Hands On |
Experience
I've been a freelance illustrator since completing my BA (Hons) Illustration degree in 2006, working for a wide variety of clients, including: award-winning artist David Blandy; pop-culture website PopMatters.com; various musical acts, both local and international; and Agora, an internal information network for EU diplomats based in New York. I'm also involved in a number of independent comics projects and have exhibited at the UK Web & Minicomix Thing, a small-press artists convention held in London, since 2006; I also created and maintained an online comic of my own between 2000-2003 and am currently working on another. I've been drawing, painting and making cool stuff for about as long as I can remember being alive, cannot imagine doing anything else with my life, and am suitably ashamed of starting 90% of the sentences in this summary with a personal pronoun.
Portfolio
Personal project: Boba Fett
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/bobadone.jpg
Ink on paper drawing created whilst watching Return of the Jedi and then used for Photoshop painting practice.
skills used: Photoshop, Illustration
Personal project: MvC Mashups
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/mvc_trio.jpg
After playing an unhealthy amount of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I couldn't get the idea of combining some characters from the series out of my head.
skills used: Character Design, Illustration, Photoshop
The Lords of Misrule
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/poster_illus2_rev_web.jpg
A poster for a production of Gawain and the Green Knight, performed by a local theatre troupe.
skills used: Character Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Photoshop
Event Prop Hire
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/pirateboard_web.jpg
Test brief for a Yorkshire-based prop manufacturer: a pirate-themed peep-through board.
skills used: Character Design, Illustration, Illustrator, Photoshop
Event Prop Hire
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/tableplan_web.jpg
Test brief for a Yorkshire-based prop manufacturers: a table plan for a burlesque night.
skills used: Graphic Design, Illustrator, Photoshop
Panther Moderns
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/logo3web.png
Cover design for an NYC-based band's demo, based on a Malevich painting at the client's insistence.
skills used: Graphic Design, Illustration, Photoshop
Private commission: Price/Doyle wedding
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/price-wedding-signage.jpg
Wedding buffet signage, presented next to a symbol key to help guests differentiate between normal, vegan and gluten-free cakes.
skills used: Illustrator, Photoshop, Graphic Design
Private commission: Tim vs Robots
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/Tim-vs-Robots.jpg
Original artwork measures 673mm x 1049mm.
skills used: Character Design, Illustration, Photoshop
Ricochet Duo
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/logo2_text_web.gif
A logo design for the Vermont/New York piano/marimba group, for use on promotional materials and possible future merchandise. The brief insisted on an easily-reproduced design (hence the clean-edged, monochrome aesthetic) that incorporated elements of both artists' instruments. Ricochet Duo's website can be found at http://www.ricochetduo.com
skills used: Graphic Design, Branding, Logo Design, Photoshop, Illustrator
The Vague Archive
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/VagueArchiveposteraug15th.jpg
The first in a series of posters for The Vague Archive, a recurring, post-rock oriented band night. The initial design was entirely my own, with additional details hashed out in collaboration with the promotor.
skills used: Illustration, Advertising, Character Design
The Quarry
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/parasite-1_web.jpg
Concept art of a parasitic alien, designed for an independent film. The script was fairly vague about the physical details of the creature, leaving a lot of room for a creative interpretation of the basic squid-like form described.
skills used: Other, Character Design, Photoshop
Very Small Monsters
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/gaz1.gif
Another character sheet from the Very Small Monsters project; images from this set eventually became 1" badge designs.
skills used: Character Design, Photoshop, Pixel Art
Very Small Monsters
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/vinny1.gif
A character sheet from a mooted multimedia project aimed at mobile devices, particularly iPods and WAP phones.
skills used: Character Design, Photoshop, Pixel Art
Lowlife Toys
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/pixel_sadface.png
A collaboration between myself and Lowlife Toys' Stuart Witter (http://www.stuartwitter.com), originally for a mooted Flash game using his characters rendered in my pixel art style.
skills used: Photoshop, Pixel Art
The Definite Articles
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/merriweather2-web.jpg
First in a series of promotional poster designs for the San Francisco-based indie band. Poster dimensions, photocopier friendliness, and space for the band to add additional details were prerequisite; certain visual elements came from earlier promotional material, but that was a conscious decision on my part rather than a requirement of the brief. Original artwork is 216x280mm.
skills used: Advertising, Graphic Design, Photoshop, Illustrator
Anders Loves Maria
http://reneengstrom.com/guest.html
A guest strip for Rene Engström's webcomic, the first of a guest artist week for the comic while Rene was exhibiting with me and some fellow illustrators at the 2008 UK Web & Minicomix Thing (mine is the third strip down, The Tale Of Anders' Fight With Lars). As with my Ugly Hill guest spot, the site design dictated the width of the strip, and the character designs are Rene's, but otherwise I had free reign to do as I pleased (although I did end up using story elements from earlier strips).
***WARNING: Some of the content on this website may not be safe for work.***
skills used: Illustration, Photoshop
999 Kra!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/ivorydone.jpg
The other half of Washington electrocrunk superstars 999 Kra! - Miss Ivory. Both of these pieces were left entirely in my hands; everything from the poses to the outfits to the rendering style was up to me. Original artwork is roughly 350x500mm.
skills used: Character Design, Photoshop
999 Kra!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/deathstarfinal.jpg
999 Kra! are an Olympia, Washington-based electro-crunk duo; this piece was originally destined for a flyer design, but the fully-painted version shown here is now set to be part of the interior artwork for a forthcoming CD release. Original artwork is roughly 350x500mm.
skills used: Character Design, Photoshop
Ugly Hill
http://uglyhill.com/d/20071008.html
Paul Southworth asked me to produce a strip for his long-running series, as part of a fortnight-long guest artist run, while he took some paternity leave from the comic. The character designs, obviously, are his, and the site design dictated the maximum width of the artwork, but everything else was left up to me.
skills used: Storyboarding, Photoshop
The Definite Articles
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/ltoomey/mono_cracked1web.jpg
A cover design for The Definite Articles' EP, Mono. The basic concept was suggested by the band, and the flower motif came from the use of native Californian flora on an earlier Articles cover.
skills used: Freehand, Photoshop, Illustrator
PopMatters.com
http://www.popmatters.com/columns/horning/060821.shtml
The concept of heavily-"wired" characters was suggested by the editor; everything else in this illustration was drawn from elements in the article.
skills used: Illustration, Character Design
PopMatters.com
http://www.popmatters.com/columns/hummel/060807.shtml
This was a more structured brief, and the illustration was produced without having read the article it illustrates. The editor asked for "something showing an Australian backpacker type in London."
skills used: Illustration, Character Design, Photoshop
PopMatters.com
http://www.popmatters.com/multimedia/features/060406-gmail.shtml
An editorial illustration for the pop-culture ezine.
skills used: Illustration, Character Design, Photoshop
Work Flexibility
| location flexibility | length of contract |
|
Within York. Within Yorkshire. Within United Kingdom. Would temporarily relocate. Would permanently relocate. Can telecommute. |
Days. Weeks. Months. Years. |