Stealthy Lines and Excessive Colour

Describe where you live? I live in a quasi-typical Bristolian late Victorian terrace house on top of a big hill.  I know it's a big hill because I seem to spend an infernal amount of my life cycling up it to get to my house, but never seem to become fitter because of it.  I like to imagine that the building has been retrofitted with the Industrial Zone from the 90's TV programme "The Crystal Maze" as there's lots of metalwork and piping bisecting the rooms, laser beams and robotic devices traversing the walls, and a giant fan with a potpourri of silver and gold tokens slowly agitating in the bathroom.  I like to shout "Get out, get out, for god's sake's get OUUUTTTTT" every so often as I pass a room so I can live the game-show dream vicariously.   There's a load of paintings and drawings and cartoons dotted around the place; if I were feeling truly extravagant I'd love to put them all in ornately carved and gold-leafed baroque frames.  They're currently under the watchful eye of my ceramic chicken collection, roosting on shelves and acting as a (possibly misaligned) barometer of taste and sophistication. Currently, as it's a delightful summer, the garden is in full bloom and the recently dug out pond is attracting all sorts of wildlife.  I've been entertaining the visiting dragonflies and moths with a great selection of music to encourage them to visit more and hopefully bring their friends.

What sort of music do you listen to? I get very excited at the prospect of hearing music I've never heard before for the first time, so what I listen to is directly influenced by what I've currently got.  That said, I go through delightful phases of passionately listening to a certain style or artist for a finite period before casually discarding it for something so completely different and unrelated that it makes me feel like an entirely different person.  I recently had a wonderful dalliance with Bluegrass music that lasted about 3 months; brilliant!   There's a very hot fire burning inside my soul for the more furious and dispossessing, planet-crushing end of the music spectrum, however, that'd only paint a certain picture on certain days.  I enjoy dipping my toe into so many different areas and am positively bubbling with enthusiasm for modern minimal classical music, clicky-clacky-beep-beep electronica, old Bollywood soundtracks, traditional African drumming, Country Americana, and, well you probably get the idea.

What was the last film you saw at the cinema?

It was "Gravity" and I really enjoyed it. 

Who/what makes you laugh? 

Mock the Week.

If one illustrator inspires you who would that be?

Sergio Aragones.  Or Bill Watterson.  Can I have two?  Is that allowed?

If you won the lottery tomorrow what do you predict you'd be doing in a year's time?

Having just been to Santa Pod racetrack to watch vehicles racing down a quarter mile bit of road for a weekend, I'm feeling all inspired to build a rocket car in my back yard and launch it over the Utah salt-flats.  I'd probably then progress from there to working on making a private space exploration and engineering outfit with a secondary arm that's concentrating on discovering the treasures of the ocean's depths.  Concurrently I'd go on a paragliding tour from North to South Africa with a personal chef and a very good and expansive music collection.  This is working on the principal that I'd spend the next year actually learning how to paraglide.  To top it all off I'd enrol at University and get some qualifications and knowledge in Astrophysics rather than just dreaming about it.  I think it'd take most of the lottery winnings to pay for extra tuition I'd need.  And finally I might just bight the bullet and buy my own pencil rather than just borrowing one from the nearest person.

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Hello one and all,

My name's Rory Walker, and I'm an Illustrator based in Bristol, UK. Since leaving the mighty Falmouth College of Arts many years ago (and Brighton University more recently), I've put my mark on many aspects of illustrative artwork for clients all over the world. I've worked for video games companies designing 2d artwork and textures, created album artwork for record labels, designed T-Shirts and posters for bands and gig-nights, drawn children's books, illustrated educational books, filled the pages of magazines with editorial work, worked with graphic design agencies, advertising agencies, and... well you get the picture. I'm a busy chap, and it's all good.

Please click on the links on the right to see specific examples of my work, but as a general overview here's a list of a some of the clients I've worked for -

Publishing - The National Trust
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Watts
Hachette
Orchard
Macmillan
Hodder
Harper Collins
Anova
Folens
Lothian
Harcourt
Heinemann
Pearson
Nelson Thorne
Salamander Publishing

Media / New Media - Lambent Productions
ITV
AOL
Red Box New Media
Kamae Design
Ken Vale Graphic Design
Frank

Editorial - Country Living
Koi
Carve Surfing
Computer Arts
Best of British
Kitchen Garden
Cage and Aviary Birds
OnBoard
Aenigmatica
Accenture
Chelsea Publishing
Canadian Running
Guitar and Bass
Community Care
Building Design

Digital - The Environment Agency
The Scottish Environment Agency
ThinkNoodle Design
Disney
Black Rock Studios
Climax Developments
Rebellion Developments

Live Art and Conferences - Acclaim Events and Media Communications
Pretty Clever Events Ltd

Murals - Hobgoblin, London Road, Brighton
Abbiatagrasso, Italy

Got something that you'd like drawn? Click on the "contact me" button at the top of the page, drop me a line and say hello.

Rory Walker

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High fives all round!  I was invited to the Cartoonist Club of Great Britain, so I did exactly that, and now I'm the proud owner of a very nice badge.  

Note - I'm really pleased.

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Many years ago, when I was still sporting short trousers, rosy cheeks, and luscious flaxen hair, I entered a competition (between bouts of food poisoning and subsequent discovery of a penicillin allergy) on board a ship to Sweden. Goodness knows what I drew, but maybe this was the kick start I needed to pursue an artistic career? Who knows, had I not won I could be an astronaut or something now instead.

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I managed to wangle a double page spread in the January issue of Advanced Photoshop Magazine. I showed a recent portfolio of work and told the readership a little about myself. I was ever so excited when I got sent a copy just after christmas!

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