Guardiola & Mourinho

Del Piero, a fine vintage.

A tribute to Alessandro Del Piero. What a legend of the game.

Footballer Reading

Footballer indulging in some reading.

Rodrigo Palacio

This is an illustration of Rodrigo Palacio's goal for Genoa against Lazio for Soccer Italia magazine. It was an extremely intuitive strike that was a mix of innovation and improvisation. I hope the illustration does it justice.

St. Guardiola

St. Guardiola

This is my tribute to Guardiola's time in charge of Barca. It meant a lot to me because his squad were the catalyst for Backpage Press approaching Graham Hunter to write a book on the Barca squad at the time. Graham in turn asked if I would provide illustrations, which was a big step forward for me in my pursuit of a career in illustration.

Guardiola himself has a saintly quality which is amplified by the presence of the malevolent Mourinho. As a coach he seemed to be sent straight from some footballing heaven and it is there to which he flies in this piece. He will descend again some day soon to bestow his unique knowledge and implementation on another lucky team.

Good luck Pep!

Dream Team II

PURCHASE HERE

To commemorate Pep Guardiola's ultra successful time at Barca, here is a highly detailed collection of portraits arranged in his famous 4-3-3 formation. This piece is available to purchase at the link below.

PURCHASE

Poster Poll

I would like people's opinions on which of these posters is better. If you could leave a comment with either A or B to denote your choice I would be very grateful!

A

B

Doodles

I love doing these doodles! :)

Weapon of mass construction

On me 'ead!

20 minute Andy Carroll doodle...

1950's Scott Parker

If there's any interest I'll put this up for sale as a print. Just contact me on twitter (@danleydon)

LFC Poster Project

I've been posting my updates on my tumblr. The link is in the sidebar on the right. There will be daily updates!

:)

Unattainable Goals

When I am in the gym, I sit stretching on the mats. Straight opposite me, stuck on the wall, is a really large telly. Now this thing is set to ‘Dance Nation’ all the time. Maybe it’s broken? I am subjected to writhing females in skimpy attire while I condition my body and generally work up a sweat. It is a slightly jarring experience. I don’t need to engage in strenuous physical activity while Beyonce shakes her arse at me from the other side of a tv screen. I feel like a horse chasing a carrot on a string that it’s never going to reach. After watching Wednesday nights champions league offering and musing on what happened I figured that’s what Barcelona felt like. They could see the goal, they could get near the goal, they could have the ball all they wanted, but the goal itself was the equivalent of Beyonce. A permanent fixture on some other plane of existence.

Barcelona will get to reverse the situation and welcome Chelsea to their stadium next Tuesday. I however will not get to reverse the situation, which would infact be one where Beyonce watches music videos of me gyrating while she stretches in some gym. And anyways, how creepy would that be?

In the Camp Nou we all expect Barca will proceed to load up the goal canons and fire at will for ninety minutes. In doing so, they will have reached their goal. I however will still not have breached that shiny divide between the world of Beyonce music videos and where I do my stretches in my gym. The world is a cruel place but at least I know it.

What Newcastle are up to.

I think I’ve figured out what Newcastle are up to. At this moment they are approaching pole position for entry to Europe’s unashamed money fight. As Chelsea and Spurs teeter about like children atop one anothers shoulders pretending to be adults, Newcastle slowly emerge from the fog on the Tyne like some sort of present day Captain Willard, wild eyed and daubed in striped camouflage, the scent of death in his nostrils.

They have looked into the abyss for many seasons now. Maybe the abyss has taken a shine to them? Whatever is happening, and it’s not Moneyball because Liverpool have tried that and it obviously doesn’t work, the rest of the league should fret. Krul, Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse are the soldiers manning Willard’s boat this time and instead of being driven to insane distraction by the void at the middle of a vacuous Premier League they are flourishing.

Tiote slices through midfield like a machete. Cabaye slings long passes like arrows from a long bow. Ba and Cisse take turns being the most prolific marksmen in Premier League history. Ben Arfa just tore the entire Bolton squad in half.

As a Liverpool fan curled up in foetal position covering my ears I have this reaction to share with you: The horror, the horror....

Hatem Ben Arfa

After his wonder goal today I was inspired to do this quick doodle of Ben Arfa. I think I'm slowly figuring out a style of illustration too. Slowly the operative word.

Practice

Been working on this for about a week now. The aim was to practice portraits and develop my ability to draw well with different shading techniques. I'm pleased with some aspects of it and now know what direction to go in to better improve.

As usual, any thoughts are appreciated and RT's too as they get my work to a wider audience and I'm very grateful for that.

Thanks! :)