David and Sarah Cousens
a.k.a Cool Surface

Location:
Wiltshire, UK

Clients include:
Macmillan Publishing,
Kingfisher Publishing,
Ilex Press, Computer Arts Magazine (Future Publishing), Advanced Photoshop (Imagine Publishing), Digital Arts Magazine (IDG Publishing), Letraset, Lavish Productions, 4th Street Music, Mongoose Publishing, Transforce conventions, Beyond Starlight.

Skills: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Painter, Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Q. Can I get you to draw me something? I'm prepared to pay.

A. Of course! You just said the magic word that every illustrator loves to hear: "pay"! Drop us an e-mail at david@coolsurface.com and we can discuss things further.

Q. Hi! I want you to draw me a 28 page comic and come up with the character designs. I can't pay you now but will give you a share of the profit the comic will make.

A. Thanks for the offer, and believe us we're flattered, but we need to make money to live (we've got a mortgage to pay forl!). A self published comic *isn't* going to make enough money. You'll be lucky to break-even on your costs. It's sad, but it's a fact of life. Just look at how many comics Marvel has to cancel these days. And they're in a position to make money.

Comics especially take a lot of time and effort to draw, and as much as we'd like to be able to draw just for the fun of it, it's just not feasable.

Q. HI I wANT a PIC OF a HYUGE ROBOT NINJA MONSTURR DRAGONn THING 4 Free!!!!

A. These questions are real believe it or not! If you want a drawing commissioned, that's great, but you need to pay us for it. You wouldn't do your job for free would you? And please, lay off the caps.

Q. This new version of Cool Surface looks great and everything, but where's the old work?

A. Can't get enough eh? A lot of the work on the old version of CoolSurface no longer represents our current skill level (quite frankly, some of it's just plain embarrassing!), and every portfolio should be cleared out every now and then. If you're feeling nostalgic, or just want to see some earlier images (artwork, not old passport photos!) you can still see the old website archived at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/t.cousens/cs/

Q. Is it true about David's stubble growing ability?

A. The legends are true. Fortunately Sarah likes stubble, otherwise David would be shaving every other hour!