The Iron Witch

We will never forget...

The Soma™ Effect

Alas, the cure for all your problems! Coming in 632 A.F., this wonder drug provides a hangover free holiday and relieves you of all your troubles and woe! Made with the latest advancements in modern age science, this revolutionary tablet will change the way humanity thinks, feels, acts and ultimately grows; giving not only our generation but future generations a monumental leap in evolution terms. So don't delay, you can pre-order this litle miracle right now, we garauntee you won't be disappointed and will be left scratching your head as to how you ever lived without it!*

*Be sure to ask your local GP for the nearest stockist and remember... Utopia is only a Soma™ away!

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I decided to revive my interest in a book I have covered a lot in the past; Brave New World. I remember the concept of a certain tablet that took one to a place where they had no worries or aggro. This, of course, is the Soma tablet. I used a mixture of pen and Photoshop. P.S. 632 A.F. is the year in which the book is set, I haven't been popping my own Soma tablets!

The Dark Knight Rises

Finally, after many weeks, I have a new laptop and a working copy of Photoshop again. With all the hype surrounding the latest Batman instalment, I thought I'd make that my next point of interest. I sort of went back to Batman's roots and tried to create the poster in more a comic styled way, as well as sticking to a purple/ black colour palette, reminiscent of Batman in days gone by. I tried to keep it quite minimal as not to over populate it.

It's good to finally be able to unleash some of the ideas that have been forming in my head whilst whilst I waited for  a new laptop and Photoshop. Hope you like...

Carry on for full size version...

Easy Living...

Winter has finally passed and Summer edges nearer as we enter Spring. Moods are happier. stress levels are lower, houses and smiles are warmer and the sky is clearer. Creative juices flow more than ever when the sun is shining so get thinking! In celebration of the impending arrival of summer, I have created this design merging typography with imagery reminding us what summer feels like.

You can download this design, as well as other slight variations, in the wallpaper (1280x800) pack I've assembled by clicking Download below. iPhone 4 wallpapers also included.

A, by pen

As a lover of typography, it's been too long since I dappled in the art myself. This is a simple, yet elegantly styled font I created today. It was created with a 0.05 and 0.1 uni pin and then scanned in to Photoshop where I then added the background and the colour seen in the 2nd example. Hope everyone likes the style!

The Splinter Tree (The Broken Treehouse Club)

Two more poster designs, this time including a hand drawn illustration I did and hand drawn text (bottom). I used a very linear, hard edged style as if to represent a splintered piece of wood, as I find that image bears well with the title of the series. Plus the splinters I got from that tree back in the day were unbelievable!

The Broken Treehouse Club

These two poster designs are inspired by my childhood days (and the new logo) and the treehouse my friends and I would rebuild at least once a week after finding it broken and trashed on the nearby field. We never did find out who it was causing the damage but I have some great memories sitting around with my mates on upturned logs we snuck out from my mates house and having a laugh, the odd argument and growing up together. I hope to make this a series and am planning a few hand drawn illustrations to add to it so keep checking!

Winter Memories

So after far too many months, I finally managed to get out with my camera again. Me and my mate took a trip to Sefton Park, the first time I'd been back since a brilliant college trip a couple of years ago (that long?!).

The surroundings were stunning; the colours, the smells, the wildlife. It was teaming with squirrels, some coming right up to us and posing for pictures. I love when the air turns chilly and has that snap of cold, for some reason I seem to remember them times the most, maybe because your senses are alive due to the harsh weather. Whatever the reason, I love winter and I hope this year is another one to remember.

The Forbidden Garden

It's my favourite time of the year; the air turns cold, the days are dark, the nights even darker and Halloween is approaching. How I loved trick or treating and sitting in my front porch scaring my friends shitless deep into the night with my dark imagination.

Directly facing my porch was, and still is, an absolute eye-sore of a house. At 21, it still looks creepy at night- at 12 it was fucking terrifying. There was an old woman who partly lived there, visiting every few days. I've lived in my house now for around 15 years and the house is still in the exact same state as the day I moved in. Same rotted curtains, same pieces of loose plaster which had peeled off the exterior and fell to the floor, the same sickly green trim and the same wild patch of grass outside.

As a kid, my friends and I would literally play football in the street morning til night. We loved it, until someone kicked the ball into the garden no one wanted to enter. I did it once and, thus was the unofficial rules, had to retrieve the ball alone. I reluctantly walked to the peeling yellow-white gate and tried to carefully lift the squeaking latch. I kept my eyes firmly set on that horrible green door, looking for any movement. No lights were ever on now I think back... anyway, after opening the gate I stood still for a few seconds, friends watching in silence and suspense. The door remained still. I creeped forward and trod through the wild grass searching for the ball. As I bent down to collect it, I heard my mates running away. Shit. I froze for a second, not wanting to look up. But I had to. I looked at the door and in the deep inky blackness could just make out a sizeable strip of black with a dark, withered hand feeling round it like a huge grey spider. My eyes travelled further up where I could just make out the outline of a hooded face. The face was unrecognizable but I knew whatever or whoever it belonged to was focused on me. With that, I bolted out the garden with the ball in one arm and straight over to my house, where I seen my friends hiding behind the car, in the porch and behind the fence.

A proper haunted house if ever there was one and still unchanged to this day. I haven't seen her for a few years, maybe she died. Of course she wasn't this ghoul we all made her out to be, just an old woman pissed off with them kids kicking the ball into her garden again. Still, I'll never forget them days, they were absolutely amazing.

Cataluña Recuerdos

It's been a while! I've been so busy with work and life in general I've fell guilty of not making enough time for my art in the past three months. However, last week gave me an unexpected opportunity to flex my photographic muscles when I flew to Spain and visited the beautiful, and very Parisian like, city of Barcelona. This would be the opportunity I've been waiting for; to finally brush the cobwebs of my trusty Nikon D60 and give the old boy a workout. It is quite predictable then that in the frantic swing of packing and getting the airport I left him behind :(

However, not all was lost! My girlfriend brought her 7MP Sony digital so I had to make do with that. Obviously, it was bright pink to add salt to my wounds. Nevertheless, I snapped a good number of shots and have only now reviewed them properly. These four were my favourites so I edited these by tinkering exposure, cropping etc; the usual. There are probably more photos suitable for this article but for now I'm sticking with my four favourites (I may upload the said others at another time).

A truly hectic yet beautiful city, this is my thanks to Barcelona.