Edward Scissorhands

Christmas is coming! Here is an animated gif I created for a very lovely project - Adorable

CLICK HERE to see it moving

Bestival Poster Design - Bat for Lashes

Here is my entry for Bestival and Screenadelica's poster competition. I chose to design my poster for Bat for Lashes.

While researching the project I drew inspiration from Natasha Khan's videos (Sleep Alone in particular) and her visual look when performing live. I was fascinated by her appearances with wolf-like imagery and masks and wanted to take that further by combining it with ideas of the solar system, as well as the face paint shapes she wears.

The Shining City on the Hill

Last month I designed a book cover for Caroline Collier's The Shining City on the Hill (now available on Amazon in print and kindle edition too)

If you were interested in finding out about the book, here is the blurb:

Exceptionalism gives us the idea that we, both individually and as a collective, operate above the rules due to our extraordinary virtues. Americans have supposedly been called from beyond the stars to exert our honor on the world around us, but does this grandiose self-assessment blind us to our potentially fatal flaws? The Shining City on the Hill is contemporary fiction at its most compelling, a novel about the paragon of civilization, a free society open to all who wish to do good ... at least this is what they believed ... The powerful echoes of a city groaning under its own weight ring through the lives of a dozen troubled Texans. Over the course of several sweltering August days, the burnouts, undocumented immigrants, policemen and families cross paths, never realizing that profound suffering unites them all in unexpected ways.

I have just recently completed a new piece of work for Sarah Soal's documentary on Somali pirates. Which has by the way, been nominated for the Sheffield Documentary Festival, how exciting! So I've designed her a promotional poster for the event.

Norwegian Wood Poster

I created this poster for Don't Panic's Design contest, to promote the release of this new Japanese film based on the bestselling novel by Haruki Murakami. If you like it, you can vote for it on their website here.

Sailor Beware!

For Rugby Theatre I've designed a poster for their future production of Sailor Beware! A 50's British Comedy by Philip King and Falkland Cary.

Postcard & Christmas Card

Sophia Moseley asked me to decorate a postcard for her degree show project exploring the postal system, surrounding mail, art and traditional means of communication.

I decided to use the theme of post within my collage, involving the imagination/creativity that accompanies physical mail much more easily than electronic mail. Sophia is using hundreds (I'm No.257) of artists and postcards so it should look incredible when they all come together at Goldsmiths College, London Degree Show.

I then used my collage owl within my Chistmas Card image, now I just need to print them!

Illustration Friday - Burning

Here's my illustration for this week's Illustration Friday.
It depicts the scene in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince where Dumbledore and Harry are in the cave retrieving one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. The inferi rise above the river's surface attempting to pull Harry beneath until Dumbledore forces them back with a tail of fire.

History of Somalia 1895-1920

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a commissioned project, creating 10 illustrations for a documentary about the rise of pirates alley a region between Yemen and Somalia, the Gulf Aden strip in Africa between 1895-1920. Here are some of my favourites.

Europeans lead by Portugal to an accord.

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan returning from a spiritual enlightenment in Mecca, to Berbera, Somalia.

The british control the port of Berbera, exporting live stock to Aden.

The British making deals with different clans of Somalia and Ethiopia.

The Battle of Dul Madoba in 1913 where General Richard Corefield is killed by the leader of the Dervishes, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.

Illustration Friday - Caged

Going with an ugly duckling sort of theme, without ducks.

A Collection of Collective Nouns.

Here are some of my illustrations for the Collective Nouns Competition. The other 4,000+ suggested collective nouns you can browse through Here.

A Brace of Dentists

A Cloud of Depressives

A Flight of Runaway Brides

A Heard of Ears

A Count of Vampires

New and improved Cycling .gif

Gif advert done as an extra to the Cycling for London Project set by AOI and the Transport Museum.

Resistance Finished.

Here's my final outcome for D&AD's Resistance brief. I chose to illustrate resisting and fighting against OCD by scratching through the dark, controlled world of niggling OCD to the ability to remove the rituals and enjoy life.

The Left Hand of God

During the past week and a half I've been working on the competition brief for the book The Left Hand of God, and here are my outcomes (one for each excerpt):

The first excerpt describes Cale (14/15) watching some Lord Redeemers bring new children into the 'Sanctuary' which is a very cold restrictive and highly controlled prison-type place. It is said to smell bad and be surrounded by smog. So I depicted Cale looking out the window with the children reflected, walking through the gate and into the haunting place.


The second excerpt is the battle between Cale and Conn. Conn was believed to win with no doubt, however Cale dodged and weaved his sword so fast and before long defeats Conn with a dagger. I decided to illustrate the moment when Cale is dodging Conn's sword to create these blurred Cales which nicely form what appears to be a glow or wings (Cale being the the Angel of Death).


The Third excerpt is about Arbell, who is desired by every man. Before this moment she had no pity for Cale, however after seeing the scars all over his back from where the Lord Redeemers had beaten him since he was a child, realisation struck.

Design for Perfume book cover

The story of perfume is about Grenouille, born in 18th Century France and abandoned in a pile of rotting fish. As he grew up he discovered that he had a gift, an incredible sense of smell, he had the ability to differentiate between different kinds of wood, milk etc, he could smell for great distances, through walls and glass and could tell every ingredient in every perfume.

For this cover I chose the scene when Grenouille smells the first scent he falls in love with which he cannot help but chase, find out what it is, take in every detail up close and possess it. The image is from his point of view so rather than using realistic colours, I altered colours and increased saturation just to show how intense the dirty streets of Paris affected him. I used a lot of layering of buildings to illustrate how complex his world would seem to us, being able to see with the sense of smell, through objects in front and all around us.

The red spiral and red ribbon-like textures on the front cover lead us into the middle of the image where you may not or may just make out a white female figure. As Grenouille has never smelt such a beautiful virgin before this moment, he has no idea what it could be, which is why you too may be confused and wondering what it could be that is leading you into this central object.

Wondering about Wonderland

I love the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it's so weird and curious, which is why I decided to enter the Puffin Book Cover competition. I chose the scene where Alice has just seen a White Rabbit running past with a waistcoat on and a pocket watch, and so curiously follows him. I like to use a lot of depth in my work with vanishing points and angles, which is why i decided on this viewpoint. All the patterns and colour on the inside of the rabbit hole look so much much more appealing than the grey sky behind Alice, however also complicated and perhaps confusing like Wonderland is to her. There are characters merged into the background like the Mad Hatter, March Hare and Caterpillar but I have manipulated them to look not so clear, as if they're hiding, waiting to jump out at Alice after curiosity leads her down the rabbit hole. There is a dark side to the story which I have brought across in the way that the tunnel gets darker the further down you go, the two heads at the top are lit from below(or above as the case may be) to give that torch-under-the-chin/Halloween effect and red eyes on white rabbits always seem quite creepy to me. The two heads at the top belong to the Queen of hearts and the Duchess who both take charge at some point.