Tag Archives: art

The BRUTE! classified pulp nasties collection is here!

Over the last few decades since the publication of the Sphere paperback, we have attempted to find a new publisher to reprint the stories from my BRUTE! magazine into one volume. After being turned down by several companies, we have secured the services of Eyewear Press and I’m proud to announce that the book will be on the shelves in May 2020. Featuring all the stories from the seven BRUTE! pulp magazines and the paperback plus the short stories from Blitz and BIKE magazines, this is a comprehensive collection that includes several never before published yarns and illustrations.

To pre-order your copy, please click the link HERE:

KMFDM – PARADISE: Sketches and final art.

Final artwork. Inked by hand and colored in Adobe Illustrator

For the their new album, Paradise, KMFDM supremo, Sasha Konietsko, wanted an artwork that would inspire hope in a world torn apart by tribal rivalries and hatred. As both of us are family men, it seemed appropriate to create an image that would illustrate our state of mind concerning the future of our children and immediately this post-apocalyptic scene popped into my head. Hold them close, teach them well and maybe their generation can accomplish that which we did not.

Sketch one based on an idea by Sascha Konietsko. I originally saw it as a Mad Max-meets-Social Realism propaganda piece but, as the backstory to the scenario grew in my mind, I could see it becoming something more meaningful.
Secondary sketch. Still with the message of hope I wished to create fresh in my mind, I replaced the corny heroism for a quieter dynamic and tried to capture the relationship between father and daughter.
Third sketch. I decided to use a reverse symmetrical angle of the father and daughter to indicate the connection between this scenario and my earlier artwork for KMFDM’s Salvation album in which a young warrior rescues an unconscious woman from the ruins of a destroyed city.
In this initial pencil sketch, the main character had a bow, a knife and a pistol. These were all subsequently removed when Sascha and I agreed that they should be entering the future without weapons.
One of a series of alternative colour and background combinations. The sky in this version was considered too busy and replaced in the final illustration by a huge sun.
This image from the album, Salvation, ties in with the one from the Paradise cover in that the woman the young warrior rescues from the ruined city is the mother of his daughter in the new illustration

David Beckham Sportrait

For the second of my sportrait series for online gambling site Buddybet, we decided to run a poll on Facebook to find the world’s most popular footballer. Despite heavy competition, David Beckham came out a clear winner and it is in his honor than I created this illustration depicting the moment before he scored that legendary last minute free-kick against Greece that booked England a place at the 2002 World Cup finals.

To convey the moment of calm before impact, I have created several kinetic thrusts: the rush of the player, the downward swoop of his leg and the imaginary arc of the ball as it blasts its way past the wall and into the back of the net. To further intensify the velocity of the scene, I have drawn Becks as a figurative lightening bolt, poised at the moment of striking its way to earth.

click for full size

Day for Night: Jack the Ripper cover

Of  all the Illustrator artwork I’ve done over the years, this cover for new band Night Surgeon proved to be so intense and complicated that I had to go out and buy a new PC (each brick in the left wall has between 3-6 different layers and the RoBoHo took almost a week to complete). While the story concerns the antics of Britain’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper’s shadow is the only evidence of his presence in the scene.

I was heavily influenced by my research into the crimes of Jack the Ripper and spent hours poring over some of the lurid lithographs of the period, trying to somehow convey the flickering effect of old gas lamps on foreground and background shadows. In addition to the lithographic research, I sourced early Kasimir Malevitch‘s paintings of farm workers etc. to convey the stiffness in the coats and uniforms worn by policemen of the period.

Of all the work I’ve done so far with Illustrator, this piece has had the steepest learning curve of the lot and the compunction to continue layering was hard to resist. In recent years, I’ve endeavored to minimalise my style to such an extent that I’d forgotten the power of detailing in telling a story. These new skills, plus the power of the new PC, will enable me to generate a more in-depth dimension to my work in the future.

More information about the new release and the band here

RED DARE poster – now on sale.

RED DARE – click to enlarge

Inspired by Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare comics and the Rev. W. Awdry Thomas the Tank Engine book series, this retro-futurist hover train comes hot off the BRUTE! presses this week.

Printed on 200gm. photo stock in blazing scarlet, this gorgeous poster will set your wall on fire (not really).

From a special limited edition of 250, each poster is signed and numbered by the artist.

Also available in glazed and framed canvas.

Don’t miss that train!  Order today from the BRUTE! blog shop.

World Leaders series

I was recently asked by bar owner and entrepreneur, Glenn Spicker, to come up with a series of posters for his new bar/cafe. Situated in central Prague, Glenn’s bar boasts a museums-worth of cultural gems and artefacts culled from decades tracking down propaganda from the era of Communism. Called Propaganda, the new bar is the home of my new World Leaders series. Featuring the movers and shakers behind the political  and cultural revolutions of the 80’s, the posters took me just over ten days to produce and will be showcased on the walls of the main room.

Keep posted for details of the bar’s opening.

Canvas posters will be available from the club/bar shop or from the online BRUTE! Products page.

‘Homeland’ illustration.

Print ‘Homeland’ artwork click to enlarge

In April of this year, I was contacted by a client with an interesting proposition: to create a piece that accurately described his philosophy of the defence of freedom.

chasm riot shield Conceptual roughs for ‘Homeland’.

Over the ensuing weeks and months, and guided by his specific and intricate instructions, I condensed the dynamics of our conversations into a series of roughs. The more successful of these roughs were compiled into the final image which represents the defense of the weak from the predatory aspects of human nature.

This was a complex and challenging commission and one that I’m proud to have completed to the client’s satisfaction.

To commission your own BRUTE! illustration, please contact us with your ideas at: bruteprop@gmail.com

To purchase the ink original, please also contact the above email address.