Simple Bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter are having a facelift, so I painted a little mural in there, continuing their floral wallpaper and gradually turning it from brown to yellow to fit in with their new colour scheme.

I was commissioned recently by Kenny Penman from Forbidden Planet International to design carrier bags for their Nostalgia and Comics (Birmingham) and Worlds Apart (Liverpool) comic stores.

I tried to give them a slightly retro comic book / B-movie poster feel, with a nice robot invasion theme linking the two designs together.

Whilst trying to work out which comic to give the Nostalgia and Comics kid, I came across this ace old advert on the Forbidden Planet International blog, drawn by Dean Ormston, and thought it’d be a nice little homage!

Both stores are going with the colourways on the left, with the possibility of printing a limited number of the right hand versions.

Hopefully these will be in use in both of the shops by Christmas.

This is a present for two lovely friends, Laurie Pink and Esjay, who both had Birthdays recently. It is them. And their whippet, Smith.

It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with watercolours, but it’s fun. I think I shall do more.

You can see Laurie’s wonderful artwork on her Flickr, or you can follow Laurie, Esjay AND Smith the Whippet on Twitter!

I’ve just finished a sepia-toned portrait of the Victorian (or perhaps early Edwardian) boy and his squid, that I first painted at Eurocultured a few weeks back. I’m quite pleased with it I think.

I spent Saturday painting this MAG dude on some wobbly boards at the Parklife Festival in Manchester, alongside Lispencie & Benjamino.

Fun, tempered with a massively surnburnt neck. Thanks The Sun.