I work from my own home studio and often do a little part time work to help make ends meet. The handful of images found below are based on illustration commissions with which I get involved. I steer clear of 'fine art', concentrating instead on mainstream commercial art and design. Done architectural illustration, newspaper artwork, promotional design and greeting card design. The main areas I'd prefer to work in are interior book and magazine illustration, using a distinctive B&W style reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley. I'm always on the look out for interesting opportunities, so if you're after a similar look, or know someone who does, get in touch!
I also enjoy writing thriller novels and short stories. My current work can be found below.
The following short story is taken from my ever expanding collection - Still Water - a picturesque UK, east coast town, home to lost souls, misunderstood individuals, rouges, murderers and the demented.
'Emily and the City'
If you fancy some accessible, fast paced high adventure, check out the following blurbs. Each story is part of an ongoing idea of linked, full length novels following the exploits of four friends: Alan Rushmore, an ambitious entrepreneur; Sam(antha) Midway, a sassy environmental journalist; Rick West, a once homeless Mancunian engineer and Tina Jenkins, a reluctant heroine recovering from tragedy. Four friends split between following their heads - or their hearts - as they struggle with scientific gain and environmental loss.
"Loched"
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"Just what lengths would you go, to uncover the truth? This is the question Alan, James, Sam and Rick find themselves asking. Twenty four years since their classroom days, the four reunited friends agree to finalise Alan's controversial project that stretches the boundaries of engineering and science, a decision not without consequences. The threat of catastrophic environmental disaster looms as they avoid becoming the target of a demented terrorist organisation. In their obsession to uncover the age old mystery lurking within Scotland's most infamous loch, it soon becomes apparent all concerned are indeed 'loched' together in a desperate battle for supremacy. From which the cost of definitive truth will be far higher than any first imagined.
Hold on tight, Scotland's about to witness its event of the century...."
"Venezia"
"Venice is sinking. Radical attempts to counter the subsidence have failed with devastating consequences. The Venetian Government have ordered an immediate evacuation of the city, throwing salvage of the doomed venture open to the highest bidder.
Cue business tycoon Alan Rushmore, fresh from his success in the Scottish Highlands with his close friend Tina Jenkins. Together they pick up the tab and attempt to stabilise an emptying city. Hot on the story, environmental journalist Sam Midway and her latest plaything Rick West, arrive to discover crumbling desolation, the risk of rot threatening the entire Adriatic Sea. As the four friends are once more united, it fast becomes apparent this time, a stand has to be made. Old alliances are split; friendships are tested as a personal battle for Venice’s future begins, while another faction crawls from beneath.... A once thought dead man is here too; a monstrous man with a scared face, a mechanical claw for a hand, carrying in his good hand a mysterious artefact and in his mind one word: Tsunami. The fate of Venice is torn three ways. Which will emerge victorious before World Leaders declare the romantic ruin a National Monument? Who will reign before the artefact is used to send Venice and its mainland parent, to the bottom of the ocean for good?
The clock is ticking. The fall of Venice is nigh...."
"Aurora"
"Four days ago the northern hemisphere experienced its worst environmental disaster to date. An insane experiment to harness the electro-magnetic energy of the Aurora Borealis phenomenon failed, causing overnight disappearance of a vast chunk of the North Pole ice cap. Global preparation for imminent climate change ensued, although scientists are now baffled. All expected theories that point towards catastrophe just aren’t happening. As though the ice hadn’t gone at all...
Environmental journalist Sam Midway heads for the Arctic, eager to get the scoop. What she unearths en-route, in a remote fishing village, defies comprehension. The locals are spooked. They tell stories of a monster that crawls from the depths of the sea at night to terrorize them. Sam’s humoured, until she hears the creature’s nocturnal wail herself, like the wail of a Banshee, although the locals know better. They say it’s the wail of a Kraken.
Business tycoon Alan Rushmore sees financial gain and snaps up a certain research station at the North Pole. With his new flame Tina Jenkins and his friend, the skilled engineer Rick West, the three wrap up well. Instead of being greeted as benefactors, they witness the gory annihilation of the entire site, together with their ride back home. All amidst a spectacle of kaleidoscopic lights and the haunting wails of something unseen, something inhuman. Stranded, they embark on a dangerous expedition to the communications core in the depths of the dying facility, their only chance of survival - a message to Sam. Whilst their SOS is transmitted, they uncover the true purpose of the research station and a forbidden project known only as ‘Aurora’. Now Sam’s desperate rescue attempt can’t arrive soon enough. As time slips through their fingers, the isolated friends realise it’s up to them to unravel the mystery of Aurora, to discover the fate of the ice shelf and figure out just what went wrong four days earlier.
Before whatever entity that roams the Arctic region at night pays them another visit.
Boundaries of mythology, nature and science are blurred as Aurora rises, with just a handful of friends to protect the world from the threat of a new kind of ecological terror. They say seeing is believing. What if, that which is to be believed can’t be seen..?"