Lockdown London

‘I always feel like somebody’s watching me’ sang Rockwell in his 1984 hit (which features Michael Jackson on backing vocals assumably because Rockwell’s dad was Motown CEO Berry Gordy). And he wasn’t wrong. In today’s always-connected society the feeling that you’re being watched is very real indeed. Because you probably are. Being under lockdown hasn’t really helped to allay this anxiety for Marcus here but he’s getting on with things as best he can. Aren’t we all.

Well, there it is. My first solo mission. I’m pretty pleased with the final product – from the skin tone to the wallpaper. Now I just need some sunshine again and I can move on with some modifications before whitewashing and starting all over again.

Cheers

id-iom 

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Covid Colouring Book

In some deranged effort to exorcise all the coronavirus news that I’m constantly being bombarded with I thought perhaps the best way was to create a Covid Colouring Book with some of the many and varied things we’ve learned. Why? Well, because it seems we won’t have any paying work for the foreseeable and I’m not meant to leave the house so why not? It’s kept me amused for a number of hours thus far so it’s got that going for it at least. If you actually want to download them for colouring then drop us a line or do your best with some low-res download. 

Cheers

id-iom

Angels amongst us

Whether they be truck drivers, cleaners, retail workers, doctors, nurses, tech monkeys or in this case a naked winged celestial being there are angels amongst us during this most testing of times.

In fact, this divine messenger is not here to help as such but more to chastise all the idiots of the world. Just yesterday she had to head to Snowdonia to shame all the idiots who thought flouting the rules in rural North Wales would be a good idea. She also had to spend a bit of time flitting round the coast of the entire UK in order to deter people from congregating in groups, mainly by helping out the pirates of the sea (seagulls) steal peoples chips and generally make a raucous nuisance of themselves. A small but surprisingly effective method to encourage social distancing…

Cheers

id-iom

Patient Zero

If we head back to December last year I was in Wuhan for secret reasons of my own when I had a chance to meet a gentleman we shall simply call ‘Simon’. Simon was a-coughing and a-spluttering and had a bit of a temperature and he put it down to the blood orange he’d had that morning. Thinking back now I’m pretty sure he was lying to me and was, in fact, patient zero and patently hadn’t just been eating oranges. He said he was just looking after the injured bat in his left hand…

Anyway, since I’ve had a few hours at home on my own I thought I’d put together this photofit. Over to you internet. You’ll have him worked out in no time…   

Cheers

id-iom

My corona

Bored of waiting for coronavirus to come to you? Well now you don’t have to. Corona have bowed to the inevitable and teamed up with the world renowned creators of Covid 19 to bring you this zesty and infectious small batch artisanal version of their classic brew. Great for 14 day mini breaks at home or abroad.

I’ve been trying to resist the obvious Corona label update but temptation finally got the better of me. C’mon ‘zesty notes which are enhanced by adding a wedge of lime.’ is just not going to cut it with today’s hyper paranoid world view where the beer Corona has somehow been inextricably linked to a global pandemic. So i’ve fixed that at least.

Cheers

id-iom

King of the Hoboes

Sometimes there’s nothing I like more than a good trawl through Wikipedia in search of something inspiring (and in our world inspiration can come from just about anywhere). There I was reading through an entry on the possibly fictional ‘hobo graffiti’ from late 1800’s USA when I came across Leon Ray Livingston.

Leon Ray Livingston who was a hobo who travelled under the name ‘A-No.1’ and was often referred to as ‘The Rambler’. He has been lauded by historians as the King of the Hoboes. He even wrote 12 books on the subject. Once I’d checked out his A-No.1 moniker/tag on the front of his books I knew a picture was in the offing.  

What we’re left with is this playing card style ‘King of the Tracks’ design featuring his own tag which looks just like something from 1980’s New York and a ‘Rambler’ ambigram over the middle. It’s just a shame the only photo of him I could find to work with was small and grainy or I would have attempted a bit more detail. Right, back to some proper work…

Cheers

id-iom

Sir Asmund’s School Days

Now we’ve all heard of Sir Asmund Quayle and his many ridiculous antics but there I was having a quiet pint with the man himself at Crufts recently when on seeing a Tamaskan said ‘What a lovely dog, I used to have one as a child! His name was Connaghyn.’ At this, my ears pricked up due to the fact I’ve known this reprobate for countless years and never once heard him speak of his childhood.

With the aplomb of a serial killers psychiatrist, I slowly tried to get him to reminisce about the old days and I can tell you, I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, I could never repeat what I was told unless I want seriously bad things to happen to me. I think this picture is as close as I can get to telling you anything at all. So, perhaps we’ll just leave it at that.

It is A4 and made using acrylic, paint pen and pencil. If you want to give him a new home just drop us a line…

Cheers

id-iom

Corona virus world tour 2020

The news has a lot to answer for. Usually I’ll wake up with a random song playing in my mind. Yesterday however I woke up from a dream where I was tour manager for Covid 19 and was setting up their world tour alongside Corona Virus. Being the imaginary hard metal bands that they are we needed some appropriate imagery so rather than do anything constructive with my day I did a quick internet search to check no such frippery already existed then set to work designing their poster. 

Weirdly, it turns out that most world tour posters seem to have a dark background with white text but that was definitely the look Covid 19 would go for. Once I’d put the poster together I thought the Muse would be done with me but, no, it was time to move onto merch design. After slapping the various logos onto a t shirt template I was finally allowed to stop. And this is what we’re left with. Being an artist is weird. 

Cheers

id-iom

Becoming a figurehead

Sally had got herself into some strange situations before but this was a new one. It all started innocently enough if you can believe that. She’d been visiting Bournemouth with friends for a birthday celebration. That was how it started. 

Now it would appear she was bound tightly to the front of a boat. She knew that much for sure and as the sea spray splashed her face she suddenly had a chilling recollection from the previous evening of a high stakes game of cards with a mysterious stranger. She’d lost and was now the figurehead of a Chinese titled schooner heading to Beijing. It was cold being a figurehead. She wondered how long the journey was and where her phone was. What was bothering her most, however, was who on earth was going to feed Chairman Meow while she sorted this whole thing out…

Cheers

id-iom