art, illustration & design
Come see my galleries
- Check out my galleries showing some of the projects I've worked on over the years..
Sensible Software, Sensible Stoo
- A selection of artworks and anecdotes from my days of being rather Sensible whilst remaining incomprehensibly silly.
Interview with Retro Gamesmaster
- Read my 2 part interview with the most excellent Retro Gamesmaster website.
Interview with The Retro Hour Podcast
- Had a lovely chat with the chaps over at the The Retro Hour; you can hear what we spoke about here.
Blobbit Push, it’s no pushover…
- Check out the latest progress on Blobbit Push; not quite a development diary more a meandering peek along the way via the official Blobbit Push Facebook page.
D.J.Fresh Adventures in Dreamworld, AKA Joe Blow
- A condensed snapshot of what I did straight after leaving Sensible, Includes pictures, videos and concept art, it's all here and more!
Featured Blog Posts
The Colouring Book of Retro Computers
Exciting news! I shall keep this brief, I’ve teamed up with Neil over at RMC The Cave to create a very cool colouring book of retro computers (and maybe the odd bit of associated tech too).
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20% OFF CODE “FOOTY20”
Over at my shop I’ve uploaded the front and backend stuff to enable me to sell customised Footy Canvas prints at long last! To celebrate this fact I’ve also added a discount voucher code which runs until the end of 31st may 2021! Enter this code at checkout to receive 20% off everything, including Pixel
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The Design Droid – Coupons
I was doing some updates to www.thedesigndroid.co.uk over the weekend and I found the coupons section after a quick read up on how they work. Well , what can I say, how utterly brilliant! Once I’d worked out how to bring in a few graphical assets I then went about adding them all together to
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Zzap! 64 2021 Annual Kickstarter
It is with great pride to announce I have teamed up with my old mate Chris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books to bring you an exclusive art canvas presented as a tier level reward with the new Zzap! 64 2021 Annual Kickstarter campaign. The 12″ x 12″ canvas features the iconic Commodore 64 set against
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A chance Tweet – Web of…Terror?
I like how things sometimes just happen… Take this morning for example, I was just checking my Twitter feed, sipping my morning cuppa when I gazed upon a tweet from YORE COMPUTER. The tweet was showing an advert from the 11th issue of Zero Magazine 1990 – the advert was a game I had “helped
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Retro Tea Breaks: The Book!
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Neil for his Retro Tea Breaks series last year which as a regular viewer of his superb channel was a real honour. So when Mr.RMC himself asked me if I would be interested in creating some pixel art portraits of selected guests for his new book I
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Mean Machine Dean Podcast!
I had the pleasure of speaking in depth about my career in the games industry with the awesome Dean from the Mean Machine Dean Podcast recorded recently with my lockdown hair and wannabe Gandalf (feeling) beard! Oh and my trusty ZZap! 64 mug courtesy of my ol’mate at Fusion RetroBook Chris Wilkins.
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BBC Level 23! I was on it!
Before I start this post I’d like to send out a big thanks to Quang from Asobitech for putting Danny (BBC Level 23) in touch with me without whom I would not have been a guest on the show – thanks man I appreciate it! (Quang is awesome by the way check out Mao Mao
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I waffled on with The Waffling Taylors! (podcast)
October 2019, I’m at EGX helping Matt and Mark (Branching Narrative) man their stand for their debut title “Death Trap Dungeon the Interactive Video Adventure”. Now if you follow me on Twitter you’ll know I’ve been working on this game over the past few months. One of the great things about being at one of
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Retro Island Diskettes Q&A
I’ve been a regular viewer of the Retro Man Cave and the equally excellent The Back Office Show on Youtube for quite some time, so when the chief cave dweller Neil asked me if I would be interested in appearing on the Retro Island Diskettes podcast I immediately replied with a resounding YES! After I’d
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The Sensible Talk @ Revival 2019
I was honoured when Chris (Wilkins) invited me to join my old Sensible mate Jon Hare to give a talk about all things Sensible Software at the recent Retro Revival 2019 event in Walsall, UK. The thing is I’ve never actually been to a retro gaming event before so I had no idea what it
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Retro Tea Break Interview
What a crazy situation to be in, you’re about to make a cup of tea then all of a sudden you find yourself sitting down having a Retro Tea Break whilst being interviewed about your life and your work – I say interviewed, talking with Neil is more like sitting down with a mate and
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Arcade Attack Interview Woohoo!!
It was my genuine pleasure to answer a few questions from the lovely chaps at Arcade Attack Retro Gaming and I thank them for asking me. It’s always nice to talk about a subject that’s been part of my life for many many years and I appreciate the interest in my work. >>>>Check out my
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Fusion Magazine – Issue #6
Before I start this little post about what this little post is all about, can I ask if you would check out Fusion Magazine , you’ll understand why in minute. All I’ll say is it’s a rather nifty publication I’ve been honoured to have written for in the past, put together by some really talented
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A new old interview.
An update to an interview I gave to the excellent Retro Video Gamer website a few years ago with answers to new questions and soem of the things I’ve been upto since. Please check it out along with many of the other excellent interviews and reviews too. Check the image link below… Lovely stuff.. RVG
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Handy Amiga IFF Plugin for GIMP (Windows)
I’ve been a regular user of the rather excellent art package GIMP for quite some years and have found it to be a fantastic tool for manipulating digital art, touching up scanned sketches or laying out pixel art for use in a video game project; it’s never let me down. If I have ever needed
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OCR from a screen grab? Why would you want that? Ahh….Ok.
As development on Blobbit Push draws to an end there’s a list of things that need fixing, sorting and tweaking before the game can be published. One of ‘these things’ is to compile a list of all the animations we’re using for the front end UI. Stuff like level select, pause menu, you get the
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Origins of the Blobbit logo and meanderings…
A 3rd Blobbit game has been on the cards for quite some time, we didn’t really plan it as part of some grand plan; we knew when the time was right a game we would make. That time was late 2017, the game we started was Blobbit Push (1.5). Before I write about what the
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Revisting the Sensible Golf Editor Part 2
Back in 2011 whilst browsing through some of my art archives I found a disc image called “Sensible Golf Editor”. Of course I simple had to try it out even if I couldn’t remember how the thing actually worked! Well it was a great idea at the time but I just couldn’t remember what keys
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Blobbit Push the 2nd
It’s been many years since the first Blobbit game came out and as many years again Mark and I have pondered on when we should work on it again. Neither one of us had the time previously but the planets have aligned correctly somewhere in the Universe and we both agree 2016 is to be
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Football sprites… I wondered I did…
I was sitting on the sofa, as you do (or don’t if you have successfully mastered the art of levitation), when a thought crossed my mind. I pondered I did, I pondered again and this time the thought went a little something like this..”I wonder how many times I’ve drawn football player sprites over the
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Molotov Man Concept Sprite
Meet Molly, nickname for the main character from the unreleased unfinished and unsigned game called Molotov Man developer to work on the Super Nintendo.
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Sega World Championship Soccer II (Secret revealed)
There’s a secret that I’m surprised hasn’t surfaced by now? It’s not something to change societal structure, nor create widespread panic on a global scale. No, this secret is about a game I worked on during my Sensible Software days,
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Revisiting 1995: The Sensible Golf level editor
It’s screen shot time again folks! I’ve taken it upon myself to provide a few screen shots for the GamesTM article that’s currently being written. ‘Yeah no probs’ I said thinking I’d load up the old Amiga emulator, take a few screen shots and be out in time for the virtual pub to open.. Nope!
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Jack Sparrow Pixel version!
Argh me hearties it be that time of the year when all that swashbuckling and rum drinking be a taking over the erm… well you get me meaning… My son is playing Lego Pirates of the Caribbean at the moment on the XBOX 360. So I thought I would post a few animations I did
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Cannon Fodder disk box…
During a recent clear out and tidy up..hang about that reminds me does anyone remember that show that used to be on in the UK many moons ago called Stoppit & Tidy Up?? Narrated by Terry, oops Sir Terry Wogan? No?… oh OK…as I was saying I was in my garage doing some “conversion” work…
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