No Parole

(HB pencil on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

For Sale : £40

 

"He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something that was telling him that his appeal had not gone at all well."

 

A simple cartoon image that shows both despair and complete resignation to an inevitable fate. When you know, no matter what you do, there's just no avoiding it. It also has the obvious reference to marriage with the "ball and chain" symbolism.

For the t-shirt image, I decided to remove the basic background I did and just have the convict and bomb. I think it works better for it.

 

The Bakso T-Shirt of this design can be purchased HERE

The Joker : Punch & Judy

(Black biro on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

For Sale : £45

 

The disturbing obsession that the Joker has for Batman always seems to end with him being hurt, one way or another. But, being so criminally insane as he is, he'll always try again and again, because that's the way he does it.

This image is available as a Bakso T-Shirt and can be purchased HERE

Nude By Numbers

(fineliner on a 139mm x 87mm postcard)

For Sale : £35

 

It's not easy trying to find a nude paint-by-numbers set, especially one happily stroking her pussy! They tend to be the "chocolate-box" style image, which is never fun to paint, but at least they got more people painting and introduced many to art.

 

It's used here to make the viewer think more about colour, even though there's none present, not even a swatch to match the numbers with. It tries to beg the question: "What colour is her skin?" And when this happens, it begins to give the subject something of an enigmatic quality.

 

But many who see it will have already made their own assumptions as to her colour, for whatever reason that might be. They may even asume it so much that they'll go so far as to disregard it completely and ask: "What colour is the cat?"



Prophecy 01 : VERECIDE

(Blue biro on a 127mm x 77mm post-it note)

For Sale : £45

With the introduction of total immersion virtual reality will come a secondary option for the suicidal. Rather than killing themselves, they may choose to commit "verecide" (can also be spelt as "vericide") and kill their own reality instead. Thus exchanging their miserable lives in the real world in favour of their own personal heaven in a booby-trapped virtual one.

Blasphemy # 5 : HITCHHIKER'S

(2B pencil on a 176mm x 102mm book title page)

For Sale : £50

Burning has always been a favourite pastime of the would-be blasphemer and so I thought it would be best to represent it here on this final piece in the project.

The reason why I chose The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for this project was because it tells the story of two men who bounce around the galaxy, getting into one extreme situation after another, whilst relying on a guidebook that's completely useless to them.



Blasphemy # 4 : MIDDLE-EARTH

(2B pencil on a 196mm x 120mm book title page)

 For Sale : £50

 

I chose The Lord of the Rings because it's THE template fantasy novel that is constantly referenced, borrowed from and blatantly plagiarised by other writers, film and game makers. It's a book which is responsible for giving birth to the whole fantasy genre that we see today.



Blasphemy # 3 : DISCWORLD

(2B pencil on a 176mm x 101mm book title page)

For Sale : £50

I had thought of including a few used hypodermic needles in this image to add to the squaller of it, but a used condom pretty much does it on it's own. You could be in the most idyllic place in the world, happy and content with where you are for that moment, but as soon as you see a used condom on the ground, or floating past in a stream, then it all suddenly changes for the worst. It's the kind of cruel reality-slap that many people hate and which makes their blood boil for the disregard they perceive in others.

And the reason why I've used it here.

I could've gone for any of the Discworld books for this piece, as it's the idea of the Discworld itself that's being focused on here. A strange world that rests on the back of four elephants, who in turn, stand on the back of a great turtle flying through space, and is populated by equally strange characters. Yet it's a world many wish could exist just because it's so unusual. Probably one of the reasons why the Discworld books are so popular.

Blasphemy # 2 : NARNIA

(2B pencil on a 198mm x 124mm book title page)

For Sale : £50


For this second image, I decided on the use of profanity, which is a common weapon for blasphemy. In this case, instead of just scrawling the words on, I chose to write each word down as an individual font that I made up. It's inspired by the old Letraset catalogues that I remember from college, which were once an essential purchase for all graphic design students and studios. The names of the fonts would be indexed in the catalogue in their own typeface, or bunched together as they are here in some design image.

 

Most of these swear-words are quite common. There's probably more I could've added, but I didn't want to cover the entire page in them. I've added words like clitconker, necrofelch, wankpiss and twatshite (have some fun by trying to work out what those words mean!) I've also re-introduced the word fadge as well, because nobody says it now, and it's such a good swear-word to use.

 

This example of the Narnia books was used here mainly because they're generally regarded as fairy tales. It may have been better to have gone for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but that would've been too obvious and would've focused on that one book alone, when it was the Narnia series as a whole that I was aiming at, so I chose Prince Caspian instead. Although, the story within this book of a magical land deciding to stick to it's old ways rather than that of the Telmarines, driving them back out to where they came from, is much more apt.

Blasphemy # 1 : HARRY POTTER

(2B pencil on a 195mm x 123mm book title page)

For Sale : £50

This is the first image of a small project I've recently done using the title pages of various books. They're the largest pieces that I've ever done and are closer to the A5 limit of skav art rather than the A6 size which I'm more comfortable working with. Blasphemy is the theme which ties them all together. As you can see, this one depicts an individual vomiting over the page.

 

The reason why I chose this particular book's title page was because the story tells of how a young boy is destined from birth to be a wizard. He lives an oppressed life in the real world at the hands of his abusive relatives until his life is changed when he's introduced to the secret fantasy world of magic which has it's own unusual culture, people and education system, and one which uses the term "muggles" to describe those that aren't like them.

 

There's no denying that the Harry Potter books have been hugely popular, along with the later movies and merchandising. Securing it a strong following from people from all around the world.



Numen-Deus TREASURE : THE CHRONOS WATCH

(HB pencil on 85mm x 50mm card)

 - ART PROJECT - NOT AVAILABLE -

 

This silver timepiece, created by an unknown maker in the 19th century, has the power to take you back and forth through time. You can even slow time down, or stop it altogether if you wish.

The pages of history and the future that is yet unwritten are wide open to you, but many dangers come with the gift of time travel. It's not meant for the unprepared fool or those with high expectations.

Numen-Deus always tries to remind us:

 

"ALL DESIRES DEMAND THEIR OWN PRICE"