A task that's been on my to-do list for about 5 years now has at last been ticked off - an update and redesign of my Logos For Shows website.

Logos For Shows is my little side-business of providing theatre art for schools, amateur companies and professionals to use for their show publicity. It started back in 2011 out as a reaction to seeing my Oliver! logo being stolen and used all over the place (sadly that still happens) and a chance to license my artwork and make it affordable for those on a budget.

The next thing to do is to increase the number of shows I have available. I already have a second Grease design and some Peter Pan artwork at the sketch stage, and plans for quite a few more to come - it's just a matter of making the time for it!

AI art is pollution, infiltrating, poisoning the creative environment, spilling out and infecting search engines, timelines and archives. AI art is a lie, another step in the flood of disinformation and dilution of truth and facts.

AI art is not created, it is not made. It is churned out in a mechanised production line largely by those who do not have the ability or the patience for craft - organ grinders expecting applause for the complex sonata that emanates from the lever they push while not understanding a scale, chord or key.

AI users have to reign themselves in, for producing so much would reveal too readily what it really is - machine-produced mass content. It's the plastic tat of the gift shop, shiny but valueless, tawdry, throw-away.

AI art is for that friend who wanted to be your agent, your manager; you'd be the talent, do the work, and they'd rake in the cash. Now they've got AI there's no pesky artist in the way wanting creative control, just an acquiescent machine with which to overpopulate Amazon, Etsy and Ebay with colouring books, calendars, notebooks and art prints.

Some fall victim to the machine completely, believing they are the artists themselves. They will claim the 'text prompt' is a hard-won skill only a handful have mastered. Then some will claim there is no AI in their art at all. Out of nowhere they are producing full paintings, two or three a week, one a day if they're not careful, merely adding the flourish of a signature to make it theirs. Perhaps a previously amateur artist, now bursting with a brand-new style, but we never see the roughs, we never see the sketches, there is no video of their process.

Here they come ... festival brochures, event leaflets, book covers, comic strips, movie posters. The incredible wood sculpture made by a six-year old, the amazing historical photo no one has seen before, the viral video narrated by someone who may or may not be Morgan Freeman. The compromising picture of a loved celebrity, the off-mic comment made by a political opponent ... the video proof to justify a war.

AI art is trash and in that there is some hope, because those that use AI to promote their book festival, or their children's fun event, or their new novel, are broadcasting a certain set of values that most would reject if they knew: low-quality, cheap, insincere. The danger lies in an audience whose senses have been bludgeoned by a constant scrolling stream of thirty-second videos, forty-word posts, deepity-memes, and an internet media already full of charlatans, grifters, and conspiracy-pushers (it's no coincidence they are some of the biggest users of AI images).

Art is beautiful because it has been made by a fellow human being. Life is infused into human art. It is the mind laid bare for all to see. When you see art you like, you immediately think of the person who made it, you wonder about them - it is connection. Machine art is devoid of everything we relate to in human life. AI content is a climate disaster for the internet, an invasive species, a complete corruption of humanistic values. Reject it.

Last week saw the publication of Orson Teller's Alice Ravenwood and the Tomb of Saint George, "an exciting, pulpy fusion of Ghostbusters, Mary Poppins and Indiana Jones". Now, surely you want to read that!

I mention it here because I very much enjoyed making the logo and cover art for this book, a montage of scenes and characters that populate the story. To learn more and get yourself a copy, visit Orson Teller's website here, where you'll see a second volume of Alice's adventures is already in the works.

Here's a couple of pieces recently done ... actually neither in August, one in May and one in July (though it is the August edition of Fine Food Digest).

One thing about digital art is it kind of ... doesn't exist! It does, of course, and usually it ends up being printed or, in the case of Curious Expedition 2, the video game I worked on with Maschinen-Mensch, displayed on a screen. But until CE2 I'd worked almost exclusively in print, so to have the art existing exclusively in the digital ether feels a bit strange.

I wanted a decent record of all the work I did, so I've made a one-off art book (through Blurb), a portfolio, just for my own archive. Although there are no other copies (the art remains the copyright of Maschinen-Mensch), I did make a little video of a flip-through the book, so you can have a peek for yourself.

A project I worked on at the end of 2022 and into the new year has just gone live over on the Museum of London website. It's a 7-page comic called Deaf Londoners in the 1660s, and it tells the story of three such people, two who we know of from the diaries of Samuel Pepys.

You can read the comic and see the accompanying resources here, including teachers' notes and a BSL-interpreted video of the strip.

The comic was principally researched and written by Dr. Kate Loveman, Associate Professor in English Literature, 1600-1789, at the University of Leicester, and an expert and author on Samuel Pepys, and all done as part of the Reimagining the Restoration project. Also directing the project was the Museum's Learning Manager, James Harrod.

It was great fun to do, with plenty of detail to research - and it was wonderful to have a couple of real experts on hand to advise and provide material and context for the visuals.

Many thanks to both Kate and James for a terrific working experience, and for bringing me into the project.

My work-illustration website has been woefully out of date for a few years now, but I've, at last, spent the past two weeks redesigning and updating it, and now it's live and published.

It should be good for desktops, tablets and phones, so give it a whirl ... and let me know if anything is broken or you spot a typo .... there's always one lurking about somewhere.

I'm currently redesigning and building my work website - after nearly three years of no updates. Anyway, I came across these mole concept drawings I did for Curious Expedition 2 - I don't remember doing them, but I like them, so thought I'd post them here before February vanishes.

Here it is, the final DLC for Maschinen-Mensch's Curious Expedition 2. Previous DLCs have been paired with the (British) Avalon Club and the (Chinese) Taishi Academy, and now it's the turn of (the American) Lux Labs with The Robots of Lux.

There's a bit of a difference with this one as the three new featured characters are all from another computer game called Steamworld Heist, which I'm not familiar with, but had to learn a bit about of course in order to draw them - Piper Faraday, Billy Gill and Valentine Butterbolt.

Other new features include the Naturalist (who can train any animal in the game), the robot chameleon (which was super fun to create), the plasma spiders and the yeti, not to mention a number of new items and bits of equipment, as well as a new location, the old theatre (complete with not-so-hidden Tintin reference).

This DLC features the final bits of art I drew for CE2 towards the end of last year and the beginning of this one. The base game on its own is a very rich experience, but add these modules and its scope just becomes enormous and varied. It's an incredible game and I'm still in awe of how it all came together, and privileged to be a part of it.

The game and its DLCs are available on PC at Steam and GOG, as well as for XBox, PlayStaton and Switch. And if you're quick, they're heavily discounted as I post this!

It's quite unusual for me to preview a project I'm working on when its so early on in development, but following the lead of publisher Fabled.One I can share the news that I'm doing the artwork for a new board game called Calleva.

Set in Britain in 20 BC around the city of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), it's written by Mat Humphrey - who has a number of really interesting and excellent games in the works, including the also announced Chickens 'n Aliens and Tomb of Akhenaten. I can't wait to see how this turns out and to share more with you. You can follow our progress on the Facebook page and Twitter. Here's the artwork for one of the Calleva cards, already completed.

My announcement of The Brambletye Box a couple of weeks ago was met with a lovely warm wave of enthusiasm, and that has really helped to get things going again with it. Obviously it does sometimes have to take a back seat to my commercial work, but already I've scripted the next scene and completed the thumbnails and A4 roughs for it, and I'm about to commence drawing, so hopefully you'll see those strips going up online very soon.

Remember you can support the comic further at my new Patreon page where I'm previewing sketches and other bits and bobs. A number have already signed up and I'm incredibly grateful for this, it's all kindling to keep things moving forward. Thank you!