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A week to go!

Just a week to go until Niki Naki Noo’s crowdfunding ‘Kickstarter’ closes. If we don’t reach our goal, we won’t be able to publish, it’s all getting a little nervy here! To relieve and tension Niki Naki Noo’s gone fishing for the day with his giant otter friend.

If we do reach our goal (and to celebrate Swindon being long-listed for the UK city of culture 2029) we will donate a free copy to every primary school in the Swindon education authority – All 66 (and growing!) Alex will even hand deliver some!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/955424415/niki-naki-noo-goes-to-school?ref=user_menu

#swindon #culture #primaryschools #education #creativity #kickstarter #illustration #childrensbooks #publishing #crowdfunding

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Stranger Things

I’ve been a latecomer to the Netflix series #strangerthings – One of the benefits of having such a cool daughter with great taste (the fact she likes it gives me a reason to join in). I’ve been enjoying the characters and the creative storylines. Having grown up playing RPG (#Runequest) with friends, it’s great seeing the geeks as the heroes, makes me feel (almost) cool.

It’s always interesting seeing a villain with little in the way of redeeming features, hellbent on their greatness, how easy it is to see parallels in the real world. I don’t often create such characters – I suppose the closest is this little fellow here, in an unashamed parody of #vecna

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The Dandy-lion Highwayman

Inspired by my work with the Swindon Culture Collective’s “Winterfest” I put in some designs for different sculpture trails. This one based in Epping, I was taken with the myth of the ‘Dandy Highwayman’ – embodied by the tales surrounding Dick Turpin (who reportedly had his hideout in the forest). The ‘Robin Hood’ style narrative and the daring escapades make this a very exciting and engaging character (despite there only being the tiniest grain of truth in them!) I created patterns inspired by artwork from Turpin’s era (the 1700’s) as well as a nod to the song ‘Stand and Deliver’ by Adam and the Ants with the patterns on the legs of the design (click on the design for a link to the song). Alas! The design won’t be adorning the trail but instead inspired me to create the ‘Dandy-lion Highwayman above!