Game Over: Sonic

Looks like someone traded in their red shoes for a red blazer

Work in Progress: Game over

Here's a bit of what I've got so far on a little pet project of mine.

     

Don't Do What I Do...

Memoirs of the tried and failed and try again

Don't worry this image isn't misleading

Walk a Mile for Someone Else's Shoes

Yeah so we're back to this, sorry people but I've got a story to tell; it's not an important story nor is it a very extraordinary or inspiring story. But it is the story of an everyday guy, someone who has just enough to get by, who only sees what he needs and can't even think about what he wants... but all he ever does is dream. If this is you then keep reading.

2015

it was the start of a new year and Hernando decided it was about time we got a coffee table that wasn't a stack of pizza boxes. So we took to the nearest junk yard, I know a lot of you reading this must be thinking 'eeww!' well I used to think that exact same way but then Hernando showed me the wonders of what another man's trash could be, my treasure.

Anon: holy shit Hernando look at this, it's Hellraiser on laserdisc!

Hernando: laser disc?

Anon: oh yeah it's kinda like the missing link between VHS and our home video formats of today.

Hernando: it's so big.

Anon: yeah, well I mean they had to be in order to store all that data, but they really did have the best picture quality; not even VCD's were on par with the laser disc.

Hernando: VCD?

Anon: yeah, video compact disc; it's what came after laser disc and before DVD.

Hernando: DVD?

Anon: are you telling me you don't know what a DVD is?

Don't Do What I Do...

Memoirs of the Tried and Failed and Try Again 

All this will make sense once you read the story 

10th October 2012

Okay so right of the bat, full disclaimers; I am not a writer... Not a good one at least. I'm about as literate as a Charlie Kelly but if you're reading this then you clearly have no taste so no worries- but if you happen to be a literature snob who has had the misfortune of coming across my work, then I apologise, so now you can go fuck yourself up your fat fucking ass.

To tell the story I want to tell I'm gonna have to begin with October 10th 2012, when things were better? I don't want to say better but I've got about as ranged a vocabulary as your local takeaway. 2012 was just the last decent year I can remember; even tough my grandmother died, and I was close to my grandmother she raised me. But her death drove me to live, really live, like follow your dreams type of live. So in the corner of some shitty dinner I don't want to name because they've got enough attention coming their way, I proposed my plan to a prospective business partner.

2009

Ned was a friend whom I could trust; we met in sixth form college. He had a healthy disrespect for the rules, which was a good balance to my complete lack of respect for any form of authority. I always wanted to sodomise the rules like some sort of bootleg James Dean or NHS budget Judd Nelson. When the wardens would hand me an end of term report I'd write it back for them all over their walls, Ned would be the one checking the hallways alerting me to any shepherds or sheep strolling my way. The room was at the end of a hallway so it didn't matter if he warned me, we'd be caught in a corner. Our only hope would be to sit down and act like nothing happened.

Dead Face

A face not even a mother could love

What Could Have Been... 64 Bit Street

Several years ago I made an attempt to create my own short animation, problem was I only had a friend and myself to make up our animation team and no actual equipment. Luckily my friend studied media at a certain river side university so we knew where to get the equipment; only problem was if you weren't a student you couldn't use any of it and if you were a student... you couldn't use any of it. So thus began an elaborate heist to steal/borrow equipment my friend was rightfully entitled to.

She Rocks Yellow...

What can I say? I was bored.

What's in My Sketchbook #3

This set of work was from when I was young so please be kind. 

What's in My Sketchbook #2

Work in Process

See where I start and where I end with this more traditional water colour piece.

What's in My Sketchbook #1

Vampire Killer

For Castlevania fans! Forth design soon to make it's way to a phone case.

Iron Queen

Another design for my phone cases; this time the theme is Game of Thrones or if you read the books A Song of Ice and Fire (I actually prefer this name). She looks way too comfortable.

What did it for me with this pic was the chair (obviously) the crown and those WINGS!

Phone Case Designs

I'm working on some phone case designs which should be available to purchase soon, the first set are an homage to Masters of the Universe; the purple variant being a little more obvious and 'fabulous'.

'Sparkle! Sparkle! Sparkle!' - He-Man 
(He never actually bloody said that)

I wanted to come up with something that echoed this guy in design and colour. 

Vir + Light - Loss of Dreams

The boy waits under a star, watching it in awe

To him it's not far.

He can feel her warmth on his skin

Because of her he'll always find north.

His guardian The Fishermen calls out to him;

He says "It's past your bedtime little champion."

The boy never sleeps with ease he'll take any measure 

Just to stay awake awhile longer.

But the boy can barely keep his eyes open. 

So The Fishermen carefully lays him in his hammock.

But the boy is as restless as an ocean wave. 

"I wanna stay awake!" He pleads.

"Why not stay awake in your dreams?" replies The Fishermen.

The boy tells him he can't,

Streams of darkness are the only surprise

When he closes his eyes. 

The Fishermen old and wise

Takes pity on the boy,

For he can never see the wonders

Which flowers from deep within his mind.

If the boy cannot dream in his sleep 

Then The Fishermen shall tell him a tale;

So that he may while awake. 

The tale of a knight The Hero 

Who did not fight for a king ,

But for the sake of others.

He was clad in colours of red and gold,

Biting evil's hand in every corner of the land. 

It captured the boy's imagination,

Becoming his desired vocation.

The Fishermen wished him well,

And watched him drift into an empty shell.

But The Fishermen could tell, 

That the boy's dream was merely lost,

And would only need to be found.

By Daniel Dean Russo

Strangers

The line is blurred between the morning and night

No warning for when tomorrow may come.

The only light you see is the invite for sorrow,

The only colour you know is snow.

The dream is never the same,

In it you endeavour the nightmare.

The ones you knew never stay,

Their remembrance your shackle,

You choose to stray,

Numb to condolence.  

To live is to win;

You’ve no kin.

The only solace is in solitude.

Safety is not a number,

It’s you.

Only you can watch over yourself while you slumber.

Only you can stop the hunger burned in to your stomach like a dagger.

Only you can follow the road away from the aching cries

Only you deserve to wallow,

As you disguise the pain you feel,

By locking away your eyes.

The person you can’t see before you isn’t real,

The two of you aren’t brothers or sisters;

We’re nothing more than strangers.

By Daniel Dean Russo

Vir + Light - The Boy in the Forest

This like most stories is about a boy and a girl,

Its about quite a few in fact.

Our story begins in paradise

But it's abstract affair

Is akin to a nightmare.

Rainfall is all that greets the island

With two peaks.

Fish by the boat load is all those who visit crave above all.

Where its sand was once white and all effulgent

 Its now a sorry sight with violent waves abundant.

It is here and now where a young boy finds solace in the forest,

Kept at bay from joy by his peers that torment in chorus.

An extrovert forced into the role of an introvert,

The boy's nature is to venture.

Turning the palm tress in to climbing frames,

And making the animals take part in his fun and games.

What was once a quite existence,

Must one day become a pursuit for the truth

 spanning across an unordinary distance  

The only fuel; persistence. 

By Daniel Dean Russo

64 BIT STREET!

Follow the adventures of a young boy and his best friend through the glitch riddled 64 BIT STREET! 

Lament of Light - Vir + Light Prologue

Light bends, blinds and surrounds
She washes her glow over every kingdom
Her reach knows no bounds
She breaks through every window, 
Cracks through every wall 
And slips through every door.
She wakes you from your pillow,
Moulding your eyes as she sends away the squall
Her devotion is more than you can ever ask for.
She wants nothing more than to glisten on a stream 
To be that sparkle in the corner of your eye
The final glimmer before you dream.
But for all she gives, it's never her own story
You never ask about the girl in white
With hair so bright it blazes with glory.
Hymns of ancient tragedy 
Could never compare to her agony.  
She stands in the middle of your space
Witnessing your coming and going
Weaving like the winds through your mornings, days and nights
She knows every face; she’s been to every place. 
It’s a journey she can never share
For the pain of her plight is too much to bear.
But she's now become numb to the sorrow,
Waiting for the fire that will bring her
Her own tomorrow.

By Daniel Dean Russo

Detective Poetry: An Eye for a Shoe

I was stood on the corner of the street

Stalking my client's husband like death.

The night was cold,

The kind of cold where you can see your own breath.

A white fog pouring out our mouth

disguising our words.

Seems like everything in life is hidden by something else

A wall, a mist, a hat, a face

Maybe that's the one truth we know about ourselves,

Our nature is to lie.

...