The Art of Colin Edward Mason

The Cat, the Bat and the Burglar was one of Colin's literary projects and it took may years for him to produce. He wrote the tale in poetry and it is presented as an illuminated manuscript with full colour plates. The book is available is three versions, A4 comicbook format, A5 US trade paperback (on Amazon) and full colour hardback. It is a lovely story, the illustrations are beautifully done in bold, bright colours and it is well worth seeing. The links that follow will take you to preview Colin's book.

The Cat, the Bat and the Burglar
Learn more about the book and preview some of the artwork here...

Persimew Designs
Featured products in Persimew Designs leads off with three posters. These are illustrations from The Cat the Bat and the Burglar

Thoughtscapes is Colin's new venture on Zazzle. Well, to be honest, it is a joint venture. Colin is not so experienced with the techie side of things and we let him concentrate on producing the artwork. It is my job to scan his pictures, produce workable prints and products, and publicize them as I am doing here. Thoughtscapes is intended to be a place for purists, we are not going into the more commercial art that Colin has previously produced for Persimew Designs. This is about expressing his ideas, not working to a commission and we present it as it is. Personally, I love these paintings, they are interesting and very difficult to classify....

Let's see what you think!

Zazzle is a wonderful idea. It allows both artists and ordinary folks to design produce and sell art and photography. Unlike Moonpig, which relies heavily on already popular mainstream ideas and mass adverising, Zazzle is about originality! Zazzle has literally billions of available products, most of them customizable too. It often surprises me that we make any sales at all, but we have one or two products that we regularly sell in large numbers I am happy to say and quite a few that sell in dribs and drabs. 

How do you get found in such a huge market? Well, by sheer graft. You have to understand the power of tags and choose them wisely, but that in itself is insuffecient. This is where my part comes in and I often write pages to showcase what we have done at Persimew Designs. I would dearly love to get thousands of visitors a day, but at least I get some. 

The one drawback I have found with Zazzle is that some items are disproportionately expensive once you factor in postage. Postcards for instance... The answer is to buy when they are on offer and to buy in bulk! The deals on bulk items are MUCH better. Quality control is generally extremely good, so long as people don't stray too far from the guidelines when they customize! There are warnings if a picture  is too small and could pixilate if enlarged too much. There are red lines where details might be obscured or lost. Customers don't always follow those guidelines, but if they do they will be rewarded with something unique and beautiful!

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
One of Colin's illustrations to a poem I love...

Cute Cartoon Pigs...
The entire pig series, some beautiful, some bizarre...

Tadpole's Virtual Art Gallery
An early page of mine I did to showcase Colin's versatility. Some of these designs are amazing!

Images of Shakespeare
Designs by Colin for our joint venture on Zazzle. Those who love the theatre will like these figurative paintings of Shakespeare scenes.

Those Cartoon Hedgehogs Again...
Old Guthram's Almanac, the hedgehog series, Spinewise by Mothlight...