Monday 31 December 2012

Best Records of 2012

It will come as no surprise to anyone ever that my favourite record of 2012 was Om's 'Advaitic Songs'.  They also played my favourite gig of the year too at the Scala.  And 'State of Non-Return' was my favourite song. So I drew the album cover.  With colours and everything.  And now I want to use lots of colours in my work so it wasn't an entirely pointless exercise either.

Other records I really liked were Goat's 'World Music' and Swans 'The Seer'.  And Can's 'Lost Tapes' was my favourite reissue.  Everything else was terrible. 
 

Friday 14 December 2012

'Holy Motors' illustration

My favourite film of the year was 'Holy Motors' so I've done an illustration.  It's not my best.  Denis Lavant has the kind of face I usually love drawing but the scale and angle of his head proved tricky.

I also loved 'Moonrise Kingdom', 'Searching for Sugar Man' and 'The Artist' (bit late getting to the cinema for that one...). 


Thursday 13 December 2012

'Stanley Kubrick' linocut print

 My Stanley Kubrick linocut print 'Our Stanley' is now available in my shop.  

Thursday 29 November 2012

'Zelda Fitzgerald' illustration

Nearly forgot about this one, I did it in July.  I sometimes struggle with drawing young and pretty as the overly heavy shading around the face shows but I love the hair.



Friday 23 November 2012

Black Friday sale!

Despite living in America for a little while I still have no idea what Black Friday is but I think this representation I've illustrated must be pretty close.  Jesus he's on a Battlecat bombin' baby!  Well promoting my shop at least.

Type in BATTLECAT as a coupon code at the point of purchase for a 20% discount on all products.  The sale will last the whole weekend and one lucky random shopper will get the original Jesus and Battlecat pen and ink drawing too. Go to my shop now!

 

Friday 16 November 2012

'An American Werewolf in London' collaborative illustration

This was an illustration I did with an old friend Damon Unwin.  He did a bunch of amazing pencil sketches which I then inked and we layered up and played around with for what felt like years (it was) and this is where we got to.  I've sat with it for a couple of months now and I'm still not entirely sure we've nailed the design.  We had so much material to work with in the end but went for a less-is-more approach.  I'm sure we'll work out what to do with it one day...

Wednesday 14 November 2012

'The Big Acid Fry Up' mix

Despite having lots of proper to work I've found myself uploading old mixes to Mixcloud.  First up is 'The Big Acid Fry Up' from Summer 2006.  Click here to listen.  I'll try and do a few more in the next couple of weeks.

This one features loads of pscyhedelic rock, French prog, folk, folk funk and all manner of drum heavy fuzz. 




Thursday 8 November 2012

'Richard Brautigan' print

I've got some high quality giclee prints of my Richard Brautigan illustration for sale in my shop.  Click here for more information.

 
 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

'Jean-Paul Belmondo' illustration

Here's my submission for a recent Little White Lies illustration call out for French icons of cinema.  I went with Jean-Paul Belmondo of 'Breathless' fame.  This illustration is based on his character in the film 'Ho!'.  


Friday 2 November 2012

'Harvey' illustration

'Harvey' is another in my occasional series of favourite film inspired illustrations.  I struggled to capture James Stewart but went all out drawing Harvey.  He's a slightly more frightening prospect in my hands... Basically the Croydon equivalent of a giant Pooka. 

Friday 26 October 2012

Calendar 2013

I've got a few promotional calendars for 2013 available in my shop featuring an assortment of illustrations from the year gone.  Buy one here.






Wednesday 24 October 2012

'The Advaitic Mountains' work in progress

Here are some work in progress [by which I mean wonky] photos of a new piece I finished last week that Get A Grip will be making into a sweatshirt and t-shirt very soon.  They wanted mountains.  I gave them mountains.  Mountains drawn under the influence of Om.

I may do a limited run of two colour prints depending on interest.  Expressions of interest welcome.
























































Tuesday 23 October 2012

'Come Back From San Francisco' screen-prints

The 'Come Back From San Francisco' screen-prints have arrived courtesy of Get A Grip and they look incredible.  Those guys know their way around a squeegee... Buy one here.




Friday 19 October 2012

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Friday 12 October 2012

'Kurt Vonnegut' illustration

Yeah this an old illustration from earlier in the year but in the process of making a 2013 calendar for my friends and family I had to mess about with some layouts and this was a rather nice by-product.  I am seriously considering getting the words tattooed on my soul. 

Thursday 11 October 2012

'Just a few of my favourite things'

This was a recent illustration I did that got me thinking maybe I could do it for other people too.  The very simple concept is you pay me £75 and give me a list of all your (or perhaps your significant others) favourite things and I draw the shit out of them on an A3 piece of paper.  Then I send you the original illustration.  The end.

It does require some knowledge of your significant other's tastes.  It is an actual illustration by me which will probably feature some visible draft pencil work by me and maybe some very tiny marks etc.  I could potentially scan it and clean it for you and get a fancy giclee printed for you for an extra fee - but seriously - who would want that over an original?  Not me.

I work in blue pencils, then lead pencils, then dipping pen and indian ink, and then I finish with a couple of ink washes with a brush.  I've avoided drawing actual people in favour of books or records featuring people.  All these details can be ironed out before.  It also helps to have some little things to fill gaps like for example mac n' cheese or feathers or pencils etc.  I think I've made this seem way more confusing than it needs to be.  If in doubt refer back to the initial paragraph.

Below is the final piece which features a nice border for framing and also three close ups.

Available in my shop here.





Wednesday 10 October 2012

Thursday 4 October 2012

'Two Weeks in France' day two

























Paris, August 19th.

DJ Food blog

Vinyl junkie, graphic designer, music producer, 2000AD obsessive and NinjaTune all-star DJ Food aka Strictly Kev has been kind enough to blog my record collecting series of comics and say some nice things about me here.  I'm always on the look out for new stories to illustrate so email me if you have some record collecting tales to share.




Monday 1 October 2012

'An American Werewolf in London' illustration

Here's another [relatively] quick illustration inspired by one of my favourite films that's being shown tonight at the Prince Charles Cinema. 

Friday 28 September 2012

'Rushmore' illustration

I enjoyed drawing the 'Annie Hall' illustration so much I thought I might do some more of my favourite films so here's 'Rushmore' which I'm seeing tonight at the Prince Charles Cinema as part of a Wes Anderson all-nighter.  When I'm working on detailed pieces it's nice to just change it up a bit and draw something quickly without having to think about it too much. 


Thursday 27 September 2012

Wednesday 26 September 2012

'Two Weeks in France'

While I was in France in August I tried to do a daily diary illustration.  It was going to be a zine but I'm too busy to get it printed at the moment so I'll be posting them up here for the next couple of weeks.  This one was inspired by a book I was reading at the time called 'The Selected Works of T.S Spivet' by Reif Larsen which has a beautiful illustrated cover by Joe McClaren.  I applied (stole) his concept for my journeys around France.  



Friday 21 September 2012

'Come Back From San Francisco' early-bird print promotion

As promised yesterday here is your opportunity to buy my new Magnetic Fields inspired screen-print 'Come Back From San Francisco' at a reduced price - click here.  As I mention in the listing the print hasn't been made yet but I'm getting the folk at Get A Grip to do it and they always do a fantastic job.  The promotion is to gauge numbers and interest as much as anything - the print run will almost certainly be fifty unless demand is unprecedented - and I'm hoping to dispatch the prints mid October.

This promotion will last for no more than a few days, the final price will be around £20. Thanks for the support as always.

'Stanley Kubrick' print session

Here are some session photos from yesterday when I attempted to print my Stanley Kubrick linocut with some notes more for my reference than anything else but feel free to leave helpful comments. It didn't go as well as I hoped but I did learn some important lessons along the way.  I think.

I used cheap block-printing ink (Ocaldo) which may have been my first mistake.  Rolling it evenly and getting decent coverage was an art in itself - too much ink mean the print lost definition - too little ink meant the print was a bit patchy/distressed.
























I was a little careless when rolling the ink onto the lino initially which meant I inked the border which I didn't want to show on the finished print.  I'd purposely left a border thinking that it would stop the roller from dropping into the cut areas of the lino when rolling ink onto it but what actually happened was the frame created creases in the print paper from applying so much pressure with the spoon.  I think I probably need to remove the border altogether and be more concise when rolling ink onto the lino, perhaps even cut the lino quite tightly around the artwork.




















The ink sticks quite nicely to the paper so it was quite easy to gently pull the paper off the lino and see if I needed to apply more pressure to certain areas.  I thought this would cause registration issues but it didn't appear to.


Below is one of the better prints.  It's possible a little too heavily inked but at least the coverage is better.



So what did I learn?  I think I may need to use better ink, I need to get a proper baren and perhaps even a cheap press.  Any ideas if this one is any good?  Also I need to stop being such a control freak/so anal and recognise that people actually like linocut prints for their hand-made faults.  

'Our Stanley' will be available to buy very soon!