Mat Pringle

'Jim Jarmusch' illustration

2012-01-31T14:05:00.003Z

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”"

Jim Jarmusch made Down By Law. That is all.

'The Wagon' illustration

2012-01-30T12:01:00.003Z

Here's a leftover illustration from my Wolf People poster - most of it got lost in the design but it's sort of nice on it's own.

I've been up against it working on a new illustration and print for a forthcoming exhibition in LA that I'm super excited about hence the relatively low-key/regurgitated blogging. Sorry about that. Plenty of rad stuff coming though not least 'The Book One' - just waiting on a couple more subs but I'm hoping to have it laid out and printed in the next fews weeks.

'Karen Dalton' illustration

2012-01-26T10:48:00.003Z

"Maybe another day you'll want to feel another way, you can't stop crying,

You haven't got a thing to say, you feel you want to run away

There's no use trying, anyway.

I've seen the writing on the wall,

Who cannot maintain will always fall,

Well, you know, you can't make it without ever even trying."

I first heard 'Something On Your Mind' via Jackie-O-Motherfucker's cover years ago courtesy of a mix tape by a friend (cheers Jason!). Then I heard the Karen Dalton original not long after. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. Occasionally I forget it exists and then come back to it a few months later and it hits me even harder just how beautiful it is.

My portraits were getting a bit cock-heavy and I had a spare couple of hours last night to make amends - the face is well wrong but the left hand is probably the best thing I've drawn in weeks. If you don't know about Karen Dalton you should seek her records out now and fill that massive void in your life.

'Krohs' print session

2012-01-24T18:14:00.006Z

I've been doing some screen-printing for Devises studio recently and here are a few photos from the print session. It didn't go entirely to plan as I exposed the artwork too close to the edge of the screen so couldn't get the necessary force on the squeegee towards the top of the artwork and the coverage of ink on some of the prints was a bit patchy. I'll have to have another pop at it this week.

I suppose it was to be expected really as I decided I'd listen to the Smiths for the session and given the Satanic leanings of the illustration and band I probably should've gone with something a bit more death/doom/sludge and made a pact with Satan beforehand. My bad. Bloody Morrissey - fucking everything up as per usual.

January Sale

2012-01-20T12:42:00.004Z

Look! Sad bear is sad and wants you all to buy some of my prints. He knows if I run out of beer and crisps I'll turn nasty and punch his cute hairy face in. So don't do it for me. Do it for sad bear because he is really sad.

What I'm trying to say is I'm having a small January sale in my shop to make some room in my studio. Obviously I'm not going to beat him really. Quite the opposite in fact - he beats me if I don't buy him expensive [and may I add quite tasteless] sportswear and bear porn. It's not like he actually does any exercise either to justify the sportswear. What's up with that?

'Mat Pringle' illustration

2012-01-19T14:55:00.004Z

Carrying on the black and white portraits I thought I'd change it up (down?) a bit with a self portrait. I've not done one of these since school - it's all a bit narcissistic innit? Kurt Vonnegut, Woody Allen, Ernest Hemingway and me... It came out okay although I think the contrast in the ink wash is a bit tame compared to the other portraits I've done and the head shape is a bit on the piss.

In keeping with the family input my uncle just saw this and commented "what an ugly bastard" - there's definitely a zine developing here and I can take some joy in the fact he obviously recognised me. That's good right?

'Woody Allen' illustration

2012-01-18T16:38:00.004Z

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative".

This illustration is unintentionally a little too far down the caricature road for my liking but there's still something about it I'm happy with. I'd like to think my frequent fails were down to my desire to be so innovative but frankly I'd be kidding myself.

My mum chanced upon these black and white illustrations the other day and was initially very kind about them and then proceeded to point out where I'd gone wrong for each and every one of them. After I'd stopped crying I thought actually that would make an amazing zine. So basically if I manage twenty of these portraits I'll put out a zine and accompanying every portrait will be my mum's critical response to it - "the face is too narrow - it needs to be wider", "his nose is too long", "looks like Albert Einstein" etc.

'Ernest Hemingway' illustration

2012-01-17T17:38:00.001Z

"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"

'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' awesome fan!

2012-01-16T11:30:00.002Z

Last week Gamble Anderson sent me this photo of his brother standing next to his truck with my sweatshirt on and a framed print of 'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea'. Needless to say it made my year.

Dood lives in Texas and looks like he listens to the Melvins and drinks High Life which is okay by me. I could be wrong of course but either way next time I'm in Texas there will be beers...

The sweatshirts are sold out now but I've got a couple of prints left - here.

'The Fishermen of Southwold II' set of prints

2012-01-13T11:16:00.008Z

Here are the new Southwold fishermen prints as promised - available now in my shop. More details on the inspiration here.

'Kurt Vonnegut' illustration

2012-01-12T14:32:00.002Z

As I mentioned on Tuesday I went a bit mental over Christmas but I did manage to do some black and white portraits of people what I like that I think are quite good renderings considering the near-breakdown they emerged from. Hmmm - too much information?

This is Kurt Vonnegut - I think he must've been using some deep nourishing volumising shampoo or some shit 'cos his hair has got BODY. Obviously not in the photo I was working from - that's what I've brought to the party. Again hmmm...

And with that I leave you with a nice Vonnegut quote. There are literally hundreds but this one is new to me and I'm hanging onto it for dear life right now. So dramatic.

"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something"

I would add I don't think he was referring to those kooky types that make knitted owls and such.

'The Fishermen of Southwold II' printing session

2012-01-11T13:53:00.007Z

This morning I screen-printed a second set of Southwold fishermen using another three illustrations from last summer. It's not the most fascinating print session seeing as they are a relatively simple one colour print but they turned out well. This afternoon I'm going to apply some ink washes and they'll be available to buy from tomorrow.

'The Seventh Seal' illustration

2012-01-10T15:14:00.003Z

I went a bit mental not drawing over Christmas so I decided to do some black and white portraits in attempt to stay sane. I didn't stay especially sane but some of them look alright including this one of Max von Sydow in the Seventh Seal. I watched it for the first time just before Christmas - I can't say I was well keen on the idea but it's the masterpiece everyone says it is. I owe Paul Bommer a wee nod too for his stunning illustration in 'The Film One' (curently sold out but I'm just waiting on a new batch). He's promised to make some prints of the piece in the next few months and I'll be the first in the queue for one - watch this space.

'Kuedo - Severant' illustration

2012-01-09T11:37:00.003Z

Here's the finished cover version I did for the competition I ran just before Christmas. There's me thinking I'm gonna be reconstructing a Mo Wax classic for Anders when he throws a curve ball with a Planet Mu record I've never heard of. I used to know about Planet Mu records. Just saying.

Anyway this is a Kuedo record that came out last year. The cover was an illustration and I played it dead straight pretty much rendering the whole exercise pointless but then in music terms covers that don't differ from the original very much are utterly fucking pointless too so you know - I'm okay with it. But it looks good and I'm happy with the little bits of colour too. So what I'm basically saying is I'm Boyzone. When really I want to be Rotary Connection.

'The Giant Blue Bear of Santa Cruz'

2012-01-06T13:13:00.003Z

In the absence of new work here's another giant spirit bear of California left over from my sketch book.

Wolf People print on OMG Posters!

2012-01-05T12:06:00.003Z

OMG Posters is the best resource for screen-prints and gig posters there is. And today Mitch has kindly endorsed my Wolf People print. I really should do more concert posters shouldn't I? Do you hear that promoters? Now form an orderly queue...

Pictoplasma Paris monster

2012-01-04T15:05:00.004Z

As promised here's my contribution to the Pictoplasma Paris exhibition. The best article I could find was this one featuring lots of pictures from the shows and also lots of beautiful Parisian girls mooching about looking all beautiful and sophisticated. Wish I'd gone now - I could've sat in the corner eating an entire multi-bag of Wotsits, drinking cheap lager and creeping them out.

The illustration was something I did dead quick one afternoon - stylistically it's sort of mine but I've managed to channel some ye olde (early naughties?) skate art too which I'm not especially pleased about. The colour version is a bit too clean. I prefer the black and white ink drawing which has mad clean line-work.

Wolf People tour print available now

2012-01-03T15:08:00.007Z

Happy New Year!

Right that's enough of the festivities now for the hard sell - the Wolf People print for their up-coming Leeds show is now available to buy in my shop here. And if you get the chance to go the gig you should because they seem to get better every time I see them and goodness knows I've seen them a quite a lot. Check their website for more tour dates.

I've got half of the print run to sell and the other half will be available on the night in Leeds.

Oh and I'm also having a low key sale in my shop - if you look closely you will find many of the prints are reduced in price for the next few weeks.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T10:59:00.005Z

I'm done drawing for a few days but have a smashing Christmas one and all. It's booze, crisps and Fifa from here on in. I'll leave you with the fantastic words of fellow illustrator Matthew the Horse - I swear this one simple paragraph justified hours of time wasted on Twitter.

"Everyone. You're all great. Pants down. Hats on. Make your friend laugh with a silly dance. Have some Brie. Draw a smile."

My favourite albums of 2011 - winner announced!

2011-12-21T12:44:00.002Z

Using the first random number generator I found on google and with nobody as my witness I just picked the winner of the original artwork competition - number 22 - none other than Glasgow music obsessive/dj/good egg Anders. I'd understand if the people took to the streets and demanded a stewards enquiry given that I consider him one of my best friends what I've never actually met but I didn't cheat. Cheaters only cheat themselves remember. No I've no idea what that means either.

So I'll probably be spending the next couple of hours drawing a Mo Wax sleeve of his choosing.

In the meantime here are a few more of my favourite albums of the year. I'm almost embarrassed at how fucking predictably Pitchfork-lite it is. Almost. There was a time when I bought new records that weren't just noodle-armed bed-wetting indie rock albums...

IF - Sink

2011-12-20T07:51:00.002Z

This weeks theme for Illustration Friday is 'Sink' so here's 'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' - the best print I've ever released thanks to the fantastic work of Get A Grip.

'Scott Walker - Scott 4' - My favourite albums of 2011

2011-12-19T11:27:00.003Z

Apologies for dragging this competition into another week but I've had a cold and couldn't get this illustration finished last week. So today is your last day to leave your favourite album in the comments section for a chance to win an illustration from me. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday.

'Scott 4' was released in 1969 so some of the more observant amongst you may see a flaw in my choice but I make the rules and as you may be aware most of the records I buy are old ones anyway. I've picked up a lot of Scott Walker albums over the years and I've always enjoyed them but it took 'Scott 4' for him to properly click for me. A kind soul sent me a battered copy just because he felt I needed to remedy the void in my record collection and it's hard to imagine how I'd got this far in life without it. I've played it virtually every day since I got it - it is without a shadow of doubt my album of 2011.

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened." Albert Camus

That's what it says on the back of the lp sleeve and with that in mind behold my cack-handed Scott 4! It's borderline sacrilege is what is...

I'm having a competition all this week - if you leave a comment in any of this weeks blogs telling me your favourite album of 2011 you will be automatically entered into a lucky dip. The winner of the lucky dip will receive their very own cack-handed black and white illustration of their favourite album by me. And just to clear things up if you win it can be any album from any year but your comment must be a 2011 album.

'White Denim - D' - My favourite albums of 2011

2011-12-15T16:33:00.004Z

This nearly didn't make my best of 2011 simply because this cack-handed rendering is very bad indeed. It's so bad I gave up half way through. My only defence is the actual album cover is Photoshop hell although I suspect that's what they were going for. Musically the album is stonkingly good so I suppose I'll let them off. Wigged out psychedelic math rock or something. I should probably stick to drawing but on todays effort perhaps I need a new career path altogether... Watch this to witness the awesomez that is White Denim.

And there's a very good chance it'll be much better than this as long as White Denim's 'D' isn't your favourite lp of the year.

'Real Estate - Days' - My favourite albums of 2011

2011-12-14T12:41:00.002Z

Unlike my previous two favourites Real Estate's 'Days' was not a slow burner at all which probably means I'll be sick to death of it pretty soon. Although that's hard to imagine given how joyously catchy the jangly guitar pop of lead single 'It's Real' is. And they sound a lot like The Feelies too which is no bad thing as far as I'm concerned. Prep-pop anyone?

'Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town' - My favourite albums of 2011

2011-12-13T14:12:00.002Z

Following on from yesterday's post here's another of my favourite album from 2011 - Bonnie Prince Billy's 'Wolfroy Goes to Town'. Another slow-burner - had I not bought it on vinyl I think I would've given up on it after a few listens as it was entirely washing over me to begin with. It took a long time to click but I'm glad I persisted - it's stunning. Just goes to show how inherently evil MP3s are. Modern life really is rubbish.

As mentioned yesterday I'm having a competition - if you leave a comment in any of this weeks blogs telling me your favourite album of 2011 you will be automatically entered into a lucky dip; the winner of which will receive their very own cack-handed black and white illustration of their favourite album by me. And just to clear things up if you win it can be any album from any year but your comment must be a 2011 album.

This illustration took longer than I wanted it to and was almost entirely pointless given the cover is an illustration anyway so there was no scope to do much with it. It almost started me down a path whereby I wanted to include albums that have covers that'd be more fun to draw but that would render this exercise even more pointless than it already is.

'Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo' - My favourite albums of 2011

2011-12-12T14:48:00.003Z

It's about that time of year when people start wheeling out their lists of favourite albums from the year in an attempt to appear vaguely with it and I'm no exception. Except this year I'll be illustrating all of my favourites throughout the course of this week.

In addition I'm going to have a competition. If you leave a comment in any of this weeks blogs telling me your favourite album of 2011 you will be automatically entered into a lucky dip the winner of which will receive their very own cack-handed black and white illustration of their favourite album by me.

First up is Kurt Vile's 'Smoke Ring for my Halo' lp which is probably my actual number one for the year. It was something of a slow-burner for me taking a long time to sink in but now it has I can't be without it. I also got to see Kurt Vile and the Violators in Oakland way back in July and he was the bee's cock.

'The Absurd Balloon - The Fatigued Brigade Head Home'

2011-12-09T09:58:00.003Z

Another day, another Absurd Balloon illustration and another trite working title. I'm really happy with the way the brigade worked out on this piece trudging through the snow - I think I'm officially addicted to ink washes...

'The Absurd Balloon - The Rooftops of Paris'

2011-12-08T10:19:00.002Z

Here's the final scanned and [sort of] cleaned up version of 'The Rooftops of Paris' illustration from the Absurd Balloon narrative. It's probably my favourite so far of the series.

'The Absurd Balloon - Unsettling The Herd'

2011-12-07T13:54:00.003Z

Here's another illustration from my Absurd Balloon story - 'Unsettling the Herd'. Done in pen and ink with some additional ink washes. I'm letting the illustrations dictate the story a bit at the moment - it makes it more enjoyable to develop the narrative that way.

'The Blue Lion'

2011-12-06T13:56:00.004Z

This was for a tattoo somebody commissioned me to do. I got the fear halfway through the project so promptly wimped out. Which is especially weedy considering I wasn't actually getting the tattoo. He's quite a handsome looking lion though I think you'll agree.

'The Absurd Balloon - The Whale'

2011-12-05T14:46:00.004Z

Another illustration in The Absurd Balloon narrative. I'm not entirely happy with the breaking water around the whale - it's a bit tame given the size of the whale but I'd have to redo the whole illustration to fix it. And I can't be arsed. The dedication of a true artist...

'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda' print

2011-12-01T18:17:00.006Z

'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda' screen-print is available now - click here for more info. It's from a super small run of 22 prints hand-pulled by yours truly and each one has a nifty little ink wash to add tone and texture to the panda's rear-end.

'The Absurd Balloon - The Rooftops of Paris' work in progress

2011-11-30T11:39:00.011Z

This is a work in progress of my latest illustration for my Absurd Balloon narrative - 'The Rooftops of Paris'. I penciled it pretty roughly than started inking - it took about three hours or so without the subsequent ink washes. I'm really happy with the way the ink washes turned out - I went at them pretty haphazardly by my standards but I think the smoke plumes look great.

I'll post up the finished piece with an additional ink wash as soon as I can be arsed to scan it - I swear that takes as long as the drawing does and is nowhere as enjoyable...

'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda' print session

2011-11-29T10:00:00.005Z

Here are some badly shot photos from a screen-printing session yesterday for my seasonal print 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Panda'. As some of you may be aware the illustration is rather old but I wanted to make some Christmas cards and I've always been rather fond of it's wintery bleakness so it seemed to fit the bill. However I soon realised the level of detail would be lost on an A5 screen-printed card so I decided instead to do a small run of prints instead . I'm also going to add a simple ink wash on the panda's rear-end too - it's what he would want.

The print session started terribly when I had a bit of a disaster with my acetate for lining up the paper correctly but I managed to wing it with some draft paper and eventually cue it up correctly. I got 22 good prints from 25 pulls which is good enough.

Shop Sale!

2011-11-25T14:19:00.003Z

I have no real concept of Black Friday but I'm going to have a sale in my shop for the rest of the day anyway. 15% off all orders for the rest of the day - just type in BLACKFRIDAY at the point of sale for your discount.

Calendar 2012

2011-11-24T10:43:00.006Z

I have a few calendars for 2012 available in my shop featuring various illustrations from this year. They are for promotional purposes and friends and family really but I have a few spare this year. Click here for more info.

'Flora and Fauna'

2011-11-23T09:43:00.003Z

'Flora and Fauna' is my take on an original illustration by Nichlole Ratkiss - I did the ink piece last year but didn't quite get round to finishing it. As ever votes and comments welcome here.

'The Absurd Balloon - Dead Man's Curve'

2011-11-22T16:13:00.004Z

I've been gradually drawing more Absurd Balloon illustrations for a vague narrative in my head - I did most of this one a year ago but only just finished it. It took an age to scan and paste together too - my scanner seems to have developed focussing issues. That makes me two of us...

Pictoplasma Paris

2011-11-21T09:35:00.003Z

An illustration of mine is going to feature in the forthcoming Pictoplasma exhibition in Paris next month which is fantastic news. I'm not going to post the illustration up until the exhibition is under way but click on the monster below for more information.

I'm a huge fan of Pictoplasma so couldn't be more stoked - not sure I can afford to get out to Paris to see it but I may look into it. Paris, monsters and art - it doesn't get much better than that really does it?

The Adam and Eve Projects

2011-11-18T10:11:00.005Z

I'm rather chuffed to have been asked to contribute to the Adam and Eve Projects;

"THE ADAM AND EVE PROJECTS is a new web based broadcast bringing together the most exciting and important shapers and definers of our cultural landscape in one location. Here the most iconic and emerging creative people / the most respected institutions / and the most progressive brands worldwide, are all in a direct conversation with a global audience hungry for all arenas of cultural production.

Ranging from the informal and spontaneous to the meticulous and long term, exclusive cross disciplinary collaborative projects curated by The Adam and Eve Projects are announced weekly, with ongoing live discussion from these and other esteemed creatives.

Only the most respected and new emerging creative people worldwide, from fields as diverse as Art, Film, Music, Architecture, Fashion, Literature, Design, .... take part. These projects, created across a broad range of media including, video, photography, product, written and spoken word, and illustration are seen alongside direct correspondence from the worlds most progressive and respected brands and institutions."

Alongside some of my favourite other illustrators and artists too including Ben Javens, Matthew the Horse, Jack Teagle and David Shrigley. And Nick Cave. Obviously. Rad.

'Old Man Winter is at it Again'

2011-11-17T09:10:00.003Z

This is a seasonal illustration I did based on an original piece by illustrator Edgar R McHerly - to be honest I'm not entirely convinced I've added anything to it. Edgar's work is so beautifully stylised that despite my added village details I think his is better. Either way we both benefit from positive votes and comments! Click here to help out.

I'm thinking of screen-printing a small run as Christmas cards too if I get a moment.

'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' print now available

2011-11-16T14:11:00.005Z

'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' print is now available to buy here. A four colour screen-print courtesy of Get A Grip in Birmingham printed on beautiful heavy weight recycled paper they are limited to just thirty in all.

They look so good I'm actually having a hard time getting my head around the concept of selling them as well so I'm only going to be letting a few go. The rest I will frame and place in every available room around the house. Perhaps two in some rooms.

Illustration Friday - Silent

2011-11-15T10:21:00.003Z

I've dug out one of my Spirit Bears of California for this weeks challenge - the topic is Silent. Now I'm feeling a bit more ambitious with my screen-printing technique I think I will attempt to print this in the next week or so. Wish me luck...

'The Californian One' zine

2011-11-14T14:59:00.004Z

I have a new zine available to buy featuring illustrations from my time spent in California this Summer. The whole thing makes my heart sink a little bit to be honest stuck here in foggy, cold England thinking back on what a wonderful time it was.

It features all the Giant Californian Spirit Bears, various sketches from my travels around San Frnacisco, Santa Cruz and Big Sur as well as a few odd bits and pieces besides including a brief guide to all my favourite record and book shops in the Bay Area. More info here. I only printed thirty or so as well so don't hang about.

'The Haunted One'

2011-11-10T10:43:00.003Z

The latest in the occasional record collecting comic series is the bleak vision of music obsessive Andrew Carlin who puts on a night in Reading called 'Tracks and Grooves' - he's embracing all his emo for this one. Must be a Reading thing...

'Tales of the Freaking Weird'

2011-11-08T09:27:00.003Z

Here's the finished artwork in four colours. I'm hoping to screen-print it in the next few months. In the meantime votes and comments are appreciated - make me and Joe Carr rich beyond our wildest dreams - click here.

'Tales of the Freaking Weird' work in progress

2011-11-07T09:36:00.014Z

'Tales of the Freaking Weird' is a remake of a piece by ace illustrator Joe Carr and I have to say it was an absolute pleasure to draw. What's not to like about drawing a man with alligators for arms? This is how the illustration gradually came to be.

Joe had already designed the perfect layout for the pretend comic so I didn't have to think too hard about the composition. Probably another reason why I liked it doing it so much. I had a few options for the Alligator Arms piece but I was struggling to draw the actual arms without them looking rubbish - there were a fair few pencil attempts before I got a decent rough to ink.

I decided to use my own concepts for the mini stories - first up zombie hipsters from beyond the grave. A bit cheesy I appreciate...

At this point I realised by having tentacles too far to the right of the piece it throws the composition out but rather than get messy with white ink cover ups I decided I'd finish them and lose them in the computer tweaks later on.

'The Lycanthrope Swimsuit Edition' was vaguely inspired by the work of another of my favourite illustrators James Murphy - he does terrific ghoulish centre-folds - it's sort of in homage to his artwork.

And finally 'The Sailor with the Beard of Snakes' was something I just came up with - I wanted weird and you can never have too much nautical.

And the last of the inking - I was stoked with how it turned out after just a few hours of work. It's really busy but I think in the context of fifties trashy sci-fi comics it works.

I'll post up the finished artwork tomorrow.

'When the Wolf People came...' tour posters

2011-11-03T11:01:00.006Z

Yesterday I managed to do the second layer of ink for a Wolf People tour poster I designed and illustrated last month - it couldn't have gone any better frankly. Without wishing to give too much away here are some pictures during the printing session. It'll be a run of forty five or so prints, half of which will be available on the night and half I'll sell direct from my shop.

After a few false starts I think I've finally got the hang of printing from a wonky home set-up and to be honest these prints wouldn't have turned out any better had I done them at a print studio. It's all very exciting - I'm hoping to put out a new print every fortnight or so from now on. If you need tour posters done email me at mr.naga@gmail.com.

'Giant Blue Bears on Haight'

2011-11-02T09:40:00.004Z

This was left-over in my sketch book from the summer and I thought I'd colour it and sub it on Threadless. As with the other spirit bear illustrations it really lends itself to being on the printed page (as my mocked up presentation suggests) rather than on a t-shirt. Hint, hint. Someone offer me a book deal please.

I'm not crazy about over-sized prints either but the illustration didn't really give me much option and I think the big slabs of colour sort of work in this instance. Votes and comments are more than welcome - click here for more.

"This gentle giant is inadvertently scaring all the children in the Haight/Ashbury area of San Francisco. He doesn't mean to but he's a curious brute. Besides it's Halloween - the kids like a little scaring this time of year."

'The Film One' zine web articles

2011-11-01T15:32:00.007Z

'The Film One' zine is officially blowing up - it's been brought to my attention that is has been featured on the fantastic Flavorwire website - click here for a nice list of illustrated zines that are rocking it. I'm in there twice. Twice the rocking it.

It's also been featured on Flixist - a great blog about movies. I think they mean films but it's okay because they're nice to me. Click here to read more - "The Film One chronicles, examines, dissects and exemplifies the relationship that the contributing artists have with their favourite movies". I did not know it even did that.

America must be sharing their copy because I really haven't sold that many of them.

'The Lycanthrope Sweats'

2011-10-31T09:59:00.004Z

Something scary for Halloween anyone?

I did this a few weeks ago and it never really quite worked out. When I set out to do it I only had a vague idea of what I wanted and as it developed I ended up with the werewolf and the man on different bits of paper which meant when I finally tried to sync them up there was a little too much going on at the parts where they cross-over. It's bad design frankly...

The werewolf is a little too there as well for what I was trying to achieve.

Oh well - happy Halloween! Watch this - old photos of kids dressed up for Halloween back in the Thirties - disturbing! The music is terrific too - if anyone knows what wobbly Wurlitzer version of 'Fossils' is playing at four minutes in please can they tell me - I'm obsessed with it.

'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' sweatshirts now available

2011-10-28T14:34:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned a while ago I did an illustration for Get a Grip screen-printing studios who have just printed it on to sweatshirts. They look bloody great even if I do say so myself (I can take no credit for the screen-printing what-so-ever) and are ridiculously inexpensive too. They didn't print that many so if you want one you should buy one quick. Click here for more info.

'The Absurd Balloon' on Designed By Humans

2011-10-27T07:58:00.003+01:00

I've submitted 'The Absurd Balloon' to the Designed By Humans website. Votes, praise, comments all very much welcome. Click here or on the images to help me out. Ta.

'Ghosts of Industrial Oakland'

2011-10-25T09:56:00.003+01:00

For a while I've been meaning to do something with some photos I took in and around Oakland a few years ago. This is the first of the series although I'm unsure of whether I'm entirely happy with the ghosts - maybe I should stick to bears.

The plan is to do a set of three prints potentially with ink washes instead of the two or three layers you can see here - I'm a sucker for punishment...

'The Wing and a Prayer One'

2011-10-21T11:14:00.005+01:00

Here's another record collecting comic for you this time inspired by the adventures of a vinyl obsessive called Lee who's part of a collective called 'Eclectic Mud' who put on nights in and around Edinburgh.

'Shogun Assassin' print

2011-10-19T09:21:00.004+01:00

Taken from my contribution for 'The Film One' zine I decided to make my 'Shogun Assassin' illustration into a small run of giclee prints. Click here for more information.

'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea'

2011-10-17T10:57:00.003+01:00

Birmingham based screen-printing studio Get a Grip recently got in touch about collaborating on a run of sweat shirts in time for the Supersonic Festival. I came up with an illustration loosely inspired by the Micah P Hinson song 'The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea' - a long time favourite of mine which has always conjured up some pretty fantastical images in my mind so I ran with it and came up with this fairly restrained piece all things considered.

There's been some technical issues which have meant delays on the sweatshirt but watch this space. I can't wait to see the final product and we're hoping to print some paper variants too. Given my previous contribution to the Supersonic zine and the fact I'll be present at the festival vicariously through Get a Grip who will be doing screen-printing workshops there I sort of feel like I should've been offered a free ticket and carried around on someones back for the duration quaffing lager pop from a luxurious golden jewel-studded skull. Oh well.

'The Charity Shop Dick One'

2011-10-12T12:22:00.003+01:00

Not the catchiest of titles all things considered but I'm trying not to get too bogged down with the finer details in these record collecting based comic strips. This one happened to me about ten years ago in Cheam Village of all places - Tony Hancock would probably approve of the fella's miserly ways. I certainly didn't; though in truth I think the vast majority of my anger was vented on my own behalf for not being able to buy the fine selection of Mojo classics he'd just nicked rather than the charity shops loss of earnings.

Print Space article

2011-10-11T09:49:00.003+01:00

The Print Space have just done a small feature on me in their blog - click here to read it. It features an exclusive look at a collaboration I was recently involved in with Birmingham based screen-printing studio Get a Grip - more to follow.

IF - Round - 'Future Bear'

2011-10-10T18:22:00.004+01:00

In the absence of anything more finished to blog about behold - FUTURE BEAR. He's like a regular bear but from the future sent back in time to steal all your pic-a-nic baskets. Picnics are going to be banned in 2082 - just saying.

I have some big proper things happening but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. Oh and don't look at future bear too long - you have been warned.

'The Giant Blue Bear of Portola' limited edition print

2011-10-04T10:54:00.005+01:00

A week or so later than promised 'The Giant Blue Bear of Portola' prints are now available from the shop. Click here to buy one. Or if you want the t-shirt instead click here instead. Or perhaps you could buy both if you're feeling flush? I finally got my hands on the t-shirt and I'm really happy with the print quality - the blue really punches which was the most important thing for me.

I think by now you're all fairly familiar with the giant spirit bear series but just in case you can see them all on my new website here.

'The Scott Walker One'

2011-10-03T12:14:00.002+01:00

This is the first in an occasional series of comic strips I'm doing inspired by the wonders of collecting records. First up is a collaboration between myself and a fella that goes by the name of Paul Bareham - he runs the ace 'Island of Terror' blog and featured in 'The Music One'.

If you have fascinating or indeed mundane stories of high (and low) adventure in the realms of vinyl collecting get in touch via mr.naga@gmail.com and you too could have unflattering illustrations of your face and body plastered across the internet for all to see.

'When Good Bears Go Bad'

2011-09-29T10:40:00.002+01:00

As promised the finished artwork for 'When Good Bears Go Bad'. It's another addition to the giant spirit bears of California series although it may not make the final narrative given it's not entirely child friendly. In fact I'd go as far as to say ferocious...

"The giant spirit bears of California are mostly gentle and protective of humans but now and again if they feel threatened they may become aggressive and attack. You have been warned!"

'When Good Bears Go Bad' in Progress

2011-09-28T18:51:00.010+01:00

Here are some wobbly and out of focus progress photos from a recent illustration in the giant spirit bears of California series. This one has taken a rather ferocious turn for the worse - I'll explain tomorrow when I blog the final artwork. For now you can see my shitty sketch work evolve into a nearly finished illustration. I'm down to my last non-photo blue pencil and I've had to resort to taping the nub to another pencil to get the last inch or so out of it. Things are bleak...

First up some rough positional sketches for overall composition. I really should include the very early concept sketches - they're hilariously bad but you can just about make out what I'm trying to achieve. It's just like me to start on the hardest and most focal point of the illustration before I've got my eye in too...

I was happy with the way the mouth came out but not so happy I'd thrown in some feral fur going in a different direction on the face - it actually turned out okay in the end but I considered starting again at this point. The police bus came out really well - I nearly snuck a school bus in instead but felt that even my good bear turned bad wouldn't be that bad...

Penciled in some more background. The buildings are referenced from some of my Californian photos - I think this is somewhere around North Beach but can't totally remember.

More inking - I put the chest shading to remind myself this area should be a bit more concentrated/darker than the rest but it gets lost in translation.

More inking of the buildings. Throughout this bear series I've tried to reign the detail in a little bit by my own standards and keep the illustrations cleaner but with this one I just went balls out and threw everything I had at it. It's usually just my tactic to cover up for poor rendering!

Added the flipped car ink with substantial gashes. Ahem.

Started inking the Italian restaurant.

Finished inking the bear.

And the finished illustration - apologies this is the worst photo of the bunch. I purposely left out the telephone wires as I thought if I inked them the lines would be too heavy so I did them on trace to layer up later.

'The Ladykillers' illustration

2011-09-26T16:47:00.004+01:00

I watched the wonderful Ealing classic 'The Ladykillers' yesterday for the umpteenth time and instantly felt the urge to do an illustration for it. To be honest I knocked out the sketches of the characters really quickly and as a result I'm not too keen on my take on 'One Round' so may have another pop at him but it was more about the composition as a whole.

I may screen-print it in the near future if people are interested.

'The Fishermen of Southwold' set of prints

2011-09-23T11:38:00.013+01:00

'The Fishermen of Southwold' prints are now available to buy via my shop - click here for more information. Each set of three screen-prints comes already framed and each print has been given a grey ink-wash so every piece is slightly different. You can see more of the original illustrations here.

'The Library Edition' zine

2011-09-22T19:18:00.007+01:00

Here are some pics of the smashing 'Library Edition' zine I contributed to earlier this month by Hello Thor and Fourbeat Walk of Nottingham. It features some wonderful little touches like for example the loan card at the front and general book borrowing guidelines in the rear. More info on the actual event here.

I've since turned my selfless contribution to a rather more financially rewarding means...

'Thar She Blows!'

2011-09-17T12:34:00.003+01:00

The Moby Dick illustration I was working on has been finished and I've subbed it to Threadless. Any votes, comments and 'I would buys' would be appreciated as usual. Click here or on the picture below to help me out.

The Gigantic Blue Bear of Portola on Threadless

2011-09-15T12:21:00.005+01:00

After a veritable age the Giant Blue Bear of Portola is now available through the awesome t-shirt design site Threadless. I'm still waiting for the cheque to clear but that's HSBC's fault - apparently they've not dealt with foreign cheques before so I have to wait 6-8 weeks to get paid. There's me thinking they're a global bank but in reality they're about as global as they were when I signed up to them as the Midlands Bank all those years ago. 'Come and talk, talk to the Midlands, come and talk to the listening bank.' Listening? HSBC are cocks.

I digress. The t shirt looks ace - if you click here to buy it I get street team points which is always handy. May be worth badgering them for a kids size too while you're at it.

The print will follow next week.

Screen-Printing the Fishermen of Southwold

2011-09-14T18:29:00.008+01:00

As some of you may remember from a previous post I mentioned I may screen-print some of the fishermen portraits I did this summer in Southwold. I set up the screen a couple of weeks ago and had all kinds of problems with the emulsion - I think it's past its shelf-life so when I coat a screen it goes on very gloopy and takes ages to dry. I did a practice run a week ago and felt the prints were a little too rough and ready. I'd consciously not cleaned my line-work up like I usually do so there were some tiny faults but initially I felt this would add to the 'ye olde' distressed factor of the artwork.

I sat on the test prints for a little bit and had almost come to the decision I should clean the screen off and start again but decided to do some experimental ink washes to the prints to see if it lifted them. It did - the ink wash really makes the prints look great so last week I did a run of fifty prints in a makeshift spot in my mum's lounge. She wasn't best pleased.

I'll be inking them all over the next week or so to sell as a set of three separate prints in frames. All individually ink-washed by me. I'm a sucker for punishment...

The Gigantic Blue Bear and the Fishermen

2011-09-12T15:51:00.003+01:00

Another week, another bear submission in Threadwars. Into the semi finals with this one which got another amazing score - the theme was aquatic.

"On very rare occasions the gigantic bear spirits may manifest themselves if they sense some good natured folk are in peril. In this incident some fishermen had been caught in a horrendous storm so the bear waded out to rescue them and dragged their trawler back to safety."

Southwold Fisherman II

2011-09-09T10:15:00.002+01:00

Here's the other fisherman I drew in Southwold. Again too much ink. Too much Mr.Whippy ice cream hair as well but he did have mad hair.

Southwold Fisherman

2011-09-08T10:55:00.004+01:00

As promised one of the two detailed fisherman illustrations I did based on some notable salty sea-dogs from Southwold's fishing history. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get this fellas name.

I think I may have over-inked this one just a tad. I find it very hard to stop sometimes...

'Wrestlers' original framed artwork

2011-09-07T15:37:00.012+01:00

I recently put some original framed artwork up on my shop website. Illustrated with a dipping pen in black Indian ink and white acrylic paint on corrugated card, the 'Wrestlers' are an on-going project of mine. Sometimes when I'm immersed in a heavily detailed piece of work it's nice to break out for an hour or so and do something more fun hence this ever growing series of spandex-clad brutes. Click here for more details.

Donny Shot illustration

2011-09-05T10:35:00.003+01:00

I have a huge list of slightly laborious tasks sat in front of me today so I thought I'd limber up with a quick watercolour illustration of my good friend Donny Shot of Oakland, California. He's lead singer in Sacramento based hardcore band Boundaries. They need to work on their web presence though because I thought I found their website and it doesn't even mention that Donny is the singer so it needs some updating. Either that or I need updating.

Moby Dick in Progress

2011-09-02T11:38:00.013+01:00

Yesterday I started work on an illustration I'm doing for a forth-coming zine inspired by libraries. I had free reign to do what I wanted so I thought I'd have a crack at Herman Melville's classic 'Moby Dick'. I think conceptually a book coming to life is probably a wee bit tired but I wanted to see what I could do with it all the same and I'm reasonably happy with it although unsure whether to add a sprawling nautical back-drop or leave it fairly simple.

Anyway here are some progress shots. More information on the zine as and when I get it.

First up I penciled in some rough lines - I didn't really have anything to work from for the whale - I knew I wanted to keep to the classic Moby Dick illustrations in terms of teeth and vague structure but that was about it.

I started adding some texture to the whale trying to reign it in a bit (always a challenge for me) as Moby Dick is white. I'm not entirely happy with the blow-hole but then who in all honesty is happy with their blow-hole?

Next came some waves something I've been having problems with of late. I wanted the waves to appear to change into words towards the edge of the page - it sort of works I think.

A bit more detail on the book itself.

Then I started on Captain Ahab and his crew - this was very tricky as I didn't have much room to work with. I'd penciled in a Captain Ahab already but he got a bit lost under Moby Dick so I had to pencil him in again at the rear of the boat and he didn't come out quite as well. In hindsight I should've started with some other crew members first to get my eye in - Ahab is probably the weakest looking of the bunch.

I added a tiny bit more detail to the whale.

And then the rest of the water - I'm aware that there is quite a difference between one side of the wave and the other - it was a conscious decision to create a calmer crest of the wave for the boat to be sitting on but it may look a bit odd as a result.

Finally I added some wood texture to the boat.

And then discovered I had no rubber so proceeded to search around the house for some kind of eraser. Ignoring the untouched rainbow coloured 'Fan Wood Campsite' rubber I discovered at the back of a draw I ended up using an eraser I found on the end of a pencil determined not to go into town just for the sake of buying a new one. Fortunately it worked.

The Fox is Black digs Bears that are Blue!

2011-08-31T19:32:00.002+01:00

I wasn't sure whether to post this or not but I just wanted to thank the guys at The Fox is Black (ace art and design blog) for being so kind as to say very nice things about my Californian Spirit Bear series. I had an inkling something was afoot when my [holding steady at] 39 followers suddenly jumped up over night to a nose-bleed high 43 followers! Low and behold I had featured in their esteemed blog - read the article here. And then read some more of their articles and download a mixtape or two - it's all splendid stuff.

Silver Apples at Supersonic Festival illustration

2011-08-29T12:18:00.002+01:00

I was recently asked to contribute a piece for the up-coming Supersonic Festival in Birmingham and jumped at the opportunity to do an illustration for long time favourites the Silver Apples who've been messing heads up with their wonky psychedelic electronics since the sixties. I can still fondly remember hearing 'A Pox On You' on radio late at night whilst driving back from a heavy weekend in Brighton and totally wigging out to it knowing I had to own all of their records instantly if not sooner.

The illustration will feature in a zine made especially for the festival and I may try do some screen-prints if I get a moment. I'll post up here as soon as I know more.

San Francisco part 13

2011-08-23T16:11:00.005+01:00

Right a little over a month later here is my final San Francisco blog entry which can most probably be summarised as pizza, records, illustration, pizza but I'll expand a tiny bit for old time sakes.

On Friday (July 22) we drove into the city to take a look at the Margaret Kilgallen exhibition at Ratio 3 in the Mission district of San Francisco. It proved to be a bit of a slog trying to find the venue in a car but eventually we arrived. As expected the artwork was beautiful - folk art inspired simple line work combined with striking colours and textures.

We drove out to Ocean Beach but inevitably the fog rolled in upon arrival so we drove back to Orinda for some deck beers in the sun. It never fails to amaze me how the weather can be so different from in the city to out in Orinda.

I spent the next day drawing on the deck in the sun. Using a photo I'd taken of a Victorian house around North Beach for reference I did the pen and ink illustration below. I finished up with some water colours but probably over-egged it a bit. Not sure about the bit at the bottom either but I was just experimenting really.

On the Sunday we met up with our friend Donnie and his little girl Rue to try our luck foraging for treasure at the Oakland flea market. Aside from the usual array of fat children and a couple of stolen fixed gear bicycles there wasn't too much to see. By which I mean there were no records. In the evening I learnt to play Dominoes ghetto style.

Monday was to be our last foray into the city so we started good and early, getting BART in and meeting up with Annie's friend in Dolores Park. A couple of beers later and an emotional final trip to Escape From New York Pizza in the Castro we then wandered over to Molotov's for a few happy hour beers before heading back on BART to Oakland for a Kurt Vile and Thurston Moore gig.

Fucked Up were playing in the city on the same night and I was really torn as to which gig to go to - Annie wanted to see Fucked Up more but I think the double whammy of Kurt Vile and Thurston Moore swung it in the end. In hindsight I wish I'd gone to see Fucked Up - 'David Comes to Life' is my favourite lp of the year (thus far) followed closely by 'Smoke Ring For My Halo'. That said Kurt Vile was brilliant and we had the added bonus of a Hush Arbors support slot too. Despite releasing a decent (if samey) Beck produced new album Thurston Moore drifted over me a little and we had to leave before the end of the set to get the last BART home. Weird seeing Keith of Hush Arbors playing guitar for Thurston Moore as well - bit of a step up from playing bass for Voice of the Seven Thunders at the Llama festival last year. I know which gig I preferred though...

And that was that - my just-shy-of-three-month visit was over. We squeezed in one final trip to Berkeley for me to use some vouchers at Moes book store and had a delicious sushi dinner. What did I learn from my time there? Escape from New York pizza is aces.

I also managed to motivate myself in an illustration sense more than I have ever done before in my life. Not sure if it was the different surroundings or the available free-time but it really worked. And three weeks into being home I'm working every day on illustrations for around 6-8 hours at a time, something I couldn't have possibly imagined before going. So there you go.

Still fucking skint mind...

Metamorphosis of the Great Bear

2011-08-21T12:29:00.003+01:00

Carrying on with the bear folk tale narrative I submitted this for Threadwars IV and scored incredibly well clinching myself a place in the quarter-finals. The loose narrative driven by the themes dictated in Threadwars are getting a little wayward so I may have to reign the story in at a point but it's fun trying to come up with something to fit a specific theme. This round was 'nature'.

"If you happen to stumble upon one of the great colourful bear spirits in the wild you will only catch a glimpse of it as it metamorphosizes into natural plant life before your eyes."

San Francisco part 12

2011-08-17T17:27:00.013+01:00

Eek. Trying to write about what I got up to a month ago isn't ideal but I suppose it's now or never.

Okay so on Monday (18th July) we took a drive out to Sausilito which involved firstly driving into San Francisco over the Bay Bridge, negotiating our way through the city and then driving over the Golden Gate Bridge picking up some pizza en route. Sausilito is a quaint (ha - get some of that down you America - I used your ghastly turn of phrase against you!) seaside town which sits over the bay from San Francisco with some spectacular views. Which basically means it's hot property, full of badly dressed Europeans (even me - guilty as charged) and over priced foo foo shops and eateries.

Actually the picture above was a little way up from the madness in the less touristy harbour region which was beautiful. Below is along the busier seafront which should give you some idea of why it's so popular - it is stunning.

Look some rocks.

After eating some over-priced and not particularly good fish and chips we made our escape via Mill Valley and onto Santa Rosa to the Charles Schulz Museum which was $10 admission. Good grief etc.

I was quite underwhelmed by it all despite a great fondness for Peanuts. The highlight was probably the mock up of his studio including a turntable and selection of jazz lps. It inspired me to set up my studio accordingly with a record deck and my word it's a wonderful thing to be back in the world of vinyl away from nonsense mp3s. I digress.

We tried to find a dive bar for a beer in Santa Rosa but only managed to find the local soup kitchen and a whole host of homeless folk sprawled amongst random Snoopy figures. Bit weird.

The next day I made Annie go with me to see the Tribe Called Quest documentary 'Beats, Rhymes and Life' at the cinema. Not in some seedy art house cinema as you'd expect either - oh no - it was showing it at the grand Pleasant Hill cinema and what's more it was in the main room with a capacity in the region of 1000 people or so. Needless to say we were the only ones in there.

I could've wept with happiness pretty much from the opening credits and throughout. The film is a joyous celebration of the golden age of hip hop and features a hefty introduction to all things Native Tongues before any of the well documented beef actually starts. I've read that various members of ATCQ had issues with the film during it's production but aside from Q-Tip's occasionally sizeable ego flaring up now and again they all come out unscathed and as loveable as ever. Anyway Q-Tip can have a bit of an ego as far as I'm concerned given his contribution to hip hop. ATCQ certainly don't come out looking anywhere nearly as whiney and pathetic as Metallica in 'Some Kind of Monster'. Three thumbs fresh yo.

In the evening I inked and coloured this - a sketch left over from Big Sur.

The following day was so hot all we could manage in the afternoon was a brief stint at the dog run but even Pepperjack was feeling the heat. That evening we headed into the city to Molotov's for my leaving do/Trevor's birthday and proceeded to line up many PBR's ($2 a bottle - a price that now haunts me everytime I buy a pint in England), tequilas and a whiskey or two for good measure. Feeling suitably buzzed we got the BART home after parting on some sad farewells.

On Thursday I woke up with a bit of a head on me so we took the easy option and drove into Berkeley for some record shopping. I bought the incredible new Fucked Up lp (which uncannily I'm listening to as I write this), Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' lp, James Blackshaw's 'The Glass Bead Game' lp, Tom Rush's 'The Circle Game' lp, Phil Ochs 'Pleasures of the Harbour' lp and 'Whaling and Sailing Songs' by Paul Clayton just for the stunning cover initially but it's actually really rather good. In fact having had time to absorb that (measly) $35 haul it's all excellent with the exception of Phil Ochs which isn't doing much for me just yet - the b side is fucking nuts. But not in a good way.

Later on I had a bit of a mooch around the Berkeley university campus looking studious and deep in thought mostly trying to figure out whether I should have another slice of pizza or not whilst Annie kipped on the grass like a tramp's mate before we gave up and headed home.

The Fishermen of Southwold

2011-08-11T11:32:00.003+01:00

On returning from California I immediately set off for a much needed holiday in Southwold. Whilst there I was mooching around the Southwold Sailor's Reading Room (as you do) and chanced upon some gnarled old salty sea dogs. Initially I did heavily detailed portraits of a couple of them which I will no doubt post up at a point but I then did some simpler portraits which in my opinion are significantly better. And here they are. I may take the four best and do a small screen-printed series if I get any interest.

Drawn in dipping pen and ink with a subsequent ink wash they are;

Top row - unknown, unknown, unknown

Middle row - unknown, unknown, Frank Upcraft.

Bottom row - Winner Smith, Slooper Hurr, Frank Palmer.

If anyone knows the other names I'd really appreciate it.

San Francisco part 11 - The Charity Shop Challenge

2011-08-09T20:33:00.035+01:00

Some of you may remember last year I did a Charity Shop Challenge where I trawled through North and South London in search of some decent records. It was good fun albeit not that successful so I had high hopes when I set out to do another Charity Shop Challenge in the Bay Area of California. It didn't really pan out but I thought I'd document it anyway - don't get too excited now...

We opted for one of two yellow vehicles available to us - the less petrol hungry car over the rather more thirsty but more manly truck. Annie my driver for the day had a well studied itinerary to follow so we set out full of optimism. Well we set out.

First stop was a Goodwill in Pleasant Hill although given I did the challenge about a month ago this may not be entirely accurate. Feel free to correct me. Goodwill is a US wide thrift store (by which I mean charity shop but I will bow to the correct colloquialism in this instance) and they tend to be hanger-like by comparison to the UK equivalent but no less full of shit.

I was greeted by a sizable chunk of vinyl in the 'Entertainment Room' that I proceeded to sift through at veritable speed.

First find of the day was 'The Pink Panther' soundtrack by Henry Mancini with a rather dashing sleeve. Alas the vinyl within was pretty battered which is often the case with children's favourites.

Twenty minutes or so later I'd foraged through the entire batch without finding too much to prick my interest although 'The Big Lebowski' on laser disc was tempting for at least three seconds. I did however find this lp by a female Canadian singer/songwriter called Anne Murray from the early seventies that I took a gamble on. I'm not one for keeping lists but I recalled a thread on Very Good Plus extolling the joys of a record called 'Snow...' something or other by a female singer songwriter from the early seventies. Which was enough to pay a buck for. It looked like it wouldn't be utterly horrible anyway.*

I also chanced upon this rather confusing Bath Football Club year book as well. Americans have this rather unusual sport called American Football you see, much of which is played with their hands which even the most ardent fans have to watch sped-up Benny Hill style given how fantastically dull it is. They call it football. Silly eh? So this book confused me further. I couldn't recall a Bath football team of any significance; after all Bath is full of posh people and as we all know posh twits play rugger. Further investigation confirmed that this was indeed a filthy rugby artifact. So like I say rather confusing but I'm sure it's due to my street-cat working class ignorance rather than some unholy transatlantic printing specification...

I hurled the foul relic back from whence it came and popped over the road to a massive Salvation Army thrift store.

Unfortunately there were no records to be seen. A cursory glance at the books suggested Americans aren't as free of beard-faced berk Bill Oddie as one would hope. Incidentally my Bay Area guide for the day Annie scored big time in here with a choice Fred Perry top.

We left promptly and drove to another huge thrift store known as St Vincent de Paul Society.

I negotiated my way to the records and set about prospecting for vinyl gold. Or something.

There were some interesting records here but everything I would've spent my hard-earned dollars on seemed to be half eaten; bizarrely given that 99% of the rest of the tat had little or no sign of mastication. My first evidence - Sly and the Family Stone's super topically themed 'There's a Riot Going On'. I don't think they actually made the record way back in 1971 with England's summer of 2011 in mind but at the same time I wouldn't wish to rule it out. I'd bite your arm off for this record usually. Unfortunately it looks like someone already did.

Second point of evidence - an interesting looking Lee Michaels lp. Clearly not quite as palatable as the Sly record given the meagre helping of the top left hand corner but still enough to put me off taking a dollar gamble. It's probably worth mentioning I'm not ideally suited to these Charity Shop Challenges (Thrift Store Challenges) at the best of times given a combination of being perpetually skint and not wanting to introduce vinyl tat into my beautiful collection but the problem here was exacerbated by the fact I was going home to London in little over a week and already had a couple of records to take back.

The next vaguely tempting find was the Bread debut lp - again I vaguely recalled esteemed record collector Jarkatajive (Hugh to his friends) singing its praise a while back but I also got the distinct impression he was taking the piss. What's more I've heard Bread records (indeed I've had weird dreams involving Bread records and Wrongtom in the past - it's okay - he knows...) and without wishing to start Bread related beef (the worst kind of beef) I'm pretty much indifferent to their noodle armed seduction rock. Unless someone's stroking my hair at least. Also it's worth the noting the dog neglected to take a chomp of that particular record so it was obviously fucking rubbish.

A short ride over to Concord (I think) brought us to ARF. I forget what ARF stands for but at the time my brain inexplicably linked it to 80's space alien ALF (Alien Life Form?) and as stupid a thought as it was it was also far too insignificant for my brain to over-write so the minute I saw the following image again I immediately paused to think about the plight of the destitute space alien.

At 25c each the records I could have easily bought the entire box and stayed within the predetermined £10 budget ($16ish) but for the fact each one was shitter than the last.

And Olivia Newton-John isn't nearly as attractive as you may have been led to believe.

We left and made our way to this Goodwill shop again in Concord skipping around some kind of intimidating red-neck booze-and-metal street party.

A promising heap of vinyl before me I set to work with much enthusiasm. Honest.

Against all odds there were some okay records amongst the rubbish. As a big John Fahey fan I nearly would've bought this had I not bought and subsequently sold a cheap reissue of it some years ago. In terms of niche records it's a particularly dull Christmas album that could never quite get a shoe-in against Sufjan Steven's sprawling festive box set.

This, now this I should've bought. It's probably utter fucking garbage but seriously how did I leave this behind? A Bollywood soundtrack of a football film. Damn my miserly ways. (It's subsequently been brought to my attention this record is actually from Israel. It even says it on the sleeve.)

Which brings me to my third bit of evidence. Dick Hyman's 'The Electric Eclectics Moog' lp - a veritable monster of a record and accordingly enough it had been chomped on by something rather ungainly. Featuring the wigged out proto Detroit techno of 'Minotaur' and more significantly the whoosh-bonkers spacefunk-shuffle of 'Give It Up Or Turn It Lose' it's a gem of a record. Except the vinyl was even worse than the sleeve and I've got it already. In fact I've had it long enough to remember playing it out at my one djing residency probably over ten years ago. Which isn't just the lamest brag you'll read for some time but also a frightening reminder of the ageing process. Moving swiftly on...

At this point I was feeling a bit jaded and had had enough of being ferried around the Bay Area like the record nerd equivalent of Little Lord Fauntleroy but Annie had a couple more thrift shops in mind. We drove on to the store below - I forget what it was called - 'Kids for Jesus', 'Jesus Touches All Of Your Children' or something similar - I definitely remember it being Christian.

And it had a plentiful selection of vinyl too.

Amongst a fair bit of Christian vinyl and the usual suspects I found this lp but seemed to recall it being Blues heavy rock the likes of which make me want to punch the elderly. But ultimately not much to write home about (although just enough to regurgitate and write in a blog a month down the line).

Annie was determined to make a success of the day so she forced me to one last thrift store fittingly titled Annie's Attic.

There were a few records but not much of note although having had another look at this photo up close the Beny Moore/Perez Prado looks worth a gamble on cover alone but I think at this stage I was pretty much ready to call it day.

We made one final stop at Half Price Books Records and Magazines which has a couple of branches around the Bay Area. It doesn't really count as a charity shop but it did manage to restore my faith in the vinyl gods as I found 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' and David Crosby's 'If Only I Could Remember My Name' for a few dollars a-piece. Of course this only seemed to undermine the point of charity shop record hunts even more so.

So what did I learn? Foreign charity shops can be equally as dull as UK ones? Or perhaps more to the point I'm not really cut out for charity shop record trawls anymore. *Oh and my single purchase of the day Anne Murray's 'Snowbird' is fucking fetid shite which brings to mind a bad 'Una Paloma Blanca'. Which is pretty fucking bad (drum breaks or not).

Apparently I was getting confused with The City's 'Snow Queen' featuring a very young Carole King. 1970ish, female singer featuring snow in the title. Rookie mistake...

Dreaming of that Big Old Bear

2011-08-06T18:02:00.004+01:00

Following on with the Californian bear series of illustrations I've been working on I submitted this artwork for the second round of the Threadless based Threadwars competition. The theme was dreams so I came up with this rather simple addition to the narrative.

"Fantastical tales of the big old coloured bear spirits have been told to so many children for so many generations that they can't help but dream about them as they sleep peacefully in their beds. But are they dreaming...?"

The Gods Must Be Crazy (working title)

2011-07-30T10:10:00.002+01:00

This is an odd comic piece I did a few weeks ago - I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it but it's my twist on the classic folklore story of being cast out from society. I don't want to give too much away but I'm hoping to get my teeth into in the next few weeks - technically it's going to be quite a challenge. Comics are hard enough to do anyway so I'm not sure why I've set myself such a difficult task for my first proper comic but I'm rather taken with the story that's evolving in my head so it needs to be done.

San Francisco - The Records

2011-07-29T13:20:00.010+01:00

There's a couple more San Francisco blogs to come but I'm waiting on some photos from Annie. I got back yesterday and I'm feeling a bit jaded with England. In the meantime here are most of the records I got whilst in the US. Believe it or not I'd barely bought a record in the previous twelve months before leaving but they're so much cheaper over there it felt rude not too. I think the most I paid on a record was the new Fucked Up lp which was $20 (£12 or so) but the majority of these were between $2 and $5. Budget buys rule okay.

I've set up a record deck in my make-shift studio and spent the day listening to my purchases which has cheered me up no end. Viva la vinyl.

San Francisco part 10

2011-07-25T18:25:00.011+01:00

We left Santa Cruz at midday on Friday (8th July) and drove back up to Orinda to dump our bags before going straight onto Berkeley. I spent the afternoon in Amoeba and Rasputin's record shops. Everyone raves about the Amoeba stores but I actually think Rasputin's in Berkeley is my favourite record spot in the Bay Area. The selection of older records is more extensive, they have continual knock-downs on newer vinyl and it seems to be a bit cheaper in general. I picked up Nilsson's terrific children's story/concept record 'The Point', Jefferson Airplane's classic psychedelic rock album 'The Surrealistic Pillow', Melanie's 'Garden in the City' featuring the ace folk funk of 'People in the Front Row', a Harry Taussig folk guitar repress and another Randy Newman lp all for less than $20. Admittedly none of it's rare - God knows I've stupidly left 'The Point' behind in more charity shops than I care to remember over the years - but good records all the same.

We grabbed a beer on Telegraph then made our way to Oakland to see some bands at the definitive Bay Area hardcore/punk venue Gilman; a long standing volunteer ran club where the shows are cheap with a strict no alcohol policy. Fortunately it sits directly opposite a brewery so we got our drink on there first. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we didn't make the show in the end. I don't think I'm ever meant to make it inside the Gilman for one reason or another...

On Sunday (10th July) we got BART into the city for the Renegade Art fair which is a huge touring art and craft event that travels through the US. I've been to a few of these type of things in London and their usually pretty lo-fi taking place in the basements of musty Working Men's Clubs. This was altogether a more polished affair. And massive.

There was still a substantial amount of 'kooky' knitted owl type shite but I suppose that's to be expected with so many 'quirky creatives' in one place. In fact knitted moustaches seem to be the new knitted owl. I was a bit disappointed by how good-looking everyone was as well - I like my art/craft/zine folk to have horrendous acne, smell of charity shops and be painfully awkward. That aside there were some decent illustrators and printmakers in attendance; I chatted to Kevin Tong for a while about his work, the US poster making scene, how rad Rich Kelly is and general screen-printing techniques. I also bought this stunning print from him.

We then set off to the Castro for a button exhibition at a ceramic studio to meet up with some of Annie's friends and after a couple of street PBRs went onto the dimly-lit Elbow Rooms for a few more happy hour beers.

The following week was a mixture of working on illustrations, some design work and a couple of days in the intense heat of suburban Sacramento for an incredible bbq where I discovered that hot links aren't nearly as nice as spicy Italian sausage. In addition to some swimming (floating) I also found myself inexplicably drawn to the latter stages of the Women's World Cup. I can only assume it was due to the lack of football in general but it was really rather good all things considered. Which isn't meant to sound nearly as patronising as it does.

On Friday I squeezed in another super secret Threadless submission for Threadwars IV (more later) finishing off the art-working at about five in the morning and then had a day of concrete laying in the basement. The concrete traveled up a long hose from a concrete mixer at the base of a steep hill and I had the job of directing said hose accordingly. Handling the hose full of concrete was rather like wrestling an anaconda and combined with the heat of the day was incredibly hard work. We laid five square yards of concrete in about two hours. I'm not entirely sure what that means either but it seemed quite impressive. We finished the day in Balboa with a welcome bowl of caldo de camaron - a delicious Mexican spicy tomato and prawn soup that's eaten with crackers.

San Francisco part 9

2011-07-17T18:21:00.026+01:00

Okay I'm playing catch up again after a hectic fortnight - apologies for being a bad blogger.

On Friday (July 1st) Annie had demolition duties all day so I set off into the city in the morning for another day of rooting around for records. You would think I'd get bored of this activity but apparently not. First stop was the Civic Centre where I negotiated my way through the tourist hordes to Rasputin's. I spent a while going through the records there but didn't find anything that quite grabbed me enough to exchange money for goods so I left and hopped on a bus up to Haight. I got off again just below Lower Haight slightly earlier than I wanted to when a crack-addled couple decided to sit on top of me and swear at each other loudly. It did mean I stumbled across a nifty Jeremy Fish statue that I didn't know existed.

Rather than blather on about all the individual record shops I'll keep it succinct - I got Bob Ray's 'Initiation of a Mystic' from Groove Merchant which has been a long-time want and a cheap second-hand copy of indie miserablists The National's 'High Violet' from Ameoba. I'm still not entirely convinced by the latter but I'm hooked on this song and some random old bloke kept telling me I needed to buy it. I'm not entirely familiar with interaction with strangers so I generally assume anyone that talks to me is massively mental and/or trying to lure me back to their sex dungeon but apparently American people do just talk to strangers. It's a little unnerving but I'm gradually getting used to it. I'm still not comfortable with all the hugging and touching though.

I gave the chatty weirdo the slip in the Jazz section and made my way through the hippies and bums to Golden Gate Park where I found a quiet spot for a beer-in-a-bag and bit of a read in the sun. Rock and roll. My initial plan was to walk all the way through the park to Ocean Beach but after a couple of beers realised my tiny bladder would never hold so instead walked back to Haight to a bar for a wee. And another beer. It's a vicious circle - drink a beer or two, need a wee, go to a bar for a wee and buy another beer then need a wee again. I should probably just drink coffee instead but it tastes ugly.

A couple of beers later I wandered down to Lower Haight to Molotov's for some more beers and some impromptu drawing. I'm not one for getting my sketchbook out in public (not a euphemism) but drinking alone in bars isn't something I do very often either so I forced myself to do some drawing. The results were surprisingly okay considering but I'm yet to finish inking the pencil work so I can't share yet. I made my escape soon after when some women insisted I draw their horrible little precocious dog. I declined gracefully insisting I don't draw animals. Ahem.

The following day we headed down to Santa Cruz for a week taking the stunning scenic route on Highway One that travels alongside the ocean for most of the duration. After an evening of hot links, beers and a fire we spent the next day riding around town on cruisers. We set off past the giant concrete whale at the Santa Cruz Museum of National History where I paid my respects to the mighty Bear Spirit. He's not a shy fella.

We rode on past the boardwalk to the wharf - it was the first official weekend of the summer holidays and blazing hot so everywhere was heaving. We made a quick detour into town to cool down and eventually rode back to the Borden house and down to the end of the road to sit watching the sea and drinking beers in the sun. I turned up my t-shirt sleeves white-trash style for a no more than two hours (baring in mind it was already four o' clock or so) only to get quite burnt. Feeling suitably buzzed we returned to the house where I proceeded to fall asleep on the sofa and then wake up again at ten or so with minor sun stroke. Early boozing and sunshine had taken their toll on me.

The following day was July 4th which is apparently some kind of day of celebration for American folk. Given the location of the house and it's close proximity to the beach the entire neighbourhood was buzzing with people. The beach itself was guarded all day by security ensuring no alcohol or fireworks were permitted but there was talk of people stashing both in advance under the sand and in bushes. I was still feeling a little rough from the previous day so I was especially wary of being out in the sun. The buzz about town grew progressively during the day and by early evening there were already plenty of beer/sun casualties out and about. I strolled up to the local store for some beers only to find the police had blocked access to the beach and were man-handling a drunken frat-boy in the store car park. The more raucous it got the more inclined I felt to stay at home and draw. Roaming gangs of overly patriotic drunks aren't really my thing whatever country I'm in and Annie wasn't getting any pangs of loyalty to the Stars and Stripes either so we tucked ourselves away for the night making one skirmish to the beach for a few rogue fireworks in the fog. I think in retrospect my mum does July 4th better than the Yanks.

The morning after the night before it dawned on me one pair of boxer-shorts would not last the duration of this week long excursion so inexplicably I found myself searching for underpants in Santa Cruz. It's an odd place to find yourself. After a successful pant mission to Capitola we returned to the Seabright harbour for an incredible lunch at Aldo's - deep fried cod, calamari, prawns and chips with sweet and sour dipping sauce. I wouldn't usually allow myself such extravagance but I was made aware of the fact my time in the US was slowing coming to an end so decided to push the boat out. The rest of the day was fairly low-key; I did a couple of illustrations including the one below which was from memory looking down at some rocks at the harbour. I've been playing around with water colours and gouache and trying to simplify my line-work just to give you an idea of why it looks a bit odd. That and the fact it looks like a mountains leading off into the sky rather than rocks leading off into water. Oh well. In the evening we went to see Submarine at a small cinema in town. It's actually the second time I've seen it but it's brilliant so I wanted to see it again with Annie. She approved.

The next day (Wednesday 6th July) we decided to drive down to Big Sur to see what all the fuss is/was about. If it's good enough for Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson... Annie employed all her skills of cartography by illustrating this annotated map for us to find our way, we stopped off for some provisions for the journey at the supermarket deli and we set off.

The drive down was aesthetically fairly typical of what I'd seen of California already but as we got closer the scenery started to get all kinds of epic. Vast rugged mountains dropping off into thickset green forests on one side and stunning ocean views on the other. We even saw a bleak farmstead looming out of a dense bank of clouds over the sea.

It took a couple of passes but eventually we found the turn off towards the beach and trundled down a narrow winding lane following a handsome orange camper van. Twenty minutes or so later we sat in a queue of vehicles waiting to get into the beach car park with a one in one out policy - not the most encouraging of signs and certainly a far cry from the Kerouac's Big Sur but inevitable in this day and age I suspect.

After a twenty minute wait we drove into the car park and set off towards the beach. The canopy of trees gave way to a spectacular sandy beach surrounded by impenetrable rocky slopes. I'm struggling a bit at this describing things with words shit so I'll just post up some photos instead...

Despite what the photographs suggest there were some other people there - mostly Europeans - but not too many. We spent a relaxed afternoon reading, drawing, drinking cold beers and even managed a quick dip in the ocean but the sea is incredibly cold in California. Colder even than English seas I think.

It was so beautiful there I was keen to stay and camp nearby but Annie isn't very keen on camping so instead we stayed until the sun started to go down and headed back up to Santa Cruz. There was a one-off showing of Lost Boys at the Beach Boardwalk in the evening which we were quite keen to see given that much of it is shot in and around Santa Cruz but by the time we got in we were too tired to do anything.

The next two days in Santa Cruz were more of the same - a mixture of illustration, cycling, a quick foray into town for some record shopping (the new Kurt Vile lp, some dirt cheap Randy Newman lps and a battered but by the looks of things playable copy of 'Exile On Main Street' for a dollar, since you asked...), beers and beach-lounging. I did a pencil sketch at Big Sur of a fuck-off big rock and finished it later with inks and water colour. I'm reasonably happy with it - the line-work is good and the subtler colour washes on the rock are okay but the sea errs a bit on the wrong side of water colour hell. In hindsight I wish I'd just done a block of colour for it rather than try and do waves and such but it was a quick experiment so it doesn't really matter.

I took a photo for reference that I didn't use as I had no access to a computer but I've included it here just for reference. The scan of the illustration is a bit rough and ready too and far too bright but I'm without Photoshop again so can't tweak it accordingly. I will say in my defence it looks better in the flesh.

It's a new technique I'm trying to develop whereby I reference things from real life but not explicitly so I can be as vague as I like. And I like to be vague. I think I mentioned in the past I used to draw virtually everything from my head without any referencing at all but increasingly it's good to be able to draw from real-life but by doing it like this without the baggage of having to get stuff to look totally correct or take a veritable fucking age to do it.

The Giant Blue Bear of Portola

2011-07-11T19:55:00.005+01:00

This is from a collection of illustrations I've been working on inspired by California and my imagination. I actually submitted this to Threadless for a secret challenge and it scored really well despite me not being able to promote it which is great.

I had this idea of a giant bear spirit keeping a watchful eye over a variety of places around California. The original piece is below in pen and ink with an additional series of ink washes and I used gouache for the bear. No macs were hurt or indeed used in the making of this illustration.

For Threadless I refined the colour a bit by using a scan of the original linework and colouring it cleanly in Photoshop on a few seperate layers and eventually added the moon to balance the composition. I attempted to make the moon have more texture and depth but it actually proved distracting so I ended up keeping it simple.

And below is the final submission on Threadless - it's always worth taking a bit of time on the presentation so I took a photograph of an old book and merged the illustration onto the page. The theme of the Threadwars challenge was 'epic' and I was a bit concerned people would potentially miss the 'epicness' of a giant blue bear (!) looming over a house so I rammed the concept home by adding the book title - 'Epic American Folk Tales'. I also simplified the bear spirit concept to a giant blue bear as it fitted the theme better somehow. To see how it faired click here.

'If you look out of the window on a moon-lit night you just might catch a glimpse of the gigantic blue bear of Portola as he goes about his business making sure all the town-folk are sleeping safe and sound in their beds. He's mostly gentle but a cumbersome brute so don't be too upset if he accidentally dislodges a tile or two from your roof as he works, but be sure not to startle him as he's been known to devour delinquents and hoodlums who are up to no good.'

George B. McClellan

2011-07-10T02:41:00.002+01:00

Since arriving in California I have been illustrating virtually every day often for several hours at a time which for me is very prolific. Much of it has been purely experimenting with different mediums and techniques and some of it will be made in to prints when I get back to the UK but I've been keeping it all rather quiet for now. Probably the biggest break-through was the discovery of blue non-photo pencils for drafting work. I knew of them but could never track one down in London, however they're really easy to find out here and they are so nice to use. I can't really explain why they're any different to regular lead pencils but I think the fact that they are so light allows me to ink more effectively later on. The page doesn't get dirty in the drafting stage and it's really easy to eliminate the blue lines once scanned although I rather like seeing the faint blue lines so I've tended to leave them in for the purposes of this blog.

Below is an illustration of George B. McClellan who was a Major General for the Union Army in the American Civil war. I stumbled on him in a book whilst cat-sitting in the Tenderloin and felt the urge to draw him just to test out my new blue non-photo pencil which you'll be able to see if you click on the picture for a close-up.

San Francisco part 8

2011-07-04T17:51:00.009+01:00

After a week of demolition, concrete laying, website design and illustration we were needed in the city again for cat-sitting duties in the Tenderloin. We headed in on the Thursday (23rd June) and made the bum run from BART to the flat in about six minutes which is not unlike doing the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs. Inevitably I needed pizza so we walked up Polk Street to one of the several branches of Escape From New York pizza where I eat my face off for eight bucks. I swear every slice of pizza from Escape From New York tastes like the best slice I've ever eaten. It renders all other food useless.

We headed down Union Street which is all posh boutiques and fancy shoe shops (so of no use to me whatsoever) and jumped on a bus to Lower Haight where we met up with an old friend of Annie's at Molotov's for happy hour. It rapidly turned into three or four happy hours before we made our way back to the TL for a few pre-Chutney beers at the Nite Cap where I made friends with some dood called Leroy. See below. He was a nice guy but didn't do rounds which is always a bit annoying.

Waking up the next day with a sizable hangover and a pizza sized hole in my stomach I decided to go on a mammoth record trawl around SF starting on Valencia Street which is conveniently only a block over from another Escape From New York pizza. In a fair and just world I would be the size of a large barn but apparently my metabolism is just about busy enough to stay on top of things. At least for now. Valencia Street runs parallel with Mission Street and is a long stretch of vintage clothes shops, book shops, art galleries and hipster hang outs, not forgetting the excellent Aquarius Records which stocks mostly new and interesting vinyl from the likes of Finders Keepers etc. After having a mooch about in Dog Eared Books and a few other shops and galleries I attempted to find my way to Lower Haight via Needles and Pens which is still showing the Nigel Peake exhibition we originally saw in May.

As mentioned in previous blogs Haight Street has several great record shops so I spent the afternoon rummaging through them all where I managed to pick up a few off my wants list including The Poppy Family lp which I've been after for a few years now but I've always been slightly hesitant to pay over the odds for shipping from the US/Canada. Unfortunately in leaving it so long it's gone from a $3 record to $40 - I think somewhere along the line it must have been sampled or comped so what I saved on shipping I paid for in hype but I still managed to find a copy for $13 in Recycled Records.

A few hours later I tried to navigate my way back from Haight to the Tenderloin. Annie had told me in no uncertain terms to explicitly avoid the Western Addition - a government housing project that borders Fillmore Street and Japantown. Obviously I got thoroughly lost en-route and managed to walk directly through it but it was fine. In the course of the day I'd somehow clocked up ten miles plus of walking mostly I expect from getting a bit lost. We eat at Japantown in the evening before having some drinks at the Ha-Ra on Geary - a dive bar in the TL owned by a friendly fella called Rick.

The next day I spent the morning illustrating until Annie woke up and then we set off towards Fort Mason to see the Ed Hardy exhibition. There are some pictures below - we'd seen a lot of the pieces previously as Annie's friend had helped put together the frames and assemble the show but it was still great to see them in a more formal setting. The early city scape illustration is stunning.

Afterwards we got the bus up to Outer Richmond to have a look in Green Apple Books and then headed back to the TL before making our way through the craziness of the Dyke March in and around Union Square to BART. Zig-zagging through the crowds of revelers I heard a succession of what I thought sounded like gun-fire only to be told it was probably firecrackers. On arriving back in Orinda we discovered it was in fact gun fire - there'd been some gang-related shootings a block over from us as we made our way through the city.

The next few days involved mixing up nearly one hundred bags of concrete for the foundation of Annie's parents house, an afternoon in Berkeley to purchase an authentic ninja costume, working on a super secret illustration and a rainy drive through SF occasionally stopping at the more far-flung record and book shops. We also went to see Terence Malick's 'Tree of Life' at the cinema. I have mixed feelings about it. There are some genuinely stunning cinematic moments at the beginning of the film with the creation and evolution of the universe that demand viewing on the big screen. Elements of the [slightly] more traditionally narrative sections of the film involving Jack O'Brien's (Brad Pitt) suburban 1950's family life are endearing but like most of Malick's films it's also exceptionally ethereal; unfortunately to the point of actually traveling up it's own celestial arse. I'd liken it to a magical multi-coloured fart - fantastical to look at but ultimately just air-bound tiny molecules of poo. Actually that's a bit harsh but I would say it's the dullest dinosaur flick I've ever seen and certainly not on par with 'Badlands' or 'The Thin Red Line'.

On Wednesday (29th June) we got BART into the city arriving at the Civic Centre where we took a quick tour of the Town Hall. I tend to feel slightly guilty for not ticking enough tourist boxes when I'm in other countries but not quite enough to actually stop going to record shops, book shops, pizza joints and dive bars to do touristy stuff instead but I made an exception for the Town Hall. It's quite spectacular inside - so much so there are lots of other tourists drifting about taking exactly the same photographs which tends to make me not want to take photographs at all. So I've googled one instead.

We paid our respects to Harvey Milk and departed walking to Valencia Street to eat pizza and mooch about in record shops, book shops and thrift stores before meeting one of Annie's friend in a dive bar. Feeling suitably buzzed we made our way through the Mission to an art/zine fair in Potrero where despite a low turn-out managed to buy ace (and dirt cheap) original artwork from up-and-coming Bay Area illustrators. I was drunk enough to attempt social interaction as well which is always fun so I got to talk about various technical stuff ("what pens do you use? ") and the joys of trying to work with colour despite having a deep-seated fear of it. Good to know it's not just me then. Pick of the bunch were illustrators Taylor Wessling and Chelsea Brown. I managed to get a couple of pieces from them including this original pen and ink work by Taylor which I'm totally in awe of.

We left feeling a bit on the wobbly side but happy to have attended and participated in such an event. By participated I mean I gave some zines away. On the way back to BART we stopped off for a quick beer in the most Mexican bar I've ever been to. We were the only gringos in there but were warmly welcomed with only moderately over-priced cans of future Mexican beer. Such was the decor and atmosphere I was dying to take photos but Annie felt this would be in poor taste. If you're ever in SF make sure to stop by for a drink - it's on 16th and Capp Street...

San Francisco part 7

2011-06-26T04:05:00.024+01:00

I'm gradually falling behind in writing these occasional blogs about the fair city of San Francisco but a couple of slightly slower weeks involving much demolition means I will now attempt to get back up-to-date. It's also dawned on me the title of this blog should be 'Bay Area part whatever' seeing as it involves Orinda, Berkely and Oakland as well as the city.

On Thursday (June 9th) we drove down to Santa Cruz for a long weekend with some of Annie's family at the Borden Home. The traffic on the way down was slow-going but we rewarded ourselves with some fine cuisine upon arrival. Well Jack In The Box but as far as I'm concerned it's the best fast food hamburger joint in the US and God only knows I need a break from pizza albeit a rather unwelcome one.

After an afternoon of mooching around Logos in Santa Cruz we headed back to the house to meet Patrick, Stefi and their little boy Aidan and stoked up the BBQ for dinner. This was my first encounter with hot links and oh my - what an encounter - it was love at a first bite. They're unusually spicy beef (!) sausages and they're also for all intents and purposes as morish as crack. After a pleasant evening of beer and food we decided to check out the local dive bar 'Brady's Yacht Club'. Annie had made some big claims about what a seedy establishment it was so I was a little disappointed to be welcomed so warmly. Well in so much as we bought cheap PBR all night and everyone pretty much ignored us as we got [un]steadily drunker and drunker.

The following three days were happily similarly relaxing - bbqs, hot links, bonfires and beer - it was a really welcome holiday within the grander holiday that is America. Not sure that makes sense but I barely lifted a pencil the entire time which ultimately made me a bit miserable by the Sunday so I forced myself to do some drawing but I have grand plans for the resulting illustration so you'll have to settle for looking at our patented honey mustard chicken kebabs for now.

I did manage to take a photograph of the building I draw previously in Santa Cruz so you can see how much has changed in Seabright in a hundred years or so. The dogs gone for a start.

We drove further down the Californian coast to Carmel on the Monday but the further South we drove the cloudier it got so by the time we arrived it was well and truly overcast. The town itself must be a rich area judging by the numerous foo foo shops and boutiques. Even the bookshop was posh and rubbish so we headed to the beach where we were accosted by tiny beach squirrels. All well and good until the larger and suitably rougher looking parent squirrel turned up and started bulling Annie so we made a speedy retreat back to Santa Cruz vowing to bring Pepperjack (Annie's cattledog) along with us the next time for some much needed muscle.

Back in Santa Cruz the sun was still out so I wandered into town back to Logos and some other book shops and in the evening we went to Coles BBQ where I stupidly opted for 16oz of pork ribs. They make incredible ribs but you really only need the 12oz portion - I've ticked the pork rib box for this three month trip and have no desire to repeat it. I'm still picking bits of pork out of my teeth three weeks later.

We drove back to Orinda on the Tuesday (14th) where I managed a three mile run around the lake. Since running the London Marathon I've only managed a handful of runs despite my pledge to maintain some level of fitness. It's not helped that my toes are still fucked from the experience three months on. After running I finally plucked up enough courage to start constructing my very own website. It's at least two years late and I still have a lot of content to upload and some tweaks to make but you can see the work-in-progress here. I'm going to change the banner so that each set of illustrations sit at the top of the page and also upgrade to get my own URL but it's coming along and was a lot easier than I feared. Hopefully when completed it will encourage a deluge of illustration work for me. Well that's the idea at least - I need some work pretty desperately. Feel free to comment on any glitches or parts that you find ungainly - all comments are more than welcome.

On Wednesday I did more website work and in the evening got BART into Berkeley to go through Rasputin's Record shop basement with a fine-toothed comb. I concentrated mainly on the sale section - it's a novel thing for me to be able to buy new albums for a few dollars. I've never seen new vinyl in UK shops knocked down in price to the same extent; I picked up still sealed records from the likes of Alasdair Roberts, Fog, Jeffrey Lewis, The Owl Service and a Sufjan Stevens related gospel album plus some slightly battered John Renbourn and Don Ellis records all for no more than a few dollars a piece. All in all a good days work.

The following day we headed into the city to catch Travis Millard's new show with Mel Kadel at FFDG. Holy shit I love his work. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again but he is my favourite illustrator on earth. And Mel's work was/is fantastic to. Here are some photos we took that I really ought to lighten and clean but I can't be arsed. You really need to see the show to do it justice anyway. Even if you live in the UK. Especially if you live in the UK.

Mel's;

The guy working at FFDG looked so engrossed in his game of mine sweeper me and Annie seriously considered grabbing a couple of pieces off the wall and doing a runner with them. Instead we wandered over to Molotov's for some beers and pinball before we finished up at Chutney's again where the Indian Spiral Stairs laughed as we ordered exactly the same as we did the last time we were there.

The next week was a mixture of website construction, illustration and a good deal of demolition and digging. I spent one day breaking up a driveway with a ridiculously heavy pneumatic drill, then a day or so later helped dig up six truck loads of dirt from the basement and escorted them to a nearby hole. All of which gets this blog virtually up-to-date. If you made it this far high fives all round - go and make yourself a nice cup of tea to celebrate and while you're at stick one in the post for me - tea out here tastes kind of funky.

Ride Roosterman Ride!

2011-06-22T04:02:00.003+01:00

I have a new t-shirt design up on Threadless which seems to be dying the death of a thousand damp farts already. Click here to try and give it some rescue breaths back into life. Failing that score it high and write nice things about it but don't worry too much as I think it may be beyond hope already.

In future I should probably stick to cutesy AT-AT's doing wacky dog related stuff.

San Francisco part 6

2011-06-20T21:00:00.009+01:00

On Sunday (June 5th) we had to send a mysterious package to Kuwait which involved me doing a super-quick drawing of Goober, the cat we were looking after. He's a big lump of a thing and give or take some night-time freak-outs (mostly on his part) I actually rather liked him despite my usual indifference to pets.

We then walked up through North Beach to Fisherman's Wharf which is something of a tourist hot-spot (or honey pot*) but not without it's charms. For a start there's the delightful Musee Mecanique which is crammed full of slightly sinister antiquated amusement machines a lot of which wouldn't seem out of place in a League of Gentlemen episode. Temporarily lacking direction in life I chanced my arm on the Career Pilot only to be informed I'm ideally suited to the career of 'Hot Air Artist'. This speaks volumes given my penchant for talking up a myriad of art projects and only completing a pathetic number of them. So I smashed the fuck out of it and spent the rest of my tokens playing pinball and the original Star Wars arcade game.

On the way back to the flat we stumbled across an art exhibition featuring the work of Marta Elise Johansen entitled 'Recondite Landscapes' which baffling explanations aside made for some stunning artwork. I thought I had issues with attention to detail but her drawings are eye-bleedingly detailed - the lines are so tightly drawn together that when you step away from them they look like almost 3d with a relief all of their own. Below Annie refuses to adhere to common courtesies usually associated with art exhibitions by leaving her tag all over this piece.

Feeling suitably cultured we headed off to find happy hour beers to cleanse ourselves of such bourgeois activities only to discover we were too late. Instead we paid over the odds for beers in hipster hang-out the Hemlock where the rounds seemed to increase by a dollar at each order. Needless to say we left pretty sharply.

The next day involved a great deal of fucking around with the aforementioned package to Kuwait which also required us to return to North Beach for the umpteenth time but it did allow for a quick root through a record shop - 101 Records - the sister store on Grant/Green to the one I mentioned before with the basement full of crap. This one is much more organized though with a nice selection of vinyl and I managed to pick up Gabor Szabo's brilliant 'Bacchanal' lp for a decent price.

Back at the flat I got a chance to try out my new cheap gouache paints. I've an idea for a film poster I want to redesign but rather than hurtle head first into it I thought I'd be better off doing some research and preliminary illustrations. There's a first time for everything...

I quickly discovered that I much prefer using water colours and I spent the rest of the day doing more research illustrations but I haven't had a chance to scan them yet. We end the day with a curry at Chuntey's and some beers - the way all days should ideally end.

The next day we left the Tenderloin and headed to BART for a train back to Orinda. As if to signify the completion of the TL (level 1 at least - we're cat-sitting again in a few weeks) the sun finally made an appearance after what felt like weeks of rain.

In the evening we got BART back into Oakland to see old-school hardcore band Youth of Today. It was something of an occasion for the Bay Area hardcore scene so everyone was out in force. And wearing black. Nobody told me I had to wear black so I felt a little bit out of place in my jaunty coloured hooded top but considering just how furiously perturbed some of these hardcore bands seem to be the fans are surprisingly friendly. I wasn't overly enamoured with the other bands on the line up but Youth of Today were brutal - short, sharp, shouty Dischord style hardcore jut the way I like it. And just the way the crowd liked it as well apparently - I've never seen so much stage-diving and energy in a venue. I stood at the back clapping vigorously to show my appreciation especially when they covered Minor Threat's classic 'Minor Threat'. AWESOME SQUARED.

The following day was a little less eventful but I did manage some more record shopping at Rasputin's sprawling vinyl basement in Berkely where I picked up a few dirt cheap goodies. I even squeezed in some design work later on in the day to help finance this whole SF adventure.

* Human Geography degree related humour. Minus the humour.

San Francisco part 5

2011-06-15T07:53:00.016+01:00

I have a theory people go through three stages when they spend time in the Tenderloin. The first stage is one of shock mixed with fear; the sheer number of crack-addled and/or crazy down and outs as you wander a block or two beyond Union Square is quite unsettling if you're not familiar with American cities. I've spent time brief spells in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle and I was still fairly anxious to get from Union Square to our temporary place of residence/refuge deep in the Tenderloin as quickly as possible.

The second stage of the TL is an uneasy melancholy as you navigate your way through the intimidating dealers, dog-rough hookers and the mentally unstable folk to the corner store for a beer and some crisps. Witness Annie getting her drink on.

The third stage is absolute indifference to the point of barely noticing as you pass an old guy squatting on the street grumbling his way through a crap whilst simultaneously attempting to beg from you.

I went through all three stages in about forty eight hours. It's really sad but you build up a mental force field after no time at all and quickly forget about all the shit (often literally) going on around you. And I have to say after that period of time I didn't feel particularly threatened or uneasy at all but I was also aware of not getting to complacent about the TL.

On the flip-side you can piss anywhere there. I quickly got used to seeing people pissing up the side of parked SUVs and goodness knows finding a place to have a wee in SF is a challenge so that's a bonus. Incidentally I didn't take this picture but it was one of the first images that came up when I googled Tenderloin, SF...

As mentioned in the previous [and fascinating] installment we were cat/flat-sitting in the TL for a few days which was an ideal way to spend some time in the city without the hassle of BART. The best way to get a feel for somewhere is to walk around it and the TL is ideally located, central to a lot of the most interesting places in SF. North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf/Haight and the Divisadero/Japantown and Fillmore/Downtown and Market Street/the Castro and Noe Valley are all within reasonable walking distance for your run-of-the-mill Englishman.

The first night there we managed to blag tickets on to the guest-list for a Gruff Rhys show at the Rickshaw Stop. I've seen him a few times over the years and he's always great but it was especially good seeing him in such a small venue - there looked to be no more than two hundred in the audience. He's currently touring with Welsh surf-rockers Y Niwl who act as support band and backing band to Gruff. Typically I'm not into bands doing something so obviously derivative but Y Niwl are fucking aces very nearly giving Gruff a run for his money performance wise. Loud fuzz-drenched surf guitaring. What more could you want?

As for Gruff he played a stonking hour and a half set featuring a mix of the new Hotel Shampoo stuff and plenty of older favourites too much to the annoyance of Annie who struggles when bands play for more than twenty minutes due to her hardcore/punk yoof. He even managed to do live looping off of a turntable with the Cyrkle record Andy Votel sampled on 'Shark Ridden Waters' which I was [probably overly] impressed with. I was less impressed when a drunken Brit managed to sit on the same turntable later on during the set. It's such a relief not to be the drunken Brit for once.

The following day I set out of the flat reasonably early to find some pizza for breakfast. I got a little distracted in the process and walked to North Beach via some stunning views of the city and less stunning gradients. I've watched the car-chases in Bullitt but you really have to walk up a few SF hills before you can grasp quite how steep some of them are. I ended up in an art store in the process of moving buildings and managed to buy some cheap gouache paints. In retrospect they may have been a little too cheap - they're not as opaque as I was hoping for.

Ignoring my increasingly unhappy stomach I walked back through Chinatown to the Downtown district where I found a slightly lost Rasputin's record store. The neighbouring shops in the area are predominantly huge businesses like Nike and Macys so it's a refreshing to see an independent record shop holding it's own in amongst them. After a cursory glance through the main shelves of records I started to root through all of the boxes of marked down vinyl waiting to be rehoused. Aside from paying full price for the new Fleet Foxes album I managed to pick up a few cheapies like Leo Kottke's 'Mudlark' lp (featuring the brilliant 'Hear the Wind Howl') which I'd always ignored due to the fact the cover is more 1981 than 1971, Tim Hardin's near-perfect '2' lp, I took a two dollar gamble on Traffic's 'Mr Fantasy' lp and got some newer albums heavily marked down as well (Julie Doiron, Peter Broderick, Risil) all for about $30. All well and good until I nearly fainted from lack of food - it was near enough 4.00pm by the time I left Rasputin's and I still hadn't eaten. I seem to have developed the ability to totally forget to eat of late which is slightly unsettling. I made my way back to the flat and grabbed a slice of pizza en-route which turned out to be a bit of a crap slice. Even so a crap slice in the US is still an ace slice by UK standards.

Still feeling like I wanted to see more of the city I left the flat again and headed up Polk Street to Russian Hill Bookstore where I resisted the urge to buy this incredible looking trashy pulp sci-fi 'The Escape Orbit'. The cover may be a thing of illustrative wonder but $10 is a little rich for a beaten up and almost certainly crap read no matter how good the cover.

That said, $10 is more than agreeable for a delicious Indian meal which is exactly what we did for dinner at a restaurant called 'Chutney' deep in the TL. America may do the best pizza but in my experience the curries are pretty bland compared to any UK curry house, however, Chutney's is great. $10 - $15 will buy you a delicious lamb curry with a side of rice, a kebab and a naan. As if that wasn't enough to tempt you, you can bring your own huge can of Mexican future beer to accompany your meal and perhaps the best part of the experience [at least for me]; the manager looks the spitting image of Spiral Stairs from Pavement. Well an Indian version of Spiral Stairs anyway.

After all the Beat inspired touring around SF it seemed a fitting end to the day watching 'Howl'. Unfortunately it's a bit of a mess let down by some terrible, over-egged animation sequences.

The following day we headed up to Haight on Muni where I forced Annie to eat more pizza at Escape From New York's and then forced her to come to Amoeba Records with me. I've probably mentioned the former already - best pizza in SF. The latter is a huge record shop established in a former bowling alley and is equally aces. And fucking huge.

We then fought our way through the throngs of crusty punk-kids and hippie carnage that is Haight down to the more agreeable Lower Haight taking in the beautiful houses as we went until we reached Rooky Records.

Rooky's is a joyous record shop crammed full of 45's most of which are funk and soul so not especially my bag but given it was a Saturday the place was rammed. There's three or four listening turntables in there and each one was being used by vinyl fanatics sifting through piles of the wonderful black stuff. Inconceivably most of the people in the shop looked like normal people - I'm used to sharing record shops with the unholy funk of unkempt and often socially retarded freaks so Rooky's nearly made me cry with happiness. Unfortunately I left open-handed as Annie wasn't keen on waiting around but I will return and soon.

We left Lower Haight and walked over to Japantown via the Fillmore district inadvertently gate-crashing so informal Manga convention where assorted boys and girls spent the afternoon copying Manga characters in their sketchbooks. Annie wanted me to fight them by way of some kind of elaborate draw off but I was too scared plus I felt a bit of a creepy paedo trying to oogle at their illustrations.

After we were run out of Japantown by a gang of twelve year old girls dressed as Manga characters we got the bus to Inner Richmond where we returned to Green Apple Books which is fast becoming my favourite book shop in SF. After a delicious Thai dinner recommended by some random bro with the immortal lines 'dude - you can eat your face off there for ten dollars' we chanced upon Park Life a art/design book shop come gallery with some incredible original Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee prints. I eventually managed to roll my tongue back in my mouth but not before we were informed that there's going to be a Margaret Kilgallen exhibition in SF in July. RAD. A dozen or so happy hour beers later we headed home armed with a rucksack full of Hello Panda snacks feeling all kinds of awesomez.

San Francisco part 4

2011-06-09T08:15:00.013+01:00

On Sunday (29th May) we drove into the city to North Beach where Annie had a job interview which gave me an afternoon to explore so I made my way along Columbus Avenue to visit the Beat Museum. North Beach has long been associated with the Beat generation; Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy both spent time living in the neighborhood alongside Allen Ginsberg and a host of other Beat writers and poets frequenting the numerous cafes and bars of the area. Despite this the Beat Museum was a bit of a disappointment with a few too many wonky Beat inspired shit paintings and some antiquated furniture the likes of which Kerouac might have had in his apartment.

Over the road from the Beat Museum is Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore which is also steeped in Beat history - a meeting point for counter-culture revolutionaries which also doubled as a publisher. It was here that Ginsberg's 'Howl and Other Poems' was originally published in 1956 as part of the Pocket Poets Series established by Ferlinghetti although I must confess I wasn't especially struck by any great feeling for the place although I tend to struggle with book shops that don't sell second hand books.

I then spent an hour rooting around in the basement of a record/music shop which claims to have 50,000 records. Unfortunately they don't seem to be in any particular order so despite a few near misses (PiL's 'Metal Box' filled with Fine Young Cannibal's vinyl - a sick joke...) I left open-handed.

The illustrator Micheal Sieben is a long-time favourite of mine and he's part of an exhibition currently running in North Beach called 'Almost Always' at the Double Punch Gallery so after my fruitless record rummage I met Annie there. The show features six new original illustrations and three new screen-prints compiled from his on-going work for Thrasher Magazine and it's all aces. The prints especially are the bee's cock. Don't fret - I'll get bored of that expression fairly soon. Some of the artwork is still available if you click on the Double Punch link above.

Here's a slightly awkward photo of me looking uncomfortable quite near the aforementioned artwork. I realized a little while ago I'm not taking nearly enough photos because I hate taking them and I hate being in them. I do however like to own them. Annoying eh? But not as annoying as the jaunty angle I've started wearing my new hat at.

We then headed up to Haight for more pizza and onto Inner Richmond to a huge independent book shop called Green Apple Books which also does a nice line in second hand records. I'm starting to bore myself talking about second hand record shops and books shops - I intend to make some kind of SF zine when I get back featuring a spods guide to the city. I intend to do a lot of things though so don't get too excited.

The following day we headed into the city again - Annie had chores to do all day so I had the day to myself. Or so I thought. With the help of a friendly passer-by I managed to negotiate the Muni system from Market Street all the way up to Noe Valley. Noe Valley is the SF equivalent of Stoke Newington from what I can gather - lots of well-to-do thirty something folk into pilates and yoghurt-weaving fruiting about in foo-foo boutiques. That said it does have a great book shop called Phoenix Books where I managed to find a cheap but battered (just the way I like 'em) copy of Richard Brautigan's 'Trout Fishing in America' and a reasonably priced copy of 'Best American Comics 2008'. I'm a sucker for comic/graphic novel compendiums and this one has some excellent pieces from heavy-weights like Chris Ware and Seth but the stand out work for me is Eleanor Davis's 'Seven Sacks' which manages to combine beautiful artwork with an unnervingly sinister storyline. She also provides the cover artwork for the book which is fantastic and did much to persuade me to exchange money for goods. Much of her artwork is gouache-based which inspires me to seek out some gouache. Without wanting to change my style too drastically (what style I hear you say?) I really want to start incorporating more colour in my work and not just at the final Photoshop or screen-printed stage.

Having plundered Phoenix Books for all it's worth I left Noe Vally and set off towards Lower Haight via the Castro for an extended peruse through the record shops but Annie managed to get out of her commitments and met me in a comic shop in the Castro. We change our plans accordingly to involve more beer/pizza and less books/records. Oddly Annie doesn't have the same lust for dog-eared books and musty vinyl as I do so instead we drove over to Inner Sunset for a wander but didn't encounter much beyond a tasty doughnut shop. We decided to spend the late afternoon at Ocean Beach sitting on walls looking thoughtfully out to sea as if pondering deep thoughts when in actual fact we were just thinking about what pizza joint to hit up next.

The next couple of days we helped out in the basement on more digging and concrete mixing/laying duties. It wasn't so bad - the weather has been pretty changeable since I arrived and the last week of May was really wet and cold so it's not especially conducive to fun times. Following the renovations we left the sanctuary and peace of Orinda (save a few leaf blowers right folks?*) for a few days to cat/flat-sit in the city in the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin is an interesting neighbourhood. Interesting if you like people swearing at you/robbing you/stabbing you/doing a shit on you/all of the above...

*Orinda based topical humour!

'Waiting For The Mail' illustration

2011-06-08T20:58:00.002+01:00

Here's the illustration I did in Santa Cruz of the post office building which was at one point owned by some relations of Annie. I'll post up more information when I get a chance and an up-to-date photo of the building as well.

San Francisco part 3

2011-06-04T19:45:00.007+01:00

It's not all drawing, boozing and pizza over here you know. There has also been some digging and I don't mean in the hip hop sense of digging for records (although there has been some of that). Annie's parents are redoing their basement which has involved much demolition most of which I conveniently missed whilst still in the UK however there was a hole to be dug. It's been a long time since I did any digging and it only took about five minutes for me to remember exactly why - it's blooming hard work. We eventually finished with the construction of an elaborate steel-reinforced concrete foundation a couple of days ago and I still ache. I never thought I'd be posting up pictures of holes I've dug on this blog but there's a first time for everything...

In amongst the digging and concrete mixing I've managed to do a few drawings too - in fact I rather like the combination of manual labour followed by a few hours of creative farting about. I was quite impressed with the ink wash techniques I experimented with whilst in Santa Cruz so I've been trying to simplify my line work and enhancing my illustrations with similar ink washes. Here's an illustration I did of a photograph taken by Gavin Watson for his stunning 'Skins and Punks' book. The hardest thing for me is resisting the temptation to over-egg every little detail but I just about managed it here for a quick and simple line drawing before layering on several ink washes.

The following day (Thursday 26th) after another afternoon of digging and squaring off my beloved trench we headed into the city to the prestigious Fillmore venue for Yeasayer. I've seen them a few times over the years to the point where I was slightly blasé about going but it only took about a minute to realise how foolish this response was - they're still the best indie-dance-pop band on Earth - I only wish I'd brought along my Benny Bollinger patented 'Rave Cape'. It was going off down the front. So much so Annie insisted we move further back to avoid the sweaty throngs of bouncing hipsters with elaborate hair cuts. Yeasayer played a greatest hits set (pretty much a given considering they're only two albums deep) with a few new songs thrown in. I wasn't especially moved by the new stuff but it took me a while to make the transition from the freakish guitar-dirge of 'All Hour Cymbals' to the dance-pop of 'Odd Blood' anyway so what the fuck do I know? As it was 'Madder Red' was my favourite song of the night and the Fillmore's sound is absolutely incredible as you would expect for a venue steeped in so much history. As we filed out into Geary Street clutching onto our free gig posters (nice touch - bit dubious about the free apples though) Annie and myself squirmed at the realization that Yeasayer were probably 'our' band. Then we both vomited copiously.

On Friday I was feeling lethargic and struggled to get going - I eventually started drawing a rooster-man riding on a motorbike. I'll post it up at some point but I still need to tweak some of it. We then headed into the city for the evening to do some secret special work which I cannot disclose on these pages at this time. Which is a shame as it was good fun and bizarrely high-profile in an art sense but whatever. We did manage to work until two in the morning with a quick donut run at about half one - late night donut runs in the Tenderloin on a Friday are something of an eye opener. It's like the bastard off-spring of a Cannibal Ox song ("crack heads stand adjacent, anger displacement, food stamp arrangements...") and one of those ridiculous real life MTV television programmes based in LA where beautiful simpletons who can barely construct a sentence ('I was like, she was like, he was like') preen around vacuously trying to rut with each other; it makes for an unusual mix especially when you're stone cold sober. The former are TL regulars and the latter are 'bridge and tunnelers' I'm informed. It didn't seem pertinent to mention we traveled in over a bridge...

Saturday morning was the Champions League final US style. Inexplicably Fox had decided to show the football and in doing so constantly felt the urge to remind us exactly how excited we should be to be witnessing such an awesome soccer event. They also chose a fucking cretin by way of a host that I-shit-you-not made me long for Adrian Chiles ("a talking Toby jug full of steaming hot piss"). Within the first ten minutes we were given a full break-down of how the rules to 'soccer' differ from American football, there was a 'Hot Match-Up' section sponsored by Pizza Hut (Pique and Shakira in case you were wondering) and a lengthy and open discussion about Mr. Super-injunction himself. We were also introduced to Wayne Rooney - an awesome footballer known for scoring 'crazy, sick goals' as apposed to being a fat, over-rated, money-grabbing, jug-eared cunt. All of this came to a welcome grinding halt at kick off when I was whisked back to England to the dour tones of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith for the commentary. It was a pleasure seeing Man Utd torn apart with relative ease although I still don't understand why nobody in the Premiership noticed how shit their midfield was during the season. I'm straying a bit far from drawing and records at this point - bare with me.

In the evening we were in a shady part of Oakland at the metal oasis that is 'Eli's Mile High Club' working the door for Midnight Chaser. I nearly didn't get to work the door because I forgot my id. Is that ironic? I've forgotten how all that irony stuff works. Having convinced the bouncer I was over 21 we spent the evening drinking Olympia Beer and taking money on the door whilst three metal bands shredded to varying degrees in the background. The first band Lechourous Gaze were pretty enjoyable - I struggle a bit with guitar solos but when they reigned those in a bit they were pretty tight. Midnight Chaser were a joyous mighty noise - taking the Awesome Righteous Shredding of the Evening award (A.R.S.E) - the lad Scott on vocals seems to have channeled all of the best bits of Rob Halford (rock fist of justice n' all) and seems to possess the lungs of a gargantuan behemoth at least twice his stature. By which I mean he can sing. As for the last band - I wasn't so keen - I couldn't quite grasp their name either. I've seen Anvil. I appreciate they've probably been paying dues forever but it just made me a bit sad. Plus all that daytime boozing for the football caught up with me.

I was going to write more than this but we're currently cat-sitting in a food-free flat in the Tenderloin, it's half one in the afternoon and I'm dead hungry. You are saved for now...

Richard Brautigan portrait

2011-06-01T06:51:00.003+01:00

I have a fair bit of artwork to put up on the blog from a fortnight of drawing but I'm still without Photoshop so even the simplest cropping and colour tweaks are proving tricky. In the meantime here's a speedy portrait I did of Richard Brautigan based on the cover of his classic novel 'Trout Fishing in America'. On a recommendation I managed to find a beaten up copy in Phoenix Books in Noe Valley yesterday for a few dollars; after a couple of weeks of creative inspiration last night I was blank so I reached for the nearest thing to draw. Richard Brautigan cuts a lean and dandy figure in the photograph which incidentally was taken in San Francisco's Washington Square. The same cannot be said for his female companion - all I'm saying is don't shoot the illustrator...

The portrait was done with dipping pen and indian ink with an additional ink wash. For some reason the darker washes bled a bit - I'm not sure if this was from erasing the pencil lines after the line-work had been completed [prior to the washes] - I know sometimes if I erase pencil lines prior to doing my line work this can make the paper more prone to bleeding. Any technical guidance would be greatly appreciated.

San Francisco part 2

2011-05-26T18:18:00.010+01:00

The last week or so has been relatively quiet which has meant lots of drawing - I'm managing to do a good few hours every day which feels great. It's been a long time since I could dedicate so much time to just drawing and experimenting with different techniques. Annie very generously set me up a drawing desk in her room where I've been busying myself with various long-term projects - it's amazing how much more work you can get done when your drawing desk is computer-free. I've also managed to squeeze in lots more second-hand record and book hunting in various parts of the Bay Area - as soon as I get a moment I'll post up the best pickings.

Last Thursday we headed into SF in the morning - Annie had a focus group and I had record shop vouchers burning a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately I was about two hours too early for Streetlight Records so I wandered over to Duboce Park for a read in the sun. It's the park that was used in Milk for Sean Penn's dog-shit scene in case you were wondering a couple of blocks over from Upper Haight. I met Annie at Aardvark Books then headed back up to Streetlight for some record foraging before moving on to the Mission for lunch. I've been less than impressed with Mexican food the few times I've had it but Annie swears by burritos and suggested we head to her favourite burrito joint Taqueria Can Cun where I had a meat burrito. It was mediocre. It also gave me Cannibal Corpse style food poisoning (ie violent, projectile, both ends, with blood).

Fortunately it didn't kick in until the following day so after my mediocre tasting poisonous burrito we headed up to Molotov's on Lower Haight which has one of the best juke boxes in SF (Kyuss, Gza/Genius, Black Sabbath, Fugazi, Toots and the Maytals, Gravediggaz, Minor Threat, The Specials etc) and drunk a whole bunch of beers. We eat again at Bean Bag on Divisidaro, a hipster hang-out with cheap beer and self-important twats for Annie to get into fights with and then headed home on BART.

By midday Friday I was writhing around in bed with a fever - hot and cold flushes, aching back and the sweats. Then I started vomiting up absolutely everything I'd eaten in the previous twenty four hours and as soon as all the food ran out I started vomiting blood instead. In my incapacitated state and suffering from fever-induced hallucinations I thought it was the Rapture coming for my heavenly soul. It was only a day or so later I worked out it was just a dodgy burrito.

On Saturday feeling a tad wobbly but significantly better we headed down to Santa Cruz for a couple of days - Annie has an old family home there a couple of blocks from the beach. It's a beautiful old wooden house built by her relatives aunt Nell and aunt Bess in the early 1900s with a thousand curious family antiquities left there from various generations of marauding Bordens. I could happily sit and draw all of it's contents from the stove to the stairwell. I don't though. I tend to just sit on the deck and drink beer instead but in a more productive illustrator's hands this place would be a treasure trove of creative inspiration.

After twenty four hours on a simple diet of water and crackers I woke on the Saturday morning early enough to watch the final day of the Premiership bizarrely featuring commentary from Steve McManaman. It's an odd way to start the day in sunny Santa Cruz and baring in mind the previous forty eight hours where I swore to myself to live on a strict fruitarian diet for the rest of my life I start the day with a big bowl of honey-bbq crisps and a bottle of Sprite. By lunchtime I manage to wolf down a huge slice of Woodstock's pizza and finish up with a few cans of Mexican future beer (Tecate) for tea. The less said the better really.

Much heavy lounging ensues for the next couple of days with a generous side-order of book and record digging at the mammoth Logos bookstore - one of my favourite spots in California given the double whammy of cheap books and cheap records aplenty. Pick of the finds is the Woody Allen 'Play It Again Sam' soundtrack lp which fingers crossed features the heavy psychedelia of the one, two, three dance scene - with or without the dialogue - I'm not fussy.

We have a slap-up lunch on the harbour the next day - the very same harbour that felt the after-shock of the tsunami a couple of months ago. I can remember chatting to Annie about the US news coverage of fat rich Americans crying because their expensive boats were getting a bit jostled by the waves all-the-while thousands of people in Japan were dying. Charlie Brooker done nailed it a few hours later here.

We also manage to squeeze in some flip flop powered languid cycling on cruisers, a trip to the local car-boot sale where I very nearly managed to purchase a portly Mexican child and I also did a rather good illustration of an old Borden business from a black and white photo I found. I've been experimenting with ink washes a fair bit of late and with some much needed discipline on my part (usually I'm too impatient to wait for the page to dry between washes) I think I nailed it.

On Tuesday we headed back to the Bay area for a hardcore night in the Mission featuring a friend's new band Boundaries plus Devotion, Run With The Hunted and Until Your Heart Stops. I think Boundaries aside my pick of the bunch were Until Your Heart Stops who played [to-my-ears] an inventive start-stop hardcore set with some metal inspired nods towards Quicksand - typically Annie disliked them. Headliners Devotion play an odd mixture of stoner rock and hardcore - I don't think the two styles particularly lend themselves to each other - one minute it's shouty, intense and urgent; the next minute the guitarist is trying to wig out with his wah wah peddle. Bare in my mind my points of reference for hardcore are pretty much limited to Minor Threat, Quicksand, Black Flag and Husker Du but it was a lot of fun watching all the vaguely homo-erotic aggressively macho dancing. With that sentence alone I should probably exclude myself from any future SF hardcore events...

And that's about it. Apologies for the lack of art stuff and banging on about food and records etc.