Baboonery

Hell of a Colour.

2012-02-02T20:39:00.001Z

I tried, I tried really hard today to get this up as some sort of zoom-in-able PDF thing or lovely flash flip-page book complete with crinkling page sound effects so that you could actually read the damn thing, but... well, it just didn't happen.

After many wasted hours this afternoon, I was about ready to chew through the desk in frustration, but a week ago today I fell off my bike on an icy patch and gave my ribs a proper good crack, and I've just taken two of the wonking great painkillers that the doctor gave me yesterday and I'm a lot more relaxed about it all than I was a couple of hours ago. So I thought what the hell, just get it posted. You can at least look at the pictures. Look at all the pretty colours. Wow.

Anyway: it's a technical exercise in learning how to colour (and letter better) but also a sincere tip of the hat to Mr. Mignola for creating such a great character, and to the likes of Duncan Fegredo and Richard Corben for all their fantastic and inspirational illustration. I dare say it's a copyright infringement festival, but it's not for sale, just a big doff of the hat.

(Right click & 'open image in new tab' lets you zoom in and read.)

A Game of Cat & Mouse

2012-01-01T11:21:00.000Z

The eternal struggle between good and evil rages on; and what happens when jelly Goes Bad.

(I'm sorry if it's fuzzy to read, Blogger seems to hate font. It's available in smaller, clearer doses here.)

Well, Did You?

2011-12-28T12:59:00.003Z

Paws For Thought

2011-12-24T18:22:00.001Z

It's probably about time to stop work for the holidays and have a glass of something red and fortifying.

Thank you to everyone who stops by from time to time and has a look at what I do, your interest is very welcome. I hope you like at least some of what you see. Thanks too to the many, many fantastic artists I've been following this year, your work has been inspiring and daunting in equal measures.

Just a quick preview of what's coming up in the near future, for which I have made my blog tantalisingly wider.

Merry Christmas to you all. It's a pleasure to share an internet with you.

Draw Hellboy

2011-12-24T13:51:00.000Z

A quick Hellboy sketch for @themooks 'drawhellboy' hashtag thing on Twitter. Get me.

And a quick colouring job I did on Christmas morning. I woke up thinking about it.

Handsome People - Gail.

2011-12-22T22:15:00.000Z

Gail with the Golden Hair.

She goes barmy in the end.

Out in the red rock desert   /   sitting on the roof of my car
drinking cans of warm beer   /   watching the sky get dark
Gail and I shot our empties /    with an old, rusted rifle
Her golden hair went flying   /    like a wild, brush fire

CHORUS: when the mountains turned red at dusk

time passed in the burning desert / & the tumbleweeds they tumbled
we lay in a golden fire / as the screaming buzzards circled
far down in the darkened valley   / the city lights still twinkled
but my eyes saw only Gail    /   and her hair in golden fire

CHORUS: when the mountains turned red at dusk

but the fire burned right through her / Gail followed unseen voices
they led her to the city /   deep in the darkened valley
I drove circles through the alleys   /    calling my burning lover
but Gail ran deeper in the gloom /   screaming at the street lights
and I lost her there forever   /   deep in the valley’s darkness
my Gail with the golden hair   /   that burned as bright as fire

CHORUS: when the mountains turned red at dusk

Lyrics by Renee Sparks.

Crossroads

2011-12-21T13:46:00.001Z

A meeting at the crossroads.

I'm practising computer colouring by doing something else but I got sidetracked into colouring this because I wanted to see how it turned out.

Hubert Sumlin

2011-12-05T11:10:00.001Z

Hubert Sumlin, long-time guitarist for Howlin' Wolf, has died at the age of 80. There were few electric blues guitarists more electric.

Handsome People

2011-11-30T12:25:00.001Z

Inspired by Dan Berry's splendid 'After We Shot the Grizzly', I've spent the last couple of days listening to The Handsome Family again. Not only are the songs great - peculiar, condensed short stories - they are full of intriguing characters. Last night I sat down with a glass of wine and a sketch book to see who emerged as I listened.

For the magnifying glass boy, I was going for some sort of mutant Norman Rockwell kid. He looks too old, but mutant enough.

Once I've done some other stuff, I'd quite like to work these up into more finished portraits.

Casting a Net.

2011-11-23T17:26:00.001Z

eVole prepares to unleash the Netzooka* while Mouse makes for the controls of the Wobbulator.

*(It was a Net-o-Matic until I was preparing this blog post, when I realised I'd not drawn the name on, and then I thought of 'Netzooka' anyway. A happy accident. I like it when that happens.)

I also know there's two rungs on the ladder where there should only be one. It'll aaaall get sorted. GIMP covers up a thousand things.

Behold - THE WOBBULATOR!

2011-11-18T12:58:00.001Z

(Says Mouse.) You know... for kids.

Behold, the original wobbulator. The brown box under the one Lenin is leaning on (while Jackie Stewart and Fairport Convention look on) - that's the wobbulator.

Squarescapes.

2011-11-17T16:12:00.001Z

New squarescapes.

From Lindisfarne, Out to Sea, oil on canvas, 20cm x 20cm.

Mainland, From Lindisfarne, oil on canvas, 20cm x 20cm.

Moonrise, Chirnside Station, oil on canvas, 20cm x 20cm.

Snow Shadows, oil on canvas, 20cm x 20cm.

Sketch for Snow Shadows.

Handsome

2011-11-16T15:21:00.001Z

I like comics. I like the Handsome Family. But what are the odds that the inhabitants of this overlapping area of the Venn diagram could be satisfied by one single item?

Why, look! -

'After We Shot The Grizzly' - words by the Handsome Family, lovely pencil and ink wash illustrations by Dan Berry. Crashed airships, human skulls in caves, skin and bone rafts - that kind of thing. But, you know - charming.

"I've always thought that any song on that album [Last Days of Wonder] would make a good comic," Dan writes, "as their brand of narrative songwriting is consistently superb. I urge you to go and buy their albums."

Buy album and comic together and you can have a macabre and enjoyable three minutes to yourself, any time you like.

Black Hat

2011-11-07T15:19:00.000Z

A work in progress, the second story featuring Wendell Hicks, Frontier Librarian.

Observe how, using incredibly subtle iconography, I create a Bad Cowboy:

Bruin Up.

2011-10-30T14:45:00.002Z

A bear, taking tea.

The Price of Fish: Grey and Green.

2011-10-28T10:24:00.001+01:00

KY grey and green, oil on canvas, 46cm x 60cm.

Looking Forward ---->

2011-10-15T17:44:00.000+01:00

The Price of Fish: Prospection. Oil on canvas, 50cm x 60cm.

Prospection, the latest in the 'Price of Fish' series. It's going to be available in the Found Gallery, Dunbar, along with a companion piece 'KY, Grey & Green,' which is titled but just lacking some finishing touches.

I can't recommend the Found gallery enough, not just because they have the pleasing habit of selling my work and asking for more, but because of the beautiful work on display. Go in for a look if you're in or near Dunbar.

Update: it's now in the Found Gallery. The FOUND GALLERY, Dunbar High Street. Ideal Christmas present for the ferrugipiscophile in your life.

Rosetta Stone: A Piece of Cake.

2011-10-14T15:41:00.001+01:00

I've had Rosetta in my head ever since she leaped in there fully formed with her name when I was lying in bed one Christmas and I sketched her out. I've even scripted and started a full graphic novel version of her story, but become increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of the drawing.

I lifted a couple of frames (the first two scene-setting panels) from that for this, a sort of short introduction to the world of Rosetta Stone.

Originally it was an entry for the Eagle Initiative competition but that was called off because not enough people entered. I took the opportunity to redraw some panels (terrible faces), re-do the lettering and speech bubbles, add an extra page (more fighting, essentially) and expand the big set-piece ending panels.

Anyway; Rosetta Stone.

(If you right click and open in a new tab it's a lot easier to read...)

Fin(n)

2011-10-04T09:29:00.000+01:00

Page one of a six-page strip I drew up from a script by Matthew Craig, for Strip Magazine's 'Spotlight' competition. (We didn't get in.) Small tribute to 'The Right Stuff' in the bottom left hand panel, there.

The rest of it is posted up on my website here.

A Bit Fruity.

2011-10-03T12:46:00.001+01:00

New painting, a still life. Oil on canvas.

I do like doing still lives, they're soothing.

Still Life With Pomegranates, 51cm x 41cm.

Frank Kettlewell

2011-10-03T12:37:00.003+01:00

Pioneering Canadian association footballer, Frank Kettlewell. Shirt and torso possibly supplied by Frank Brennan, I don't quite remember.

(Also available at the home of Grizzly Bear artwork, Grizzly Bear Thursdays.)

Rosie

2011-09-21T12:38:00.000+01:00

This is Rosetta Stone.

Although Miss Stone's hair is the least of her problems, it is troublesome.

Pawn Movie

2011-09-21T09:49:00.000+01:00

Quite apart from their huge historical significance, the Lewis chessmen are masterpieces of carving and design, full of charisma and character. Their bulging eyes, thoughtfulness, melancholy overbites and shield-biting rage hover between humorous and unsettling. Hugely tactile, though - don't you really want to pick one up?

Thanks to Archaeos0up for the splendid, thoughtful video.

The Quiet Comforts of the Victorian Home

2011-09-20T13:20:00.001+01:00

This is how the angry, poker-wielding gentleman ended up. Inking is done and it's been slightly tidied in GIMP. Awaiting proper cleaning up and lettering.

This page drove me up the wall. The overall layout changed several times as I was sketching it out, then again as I drew it, then I had trouble with most of the panels and re-drew them at least twice.

The poker was too small, then too large, you couldn't see the companion set clearly, his hands gripping the chair were wrong, his hairline was wrong, his ears were in the wrong place on his head, he was disappearing into the background of the fireplace in two panels, everything was creeping towards the point of being a completely black page - and on, and on, and on. But, as Bob said, when something's not right it's wrong, so it had to be re-done. Is it successful? I don't know.

2011-09-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

The Price of Fish: BK Blue & White. Oil on board, 40cm x 40cm.

Another 'Price of Fish' painting. Beautifully framed by the Chirnside Gallery. Slantily photographed by me.

Online Poker

2011-09-13T13:13:00.002+01:00

Look out!

Work in progress; first lines inked in after pencilling. The provisional dialogue for this panel is 'AAAAAAHHHHHH!'

Part of my ongoing graphic novel adaptation of 'Pride & Prejudice.'

Update: ink lines more defined -

Slate

2011-09-11T16:28:00.000+01:00

Welsh Slate, pencil on paper, 14cm x 21cm.

Music on Monday: Hurt's So Good

2011-09-05T08:00:00.004+01:00

The King of Thumb.

Pomegranates

2011-09-03T14:48:00.001+01:00

Sneak preview! Detail from a still life that's nearly completed.

Squaresketches

2011-08-30T08:00:00.014+01:00

I sketched out some potential squarescapes in colour. Most won't make it to full canvases (on account of being a bit boring) but I think four or five may be worked up.

Music on Monday: Full Fat

2011-08-29T08:00:00.002+01:00

Cream, making a great big, fat, striding, wah-wahing monster out of Tales of Brave Ulysses.

Blues Portraits

2011-08-24T10:58:00.004+01:00

Someone* contacted me to ask permission to use a drawing of Son House on their Facebook page, which reminded me of these pencil portraits, which are some of the things I've done that I'm most pleased with.

*"Someone" is a bit rude - his name is, pleasingly, Erwin Bosman, and he has a Facebook page here, upon which I am.

Mississippi John Hurt, pencil on paper.

'Bukka' White, pencil on paper.

Ruination

2011-08-23T11:02:00.002+01:00

The Undercity, pencil on paper.

This drawing on A3 started life as a doodle 2" by 1".

Music on Monday: Frontierland

2011-08-22T08:00:00.001+01:00

Mariachi. Rock. Mariachi and rock. Mariachi rock. Champion.

3:1

2011-08-16T11:46:00.002+01:00

Some new squarescapes, which, after lounging on the shelves for weeks looking unfinished, are suddenly finished. Three rainy to one with just sun. So it goes.

Top one 12" x 12", the others 8" x 8".

Mug Shots 3

2011-08-15T18:56:00.001+01:00

Edward Dalton

I don't know what Edward Dalton did, but I imagine if you stepped on his shoes he would kill you.

Frank Murray, alias Harry Williams.

According to the Police notes, Frank Murray (put away for breaking and entering - 12 months hard labour) was of a "quiet disposition." Which is perhaps surprising, because he looks mad as badger cake. Also, I haven't actually exaggerated his hair all that much.

William Cahill.

Sort of a cross between Cagney and Anthony Hopkins.

All of these came via TwistedSifter.com, and they're worth a look, because they're rather beautiful in themselves as photographs.

Music on Monday: Incredible String Band.

2011-08-15T08:00:00.001+01:00

Hot damn! It's the South Memphis String Band!

Mug Shots 2

2011-08-13T08:00:00.011+01:00

More gentlemen of dubious intent.

William Stanley Moore

Ah Low

Eugenia Falleni aka Harry Crawford

'Eugenia,' yes: as 'Harry Crawford' (who she became in 1899) she worked as a hotel cleaner, and married a widow, Anne Birkett, in 1914. Falleni was arrested for mudering his (her) wife in 1917; Mrs Birkett/Crawford disappeared in 1917 shortly after telling a relative she had discovered "something amazing" about Harry.

Lab Coat

2011-08-12T19:48:00.001+01:00

We went to a shop this afternoon to see what's what on replacing the open fire with a boiler stove. We discovered that it would be cheaper to burn the house down to keep warm but at least the brochures were free. And as I leafed through the middle class Aga-porn I couldn't help but notice a tragic story unfolding in the pictures:

Mug Shots

2011-08-11T09:00:00.029+01:00

To go with these unsettled days, some gangsters - old school.

De Gracy

Giuseppe Fiori

Joseph Messenger

Doodlebugs

2011-08-10T16:43:00.000+01:00

Some vaguely retro-futurist aeroplanes I sketched out while sitting at Paxton House waiting to see another human being.

I can't complain about Paxton House as I've got a cheque to bank for a painting I sold there, but the staff do tend to forget that you're sitting there in the back gallery, doing your artist-in-residence bit. I know more than I want to know about strangers' tumours.

Music on Monday: Are You Right There, Ted?

2011-08-08T08:00:00.000+01:00

Ted Hawkins. As it says at the end of this video extract, "at once simple and profound." Milk crate, guitar, pompadour, and a voice that could go right through you.

Humbuggers

2011-08-07T23:01:00.004+01:00

Some time ago I wrote a blog post battering the last shreds of any humour out of a scam email purporting to be from the FBI. Well, the scam dog came prowling up to the porch again and this time I got close enough to smell the Jumbone on its cyberbreath.

I'd like to say I was on to it from the first sniff of the email, but while that's not as true as I would probably wish it was, there were a number of things that I was uneasy about.

On Saturday I got an email which read:

Hello,

My name is Luma Azar, i will like to order for some piece of your artworks as gift for my parents who are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so i will be glad to read back from you as soon as possible, also i need your website address to choose from you available artworks or send me list of your available artworks for me to choose.

Waiting to read from you today.so that we can make some progress.

ThanksLuma Azar.

I do have a habit of looking gift horses in the mouth, especially when they come by the internet ("the internet is full of cobblers" - Ramesh Majhu) so I did what anyone would do, a Google search. Luma Azar is apparently a Jordanian children's author. Here she is doing good with children and books. That seems pretty genuine. She also appears on the arabchildrensliterature.com website, here. That also has the email address from which the above email came. It's a hotmail address, which (as well as the lapses in English) made me doubtful.

Still, there wasn't enough there to make me set off the Baboonery Scam Klaxon we keep up in the turret, so I sent my web site address - while wondering how you could get my email, know I did art but not know what my website was - and said I'd be happy to deal with any questions etc. No point being excessively rude just yet to someone who could turn out to be a genuine buyer.

A reply came:

Hello Richard,

Thanks for your reply concerning my order, I am ok with the once below, i want you to get back to me with the total price of the once below. And i am sure that my parent will love your great works.

Cromer Pier Winter

Scott's View

Still Life With Figs

Meanwhile, I don't want you to bother your self concerning the shipment i have a shipping company that will come for the pickup inyour gallery also they will be the one to make the packing, just get back to me with the price of the art work so that we can make some progress.

Thanks

Luma.

I see.

Then, after agreeing to the price, they got down to the meat of the matter:

The reason I am sending you this email is to make final reconfirmation of the and also to let you know that payment will be by Cheque. In view of this I need you to email me any information that may be required to send the Cheque , as I do not want to send the Cheque to a wrong location least they gets into the wrong hands. Regarding the shipping, I have a company that takes care of the pick up of my consignments for me and ship to my destination , you do not worry about shipping, the company will send down a representative to arrange the sales documentation and the pick up from your gallery form onward transfer to my destination,

Fair enough. Then followed instructions:

I also want to alert you on the fact that you will be receiving an overdraft Cheque which will cover the money for the pickup. (pickup and shipping to the final destination) as well as the money to be paid to the company that will take care of the pick up and the documentation with you. So please, as soon as you receive the Cheque, go and cash them immediately,deduct the cost of your item and send the balance to the Head Office of the company that handles the shipment via the nearest Western Union agent in your area. Deduct the Western Union charges from the balance and send the remaining to the shipping company.

Got that? They send me a cheque. I take the cheque to the Western Union. I receive my money, I pass on an extra amount to the shipping company.

It seems fine because all they want is my name and address, and confirmation that I'm selling to them. I'm not being asked for my bank details. What kind of muppet do you take me for? That all sounds fine to me. After all, they're even giving me a cheque with my name on it. The money goes to me.

Right. Another internet search at this point is in order. If you cut and paste "I also want to alert you on the fact that you will be receiving an overdraft Cheque which will cover the money for the pickup" into Google you'll get page after page after page of results, all quoting that same line. (Here's everything I got, word for word just with different names.) It's a scam. A big fat 'un.

It's important that the money goes into your account first. Not only does this make it seem legitimate - they're giving you money - but it has to be done in order for the scam to work. All the money from the cheque goes into your account. Then you move an amount on to the 'dealer' or 'shipping agent.' This third party gets paid with real money - yours. The cheque eventually bounces or is declared worthless and the money will be retrieved from you by the bank. You're responsible for it. Because the money you paid in from the buyer never existed in the first place, you're out of pocket.

You know, I could have fallen for this. I'd like to write one of those "and then I wrote and told them I'd been kidnapped by Marxist guerillas and they were my only contact with the outside world" blogposts and demonstrate my superior internet savvy. But I could have got really excited that I'd apparently sold some stuff, and sent my details.

But I didn't, and I'm pretty pleased with that, and that I was curmudgeonly and suspicious enough to look into it. Thanks also to Laura who ran it past her bullshit detectors.

But bearing in mind that initial searches showed up an apparently real person with the same email address, the advice is to be suspicious of:

free email addresses
bad English
ANY FORM OF OVERPAYMENT scheme, third parties, shipping companies, dealers, etc.

In the end I replied:

"I also want to alert you on the fact that you will be receiving an overdraft Cheque which will cover the money for the pickup."

I think in view of the number of times this phrase appears in a Google search for internet scams, we have no further business to do.

R Johnson

What I really wanted to say - and now take the opportunity to do so - was this:

Sweary artwork courtesy of the splendid Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

Holiday.

2011-08-06T18:59:00.001+01:00

Had a couple of nights away in Scotland (further away in Scotland, I mean) thanks to some good friends who offered us a spare room in their holiday lodge as a wedding present. So we got to see very good friends we don't meet up with very often any more, and it was a lovely place. I learned a lot about whisky, not least that it gives me a headache.

Went to Loch of the Lowes in the rain to see some ospreys but they'd buggered off back to South Africa the day before, probably because of the rain. We did see a jay, which although not in the same league was an event nonetheless. And a robin.

Took the long way home on Friday to have a look at some waterfalls (I like a good waterfall.) This was a good one:

The Deil's Cauldron near Comrie.

Where we stayed there were the beginnings of big, beautiful hills on the near horizon. It was a difficult thing to turn round and go the other way, so we may be heading back up there in September, but with less of a lodge and more of a tent.

Big Man

2011-08-01T17:30:00.000+01:00

Had a day at a craft fair trying to flog cards. Not overly troubled by the consumer. I did however draw a large man.

Music on Monday: Battery Chicken. Electrifying.

2011-08-01T08:00:00.003+01:00

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.

Breezy, Aaron and the Rev. interviewed.

Music on Monday: Cooking With Cabbage

2011-07-25T07:00:00.016+01:00

Guitarist and singer Walter Parks describes Swamp Cabbage's music as "Northeast Florida-style, fatback, boogaloo blues stirred into a gumbo of Louisiana ragtime." Very tasty.

Ten Memorable Things About the 2011 Tour de France.

2011-07-24T12:30:00.009+01:00

1. A picture of Johnny Hoogerland's backside should be on the dressing room wall of every football club for any 'hard man' to contemplate before he goes out to lumber his thuggish, preening way around a pitch clattering other players and complaining about having to play two games in a week. (Photo here: don't feel you have to click on it, it's not pleasant. Really.)

The Dutch rider was knocked off his bike by Juan Antonio Flecha, who was in turn knocked off his bike by that lunging French TV car. It illustrated the horrible vulnerability of cyclists to cars, and with repeated viewing it didn't get any less shocking. Hoogerland was catapulted into a barbed wire fence, and continued the race with thirty-odd stitches holding him together. Not the least thing to his credit was his reaction immediately afterwards; while being visibly upset and very shaken, rather than giving live TV a ten minute swear festival he was full of dignity and forgiveness, putting it in the context of poor Wouter Weylandt's death.

And then a few days later he was back on the attack in breakaway groups. I like football, but you could make five football 'hard men' out of the bits of Hoogerland left on the barbed wire.

2. My friend Colin predicting a Vinokourov stage win, a full minute before he rode into a tree and broke himself into pieces and retired from cycling. He had a mottled record, Vino, but he was a fierce rider, and fierce riders are good.*

3. Bradley Wiggins getting into an ambulance. What could go wrong? Wiggo, winner of the Dauphine, looking generally in great form, reconciled to and comfortable with his role as team leader on an excellent team, wearing the British National Champion's jersey in the Tour, a podium finish a distinctly achievable aim. We were all rubbing our hands together in anticipation. And then all of a sudden on Stage 7 he was getting into the back of an ambulance and going home and it was all over. Bugger. I hope he had a big bag of chips that night.

4. The indestructable Jens Voigt. He fell off twice on one stage and then was there back at the front yet again, hammering out a horrible pace for mile after mile. He fell off seven times on one stage of a previous Tour and the peloton said that the road was getting Jens rash. He's announced his intention to keep racing next year, which is excellent as he's one of the few remaining professional sportsmen older than me.

5. Cadel Evans during the time trial. Whereas Andy Schleck was willowy on the bike, constantly changing his position, Evans hunched himself into a bullet shape as he came down the ramp and stayed that way until the end. He was a picture of power and determination, and he rode brilliantly in the mountains, too, dragging the field up the Galibier in pursuit of Andy Schleck. I thought it was going to be a matter of seconds in the end, perhaps even closer than Fignon and LeMond, but Evans knocked lumps out of Schleck's time by the finish.

6. Dickheads. It's great being on telly. It's great being drunk and on telly. It's especially great being drunk and wearing nothing but Speedos and espadrilles and bellowing in a cyclist's ear while trying to run flat-footed sideways up an Alp showing your arse before strutting back down the road to do it again.Because this moment is all about me not some bloke on a bike who I admire so much I'll impede him or knock him off his bike or put his eye out with my hilarious steer-horn hat. Contador punched one of them in the gob this year. Good.

7. David Harmon and Sean Kelly's commentary on Eurosport. Once you've had David and Sean you can't go back to Phil and Paul. This was a shocking discovery, because they were The Voices Of The Tour for donkey's years. Then this year I started listening to David and Sean and began getting genuine insights into racing, rather than having a goldmine owner read aloud from The A-Z of Big French Castles before revealing 'Contador will want to go as fast as he can.'

8. Alberto Contador, winner of the Giro d'Italia and strong contender for the 2011 Tour victory, still not having had his drugs hearing yet. World cycling picking up a big gun and pointing it carefully at its own foot. Idiots.

9. The television. No different this year to any other year. From a swarm of brightly coloured microbes sweeping along the floor of an Alpine valley, to giddying, motion-sickness descents, to Maxime Monfort foaming at the mouth in high-definition super-slow-mo, it was a fantastic thing to watch on the television. Hats off to French TV, apart from when they tried to to kill Flecha and Hoogerland.

10. Voeckler. Voeckler generally, but especially Voeckler at the stage finish at the top of the Galibier. Heaving desperately to get the oxygen in, collapsed over the bars of his bike, not yet able even to get off it having ridden himself into another day in yellow, it was like seeing the classic cycling photographs of the greats in agony, live and in colour.

He rode the whole Tour like a terrier with his teeth into the yellow jersey, and every pedal stroke was an act of defiance, a refusal to accept his own limitations as he shouted, grimaced, fought his bike up every stage.

David Millar on Saturday afternoon reported being in his team car, driving past a 'strangely familiar' figure in Eurosport kit cycling alone along the autoroute after the time trial. The chat in the car died away as they realised it was Voeckler, presumably needing some time out of the way on his own to come to terms with things before the huge Roman circus of the media started to feed on him. Tommy, however rotten you were feeling then, you have no need. You were magnificent.

*Col also selected a fantasy cycling team which ended up garlanded with stage winners and jersey wearers. I did not.

Finnished.

2011-07-18T21:26:00.002+01:00

I'm very aware that there are lots of comic artists out there whose work I find far superior to mine, so I always post comic work with a certain degree of trepidation, but I completed six pages of artwork for a the Strip Magazine 'Spotlight' Competition today.

Been working on a sci-fi/adventure story in collaboration with writer Matthew Craig, who now has to find out whether or not I left enough space for captions and speech bubbles.

I read recently that your good taste will carry you on through the early stages of your work while the quality of your output isn't that great, and the only way to improve it is to work, work, work. This certainly has been the case with my paintings, and I venture to suggest that my comic art is improving too. I feel I'm finding my way as regards a style, and what works and what doesn't. It's frustrating and quite exciting.

Anyway, Finn, yes.

I'm not going to blow either the story or all the MASSIVE SPECIAL EFFECTS so, by way of a teaser, some people looking a bit perplexed in The Future:

The Future.

Capt. Beaumont, in hologram form.

Capt. Beaumont, and his hologram beard.

Finn.

Aaaaahhh! What the hell is that?

People.

2011-07-18T21:25:00.007+01:00

I entered a nine-page story for the Eagle Initiative Competition some time ago. Matt Craig was due to write a story but was struck down with some horribly painful tendon issues so was physically unable to do any work (now healing up after an operation). I wrote up a story and drew like a bastard to get it in for the deadline, exchanged panicked emails with the organisers over whether it had uploaded, whether they had a record of it etc etc etc, but eventually I knew it to be lodged safely with them.

I got an email last week from Barry Renshaw, editor at Engine Comics who organised the whole thing, informing us that the whole competition was off because not enough people had entered.

I was gobsmacked. I mean, here's just four names from the list of judges: Scott Allie, Editor, Dark Horse Comics; Tom Brevoort, Editor, Marvel Comics; Dan Berry, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication/Illustration for Graphic Novels, University of North Wales; Dave Gibbons, writer and artist (Watchmen, etc.)

As if the stellar list wasn't enough temptation, there was money available too, for the winner a big mattress full of lovely soft, soporific cash, and for runners up enough to scoop out of a very large hat and throw around like confetti. Of course I wanted to enter, and I worked my arse off to meet the deadline too. So, feck it, generally.

And I'm sorry for Mr Renshaw too, having worked his arse off organising it (and, I know from experience, looking through the entries chasing up unattributed files) and I said as much. He did me the courtesy of replying;

"Thanks for the kind words. Yes, to be honest I'm personally gutted that the competition had to be cancelled, I've put a lot of time and effort into it, but ultimately it was the only decision to make considering the circumstances."

People.

Anyway, I've plans for the strip that was entered, which I'm mulling over.

Music on Monday: Pedal Your Blues Away.

2011-07-18T08:00:00.015+01:00

On The Trail

2011-07-16T18:06:00.004+01:00

The new Crossing Borders Art Trail publicity material, featuring myself and Laura Cameron, notable jeweler, and many of the talented artists who swarm in the Borders.

We're not doing the actual Art Trail, just the virtual version, because we haven't really the studio set-up to participate, and anyway the dogs are out and if they see people they don't recognise at the compound perimeter they'll be in a frenzy for days and I don't like going near them once they've had human scent.

Drawings for the Hard of Herring

2011-07-12T07:00:00.004+01:00

This is the work of Will Morris, and it represents all the things that I like about his work - cleanliness, apparent simplicity, restrained and confident line, delicate shading, and just loose enough. It's lovely.

He's got a book - The Silver Darlings - coming out later in the year through Blank Slate/Chalk Marks. Samples below. Worth earmarking a bit of cash for.

Music on Monday: I left It Chained to the Gates of Dawn But When I Came Out It Had Been Nicked.

2011-07-11T08:00:00.006+01:00

Finn

2011-07-07T08:01:00.004+01:00

From a comic strip I'm working on with writer Matthew Craig.

This is Finn, and a friend.

Edit: Have a good look at its pristine condition, because I spilled coffee on it yesterday. I am such a tit sometimes.

Cat du Jour.

2011-07-06T20:31:00.004+01:00

...But Now Am Found.

2011-07-06T17:30:00.002+01:00

On Monday last I met Simon Glover, one half of the soon-to-open Found Gallery on the High Street, Dunbar.

In between painting and putting up shelves he agreed to take a couple of the Price of Fish paintings I blogged about before, which is good, as it looks like it's going to be a very fine gallery - it's a "good space" (as they say) and there were some exciting-looking art works ready to be put on display.

The other half of the venture is Amy Christie, a very fine jeweller who does beautiful work in glass and seems to have a healthily well-developed interest in rusty things.

The Found Gallery is opening on Saturday 9th July; a web site is on the way and I'll link to it when it's up and running.

I haven't any pictures of the gallery itself but here's a splendid poster:

Music on Monday: If This Song Was A Cyclist It Would Have Drugs In Its Wee.

2011-07-04T08:00:00.012+01:00

It's the Tour de France. During it there will be bicycle songs. Thank God it's only three weeks.

There will be no Queen.

Rust Never Sleeps #10, and a bit of #9 again.

2011-07-02T20:34:00.002+01:00

Three new completed canvasses. I've been dabbling and fiddling with these for a long time, and changed the whole bottom half of 177 because I felt the balance of the painting wasn't right as it was.

These are off up to a new gallery in Dunbar on Monday, so I'm hoping a couple will be on display for the opening on Saturday.

Falling Down

2011-07-01T18:18:00.002+01:00

Done two pages of a new comic strip collaboration now, and I'm quite pleased with how it's going - which is good, coming as it does in a week when I've tried to email a new comic to see what they think of my submission now that I've waited the promised six weeks or indeed whether they got it in the first place, and have had no emails answered.

Anyway, this is a sample panel - probably the simplest I've drawn on the two pages but I really like it. Man in long coat falling through the air.

Bicycle Touring in France

2011-07-01T09:26:00.005+01:00

It's that time of year again.

The video's a bit ridiculous, like Michael Bay Presents: the Tour de France Route, but even an animated route map is absurdly exciting.

As Brian Blessed once said, "My God - Look at the mountain!"

I like the Tour's grading of summits, in that it is a system deliberately constructed so that it has a category of mountains so immense and difficult they are beyond categorisation. It's as if pedaling up a gigantic alp is not enough but the riders have to contemplate the philosophical conundrum at the same time. How very French.

Music on Monday: A Man Not Playing No Rock and Roll.

2011-06-27T10:21:00.001+01:00

Mississippi Fred McDowell. He did not play no rock and roll, but he can still put you into a trance.

Rust Never Sleeps #9: 177

2011-06-24T18:42:00.000+01:00

'177' - Oil on canvas, 18" x 24".

A Number of Numbers.

2011-06-23T21:53:00.000+01:00

Three out of the five new Price of Fish paintings completed, apart from a few highlights here and there. With luck, a couple of these will be on show soon in a new gallery opening up in Dunbar.

Better photos to follow when they're completely complete.

"Is This A... What Day Is This?"

2011-06-21T17:51:00.001+01:00

Inaugurating the first 'Music on Tuesday' blog post.

Right, carry on.

Dog

2011-06-20T18:41:00.001+01:00

We've booked a stall at the National Sheep Dog Trials in Jeburgh in August so I'm working on some original scraperboard drawings from which I can make prints. Perhaps I'm doing the sheepdog people a disservice, but I imagine that they'll go for a more traditional approach and won't be interested so much in cubist collies.

Scapes.

2011-06-15T16:36:00.007+01:00

Two scapes. Landscape, cityscape, ruinscape, I don't really know what to call them.

Ink on A3 cartridge paper.

Sketching

2011-06-14T12:35:00.009+01:00

Doodling some ideas for a forthcoming comic strip project. Mutant baobabs, gnarled cactus trees and a futuristic solar powered scooter.

Rich Johnson: Fully Obsequious

2011-06-11T09:30:00.004+01:00

Looking for reviews of your own work is only a minor step up from Googling your own name, but I came across a Polish review of New British Comics #3. I think, given the context, this section is about me:

Nie uchybiając pozostałym uczestnikom tej inicjatywy na „prowadzenie” zdają się wysuwać przekonujące rysunki Matthew Craiga, chwilami przywołujące skojarzenia z wczesnymi karykaturami Simona Bisleya (choć akurat w tym przypadku mocno „ugrzecznionymi”).

Online translation renders this as,

"Without prejudice to other participants in this initiative, the "establishment" seem to pull out a convincing drawings of Matthew Craig, sometimes mentioning association with early caricatures of Simon Bisley (although just in this case fully obsequious)."

This is either very good, or very bad. Whichever, I'm going to start putting "fully obsequious" on my business cards.

Music on Monday: Like Wrestling With a Live Piano.

2011-06-06T08:00:00.002+01:00

Right, the accordion, then.

That's what I thought, anyway, but two things lately have started to change my opinion a bit. Firstly, the splendid Inge Thomson played with Karine Polwart at a live gig and then yesterday afternoon at a barbecue in the rain we met Andrew Waite.

I had a very odd feeling I knew him from somewhere, soon as they mentioned the accordion, and it turns out he's a Young Traditional Musician Finalist. He sat with his accordion in the lee of the house to keep it out of the rain and knocked out a couple of tunes. The young feller is dazzling, and in his honour I have learned for this blog post to spell accordion properly.

Click on the picture and be dazzled.

Rust Never Sleeps 8: H2 Blue.

2011-06-01T12:42:00.004+01:00

May have been a bit previous in posting this because I've not quite finished the rope in the corner, but it's close enough for jazz.

And another one blocked out very roughly. Very excited about this one, it's going to be a beauty I think.

Music on Monday: A Bit Special

2011-05-30T09:00:00.002+01:00

I was only ten when I first heard this, so the layered critique of Thatcherite Britain passed me by a bit. All I knew was that it sounded slithery and sinister, and it wormed its way right inside my head. I still think it's one of the best singles ever, one of those three minute masterpieces like I Can't Explain or White Lines (Don't Do It.)

Anyway, I can listen to this again and again, and it still sounds like every fearful white-tiled windy underpass and pissed-up McDonalds-littered town centre in Britain today.

Rallying Round

2011-05-29T17:01:00.012+01:00

Tried something a bit different today, photographing objects that were moving at something more than geological speed.

The Jim Clark Rally was going on just up the road so we took a wander up there yesterday evening, I forgot my memory card, and we went back this afternoon for another go. It was fun.

This was nearly the best one, being a Mini, but I just clipped the wheel off.

And there were lots of photos like this;

Numbers and Letters

2011-05-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

Work in progress; I've got four fishing boat numbers on the go, in various stages of completion.

I decided a while ago (somewhat grandly, you might think) that as it was becoming a series it deserved a title, so I've called it 'The Price of Fish.' Partly because of the nature of the paintings, partly just because it sets someone up to look at one and say "what's that got to do with the price of fish?"

One Step Back

2011-05-24T12:28:00.003+01:00

I was getting geared up to draw a new collaboration with Matthew Craig, but it's fallen through as the anthology people decided not to take the story. Damn. It was going to be really good; a dark fairy tale, all twisted oak forests and strange cottages. Bugger it.

I might still draw it anyway, because I wanted to.

Still, to make up for that, here's a panel from a strip I've entered into a competition.

Music on Monday: Weather Report

2011-05-23T09:00:00.003+01:00

Baboonery is - like I have to tell you - a white hot place to keep running. Being this far out at the forefront of Web 2.0 is like being the heat shield on the front of a blogcraft burning through the geistosphere. Cutting edge. Twenty-four oblique seven. Just last week there was a bee got in and I had to get up and open the window to let it out.

Here's an old blind bloke playing a nice tune.

Up Around the Bend.

2011-05-20T14:54:00.004+01:00

I think this is my favourite thing at the moment. It's a 1944 map of the 'Mississippi River Meander Belt.'

This is why maps are lovely things; fact and beauty together.

Came across it via In Focus, the Atlantic magazine's fantastic online photojournalism blog, which has some impressive photographs of the current flooding.

My Darjeeling Senses Are Tingling: Did Someone Call for a Sconeslinger??

2011-05-19T18:43:00.006+01:00

Quite a nice, and fair, review from the Forbidden Planet blog.

"Much of my enjoyment comes from the writing of Matthew Craig, because he writes these superheroes with a kitchen sink perspective. It’s more about the conversations, the characters and less about big blokes and badly proportioned women in spandex beating up supervillains. And this is good.

...

There’s a bunch of giant mutant moggies that need more than litter training and it’s up to the Bostin’ Heroes do do the cleanup. It’s a fine, fun tale, and with artist Rich Johnson, there’s a really nice look to a lot of the pages – although Johnson is far better with people and crowds than he is with superhero battles – a weakness he’ll need to work if he’s carrying on here. But his sedate, crowd and conversation panels, just like that opener above are really quite attractive."

He's right on both counts. I like doing Matthew's stories because they've got a big heart, and they are about things like, just what would you do if your wife found out you were a superhero?

Right about 'sedate' scenes, too. I think in my heart of hearts I'd rather draw people having a nice cup of tea and a cake than mutant troopers razing Mars Colony to the ground. Because, in its way, the same passions may rage beneath the surface while barely ruffling the tea meniscus.

Cat du Jour

2011-05-18T11:00:00.002+01:00

Dancing For Paint

2011-05-17T11:06:00.002+01:00

Competition entry, on Windsor and Newton 5" x 5" canvas, to try and win some painting materials.

It'll have to be finished, as it's got to dry out before I post it.

Music on Monday: Head, Hands and Feet.

2011-05-16T09:00:00.002+01:00

I love Chris Smither. Sure, he looks like a dinnerlady, but he's an heir of Mississippi John Hurt's sparkling guitar picking, and he's one of the cleverest lyricists around. Good feet, too.

To hell with it, let's have another one:

Uneminent Victorians

2011-05-14T10:43:00.006+01:00

I found this on my desk. I sketch I did of some Victorians, from a contemporary photograph.

Now Looky Here...

2011-05-10T12:09:00.002+01:00

I know kids, and if there's one thing that nine year olds want from their comics it's veiled references to early 1960s blues songs. I see them in newsagents, listlessly thumbing through Spiderman and Swamp Thing and Tracey Lorimer, Lens Grinder until they slap them back on the stands, lips quivering, demanding of their mother, "where's Mr Charlie? Where's the John the Conquerer root? Lawdy, mama, where's the mojo?"

Music on Monday: We Three Kings

2011-05-09T09:00:00.002+01:00

Big men all.

Albert:

Freddy:

B.B.:

You Know... For Kids. (Updated)

2011-05-06T11:09:00.004+01:00

Working on.

Roughting Linn

2011-05-05T18:53:00.003+01:00

Decided to use the sunshine yesterday and go to Roughting Linn, to have a look at the neolithic markings and the waterfall. My mother shudders at the mention of Roughting Linn, in an I-won't-set-foot-in-there kind of way. I could see why; I imagine that the gully and waterfall is a dank and gloomy sort of place in the right (wrong) sort of weather, but yesterday it was all bosky and pleasant.

There was a man photographing the spiral markings, who was of the opinion that some of them were representations of LADY PARTS.

He said to Laura "you'd know better than me, what do you think?" I should have struck the bounder.

Yellow

2011-05-03T21:13:00.009+01:00

I think you either love or hate the oilseed rape and its acres of spectacular lemon yellow. I think it's beautiful. I got my backside out of bed this morning very early (bastard birds) and was parked waiting for the sun to come up before Farming Today was even on the radio. It felt good; I haven't been out on a trip (even if this was just up the road) after proper photographs for a such a long time.

Tried out some new photo-stitch panorama software on this (on account of not owning a Hasselblad panoramic camera) and think I've finally found something that works.

There's a couple of these on my website here, but I think I like this one best. Sometimes it's the other one.

This is a small image file for the website; you can see them both in original expansiveness on Flickr.

Faint Praise

2011-05-03T10:07:00.005+01:00

A review of 'New British Comics Volume 3' from the Forbidden Planet blog.

"Next strip of enjoyable note is Matthew Craig and Richard Johnson’s “Here Comes The Neighbourhood“. Craig’s comics (Hondle, Trixie Biker et al) are well enjoyed round these parts with their typical mix of nicely done characters and a big dollop of cheer – sometimes wrapped in sadness or melancholy perhaps, but they’re a celebration of humanity for the most part.

But not here. Neighbourhood is a comedy sure, but it’s a scathing and dark one, attacking today’s mass media, celeb obsessed cultural vacuum where someone as worthless to the gene pool as Kerry Katona makes a fortune simply by being alive, stupid and always available for interview.

Taking Big Brother and it’s ilk as a starting point, Neighbourhood simply takes it a little further. If everything is televised, and if your life is just a gameshow, open to the whims of the public, how bad do you want to play? In ten pages, Craig delivers a dark, funny, scarily believable tale with a nicely sketched out cast of diverse characters. Most enjoyable, and the art by Johnson is rather nice as well. Rough in places, but there’s a lot of promise of these pages, a real improvement on his previous work in the other Matthew Craig written series; the Brummy super-saga Bostin’ Heroes."

That's about right, I think. It is better than the Bostin' Heroes I did, some of which makes me squirm, and it is rough in places. If I could remove the roughness maybe I'll be onto something. Thing is, I often know the roughness is there and don't do anything about it, whether through cack-handedness, idleness or deadlines, and then they're the bits I berate myself about.

I'm still very much learning to find a style, I think. The more I do, the less I like what I've done before.Still: there's always the next one, and I shall make the next one better.

I hope.

Music on Monday: Go South, Young Man

2011-05-02T11:12:00.005+01:00

I've been banging on about Danny Schmidt to anyone who'd listen for some time now. Oddly, as you can see from the sumptuous auditorium in which he is here performing, he doesn't yet seem to have eclipsed Bob Dylan in the public consciousness. This even despite having the full weight of the internet juggernaut that is Baboonery behind him. Baffling.

I love 'Southland Street.' It's essentially a 'Little Musgrave' for industrial America, and is a demonstration of everything Mr Schmidt does so brilliantly.

He carries off a hat well, too.

You Sank My Reverend Green!

2011-04-28T20:32:00.002+01:00

A Fistful of Dollar

2011-04-28T17:26:00.006+01:00

Wendell Hicks: a man with a mission.

(Click to enlarge, or you can see it in excitingly serial form here.)

(The book was nearly by Gideon Hupp, or Gallup Hoff.)

That's My Glove? Prove It.

2011-04-26T12:35:00.006+01:00

I was sketching out this today:

And Laura said "you've a thing about people putting on black gloves." She's right; I've got this up on my wall, a test sketch I did:

It just speaks of sinister intent. I wondered why and about five minutes ago it came to me: it's Jack Palance's glove.

Neighbours

2011-04-25T13:04:00.008+01:00

Some samples from the strip, Here Comes the Neighbourhood, written by Matthew Craig, which made it into the New British Comics Vol. 3 collection. I've updated my website with some more samples. If you want to see the whole thing you'll have to buy it.

Wendell? Gee.

2011-04-25T12:37:00.005+01:00

While sitting behind my table at Warkworth Art and Craft fair yesterday I had ample opportunity to rough out a comic strip and sketch out the central character.

This is Wendell Hicks. He is a man with a mission. What he and that are will be revealed in a two-pager shortly.

Music on Monday: The Who.

2011-04-25T09:00:00.006+01:00

Look, I know: following comics with Dr Who. Death by nerd. Let me say then that as far as my interest in science fiction goes, this isn't the tip of the iceberg, this is the whole iceberg, comfortably run aground in its whole ice-cube-like minisculity.

And this isn't about oooh, The Seventies, Sweets They Don't Make Any More, the Ford Capri, white dog shit, blah blah blah. This is about Delia Derbyshire, a woman so far ahead of her time she invented drum and bass in 1963 (really: scroll down to 'Experimental dance track' here.)

Quite apart from all of its soggily nostalgic baggage, the theme tune to Dr Who is an extraordinary piece of music, all the more so considering it was composed by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire in the early sixties. It's worth remembering that while the Beatles were sticking random bits of circus noise together on a tape and being hailed as geniuses, Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop were undertaking a quiet and often completely anonymous revolution. As it says on the clip, "it's, what, forty years old [fifty, now] and still sounds like... the future."

On Delia:

Deconstructing the theme:

The Devil is in the Detail.

2011-04-21T20:07:00.011+01:00

Some details taken from the Hellboy strip.

It's odd drawing something - a character, a whole world - that is so firmly locked in with someone else's style. I wanted to achieve something that would fit in with this world and without being just a copy.

I made the devil look like Mr Punch because Mr Punch is the creepiest thing ever to crawl from a human mind. It's like entertaining children with a Denis Nielsen puppet.

I can't tell you how much trouble I had drawing the approach to hell. I had it nearly completed, all inked up and 98% done when I decided I didn't like it so I started the whole page again from scratch. That page is now patched all over with pieces I re-drew on top; I don't think there was a section of it that I didn't re-do two or three times. God bless GIMP and what it covers up.

Let The Train Take the Strain

2011-04-21T08:34:00.012+01:00

The only way I'll ever get to draw a Hellboy strip is to just draw one, so I have. It's like the joke, "My Grandfather whistled the national anthem for Queen Victoria. She wasn't there, but nonetheless that's who he was whistling it for."

I've always been interested in the old blues legend of the singer going to the crossroads to make a bargain with the devil, exchanging his soul for musical talent. Likewise I've always had the notion in the back of my mind of illustrating folk songs or blues songs; one of my favourites is the diabolic, close-shave-with-damnation vision of 'Down Bound Train', particularly the riotous version by Steve James but written by Chuck Berry, of all people.

The idea of a bluesman going to the crossroads and meeting an unexpected sort of devil seeded the whole thing and it crystalised into this story. Besides, steam engines and hell and so on seemed to fit nicely with Mike Mignola's vision.

I'll do a post sometime about just why Mike Mignola's artwork is so good (lots of black, for one thing - proper black black)but for now here's my pale imitation.

With a tincture of Bo Diddley for flavour.

The fonts are Letter-O-Matic, and Duvall Outline for the title.

Legal, please-don't-sue-me disclaimers: 'Down Bound Train' lyrics copyright Chuck Berry. Extracts from 'Who Do You Love' copyright E. McDaniel. Hellboy character copyright Dark Horse Comics and Mike Mignola, and I dare say I've infringed rampantly all over you. Sorry.

Sincerely Yours.

2011-04-18T16:35:00.005+01:00

Two quick tips for electioneering, based on some correspondence this week.

1. Handwritten letters are personal. Yes.

Letters that appear to be handwritten but which are in fact mechanically printed and addressed to 'Dear Resident' are not, and actually cause disappointment. (Handwritten address! It's a letter to me! No It's not, it's electioneery bollocks. Boo.)

The bottom line is, not only have you not written to me, but you have momentarily conned me into believing someone has. I am not left thinking, 'ahh, the personal touch,' but rather, 'ahh, you faked up some sincerity. And I thought it was a real letter. You twat.'

This is no better than sending out cheques with YOU'VE WON A MILLION POUNDS!!! and a watermark of Noel Edmonds' face on them.

2. Said faked up personal-touch sincerity is not set up to succeed in the first place when your poor put-upon stamp-licking electoral-register-thumbing biro-wielding apparatchik spells my name wrong.

Music on Monday: Morning, Son.

2011-04-18T09:39:00.004+01:00

I expect there'll be another ancient bloke picking a backwoods tune next week, but in the meantime, three hairy men being rowdy.

Squarescapes

2011-04-16T12:36:00.006+01:00

I've got a fair/exhibition (a public flogging as I like to think of it) coming up over the Easter weekend so I've been working on some more small square landscapes.

Really enjoy doing these, although having said that, I did move one on from mediocre to better by attacking it in a rage with yellow ochre. Turned out all right.

There are seven new ones in all, uploaded to my website. If you're near Warkworth on Easter Sunday (April 24th) there's a range of artists and craftspersons showing their stuff in the village hall.