More Fake Pots!!!

I couldn't help myself... it's much easier than the real thing!... hopefully the real thing will come at some point this year, just a little more clunky and of poor quality... i'm guessing ( i think it's a good guess). It certainly won't be on a nice wide bellied jug! Hey Ho.

Musical Interlude 2

mmmm, nice. Another little blast from the past.

Fake Pottery!

Yep, i've gone and made a bit of not real-sgraffito. It's just an individual drawing which i overlaid the pot masks and shadows. Gives me an idea of what i could do. I really just planned to do a set of A3 prints in this colour combo, but thought why not cheat a bit. Don't ask how the dog has out lived his owner... he just has!

More on 'Prints'

I meant to say that hopefully at some point this year i will also be sorting out an online shop, so i can sell some of these images. I need to figure out lots of stuff, but hopefully there will be the usual prints, t-shirts, cards, bags.... and even, eventually, some pots! It will start with just prints to begin with and then i'll try to grow it from there. I need to get this side of my business up and running to get some kind of control over my output and not just rely on others commissioning it. I've also come to realize that ideas aren't worth anything if they don't exist in one form or another. There's a couple of fantastic books called "Whatever You Think Think The Opposite" and "It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be" by Paul Arden, an advertising legend and once executive creative director at Saatchi and Saatchi. Sadly he died in 2008, but these books are well worth reading. Not at all self-help'y, just really creative ways of looking at things. Anyway, there's a piece about making ideas exist and i've had a lot of ideas that have never 'existed', so i'm trying to address that. It also talks about how too many ideas are not such a good thing, you too easily move on to the next one. if you don't have many ideas, you learn to make the ones you do have work for you. I totally get that, i've a hundred and one different projects and ideas, few of which has been concluded. Don't even get me started on the Children's picture books!! I'm sure i'll do a couple of posts on those ideas sometime. Right better go and finish something!

Prints cont.

I have a confession to make... one of the ideas on the previous post, 'Rigortortoise', was actually Jakki's idea. A long time ago i used to do a regular single panel "cartoon" for the Independent Newspaper's Sunday's Review section, titled 'Parallel Universe'. It was a fantastic job, i could basically come up with what ever i liked and i produced about 220 of them before time was called on it, during a redesign. The spot shrunk in size and was given to John Callahan, which was frustrating, but i liked Callahan's dark humour, so it was kind of OK with me ( He sadly passed away last year, i'm sure he would have made a good joke of that). I had taken my turn after David Shrigley and Peter Blevgad before (or so i believe) which in itself felt like quite an honour. Anyway, back to my point, ocassionally i'd be a bit stuck for an idea and Jakki came up with 'Rigortortoise', she knows how my mind works!... perfect. I can't find the original piece, so i've put another of my favourites from the series and you can see more on my website (which i promise i will sort out this year). They were all drawn with a 2B pencil on sugar paper, with water colours and white gouache for a bit of punch and sparkle.

Prints?

Here are a few sketches for prints, promo etc, I'm not quite sure yet. some are old drawings, scribbles etc that i figure i haven't made work hard enough for me! I'm just sketching them out to get a feel and try colours. They're mostly tiny little drawings, 2cm x 3cm that i've scanned and enlarged, i quite like the chunky line, so my next phase will only involve redrawing with a bit more clarity, still small. I blasted through them with an aim of 50 images which i achieved in just over 2 days (well, 3 days, but i've had proper work to fit in!). I like this working method, just being quite direct and simple. Less is more!

Musical Interlude

An old favourite music clip. Makes me want to be on that little bridge in the sunshine! A little February pick me up. I should stick more little bits of music up here. Mix it up a little bit. I used to buy so much music... until i bought the house and had the kids! Who has spare money anymore?? I still try and keep up with what's out there though.

Bohemia Voice Cover

Here's a little cover illustration i did for the local mag/guide the Bohemia Village Voice. Bohemia is the name of the area in St Leonards where i live... it's not quite as Bohemian as it sounds though! The final print quality was a bit lacking, but here's a corrected version!

Bit Late...

I meant to post this 'Wish' on Monday, but i forgot.

Doctor Scott's Magic Hiccup Cure

Just thought i'd shove this in to break up the usual illustration/pottery mix. I had hiccups the other day and yes, too many beers was the cause. I couldn't stop, then i remembered the 'Money Cure'. I said to Jakki "just give me some money"( i know, it's weird that way round)  She had no idea what i was on about. Then i explained that you offer to give the person some cash if they can hiccup again. "whaaat?? oh that's insane!" she said, or something like that. Anyway she went and rustled up 80p, put it down and made the offer.... I couldn't produce another hiccup. It worked again.... and man, i wanted that 80p!!

New Images

I'm just starting to mess about with a new series of images, which stem from this image i made a while back. I'm going to take a selection and work them up as individual pieces... i'm just not sure of the final look i'm after?? Part of me would really like to be disciplined and keep it to two colours, but when ever i start with things like that, i just end up 'colouring' them all in! The previous drawing was titled 'Dead Ends', but I'm changing that to the rather cheerful "How Will I Die Today?". Yep, I've always fancied playing God, so now i get to draw a character and answer their question, with the usual trivial/tragic mix. Maybe i'll get somewhere with it? Maybe i already have and i should just stick with the single print image? I've played around with the colour of this character a bit more than normal to try and help me move away from people being pink or brown!... i know, not much of a drastic move!!

Sustainable Tourism Guides

Ah, back to illustration. I know, it makes a change from pots! Can't be helped sometimes as a lot of my illustration work can't be 'revealed' before it is published and some projects take a while. This was a particularly nice job for Visit Scotland, working with the good folks at Stand in Glasgow. A nice set of 5, A5, fold out guides. I had a lot of fun filling those buses!

Home Sweet Home

A little picture of Texas taken by Daniela Exley as part of a fantastic series she's been taking of various folks homes in Hastings and St Leonards. I'm still not sure it's actually my house, as i seldom see it not knee deep in the kid's plastic junk and discarded Super Hero costumes! It's a good way to snoop around other peoples houses... hope there's no artistically inclined burglars out there!