Pumpkins and Peaches

My Grandad Cyril has been growing beef tomatoes, and has been very generous in sharing them with us. He is 87 years old, and his garden always looks full of colour and completely beautiful. I made him a drawing of some of his tomatoes in watercolour and charcoal (Lewis cheekily calls it "pumpkins and peaches").

And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually

My Dad asked me if I'd make him a portrait of Jimi Hendrix.

I've liked his music for a long time, but I didn't know much about his life, so I watched this documentary while making the drawing ("Jimi Hendrix: The Uncut Story"). His family and friends are interviewed, and while there is a tendency for people to elevate him into a prophet-like figure, its really insightful about the meaning behind many of the lyrics of his songs, and about his early life. He had a really difficult life, but he was also incredibly talented - able to play the guitar upside down and back to front, as well as playing songs backwards, by ear. I felt quite sad by the end of it all, but it made me start listening to his music again.

a little rant, and then back to work

"I think the situation is that there are art directors out there who I'm sure think I'm a total bastard to work with, and there are art directors out there who think I'm a complete dream to work with...and I think its in direct relation to how much they try and change me, basically. If I get an art director who likes what I do -that's why I'm doing it in the first place - and then trusts me to do it, and trusts that I know my audience and that I won't just mess around...I'm doing the project because I really feel something for it, I want to do it as best as possible...if theres that air of trust, then we get on famously and I have wonderful working relationships with art directors and designers. 
But the ones who come with preconceptions and want me to change and do something else...it gets very testy. Because really I just like to be left alone to do my own thing, and so I'm just not appropriate for those jobs that need tonnes of roughs and tonnes of development and constant changing, I'd rather not do that. I don't like doing roughs because the roughs just kill it for me. I like to work out the piece as I'm doing it and allow for mistakes and for inspiration and abstraction - for things just to happen." - Dave McKean, (in an interview with Escape From Illustration Island  - podcast episode 61)

New Empress Magazine are currently doing a survey on cinema-going habits - giving entrants the chance of winning a set of DVDs. You can find the survey here.

No one knows where we go, when we're dead or when we're dreaming

Here are some photos I took last time I went back home. I love nasturtiums, they are so vivid, and the way they grow makes them look like fireworks or explosions. These pictures were taken in my mum's garden:

I've just taken 4 paintings to Mustard Cafe in Norwich - the original Nikola Tesla drawing that WeAdmire turned into tshirts (and probably the most popular of all my t-shirt designs), a painted portrait of the daschund from my comicbook "Les Jardins...", and two of the Mata Hari illustrations, are now all available to buy (framed) at my favourite cafe in Norwich. Mustard also make amazing coffee and really really good food - pictured is their Ginger & Lemon cake and a flat white:

Blake

a birthday card for Dan's Mum, featuring their cat, Blake (whose pastimes include persuading people to open doors for him).

Sensurround

an illustration for New Empress magazine, for an editorial on Sensurround, a process used in the 1970s to create "extended-range bass for sound effects" in cinemas. Film producer and agent Jennings Lang (pictured) wanted to create an "event movie" - and Sensurround was first utilized to create the film "Earthquake", using sound to emphasise the feeling of an earthquake for the cinema audience. Unfortunately, the bass was so loud that ceiling tiles would fall down, cracks appeared in the walls of cinemas, the windows of nearby businesses shattered, and some people reported nose bleeds and headaches.

(You can find the latest issue of New Empress Magazine at BFI Southbank, Wardour News in Soho, The Prince Charles Cinema London, Riverside Studios London (one of my favourite cinemas), and Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, and via the New Empress webshop).

A selection of my illustration work has also just been featured on the blog of Juxtapoz Magazine (one of my favourite magazines). You can find the article here.

Character designs

     

I've found a few old character designs for a children's book I began (but had to abandon) a few years ago.

Epic Studios

3 of my illustrations are now on display (and for sale) at Epic Studios (117 Magdalen Street, Norwich), along with the work of 9 other Norfolk artists. The exhibition was organised by Making Space and will last for a month.

Richard Ayoade

an attempt at drawing Richard Ayoade; actor, writer, comedian and director of Submarine.

"What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real." - Miranda July

A little portrait of Miranda July, one of my favourite filmmakers. 

(You can find her website here: http://mirandajuly.com/)

"If I exorcise my devils, well, my angels may leave too" - Tom Waits

Dan has been asking me to make a portrait of Tom Waits for ages, so here it is.

And here is Tom Waits performing The Piano Has Been Drinking in 1977: