The Trooper

- wohohohoho woaho -

That's right. I've done it - my dissertation, my degree - I bloody did it. Over and done with - and now sweeps over me a massive tide of EVERYTHING ELSE. The drawing and the gigging and the sitting down. Afore I begin to whine on about art and such; TAKE A HARK AT MY NEW BANNER UP THERE! Cor innit lovely? Despite making me look like a woman. I am not a woman. Sorry.

That lovely man just above is the guitar legend Joe Bonamassa - this is not a drawing but I did purple up the background - HOW SWANKY. Last night I went to see this sprightly fella over at the ROTHERAM MAGNA CENTRE which was equipped for maybe five hundred. Shame thirty thousand showed up. It was sweaty and claustrophobic but much boogying was had by all and Joe was classy throughout. Referring to the awkward location as "the Sheffield area" which was met with much muttering from non-Sheffielders. Northern gigs are always good fun - and no matter who's playing there will always be guttural shouts from all about.

"G'WAN JOOO"

Support was from Sandi Thom and I remain unconvinced by her blues credentials. She has a good voice, but her pouting session band and plodding pseudo-standards were about as blues as a Guardian supplement on the blues. Joe however had a tight band behind him and remains a beacon for everything groovy - thoroughly lovely and with a voice and guitar skill that FLATTENS THE MIND. By the time he widdly widdly widdled to a climax after an excellent cover of ZZ Top's Just Got Paid I found myself hooting like those around me. GWAN JOO.

I re-lettered the first part of Crabcake whilst doing dissertation activities. The outstanding Jim Campbell did a lettering tutorilla and I'd always intended to learn how to do it properly-like so I used it and BINGO; Crabcake doesnae look so shite anymore. We live in marvellous times. The full thing can be seen here.

This piece is for Feral-Gargantua's "Reverse Anthro" jam. I get so sick and tired of anthro on Deviant Art so personally this was an opportunity for me to strike back. With Lassie. LASSIE STRIKES - ! I drew and inked this on a train - much to the confusion of fellow passengers, who would walk past and pull that kind of jerky movement like "oh he's drawing - oh it's not good". Then they all died. True story. The big picture is here. The original background is here. The photo that inspired me to draw that background is here.

Finally - this is something I coloured for the outstanding Joe "OOOL" Richards who drew it as an amalgam between

- LOST

- THE APPRENTICE

- THE MOLE

- that's it

Making it the LOSTAPPRENTICEMOLE - catchy eh? The big picture is here, of course.

I will see y'all on the 14th June - my last blog written from the hallowed hills of Sheffield - ! *Sob* Watch out for the features of ALPHABETROCK - summat I do in June that is my yearly vent of all the albums that makes my mind tick along. DO LOOK OUT FOR THAT.

ART BE HERE
AUDIO BE HERE
DINGO WARRIOR BE HERE

O - x

Freedom Run

...but not yet, not yet.

'Allo - you're witnessing me cautiously optimistic at the beginning of a dissertation writin' frenzy (although obviously I'd be more optimistic if I were actually writing it rather than this blog). BUT I MUST ART - I SIMPLY MUST. The frantic workload recently has taught me this - no matter how busy things get there is always time for drawing - and there ALWAYS WILL BE.

So, as per the stories of this last fortnight will be told through the medium of my fairly average art -

That then, is a picture of Cosmic Ray - editor of the superlative (and dead) small press title Solar Wind, which I was priviliged to be part of in the past. Stories published were The Whistle of Alfie Smith - a disgracefully drawn one back in like... 2004 - and The Last Blokes in the final issue 'bout two years back. So I coloured this for Paul Scott, editor and kindly comissionman - an image that was originally in the front of that final issue as a 'reader's letter' type thing. Long live Solar Wind! The bigger one is here.

That is obviously a dalek. A lecture sketch gaudily coloured-up as a tribute to the new Doctor who I'm enjoying greatly (aside from the occasional companionspaz, THANKS AMY) All of the Day and All of the Night. The dalek episode wasn't particularly good but I love Mark Gatiss and Bill Paterson so that was enough for me. The big picture here.

This is MY HILARIOUS INTERPRETATION of the 'Day the Music Died' where three talented young rock 'n' roll troubadours were tragically killed in a plane crash. I thought, only naturally, that this should be immortalised through the medium of a toddler's toy. It was part of a Feral-Gargantua jam about 'dead celebrity action figures' and it's larger form (complete with a story about Space Goblins) can be found here.

- this is a piece of art I did to justify a Crabcake fanart request from the amazing Carl 'jimoakley666' Pearce. It is clearly the Toxic Avenger, I'm quite fond of it and you can see all the details at this location.

This is an APPALLINGLY ROUGH sketch of the first page of the second part of the Crabcake epic. I felt the need to scan it because, flailing with heavy workload as I am, I wanted to prove that the Crabcake fires were still burning. During lectures I constructed a full sketch for the next part and now all it needs is a bit of light FULL-ON COMPLETION. Which I'm greatly looking forward to doing.

Lastly I rejiggered THIS OLD IRON MAN PICTURE to fit in with a new Feral Gargantua jam on Iron Man - If you are an artist reading this who's on DevArt but not in Feral Gargantua give us a shout and join in - it's A RIGHT LARK.

That's it folks - I will be back after I've written an appalling dissertation and finished my degree - when that will be I do not know, but I'll not be back without some art to justify my absence - !

ART BE HERE

AUDIO BE HERE
TWELVE HORSES BE HERE

O - x