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