Sorry for the delay + straight laced birds

Hello

Sorry it's been a while since I did an update, I was suddenly cut off from the internet, then I moved house, now they say it'll be the 16th that we'll back online but I wouldn't even trust that.

I had all this stuff planned too. Borrowing a computer just now. bear with me, I do still draw.

Here are some birdies to prove it.

Knightmare with a Red Pencil

Knightmare, the British children's role-playing dungeon-based game show that ran from 1987-1994, is one of the more nerdy things that I'm a fan of.



I had a notion that I wanted to do a series of works based on Knightmare, eventually some quite moody watercolours. I don't know if they'd be fan art as such. They sort of are in spirit but it's obscure enough for me to not expect most people to get the references. I just hope to be able to use some of the atmosphere, awkwardness and creepiness to make some nice pictures that have a coherence together. I need to do something technicolour, and something with consistence. I may also attempt some landscapes with similar atmosphere.

Also lately I've gone a bit mental with red col-erase pencils and animation paper.
















little self-portrait next






Notions for future blogs that would scratch itches:

Some topless boymen (I've missed them)
boybands
JLS
Boys of Twilight with their drawn on abs
early Take That
smalltime cage fighters

Drawings of Queen (I'm rather familiar with their shapes from formative years, and I would love to get my hands on Freddie's teeth)

Birds of New Zealand in technicolour

All these things somehow combined in technicolour

Pregnant plus Kitties equals Today

A couple of these MAY have been blogged before, but they've been worked on since.





I am pregnant and I like kitties.




















I like the glassy eyes of cats.











And drawing on extremely cheap wrinkly paper.





Unfortunately some boobs follow.

Mystery bear and Baby Girl

We had our detailed scan. The baby is fine despite some early worries, and she is a girl.





This is my favourite one of the back of her head, she was behaving like a shy person. Like me, in fact.

Some Cartoon Learning

For the past few months I've given some time to being a humble student of cartoons.

I'm posting these partly for Hannie, who likes them, maybe more than some of my other work which is difficult and weird.





Copying is good





I wish I had been taught that at school





This has made me better at drawing.

Girls Aloud Melt my Brain

I wanted to draw lady pop stars, and the pull of Girls Aloud is just TOO MUCH TO HANDLE

































My brain has been totally bunged up. Just so you know, here's one of my current lists of future blogs/ projects:

Brett Anderson's nosebleeds in watercolour

Indie Meets Wrestling

Slightly Caricatured Silly Symphonies Special

Barney Bear Redux

Self as Preggo: Observed and Cartooned

Misc Unblogged Straight laced Cartoon Studies

90s wrestling in oil pastel EXPLOSION

Kitties in Style of Blinky Bill/ Wilfred/ Durer/ Peake

Vanguard Paper Britpop

Maps and Plans for Schemes and Lands

Breasts Movement Study Communication

Biro to pencil to biro MMA fighters

Suede

I have a subject!

I have been remembering Suede, my favourite band when I was 15.

For some reason I have yet to examine, pregnancy agrees with Suede.

The main men in Suede were Brett the singer front man and Bernard the guitarist. (The songwriting team.) They were my initial exposure to what front men and guitarists were. And I think they were quite good examples.





And I am enjoying them very much in retrospect.

I cannot expect it to be easy for me to put across the special complex personal nostalgia and affection I feel in my head for Suede, in these drawings. But if I aim to do that, I might get somewhere.

If I aim to put across the special feelings, I'm doing more than fixating on shapes, lumps and cheekbone configurations.





Brett and Bernard have one of those slightly comical homo buddy creative tempestuous gatekeeper/keymaster dynamics, which is great fun.

I liked them at the same time as I liked skinny weird boys at school who also played guitars.





I will write more about Suede on my other blog, I can't say it all here.

It was about engaging with the sordid things of adulthood in a playful textured beautiful woozy way.





Although it's not a thing I usually like to do to proclaim the objective importance of things, I will dare to say that Suede are underrated. And I still love the first two albums a lot. They had hype in 1993 but always a certain amount of hostility for one reason and another. Their fame is kind of forgotten. It was all a bit British music press fame. From when Indie seemed important. Now indie doesn't feel like it has much validity as a distinct idea or genre. Not that Suede ever wanted to be indie anyway.

They're bigger than that for me.

It is music for on your own. Or at a Suede fan club concert in 1994. Not casual or sociable.

Things that you liked in formative years... go some way to forming you.





I had a massive personal backlash against Suede, loads of reasons to hate them all of a sudden. But I changed my mind. That's what makes it all the more interesting. It's good to have strong feelings, even if your allegiances can end up feeling arbitrary at any one time. And to revisit things from your past NOW, isn't just diving headfirst into stale feelings... it's a new thing with added layers.









Get a big kick out of this pic, skulking around Glastonbury as one unified beast.

Mouse, Pregnancy, Garden monster

I have returned! Here is a picture of my Ma, Sue.





The reason I have been away is that I have had one of these in my tummy, which is distracting, especially to the digestion and one's ability to stay awake. This is actually my one, not just some image I lifted from the internet.





Here's how I felt about myself in the garden.





And here's what happened when I bunked off drawing Jerry mouse for John K's cartoon college blog and mucked about.

















The end, for now.