"I Wish It Was Xmas Today"

"And You've Got The Face On"

http://www.hundreddays.net/

Doing this, managed it (barely) so far, but I've been too busy to post anything up. I'm doing a 'comic panel every day'. I thought inspiration would just come to me day by day and produce a mind-blowing twist filled comic subject to my whim.

That's not been the case. Instead I've done

• A terrible page one of 'My Helly Face' , a comic I've been putting off for..ooh..probably four years now
  
• A totally shit abstract panel that was the case of "totally forgot! I've got 4 minutes to go before midnight, quick, get SOMETHING done!". I've got an idea for it though
  
• A random comic panel, again, badly done. I took a bit of dialogue from my Marvel Essential Horror book and drew a panel for it.
  

None of it makes sense, hopefully I can rescue the project somehow! I think the best way is to just draw rough outlines of whole pages so I can mess about with the story and layouts and then fill them in later. Really don't want to quit though, so I'm willing to do any piece of crap to stay in the game!

Off to ATP soon, so I'll post up the results when I get back. Going to work on stuff while I'm there -I'm always up about three hours before anyone else anyway. Then I'll send the links to the 100 days Facebook.

"Blaze of Glory"

Cool, got one of my stories on the six word stories page. Only just found out when I was googling to see if my gig details were up, which they are. 

http://www.sixwordstories.net/2009/07/escher’s-famous-staircase-confounds-carpet-fitters/

Here's the gig details by the way - it's called the Sanctuary Café and it's basically in the downstairs bit. 


http://www.sanctuarycafe.co.uk/Sanctuary/Events.html


Thurs 17th Dec-Unicorn Power - "Pointy cone horse skewered pop by

humans" www.myspace.com/weareunicornpower

Cannibal Gymnastics - "Lo-fi stumblebee pop, with a stinger in its

heart and a honeycombed brain" www.myspace.com/cannibalgymnastics

Boy in the Cupboard - "Spanish guitar and double-bass indie

bitterness" www.myspace.com/boyinthecupboard

£2 8pm

"I'm a King Bee"

Still busy writing and arranging for the gig, honestly! Will put up some new stuff sometime after the 17th Dec. 

"You Were Looking For A Goldberg Machine"

Totally knackered. Haven't done a post in a while so I thought I'd just put one up so when I look back later I'm reminded that I was actually working. Been preparing for a gig in December. Worked on a couple of covers today. One might not make it, we'll see.

Let's see if I have any drawings to put up...
Ha! Found this - these are little things I make up just to remind me how I'm going to have my pedals for gigs - fuck it, I'll put 'em up anyway. One's the acoustic set up, the other is the electric. I think you'll find the artwork amazing. Actually the nicely drawn pedals are stolen from guitargeek.com which is amazing. Hopefully they'll never find out and sue me.

"The Beauty Of The Ride"

Hurrah! My latest AC is up, so I'm going to post it here now. I get paid tomorrow, so I can actually send them the painting as well. 

Lots of great work from other people as always, here's the link, you can find me somewhere.

http://acquiredcollective.blogspot.com/

I have been working recently, apart from a bout of illness this week, but its mainly been work work , music stuff for my second gig in December. I have been practicin drawing from 'famous artists cartooning course' but I don't know if its really worth posting. After I've got ready for the gig I'll get back to some serious drawing - I also have a lot of holiday due so it may be quiet for a while and then suddenly splurge. 

"I Need A Fix 'Cause I'm Goin' Down"

Decided if I was going to spend another Saturday night alone, it would be drunk..BLAM!

Success!

Still, finished the new AC project, I think I'm over a week late, but it actually turned out pretty good - very surprising. I like it anyway. Thanks to a bottle of red wine and about 12 hours work. It does not look like 12 hours work though.

Would love to post it up, but I want to wait until it appears on the AC blog first.

Meant to be working on Cannibal Gymnastics set today, so I'm going to have to do a lot of work on it tomorrow.

"Pucker Up (why?), 'Cause He's A Sucker, So.."

Just for my records..

I am actually working, but because it's painting I haven't got much to show. It's for the AC as well, so I won't post up the final before it ends up on that blog.

It's going rubbish at the moment though. At least I've made progress though.

Rubbish progress.

Really need to finish it Friday night, no matter what as I need to start putting a set together for a xmas Cannibal Gymnastics gig and I want to spend the whole weekend doing it.

In the meantime, here's an old picture I did in Paint called "Superman VS Batman"

"Sing, To The Bible Of Fantasy"

Man, I am so late on loads of stuff...Acquired Collective, Fourteen Nights, getting a gig setlist together....etc etc.

Here's some sketches for the Acquired Collective, time got away from me and I haven't really prepared enough. Kind of thought soemthing would just happen - hasn't so far.

Anyway, I've started painting it, hoping it will turn out cool, unfortunately I am a terrible painter. Still, I'm trying to make some kinda painting/collage/comic/story out of it.

Uh-oh!

By the way, not sure if the lyric title is actually correct - it's supposed to be from "Do You Know Squarepusher" but I still like it.

"Drink The Long Draught Down"

Doing some ideas for the latest acquired collective. Going to be careful not to post too much as I don't want to post too much of the thing before I send it to the AC blog.

Luckily, I have done fuck all so far. Bought a canvas for this one, going to try and do a story collage. 

Have been busy though, either doing music or drawing other stuff, just not posting it at the moment. 

"Do You Want Some Chili Sauce With That?"

Dammit, been trying to add my mate's link to my blog and failing for about half an hour. No idea why. So here it is for now. 

http://www.unicornpower.co.uk/

Happy birthday Scott! 

Now to do some drawing. 

"Animals Strike Curious Poses"

Some workings out for the latest comic. Not quite got the end yet, might make it lighter in tone! 

"Did everybody see this snowman Standing in the wind alone?"

Pictures from the saturday recording. 

"The Cassette Played Poptones"

Finished the 12 hour music immersion project yesterday from this book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frustrated-Songwriters-Handbook-Radical-Overcoming/dp/0879308796

Similar to what I did last Saturday, but a lot more intense. Started at 9:30am, finished 9.30pm. Always aim to do twenty, ended up with eight. Felt exhausted and still do today. A friend did it with me and we met up afterwards and listened to the results, was really impressed with what we both came up with, amazing. So, got a fair few songs from that and coupled with last weeks music means a shedload of stuff got created. 

Was going to put some stuff up and remix last weeks work but I'm so tired I think I'm just going to chill and play some games, maybe sleep. Ahhh.

In the meantime, here's some of the things I used/wrote yesterday - I used some of my old popbloks as well. 

And the music from the last couple of weeks: 

From the 12 Hour Immersion Project: 

1. Hairy Sway Rage - Sounds a bit like Lou Barlow backed by The Stooges with scrabble lyrics - "Cluster lachtose quips/I flux with pithy raintry/Maquettes create swan sludge/xxxxxx ran my wigwam"

2. I'm In The Carpet - - INFO: About laying on the carpet, getting covered with bugs who make you into their home and then turn you into a new carpet. Was going for a Syd Barret/Velvet Underground sound. This was the one where I was trying to be super quiet - "Weavels weave a second skin/When there is an earthquake it's just me breathing in"

3. Fly Red Eagle - - INFO: I wanted to do a doom metal riff that sounded like a big red eagle with lots of harmonising guitars. Ended up just making a really heavy motherfucking sludge riff with, strangely, a vocal where I was trying to do a PJ Harvey falsetto. . I never knew I could make that sound. Has a really fucked up Can sample and tambourine. Reminds me of Royal Trux, one of my favourite bands. "Fly Red Eagle/Twist my red skull"

4. pICNIC cRASHERS - This ended up being a song about insects attacking a picnic. Sounds like it's been made by sad, ambitiuous robots. Tried to use my strangest guitar sounds but keep it really catchy. "Tame fur attracts the hornets/Brazen thugs, they crash the picnic"

5. Gold Sand -  My favourite of the session and most 'normal' - really simple lyrics from when I was on my first holiday in France and first experience of romance. Has a chorus that reminds me of those bittersweet 70s sitcoms - that sounds awful, but it's not. I sang some "bong bongs" like 'Satellite of Love'. "Even [the]greatest rocks get turned to gold sand"

6. Sixthes and Seventhes - Spelt wrong on purpose, I don't know why, but it ended up about being a ghost who is now going to haunt someone, sounds like it's for revenge but as I did it I realised one of the lyrics sounded slightly sexual so I went with it and the spooky "whooooo" noises have slight, erm, enthusiastic aspect of them. Only a little bit though! And, as with all good ghost stories it has a twist ending.  "Gonna rattle my chains/Rattle the fuck out of them/Whoooooooooooo!"

7. Dear Doctor - Hate this one, it's balls. Thought I would try and tell a story to a music backing. I randomy picked 16 sentences from four books - 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love', 'Five Great Short Stories[Chekov]', 'The Groucho Letters' and 'L.A. Confidential'. Music was boring, although I liked the bass and a little of the guitar, and the deliver of the story sounded rubbish. 

8. Batman, Answer Cupid's Signal - Ended up a little Flaming Lips/Prince. Last one and I'm really glad how it came out - didn't want to end on the low of 'Dear Doctor' so I decided to make a super poppy one. Has manual dribbling rhythm bleeps and crunks, rainbow harmonies that are all out of tune but somehow really fun, a really simple acoustic riff and a lyric about Batman. another that's going to end up in my set - not sure how I'll re-create it though. "Oh Batman why don't you/Find a wife/It must get lonely/Crimefighting Life/Racing through the street no time for dating"

From last Saturday:

Cannibal Gymnastics VS Geordie LeForge VS Pitket

SONG A_[Chocolately Funk Ascending]
SONG B_[Arcade Frosty FX Pedal Guitar]
SONG C_[Beautiful Melody Acoustic Flourishes]
SONG D_[Fukkxed Drum Pedal Copter Threat]
SONG E_[Manual Hip Hop Scratch Avalanche]
SONG F_[Geordie's Trek]
SONG G_[Crashed Riddim]
SONG H_[Chiming and Chillin]
SONG I_[Harmonicas and Handclaps]
SONG K_[Tent Roast Swan]
SONG M_[Masher Gain]

"Soon After Dark, Emily Cries"

"The Scarlet Eagle Showered Silver On The People"

Phew - haven't managed to finish the invitation yet. Damn. Jukebox took longer than I thought - very scrappy, but I tried a nice clean version and I just can't pull it off. Need to do lots of work still! It's WELL too busy. Oh dear. 

Been listening to 'The Piper At The Gates At Dawn' and 'Swordfishtrombones' all weekend. 

Finally 'get' the Pink Floyd album. I was always more interested in it than the later stuff, but found it a little bit too twee, and the actual idea seemed better than the reality. I Still find that with 'Flaming' and 'the Gnome', but love the rest of it, especially 'Lucifer Sam' and 'Bike'. Aceness. So tired. Hand crippled, but I'm really getting into photoshop now.  

"Tent Roast Swan!"

Phew, I am knackered. 

Used my popblok graphic scores (link below) to do some music today. 

http://fidgetyink.blogspot.com/2008/10/musical-scores-v-popbloks.html

We set ourselves rules and limits, broke some, kept others, but ended up with some pretty wild music - because we didn't have to worry about a finished product a lot of experimentation happened (much of it silly), and I'm really pleased with the results. 

Along with lots of weird jams which I reckon we can use to make some wicked tracks, we managed to get at least three proper tunes (wierd tunes perhaps), one with a lush synth melody, cricket sounds made by a massively pitchshifted guiro and some pseudo-latin acoustic guitar; a motorik electro-pop tune with slide guitar and the lyrics "Tent Roast Swan!" and a really dirty dislocated guitar funk tune with a vomit choir we recorded in the bathroom. 

Plus I managed to use nearly all of my music equipment (I have a lot - quantity not quality). 

I'll post up the pictures when I get them. And maybe some tracks. 

"Tent Roast Swan!"

"I Need To Sleep, Why Don't You.."

Can't....stop....fucking....about...with....the.....scanner. 

Proudly displaying 'The Twins' - Marshall Blues Breaker and Drive Master. I'm a pedalhead. Now if only I could get the Shred Master I'll have the complete set! 

"I've Got Wheels And You Want To Go For A Ride"

Some work. Went a bit off the brief so I'll have to change it, but I got really into it. 

"Get With It Baby"

CD design. I think I wanted to be in 4AD - I just discovered the Pixies, was finding loads of wicked graphic designers and was regularly getting wasted while playing in a band. Good times/bad times. 

Unfortunately what doesn't come out in these scans are the fluorescent colours.

"So I Play The Part I Feel They Want Of Me"

Brighton Festival project from my graphics year. Wasn't into this until my tutors encouraged me to think of something more than a poster, for which I'll always be grateful.

Afterwards I went nuts with my ideas, never worrying about how stupid it seemed. I ended up doing a 3D magazine and a speeding poster that was made up of four separate posters that had text that could be read about ten different ways, depending on how you arranged the posters to slip together. Wish I had a copy of those somewhere, I was really proud of them!  

"Hiding In Shadows Where We Don't Belong"

"You're The Left Side, He's The Right Side"

A really old comic I started. Jeez. I was really into Geoff Senior and his work in 'Dragon's Claws'. Still am in fact. 

My idea was to use a different medium for each panel. You can't really make it out, but one panel's covered in sellotape. Seemed to use a lot of this for some reason, I think it was just really cheap. 

Not great, but I do miss the amount of experimentation I did then - in everything! 

"Am I Just Shooting At Mirrors?"

Some old life drawing - again, I think this was when I was doing Graphics, so I guess I would've been 16/17. 

Hmmm, looks like I draw now to be honest. 

"Boys Who Are Fearful Of Getting An Earful"

Some graphics technical drawing. Oh dear, I wasn't into this at all, like the little comments my tutor made on the jukebox thing. Loved graphics, hated the technical drawing side of it (because I was rubbish at it - how's that for discipline?)

"The Pump Don't Work 'Cause The Vandals Took The Handles'

OK, working on something for my mum at the moment, but I got distracted by finding loads of old art while I was looking for something else. Going to do loads of posts because they tickle me. 

First though: got the new Acquired Collective project this Wednesday - so - note for myself - that's a deadline of 26th September! 

Here's what I got (should have done this with the last one):