"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): 

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

Nothing to post yet, just wanted to remember the title for my next post. I'll edit this later. 

"Like A Wind-Up Toy You Stutter At My Feet"

Started work on a new comic, again not written by me, but more of a collaboration this time. Just trying out some layouts for a friend's story.  Really must learn how to scan these in better so they show up. Ah well, they are quite small anyway, you'll have to just click on them to see them. 

Also, this will probably be the last I do on this for a while (despite only just starting!) as I'm going to pass it back to J for the next stage (whatever that may be!). 

"If You Won't Take My Hand..Keep The Glove"

My first Fourteen Nights post. Wanted to get on with something else rather than try to finish it. Which is wrong of me really. Hopefully have something else to post up tonight though. 

"Looks Like A Clown And He Stumbles Like A Bee/Happy Birthday To Ya"

The blog's birthday is today. The whole point of this blog is to encourage me to get my arse in gear and actually do some of the stuff I keep boring people about. Mainly, making some comics. It was a bumpy first six months, and I'm still not really doing as much as I should be, but things are actually moving along. 

Finished my first comic. Ever. Even the Transformer and Action Force rip-offs I did as a kid never got finished as I was too bothered about making them good.

I followed the same advice for writing a novel: "Never try and write your masterpiece first".  So I've done a comic based on a short film so I don't have to worry about plot, or even in some cases the pictures (many scenes are lifted straight from the paused film), but just actually finishing it, and practicing my layouts. 

I'm actually quite fond of it, although there are loads of improvements needed. Took me a lot longer than it should have as well.

1)The main problem I have (apart from the shoddy drawing, which, I do kinda like) is that it doesn't actually make any sense. The film works, which is why I chose it. It's like a little pun and I found it quite funny. My comic however, just seems confusing and bizarre. I failed to emphasise the first 'teethed smile' and so the punchline is missed. 

2) I rushed the title page as a last minute add on, I didn't plan it and it happened literally as I put the brush strokes down. If I had done some thumbnails I could have made a smart little graphic piece, I think the ideas are all there. 

3) Dunno why I stuck with the first page. I really wanted to do him walking down the stairs and I stuck with the idea to the detriment of the story telling. 

4) Originally, the only scenes that were actually framed were the scenes from the peeping tom's perspective. This kind of got lost when I replaced a couple of scenes and then failed to frame up the last panel. Shame, as I thought that was a nice idea. 

5) Lots more stuff! 

Still, I really enjoyed it and feel ready to do my first story - it's still not one of my favourites so I feel safe in mucking about with it, but I have taking a LONG time doing layouts for it. Feel more confident now though that it's OK to make mistakes. It's going to be called 'Levelling Out'. 

I have some other projects to do in the meantime though, a comic with my friend Joel, a wedding invitation, a 14 Nights post (its about time) and my Cannibal Gymnastics band. Jesus, I wish I was still a student so I could squeeze the time in! 

Now, back to the beer and Wire's Pink Flag. 

"A Host of Scowling Haircuts"

So close.. nearly finished the comic. Loads of problems with it, including one major one where I realised I haven't made enough of the first smile - which is the whole point.  Ah well, the whole idea was to do a comic that I wouldn't get caught up on being 'perfect'. 

Defintely looking forward to doing the next project(s) though. 

Need to go to bed, so here's my inks.

And a quick Emma Peel sketch because she is the best. 

Since my last post I have been digging (well, mostly):

The Prisoner - Complete series - what an ending, what a great show. 
PJ Harvey - 4 Track Demos
Galaxie 500 - The Portable Galaxie 500
Casanova
The Testament of Dr Mabuse
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Elastica - Elastica EP
Sparkelhorse - Good Morning Spider
Columbo - Etude in Black 
Songs in The Key of Z
Essential Avengers Vol.2
Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85 - 92
Eden Lake 
Franklyn
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Trojan Dub Box Set
Frank Miller era Daredevil
The Shaggs - My Pal Foot Foot
Wesley Willis - Cut The Mullet
The Invisibles Volume 1
The Slits - Cut
The Make-Up - Live! At Cold Rice
The Make-Up - In Mass Mind

"When, Will You Come Home?"

Going to do nothing today and feel ok about it. Haven't posted in a bit, but I have been drawing/practicing guitar and reading. Thought I'd give myself a free pass today. Of course, that means just trying to read and watch fucking loads of stuff and then documenting it. 

Defintely getting obsessed with trying to do everything. Must chill! 

Oh yeah, and my PC seems to be dying on me (well, it seems to have been for quite some time now), lost my profile settings meaning I've lost all my web bookmarks, setting, passwords and all my little program settings. Gah. Surprisingly OK about it, just wish I had the money to get a new PC quicker. Seeing it as a good opportunity to clean house instead. Hence the chill. 

Annoyingly though it doesn't seem to save anything now, so when I do re-apply all the old setting they disappear each time I log in. Bah. 

"When You're Stuck Like Glue - Vaseline!"

Hmmm, kind of messed my comic up, check out the super-ugly panels at the bottom! Naturally, these are panels not in the film. Shouldn't have tried to wing it. Probably redo and scan it over later on. 

DISCLAIMER: It is still unfinished, but I don't have any excuse for the bottom of the page. Holy crap it's bad. 

EDIT: Just added it as a two pager with the first one. Despite this not turning out as I had hoped I'm really looking forward to finishing it and going back to my own story! 

"Don't Lose Your Graceful Tones"

Just realised I have 12 days until this blog is one year old. Would be a good way to celebrate it if I finished this one comic for then. 

"Wanna Be A Field Day For The Sundays"

Still failing to finish this comic. Set myself a deadline of tonight and I can't stop messing with it and trying to improve it. I'm still kind of enjoying doing it though so I'm not sure if I should stop and just wind it up or keep reworking it. 

I don't think I've even managed to tell the story, let alone do some decent pics yet. And all these are heavily based on the film anyway, not much of it is my actual original input. 

Did enjoy trying out inks, even if I made a terrible mess. What I have managed is to make something a little more free and loose, but I also really like the cartoony one that's all in blue. I'm going to end up with a book worth of just alternative versions of this one story!