halloween

Halloween is just around the corner so I thought I'd give you a look at the new poster I did for the star. If you've been there in the past week then you've probably seen it, if you haven't then here it is.

This handsome fella is based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, a vast and loathsome creature from beyond the stars who lurks beneath the ocean in the sunken city of R'lyeh. In "The Call of Cthulhu" Lovecraft describes how a "pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings"..."a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers" and to give an idea of its monsterous size uses the phrase "a mountain walked or stumbled". The guy's got a way with words. If you haven't read any then I definitely recommend that you get on it. And yeah, that's you in his hand.

the dude,

his dudeness, el duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing. I love this guy, he's the original good natured slacker.I just did this for fun with a fine brush and black ink on a piece of nice, thick watercolour paper. I'm hoping to sign up for that illustration class again so I thought I'd better get a bit of practice in.

Flavour Bomb - patent pending

I dreamed up an exciting new culinary product the other night. Didn't think it up, literally dreamed it. As you may be able to guess from the title of this post it's called flavour bomb. It's like a stock cube but oh so much more. "Delicious in soups and stews, crumble over a chicken before roasting. Or why not add boiling water and enjoy as a hot, savoury drink on a cold winter's eve? Flavour Bomb. Drop a Flavour Bomb on it! Now available in lemon and thyme." There'd be all kinds of flavours. Also, the name reminds me of bath bomb, so maybe it could be effervescent or something. I'm thinking of taking it to Knorr.

I was watching Escape from L.A. a couple of days ago and it gave me an idea for a way of making myself look really tough and mysterious. Try it out.
When someone approaches you, perhaps at a party, and says "hey, aren't you (insert your name here)? You slowly turn your head away, squint as though remembering some long distant hardship and utter in a slow, throaty growl, "I used to be". Leave a few seconds of silence and then change the subject. Give it a go, you'll look awesome. Guaranteed.

Going to see Watchmen tomorrow, I am very excited. Bye.

illustration

Check it out, only 2 months since my last post. I thought I'd just stop by because I remembered saying I'd post some more pictures and I just did a new flyer for the star. Rob's got an offer on for the new students and as it involved corona and tequila it seemed like a no brainer that the flyer should be Mexican themed. I was just going to do a picture of a guy with a sombrero and a big moustache but after doing an image search I thought a Mexican wrestler would be cooler.

Not bad for one evening, I usually like to spend a little longer on the flyers I do but this one was needed quickly. The most time consuming part was colouring it in photoshop. I don't use it very often, and when I do I find that I've forgotten everything I figured out the last time. I've also started working on the new star halloween flyer as well and I'll post that up when it's done.

In other news I've signed up for an illustration night class that will be starting soon, I did the same course a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it. It's being taught by a local, children's book illustrator called Korky Paul who's artwork advertising last Christmas's production of Cinderella at the Playhouse can still be seen on many bus shelters around Oxford. (Bus shelters! Surely I could have come up with a better example) Anyway, he's an amazing artist and a thoroughly nice guy to boot so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Update

I saw Axl and Emma the other day. I hadn't seen either of them in a while and it turns out they were both mad at me for not updating my blog in ages. Well here you go guys, see what your disappointment has wrought.

Lots has happened since my last post:
My foray into the world of modern technologies that others have been enjoying for years has continued at a breakneck pace with the inclusion of an i pod and a laptop into my arsenal. Obviously I am taking advantage of only their most basic functions at the moment as my tiny, dinosaur like brain struggles to comprehend their vast array of applications. Baby steps.

I have entered Batman challenge, aka Batmanathon, in which me and a group of friends have given ourselves 9 months to workout to see who can make themselves most like Batman. How exactly we're going to figure out who the winner is I don't know. There's been talk of feats of strength, skill based competition and even the bleep test. They all sound good but I think the most important element should be us wearing our own, home made Batman costumes while we compete.

Talking of Batman, the Dark Knight hits U.K. cinemas this week. The hype surrounding it has been practically impossible to avoid and I for one have been looking forward to it for some time. However, that excitement has been surpassed already. A few days ago the trailer for the Watchmen movie appeared online and I spazzed out about it immediately. This movie is going to be amazing. Guaranteed. If you haven't read the the book then it won't mean much to you yet as you won't know any of the characters, but this movie will almost certainly put every comic book movie that came before it to shame.

The story is set in an alternate 1985/86 where Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term as president and the threat of nuclear war is constantly looming. Superheroes, once so beloved by the people, have long since been outlawed, but the brutal murder of one of their own forces a handful of retired heroes to join forces again and investigate what seems to be an elaborate plot to kill off the old "costumed adventurers". But things are worse than they think.

Watchmen is one of the most highly respected graphic novels ever and is even included in Time magazines top 100 books alongside the likes of Lord of the Rings, 1984, Catch 22 and One flew over the Cuckoo's nest. I highly recommend reading it but I'm sure it won't be essential to your enjoyment of the film when it comes out in March next year. You can watch the trailer here.

That'll have to do for now folks, maybe it won't be so long until my next post. Maybe.

you have been invited to join the justice squadron

Please meet at the municipal building of vengeance on Monday morning, 9:00 am sharp.

I started jury duty on Monday. Obviously my reputation as a master crime solver, up there with the likes of Batman and Sherlock Holmes, has preceded me. I was therefore hand selected as an essential candidate to take part in our fair city's war on crime. My many hours spent watching CSI and reading detective stories are now unarguably well spent.

Now unfortunately I won't be able to go into any gory details about any cases, not because I've sworn an oath not to but because nothing has happened. I arrived at ten to nine on Monday morning feeling rather nervous but also quite excited. There followed an induction and role call which lasted about an hour and then at 10 am my group were told our trial would begin at 2 pm. Four hours to kill. I read for an hour and a half, strolled round town for an hour and ate a sandwich and then returned to read for another hour. Then I read some more. Then at quarter to three we were lead to a small room adjoining the courtroom where we waited for another 45 minutes. Finally we were ushered into the courtroom where we took a seat, briefly watched the defendant argue with his counsel and then were ushered out again one minute later. Then after a further 45 minute wait we were sent home. Day 1 over.

On Tuesday morning I arrived for 9:45, as instructed. This was in readiness for a 10 o'clock case. I then sat and read until 12:15 when we were lead once more to the small room adjoining the court. Then 45 minutes later we were sent home again. I stopped by the pub to say hi on the way home and when Rob asked me why I wasn't in court I informed him that crime had taken the afternoon off.

Jury duty is supposed to last about two weeks, that's how long they tell you to prepare to be off work for, and that's how long I booked off work. When I rang the information line on Tuesday evening I was told I wouldn't be needed the next day. Then when I rang again on Wednesday I was told that my jury service was completed due to the Easter holiday. I took 2 weeks off work and my service was completed in a day and a half, only one minute of which was actually spent in a courtroom. I don't really know what to make of all that.

I never actually got sworn in, but when you do you can either swear on a holy book or you can make an affirmation if you aren't religious. I was surprised by the number of people who actually wanted to swear on the bible, it made me want to see if I could swear on a copy of Lord of the Rings. Han's got a very handsome leather bound edition that would have looked right at home in the courtroom. But the judge probably wouldn't have accepted an oath sworn by almighty Gandalf.

Anyway, that's it... all over with. It's kind of a shame that I didn't actually get to take part in a trial, I'm sure it would have been very interesting, and probably quite satisfying too. But on the up side it's my birthday on Monday and now that I don't have anything to do I can concentrate on celebrating in style, by which I mean getting boozed up. I'm going to be 30 years old by the way, eeeek!

spaceman

Here's a painting I finished the other day. I keep saying I'd like to be an illustrator (when I grow up), but I never seem to see any pictures through from beginning to end. No way to go about getting a portfolio together. Anyway, ta-da!

He's a spaceman of some sort and although he's not perfect I'm pretty pleased with him. He's painted with some really nice water colours I got off Han for Christmas.

What's next? Don't know, but I do hope to start posting more pictures.