What Goes On...

I've had an idea for a comic strip. I was doodling and made a one frame comic strip that was kinda funny. Is that even a strip? Anyway...I wrote at the top: "What Goes On". "What Goes On..." that's a pretty good name for a run of funnies about whatever I like I thought. So I'll post the first later today. Betcha can't wait. If I make more than a dozen of these we can all cheer together.

Rapunzel/Tangled/Glen Keane sketches

I love Tangled. It's a fantastic film. I love the animation and the dialogue and so I started off in search of some original artwork and sketches from the film. There is a book on the subject http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Tangled-Jeff-Kurtti/dp/0811875555 and also found this cool little one minute YouTube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYm6FtNthAY&feature=player_embedded Amazing stuff.

My comics here: http://abrahamloveblog.blogspot.com/search/label/What%20Goes%20On

Andy Stanton Live!

If you like Mr Gum and Andy Stanton's other books then you should watch this. If you don't know about Mr Gum then watch this anyway it's funny. Andy doing one of his stand-up talks to some children up in Scotland and also being broadcast round the country to lots of other people on the BBC's red button...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/authorslive/andy_stanton/

 

Carol, 1956. Deconstructed.

Carol, 1956. Deconstructed.
Originally uploaded by abraham_love

I thought this was a cool idea. A lovely little photo from 1956. the frame was as much a part of the thing as the picture itself. Very sweet old frame. Pulled it apart. Looks cool.

Caricature with coloured pencils

I'm particularly please with this one. It was another caricature using one of the faces from Keelan Parham's book as inspiration. It kinda went off track looked a little like her but then as I coloured it with a few coloured pencils - the ones I had to hand made her look Asian. She wasn't in the original pic, but the skin colour and dark hair make her look that way here. I like it that way. I think I did the hair with a black Prismacolor Artstix.

Drag Queen

This character is some kinda drag queen. I guess if Meatloaf were to dress in drag he might end up looking like this.

Pudgy hoody guy

This pudgy guy was just kinda lounging in his tracksuit. I was trying to get him to stretch and pull at the material in the right places. also trying to give him some weight onto his feet. It's not bad.

Smokin cowboy...on a horse no less

Two other little sketches. First a cowboy...on a horse...smoking! This was tough. firstly it's more than just a face (bodies are hard) and he's doing something (on a horse)...and a horse and all drawn from the front. anyway - it turned out well for me in a strange dwarf-horse kinda way.

Next up is a smiley naughty looking face - no idea what this one is about but I like the scale of all the features and it's just...well I like it and I'm the boss.

Ad Jetsonic Caricature

Here is a caricature of my band mate from The Jetsonics. It's fairly succesful I'd say. Nice line quality with a little bit of grey shading that adds to it. But a big fail is the goatee half way up his chin. It doesn't really make much sense if you think about it. so I prefer not to think about it and think of it as a decent 'from memory' effort.

Worried about what?

Hmmm. Not sure why this lady is so worried. Blue is the only colour highlighter to hand. Maybe I just get me a few different colours! the other guy is a bit rubbish. And the two hands...one fail, one semi-success. Who's counting?

Drakoola

Here is Drakoola. You could see him bleeding through from the reverse of the last scan I posted. I was trying to give him shiny hair with the white bit left there. Not sure how successful that was.Hmmm...and the scan black and whited him. He had blue blood on his fangs. Grey blood? That just won't do.

Some sketches.



So I thought I'd be a little brave and post some sketches. Not sure why. I guess it's time to get naked in public and this is a good place to start.

I think I was writing 'cereal'  over and over to see how it looked if I didn't join up all the letters. Or maybe I was hungry.

The guys with the blue outline I quite like. Also the guy with the scowl and the long chin. I was looking at some Stephen Silver sketches to see how he did the neck descending from ear thing and also defining the upper lip as it joins the underneath of the nose. That's something I'd not tried before and in an instant it gave more depth to the picture. Cool :-)

Then through the page on the other side you can see a kinda Dracula guy. I'll post him later.

The Jetsonics - Extended Player Number One

My band the Jetsonics just released a new EP available at all good MP3 stores including iTunes.

Go get it!
www.thejetsonics.com
www.facebook.com/thejetsonics


 

Cartooning!

So over on Facebook there is a little group called 'Toon Challenge' It's informal and free to enter your cartoon each month. So far I've entered 'Space Invader' and 'Punk Rock Chick'. Even my 7 year old had a great go at the Space Invader one.

...and here's the Punk Rock Chick. In lieu of a decent face, I shoved an amplifier in place of her head. Actually that turned out pretty well. The hands are awful.

All of these done with pencil then Illustrator then coloured in Photoshop. Was good fun.

Pitt Artist Brush Tip

Tip about that tip...see if your Pitt artist brush tip has frayed/flattened and can no longer do the lovely fine strokes but it still has alot of ink...you can pull the nib and flip it round to reveal a brand new point on the other side. Didn't even need tweezers...just pulled the thing and pushed it back in the other way. Black fingers sure. But it's like having a brand new pen. Woohoo!

Keelan Parham - "Let's Toon"

I bought this book and it's OK but not the amazing insight I hoped it would be. That said it has some good beginners tips and a lot of photos of faces to draw from. The whole book feels like a home made manual that has been glossed up with some cartoons and illustrations and made into something fancy. In fact in the intro Keelan Parham tells you that's basically what it is - the instruction manual of all the things he has been teaching his new Caricaturists over the years. The style it teaches is very simple, and I guess a good springboard for developing your own style. But this book won't turn you into Joe Bluhm overnight. For $18.99 in the US it's worthwhile, but once you pay for shipping etc to the UK the price becomes quite expensive so if you're buying internationally that's worth bearing in mind.

Letraset Tria and pen update

The Tria is pretty good. The chisel is decent and the brush tip has a nice degree of flexibility vs. line width, it can't do super fine though. That said there is a third tip that does do super fine. The problem I've found is that the lids don't fit easily. Means it's too easy for them to fall off and the nibs to dry out (happened twice so far).
 
Still my favourite is the Zig Art and Graphic Twin. What I'd like is one of the Zig Brushables which has the brush from the Twin and at the other end a second brush with a 50% colour in a brush. So black comes with 50% grey on the other end. But it seems you can't buy them individually - only in 4 packs -  which is a shame.

...and now for some drawing

So it seems none of those agents liked my two picture book manuscripts. Got a load of regular rejections back. The second rhyming story that I did ended up being too wordy. Lots of words. Good words I think. Good story. But lots of words and no repetition would make it too tricky for the target 3 year old audience. Still it felt like a real accomplishment creating something from nothing. I read it again a month after finishing it and it still read well. I have another idea for a non-rhyming picture book which I'll work up next. So far I have a title and three supporting characters. But all that could change. Need to drum up some enthusiasm as I am easily knocked flat by criticism.

And never failing to try and be mediocre at lots of things I've taken to drawing and caricaturing. I got the bug from Tom Richmond's blog - he of MAD fame. Now I've read alot about it. Watched a load of video, bought a handful of markers. The Zig art and graphic twin is one I really like. Has a brush tip one end and a regular felt pen nib the other end. The brush stays sharp and in tact and the black is deep. I also tried a Pitt Brush Pen which was very nice at first, a little finer than the Zig but the point of the brush soon lost its sharpness and now very fine lines are impossible although there's plenty of ink left. I think the regular sketch book paper I'm using could be part of that problem. Also tried the Letraset Pro marker but that was rubbish on regular paper. Too much bleed. Doesn't allow much line variation. I looked at getting a Dixon Markette, but I'd need to buy a dozen to make it worthwhile (from Canada) and exchange rates are so bad that they would be £3 a pen. I also ordered a Copic sketch marker to see how that works out. The Sketch marker has a brush tip too (which is replaceable) and is refillable. Quite excited about its arrival. I also ordered Keelan Parham "Let's Toon" book. It came highly recommended on Amazon, but I'm not convinced the style is something I'm going for. That said - from other reviews it looks like it contains some good general tips and advice. Should be arriving this week. I'll post some example caricatures. Maybe. If there are any worth posting that is. I also started sketching alot. Sat outside yesterday and sketched somebody waiting for a bus to try and tried to get the posture right. Not something I am any good at but it turned out well for me. This drawing lark is something else that (in my mind) I should just be able to just do - but again I've realised that few have prodigious talent and most of us just have to practice to make things look even half decent.

I went for a jog last night. A jog! Was actually good to help clear my mind. Better than walking the dog which did not clear my mind, just left me annoyed at the sniffing dog and having to carry a bag of his poo around.

Rhyming Picture Books?

Seemed like a good idea at the time. I wrote the first manuscript, led by Andy's excellent advice and came up with something that had a vague story. Was lively and fun. Rhyming and meter were here and there, but it was light and silly and I sent it off to a few agents and they all wrote back with their stock replies. Ba-DOOM! No thank you.

At the same time and while waiting on replies from those agents I started on another manuscript. This one feels more rounded, less haphazard, more organised. Rhyme is better, meter is better. Story is good. So I sent it off to half a dozen agents. A few by mail, a handful by post. I've not heard anything back yet. In some ways the chase is better than the catch. A week or two with no replies means there is some hope that someone, somewhere will like what i've written. I spent so many hours rhyming and re-rhyming and picking and changing words that in the end I honestly had no idea if what I was left with was great. Good. Or really just plain dull. In other non-me news. Andy sold a million Gum books and has a rhyming picture book coming out in May. Let's hope some of his good advice has helped my efforts :-)

The Jetsonics first review

We didn't even know this fella was going to be at The Jetsonics/The Members show. Turned out afterwards he was there reviewing for Mudkiss fanzine. A real review, by a real impartial. Nice then that feedback was glowing... http://www.mudkiss.com/membersreview.htm My band, The Jetsonics will be back at The Six Bells, Brentford on 20th May and the following day (in the afternoon) on St Paul's Rec in BRentford for the May Fayre.

Hofner Contemporary Club Bass - shortscale - scale length

Thanks to Peter Hoggett of http://www.barnesandmullins.co.uk/ - Hohner reps in the UK - I can now confirm the Hofner HCT500/2 Contemporary series Club Bass is a short scale bass and the same as the German models which are 30" (76cm). This is based on the measurement of the G string between nut and saddle. The distance is a little longer on the strings as the saddles are staggered, the E string being the longest at approx 77cm.

So if you've been searching the internet and finding contradicting information - Thomann for example don't list this in their short scale section - then that's your answer!

Jill's Pet Services Website for Dog Walking in Twickenham www.jillspetservices.com

I just launched www.jillspetservices.com for Jill's Pet Services. Jills Pet Services offers a professional, friendly, reliable and fully insured dog walking and pet care service in Twickenham, Teddington, Hampton, Isleworth, Whitton, Richmond, St. Margarets and surrounding areas. http://www.jillspetservices.com/ took me about 30 hours to create and put on the web. Far too long really! A lot of delays in learning Illustrator and Dreamweaver. I was pretty pleased with it in the end though. I like the little birds and the few design elements I made. The contact form took a little while to work out too. Jill is pleased with it too.

Rare celebrity photos

Here are some super rare celebrity photos. Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Hitler, Elvis, JFK, Marilyn Monroe. Many more. Thanks to Ben for the link. http://www.cracktwo.com/2010/01/rare-photos-of-famous-people-125-pics.html

The Blackout!

Cool. We are off to see The Blackout in December. Not been to a gig in a long while. It's probably going to be a lesson in 'how to feel old' since the age limit for the venue is [drum roll] 14.

That said, The Blackout's album, 'Best in Town' is fantastic. Only a couple of fillers, the rest is full of brilliant riffing and great melodies. Not sure how their live show will sound vs the prodcution on their record - which sounds incredibly powerful and tight.

Will post a review when we get back.

District 9 and This is England

District 9 is a very, very good film. Highly recommended. Sharlto Copley, the fella who plays the lead role is fantastic. It's exciting, funny, emotional and action packed. Watch it, Prawn.

I watched This is England, because I've been watching the TV follow up This is England '86 and realised there were some connections that I needed to make. The film is spot on too. It re-creates 1983 brilliantly. I especially liked the scene where the young boy is cycling around on his own and buys his catapult, The Black Widow.

Twickenham Samurai

Years ago I remembered seeing a programme about a Samurai from Twickenham. Until yesterday I'd failed to find any reference to it on the internet. then I found an article which lead to another and another. The programme was : "The WORLD ABOUT US: The SAMURAI FROM TWICKENHAM"
http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/337740?view=synopsis

The guy featured in it has an interesting bio here:
http://www.themartialartsjournal.com/archive/issue1/article1.php
 
So all these years later - I knew I hadn't imagined it.

Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From a Young Man

Before you ask - no I don't have a copy and no I can't share the songs with you. I was lucky enough to hear two songs from the new Manic Street Preachers album, 'Postcards From a Young Man'. I was invited with a handful of people to hear a couple of songs at the Sony offices in London. I'm assuming they were rush mixes although they sounded as good as finished. I heard the title track 'Postcards from a young man' and a second song called 'The end of love'. They both sounded like potential singles. They both sounded very upbeat. Surprisingly happy in the vocal department. Postcards sounded like motown/doo wop crossed with Queen. It sounded excellent. The beat and tempo of 'Design for Life' with a piano over the intro and a bit at the end that sounded like the finale of Queen's 'Somebody to love'. It was grand and excellent and pretty catchy. 'End of love' started with some descending arpeggios on the guitar and a rim shot pattern on the drums before crashing into a majestic song with lots of vocals and harmonies and a guitar solo. Sounded a bit like the Darkness at times (no falsetto though!). Both songs were very much Manics songs - but Postcards with its piano bits could be a different band if you couldn't hear the vocal. I'm no Manics super fan - but I quite like the big hits...these two songs I heard sound like big pop hits. They aren't listen-in-your-bedroom-hate-yourself-and-want-to-die numbers, they are grand rocking pop songs with catchy bits and stuff you could hum.

Free Jetsonics downloads

My band is on HayesFM 91.8 tonight. Rocking! they are also online at http://www.hayesfm.org.uk//


Also this weekend (now in fact..and it's only Friday!) you can download our new songs completely FREE. All we ask is that when you visit thejetsonics.com you also join our mailing list so we can say hello :-)

So go now to thejetsonics.com and hit the music knob to download the new songs.

Then join the mailing list by clicking here:

http://www.reverbnation.com/thejetsonics?add_email=true

Richard Avedon portraits of The Beatles

Why have I never seen these amazing photos before? I would like to take some fantastic photos like these. Of course subject matter is important, but still very nice.

I need to see this Adidas world cup advert!

"Adidas is using the England versus USA match to debut a Star Wars-themed World Cup ad. The German sportswear giant has hijacked the bar scene from the first Star Wars film, splicing stars including David Beckham, Franz Beckenbauer and a light-saber-wielding Snoop Dogg into original scenes featuring Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi."


Sounds awesome.