phoenix parakeet sanctuharry

... and so as you can sees I was a bit stumped and me I googles Phoenix (yeah like how you never do) and so then I tries the 23rd page (cos that's me lucky number and all the top pages is part of the big bad googly conspiracy to take over everyone's bits and bobs and such) and so then I sees on the googly page a lil' parrot place where the sick birdies they sometimes go to die or somesuch thing and so's I thinks 'well OK - why not me draw a nice perdy parrot face on me blog, comin up from the flames of hell like?' and so I does and OK so the flames isn't much kop like but at least you can sees its a parrot and well, me I think I like it and maybe I think, just maybe someones of you may just be liking it a tiny weeny little bit too, so anyways now you can sees what it does looks like and so here it is, so it is, yes sir, I do declare...

A lesser spotted Mongolian Tree Nibbler

When asked to explain my recent lack of creative fortitude, I complained of having been beset by Mongolian Tree Nibblers. Having told how those pesky fellows can so take up a fellas time such that he could most easily lack the artistic faculties necessary to indulge in such illuminatory endeavours, my muse called me out, accusing me of 'pure invention'. She went further to suggest that I'd been resting on my royal posterior watching far too much of some series she called deadwood. Forswearing such uncouth retorts as were itchin' to burst forth from my loins, I decided on illustrating my point in a manner deemed most appropriate to such a foul suggestion, in the hope that this dispell such sacriligious runours once and for all.

So here he is, my cuddly compadre.

-

His name is AL

Family of Tree Nibblers

These lil fellas started takin over my life. That's why I ain't had much time for scribblin'.

Mongolian Tree Nibblers they is. Momma just gave birth to some young 'uns see.

and gods stay quiet

.

This place called Assam in the north east of India recorded its worst ever drought this year, so the paper told me.

Next to the story was this picture of a frail man, sitting in a parched paddy field, praying for rain.

.

.

Guess god ain't returning calls right now.

Irrational Fear # 2 - Henry and the Maggot

Following on from the last post, this one tells the tale of Henry and the maggot. I did a few with Henry in them, including one where he runs naked through a forest yodelling. He mostly - but not always - ended up dead in these tales, poor fella. Its all kind of sad I guess, but, on the plus side, don't we all end up dead anyway?








Let me know if you want to see any more of these.

Irrational Fear # 1

The theme for Illustration Friday this week reminded me of some cartoons I drew many many years ago when I was a disturbed teenager. I did a series of these called Irrational Fear. Now, having grown up into a suitably disturbed adult, I feel ready to share some of these with you. This particular one was inspired by a song by a band called Elephants for Breakfast:

There once was a small room which contained a collection of tablets.
---
A man with big eyebrows offered me a selction of the best ones he had.
---
He said they are all very good and that they would stop me feeling sorry for myself.
But I declined his kind offer and headed straight to the window. There I saw something much more interesting than a few
tablets.
---
From the window opposite I saw someone looking at me.
He had such big, big eyes!
---
He seemed to recognise me from somewhere, but I can't quite remember ever having sees such big, big eyes before.
---
Then I realised that the man had no eyelids. That he must be able to see most everything that is going on.
---
Seeing the man made me glad that I know darkness, for clearly he knows none.

Old photo

I went for a run earlier today and spotted this lying on the pavement. Its an old family portrait in a cracked frame. It had a eerie quality I liked, which I tried to capture on this:

Italy Field

Urbino

A view of Urbino from a hill opposite.

Shame that damn tree got in the way.

Padma

An affectionate little ball of madness.

Bag of crisps - for Nadia

There we were, sat in a beautiful rural landscape in the middle of Italy, gazing over fields and hills, the sun setting in the distance. We got out our pens and paints, and I drew this. A bag of crisps.

Nice crisps too.

Urbino street

From the holiday in Italy. A beautiful old town. Enjoyed doing this one. First drawing for a few weeks it was.

Shower woman

First attempt to do something using acrylic paints.

Some woman stepping into a shower. I suppose I could say this was inspired byModigliani or somesuch. After all, he did paint a few women's arses. But no. Just came out like that I'm afraid.

Sticky blood

Been dwelling in old memories a bit lately. This is one from when I was walking down the hill to school as a kid, seeing the kind old bald man start to wobble on his bike and then fall off, scraping his head on the tarmac. When we caught up with him he lying there, he was face down, his twitching frame stuck between the bent wheels and a patch of the darkest blood i'd ever seen (much darker than the stuff in the horror films I loved at the time).

Shortly after the a couple of cars pulled up and a shaking man chased us away from the scene.

Never saw the old man again after that.

Guess it was too much for him.

Swimming Jungle Pig

A few lives ago, I visited the Amazon jungle in Bolivia, where I saw a swimming pig. The local men in the boat wanted to scare the pig and ram it with sticks and the side of the boat. We screamed and begged them to stop. The river was very strong and we were afraid the pig would not make it to his family on the other side. But they only laughed and kept on attacking the pig, which did not know which way to turn.

Eventually, after much protest, and a few horrible minutes toying with the pig (and toying with us, the silly gringos) the men gave in.

When we were far enough away, we were relieved to see the pig still had enough wit and energy left to make it over to his family on the other side.

Wonder if the pig remembers that?

Vegan Cake

After looking at all this cake on the IF site, and the rain out the window, I thought I may as well make one.

Here's what it came out like:

The recipe is very simple and delicious and completely vegan:

Sieve 3 glasses Self Raising Flour, I glass sugar, 3 heaped teaspoons of bakjing powder and 2 tablespoons of Cocoa powder into a bowl.
Mix 3/4 glass sunflower oil, 1 glass soya milk, and some vanilla or almond essence (this time I added a splash of blueberry juice too for fun).
Mix it all together and pour into a cake tin. Bake on 180 degrees for 45 - 60 mins until you can poke a fork in there and it comes out without sticky gunk on it.
Cover with melted chocolate or icing or whatever (for this one I made icing with fresh lemon juice and put plain chocolate shavings on the top).

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I also decided to draw the resulting cake (click for larger image):

BTW - If that isn't enough cake for everyone this week, I also listened to the album 'Pressure Chief' by Cake when painting this.

Bon appetit!

Tammy's Hair

Not very inspired by the IF theme 'Cake' so found a close up photo I took of Tammy's hair on the beach at Tavira in Portugal last year.

She's lying on a multicoloured sarong if my memory serves me right.

Thought I'd see if I could recreate it in watercolours.

Nearly.

Garden tree

We had an extra day this weekend. So I got to sit in the garden and thought I'd try draw the tree.

Can't decide if I prefer the black and white or colour version.

No idea what kind of tree it is.

It was there before we moved in.

Anyone out there know anything about trees?

Holiday

Saw a photo in the weekend paper yesterday that set off this fuzzy memory of walking and burning in the midday sun, the light all around so bright reflecting against the whitewash and the flowers and the alien streets. Making me blind.

Sorry

Since the recent move, I have been listening to my old records again, retrieved from the barren wilderness of my brothers damp flat. Its been like getting back my memories. Those albums were so important to me growing up. Poring over the covers, reading the lyrics, admiring the art. Now its all about how many tracks can you fit in your phone, a million hours of muzak compressed in your pocket, coming at you non-stop, convenient and soulless. How easy it has become it seems not to have to make a choice, to have to get up and turn the record over, dust it down, give it a clean.

So in one sense this drawing of an old Hank Williams album I was just playing harks back to a sorrow for having somehow lost that excitement of my youth, of hunting down from shop to shop in order to find that elusive record (no Amazon in those days), buying it, guarding it carefully all the way home, then playing it for the first time.

It also reminds me of a time of my life I am not proud of, of a person I feel I owe an apology to.

But that's another story.

Packed up

Not too much time and energy left after the move. Did do a bit of scribblin when all the stuff was packed, when on the phone to the water company.

Did the first drawing below of Tavish, the famous cat, as he sat patiently for the chaos to subside.

Happy as a pig in a poke he is now.

Now me, I've got post stress stress or some such. Its all over but I'm not all over it yet.

Give it time.

Pud Pud

Here he is.

Serene and dignified.

Mr McTavish.

Purple haired painter man

Started drawing the face in ink, then got a bit carried away.

Takes me back to the good ol' days when I was a long, purple-haired weirdo.

Tammy painting Caesar

This is not very flattering - couldn't get the face at all. But the cat ain't too bad, and enjoyed doing it.

Ill Friday - Under the sea

Like falling asleep on a beach and waking up under the sea?

Illustration Friday - robots

Imagine a world with millions and millions of people rushing into work every day, listening to U2 on their i-pods.

Scary.

--------------------------

'Everyday I wake up,

then I start to break up,

lonely as a man without love.'

- Englebert Humperdink

SPOTTED

Sittin' in the garden with my pen and paper, wondrin' what I could draw for 'spotted'. Then I remember spotting a spotted cat once, coming out the shed.

Can you spot the little fella?

Warty Colour

Only the second time I done anything using warty colours, last time pencil, this time with proper brushes and stuff.

Hope y'all like it.

The Mad Potter

This here is my first attempt drawing someone from real life. First time I used a paintbrush too (other than for creosoting fences or painting walls that is).

Now I know this ain't strictly speaking anything to do with speed, but I doubt I'll have time to do much else this week, and the wheel was spinning fast, and she was very quick making the pots, and I am in a rush right now.

Hell, I've seen far more tenuous reasons for getting work seen out there than this.

Hope y'all like it.

ILL FRIDAY: Monster

Conker Monsters


This was the house hidden back from the road near from where I grew up. They told us monsters lived there, up in the conker trees.

Every year, I would see those fine conkers just sitting there waiting to be picked, but I was way too small to climb in.

A railway line passed next to the trees, and the bigger kids would climb down the railway banks to get to the conkers. One day a kid got electrocuted on the tracks and died. The family that lived there upped and moved away, and the gate stayed locked.

Some folks tried to blame the monsters, but us kids knew different.

Now when I see conkers on the floor, I think of the monsters, still there behind the locked gates, playing conker fights with ghosts of those kids passed away, keeping them happy in the dark afterlife.

----

I hope you'll remember them next time you're passing conker trees on a train. Give them a wave. They'd really like that they would.

You may even see them wave back.

ILL FRIDAY: Feet

Big Toe Fight


Here you can see my toes making up with each other after a fight.

Toes don't tend to stay mad for long.


Unlike knees.

SEVILLE: Ryanair

The plane back gave me a bad head.

SEVILLE: Parque Maria Luisa

I liked doing the trees here

SEVILLE: Alcazares parque sketch

SEVILLE: Alcazares parque

why do I like palm trees?