Next Thursday I’ll be doing some live painting at the Everyman Theatre as part of State of Wonder’s production ‘The Almond Tree’. The play is a beautiful and darkly atmospheric reworking of a Brother’s Grimm fairytale. My paintings will be projected to form a kind of live backdrop for the play. There will also be live music by Hannah Peel.
Some of my pre-production sketches for the show…
I recently took part in Shakespeare in the Street’s ‘Sonnet Walk’ for a second year. To quote the website… “Small groups follow a guided route…taking in some hidden gems of Liverpool’s history alongside more contemporary secrets. You’ll encounter performers along the way and you’ll never know what to expect.”
For our bit, Hannah and Cata sung Sonnet 113 whilst I picked someone in the audience to draw as though they were my one true love! The sonnet only lasts about two and a half minutes so I have to be pretty quick!
You can hear Hannah sing the sonnet on the Shakespeare in the Street’s website.
I also designed the logo for the event…
Artwork created for spoof shooter ‘UCOB5:TRTBH‘ for Be broadband.
The player has to fight their way past terrorist cyborgs, The Cursed Army of the Damned and Hell’s Elite Super-Undead in order to reach Broadband Heaven!
The game was directed and produced by Simon Alexander at mN and coded by Mike Barrow and Malcolm Bailey of MBX games.
One of the main things I miss about working in an office is the cake.
Three of twenty illustrations produced for an ‘office bingo’ card for Virgin’s staff magazine ‘Roger’. The concept was devised and directed by Ian Pierce of John Brown Media.
You can see the whole card here…
I’ve always found the idea of ‘The End of the World’ kind of romantic. At least there’d be no school in the morning.
This illustration was comissioned by Plan B magazine to accompany their review of Current 93’s latest album Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain.
You can see a larger version here.
“Freakshow up front, Bronto stay back, goalie when ness’!”
Wolfpack chasing down a bear cub in the Robotwood.
Private Pipsqueak is the only surviving member of the 1st Light Machinas, otherwise known as ‘The Scamperers’.
The Scamps were a unit of clockwork mice used by British Intelligence throughout the 1850s. Typically, the mice would infiltrate foreign embassies and spy on visiting dignitaries.
Unfortunately, their primary cover - that they were just a family of normal housemice - was often compromised by Lord Auberon’s insistence that they wear full dress uniform at all times, even whilst on a mission.
Illustration to promote the ‘For the love of…’ event happening at the Zanzibar in Liverpool on the 28th. The design has to work across a variety of media - posters, t-shirts, badges, etc., so I created a set of elements that could easily be rearranged into different layouts. You can see examples of what I mean here…
The event is to raise money for c.a.l.m. As c.a.l.m. is a charity for young fellas I thought werewolves would be appropriate, as they are hairy and have bad table manners. I don’t know where the space kid came from.
The only known drawing of ‘Mr Shuffles’, reproduced here from the Manchester Illustrated News 1847.
Mr Shuffles was an early automaton covered with the skin of a crocodile. The crocodile was shot near Faiyum on the banks of the Nile in 1842 by Sir Edward Hudson, pioneering cartographer of the African interior. Sir Edward commissioned his friend, the watchmaker Herber Jones, to create a ‘moving machine’ for the skin.
Mr Shuffles was a star attraction at the Hudson household, serving tea to the ladies and cigars and port to the gentlemen.
In 1850 Sir Edward’s Manchester town house was burgled, although detectives could never satisfactorily explain how the thieves entered and left the premises. Mrs Hudson’s jewels and Mr Shuffles were never seen again.
Hannah, Sam and myself had a lot of fun drawing and playing music in town last Saturday. You can see a great film of it by documentary film-maker Tim Brunsden here.
Unfortunately, Hannah had lost her voice on Saturday, but you can hear the beautiful music she composed and see the little music box she plays in the film. Check out the punch paper she feeds through the music box - each hole punched by hand! To hear Hannah sing as well as play, visit her MySpace page…
I’m very flattered to have been invited to take part in Huzzah!!, a kind of comic art consequences where each member of a group of artists takes it in turn to draw a bit of the story. What makes it especially exciting/scary is that the other fellas are so talented, and that you only get three days to do your bit once you’ve thrown your hat in. This years theme is ‘Space Opera.’ Click on ‘The Story So Far…’ tab to see how the pages are shaping up.
The other artists involved are I. N. J. Culbard, Dan McDaid, Dave Taylor, D’Israeli, Faz Choudhury, Colin Fawcett, paulhd and Rob Davis.
Huzzah!! will run through till December the 31st.You can see last years comic ‘Who Killed Round Robin’ here.
Saturday night is the last night of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture and there’s going to be all kinds of exciting things going on in the city centre.
Hannah Peel and myself will be taking our live music/drawing show out onto the street, along with video maestro Mr Sam Meech.
So if you’ve never seen a werewolf drawing to a live performance of Tainted Love played on a music box then now’s your chance!
Number 34 - Lanky Len
This spirit is associated with the substation at the Sefton Park end of Queens Drive, Liverpool.
Len likes eating discarded fag ends and licking cold curry sauce from styrofoam trays.
On Christmas Eve, locals leave him an offering of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and a can of Fosters. If this ritual is not observed, Len cuts off all the electricity for the surrounding area just before the Eastenders Christmas special.
I just found this in an old sketchbook. I don’t remember drawing it, but I guess I must have been having a pretty good day…
