A Collage of Senselessness

Black Friday Discounts

2011-11-25T10:18:00.005Z

Hey everyone, just a mighty quick blog post to say that you can get a grand 15% discount on all shop items from now until Monday at my Etsy shop (visit my shop HERE), simply enter the code JABLACKFRI when buying to get the discount! Get those orders in before christmas!

JAB

Hellow Glasgow

2011-10-18T15:46:00.001+01:00

Haven't had much time for drawing and such, let alone blogging since making the switch to Glasgow. Starting to settle in now and with a week off on the horizon, I should get some sketching time fitted in and hopefully maybe even a final print for the 'Humble Abodes' collection I've been working on.

Messing around with an ink and water pen that I purchased a few years back and have never actually used.

Queen's Park Chap.

Being less active art-wise, although I don't necessarily see that as a good thing, has given me a chance to enjoy some sports. Starting to get into the NHL this season (in particular the Maple Leafs), thanks to a little guidance from Ian Turner. Also went to see Queen's Park FC (our local football team on Saturday), rather looking forward to following a local team as I can't really watch Everton at the moment, except for televised matches of course. More to come in the next week or so when I'm off.

JAB

The Back of Beyond (New Print)

2011-08-21T11:17:00.006+01:00

Finally got around to the second image for the 'Humble Abodes' idea, hopefully the third and final print is not too far away from fruition either, but we'll see. Anybody interested in this piece will be happy to know that it's now on sale in my Etsy shop, here. I have also been meaning to add some sort of a 'News' section to the front page of my website but I've been struggling to come up with a style that suits, as a result it's only changed ever so slightly, visit johnalanbirch.com.

There Would Be ONLY Chaos. (new Etsy additons)

2011-08-07T08:52:00.009+01:00

A couple more new prints added to my Etsy shop today. Two digital giclée prints of recent works. 'Chaos Theory' - based on a quote by American author and Olympic athlete Don Kardong. Also a boat themed 'Weathervane'. Both prints were originally mixed media - indian ink, watercolour and pencil.

Happy to have made a few sales this past week. Don't forget though, there's still a few free bonus A6 prints available for those interested in buying some work so head over and see what's available - Etsy.

Chaos Theory

Weathervane

JAB

In Wild Waters (New Print)

2011-08-04T19:17:00.006+01:00

Currently working on an idea for a set of three A4 prints, humble abodes and their surroundings. Here's the first, a small fishing boat In Wild Waters, more prints to come soon. For those who are interested, this print is currently available in my Etsy shop, here.

JAB

Etsy Shop - Now Open!

2011-07-31T09:30:00.004+01:00

My Etsy shop is now open for business, sadly I've only been able to list three items so far as I have to go and work today so more will be added later in the day. Visit my shop here and have a look at the Screenprints available just now and remember, the first 15 orders will receive a little bonus print!

More to follow

JAB

Shop Giveaway Winners

2011-07-27T19:41:00.005+01:00

Limited edition prints

The giveaway to celebrate the opening of my illustration shop finished this evening and winners Bryony Crane (website) and Bark Pamphlet (website) can expect a set of 5 limited edition A6 prints and a badge (shown above) in the post over the next few days. They will be the only people to own the full set of these prints; however, fear not those of you that didn't manage to win the giveaway as my Etsy shop (all going smoothly) will be open for business on Sunday evening and the first 15 orders will receive one of the above prints and a badge as a little bonus with their chosen print.

I am currently waiting on a couple more digital prints too including 'Chaos Theory' and 'Weathervane', so hopefully they'll arrive in time for the opening.

More to come.

JAB

John Alan Birch - Illustration Shop. Grand Opening Giveaway!

2011-07-12T17:17:00.012+01:00

Hey folks,

if you've found your way to this page you've obviously heard about me opening an online shop for my work, it will be opening on the 31st of July. In celebration of such a momentous occasion I'm giving two people the chance to win a set of five limited edition prints, all you need to do is get in touch! Anyone interested in the giveaway should simply send me an e-mail at johnalanbirch [at] hotmail.com, message via twitter or comment on this blog post stating that you wish to be entered. Entrants should contact me by Wednesday the 27th of July.

After the giveaway the first fifteen orders in the shop will also receive one of the aforementioned prints as a little bonus.

A sneak preview of what's up for grabs.

My website has finally been updated and I feel it's a bit more user friendly and shows some of my better work. Judge for yourself http://www.johnalanbirch.com/.

More to come in the following weeks.

JAB

2011-06-08T18:08:00.005+01:00

I've been enjoying scouring museums of late looking for inspiration and I've found a fair bit. I feel I'm on the cusp of a few nice ideas that I want to take further and maybe screen print or just turn into detailed Indian ink drawings.

The pictures in this blog are a selection of some of the sketches from the past few weeks. Visits include Edinburgh City Art Centre, Edinburgh National Museum (for the third time this year), the World Museum and the Walker Art Gallery (the latter two are in Liverpool). Also with trips to finally see the McManus (Dundee) properly planned and a jaunt to London for a concert there's surely to be a few more sketchbook pages scrawled upon before the end of June. I've finally set myself the goal of sorting out and opening my online shop for the end of July at the latest.

Fierce Head o' Hair

Short Arse

Pagan carving on an early christian relic (I added the text though)

Hellhound

'Drink driving 'carving, early attempt at Humour

Collection of drawings from Pictish stones

Greek Lion

Greek Cockerel

Ba, the Egyptian representation of personality and Nut, Goddess of the sky

Elu Mask, Nigerian

More sketches (and hopefully more prints) to come soon.

JAB

A Sketchy Couple of Days

2011-05-26T17:33:00.005+01:00

A few sketches I've been playing around with, trying to come up with some screenprinting ideas. Again, still putting off doing more important stuff.

Stumbled across Brook Pridemore recently, give him a listen here.

Cup of tea

More researchy drawings concerning Gods (Odin)

JAB

Gods of Ancient Rome and The Childhood Museum

2011-05-23T17:14:00.007+01:00

Goteborg Polis Station

Not so much screen printing in the past few weeks due to lack of decent ideas, kind of wanting to do some larger pieces than the A5 ones I have been, but feel my priorities at the moment should be a website update, opening up an online shop and possibly some small simple prints for giveaways and such. Procrastination is king. I did manage the above print a couple of weeks back, based on a small Swedish Police Station we saw in a Gothenburg park last October. Simple, but I like it.

Jen and I went to the museum of childhood in Edinburgh last week which was rather fun, personal favourites had to be the first room of the tour and the stick doll from the dolls room. Some favourites are shown below. The cars in particular made me wish I was about 6 again (and from an earlier time period than the 80's). Hopefully some more museum visits to come over the next few months.

Junior smoking kit. Go on kids...smoke...

...seriously, even Mickey says it's cool

Rather awesome toy car

Doll made from branch and rag

Due to visits to museums in recent months I've been wanting to do some stuff to do with Roman/Viking/Pictish Gods, haven't had a great chance to do a huge amount of sketching around the subject but here's a starting point. Anyone with any ideas of good places to see collections of Roman/Viking/Pictish artefacts and such, aside from the National Museum in Edinburgh, any help is massively appreciated.

Janus

Gods of Ancient Rome comic (Click to enlarge)

The weather in Dundee has been pretty wild today I think perhaps I made the Gods angry (rapture anyone?). Also, today I purchased L.A. Noire and some red wine, I know what I'll be doing this evening.

JAB

About to Fall.

2011-04-18T12:32:00.003+01:00

Nice few weeks, relatively quiet to be honest. Couple of prints done, mostly just enjoying the weather and putting off updating my webiste and opening an Etsy shop to start selling my work.

About to Fall (also on white and green paper)

Fat Cat (development from a Zine idea Jen and I had a while back).

JAB

Chaos Theory.

2011-04-05T10:09:00.005+01:00

So there's been a few bits and pieces going on of late. I've been much more productive with drawing and printing which feels swell, but as a result I've been less active on my blog (surprise, surprise). I got myself a new phone last week so I'm finally with the times in that I own a 'smart' phone, meaning that I should be able to be a bit more active on my Twitter and Blog (once I get used to using it, that is).

I have some work for sale at long last, via Two Dolls, who recently opened up their shop in Dundee (proud to say I'm the first gentleman in their collection) so drop in and visit them if you find yourself around the Meadowside area of town. I'm starting to get a few bits and pieces of work together that I feel I can probably sell and so should hopefully open up my Etsy shop over the next few months. Watch this space.

Let's Build a Home

Chaos Theory

Self Portrait

Weathervane

London - A Weekend in 6 Soups

Prescription Sunglasses

As you can probably tell from the drawings I've rediscovered Indian ink and my fountain pen again. I really enjoy drawing with it and love the fact that I don't seem to give a sh*t about making a mess with ink spatters and smudges as I would if I were drawing with a pencil, fineline or brush pen. Marvellous.

In other news, we recently went to London (as mentioned in my previous post) and I was going to write a little more about it but I got a bit sidetracked and can't really remember what I was going to write so - The 'Chaos Theory' picture is based on a super Ice Cream van we saw by the British Museum and ' London - A Weekend in 6 Soups' came about because for some reason I became addicted to eating mostly soup whilst we were away. Damned good soup, mind.

This week I have mostly been drawing with Indian ink.

JAB

More.

2011-03-23T22:41:00.005Z

So, I've been back in the DCA print studio again, and here's what I've been printing.

Strawberry Ice Cream (also in Mint and Vanilla)

Home is...

Tales of the Briny Deep (a Submission for Lovely Pigeon's Beards and Tiaras exhibiton)

Also just back from London and Pick Me Up, great to see Jez and Lizzy doing their stuff too. Also glad to see a bunch of Tom Gauld's work and stumble upon some awesome stuff by Paul Blow.

More about London to come.

JAB

Viva Italia, Viva Screenprinting.

2011-03-13T14:45:00.003Z

Here's my screenprint from last Thursday. Something simple and small (A5), but felt good to be printing again. Kind of lost track of time and spent about 4 hours in the printing studio. Can't wait to go back on Tuesday and do some more. Looking forward to building up a few pieces of work that I'll be selling - probably via Etsy and my website. This print is also available with red windows instead of green (2 separate editions of 12).

More to come.

JAB

New Hair and Screenprinting.

2011-03-08T16:51:00.005Z

My new years resolution this year was (and still is) 'to be more active creatively' and although it's been somewhat of a slow start toward that goal, I should hopefully get a bit of a move on over the coming weeks as I'm looking to get back to screenprinting for the first time in almost 3 years which I am pretty excited about. I start my induction on Thursday afternoon so I'm hoping that before long I should have some stuff up on my website and maybe a few bits for sale. The image above was inspired to my trip to Edinburgh Museum a few weeks back and could maybe work as a screenprint. However I have all day tomorrow to work on some separations for printing so we'll see.

Also, on the point of my having new hair I did a couple of 10minute portraits a 'before' and 'after'. It should be noted that I got rid of the beard about a month ago but I haven't done a bearded self-portrait for a while and it looked better this way. It has however, been almost a year since my last haircut. Shocking.

Just started reading Jurassic Park which I picked up in the Barras Market in Glasgow for 50p. It reminds me of being about 8 years old and being massively excited by the prospect of a film about dinosaurs coming out. Oh to be young.

Music-wise we went to see Ben Folds a couple of weeks ago and then The Decemberists last week, both gigs were great and I'm glad to say I've finally seen both live. I'm massively excited that The Mountain Goats are coming to Glasgow in May and I already have my tickets. That, and their new album is available to listen to online here on NPR even though it's not out until the end of the month. Ah, another great album.

JAB

And Then it Rained.

2011-02-09T13:51:00.005Z

Last week after a few lazy days of not being very productive (again), I decided to take a day trip to Edinburgh in order to try and be more inspired to do some more drawing. As you can see from below it was a rather productive trip but as you can also see I'm still afraid of taking any coloured pencils/pens/paints with me anywhere when I'm doing any sketchbook work.

Well, I decided I fancied looking through the City Art Gallery and The National Museum of Scotland followed by a jaunt up Arthur's Seat for some nice views of the city. However, as is to be expected at this time of year, what started as a gloriously sunny morning in Dundee turned into a pretty wet, wild and windy afternoon in Edinburgh so I never made it up Arthur's Seat and instead dedicated my time to the Museums and Galleries and ended up with a little sketching over a pint of Deuchars in Bobby's Bar (just across the road from The National Museum). Below are my sketchbook pages from my day trip.

(it in fact rained before I started most of these drawings not after)

JAB

Add a Little Colour to Your Life.

2011-01-19T16:55:00.002Z

Yesterdays entry but with a little colour.

All Around My Hat.

2011-01-19T11:00:00.005Z

Finally some drawings! I don't feel there's a great deal of direction with my work at the moment, in that I'm just drawing things as they come into my head so nothing really links together and flows. That's miles better than not doing any work at all though.

The picture below was based loosely on this Mountain Goats song which I keep listening to lately (although I do have a habit of doing that with most Mountain Goats songs. Ideally I wanted to maybe adapt this style into a comic of sorts based on the song but I've been getting other ideas that I'm keen to work on so I may come back to it at a later date. Also, it was rather difficult to get a decent photo of this in our studio as the light hasn't been great and it's about A1 size.

A landscape, based on a Mountain Goats tune.

For New Year we had a 'Hat Party', which has become somewhat of a tradition for our family parties back home in Wallasey. The idea arose when we realised some people are reluctant to go full out for fancy dress whereas there's less at stake if you just don a daft hat for the evening. Rules for the Hat Party are as follows, Rule 1. Should anyone get you a drink throughout the evening you must then trade hats with that person (makes for some interesting photos) Rule 2. There is no rule number 2. Anyway, here's a kind of Birch 'Coat of Arms' or a potential invite for our next party. Oh, and excuse my French.

We do like our hats.

It's not really a secret that I like star wars and I recently purchased a couple of stormtrooper figures partly for ornamental purposes and also partly to assist me with drawing human proportion which the below pictures will show I'm not great at.

Ghetto Stormtrooper

The final of this set of drawings is a homage to me losing my train pass last month. I must admit that I do not really lose things but humility is required at a time like this. Hoping I'll laugh at myself enough so as not to do it again. I do feel that this drawing hasn't really turned out as I'd imagined it would and so I may redo it with some colour and less fineline pen.

Loser.

Something I've been enjoying just browsing through of late is this collection of maps from David Rumsey, originally tweeted by artist Tom Gauld some time last week. Have a look if you like maps and hand-drawn stuff, there's heaps of them, I could spend hours looking at them.

So I'm off to get back to some drawings and hopefully a comic and some colour. Watch this space.

JAB

Only Myself to Blame.

2011-01-18T13:36:00.012Z

A few weeks without a blog and it's been pretty darned busy what with the weather through November/December making work pretty difficult inspiration toward being creative was pretty low. Well that's passed now so we're on the up again. Here's a brief insight into what's been happening anyhow.

A selection of events from this year and last. (Celtic vs Motherwell, Bottom Left)

At the end of December I finally got to another football game, and went to see Celtic vs. Motherwell in Glasgow with my friend Mark and a few others. The game was decent in the first half but the second took a turn for the worse down to some downright terrible refereeing. It was a deserved 1-0 for Celtic and I must admit I never realised quite how epic Celtic Park actually was. After the game my evening went a little downhill when I lost my train pass and then had to get my Mum to pick me up in Perth and bring me home to Dundee as the latest train from Glasgow is around 10 in the evening (I did know this but I just wasn't really thinking).

Luckily after that mishap I having a fantastic New Year I travelled from Merseyside back home to Dundee and I'd just about given up on finding my train pass and had resigned myself to the fact that they were most likely lost and I would need to pay £30 to get them replaced, it turned out that someone had handed them into Strathclyde police.

Good things come to those who do not want.

Another programme for the collection.

Having found my passes Jen and I decided on a small jaunt down to London Town this weekend past in order to cover the cost we had to pay for a solicitors letter.

Sleeper top bunk (with safety straps).

I must admit I'm not quite used to sleeping on a train yet so the night's sleeps there and back weren't amazing and as usual were followed by the whole on a boat/vertigo kind of feeling that I always seem to get from the Sleeper. That aside it was an ace (and cheap) weekend away.

EVERYTHING!

One thing Jen was set on seeing, that I must admit I didn't know too much about until we got there was 'The Museum of Everything' (although, the sign alone shows just how awesome this place is). I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is in London between now and February 11th when it finishes should definitely give it a look in.

Triceratops and I.

And, one thing I wanted to do was visit the Natural History Museum and look at some Dinosaurs in order to satisfy my inner child. This only came about when I realised that in all my visits to London I'd never actually visited the Natural History Museum, very odd. Now I want to watch Jurassic Park.

The Animatronic T-Rex that everyone was queuing to see.

On Saturday evening we caught up with some friends, had a few drinks played a few games and generally had fun. On Sunday we had a trip to the South Bank to meet Thereza and Lucy (twitter friends) for a chat and a drink before later heading back up to Scotland again.

So far this year I've been feeling a bit more inspired and I'm hoping to look into screenprinting once I've actually got some work that I want to print/sell so watch this space. I'm going to post my latest drawings and such in a separate blog to follow shortly so as to keep dinosaurs, museums, trains and football away from art things.

JAB

Photos as usual by Jen.

Dum-dee-dum Delightful...

2010-12-21T13:46:00.007Z

Nothing like a bit of 'Die Hard' for some festive inspiration. Thank you, Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Also for those unfortunate enough to have not seen 'Die Hard', or can't recall what happens - here, 'Die Hard in 5 Seconds'.

Add A Little Colour

2010-12-14T14:58:00.004Z

Just a few more pieces of work I've been playing about with.

Sometimes I feel like I can't draw.

Remember 1995?

Colourful Bike.

Violin.

Cowboy 1.

Cowboy 2.

JAB

Snow Days

2010-12-06T10:05:00.003Z

I do like the snow, but I'm growing tired of it now. Not enjoying being insular and not being able to drive my car. How do you drive again?

Sketchbooking

2010-11-22T16:56:00.003Z

A few drawings I've been doing in the sketchbook:

Göteborg

2010-10-20T14:22:00.007+01:00

So, we've just got back from our short break in Gothenburg last week. Had a great time and would love to go back to Sweden at some point. I'm not really sure what was my favourite part (certainly not the flights) but I really enjoyed being somewhere different than Dundee even Just for a few days. The weather was better than expected too, it was sunny and warm every day and just started to get a little cooler towards the end of the week which was fine as we were well equipped with gloves and scarves.

A walk down Vasagatan on our first day.

In brief we spent a lot of time walking about enjoying the autumn sun, drinking coffee (well, Jen had tea) and eating Kanelbulle and other cake type things. We also spent a day shopping and wandering the streets of a nice little area called the Haga which I'd recommend to anyone who visits Gothenburg.

Sitting on a small dock kind of thing on Asperö Island.

One of the things I wanted to do was to take the Ferry over to Asperö Island - so with the weather being what it was we did that on the second day. A lovely picturesque island but it was incredibly quiet due to it being autumn - apparently during the summer it can get somewhat busier with many tourists using the ferries to visit the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago. Oh, and there was a lot of cats on the island - I think we saw about just as many cats as we did people.

I still make Cat friends, even in Sweden.

Friends.

On our last day we did a little more shopping and visited the Röhsska Museum (Design Musuem) and the Natural History Museum before heading back to the Haga for some awesome Vegetarian food at a small, but very popular café. Being in a foreign country without having any grasp of the language whatsoever has got me inspired to take up learning a language again - I think I would quite like to learn French although, having done German at school I should probably take that up as I image most of it will come back to me, it's just a shame I no longer have my old school text books.

Crazy Pilot Fish in the Natural History Museum.

All of the above and a few more pages of sketchbook based work on a couple of productive days off since being back brings us back up to date. I really loved the simplicity of the Swedish transport network - Something that we in Britain should probably strive to emulate - if only it were that easy, when are Edinburgh's trams finished again? The Strong Man drawing is hopefully going to fall into pace in one of my comics that I'm currently planning.

Tram.

Strong Man.

JAB

(Photography by Jen as per usual)

A First Shot at a Panel

2010-10-05T16:28:00.004+01:00

I finally got down to creating a panel for my comic after sifting through hours of recordings and doodling little bits and pieces, I'm not overly happy with it to be honest and will probably end up redoing it, but a start's a start. I think I've decided provisionally on a title too - 'An Inherent Appreciation of His Own Absurdity', as I feel it sums up exactly what I'm hoping to capture.

If anyone's interested in giving me their thoughts on it all or just wants to see some comical childhood photographs can visit the facebook group page for the project here.

Thanks,

Hope this goes as well as it looks inside my head.

JAB

Does anyone else miss the fast show?

2010-09-29T17:45:00.000+01:00

Right? RIGHT?!?

An Inherent Appreciation of His Own Absurdity.

2010-09-29T15:54:00.013+01:00

It's been a good few weeks since getting back to part-time hours again. I had my driving test a week or so ago which sadly, I failed. I must admit though that it went a lot better than I was expecting, which is positive for my next test. Having the extra time on my hands, I should've started doing a whole lot more drawing and such but I've only really gotten down to that this week, I've spent the last few weeks transcribing from recordings I made back in March about family stories that I'm hoping to form into a collection of comics. I've also been enjoying experimenting with cooking again including three new soups and new homemade veggie burgers (also the leftover Veggie Burgers made quite a nice addition to a veggie pasta).

Homemade Veggie Burger on a whole-meal handmade roll with Sweet Potato Chips.

At the beginning of September, my friend Mark and I headed down south to watch Everton. As I mentioned in my previous blog post I hadn't been to a Premiership game in 10 years, and what a game it turned out to be. Unfortunately Everton's season is proving to be the worst in quite some time, but the game we chose definitely gave us our money's worth - 6 goals (3-3) with some amazing last minute action that left me with quite a sore throat and resulted in me not being able to speak properly for the next three or four days.

Our view at Goodison.

Following the game we headed back to New Brighton to attend the Magazine Hotel's beer festival and to say farewell to Dave and Jen who are off travelling around the world at this very moment (jealous much). All in all a very good weekend and I can't wait for my next premiership game (well at least if Everton can pick themselves up sometime soon) and trip to Merseyside.

Our Beer ratings.

Yesterday I rooted out my sketchbook after finishing the longest of all the transcriptions and just started some drawings, some related to the comics idea and some not at all. Still it felt nice to be drawing for drawings sake and not from making myself feel guilty for not having done any drawings in such a long time.

Work space, mid-transcribe.

Over the next few weeks I've got a few things going on. Including my driving test, our trip to Sweden (which I can hardly wait for), brand new FIFA for the XBOX on friday, setting myself the task of producing (at least) a drawing a day and a blog (at least) once or twice a week (depending on whether I actually have anything interesting to say). The latter two means I will actually be ensuring that I now take a sketchbook with me pretty much everywhere I go, something that I used to do but have gotten out of the habit of doing since it was basically just taking up extra space in my bag and meaning that I was risking losing my favourite pens (somewhat of a defeatist attitude, I know).

Grandad affectionately became known as 'The Cockleshell Hero' after crashing his van through the promenade railings and ending up on the beach.

Evil Eric Sykes with Big Hand. Reference for a possible character.

Bat-Man Jacky? Grandad had a very posh friend who never owned a television.

The Case of the Missing Forty Pages.

Jen's St. Michael Cash Register.

Fem Hundra Kronor. Can't wait for Gothenburg.

Back to the sketchbook!

JAB

Part-Time Fun-Time

2010-08-22T11:18:00.022+01:00

It's been far too long (again)

After a few months worth of supposedly hard work I'm moving back to my old part-time hours, and must admit I have pretty mixed feelings about it. I'm glad that I'll have more time to myself after some pretty intense work hours over the past months but the change is coming as somewhat of a shock to the system (Well not THAT much of a shock as the past few days off I spent making the most of the sun, buying new books in charity shops and reading Thomas Harris, I guess I've not really got much to complain about.)

A selection of books, read, reading and to be read.

One bonus of all the extra work I've been doing has meant I've started to read again (taking advantage of my half hour breaks) and I've been enjoying it a lot, I haven't enjoyed reading quite so much in a number of years (maybe I've just been reading the wrong things). Out of them all I've particularly enjoyed My Year of Meat and The Moneyless Man, eye opening in their own individual ways and also more recently Red Dragon, just because it's nice to get stuck into some decent well written fiction from time to time.

Now to drawing, I've not done much and I always feel a pang of guilt when people ask me if I've been doing any and my answer is simply "No". I suppose I've done more than I would've expected to though in reality and thanks once again to Jen who has inspired me to do some drawings for a zine we both decided to take part in. I think I started to beat myself up a little over how some of the drawings were turning out but Jen reassured me that it was just to be a fun project and so I did have a lot more fun with it it after that.

Koala in a Tree (for Animal Club zine)

We've had a few weekends and the odd weekday out and about and finding little bits of sun here and there to chill out in. It's been an okay summer weatherwise I guess, and we have made the most of the sun when we've had it with beach trips, days out in Edinburgh, trips to Merseyside and a picnic. I do enjoy the beach but the Mersey, the Forth, the Tay and the North Sea are all bloody freezing for paddling in, even in the summertime (Also I'm not sure I can ever really condone paddling in the Mersey, it's just not right). This weekend we're off to stay at my Dad's in Merseyside again and then to see Modest Mouse in Edinburgh on Sunday. The following three photos have been borrowed from Jen from trips to North Queensferry and the Picnic at Balgay Park (where I made a cat friend on the way home).

Shell Nose (with beard)

Beach Feets

Cat Friend

I'd been wanting to grow a beard again for sometime and in March, I finally felt it was time to give it a go. I must admit, since getting my job last year I was concerned as to what my employers stance on facial hair was but alas, they never muttered a single word about it, as a result I grew my beard to the longest it's ever been. Anyway, it did get a little out of hand in the end so I decided to shave it off just under two weeks ago and had some fun messing around with different facial hair styles. Very enjoyable. I guess I'll grow it back now.

Beard Fun

In other news, I've vowed to myself to make it to a few football games this season after witnessing Everton's reserves enjoy a victory at Station Park against Forfar in July, it was a great evening and a more enjoyable game of football than I'd been anticipating. Everton won 3-2 with about 5 minutes left to play.

Forfar Vs Everton "Souvenir" Programme

Dundee United Vs. AEK Athens

This year's second football venture was on Thursday night to see Dundee United take on AEK Athens at Tannadice. My first ever European game. Sadly United weren't really up to it, and got beaten 1-0. They don't seem to have got off the starting blocks this season sadly. The game itself wasn't awesome but I did enjoy being at a game again and the atmosphere was pretty good at times. All in all it was a good night out with a few folk from work. I can only wish United all the best in the return leg in Greece. It would be good to see some more European football in Dundee this season, failing that I suppose there's always the cup and the league hey?

Ticket for the Europa League game

Room with a View (Park End seats)

Coming to September I will be off to Merseyside to see Everton take on Manchester United, hopefully Everton will have picked themselves up from a poor start to the season and had a chance to build up a nice run of form by then, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. It is promising though that we actually managed to take three points from United at Goodison last season. I haven't had the pleasure of going to Goodison since Everton drew with Manchester United 1-1 on the opening day of the 99/00 season (Thanks again, Jaap Stam for that point, we needed it).

Another football related sketch (why have two grounds so close?)

Back in the real world I passed the Theory section of my Driving Test and have now booked my Practical for an early morning slot on September the 21st, nerves are setting in already but I am quite excited by the fact that there's a possibility I will be able to drive in little over a month. Here's hoping.

Also, I hadn't intended any drawing this week but I somehow managed two! I know they aren't spectacular but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Here's to sun, beaches, reading, football, music, drawing and blogging (and above all free time).

JAB

Come, Come to the Animal Club

2010-07-14T17:14:00.004+01:00

It's been so long since I've drawn anything or blogged at all due to going from working part time to working full time (well probably more than full time) hours at work. It's a shame because I have missed drawing but it's one of those situations when you've been working all day (or all week) you just want to go home, sit down and do nothing.

As you can probably gather, my artwork has taken a bit of a hit due to the extra hours but I suppose it does have some positives, I'm finally saving up a little money and as a result have been able to afford to take up driving lessons again (which I am enjoying a great deal more than when I was having them about 6 years ago). I'm also finding the time to read some more books, although I can hardly say I didn't have time to read before I just never read as much.

So, anyhow, Jen has inspired me to get back into my drawings more despite my working hours and although the drawings are fairly simple at the moment I've really enjoyed to be putting some bits and bobs into a sketchbook again.

Armadillo

Cat

Eagle

Gibbon

Vroom vroom*

JAB

*(The sound of too much clutch and gas).

Self-Portrait

2010-04-16T07:14:00.002+01:00

I'd been wanting to do a new self portrait since re-growing my beard for the first time in an age. Here it is.

JAB

A day out at the Ferry

2010-04-12T17:28:00.003+01:00

Drawing plans have hit a little bit of a snag due to the amount of overtime on offer at work at the moment - and I need the money so I'd be a fool to say no to any of it.

I did manage to get a good start on my project idea when I was off two weeks ago and visited my Dad for the week, I got the chance to record him and my Uncle Derek reminiscing about their Dad over a few pints at our favourite local and then spoke to my nan about my Grandad too. Sadly after returning home and working so many hours motivation levels concerning drawing and such have been at an all time low. Finally have a day off today and after a grand day enjoying the sun in Broughty Ferry with Jen I decided to finally get some of the drawings from two weeks ago online.

The ideas are there but the time doesn't seem to be just now.

Share

Me and Mum

Grandad

Dad, Uncle Frank and Robbie impersonating Deputy Dawg (with socks)

'Year 5' - Comic based on a book of memories my sister made whilst at primary school.

More to come soon...

JAB

J&J, Phil and I.

2010-03-03T19:32:00.012Z

It's been an exciting few weeks. At the end of February Mum and I headed down to London on the Sleeper train for me to receive my Duke of Edinburgh award. Having never been on the Sleeper before I must admit it was quite an odd experience, constantly feeling I was going to fall out of bed I never really got the best sleep and then spent the whole of the next day in London with that vertigo-like sensation of feeling like I'd spent a few hours on a boat. The trouble sleeping was rectified on the return journey by consuming a few pints before boarding the train, meaning I more or less slept straight through to Dundee. Most people seem surprised when I tell them I'm only just getting my Duke of Edinburgh award now, it's mainly been down to laziness if I'm honest but it's nice to know that it wasn't just me who was lazy as two others from my school were receiving theirs at the same ceremony. I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of the royals but it was pretty exciting to get a glimpse inside of St. James' Palace and to see Prince Phillip.

Beans

So here's my latest comic, based on a true story. I'm coming up with ideas for comics at a pretty fast rate but still want to get ahold of family photos and some interviews with the concerned to deepen the story-lines and this seems to have hit a bit a snag because of the fact that I've not seen enough of them lately to sit down and chat about these things. So hopefully it'll come to fruition when I get my week break from work in a couple of weeks and will probably head down to the Wirral for a week or so.

Last week was Jen's birthday and we spent the evening at Kokomo's. Jen was part of organizing Jumpers & Jamboree there along with Lauren and Nikki. It was a mighty enjoyable evening with much Art, Craft, Drinks, Music and Raffle prizes. Thanks guys, it surely was a great night and looking forward to your next event whenever and wherever that may be.

J&J poster

It was an extremely busy evening which made me feel a little daft for not having anything to sell, still I had a great time and I'll know to get some stuff together to sell for the next event. The photos here are taken from the Jumpers & Jamboree Flickr group which I have linked to in the previous paragraph, have a gander if you will for some more.

Busy, busy, busy

Andrew Bird (with Tree)

So it's sunday and I don't have much planned for today besides recovering from my week, this blog and maybe sorting a few bits and pieces out that need to be done. Most of all I shall be making the most of my day off and watching the football later on today. Here's hoping you all have equally exciting Sundays.

JAB

Down-Up-Down-Up-Down-Up-Down-Up.

2010-02-09T19:07:00.005Z

I like suits, why can't I wear suits more often?

After what I must admit has been a crazy few weeks for numerous reasons that I won't go into here it's nice to be able to see an inspirational side to things at the end of all the madness. I've come up with a few ideas and have spent two days just sat at my desk drawing things which feels like some kind of major breakthrough. I suppose it's not really, but it's nice to feel that way.

Another drawing from Mum's Wedding photos

Resolution: Some kind of epiphany? Speaks for itself really.

I do like drawing days. Ultimate relaxation doing something you enjoy.

The comics are hopefully the start of a project that I suppose has been sort of floating around my head for a while but I've been too afraid to do comics again that I just kind of ignored it. That and the fact I've not been productive, but you know that already. There's more of them on the way over the coming weeks and months and I'll probably post some of them to my website too. Keep you all posted.

JAB

Fare thee well, January

2010-01-27T16:31:00.000Z

Good day all,

Well its been all quiet on the Western Front for the past couple of weeks via blog. I've been keeping busy by sketchbooking a little, going on trips through to Edinburgh, visiting the Cinema followed by a few things that needed doing around the flat, oh and a few days in work too. The few sketchbook pages are hardly exciting so I'm not going to bother scanning them in until there's a few more to make for a substantial blog.

Finally managed to frame and put up the posters from Christmas.

Andrew Bird.

Until next time, when I'll hopefully feel the urge to write something more.

JAB

Soup and Such.

2010-01-12T18:02:00.001Z

I very rarely write down the recipes for my soups. I did last week for the first time (Generally, I'll make a soup a week) but then I just ended up throwing out the recipe yesterday as I think I prefer the unknown and adventurous when it comes to soup creation. This week I decided to draw the ingredients as it seemed far more exciting than writing down a recipe, that and I really enjoyed drawing the pears last week so I fancied some more fruit and veg related observational drawing.

8 of your 5: This weeks ingredients minus the Oil, Stock and Spinach.

Yesterday was a fairly productive day food wise: shopping at our local grocer's in the morning for fresh fruit and veg, in the afternoon I made soup and pasta to see us through the next few days for lunch.

'I Never Liked You'

Today has been a little more quiet though if I'm totally honest - my first proper lie in an age saw me staying in bed until just after 11:00am (which is very unlike me), listening to more This American Life, drinking different kinds of tea, drawing and then reading 'I Never Liked You' by Chester Brown, a short but rather enjoyable read that I'd recommend to anyone into comics and such.

It'll kill me when I get a real job.

Yours Soupingly,

JAB

Sunday is God's day.

2010-01-10T14:44:00.000Z

Having not felt particularly well yesterday, an awesome night's sleep last night has me feeling altogether more human today and keeping the creative ball rolling I've spent the majority of the day updating my website. Not much else to write about besides I drew two pears because damn...I love pears. Have a look at my website, there's a few new pieces in the 'Gallery' and also the 'Sketches' section is now up to fifty pieces of work.

www.johnalanbirch.com

Cheers.

JAB

There are Certain Gardening Skills You'll Never Learn.

2010-01-06T17:28:00.000Z

Another Christmas has passed and another year's underway. So, I've been rather sloppy with blogging and such over the past four weeks (no change there really) with no reason besides my own superb december-related laziness, procrastination and lack of productivity. Here's to hoping that 2010 will be a year of art, blogs and website related things.

Christmas 2009 was an altogether enjoyable one, I spent Christmas day with Dad doing very little besides going to the pub and spending the rest of the day watching DVD's and drinking wine. I also made my first Christmas dinner ever for me and Jen the day before I headed southward for the holidays and I was pleasantly surprised. The Christmas photos below are courtesy of Jen.

Our lovely old, plastic tree.

Sitting down to dinner at our new table, with my eyes closed for some reason.

Christmas dinner before the Gravy.

I'm generally not one for making New Year's resolutions as I can never really be bothered with the hassle and I've never really felt the need to have any sort of resolution but this year I'm vowing to keep my blog and website up to date with work that I'm doing - oh, and a by product of the whole resolution will mean me doing more work, more often. Basically utilising the fact that I work a part time job by having something to actually show for the time I'm away from the office.

So here's some work from this week - I'm trying to get myself out of the frame of mind of 'forcing myself' to produce drawings which is something I seem to have gotten into the habit of doing quite often i.e. trying to make myself draw daily and that sort of thing. It seems to make me feel less creative as I can't seem to think of anything at all to draw. So for the next few weeks I'm just going to draw what I feel like, when I feel like it without any real deliberation over the subject matter or the frequency. So it's basically what's on my desk, stuff around the flat and stuff I just think of - much more enjoyable and much less stressful.

The second of January was I suppose when the 'resolution' truly began and I started just by drawing some stuff on my desk. A piece of wood that Jen picked up on a walk to Balgay Park that she then used to fashion some buttons out of and my trusty date stamp - which will hopefully be getting a bit more use this year than the latter half of last. I also did a couple of pieces for Cut Click's Mail Art Exhibition which takes place next week - the two pieces were just for fun really, drawn on envelopes fitting the 'Mail' theme of the exhibition. And today I decided to go back to producing some larger A2 pieces (like the 'General Store' picture and portraits I produced previously), I find it rather liberating to get out of the sketchbook and create some larger work - I do find myself sometimes retreating to the sketchbook all too frequently and I suppose it can have quite a negative effect on the outcome of work. So today's subjects were again things from around the flat - Mannequin hands from an exhibition at DCA that we've come to reuse for useful things around the flat and my new shoes. It should be noted that I normally dislike drawing hands and struggle like hell to get them right and today that was not the case.

Got Wood?

The Trodat Printy-Dater 4810

On Her Majesty's Service

Post

Three Hands

Adidas Green Star

So tomorrow I have one more day off before I'm back in work again, hopefully I can be as productive as today - if not more so. I had intended to update my website but blogging and drawing has taken longer than previously thought and now I'm getting hungry so it doesn't look like it will happen this evening. So I'm off for some dinner.

Wishful Thinking.

JAB

Heart of the Continent...

2009-12-14T19:25:00.000Z

It's been a relatively slow few weeks on the drawing and blogging front with the likes of work and a little spot of decorating taking up my time. I'd wanted to draw something American General Store-ish for some time and I finally got round to it. I'm pleased with the outcome but not so pleased with how long it took me.

Listen to this song: John K. Samson 'Heart of the Continent' - I can't switch on my iTunes lately without listening to it.

Christmas time means Blogging time (I think).

Four Blokes and a Mountain Dwelling Mammal.

2009-10-29T16:19:00.000Z

The past few days have been rather productive after recovering from what I can only assume was some form of Cold from the busy weekend. I decided to take some of the portraits in the previous blog to the next level, alot of the work I've done recently (if not all of the work I've done recently) has been sketchbook based so I nailed a piece of cardboard to the wall (we have woodchip you see, terrible for drawing on) and set out doing some pieces that were A2 sized and larger. It feels good to actually do some substantial work, and the both of the last two days spent drawing took up the majority of the day - time well spent if you ask me.

John Cleese, lately I've been watching ALOT of Monty Python.

Bill Murray.

Dean Martin, from a time when excessive smoking and drinking were endearing qualities.

Me, from a photo taken last year after playing baseball in Morocco. Random.

A Mountain Goat, for obvious reasons.

I've been rather enjoying my Pentel Brush pen as you can probably tell, The Mountain Goat picture was done solely for the reason that I wanted to go overboard on the whole brushstroke marks that it makes, I think that the paper that I've used and the fact that the pen is starting to run out helped this somewhat too. I also like how my beard turned out in the Self-Portrait (I do miss my beard)...all of this brush pen-ness now means I need to purchase some more refills, and I only replaced it a few weeks ago. Oh well, at least I'm having fun I suppose.

On top of the work I've been doing, drawing in the studio and listening to music has given me time to think, which is a side of art I seem to have forgotten about as recently any drawing I've done never really takes up much longer than 30mins or so - drawing in a sketchbook and rather small unadventurous stuff. Anyway, working on the larger pieces has seen me take about two to three hours per piece and the has got me thinking onto a few more ideas that are hopefully going to keep me busy for the next few weeks and create a nice body of work. Hopefully.

After all this busy-ness I'm off to play the latest Grand Theft Auto installment, back to drawing tomorrow. Keep you informed.

JAB

And Now for Something Completely Different...

2009-10-26T12:24:00.000Z

A man with two noses...

Last week turned out to be a rather busy one, spent a fair bit of time preparing for Mum and Darren's Wedding which was on Friday Afternoon. I was giving my mum away and as a result had to make a speech (well I didn't have to, but I wanted to) and I must be honest I'm hardly renowned for my public speaking, I think I made a speech at my 18th birthday but I was fairly inebriated when I was asked so it never really phased me at all. I was pretty damn nervous at making the speech on Friday though, infront of about 150 odd people and without any of the Dutch courage, however it went okay and a few people even said I seemed really confident...Not likely. I had a fantastic time at the wedding and I'm really happy for Mum and so was everyone else I spoke to. It was great to see everyone together again, I hadn't seem some of my relatives for over 5 years so it was awesome to have a drink and catch up, hope it's not too long before we all see each other again. I'd like to thank everyone who came once again (if you happen to read this that is).

Me and Jen at the Wedding

At least everyone's having fun. (Me, Andrew, Emma and Alison)

On Saturday Morning after the wedding I was hungover, as was to be expected really. So me, Graham and Louise went for breakfast in Morrison's, it's been a while since I've had a fry up and it tastes about 100 times better when you're hungover. Afterwards I spent the rest of Saturday lazing around and slowly making my way back to Dundee where I played some XBOX and watched Monty Python's Flying Circus. Sadly my hangover decided to make it's way over to Sunday morning as well so Sunday was fairly uneventful too apart from doing a few bits around the flat and meeting Jen's family for a chinese. Today I rolled out of bed and straight into my sketchbook, I'm finding it difficult to carry on with the whole 'drawing signs' idea as I had stated in previous blogs, I may pick it up again when I feel the time is right, but this morning I felt like doing some self indulgent stuff, drawings of people with brush pen and fineline. Awesome. After seeing how these images turned out in the sketchbook I am pretty tempted to do some large scale versions of these and maybe a few more, which is nice as I finally have some room to be able to do this.

John Cleese. Inspired by my recent watchings of Fawlty Towers

and Monty Python I love how eccentric his hair makes him look.

Mr. Tarantino

Bill Murray.

So that's that really, I enjoyed drawing portraits again, if you can call them that. I may take a bit of time this week and do some larger scale versions and just go crazy with detail and hopefully carry on enjoying my drawings and maybe build up some steam on the inspiration front to keep me making more creative stuff more frequently. Novemeber promises to be a quieter month than the past few have been so...

...here's hoping.

JAB

If All Else Fails.

2009-10-19T15:24:00.000+01:00

Something to listen to this week: 'Kate Miccuci - Just Say When'

Just a short blog today, have had a nice quiet weekend after a night out on Friday and a hangover on Saturday. Watched 'In Bruges' last night, a film that a fair few people I know had been singing the praises of and I finally got around to seeing, I must admit I did really enjoy it, and from watching it I'm now listening to the Dubliners a fair bit today, delightfully Celtic and Jaunty. Anyways, here's some more drawing and the likes.

Roald Dahl from this Saturday's Guardian 'Review' section.

Self Portrait.

On my twitter I posted saying: My artistic words of wisdom for the week - "If all else fails draw a self portait". But what then do you do when the self-portrait fails? I'm not overly impressed with the self portrait, firstly, whenever I draw myself lately I have this tendency to draw my eyes too far apart, I end up looking like a frog or something and secondly, I feel that the shirt pattern was a bit too much, and it looked better before I added it. I suppose my twitter should've said - "If all else fails then carry on with what you were already doing before". Which is what I did.

Pepsi-Cola

Jasmine Tea

7up - YOU LIKE IT . IT LIKES YOU. (treating a sketchbook like a sketchbook again).

This week promises to be a fairly eventful one, despite having only one day at work this week on Thursday, it's my mum's wedding day on Friday during which I will be giving my mum away and making a speech, I must admit, I'm fairly nervous about the whole thing but looking forward to it all nonetheless!

JAB

A Place to Begin Again.

2009-10-14T11:40:00.000+01:00

Please, feel free to listen to some new Mountain Goats whilst you read. - "Genesis 3:23"

So it's been a busy old few weeks in my world. After finally putting together my website last month my Mac decided that it'd had enough and just packed in, all programs and such that I was running slowed right down and then ceased to be...so another joyous trip to the Apple store in Glasgow was needed. That said, after waiting over a week for my Mac to be fixed I was given a larger hard drive by the Apple folk and luckily didn't lose too much of my data as most of my stuff is backed up to an external Hard Drive.

The Life of the World to Come, the latest Mountain Goats Album.

I've travelled back down to Merseyside twice since the last time I wrote, once to accompany my mum who was going to visit my sister and then just a few days ago whereby we (me and Jen) went to my Dad's via Manchester to see the Mountain Goats...well, it wasn't so much the Mountain Goats as just John Darnielle on his own which I actually think is miles better anyway. I majorly enjoyed the gig but I suppose that's to be expected, John Darnielle could show up and play a few chords and I'd go away happier than most. The one downside to the venue was how small it was, I know that this generally makes for a better gig but for some reason there were so many tall people at the Ruby Lounge which made it very difficult to see even a few feet infront of yourself, that said the setlist and the fact that he played a few piano numbers made it excellent.

My workspace (taken by Jen)

Illustrationwise I seemed to hit yet another brick wall after my computer died and then I set about reupholstering small pink cabinets, decorating rooms (see photo above for my new workspace), and spending alot of time playing new XBOX games generally anything that meant not drawing. It's odd though, writing that makes it sound like I'm effectively trying to avoid doing any drawing which I'm not. I think that I'm generally trying to force myself too hard to come up with an idea that will become some amazing piece of work, which I suppose is my greatest hinderance at present.

Old man and old car.

There's something that I love about the old style FIAT and it

seems to be somthing that I simply cannot capture in a drawing.

In an attempt to get myself moving again creatively I've taken to drawing signs and alike, anything really that maybe contains text or some form of visual identity, from street signs to cars and crap like that. I see it as nothing more than a starting point for now if I'm honest, some active research in order to get some sketchbook work together and get the cogs inside my head moving (albeit rather slow and clunkingly at this moment in time but moving nonetheless).

Racecar and a selection of other things.

Front of Moroccan train.

WMU insignia from my new mug, found by Jen at the Recycling centre.

"R" from Boris Bilinsky's Metropolis poster.

West 44th Street sign, New York

Street signs by day and by night in Marrakech, Morocco.

Some text.

I find the whole blogging about work that I have/haven't been doing to be rather theraputic, putting everything that I've been doing together in a spot like this makes it fairly obvious to myself that I have actually been doing something besides sitting on my arse in the living room drinking beers and playing FIFA 10, which makes me feel less guilty about doing that. Now I'm off to make some bread and the bed.

Keep listening for more.

JAB

New website at last.

2009-09-09T15:59:00.001+01:00

So, at long last I've managed to put a new website together, I must admit I didn't care too much for my old site and I've wanted to change it since day one but it's done it's job over the past year or so. I did half expect that the creation of new site would take me a long while to put together and I was rather surprised at the fact that it only took three days (still, I'm totally unaware if this is a good frame of time for web design, but for me, a laymen, it seems quite good.) Hopefully getting the new website out of the way will pave the way for me actually using my free time more constructively over the coming months and actually put some more substantial work together. Anyway, check out the site if you have 5 minutes - www.johnalanbirch.com

Sink Dundee, Sink.

2009-08-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

This week I've been slowly attempting to get myself into some sort of routine again. The past month or so has been rather eventful on most fronts apart from the 'Art' front if I'm totally honest. In an attempt to get myself back into gear I have set myself the task of completing (at least) two pages a day in my sketchbook in a hope to let me draw some inspiration from something. Although I am quite lenient with myself, if for some reason I don't do the sketchbook pages one day then they will accumulate to the next. I haven't been feeling too inspired by the things I've been drawing lately so hopefully this may help some. Also Jen's been helpful in mentioning a few projects that I think I'll enter into, again it gives me something to do and hopefully get me moving and feeling a little more confident of my work again.

So the past month as I mentioned was eventful, my friend Dave visited Dundee for the second time, Jen and I had a holiday to Skye with her family and I joined my family for a holiday on the West Coast, Mumford & Sons concert in Edinburgh, Inglourious Basterds preview, a few days of work in between and this weekend I'm back off to the Wirral again to see a friend from Morocco. I've been kept busy to say the least but it has been rather enjoyable.

Today's been a successful day as far as drawing and stuff creative goes, getting into the swing of things again. It's also been raining very heavily, I like the rain though, it's nice to be inside in the warmth and just listen to the rain and know that I don't have to leave the house until tomorrow morning, I sure hope it's dry tomorrow though.

A new painting for the bedroom wall.

The old painting from the bedroom wall. (I'm not a fan of this picture...)

Sketchbook pages (Proof of work!) Chickens from Carrbridge

More sketchbook stuff: Moroccan Water seller and New York street sign.

Sketchbook stuff: Jen's little wooden church.

Note: For safety reasons not all sketchbook work has been included as some of it is terrible and boring.

Until next time,

JAB

Sail On...

2009-07-28T11:58:00.000+01:00

A sketch of Jen's little Milliput house

So again I appeared to have been sidetracked by work and alike and I haven't blogged in a while. It's quite handy though as I practically got two weeks work at full time in the end which made up for taking two days off for Dave's visit to Scotland. I've been attempting to keep up with doing some drawing and I'm starting to build up some steam on that front. Oh, and yesterday I finally started to plan a little of how I want to change my website...Well, I've only been wanting to change it for like a year...

So first up, some drawings! I've not had any huge inspiration at the moment for self-initiated sorts of projects and I'm kind of enjoying the safety of the sketchbook, however I do realise that sooner or later I'm going to need to break out of the sketchbook and actually do something of some significance. I have half a mind to take up the Zine/Comic ideas I was having at the end of last year again although I kind of feel that they may have passed and it may well be time to just start something completely new. We'll see.

The Liver Buildings

A sketch of the Liver buildings, it's weird because whenever I seem to think of 'home' or 'Liverpool' in particular this building always comes to mind. In reality though this building holds next to no significance to me...I mean I've seen it, but that's honestly about it. I don't know what's so 'homely' about it though.

Root Beer and Grumpy Cat

I'm not too sure why but lately I've kind of started looking at old timey american signs, I guess sort of anything spanning the 50's/70's, I just find something inexplicably romantic yet tacky about the style. I suppose in reality I would rather have a can of Root Beer that looked like the can above in my sketchbook than anything Coca-Cola/Pepsi-esque. Each to their Own. I don't think the cat picture needs much explanation...I like cats.

Scruffy Portrait

Today has been spent doodling in my sketchbook again and also trying to come up with a more solid idea for my website before I actually start putting it together as soon as possible. However I've not really been able to find much to draw so I just drew a self portrait, which I do realise now that I've scanned has terrible proportion and probably only really looks like me because I have glasses on, and something from iPhoto (exciting, huh?) but yeah...something about artistic license.

Another iPhoto Sketch: New Brighton

It's nice to finally have all my books with me in Dundee again. I just started looking at 'Vernacular Drawings' by Seth whilst taking a break from drawing/computer with a cup of tea. I never really knew too much about Seth but I really love his style as you can probably tell (he was the reason I decided to get a date stamp for my sketchbook) also maybe an explanation for my love of drawing signage and alike.

Lumberjack by Seth

Mimico Fish & Chips by Seth

I'm off to make soup. Until next time.

JAB

The end of a Sketchbook.

2009-07-06T18:05:00.000+01:00

It's been a couple of weeks since the last blog, just overly enjoying my time off I guess. There's been a little bit of sketchbook work, not a huge amount to be honest but Im getting started on the right track again which I suppose is all that matters for now. I went and visited 'home'* last week, it was the Magazine's (our local pub) 250th Birthday and there was a huge beer festival - as good a reason as any to visit home if you ask me. It was great to see friends and family again as last time I was home was over 5 months ago for the Christmas/New Year period which feels like an age ago. I did take a sketchbook home but only managed three pages, although over 3 days of heavy drinking and catching up with people I don't suppose that's too horrendous.

*I still manage to refer to the Wirral as 'home' even though I've technically lived in Scotland for almost 4 years now.

Sketch of Coffee table in the Living Room at Dad's house.

I really like how this picture turned out.

Today whilst waiting for the plumbers to come and fit a new shower I did a few more pages in my sketchbook, and managed to finish it. I started the sketchbook in November and really wanted to get into the swing of drawing daily (or on a regular basis at least), a practice that went rather well until I realised the reality of needing to look for a job and the sketchbook took to the back burner for a while which was a shame. However, I've finally finished it, a few months too late in my eyes but finished nonetheless, and now I can get started on my new sketchbook and hopefully approach it with the same ethos as i started the last. Here are the pages from today, not sure why I wanted to draw American 50's diner style signs, but I did so there. Apologies for the scans, the last few pages of the sketchbook are falling apart a little which made them difficult to scan effectively.

Hollywood diner.

I'm not sure what Donald's Serva-teria serves but I want to go there.

Hopefully have some more sketchbook work up soon.

JAB

A "REAL" Blog.

2009-06-24T11:55:00.000+01:00

Jen's Jon Burgerman Birthday card to me (coloured by me)

It's been far too long since I've put some time and effort into a proper blog, saying what I've been up to and what I've not been up to. I'm just starting to get accustomed to having so much time off (it's a hard life, I know) - last week's five days off were a little wasted to be honest, however, this week I feel they have been put to good use. Today though, I have to wait at the flat for an electrician who's meant to be coming to fix the shower so it seems a good time to give the blog a go. As some of you will be aware it was my birthday last week, I had a great time and just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and such.

I'll start with a few bits of work that I enjoyed from the Edinburgh and Dundee Degree Shows. Luckily we got to see both of them (although I did only make it around Illustration and some of Graphics at Edinburgh).

A set of Drawings by Laura Martin, Dundee.

I feel that the choice of the Vision building for the Dundee show was a good decision and would quite like to see the show there again in the future if at all possible. There was a fair bit of work that I enjoyed at Dundee but would probably take me far too long to talk about it all so I'll keep it short and sweet. I think one of my favourite pieces in the Illustration department were these sketchy drawings by Laura Martin, I like how fragile the line is and also the use of colour.

'Treehouses' drawing by Genevieve Ryan, Edinburgh

I didn't really get a chance to look in great detail at Genevieve's work, although I really liked this postcard. I may be somewhat guilty of not taking sufficient time to view everyone's work in the Illustration department at Edinburgh but I enjoyed the show nonetheless.

Print by Lizzy Stewart, Edinburgh

I've been a fan of Lizzy Stewart's work for a while after being introduced to her work by Jen. I really enjoyed seeing Lizzy's work up close at the degree show and also thought that the amount of sketchbook work she had amassed was pretty impressive (and of great quality). Well, after looking in at the degree show in Edinburgh we decided we'd leave for a wander around Edinburgh, however the weather didn't really allow us to do that, instead we popped into a coffee shop opposite Analogue to shelter from the storm. After that Jen and I went to purchase a Nigel Peake print (from Analogue) for our bedroom wall, which I must be honest, is still yet to be put up.

Sketch in an Edinburgh Coffee shop (page 1)

and then doodles at home, the next day (page 2)

More doodles from the next day (or so...)

Back to more some work that I like, I'm a huge fan of Jeffrey Brown's work (as I'm sure most of the people who know me will be well aware) and when I heard that there was an 'Incredible Change-Bots' fan club I felt I just had to join, with joining I received a membership card, a 'Change-Bots' mini-comic and a trading card which is another piece of original Jeffrey Brown artwork for the small collection. Anyway, after getting hold of these I wanted to look at some of Jeff's work again and so the other night I stuck my head into one of the books, 'I am Going to be Small' to be precise, no matter how many times I flick through the pages it always makes me smile. Could be a contender for one of my favourite Jeffrey Brown books...although in all honesty I suppose I could say that about any of his work. So yeah...

My 'Incredible Change-Bots' fan club membership card.

'Shootertron' trading card (front and back)

Classic Jeffrey Brown.

On Saturday I booked my first official holiday from work and we (Me, Jen, Fiona, Daniel, Mark and Margaret) went up North to Carrbridge to attend a party to celebrate Jen's aunt's wedding. It couldn't have been a nicer day to sit outside and have drinks, chat, a barbecue and a fire, definitely some of the nicest Scottish weather I've seen in a good while...and this is the fourth year I've lived here. The following day we travelled back through to Dundee, again the weather was great and so we stopped at Bruar Falls for a bacon roll and a walk alongside the falls, a most awesome weekend (following photos where taken by Jen).

Making friends with the residents.

Life's a Killer: Wisdom from a piece of wood.

Bring it on Mel Gibson.

Me and Jen at Bruar Falls.

At some point last week during my ridiculously lazy days sitting about the house playing XBOX, watching South Park and drinking some beers, I decided that I really should take advantage of having a lot of time off and also the fact that I now can get pretty much anywhere in Scotland for free. It did strike me that for somebody who lives in Scotland I've not seen a huge amount of it so I'm going to make an effort when I have days off to use my rail pass and go to places I've not been before. As a result, yesterday I decided to go north to Stonehaven. I was originally going to visit Aberdeen although a friend discouraged me saying that there wasn't a huge amount to do there.

In the end I was happy with the choice of Stonehaven. I had best intentions to get up early and make the 0720 train, however, after staying up until 1 o'clock the night before with friends I managed to fall asleep again after trying to get up at 6. I almost stayed in bed but I started to feel guilty when I noticed how nice it was outside. I got out of bed and made the 0930 train. I've never visited Stonehaven and I was rather lost when I first arrived but after a bit of a wander I made my way into town and then to the harbour, the weather was stunning, but with it being Scotland I didn't bring sun cream but instead i had two jackets (one of which is my winter coat). Typical.

I walked up to Black Hill War Memorial and sat and drew for about half an hour in the sun before heading south along the coast towards Dunnottar Castle, a set of castle ruins from around the 17th Century. I spent about three hours looking around the castle grounds and enjoying the sun before sitting in the shade and having some lunch and a little more drawing. I think from my sketchbook pages I realised that I don't have the patience to sit and draw old ruins, however I found the place itself really interesting and enjoyed spending the day there. Instead of heading straight back to the harbour I made my way down to the beach (falling over once, the path was rather steep), went for a paddle in the North Sea and skimmed stones.

After that I headed back and found a Pub in the harbour area, and was rather pleased to find that they served my favourite ale. Two pints of Timothy Taylor's Landlord later and I decided to head back to Dundee and finish my day out. I walked about 10 miles all in all and caught the sun quite a lot, I have a very red nose but I had a great day out so it was worth it. Next time I go away I think I'll make sure I have Sun cream, then again saying that if I pack sun cream it will most surely rain. You've got to love Scottish weather (Following photos were taken by me, unfortunately I only had my phone camera so they're a bit crappy but you get the idea).

Black Hill War Memorial, Stonehaven

Sketch of Black Hill War Memorial

The approach to Dunnottar Castle

Seagulls atop Dunnottar

A section of the ruins.

Sketch of Dunnottar Chapel and Black Hill War Memorial in the distance.

The beach below Dunnottar

Beach below Dunnottar, a great beach for stone skimming.

Apologies for the terrible quality of the photos from my phone, two lessons learnt from yesterdays trip? Wear sun cream and take a half decent camera.

Oh and someone should probably tell the authorities that an Englishman comprimised Dunnottar's defences. Gees, and I heard that place was practically impenetrable.

Until next time...

Happy 'Birch'-Day

2009-06-18T18:06:00.001+01:00

My Boylan's Birch Beer Glass

Today it is my birthday, and I am officially 23 years young. I got a nice new glass from Jen and a bunch of cards from family. Tonight Jen and I are off out to see 'Looking for Eric' at the Cinema. It's been a nice day despite having to work the 10:00am shift at work (probably my least favourite of all the shifts) but I'm only working today and tomorrow after having had 5 days off and then I'm off for another six days. So any form of complaint from me seems a little unfounded to be honest. Looking forward to a wee trip with Jen and her family up into the highlands on Saturday, and who knows...maybe next week I may put my train pass to some use and actually go on a day trip somewhere I've never been before and do some drawing!

and so it ends/begins...

2009-06-13T12:49:00.001+01:00

It's been a long three months training for my new job, let's just say I'm not accustomed to full time working hours. I must admit I'm looking forward to part time hours but I was glad of the money though, I've purchased a few bits and bobs for myself which has been nice. Now I have five days off and it's come as a little bit of a shock to the system and I don't know what to do with myself. Well today I've sorted housework and stuff out and did a little sketch in my sketchbook which leaves me the whole afternoon to sit and play on my new XBOX (on my new 22'' television) with a beer or two, nice and relaxing...

Today's sketch.

Keep At It.

2009-05-17T17:54:00.000+01:00

Another weeks worth of training is out of the way and I'm still fervently looking forward to when I can actually be classed as 'Part Time' and do some proper work outside of my sketchbook. Still, I've been doing a bit more drawing this week, trying to keep up this slight bit of creativity. Here's a collection of a few bits and pieces from this weeks drawing exploits:

Signpost, Marrakech.

(everything you seek is in the same general direction)

Clone Trooper of the 501st Legion

Now would probably be a good point to state that I have finished watching the Star Wars saga from start to finish, and I suppose this drawing was kind of a way to get it fully out of my system (until next time anyway...) I'm still unsure which my favourite of the movies would be but I did enjoy my Star Wars journey. I'm always disappointed that it has to end with the Ewoks being the ones who save the day, it just doesn't seem possible. Surely the Galaxy could be saved by a cooler (less cute) character?

I just felt the urge to draw an Orca Whale, not too sure why.

I've been looking for a new cup since my last one got a tiny crack in the handle and couldn't seem to find anything that I liked mugwise, when I remembered that Jen had given me a mug a couple of years ago with a drawing of a kitty on it, I really like the mug but have never used it due to the fact that the drawing wasn't permanent and I didn't want to wash it off the cup. Anyway, I decided I would use it, so I took a photo of the cup, sadly I only thought of taking a photo of it after washing a little bit of the drawing off. I was a little hungover yesterday and so my brain wasn't quite functioning at full speed.

'I Like Tea Too' (...and wine)

All of that aside, it's been a great weekend. Had quite a lot to drink on Friday, hung out with Connor, watching TV and playing Playstation3 until 4 in the morning and then last night went out for Stewart's birthday which was equally fun. Two hangovers in a row but I had a good time. Today's been nice too, sitting chilling out with Jen and being quiet on the couch, should probably make dinner soon too. Back to work tomorrow, bring on the early shift for the rest of the week.

Peace and love.

JAB

I Told You I Could Still Do It

2009-05-11T18:34:00.000+01:00

Self Portrait

See? Told you so. Okay so it's not a whole bunch of amazing work and it didn't take up an awful lot of my time, but it felt great to actually put something inside a sketchbook again, to feel creative for once. Looking forward to finishing a sketchbook and starting a new one - it always feels rather monumental when this happens and I was on such a roll with my latest sketchbook at the end of last year (before getting a new job), that I'm a little disappointed that it's taken me this long to get round to nearly filling it. I suppose it should be about 'quality not quantity', but at the moment I must admit the idea of quantity will probably help me build up a bit of confidence in my drawing again. Here's to art and all things creative... Fingers crossed.

A jolly fellow from 'Canadian Tire'.

an attempt at drawing The Mountain Goats.

The first picture in an age: the new room.

Not sure why but i seem to have an

inclination to drawing houses at the moment.

...and surprise, surprise a

Star Wars related drawing.

Hoping to keep up this creative spurt,

JAB

Any day now...

2009-05-03T13:52:00.000+01:00

This week I have been listening to Jeff Buckley quite a bit (mostly 'Hallelujah' as I'm sure my last.fm page will show), I've been wanting to listen to his stuff for a while and quite a few people over the years have said 'you'll like his stuff'. generally I'm quite stubborn if someone tells me what I'm going to like, hence why it has taken my this long to get round to listening to him. Another song that I enjoyed in particular was his cover of Bob Dylan's 'I Shall Be Released' from the 'Live at Sin-é' CD.

I couldn't find Jeff's version so here's Bob's.

Give it a listen. Go on.

I also managed to get hold of the new EP from The Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice, anyone who knows me will already be aware of how big a fan I am of The Mountain Goats, well I'm also quite fond of John Vanderslice's music too so this EP promised to be awesome even before I heard any of it. Let's just say that it didn't disappoint at all. I really hope that The Mountain Goats come back to Scotland some time soon.

The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice: Moon Colony Bloodbath

The Bank Holiday weekend is going swell, I feel incredibly lazy but it feels like i've been due a little bit of laziness after being busy with work and whatnot. I managed to get my blog unlocked again after the people at blogger decided that 'A Collage of Senselessness' was not a spam blog. It's nice to be in the mood to blog again and spend some time doing stuff like that, and for once I did a little bit of a drawing. I am aware that it was only a header for this blog but it felt good to actually put something inside my sketchbook for the first time in a while. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of blogging and drawing now anyway.

501st Legion Insignia

STATUS REPORT: 'Begun, this Clone War has'. Having started watching Star Wars again from the beginning on Thursday night, I am now mid way through the Clone Wars series which I'm rather enjoying (I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that though), although at about 12 and a half hours of viewing time it is quite a challenge so I'm taking a break just now by writing up about this nonsense. I can't wait to watch 'Revenge of the Sith', just for Ewan McGregor's speech at the end. Powerful.

Keep it coming.

JAB

Too Long

2009-04-30T08:43:00.001+01:00

Okay, I'm back again. It's been far too long since I last blogged. I've been mega busy, I started a new job last month and I've been training full time for 6 weeks altogether and still have (at least) 2 weeks of training left to go. All this work has had a serious effect on the amount I've been drawing as I think I've only produced 3 drawings over the past 6 weeks, two of which where cards (one mother's day card and one birthday card) so they don't really count in my eyes. It's not the end of the world though as the training has been a nice experience, something a little out of the ordinary for me I guess.

Once I've been 'passed out' from my training I will be working 17.5 Hours per week which is going to give me much more time to do some illustrating/blogging and the likes. Work is fine, nice people to work with and a nice change from my old job, I'm just not used to working full time really, and it's taken some adjustment to get used to and then in two weeks I'm back to part time again, so I'll be fully adjusted just in time to adjust back. Typical.

But I really shouldn't complain because I'll finally have some time to be creative at last.

3 weeks ago I moved in with Jen and Sanna in Dundee. I must admit, it's ace to be back in Dundee again, it feels like home already. Also Jen and I purchased an IKEA bed as we can now afford to as we are both working, and I've not had a bad nights sleep in it yet. Awesome.

my side of the bed.

Other news? My Mum is getting married in October of this year, I'm really happy for her and looking forward to the wedding, it's not going to be a big ceremony but I will be giving my mum away and apparently I have to make a speech which I'm not too sure about. I'm sure it'll be fine anyway.

my new Superdry shirt.

In January this year I discovered Superdry shirts, such a good make of shirt. I remember walking into a shop called 'Cult' while I was visiting Liverpool One and it was covered wall to wall with checkered shirts, I thought I was in heaven. I must admit they cost a little more than I would care to spend on a shirt really but they're awesome quality. I just purchased my second one recently after my first paycheck.

Most of my free time at the moment has been spent playing Star Wars Battlefront (I & II) on my Playstation 2 and come the bank holiday weekend I plan to begin watching the Star Wars saga from the beginning including the Clone Wars movie and all four Clone Wars spin off series (i'm currently reading the online Clone Wars webcomic as we speak too). I am aware of how much of a geek this single paragraph makes me look but I'm really looking forward to it, it's been too long since I last watched anything Star Wars. Oh, and to put a cherry on top of that already immensely geeky paragraph I purchased a 501st Legion Clone Trooper figurine for my bedroom. Sweet.

Music-wise I've been enjoying my 5 Star playlist in iTunes. I've been rating my library right from the beginning and I'm currently up to 'F' in the rate-athon. Again 'geek = yes' but it's such an amazing playlist that I don't care what you think. Really enjoying Mumford & Sons at the moment courtesy of one of Jen's work colleagues.

More to come.

JAB.