If You Go Down to the Woods Today.

Making more of a conscious effort to produce some work of late (see proof, above). Having renewed my membership at the DCA print studio I made my first print in nearly 12 months. Have finally managed to finish off the last in a set of screenprints entitled 'Humble Abodes', see my Etsy shop to purchase editions of these prints. The latest in the series is called 'Down to the Woods'.

'Humble Abodes' tryptich

'Down to the Woods'

Close up #1

Close up #2 

ANSVFH 

Have also been working on a graphic novel piece written by Kenny Kelly (above), enjoying working in this style albeit a bit slow as I'm finding my sea legs with Photoshop again - it's been a while.


JAB

The Back of Beyond (New Print)

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.

In Wild Waters (New Print)

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!

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

Chaos Theory.

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.

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.

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.

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