'Tis the Season to be Moustachioed

This image has been a long time coming. I read an interesting article in the in-flight magazine whilst on holiday about Seattle Sounders' Roger Levesque. He's sadly retired from football now but will likely be remembered by many fans for sense of humor, namely his 'timbers chop' celebration against arch rivals the Portland Timbers.

This video is not of that particular celebration but of another rather comical one, oh and watch out for some superb goalkeeping. Real fans root for roger.

So, continuing with the facial hair theme, Movember is well and truly upon us and is about to enter its final week. I've been raising money over on movember.com and you can check out my progress here. Any amount you can donate can help to make a huge difference to men's health charities, so if you have a penny or two to spare please take a moment to donate them to my attempt at a moustache.

And with a bit of time and some TLC, I'm hoping to achieve a Dalí.

JAB

Sasquatch

So I hear y'all are looking for Bigfoot?

Searching for Sasquatch,

JAB

Sketches From Another Continent

Back from an awesome holiday in Toronto and New York, above are a collection of sketches from museums visited in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Probably a good gauge of what my brain looks like when trying to come up with ideas.

An account of what we got up to can be seen on Jen Collins' blog here.

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

History Cannot Recall Our Names.

History is going to forget you.

Monday of this week I had a chance to spend a few hours wandering around the National Museum in Edinburgh, here's a collection of sketches from that particular jaunt and a few sketches from last week.

JAB

Sketching, Brighton, London and Goats.

A Chaque Oiseau

First things first, I've finally got back to my Etsy shop and have added a new print (above). The more astute amongst you may have noticed that this is an old print, from 2009. I found a bunch of them when clearing out the portfolio last week and decided I may as well sell a few of them! For anyone who is interested, I am also having a sale in my shop in a hope that it can get me a bit more motivated in producing some more of my own work. Simply have a browse, choose your print and enter the coupon code JABONESCORE for a nice 20% discount, available for the next 7 days.

Visit John Alan Birch's Etsy Shop

Below are a selection of things that I probably should've taken some time to write about when at the time but never did...

The Mountain Goats and Anonymous 4 Program

We saw The Mountain Goats and Anonymous 4 earlier this month at the Barbican in London. An amazing gig at a great venue even if they do charge £6 for a pint of spitfire. Also whilst in London I took some time to do some sketches.

These are a bunch of the sketches from a morning spent at the British Museum. I had a few compliments from kids in the museum on my drawings despite the fact that at one point I was sketching a medieval bearded gentleman whilst sitting in a room filled with only Cypriot pottery. Kids today.

 Masks

A DIY Tattoo on human skin from The Wellcome Collection, London.

A true fact.

In April my Bible collection of grew by one. A collection I may add that I have never personally contributed to.

Pierhead.

Brighton Pavillion, March.

Remember - JABONESCORE for 20% off for the next 7days.

More to follow.

JAB 

Not Without a Fight.

A Brief Chronicling of the Past 3 Months

Covent Garden at Christmas

I've been a little quiet on the blog front for some time now. So I'm looking to be a bit more productive with what free time I have. Here's just a few things I've been working on recently and the other things that have been going on at the same time.

Pre-Christmas

Before Christmas I was selling a fair few bits and pieces from my Etsy shop and also doing a few commissioned pieces - shown below.

Death Cab at the Academy in November

Spiderman watercolour (A2)

 Batman watercolour (A2)

Superman watercolour (A2)

Personalised 'Let's Build a Home' watercolour painting. Requested via Etsy shop.

'Fluffy' watercolour in situ (A2)

Post-Christmas

Since Christmas, creativity (and work) has dried up somewhat and it's been difficult to get motivated. Here's some of what I've been doing with a view to knuckling down a bit more throughout March.

GO LEAFS GO.

Homemade chutneys

Trip to Liverpool

Bentley and Broda sketch - Via vintageleafs.blogspot.com

Retro QP

Something old

Dropkick Murphys at the Barras in Feb (photo from indulge-sound.com)

Avocado stuffed with walnuts and stilton with side salad

A brief snippet of an upcoming project.

Oh, and if anyone is interested I now have a Pinterest, just general stuff that's cool to look at and inspirational and so forth.

More to follow.

JAB