These Aren't the Droids You're Looking for...(A Review of this weeks Films and DVD's)

 So the week is drawing to a close again and I'm thoroughly exhausted after an exceedingly crazy day in work today. In advance, I'm sorry for posting so many youtube videos on this particular blog post but as the title states I've just been watching films and stuff when not in work and this is what I think of them all...take some time out to watch them if you will, you may find something that you like. This is how I've been entertaining myself this week.

Running my mum's shop hasn't been quite the walk in the park that I had imagined it may be...typical really. At the beginning of the week I mentioned that a bunch of Illustration folk did the Art Bar pub quiz, anyway I was kicking myself on not being able to get the Star Wars question, so when I was reminded of the scene referring to the question by a friend, I remembered the answer...too little too late. My embarrassment at my absolute lack of knowledge about Han Solo using Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber in Episode V has pushed me back into Star Wars mode as it must be oh, I don't know, three months since I last watched them all?...I was intending to do some work this evening but after such a mad day I'm going to sit with some beer and a pizza and watch Episode 1 (Not my favourite of the Star Wars saga...but where else is there to start?). The following scene isn't the scene that was mentioned in the question but simply a classic original school Star Wars scene.

Classic Alec Guinness. 

'These aren't the droids you're looking for'

Generally when I have a busy day I can't be bothered doing too much drawing or illustrating, and this week was no real exception - I finished up my answer to the Illustration Friday brief to illustrate the word 'Clutter' here, which was my main illustration goal for the week. The first film I watched this week was one that I discovered through my good friend Redd, now I'd never heard of it before and I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan (apart from Star Wars of course...) but I remember he had mentioned a film called 'Man from Earth'.

Man From Earth

Now I'll admit it's an odd film but it's one that get's the mind racing. I'd say that it's the most intriguing film I've seen this year without a doubt, due mainly to the style of the film. When I first began watching I must admit i was thinking 'Well...this looks fairly low budget...' and as a result I had fairly low expectations, usually something like this may make me want to switch a film off or not give it any real attention but I must admit I was glued to this one after a short while. I couldn't have switched it off if I was forced to. I'd say to give it a watch if you want something thought-provoking to view. I liked it anyway. I'll not give anything of the story away incase anybody does decide to watch.

On thursday I took charge of mum's coffee shop, it's been okay in general I'm just pretty tired. Oh well I have two days off now anyway. 

A pink Danny Wallace style car that I saw 

on the way home from work on Thrusday.

I've also been getting back into Black Books again. On Thursday evening, lets just say I wasn't much in the mood for a film so I watched this.

Bill Bailey - Pure genius.

Last night's film was 'Waiting', a rather comical take on life working as a waiter. I'm not really a huge Ryan Reynolds fan, and I don't act like this as a waiter but this film does make me laugh.

Waiting.

...and then tonight I watched Star Wars Episode 1, but I already told you that though right?

Weird Al Yankovic sums up Star Wars:Episode 1  perfectly.

I also forgot to mention that due to this week being the 7th anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks we watched a programme about the hotel next to the world trade centres, anyway, that started me off thinking about the whole 9/11 conspiracy thing. I'm not saying that I believe it as both sides have such a great supporting argument, but I know that I'd like to believe that the American government couldn't possibly do such a thing to their public. But no one seems to have a definitive answer. Anyway, I don't know, i'm the king of sitting on the fence I guess. What are your thoughts? I haven't posted any videos here simply out of respect.

Ciao

JAB

September's Sea Legs

I haven't posted anything in the last few days as all I've really been doing is drawing, working and playing on my DS, and instead of posting work on here (except maybe the odd sketchbook page) most of my work will be going towards Sea Legs, which I recommend you keep an eye on at the end of every week for a good ol' bit of Illustration Friday, go have a look, it'll all make some sense then.

 

Stuff that made me smile this week - The first was a comic posted by the genius Jeffrey Brown over at The Holy Consumption Blog. I dunno, I found it hilarious - maybe it's just my humour - let me know what you think... Is it just simply typical John Alan Birch humour?

Secondly, was some dutch comedy in work on Saturday - four men from the netherlands came into out shop and had a stack of beers and food, anyway, when they had finished their food they decided that they fancied some coffee - one of the men ordered four black coffees when one of the men (who had retired to the couches at the front of the shop in order to read the days newspaper) said quite loudly "NO! I will have some milk with mine..." to which the remaining three men burst out in laughter saying "He is an Englishman!....Always with the Milk and Sugar, Milk and Sugar! HAHAHAHA!" I suppose I would maybe have found this a little offensive if I were a true patriotic Englishman, instead I found it quite comical, apart from the man sitting alone on the couches reading the paper feeling a little dejected simply for asking for a drop of milk...C'est la vie.

Step Brothers: Unrated Trailer... (Watch your language...)

Had a nice two days off from work in Dundee again. Saturday night Jen and I went to see Step Brothers at Cineworld which I thoroughly enjoyed - however it wasn't a scratch on the genius of Anchorman, but then again I'm not sure if any Will Ferrell film will ever be that good again!

On Sunday Jen's mum and Dad came up and took us out for some lunch, we went to a Bar called 'The Town' that I don't think I've ever even seen before in my 3 years in Dundee! The food was pretty enjoyable and I can never complain about a pint of ale with lunch on a Sunday.

Yesterday me and Jen headed into town so I could pick up some new shoes - something I've been in desperate need of since before my trip to Morocco but have been too lazy to do anything about. After that we went for a leisurely stroll in Balgay Park as the weather was the warmest it's been in a while. We also spent ast night with uni chums at the art bar doing the pub quiz which we, 'the team formerly known as team wolf' or 'symbol of a wolf' won, take that arty-social-scene like people! KAPOW!

As for work today, we were fairly busy despite it being a pretty darned gloomy day, after work I popped by Dunns Art Stores and picked up a new A3 portfolio (another thing to do on the ever-growing list of things to do) and this week promises not to be a boring one as Mum is off to Croatia and I am left in charge of the shop for a few days - when she's back we're going to be visiting Wallasey for a day or two though which I am looking forward to quite a bit!

Tonight I'm going to get started on Tracey's 'clutter' challenge...

Hope you are all well...

JAB.

Take me back to Constantinople...

This week I've felt fairly creative, after having my two days off, buying art equipment and sorting everything out, including backing up all of the work on my computer. Mostly I've been coming up with idea after idea and not actually finishing the work but it's a starting point. After coming up with a bunch of ideas I decided that I should go back and get stuff that's been on my mind for quite a while out of the way first.

Firstly, this Batman idea had been bouncing around inside my head since before I finished Uni, I've just always thought it was quite odd the way that the old Batman song used to go 'dinner, dinner Batman' or at least that's how we sang it as kids playing Batman in the school playground.  Anyways, a Lightyear song made me thing about it again and then this image of a slightly podgy Batman was born. The reason for the two different versions is simply because of the fact that i couldn't decide whether to use the actual Batman style fonts or whether the handwritten text gave it more comic value. I think that the second version is better in both typography and compsition.

Attempt number one.

Attempt number two.

Another idea that had popped into my head a good while ago was to produce a comic-zine for Mr.Eraser that I created in 2006, well I hadn't given any thought to the idea of making him into a comic since probably well over a year ago but recently my Mum kept saying 'I think you should do something with Mr.Eraser' and I thought that I really should. Also I don't think that many people's Mum's would encourage them to spend their time making comics...Awesome.

Cover page for 'The Escapades of Mr.Eraser'. 

Watch this space for  updates...

Besides these two ideas I finally finished a drawing of a tree that I'd been planning and attempting since I was in Morocco in July. An idea that came after listening to 'Time is All Around' by Regina Spektor. Listen, I do get my inspirations from places other than songs, ok? This is simply a coincidence. Anyway, I can't put the image of the tree up until my next blog as I am Dundee for a few days and the image is in Perth...

I also started an painting of a bin. Just wait, I'll show you when it's finished and you'll probably understand.

Apart from drawing it's been a relatively relaxing week, I had a few quiet days in work and then I spent Sunday sorting out an online portfolio and CV for a job in Liverpool. I have also been listening to much music, I discovered another two Mountain Goats albums that I didn't have and also got hold of some things I had been meaning to for a while such as They Might Be Giants and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Rock on...

Goodbye

Attempting to Save the Creative in Me. (The Memoirs of an Idiot)

So lately I've been a little concerned of how little drawing work I've done. This blog entry is mainly to review the stuff I've done over the past three months since finishing University. In scanning stuff in I've been surprised to see that I've done a fair bit of work. There's no real direction or any particular meaning in anything that's been put down on paper to be honest but hopefully the chronicling of everything will help straighten my head out a little.

Morocco and Beyond.

During our venture to Morocco in July I produced a sort of travel journal-esque sketchbook sort of thing. I suppose it was inspired by reading Craig Thompson's 'Carnet De Voyage', not that I'm comparing my sketchbook to his book in anyway. There's no depth or narrative to what I drew when I was away in Morocco, it was mainly for fun. The first time I'd drawn for fun properly this year. I'll put up a few images from the sketchbook on here but it's a large book full of sketches, receipts and bits of nothing so I'm not going to put everything as I'm sure you'll all understand.

The Morocco Journal.

Ah, Moroccans and Illustrators - 

we understand each others fashion sense.

Coca-Cola. Couldn't find much to draw on this day

 but I quite like this page for some reason.

An attempt at reproducing a intricate pattern on the back of the

 doors where we stayed (there's more to the pattern to this

 but the pages in my sketchbook weren't really big enough.

Things you may see in Meknes.

The above image is my favourite page from the sketchbook. I guess I just enjoyed standing on the roof with a Moroccan beer, in the Moroccan sunshine drawing some Moroccan things.

Just to note that When I was on the train with Sanna to Dunfermline the other week I noticed she had a sketchbook dedicated to pages and pages of drawings in a similar vain to the ones above that she'd done when travelling. It's a nice way to work. On returning from Morocco I intended to draw from photographs taken when we were over there, the problem I encounter when I want to do this is that the drawings never quite encapsulate what I want them to. I've done a few little bits and bobs but I do intend to draw from some photos at least to finish of the last few pages of the Morocco sketchbook. Anyways, here's a couple of things that I did do when I got back.

A Meknes Petit Taxi. (Not taken from one of my photos).

My Moroccan slippers. The leather stinks, 

or maybe it's just my feet. Anyway, I like them.

Just for Fun

Besides the Morocco drawings I have some stuff in my sketchbooks from the past few months that are just for a laugh. They make some sense to me...some sense, not a lot though. The majority of the stuff I've done just for fun consists of things that I want to develop in some way either by developing the drawings or making them more 'finished'. Also I had an idea of producing a zine or an artists' book sort of thing by myself although I don't feel that I have enough to go towards that yet and not enough material that fits together or compliments each other enough. I suppose I really need to pick a subject at random and then I may be able to get underway in producing something a little more substantial.

If anyone read my blog when I first started it, 

there's a chance you may know what I'm going on about here.

Dad has a few Buddhas sitting around the house and I couldn't find anything to draw.

Ever wonder why Buddha has a bag over his shoulder? Now you know.

Airport drawing is incredibly exciting. I was amazed that a young 

girl standing near to us was enthralled with my drawing of a cup...

A couple of chaps with fine moustaches.

The moustache idea is a bit odd i must admit, I can't really explain it. I think that since I did the whole 'Ode to the Inventors' postcards thing at degree show I've had an urge to draw old-timey kind of folk and in my eyes there's not much that's more old-timey than a good old, over-the-top moustache...you just don't see them these days. I've had a few ideas going around my head for a collection of light-hearted drawings of some gents with intriguing moustaches...watch this space.

Chaps at the Airport.

I did put a bit of writing on the above images but for some reason I chose the lightest pen that I could find so to be honest you can't see what I've written, and I can't be bothered copying it all out. I think I made a comment that I figured that God would kind of look like the guy in the right hand picture and that the guy on the left is doing some incredibly important work to do with WH Smith of the lottery or something like that.

What would the band The Mountain Goats look like

 if they were indeed mountain goats?

Just a bit of silliness escaping from inside my head. I was having a rough time trying to draw John Darnielle (lead singer of The Mountain Goats), up to a point where I just got fed up and decided I was going to turn him into a goat. I do quite like how this image turned out despite the fact I was just being daft, I may adapt this into a larger version. We'll see.

A Joe Forty's Yellow Cab.

I'm not really too sure why but I wanted to draw another taxi, but i did, and it was made even more exciting by the fact that this one looked all old fashioned. The drawing doesn't look that much like the picture I took it from but I feel like I want to draw it again, I also feel like I want to draw more taxis.

A drawing of a Photo by Loren Brand.

Since Jen and Loren had both done 'Colour Week', I'd thought it had sounded an ace idea, not that I was going to do the whole photography thing as my skill behind a camera is rather questionable but after seeing their photos I had an urge to draw yellow things. The above two images and the drawing of Morocco Slipper came from this yellow phase.

Good ol' fashioned advertising.

Whilst in Dublin and enjoying Guinness and all things Irish I wanted to pick up some of these old Guinness adverts, there's something about them that's so much more appealing than modern day adverts in my eyes. I'm not sure what it is but there's certainly something more endeering about them. For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, I didn't draw this image. I just like it. However I'm on a little bit of a quest to find out what the font is called so if anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks.

I was back in work today, it was a relatively quiet day. However I was meant to be taking charge of the shop again for a few days while Mum and Darren took a day or two off but no one else was available to work the shift with me. I have a day off today so I'm hopefully going to wander into town and pick up some art materials that I need. I may get my bank holiday yet...take that scotland!

Taking Back Sunday - Number Five with a Bullet.

Cheers.

JAB

Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie, as the Light Declines...

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

On Tuesday I got to go see 'Star Wars:the Clone Wars' with Sanna which I was surprisingly impressed with...maybe because of the fact that I had relatively low expectations for it or whatever. Okay, generally the animation was a little crappy and the story-line a little impetuous and childish, but I think the Star Wars nerd festering inside me loved every minute of it. So yeah, it would most definitely have benefitted from being a live action movie rather than an animation but I was in the kind of mood where I would take any Star Wars fix I could get. If you want to know whether it's a good film, I'd say don't bother with it unless your a Star Wars fan, and even then...don't go to it with any high hopes whatsoever.

Tuesday evening we went to our friend Adam's house as it was his birthday, and then around to Jordan's for an Illustration gathering, however we didn't stay for too long or drink at all as me and Jen had to be up early doors for Dublin. Jordan also has cats...I like her cats. Apologies to Sanna for a little bit of photo-stealing here, but I have no camera in scotland with me!

Ah, the Illustration 2008 catalogue. 

Jen is David Bowie Sleeveface.

Wednesday morning we were up early in order to get ourselves out to Glasgow Prestwick airport for our flight to Dublin. All of our trains were on time and as a result we arrived at the airport a good few hours before our flight so to pass the time we drank tea read through the 'Rough Guide to Dublin' in order to decide what we would do when we arrived and I drew a couple of pictures of whoever was unfortunate enough to sit at the table infront of us. My fear of flying wasn't so bad as it has been before as I managed to keep it out of my mind for the best part of our time at the airport, however I am just generally a bag of nerves whenever the plane is taking off. All of the Dublin Photos are courtesy of Jen and her camera, yeah that's right, more photo stealing. Oh and I had this song in my head practically the whole time we were in Dublin, well I had the Flogging Molly version in my head but I thought I'd put the more traditional version up as it reminds me of last time we were in dublin for the day and we went on a guided bus tour and the driver was singing it, brilliant -

The Dubliners - The Rare Ould Times.

Me and Jen at the airport.

First - Enjoy some of our Life Vest flavoured potato chips, 

Then get stuck in your jacket in a spinning motion. 

Thank you for flying with Ryanair.

On arrival in Dublin we jumped on a bus to our B&B in Drumcondra. The ABC Guesthouse was a lovely place run by a couple by the names of Mary and Joseph (I was going to make a 'no room at the inn' joke here but my mind isn't working this morning). On our first night we simply got the bus down to O'Connell Street, in the centre of Dublin and found somewhere to eat, I had Irish stew and an pint of the black stuff (no not Bovril, Guinness). The next day after breakfast, we went around the Temple Bar area of Dublin looking through a few galleries which weren't quite the standard I was expecting to see, but we did visit a couple of nice cafés around here and also enjoyed visiting Grafton Street, the National Museum and a really swell Vintage Poster shop. I really wanted to buy a bunch of vintage posters but they were rather pricey, I think the cheapest I saw was about €100 (£80) which seemed a little steep to me however nice they were. The museum wasn't really my sort of museum, I'm more interested in stuff about the World Wars, the fight for Irish Independence and Dinosaurs (I know, it's quite a range isn't it?) however, they did have an interesting sections about mummified bodies found in bogs across Ireland, which was rather grim but extremely intresting.

The General Post office on O'Connell Street, 

where the Easter Monday Rising took place in 1916.

Coffee in a Crêpe place in Temple Bar.

Tea in a nice little café called The Joy of Cha.

That night we went out for a nice meal in Wagamama, I know it's not the most traditionally Irish place in the universe but the food was splendid, i had some kind of noodle soup with all kinds of seafood, chicken, tofu and so on. After Wagamama we found ourselves a good old Irish bar to have a few drinks at, I forget what it was called but the Guinness tasted pretty amazing. Me and Jen sat and talked about pretty much everything and I showed off my knowledge of the fairly questionably, rather cheesy un-Irish music that was being played at the bar.

What do you mean? You don't like Guinness?

Friday was our last full day in Dublin and I'd wanted to visit Kilmainham Gaol since I was in Ireland 4 years ago, I'm really quite interested in the story of Irish independence and anything surrounding that era in history. On our way to Kilmainham we got a little lost as neither of us have any real knowledge of the outskirts of Dublin, luckily the weather was okay and we didn't have to wait too long for a bus back into Kilmainham.

Me and Jen get a Little lost on our way to Kilmainham Gaol. 

(I'm not scared of anything here, merely looking at an Irish flag in the distance)

I really enjoyed Kilmainham Gaol, we had a great tour guide called Ciaran who took us around and told us all about the different areas inside of Kilmainham. This tour and a visit to the tea shop and museum there took up most of our last day but i was glad that I got to see a place of such significant importance to the Irish. Anyways,  the history of Ireland is a fairly long story so I wont get into that just now.

The Kilmainham Gaol 'Panopticon'. This section of the prison 

was apparently used in the original Italian Job film.

'She's a part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor, take her away!' 

Sorry that's the Star Wars nerd getting out again. Jen in a cell at Kilmainham.

The Stonebreaker's yard at Kilmainham, The cross is to show where the 

Irish revolutionaries stood when they were shot by British firing squads.

Our last night we wandered around a bit looking for a place to have a meal. We investigated a few places around the Grafton Street area and decided on a place called 'Alfie's'. The food and service was great and there was even a nice surprise of a couple of guitarists providing the evening with some tasteful music and a nice atmosphere. After our meal we wandered back to the city centre to find a bus back to the B&B, however we got on the wrong one and had to walk some of the way back. All in all our trip to Ireland was great and i think the two full days was enough for us to see what we each wanted to see, I maybe would've like to experience a Friday night out in Ireland drinking with the Irish and listening to some traditional music but there's always next time.

I really like this photo even though it is a little blurred.

On the flight back i was in a bit more of a state than the journey there, I'm not really sure why - maybe it was just in my mind or maybe it was to do with the terrible things that happened in Spain this week that have been all over the news, I'm not too sure. So I just bought a double whiskey and buried my head in my book. Oh yeah, I forgot to say I bought 'A Star Called Henry' by Roddy Doyle at the airport as I knew I'd need something to read on the plane and it's a great book that I've read once before and being in Dublin (where the story is set) I was compelled to read it again. On arriving back in Scotland we were glad to have a lift back to Dundee from Jen's dad Mark, we both slept the majority of the way back, i didn't feel too tired but I think all the travelling we did over the few days we were away clearly took it out of both of us.

Last night was a nice quiet night, I made some Vegetable soup, we sat and watched some crappy TV and I completed 'Hotel Dusk:Room 215' on my Nintendo DS, Which by the way was possibly one of the most disappointing ends to a game that I really enjoyed playing. Oh well, I'll just have to find something else to waste my time playing now. When's 'Line Rider' out again?

For Jen's take on our Dublin holiday go here.

Peace out.

jAb