I’d thought there was at least one Rothko at the Tate Modern but was disappointed to see there had just been a temporary exhibit a few years back.  On looking it up when I got home I saw I’d missed the one Rothko painting there was there.  I guess I hadn’t taken it in as it wasn’t one of his more famous oblong type paintings – shows I should have paid more attention at Art college.

Still there were lots more treasures to get excited about.  Highlights included a Chirico painting (been a fan since one of my best buds turned me on to his work in an exhibition in Tokyo), seeing some David Shrigley work after recently missing his Haywood Gallery show and discovering the magical images of Marcel Dzarma.

Obviously I’m not super cultured as I found just as much inspiration in the gift shop (and coz I use phrases like “super cultured”).  I came home with two wonderful picture books: the pop-up In the forest (Anouck Boisrobert & Louis Rigaud) and the beautifully flappy Aoki (Annelore Parot).

I had intended to do some sketching while I was there but felt self-conscious with the surprising number of visitors there on a weekday afternoon!  At least I’d managed to get one drawing done earlier in the day when I made a birthday card for my talented friend and singer and songwriter and musician, Piney Gir.  Meeting for lunch with Piney provided further inspiration hearing how hard she’s working juggling all sorts of creative projects!

All in all an good day finished off with Domino’s Pizza and the Incredible Hulk on TV!  Ready for creative work again!

Lucy's Dream Team

Personal ?uestlove related story! 
5 years back, my pregnant wife and I were chatting over baby names.  She wanted an Arabic name (what with her being from Iraq and all), and we’d narrowed it down to about five.  I didn’t really feel a connection with most of them so it was going to be hard to call the fruit of my loins something that didn’t spark.  I was talking this through with a couple of friends before the show at a Roots gig (who are battling with Tori Amos over the act I’ve seen live the most – around 8 times a piece I reckon) at Somerset House and it clicked that my musical inspiration ?uestlove’s full name is Ahmir Khalib Thompson.  One of the names on our short list was Emir.  Different spelling but close enough for it to suddenly gel.  After the Roots rocked the house I went home and let my wife know we had a baby name we could both get behind!

Anyway, the strip was made as part of the program of the Oxford based 2009 Caption Comics Convention.  It’s a bit hard to look at three year old artwork when you hope you’ve improved but what the hell!

Free Comics FCBD 2012

Check out my freebies: the Top Shelf Kids Club, Bongo Comics inc’ SpongeBob Comics, Dark Horse‘s Buffy / The Guild and Serenity / Star Wars, Papercutz‘ The Smurfs / Disney Fairies,  Marvel‘s Amazing Spider-Man and Claude TC‘s mini comic, Immortal Ewan and the rod of Rasputin.  Claude is a good man and makes hilarious, brilliantly drawn comics.

Ray Friesen and Sarah McIntyre FCBD 2012

Aside from getting to catch up with comic scene buds Karrie Fransman, Mike Medaglia and Josceline Fenton, I got to sit and watch my 4 year old boy Emir draw comics alongside the supreme talents of Sarah McIntyre and Ray Friesen. It was great being introduced to Ray and his wonderful kids comic Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken which me and Emir enjoyed on the tube on the way home.  Ray also impressed us with this sketch of Emir’s favourite animal (for today anyway), the anteater…

Anteater by Ray Friesen

Sarah did a brilliant bit of comic work featuring Emir. Click here to see it plus Sarah’s other thoughts on the day!

All this fun inspired Emir to draw his first ever comic strips…

Emir's first comic strip: Two Monsters

Emir's second comic strip: Dinosaurs

When you’re into comics, it’s not hard to get your kid to share your passions!

Watercolour Life Painting 6.3.12

I love the paint’s translucency, especially against nice grainy paper.  The tricky thing is timing when to add another layer on top.  It’s great working over wet paint and getting a soft edges to each area of colour.  It gets frustrating though when you need to do fine sharp detail and the paint below isn’t dry yet.

The room itself makes a really difference to the drying speed.  On a wet day it can feel like forever, on a sunny day or a cold day with heaters in the room the paint can dry too fast if you’re not careful.  Back in my studio I can use a hairdryer to help control the process.

Watercolour Life Painting 15.11.11

These were all painted over a rough pencil guide.  Some artists work without this guide, filling in big areas of space and colour, then getting more and more precise with each layer.  I’ve given this a shot too but find that approach counter-intuitive, which is why I’m not displaying my attempts on this blog!

Watercolour Portrait 13.12.11

More work from my Portrait and Life class soon…

The bustling Comiket floor. Where's Timothy Winchester?

I’ve been to Comiket for the last four years, starting back when all I had to sell was Delicate Axiom and the Lucy the Octopus Mini Comic, when Comiket consisted of around twelve tables of creators selling their wares in a relatively small room in the Institute of Contemporary Arts.  Good to see how its snowballed!

This time around I wasn’t selling, but catching up with old comic scene friends and meeting creators.  I also managed to pick up a lovely bounty of small press comics…

Suki Kabuki displays small-press comic goodness

Top row:
Sevillana featuring the Alien Battle Monkey of Doom by Marina Williams
Jumping the Shark by Sammy Borras
Middle Row:
Panic Attacks 1: In the Beginning by Francesca Cassavetti
Places I Left You by Douglas Noble
Cafe Suada Vol 1. by Jade Sarson
Wu Wei by Mike Medaglia
Bottom row:
The Human Beings and Social Notworking by Sofia Niazi
Fecal Depot 3 by Aaron ‘Smurf’ Murphy
The Life of Noise by Emma Mould and Andrew Godfrey
The Phoenix Issues 14 & 15

Alex "Smurf" Murphy holds Fecal Depot 3

Very nice running into Aaron ‘Smurf’ Murphy and picking up the latest volume of his compendium of work, Fecal Depot.  The issue contains Zardok Infiltration, a story that I’d written for the hugely talented Aaron to illustrate.  It was great to see how good his art for the story looks in print.

Marina Williams and Sevillana featuring the Alien Battle Monkey of Doom, plus cup cakes

Nice to meet Kiwi, Marina Williams and get a copy of Sevillana featuring the Alien Battle Monkey of Doom.  Note to the Comics Industry: Free gourmet cupcakes with every comic is an excellent idea.

Jade Sarson hides behind Cafe Suada

Next up I spotted future comics megastar Jade Sarson.  I’m loving Cafe Suada!

Douglas Noble holding Places I Left You

Picked up a cool looking stand alone comic from Douglas Noble.  After the show in the pub, we reminisced about growing up playing games on a ZX Spectrum (coincidentally 30 years old today).  We both agreed Horace and the Spiders kicked monkeys compared to Horace goes Skiing.

Andrew Godfrey holdsThe CF Diaries 1 while Emma Mould holds Secret Language 1

Good to see the lovely Andrew Godfrey and Emma Mould again, who despite hailing from Bristol seem to manage to make it to all the London comic events!

Hooligans, Sally-Anne Hickman and Francesca Cassavetti

At every comic show there’s always a few bad apples who spoil the tone for everyone else.  See Sally-Anne Hickman and Francesca Cassavetti above.

Alex Fitch interviewing James Turner

My final pic is of the great comics journalist / interviewer Alex Fitch having a chat with Super Animal Adventure Squad creator James Turner.  Alex did a marathon session totaling four hours on interviewing various comic talents.  You’ll be able to hear the results on Panel Borders (the UK’s only weekly broadcast radio show about comics), broadcast on Resonance (104.4 FM in London and available online everywhere).

It was a good day – always inspiring!  In fact, I’m off to draw a comic right now.

Maestro the Cat Animated Gif

The biggest leap forward is a newly built portfolio section showcasing the cream of my drawings.  I’ve also been working on a tonne of new animated pictures.  Check out every section of the site to see them all!

Space Themed Animated Top Panel

Aside from creating some fantastic work in newspapers and magazines, setting up a small press comic publisher Cabanon Press with Tom Gauld, writing and drawing four children’s books (Billy Bean’s Dream is on a constant loop at my son’s bedtime right now) and churning out weekly strips for children’s comics The DFC and The Phoenix, Simone is probably best known for graphic novel Fluffy about an extremely cute bunny and the build up of crises that his human parent has to deal with.

In Simone’s new graphic novel Please God, Find Me a Husband!, she tackles the theme of looking for a new partner while relying on her spirituality for guidance.  She also introduces a new protagonist… herself, sometimes depicted very much like Penelope Cruz for reasons you’ll have to read the comic to find out!

With Simone Lia on the Southbank

The interview is due to be broadcast at 8pm on Sunday 15 April on Resonance (104.4 FM in London and available online everywhere), as part of Alex Fitch’s Panel Borders (the UK’s only weekly broadcast radio show about comics).

You can also listen to the interview online whenever you like here…
http://archive.org/details/PanelBordersDepictingThePersonal

Despite my rambling questions and less than slick interview technique, Simone gives some great insite into the creative process of the graphic novel and what’s behind the story.

I’ve been sorting through art for my ongoing website overhaul and came across this 4-page comic that has never seen the light of day.  I drew it for the Observer 2010 Graphic Short Story Competition, where it came precisely nowhere!  Still, thought it should get a public airing…

If you liked this (or didn’t) and fancied reading another comic about parenting, definitely check out Francesca Casavetti’s small press classic The Most Natural Thing in the World.

The amazing Karrie Fransman devised and taught on the comics internship program, and crammed it full of workshops, meetings, exercises and experiences, honing the skills of the young comic creators and preparing them for professional life.  It sounds like an intensely rich 6 months in which the interns must have picked up tips and knowledge that would normally take a decade of going to comic events to discover.

This lead to tonight’s launch party and exhibition at the London Print Studio celebrating the end of the internship and the launch of the collective’s anthology Parallel Lives…

Here’s Shamisa Debroey who’ll sadly be heading back to Brussels in a couple of weeks…

Shamisa Debroey

Susan Yan Mach with some of her amazing comic pages…

Susan Yan Mach

Abraham Christie and Shamisa Debroey putting on a brave face at the end of all their hard work.

Abraham Christie and Shamisa Debroey having a laugh!

Jade Sarson and the main character from her wonderful looking upcoming graphic novel Siddown!

Jade Sarson

And here’s a drawing Jade did on the studio window…

Jade Sarson's impressive window drawing

Finally here’s my efforts on the window.  It was fun drawing with interested people walking past outside, and there’s not many parties you can to where you can draw on the windows without being chucked out!

My less than impressive window drawing