Friend of a friend you used to call, until you didn't call anymore

The top two are little things I doodled at work.. the first is a ten page story I put up on my TUMBLR

The third page is a comic I made a few months ago, but only got around to colouring it recently. ho hummn.

Inside Llewyn Davis... go see it. A brilliantly understated and subtle look at a moment of quiet crises in a musicians life. The characters are never entirely sympathetic, but nor are they overly callous, just fragile and engaging. A new favourite Coen bro's film..

Anyhow, not much to say at present... heres a nice lil' piece...

Broken Social Scene - Sentimental X's

Things I found in the discotheque, and meaningless thought about 12 years a slave

How'do... So the first of the images is from a lil story I drew yesterday on a bench at the southbank, with gradually freezing hands, feeling all 'romantic' or whatever... check it out over HERE

Then some sketchbook draws, and the final three are showing the process of me lil colouring trick, borrowed in part from Olivier Schrauwens method of printing and then re-layering on top of the Initial piece, though of course my work pales by comparison... theres a swell interview with mr schrauwen up HERE

Im still not quite certain what aesthetic I should be aiming for, but experimentations the name o' the game, eh!

I saw The Light Thief... a fantastic film from Kyrgyzstan, about a small town electrician, who steals energy for his poor townsfolk... Its beautiful and quiet, and packs a punch by the finale...HERE'S the whole film, alas without subtitle, but hey... go buy the dvd! 

I also saw twelve years a slave, and It was a fine film... I did however take slight issue at the structure of the piece... Being a series of vaguely connected events and moments, it all but left out any sense of time whatsoever, to the point where it felt it was more six months a slave.

I guess it let the title do the heavy lifting there...

Hmmn... Brad Pitts timely arrival in the last 20 mins or so, and his two scenes, the first showing what a good guy he is, and the second showing what a good guy he is, were almost laughable... Mcqueen has a fantastic aesthetic, of that theres no doubt, but the film is a long way off a classic status (as so many of the newspapers proclaim) in anything save its subject matter and fantastic performances by Fassbender, Ejifor and Dano.

Im sure it'll continue to ride the wave its on to much success.. but If you really want t' catch a special film from the past six months, check out the great beauty

time to out with...

TV on the Radio Mr.Grieves

Today I drew a little and thought about Sylvie, in whose city I am not.

So, a few weeks ago I think I finally arrived at a point where I have a genuine story. a longer piece that I'd like to tell, and which might capture something of my experience of life... I hope I manage to tell it, but my track record is oh so poor, I enjoy drawing, and presuming I have things to say... but I often wonder how valid my voice really is... 

Still the thing is to get the work done eh.

I watched the Three colours films for the first time last week. I found them strong as a trilogy, of which White stood alone well, whereas Blue worked best in its role as introduction and Red as a conclusion, but both lacking slightly as stand alone films... still well worth watching, and Im sure I will revisit again.

I also re-watched 'dans la ville de Sylvie'... and gosh... such a perfect film, every single time I see it I enjoy it more... or the same. which is a lot. The director Jose Luis Guerin gives a great insight into art and film in an interview included on the dvd. one thing he said which grabbed me was. "All stories are possible, but later the knowledge of 'words' excludes the stories, narrows them down..."

perfect. HERE'S the trailer anyhow

The goal is to create a quiet story of looks, with few words and many opportunities for interpretation, the characters are existing, and we join them for a spell, but it is not about building their biography.

Here's a piece of music from another film I love..

Nicola Piovani - Bambini al telefono (Caro diario) - 1993

bon nuit.

Old unused drawings from the past 6 months, that I picked up in my time machine. For your pleasure.

Just a bunch of stuffs that I haven't done anything with, figured I'd put them up on the old blog... Im actually pretty happy with the first one's aesthetic... nice n' rough... anyhow. felt I owed a post or whatever.. ho hummn.

anyhow, stop looking at my rubbish attempts at comics, go read some good stuff by patrick kyle

Today I finished 'For whom the bell tolls', a great read indeed, and built up most subtly to a dramatic ending, written without drama, but affecting non the less.

Oh, so beautiful..

Tim Buckley - Song to the Siren

bon nuit

ho hummn. ummn

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I just put  this little self-censored comic up on my TUMBLR

Drawn between boxing day and new year, in a tiny little A6 sketchbook I was given at Xmas, mostly doodled at work, in between doing things. Ho hummn. I showed it to someone who asked, despite my reservations (as its pretty introspective), and got an "awwww... cute.." kinda response. That killed it for me, to see how easily misread it was... boo. It just wasn't working. 

Hence the censorship. Plus It's private.

anyway... I love to read old Jesse Moynihan comics, at least till Forming's back up and running.

This may be the greatest music video ever, i just love how beautifully detached his wife is, whilst Louis and the band prance n' dance et al...

Louis Prima Just a Gigolo & I Ain't Go Nobody