Worry

I would guess, oh I don't know maybe... 68% of producing an image for me is pure white hot worry. The remaining percentage being fear, hope, indecision and finally, ill advised contented pride.

That ill advised contented pride then lasts for about a week or so. I then flick through my drawings, turn the pages of my sketchbooks late into the night, questioning myself, second guessing everything until that gravelly, grating voice begins whispering gently in the back of my mind.

"Burn them. You suck."

"But my flat has no fireplace? I know I have dedicated vast swathes of time to questionable artwork but should everyone else in this block suffer too?"

"Yes. They are wheat to your chaff, fuel to your rage. Your incredible waste of space, your gross incompetence, your perfect pointlessness has condemned them all."

"Really, I didn't know... say is this drawing of a happy cat that bad?"

"Your eyes are clouded, blinded by your pride and arrogance. See the cat's face? I thought it was a mongoose. And I don't even know what a mongoose looks like. We demons are never sent pictures of God's most holiest creatures."

"The mongoose is the holiest of all creatures?"

"Did I say that? Do you listen to anything? I said it was one of God's most holy creatures. No wonder you tuned out all those people chanting "You suck!"

"What people?"

"Open the front door"

"Ok... Oh? Hey! Wow, there sure are a lot of you. Is that Carl from accounts at the back there? How you doing?! Anyone for coffee?"

Some time later...

"Good coffee, Reeko. Maybe we wouldn't have assembled the mob if we'd known."

"Yeah I do make good coffee. So would anyone like to hear one of my post-emo folk ballads?"

Wide

Living in a lower ground floor subterranean hobbit hole in London's unfashionable Shepherds Bush leaves us no room for dogs, wide or otherwise. This is something that causes me, and more specifically the missus, a great amount of pain and results in us chasing dogs around local parks, squealing, trying to pet, hug and kiss them.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go bail the missus out from jail for dog rustling.

Again.

Electricity

Couldn't resist this for a solution!

Animal Traffic Jam

Hello again... Missed me? Good!

Rightio, new image for you. I've always wondered why animals aren't used more in city transport (no I haven't) and with the planet going the way it's going (down the crapper) will we return to domestic beasts for our commuting needs (no, because there's no space to keep animals in our suburban domiciles)?

You can tell I'm behind this concept one hundred per cent.

Also I'm not that convinced on my colour scheme. It's a little... off. Like Milk that's on the last day of it's "best before" date. Smells a bit but it must be ok because it's within date so you use it anyway?

Hey? Something put you off those shakes I just made you?

Where you going?

What do you mean Starbucks?

The Sting

This took ages...

I've been aware of the emphasis I've been putting on the time it takes me to do things.

"Why's that Reeko? Iz it 'cos you're, like, well lazy innit?"

Pretty much ya. Well, not lazy. I just want things to be done really quickly so I can move on to the next thing. I don't really think that's lazy, just impatient. Also I tend to start second guessing myself as images drag on. Your mind tends to wander whilst you click away, drawing and dragging shapes around in Flash and evil thoughts dredge themselves up and force their way into their frontal lobes...

(Whisper) "You are rubbish"

(Whisper) "This is a complete waste of time"

(Whisper) "You need to put on a dark wash"

So over the 5 days this Illustration took (Really! Most involved thing I've done since college!) I essentially went slightly strange.

And then I built a shed. No kidding. Most of the parts didn't fit.

"Iz that, like a metaphor or somink for, like, life?"

No. I built a shed with my old man. We had to do quite a bit of fabrication on it because it was badly designed.

"Oh. Slick."

Thanks bruv. My calves hurt now.

"Oh. Iz that da metaphor?"

No.

Seed Some Time

I'd love to be able to grow more time. This week seems to have flown by with productivity lacking somewhat... a couple more days this week would really sort me out!

Yup It's That Time Again

It's Illustrated song titles day! A day early too! Aren't we good to you? Check 'em out and tell us what you think!

(Psst. Owen's is better than mine again. I'll take him next month...)

Failing To Pack Light

Seems like ages since I went on holiday.

In reality it's about two months. Funny how that works. When I do go on holiday I'm a fairly light packer but I suffer from the man disease of having bought a stupidly big bag with literally thousands of pockets and technical stuff on it. I only own one bag like this, bought perhaps under the illusion that I may one day need it when I need to flee from alien invaders or the zombies that seem to attack London every couple of years in those big screen news reports that some people call "movies". In recent years they've attacked central, north and east London so I've been safe in the west. That hasn't stopped me stockpiling weapons and tinned goods. You should see the flat! Looks like an illustrator's been locked up in a bunker to survive a nuclear holocaust.

(If you were compiling a list of say the top 500 people in the entire world to save by sending to a bunker for safety 5 or 6 of the top illustrators would definitely be there. Fo' shizzle. And one of them would definitely be me. No question.)

(Hmmmm.)

So, what tends to happen with my big escape-from-evil bag is that due to my light-ish packing tendencies there is an amount of space in the bag for say... hairdryers, extra pairs of heeled shoes, winter coats, washing machines and all the other essentials that the significant other in my life tends to add to the pile in the last few seconds before we leave the house.

Never mind, I am an adaptable action hero. There's always room in the millions of pockets for those essentials in this stupid bag. Plussing as which, don't zombies faces melt when you blast a hairdryer on them?

Wrinkle City

Another sketch for Illustration Friday, no time for final stuff...

A fun drawing, not really my usual thang, no reference which is why it's a little dodgy and the idea was... balalalalalaah! No more complaining! Job done.

Sketchbook January to April 2008 Completed

Yup, all finished and done and just like my last one I have posted the entire thing, in page order, on my website.

It's the sort of thing I like to look at on t'internet, especially knowing it's in page order, so hopefully you lot will enjoy it too.

The other thing I do with sketchbooks, possibly showing a slightly more organised side of me than I actually am, is label all the file names with exactly what's on the pages so when I search through my "archive" of sketchbooks, seven now spanning 3 years, hopefully I'll be able to find that sketch of a space dog killing aliens with a robot crab or whatever...

My favourite file name from this book? "36 Monkey on my back drunk in club tongue tied birth to death.JPG". I think that pretty much covers the whole spectrum of human emotion.

Oh, that's this image.

Back in the office this week, so hopefully more posting than there's been of late.