At this time of year I would usually be pimping my awesome handmade Alternative Valentines cards but I've got too much of that life stuff going on to make any this year (boooooooo)

If you are sensible though, you will get this mini zine I made of the best bits. You can use it as a valentines gift, or to cheer yourself up cos your a loser loner.

What did I learn at the Amelia's Compendium of Fasion Illustration launch?

if people with actual good cameras and photography nous/talent take photos of you, you come out looking much more hot. see below.


painty painty sketchy sketchy, the second photo is taken by Joana Faria (also a super awesome illustrator who I shared a table with in our sketchings) and i think the first one might be too but I'm not sure.

also, chunky knits in nuetral colours are still quite in. Sadly my paper white complection probably couldn't pull them off, even with a posh camera flash effect of not bleaching me whiter than white. I rock a slate pallete tho. obviously.

But enough about me, more about my drawings. Or, no, well, lets talk about the party first because I have to say it was super ace, or, amazeballs as I believe is the parlance. Of all the launch parties I have been to, and I have been to several, it was by far the best. Amelia and co really do know what they are doing with this stuff. I was cream crackered after the last week at my first PGCE placement (I had to mark a lot of sketchbooks - bless their little pencils!) but the adrenaline of doing my favouritest thing (well, you know, ONE of them) of drawing live things kept me on point till about midnight when this pumpkin caught the bus back home.

If I'd stayed a bit later I might have managed to meet more illustrators and fashion peeps which would have been even more balls of amazing, but as it was I was still joyous and enchanted to meet such geniuses as June Chanpoomidole (I love her self portrait in the book so much, she is still the network queen - i think she met everyone at the party), Zarina Liew (long legs ink wizard), Jo Cheung (birds and diamonds joy) (I met them already but it was still nice to see them) and Lesley Barnes (she is little and layers transparent things, I think I love her), Abby Wright (charming, I may have been rude to her, I forget), Natsuki Otani (you know she's a genius of colour, I want to be her when I grow up), Antonia Parker (epic hair, epic outfit, sparkleyest smile in tunny wells), Joana Faria (brilliant and beautiful, we are going to get drunk in Lisbon, maybe), Andrea Peterson (too talented to be allowed, and lovely, but i suppose she did fly a long way), Michelle Urvall Nyren (stunning, truly, i kept wanting to draw her instead of the fashionistas, and lovely brushwork), Naomi Law (I think we assembled bags together - awesome work, awesome girl), Gareth A Hopkins (taller than most of the other illustrators, due to being male, and comical), Rachel de Ste. Croix aka Precious Little. (lovely like her drawings), and also Erica Sharp (a total collage genius, sadly I only met her briefly)

I think I also met some of the other illustrators after I had had a few vodka O and ginger beers, but I wouldn't want to sweat in a court of law. Also I met Lu Flux (I was very excited) and lots of awesome fashion and arty people.

this just in, I'm not going to post any drawings now, I am going to wait till they have all been posted by the people I did them for or it's like they didn't get an exclusive. OK I might post a couple.

Danielle Brown of Poppy Cleopatra

Laura Snoad from Design Week

quick sketch of Amelia being interviewed by Alex Cox from Don't Panic (I drew him properly looking less round headed also - watch the space that is here.

the lovely and talented Stacie Swift tagged me in this "meme" a while ago.

so now i have time to procrastinate a little. i will do it. They are mostly un-answerable questions for me, so i have given several answers.

Sorry is long. I have put in some videos to keep you engaged. but not over-stimulated. (that's a teaching joke)

1. What is your earliest memory?

I don't know obviously. I remember having a huge fire guard like a child cage and playing in that in the house i lived in till i was about 6. I remember going to a nursery with a giant teddy bear and a cool climbing frame and crying and crying because i wasn't the centre of attention. I remember singing I should be so lucky, without knowing what it was, at Jill's house the night my sister was born. probably.



2. What is your favourite meal to eat and also to cook?

I love eating out, but I am a disaster at ordering food in restaurants, it stresses me out and i get food envy. So my favourite meal to eat is one where i am amazed that i have actually managed to order something I really like. Certain tuna steaks spring to mind. And malasian food. And almost anything with chocolate. Or something cooked for me by someone I love.

My favourite food to cook is food for friends and family and sharing new things i have discovered with them. Or experimenting with mushrooms when Alex is out.

Sometimes when i am cooking I like to pretend I am Matt Prston off of Masterchef Australia.



3. Where is your favourite place in the world?

In bed, when i know i don't have to get up yet.
Brighton's North Laines on Christmas Eve.
Luang Probang walking in the market in the evening, enjoying a Watermellon Shake.
London, generally.
In a cinema, watching a film.

4. Who do you admire and why?

People who go through shit, and come out the other side smiling, not because they are strong, but because they are positive. And kind people. And people who are able to see the big picture and the small picture at the same time. People who make Art that is wise, and true, and pretty.

Dave McKean, Stephin Merritt, Josie Long, Los Bros Hernandez




5. What inspires you?

Walking around London, nice boots and nice bicycles, birds - allways.

6. Where would you take a visitor to your home town? Any hidden gems?

In Henfield, my actual home town, I would take them on a nice country walk, to a jumble sale, to a pub, or 10. That would be all of them.
In London, where I live, right now I would take them to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Show, probably take them for some Ping Pong, go to St James' Park to see the birds, walk around a bit, see some cool buildings. I would show them Exchange Square on the way to Shoreditch.

7. What do you want to be when you grow up?


Liz Lemon.

Or a bintarung.

And so to carry on the meme here are my questions:

1.Who was your favourite toy when you were little, and are you still in touch?
2.Who is your favourite celebrity chef? and why?
3.How old do you really feel, on the inside?
4.What celebrity do you find really unnatractive, other than Sarah Jessica Parker?
5.What magazines and newspapers do you habitually read?
6.If you could have any animal in the world as a pet, what would you have?
7.What is your favourite song to secretly dance round the room to on your own?

they are different. you have to make up your own.

My questions are directed at:

JuneSees, Paul Shinn, Alice, Ellie Cryer

SO this week I have been doing some journalisting, for Amelia's magazine;
last weekend I went to Southampton and wallowed in nostalgia of various kinds, my review of Ejectorseat festival is up here
this is Baku Bankai, they make minimal dance/electronica, apparently (music talk is all french to me).

I also wrote a bit about the Nancyboy Decade exhibition I went to on Wednesday, I'm more proud of this one, will link to it when it's up.

All these little scenes kind of freak me out tho, I mean, I'm allways banging on about how I think people naturally form social groups of around 100 people and are happier and more productive that way (It's ironic because I'm a massive globalization junkie), so of course I expect people to mark out territory. The problem is that people seem really prone to acting like their mini group perspective is obvious and natural, and anyone coming from slightly leftfield is seen as a bit suspicious. I didn't write about this in the article, I wanted to be predominantly positive, and talk about the work (possibly not what Amelia was hoping for). But I do think it's really interesting. Part of it is a school days echo of desperately hanging on to a feeling of belonging to the cool clique.
Here is a drawing of hipster punters round a unintentionally distorted table at the Book Club, I really liked the venue, and I really like Liat and Klaus altho they were too busy (understandably) to really chat to me.

I'm not saying what I mean, and I worry I'm becoming London centric. If I put a little effort into it I'm at the stage now where I could go to some kind of launch and drink free wine most every night of the week here, it's a big city, there's allways stuff going on. It's not hard to crash things, they put up rsvps to guest lists on their websites, but that's what I'm doing really, crashing. And I'm a little bit over it.

Journalism is hard you know, I'm glad that's not what I want to do with my life.
I much prefer drawing pictures of Nicola Roberts (I super love her), this one is for Matt Bramford's cover of Graduate Fashion Week's Gala Show Finale


I also am very pleased with these creepy arm spiders I drew for Magpie Market's the Spider and the Fly logo competition. I didn't win, but it's the excuse to draw weird things that counts.

adventures

this is me writing on the ceiling at the Pop up Pirates launch party last week. large and less large exciting lettering all over the shop and hipsters a go go.

photo by Amelia Gregory from http://yfrog.com/f/1szrkj/

I snuck in with the alternafashionistasuperethicalsocialite herself, which is to say Amelia, and I introduced her to Derek from the AOI, then we hung out like a load of grumpy old cool kids, complaining about how load the music was. it was a fun night for me, I also met some cool people when i pretended to network after. Including the exciting Klaus from the book club, hopefully I will go see his exciting project next week then I will tell you the story he told me.

Then this week I went to the Oh Comely Launch with Caragh, my lovely illustrator friend who I just drew for my facebook project (yes, I'm on the Cs). I was not feeling the networking so much, probably not enough adrenaline in my bloodstream, but I was definitely feeling the cupcakes, and the band that played who I drew
they are called the foxxbandits, go check out their twinkly tunes.
I also did this drawing of some of the unsuspecting event hipsters, the bearded boy in the top right was the DJ, I don't know his name but if anyone does let me know and I will link to his DJ page or something. If he has one.

In other exciting news, I am featured today on the Ballad Of Magazine Website, it's a really awesome magazine with scary pretty stuff, i mean, do you know what i mean? like, creepy lovely. how good is that? it's pretty good actually. I might even do something for their next issue.

Here is a picture of ME, that I drew. Its a bit pink. It's for online bios and stuff, there should be more of them about in the coming weeks. justsaying.
Yes.

here is a picture of Barny from the facebook project. you may remember I met his brother. well I am going to his not wedding next week. that is all.

I am listening to the Younger Younger 28s to get me in the mood to go dancing, whatever happened to them?

take that the letter A

todays blog post is brought to you by the letter A (and the number 25)
because that's right kids I have now drawn all of my friends who start with this glorious first letter of the alphabet, project stands at 25 down, 299 to go.

you like stats? um, you want more numbers?

ok, i will next be drawing only 4 friends beginning with B before embarking on a mammoth 29 beginning with C, 20 with D, 13 with E, and I'm bored of counting now, plenty more.

of the 25 drawn so far there have been 7 in black and white, 5 painted in watercolour, 2 coloured entirely on the computer,
5 friends are holding drinks (what does that tell you about facebook culture, or is it just culture?) with other props including sword and unicycle.
9 out of the 25 are wearing hats or prominant hair accesories. 11 friends so far have made my drawing their profile picture.
well, thats enough of that anyway.

I definitely am going to draw them all by the way. don't you go doubtin' ya'hear?

what have I learned so far from drawing friends beginning with an A?
well, I have learned that I am really happy to have such awesome friends, even the ones I have blatently lost touch with, because looking at everyone's photos and deciding how to draw them mostly made me think how much i like them and am glad to have met them.

HORAY FOR FRIENDS

i could make observations about how people often pick for their profile pics the photos of themselves that look least like them, or how some people just don't photograph as hot as they actually are, and other people photograph hotter than they actually are. but that's not really anything I havn't thought before.

so far the project is more than meeting its primary objectives. I'm enjoying it, it's helping me to be in touch with people and to meet new people, and enhancing my, you know, web presence or something. I love having a project.

HORAY FOR PROJECTS

in addition and as well, check out this photo of all dissapointed sparrow t-shirts in different colours Michael over at tinyrun sent me. cest magnifuque ne'st pas?

last night i went to the solipsistic pop 2 launch. it was a pretty fun night, it wasn't super dull at all. i kept my adrenaline levels high by repeatedly talking to strangers and aquaintances, and tenuously connected people. It was nice to see Cliodhna and Jimi there, the zinecore. zinescenecore. yeah. possibly.

anyway. It was awesome and stuff, the book is a thing of beauty, i like the weird comics best, there are a few themes like childhood memories and serendipity snapshot, defining moment type stories. my faves in the comic are Sweet Mystery by Jack Noel, Mud by Matilda Tristram and the back page of the funnies by Joe Decie, who i love anyway. postives positives. it's all good. go comics. I talked to a tall boy called Tom, and he said maybe i can be in Solipsistic Pop 4. so that would be uber cool.

Also at the event was the famous comedien Robin Ince, he talked about comics and philosophy. and mooning. I enjoyed it, especially the bit about the stranger. I failed to draw him and missed his second bit because i was talking to Barny's brother.

This is the story of how i met Barny's Brother: he had only just walked in to the pub but i saw his face as i was coming back from making a phonecall to my friend clare. I asked him if he was Barny's brother, he said he was. we had not met previously. Later i talked to him again and recomended that he read Love and Rockets. sometimes i can be a bit agressively friendly when talking to strangers. I get this from my dad.

Also some musiciens played. this is dogtanioni met them after by mistake, although it didn't look like a mistake, tho it was. they were very nice. i have mentioned before that i am not a music journalist even a little bit, so i will say that i enjoyed their tunes and lyrics. At the bottom in a different blue you can see my aborted drawing of Robin Ince. It was aborted (at 20 weeks) because he stopped talking and left. i should have started earlier, but you know, what's life without regrets?
this is Tristsamor one of him, them, it. whatever. as you can see. he is pretty. his music was too.

I suppose i should write a new blog entry sometime yes? like now? ok. anyway, it's a lovely spring day.


News:
I'm a big geek and I drew a picture of Neil Gaiman's dog for the Kitty's Neverwear competitiony thing, go vote for me k? i'm not sure if the votes mean much, but it can't hurt. like in the general election. every time the doorbell rings it is more Conservative propoganda.

Also and anyway in other news January's Mailmeart2 gallery is up featuring my contribution at 42 and loads of other awesome stuff, seriously, check it out, i love the variety of stuff that gets sent to this thing, loads of inspirational stylings.

I drew this picture of my mother looking like a cute mole for mothers day. and sent it to her a week late. because i am a bad person.
I think it is quite Shirley Hughesesque, ne'st pas?

I had a birthday. which was nice. I also did a design pitch for a project which was fun, and i will tell you what it is if i get it.

some awesome stuff you might want to check out:
if you ever wondered who did that awesome Ladyhawke cover art, it was Sarah Larnach
I'm a big fan of Anna Botezatu's collages
and Jo Cheung bird pictures (me? likeng birds?) which you can get on cushion covers here. super nice.
Yulia Brodskaya takes quilling to a whole new level.

I'll stop that now or we'll be here all year. sometime I must make a big 'ol links page. altho i did join tumblr the other day, so maybe thats what i should do there.

see you kids on the flip side. blue skies.

last night I went to the Little Philistines single launch party in exotic Kilburn. the last time i was out in North London in the evening it turned into a poetry reading. those kids are crazy.
me and fran got there just in time to catch the end of Thom Main's nice guitarry set, he is not, as i had assumed, actually married to David Cronenberg, but is the singer out of a band called David Cronenberg's wife.
the problem with seeing live music, especially in small attractive venues in North London, is that people don't dance till the headlining act comes on and even then they don't dance properly. this is an issue for me because when there is fun music happening, my hips and feet tend to go off of their own accord.
so to avoid embarrasing myself too much i decided to draw the bands instead. i love drawing live musicians, they make awesome shapes and faces. It's a bit attention whorish drawing in public, but what can you do? i networked with some of the nice hipsters. this is the stars down to earth, the drawing is a bit budget because my fineliner was running out. their music was very fun and tuneful, probably my fave after LPs. there was a female drummer, like in FAME. no really, they were good, i'm not a music journalist. thats all i have to say. I was drawing from the balcony and couldn't see half the band, so this is only 3 of them.

next up was Dora Brilliant who were also awesome, great timing, i especially enjoyed the way the songs ended suddenly when you weren't expecting it.
i drew manormouse? in blue fineliner and red biro to mix it up a bit. i'm crazy like that. i remember that i liked them as well, but i didn't make any notes and by this point in the evening i had had quite a few red wine and cokes so i don't remember why.
a kind hipster at the bar impressed me with the ablo aspaniel knowledge by telling me the spanish name for red wine and coke. I have been told before but i can't make the word stick in my head. i forgot it again as soon as he told me.

it was then time for the main event and there was a very exciting video piece shown with paper fire and artistic cutting. disapointingly, the Little Philistines had not brought any of the paper fire with them to decorate their set, but they were very good anyway. got to do some dancing as well. The girl singer is prettier than in the drawing and she had a very exciting orange and black dress which is not featured.
In honour of because he is my friend and invited me i also did this quick drawing of John Riordan playing the trumpet with his head on fire. Horay!

after that some of us lived in south london so went to get the last tube.
when i got home i had a super sandwich with Homous, cream cheese, wafer thin smoked ham, some lamb stew and cucumber in.