Strimmerman

This is just a silly one. A wee video I shot up at Stirling Castle the other day of a man cutting the grass like a pro. The music is from an old Fence Records CD called John's ABC. All the tracks were left uncredited, but I'd put a bet on it being the awesome Pip Dylan twanging away. Click the resolution up to 720p or so for crystal clearness.

I'm slowly getting into the habit of filming things with my new camera, trying to learn from my mistakes. When I took the above footage, I'd recorded maybe 20 mins of other stuff that was practically unusable thanks to being shaky as all hell. Best keep that in mind for future non-tripod adventures. Excessive zooming in and out too - I can't keep my finger off that silly lever. Less is more dude.

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Rock, Paper, Scissors Print

Another thing the Dundee Jamboree gave me a chance to do was to print my first ever unassisted Gocco screenprint on my new PG-10 machine. I decided to start out simply with a little re-doing of a rock, paper scissors thing from ages ago. It turned out ok! I didn't mess up!

You can have a look at a scan of the artwork here - I'm quite happy with it. Hands are a funny one - sometime they go ok and sometimes they go really wrong. Putting thumbs in the wrong place was always a killer for me. That and stupid wrists.

Anyway, the Rock, Paper, Scissors print is now available for dirt-cheap (£6) in my shop. It's on some nice paper in an edition of 50. All hand-printed by myself, signed and numbered. I destroyed the screen (well, it kinda destroyed itself), so this is the only run I intend to produce.

But wait... there's more! I had a little play around with some watercolours on a few roughs and quite liked how they looked so I decided to hand-colour a few of the finished prints:

So now 20 of the 50 prints are hand-painted with watercolours, making them even more unique (by definition, that's not possible but you know what I mean). I've put them up as a different item in my shop for a few extra pennies (patter for £4), so there's no confusion between the two. They're part of the same run though.

Watercolour is notoriously difficult you photograph so the detail is quite subtle on these pictures. You can click on the images for bigger versions. The real-life colour is a little stronger. I didn't want to crank up the saturation artificially though. They look good. Promise.

So that's the new Rock, Paper, Scissors prints. Available in clean, crispy black & white or hand-painted colour. Here are the details:

Rock, Paper, Scissors
by David Galletly
A5 Gocco screenprint.
available in b&w or hand-painted colour.
Edition of 50
Signed and numbered.
Available here.

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Ira Glass: motivation

I imagine a fair amount of you are familiar with This American Life, the radio show / podcast from Chicago Public Radio. If not, you have to give it a listen because your socks will be blown right off. It's a collection of strange, funny, fascinating and moving little stories put together by the host Ira Glass and a team of journalists (including the likes of Jon Ronson). I could hype it up all day but that's not really the point of this post. Honestly, just visit the archive and click on a title that takes your fancy. You'll love it, I promise.

Anyway, I've been listening to T.A.L. a lot recently and I took the notion to look up some related stuff on YouTube. I discovered the above video on my travels and was compelled to post it here. Taken from a 4 part little series on storytelling, Ira Glass gives out some advice to beginner film-makers (although it could apply to any creative endeavour) concerning how the work you make may not quite match up to your expectations.

As someone who constantly wrestles with my own opinions of my output, I found this to be one of the most encouraging and inspiring little videos I've seen in ages. Hopefully it'll maybe give other folk a wee bit of motivation too. Trying is good. Always forwards, never backwards compadres!

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Red Neck Zine

The post about the Red Neck Zine that I made for the Dundee Jamboree back in 2010 has moved to my new website. You can read it here.

What I Wore Today 10

Another drawing for the What I Wore Today (in drawings) group on Flickr. This one didn't turn out how I wanted at all but I kinda like the bird, so what the hell. The character (me) isn't so hot.

Also, something seemed to go funny with my last post and it may have not appeared in feeds properly. If you subscribe and you missed my big post about the Dundee Jamboree, click here to read it.


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Jamboree'd

So much for 'I'll post again about the Jamboree nearer the time'. What a liar. Truthfully I meant to, I just had no time. I was timeless, without time. Anyway, the Dundee Jamboree came and went with a splash and now, a couple of days later, all the little blogs and tweets and photos are rising to the surface. This will be a long one, mainly because I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing things and, I dunno, there's lots to mention about the night.

We arrived in Dundee in the afternoon and checked in to our home-from-home, the Holiday Inn (I've maybe mentioned this before, but have you seen the bathroom doors in that place? They're a really funny wee piece of space-saving design and one of several reasons I regret leaving my video camera at home). After we'd unpacked our smalls we headed off to Drouthys to set up our stalls.

The idea that a Drouthy Neebors could be home to anything interesting whatsoever is odd. I'm used to the one in Stirling which, although it's not particularly horrible, isn't particularly memorable either. The contrast between them made me happy and, in retrospect, a little depressed. Outside was my good friend Steven who'd come through to show support and, as he tends to do, had already been floating about for a few hours. He said he'd been for a haircut.

Inside, people were busying about putting all their stalls together. Here a bangle, there a badge. Here a zine, there a scary monster-thing. Everyone was really nice and friendly (despite me being on mumble-mode) and all the work looked fantastic. We ate a pizza (chicken tikka) and had some juice (Irn-Bru) and everything went mental.

Our stall did pretty well, Alex sold a ton of bunting and I shifted a load of stuff too. At the risk of sounding a bit sexist, the crowd was pretty girl heavy (a comment on quantity, not attractiveness or weight. You looked great ladies, jeez) and my new work is kinda grisly, so I was surprised to sell anything at all. Not that girls are necessarily out looking for pink butterflies and tiaras but, y'know, they mainly ain't the ones shooting each other on computers.

A big thank you to everyone who bought something, said they liked my work or even just had a look. Well, if you looked and kinda screwed your face up then I'm not specifically thanking you, but I guess thanks for coming along. It's always super nice to get feedback. I discovered I'm no salesman (I think I sold more when I wasn't beside my work) and that my friends and fiancée find it both bewildering and hilarious that I might have 'fans'. This also made me a little depressed.

As for everyone else - it seemed to go down a storm for them too. I really should've paid more attention to whose-name-goes-with-what-work (you don't do stuff like that when you've had a drink or two) because it makes giving shout-outs really embarrassing and difficult. Let's have a try at least. This might go a bit link crazy:

I do know I spoke to Lauren and Jen and Nikki, the organisers (although I'm sure I spoke more to Nikki's dad than I did to Nikki). I picked up the amazing Gentry / McWilliams Choccy Biccy pack and received a copy of Jen's brilliant WWAK zine too. I said 'hello' to twitterer Sanna Dyker and grabbed one of her a prints. Cathereine Barthram aka Paleface was on the next door stall and Rosie Barthram was across the way, both super nice (everyone was nice but I'll keep saying it). I can confirm John Alan Birch is the double of his Xbox avatar (and a nice fellow). My friends got a bunch of cool stuff to give as gifts from Sandra Cassidy of Ruby Loves Red as well as a beautiful pillow by Hilary Grant (both very nice). Amongst other things, (the very nice) Maddy Norval was selling some amazing creatures and Syrah Jay (also nice) had really ace textiles and jewellery. There was music by Jo Foster and I really loved the projections by Lesley Barnes, Sam Spreckley and Edward Shallow (I'm sure they were all very nice too).

That list could go on and on but I wanted to at least try to holla at a few folk. Forgive me if I missed you. Click those links by the way, I didn't just go hunt them out for the good of my health, those cats are doing good things. You can also check out the Dundee Jamboree twitter for a constantly updating what's-what about the night.

When the night began winding down, we had a wee drink at the bar and headed back to our hotel cubicle. Before we got the train home on Tuesday, we had some ice-cream and juice in the sunshine. I spent some of my earnings on a new computer game like a champ.

All in all, I'm really glad I took part. We had a great time, I'm sitting on a bunch of new work (more info to come) and I got to meet some really nice folk and see some really nice work. As a first time stall-manner, I've learned a few things, particularly that stuff needs to be securely displayed or it'll keep falling over. Thanks again to Lauren, Jen and Nikki and to everyone who came by. Oh, and if I spoke to you about anything whatsoever, get in touch. Man, that sounds a bit desperate. Hey, do what you like.

All the fantastic photos on this page are by Joanna Montgomery. I wish I'd used my camera more. I took like, three photos and they're blurry as hell.

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What I Wore Today 9

A two-for-one drawing this, firstly it's a submission to the What I Wore Today (in drawings) Flickr group, illustrating an old cardigan Alex bought me in Philadelphia. Secondly, it's a sneak preview page from my new zine.

The artwork is all done, scanned and (mostly) cleaned up and ready for print. All that's really left to do is the cover, the name and some hand-coloured elements once it's back from the printers. Quite a bit, then. The first batch will be available at the Dundee Jamboree and I'll put them up here for sale at a low, low price after that.

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Dundee Jamboree

I'm happy to announce that I'm part of the Big Top Jamboree, a creative fair taking place in Dundee on the 17th of May. The event, a follow up to March's Jumpers & Jamboree, is being put together by 3 Dundee superstars: Jen Collins, Nikki McWilliams and Lauren Gentry. It should be plastic fantastic.

My recent lack of posting is due to a week of running around panicking, trying to get things ready for my stall. I'm not sitting on a mountain of prints or zines so I've had to bust some moves to get things together. As it stands, I think I'm gonna be ok. There's a lot left to do but hey, isn't there always?

Remember that zine I mentioned a while back? This one? Yeah, that thing. Well on Tuesday I scrapped it, started again and worked like billio to get if finished. As of 2 hours ago, all the drawings are done and I'm ready to stick them in the computer and get it sorted for print. It's maybe a little more rushed than I'd like, but as a 4 day project I think it's gonna be alright. Check out the event on the 17th if you'd like a copy (perhaps with a free gift). I expect it'll appear in my shop sometime after that too.

On top of that, I've got drawings, badges, prints and some other odds & ends. So, if you want some silly pictures of like, trees and things - I'm your man. If you don't like my junk, go buy something from Jen or John or Sanna. Those guys are always doing good things.

I must also mention that I'll be sharing my stall with my lady Alex, who will be selling her suitably circus-like (should that be circular?) handmade bunting to you, friend, for a steal. There's much more info to come about what she's up to soon but man, it's looking good.

I'll post again about the Jamboree nearer the time - go check out the site if you want more info. For me, the best bit is going to be the weird-out of meeting online folk for the first time. Note to those who imagine I'm carved from stone and completely enchanting: get ready for a surprise. I'm like 4' tall and mumble so bad I'm basically unintelligible. I'll be next to the blonde girl.

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Up There

I saw this amazing little film posted over on the Analogue Books blog earlier today and I thought I'd post it up here to share it around some more.

Up There by Malcolm Murray documents the dying art of hand-painted advertising in New York. Half balls-out burly labour, half skilled craft - these guys do some job.

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Headless

This was a little thing for Illustration Friday that never really went anywhere. The topic was 'ahead'. I didn't have the time to finish any of my ideas so I'm sitting it out this week. Ah well.

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New Camcorder

I've recently gotten hold of a new HD camcorder thanks to my friend Emma. I've been kicking around some ideas for a long time that would require one and, after much deliberation, I finally took the plunge.

Before I get to producing anything y'know, good with it, I've got to get the hang of actually using the damn thing, hence the above video. Rather than being all precious and secretive, I've decided to just keep filming and uploading any old stuff as practice. What did I film first? Well, just whatever bits & bobs were lying around the room. The shots that don't wobble look hella like photos, which is pretty awesome. The footage is maybe a little dark / dull though. I expect I'll be able to get way nicer stuff when I work out what the hell I'm doing.

I chucked in some music from The Clangers and, in combination with the constant zooming, it's made the video look like a cheesy screensaver. Hmm. Baby steps.

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What I Wore Today 8

Another drawing for the What I Wore Today (in drawings) Flickr group. It's slightly different to the other ones, not much mind you, but a little. I think that since I seem to be on a weekly jag with these things, I should try to experiment with different styles and techniques every time I do one. Hell, I practically wear the same bloody clothes every day so I gotta find something new to do.

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Girl Skateboards

Hello! Sorry to hit you with a blank page, but this blog post has moved to my new website. You can view it over here: Girl Skateboards: Modern Chair Series.

It features a lovely graphic recreation of the first pro skateboard I ever owned.

Old Camera

This old camera belonged to my gran. It sits on my shelf in a little leather case. I can't remember ever seeing it in her house and I can't remember it being given to me. It just arrived there. I imagine it took a lot of the photos I've seen of my mum, my aunt and my uncle. I don't know if it still works. If it does, I don't know how.

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Garage Door

Sometimes you just draw a garage door.

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What I Wore Today 7

Today, for What I Wore Today (in drawings) I decided to try out something a little different than my previous silly entries - tracing!

Ever since being taught at school that tracing was a very bad way of learning how to draw, I've left well alone. I always viewed it as a bit of a cop-out. Not quite cheating, just kinda being a bit lazy. Recently, however, I've been really loving a lot of work that uses tracing. It has this great mixture of reality and wonkiness that can be really odd and interesting.

So, I had a little go. It's not quite what I was after, but I kinda like it. As with anything (like magic or dynamite), it can be used for good or evil and it's something I intend to explore more thoroughly. I guess tracing it a bit more of a slippery slope than some other techniques in that, should you rely on it too much, you're gonna screw up your brain. It is the cocaine of the drawing world.

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Umbrella Head

I'm always meaning to post more about work by other people. And, as with lots of things I'm meaning to do, I hardly ever get round to actually doing it. Well today I've gotten round to it. I've gotten right bloody round.

This work is by Sam Caldwell, a young artist from Bolton who goes by the name of Umbrella Head. I actually discovered Sam's (Head's?) art through the comments section of my blog and after I had a dig about his site, I was totally hyped on his work. Look at it!

Man he can conjure up atmosphere in spades. A real sense of life plodding along through some impending doom. That's what I get from it anyway. Maybe it's the weather - even in some of Sam's lighter pieces there's a heavy British sky pressing down on procedings or a cold and choppy sea crashing away in the background.

Vic Reeves' artwork comes to mind (in a good way) as does Lizzy Stewart's (also in a good way). Sam is only 19 or something ridiculous like that so you can tell he's really gonna be killing it in a couple of years. Check out his website. Oh, I just noticed he has a band too, I'll have a listen.

As a wee aside - I've been playing about with the image sizes for this post. If they're not displaying properly can someone let me know? Also, I love discovering new stuff - I always check out the work of people who comment here, so feel free to go crazy. Not that I can guarantee amazing levels of traffic or anything but someone might see it.

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Spring Cleaning

You may or may not have noticed that my blog is looking a little different. I took some time to simplify the design today.

The old layout was getting pretty busy and, well, ugly. There were columns and links everywhere that, over time, had become more distracting than useful. It looked like a freakin' newspaper! So, with the recent launch of my website (still in it's early days), I decided this old blog could stand to lose a few things.

So, here we go. Very white, very simple. Very boring perhaps? Ah, who knows. I still need to play around with it some more. Maybe a little colour or a banner. What's important is that the focus is much more squarely on the pictures and the writing and not on all the information about following me on Twitter.

Incidentally, follow me on Twitter.

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Self-Portrait With Double-Chin

For the third day in a row, the sun is shining. It's beautiful outside. Birds are singing, bees are buzzing.

Having missed out on 99% of the sunshine over the weekend because of work, I've decided that today, I'm going outside. I'm going to play on my skateboard like a child. I might even buy a nice ice-cream (a nice-cream). To alleviate some of my guilt about taking an afternoon off to fanny about, I set myself a couple of simple tasks. The first was rather dull and email based (completed in record time!), the second was to draw a little picture for my blog.

So, there we go. A self-portrait with a double-chin.

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Virgin Mary

This photo was just posted on a messageboard I read. A dude heard about someone in his town building a hella-intense statue of the Virgin Mary in his garden, so he hunted it out and took a picture. That's all the information I have (or want, to be honest). Look at that thing!

People are awesome. Amen.

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