Sexy Punk Onion

Ha ha ha! ...ha. This seemed funnier at the time... :p

Chicken Milk

At long last, a new On The Bus!! I'll try to do more of these from now on, as I'm sure they're the most entertaining things I draw by far.

At the hundredth meridian...where the great plains begin.

I finally managed to put together a cover for my project...and here it is. (It's since been pointed out to me that power lines are usually only on the right side of the road, not both sides. Oops. Call it artistic license, I guess!) My Canadian readers will no doubt remember that "At The Hundredth Meridian" is the title of an old Tragically Hip song. As hipmuseum.com explains, “The one hundredth meridian is the line of longitude that separates much of Western Canada from the Central and Atlantic regions. The line also serves as a division between the moist and urban east and the arid and rural west. It has also come to provide a convenient political dividing line (sort of the Canadian equivalent to those familiar Blue and Red States) between the liberal leaning east and conservative leaning west."

Hockey and the Canadian landscape are the two most common topics of Tragically Hip songs, which probably explains why they aren't very popular anywhere else.

For my non-Canadian readers, here's the song so you can understand what on earth I'm talking about. Isn't Youtube great?! I've always really liked this video, it has some interesting imagery and it's rather exquisitely photographed.

March.
And April. I don't really like how these turned out, but I sort of ran out of time to do better ones. :X

I spent some time over the summer creating my own Photoshop brushes, and used those to colour my book cover. Here's an example of a page of brush marks that I scanned in and made into Photoshop brushes:

In my earlier posts (check the archives for November 2009) you can see how I tried using these to colour the interior pages as well. Unfortunately I didn't really like how those were turning out and was told that my ink drawings were strong enough on their own anyway.

I have never been able to simulate hand-drawn textures in Photoshop, yet there are countless digital painters who can do so with ease. It's very frustrating. I think it is time I invest in a new graphics tablet, as my Wacom is old and quite low-end: it measures 4 x 6" and it has no tilt sensitivity. In fact, until yesterday I wasn't even aware that tablets other than Cintiq tablet PCs came with tilt sensitivity!

Perhaps I should resign myself to the fact that digital painting just isn't for me, and continue colouring by hand...

February

Don't mess with winter, fool! I warned you!

I think I made the top panel too tall by accident, which is ironic since February is the shortest month. Er...YEAH...I MEANT to do it that way! Honest! HA HA HA!!

January

Raaaawr. Winter kills.

(MORE THINGS WITH HORNS, WHEN WILL IT END?!)

Decembrrrrrrr

I'm cold. Are you feeling cold yet?

November

November looks better in black & white. There was a mild countrywide snowstorm here in the UK last year, causing traffic jams and all-around general chaos. I shouldn't laugh, but damn, the whole thing was hilarious - it only snowed a couple of inches.

That being said, I had a rather frightening dream this morning about a massive snowstorm. I was inside a gigantic house I'd never been in before, with enormous windows. When I looked outside I could see two people, a father and daughter, trapped in the storm and waist-deep in snow. I wanted to go and help them but didn't know how. Suddenly, I was also waist-deep in snow, although I was still inside the house and I don't recall ever opening the door to let any snow in. I don't remember much after that.

October

Wow. I'm not even sure what to say about this one - good OR bad. It's just kind of...there. Needs some actual COLOUR to make it pop...

September

Right...only seven more to go...and less than a month to do 'em...PLUS all the calendar date pages...AND a front cover of some sort. Oh, well. It seems to be progressing fairly well now, so I'm not that worried any more...

August

Not a big fan of the sky colours on this one, but I suppose it doesn't matter since I'm thinking about converting them all to monochrome when I'm done (each month will have its own colour).

Paul (aka Hardsparrow) and I went to see the Fall in Poole last night and it was AMAAAAZING. Better than the Southampton gig last year. The merch table also sells old copies of the Pseud Mag fanzine (for which I drew the front covers up to and including issue #10) and the official blue lyrics book, also containing some of my artwork. How cool is that? Not as cool as the fact that I've gotten to see The Fall twice and that it's just one of many great experiences I've had here...I don't realise how lucky I am.

Will I miss Bournemouth when I move back home? No, I think it's the people I've met that I'll miss most of all. And an odd trait of mine is that I never seem to live in the present. I'm always either constantly nostalgic for the past, or worrying about what might happen to me in the future. Why do I seem unable to enjoy the NOW? Last night seems to be the only time I ever truly have.

July

Cloud people!

Man, I gave myself way too much work to do this year...

June

But...it looks the same as the other one! Nooooooo!!!! D: D: D: (Except this time I drew the filthy, filthy sloughs)

Now in two amazing colours!

Ta-daaa~~~

Only eleven more to go! :X

(Edit: Now with a less gray sky)

Seed Catalogue Calendar page 1 - May

AAAAAND page 1. If this is a calendar, why am I starting with May? Because that's when winter finally ends in Saskatchewan...The Land Of Living Skies. No, really - that's our tourist tagline. See?
This is apt, of course, since the vast bald prairie stretches on and on and on and...that's why this drawing is so huge.

I am gonna colour this later, but maybe I shouldn't mention that - it might not happen, then... :0