Canada and the USA

Tokyo & Berlin

I recently returned from traveling to Tokyo, Berlin, the U.S. and Canada. Here are some snaps.

Hildur Gudnadottir poster

Hildur Gudnadottir is a cellist from Iceland who Altmusic are bringing to NZ in August. I got asked to do the poster and am getting paid!! Boy I love the dollars.
Hildur's music is very beautiful and haunting, it sort of sounds like rusty bits of the hull of a shipwreck rubbing together from the motion of the tides so I thought it'd be appropriate to do an underwater themed poster. I'm really bummed out that I'm going to miss this show, here's some links to her stuff:
http://www.hildurness.com/
http://www.myspace.com/hildurness

Lets get physical!

While I've been busy saving my clams for other climes shit has been getting real.
Radio as Paper #6 hit the streets last month and boy it is one hell of a classy publication. Here are some pics of the launch in Leipzig and here is a list of stockists 

Mossopolis the 7" by Nigel Wright is out now too, I don't have a proper picture of it yet but here's a pic of the printed covers to prove I'm not lying.

Ya'll can listen to Nigel's beautiful track on his bandcamp here.
Radio As Paper and Mossopolis are both available form the new Audio Foundation hub, at 4 Poynton tce, Newton, Auckland, NZ.

More Greybeard images

Practice waves for the Greybeard poem I'm illustrating, most of the action takes place at sea so I thought I'd better get better at drawing waves. I started writing and illustrating this poem back in 2009 and have recently been seized by a desire to finish it.

"Land Ahoy!!” Shouted Greybeard then looking around

With the sudden intensity of a bloodhound,

For Master Moth his last ships mate

Just the thought made him salivate.

He's not on deck, maybe in the Galley

Thought Greybeard as he rubbed his belly,

But he wasn't there, nor on the lower decks

Or anywhere else that Greybeard checked

Meanwhile the Moth arrived at the figurehead,

Where he grabbed Mr. Flea and away they fled 

Towards the isle of their salvation

The wee flea quivered in anticipation,

But the island was far, Mr. Moth grew tired,

His arms grew clammy with the sweat he perspired

They became so slippery that Mr. Flea fell

And splashed into the tumultuous swell

Narrowly avoiding a hungry mackerel.

                     

Mr. Flea surfaced with a gasp of relief

To his good fortune he was close to a leaf,

With sides curled up like a canoe.

He climbed aboard and searched for a clue

As to the whereabouts of his ally

Though he saw no trace in the sea or sky,

And so he called out to him, concerned,

But sadly his calls went unreturned

Mr. Flea never did see the moth again,

His friend had succumbed to the food chain.

Meanwhile onboard the Regal the crew still evaded

The sights of the Captain so he worked unaided

Working the ropes he pulled and adjusted

To make the most of the wind when it gusted.

The tropical ocean did its best to convey

The Spider and Flea each in their own way,

Towards the very same sandy bay.

The Right to Talk to Strangers

These are for Simon Comber's EP release tour of the U.S. 

I started doing it in my normal way, doing a drawing then adding colour with tracing paper and pencil scanned into photoshop, but then almost at the due date I decided to just paint it with gouache and ink instead. The tour dates didn't fit into the text box I left so I did three separate posters for the central west coast, the northwest and the east. For more info on Simon Comber and his tour check out his myspace and/or website

The colours were inspired by this picture from a 60's interior design book, its very inspiring.

From the sketchbook

These are for my long slumbering Greybeard project, it's an epic poem about a spider who is the captain of a ship and his gullible crew of moths, fleas and flies.

From the garden.

This is my cat Shorty, she was a stray who turned up last October. Her talent is sleeping in ridiculously cute positions, showing off her fluffy tum. These were pencil sketches which I filled in with ink and touches of gouache. When she closes her eyes she is almost entirely monochrome, just little touches of pink on her nose and paws, it lends itself to ink very nicely.

Radio As Paper launch!

Get yourself to Berlin on the 28th of May! The comics anthology Radio As Paper (edited my the talented Jerome Bihan) is being released to the world. I did the cover:

More info on the RAP blog

Cheese box

I've been pretty bad a putting things up this year, slacker! Here's a project I completed some months ago. My friends wanted a mailbox which looked like a wedge of cheese, so they built it and I painted it. Got a bit carried away and was compelled to put a mouse wearing a bow tie and shades telling a cheesy joke.

Mossopolis redux

Thought it might be nice to give it some colour.

Front cover:

Back cover: