David Hughes:FLOGS THE DOG

Michael Nesmith:

2012-03-01T03:26:00.006-08:00

Bought this Michael Nesmith LP about 1974/5 from a wallpaper shop in Twickenham. In 1993 it was stolen by a gang of burglars. The record just happened to be left on the turntable of the stereo system they carried away into the night. They were probably Ultravox fans........I was distraught at the theft of this chunk of vinyl - especially the final tracks on the flip side The Back Porch and A Fruit Jar Full of Iced Tea and Prairie Lullaby. If I think of The Monkees I am always transported back to the Chemistry Lab of my Secondary School. Why?

TULIP'S

2012-02-29T04:21:00.006-08:00

14 months back The New Yorker commissioned me to illustrate a piece about J. R. Ackerley and his relationship with his alsatian dog Tulip. I had never heard of Ackerley. He was a writer and one time editor of the BBC's house magazine The Listener. The New Yorker rejected this piece. Then in June I got an email from film maker Daniel Vernon: Also I came across this review in the Guardian about a man and his dog- rather irritating that it's out there...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/05/my-dog-tulip-review

Dan was hoping to get funding for a film version of Walking The Dog and I suspect this kind of torpedoed it's chances. The idea would have been part animation and mostly 'live action' Dan had won a BAFTA for his documentary film The Man Who Eats Badgers andOther Strange Tales from Bodmin Moor.

GAME: Extra Time.

2012-02-29T03:23:00.007-08:00

Two Minute Garden Observation 7.45am:2 moorhens, 2 wood pigeons. 9.30am:One hour walk. Pale grey sky. Still. Damp. Quiet. Tractor spraying chemicals in an Eric Ravilious field. Rabbit carcass hanging in a tree. Dog shit liberally decorates the lane. Syria bombs it's own people. The Hunt exercise 71 hounds. The Whipper-In operates with three Lurchers.I complain I have a history. They ignore me I am a Townie. I've lived here seven years. I watched My Dog Tulip on the laptop yesterday evening. That too focusses on dog shit. The author's Alsatian and it's defecating. Tulip's menstrual cycle. J.R.Ackerley's obsession and intimate relationship narrated by Christopher Plummer. The animation in places was beautiful, I was coiled in envy at fleeting moments when it touched spasmodic heights of masterful genius and then dipped back to the average. The shapes of the humans the balance of the relationship with the landscape, townscape, the interior detail, the period feel, the colour, the tones and the segments of simple but hilarious 'notebook' sequences. But the human character's features were sloppy too loose not defined enough for my taste. Bestiality? God knows what kind of success in terms of viewing figures and income it made.I drifted in and out of dreamland as the Mac toasted my lap.I guess ultimately I found it boring, despite the inventive and free animation of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger.....despite the manic irritating musical soundtrack.

Flipped.

2012-02-28T02:53:00.002-08:00

After all this time I never learn. Experience. A deadline of enormous distance. Trails behind you. Alongside you. A dancing partner. A slow waltz. In the cupboard. In the hood of your coat. In the ink bottle. In the television schedule. In the prayer book. In the shed. In the vegetable patch for a head. You follow the instructions. The auto-pilot has gone out. You perform at below altitude. You have to be told. Observations are offered. I know. I know. And then you do it. You meet the deadline. The anonymous client says they are pleased. Grateful they can fill a hole. We've flipped it they say. To make it work on the page. I've had busier times.

Boy on a bronze rocking horse.

2012-02-24T06:28:00.005-08:00

Sat in my studio. Music. Birds. Dog asleep. Dog scratching. Scratching my head. Avoiding stuff. Editorial job driving me nuts. Drive to Folkestone and back. Back at the desk I draw stuff. And as I attempt the feeble drawing of Marie Colvin based on a Sheila Masson photo in yesterday's Guardian - the computer throws up the ironic soundtrack as I am inking the final pathetic marks What A Wonderful World followed by Walk On The Wildside..........War artist? Blubber artist. Soft boiled artist soft boiled doodler nothing else, all pen and no ink.

Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major

2012-02-21T08:20:00.000-08:00

Big nose drawing No.7,939 maybe

2012-02-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

Talking to myself. This is my sketchbook. What have I got against sketchbooks she asked. You mentioned you don't like sketchbooks...why is this? (I lose them)

Do you always begin a project with observational work or do you often rely on visual memories?(I rely on a deadline-I am losing my memory.....also I need to book an appointment at the opticians)

Do you think that observation is essential to the creation of a successful picture book?(It helps. Wit also helps, it also helps to have a good idea. It might help to hang onto the shirt tails of a mega block busting selling author). In the meantime you just have to keep doing it. Every day. Lalalalalalalalalalala.

BOLT

2012-02-20T03:04:00.002-08:00

Go to Brixton. Buy a print.

A week's a lifetime I missed Poland.

2012-02-17T05:07:00.003-08:00

I've let it slip. The snow has melted. The ice thawed. Dory Previn passed away. Didn't realise she was as old as 86! A friend of mine also died this week. And I've been swallowing night nurse day nurse. So before I loose my grip I just want to add that 8 days ago I witnessed a vibrant Cambridge MA childrens picture book exhibition at Foyles Bookshop London, which is also now history. It will resurrect at The Ruskin Gallery next week I think. An impressive and enthusiastic speech by Walker Books Deidre McDermott and Ben Norland prior to the awarding of the inaugural Sebastian Walker Prize, promoting humour as the vital ingredient within the mix. Among the faces attending were Geoff Grandfield, Penny Holroyd, David Lloyd, Rod Hunt, various publishers and vultures and let the feeding frenzy begin.

The English Difference

2012-02-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

I should have spent the last 3 hours drawing some wine tasting characters but I've been totally sucked into designer Mike Dempsey's blog which was mentioned in the current issue of Varoom. Dempsey was commenting on the dismal design in recent years of the Radio Times and other magazines that once were held up as examples of great editorial design and content. I'm hooked. Check the site out there's some classic examples of illustration dotted throughout as well as Dempsey's excellent film reviews and stacks of other design and architecturally related material.

The English Difference was published in 1974 and Dempsey writes about the influence of author John Gorham and other artists featured in it's pages. The book was heavily thumbed in those days by yours truly and was a source of inspiration. Nowadays it's in a bookcase gathering dust. Cover artwork by Tony Meeuwissen.

Books I Wish I'd.....

2012-02-11T05:51:00.004-08:00

Another cute dog. Shortlisted for this year's Waterstones Book Award. Marta graduated last year from the Cambridge MA Book Illustration Course. The studio is warming up. My fingers are frost bitten, my dog is in the house.

DRAWING INK FOR FOUNTAIN PENS:

2012-02-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I went to The Pictures to see The Artist. I didn't expect to enjoy it. Over-hyped? There's a cute dog in it........and I enjoyed it. New guard old guard I am old guard. Todays's soundtrack: Neil Young & Crazy Horse-Fuckin' Up (although they use asterisks on I-tunes).Relevant.

Photographic Mind.

2012-02-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

Today Sub-zero. Last night an email - I'm a Spanish cartoonist and PHD student, and I'm contacting you in order to ask you permission to reproduce one page of your book Walking the Dog in one of my articles. It's for the of the congress book of the I Conference on Graphic Novels, which took place on the city of Alcalá de Henares (Spain), last november. My disertation was about Graphic Heterogeneity on comics, which is the use of diffrent drawing styles on the same work. Walking the Dog's analyse was a main part of my article.
I would be extlemely grateful if I could reproduce your work on my text.

So the dog did as he was told. Obedient dog-Good Boy!

Look at some photos. Weegee for one:

C A P S:

2012-01-29T04:49:00.001-08:00

Lakeland? Getting warmer. Lesser Spotted Terrier! The penny dropped normal hearing went up 2 dozen notches I worked out the scrambled verbal ball bearings spilling from my new lady friend's mouth her tongue was practically licking my ear drum to clear the deafness. Are you a Professor? A Professor. A Professor....I disappointed my sweet lubricated bar room girl friend. I hold no qualifications of the academic kind I am unemployed at present 'resting' between assignments. Her eyes expanded. "Assignments?" Secret. I whispered There was a maximum break the man with the snooker cue fixed in his fist was waiting for his answer, his friend knew three dogs that had died the previous week How come you live here? You don't live in New York then? - Ask me what I do...she said.

TAKING THE PISS:

2012-01-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Then she slurred she said Edward The Confessor It's under the dresser Mick MacManus was my favourite wrestler I couldn't make out what she was trying to tell me. My ears deceived me. What kind of dog is it the man with a snooker cue fixed in his hand asked - only me and my colleague have been having a debate see, and I think it could be some breed of Otterhound..

Magic Metaphysical Landscapes:

2012-01-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

Hahahahahaha-hey presto 3 card trick walked into the Black Boy Tavern last Saturday I like to provoke. The intoxicated lady the merry girl at the bar (it was a little after five in the evening) she asked "what's the name of your dog?" she added "he's just like a teddy bear" Dexterity I replied "Pardon" she said.

Autograph Book

2012-01-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

Claudia Boldt and Eleanor Meredith paid a visit to my studio yesterday and delivered a pile of prints for me to sign. 100 autographs on Walking The Dog. They had very generously considered my work worthy of inclusion to be part of an exhibition they are curating next month in Brixton Village. Their work is genuinely inspiring and witty and may even encourage my participation in this illustration lark again. Later the same day I am in the company of a gathering of a thousand illustrators in Heffers Bookshop Cambridge for the launch of Children's Picturebooks -The art of visual storytelling. by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles. And to quote Axel Scheffler from the rear cover 'This beautifully produced book gives a real insight into the art of the picturebook...'

Claudia Boldt is one of the key contributors in the book and rightly so. It was a jolly evening in the company of Martin Salisbury, John Lawrence, John Holder, Pam Smy, Alexis Deacon, Marta Altes, Katherina Manolessou, Edgar Allan Poe, Dave Shelton, Chris Haughton, Deirdre McDermott (Walker Books art director/ publisher) and an orchestra of stunningly gifted artists that are emerging in to the picturebook world via the Cambridge MA course, a torrent a deluge there aint enough books to go round.......round and round. So many pictures. Marta's autographed copy of No! stuffed in a bag,caught the last train home changed at Aberdeen and got a lift on a milk float and arrived back with the coalman.

DOGGONE...

2012-01-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

ENLIGHTENED:

2012-01-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

SCARFE on SEARLE

2012-01-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today's Guardian Newspaper. I like this story a lot. Thank you Mr. Scarfe.

S E A R L E

2012-01-03T04:44:00.000-08:00

Just heard the news from Professor Martin Salisbury that Ronald Searle has died. Martin met Searle and his wife a couple of years back for an interview with the great man to accompany an exhibition at The Ruskin Gallery Cambridge. By all accounts a warm lively meeting lubricated by fine champagne. Apart from Searle's stunning Japanese POW drawings I dismissed his work as old fashioned and dusty and dated. It wasn't until I clapped eyes on a large original of Searles's at The Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hannover circa 1991 a drawing depicting Toulouse-Lautrec in a Parisian brothel, that I conceded. I could see the the influential subtle genius in the draughtsmanship, but his work and that of his European contemporaries was the stuff I wanted to trample over. I failed. A few years ago an art editor friend of mine bought a Searle original with three separate vignettes on a theme of Wimbledon Tennis for £6000.00. I imagine they must've just doubled in value. I'll go and drink a toast to Ronald Searle.

EveryThing Must Go:

2012-01-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

Carrow Road. Canaries. Draw. One all. Fulham FC.26 thousand eight hundred and six. Went through the emotion of the end of the year. Sank a few.

Drew a drawing. Hard work - but not as hard as a Tesco Shelf Stacker on a Sunday. Shop Lifter. Sneak. Thief. Burgalar. Pick-Pocket:

Cucumber Theft just discovered. Fail to make a comment I shall hunt them down.

TOXIC WASTE BASKET CASE

2011-12-26T02:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day. Zygmunt Januszewski. Fish and Cakes in Poland. Kedgeree in Suffolk. Boxing Day Sunny Day. Mediocre weather report. Sore throat. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah............ What was that all about? It all ends in tears. In case of champagne order a taxi for The Angel.

Blue Christ.

2011-12-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

Drawing in a drawer. Best left.

F I S H Y - POISSON PEN:

2011-12-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

April....................

May......................

Visitation? I shake the plum tree and look what falls out - I like to think that the dog may have inspired Sergio Aquindo.....it's not bad is it?

Catch A Falling Star:

2011-12-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to my 119 readers?

SUNDAY - Bored?

2011-12-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Friday; So you have nothing better to do, you stumble across this tumblr world and you are snared by a trillion images. Where does it all come from? Where's the factory pumping all this porno-sausage crap out? You drag some random decent images off-but you leave the credits behind at least this Tumblr stuff gives credit where credit is due. And you? You are a thief. Meanwhile Cameron is mono self abusing. You consider slinging your hook and landing your craft in SAUL STEINBERG live and die in the principality of Steinberg.......maybe. Saul Steinberg. Saul Steinberg. Saul Steinberg. You had never heard of Saul Steinberg until 1993 hang your head in shame. You love the wit. You love the line. You are just a squashed bluebottle on the window pane. A smear. Stick a bag on your head. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha-ha.

Once Bitten Twice Earls Court:

2011-12-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

Last night there was a storm.

DOPPELGANGER:

2011-12-07T04:00:00.001-08:00

Heathrow Airport.Terminal 1. He would've recognised me. He wouldn't have ignored me? I caught up with him later. I stalked the man. Excuse me are you Brian Love? I realised as I begun the sentence my chosen victim was not the man that I once knew. But I carried it through anyway. He paused. He smiled. I think he was slightly wary of my term of endearment. I apologised. I told him it was someone I hadn't seen for a number of years. You have a Doppelganger, I stated. What's your friend do he asked? I actually said. He's an artist. The stranger liked this piece of information. Mistaken for an artist. So the imposter the doppelganger asked my name. I replied my name is William and he told me his name was Duncan. Just in case I should bump into your friend. He laughed. He was a Canadian.I went to gate 5. I nearly boarded the wrong flight. I almost flew to Aberdeen. This ticket is for Vienna. The attendant said, as if issuing instructions to a simpleton. I followed the signs for gate 8 I said. This is five he said. Waiting at Gate 8 later. A woman sat opposite me was the double of Linda Danson. I haven't clapped eyes on Linda since probably Easter 2003. But when she stood up she was a good six inches shorter than Linda. Linda stood six feet. I relaxed it couldn't be her which was a shame unless of course she's lost six inches or my memory is scrambled. I got to Vienna, it wasn't Aberdeen.

I want to be your fridge magnet:

2011-12-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

Zero: Blank: Nude Fig.

S O C R A T E S 57 was a doctor.

2011-12-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

I leave the country. Full body search on exit. Gary Speed God Speed Ken Russell. Schiele reduced to a box of matches reduced to a fridge magnet. Better than hanging on a toilet door in a posh restaurant Shirley Maclaine for the ladies, The Duke for the gents It's over before you know it. Mowing the lawn in December. Plague of copyists in Savannah. Why? The spy reports and emails me evidence. Says Sorry to make you angry. Angry? Down to the last detail. It has no class no sense of design. It's - throw the material at the wall make it stick and copy. Can't you tell the difference? Who runs this academy in Savannah? Shoot the suspects. Line 'em up. Slap the culprits round the face point out the errors of their ways.........dislocate their fingers. Skewer their eyeballs and burn over the bar-bq. Illustration makes you sick. I couldn't get an interview a few years back at the University of Savannah they advertised for a full time lecturer of illustration in The Guardian newspaper in England. I applied. No they said I wouldn't be considered as I have no educational qualifications. No degree. Can't interview you. Can't consider you. New Yorker? The Washington Post? Esquire? Your students write to me seeking enlightenment...........No good. No qualifications. No provisional licence. Sorry no degree. You are not a Professor. You are not a Doctor. You are not qualified. I make a living. You don't make a living. Who you kidding? The plagiarism is terminal. Copy something else you slug brained cretinous clams. The Professors of Savannah should be sacked, trousers pulled down and buttocks caned. Should be discouraged. Should close the shop. Everything must go. Identity plundered. Looted. It's all been done before, Klaus said. Not worth a light. It's only illustration.

POOH IN THE WILLOWS:

2011-11-19T04:32:00.001-08:00

C U L L:

2011-11-11T04:22:00.000-08:00

India's Morning:

2011-11-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

MOTH DOG DRAWING:

2011-11-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

Charmer. Snake Charmer.

2011-10-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

I last went to a Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge in 1971........I couldn't have predicted my next visit yesterday was going to be in the company of my chef chum MPW, sat in the directors box guest of the Chelsea Chairman and witnessing a classic contest in a 8 goal thriller and Arsenal coming out the victors after a second half comeback. Viva Van Persie. Bit different 40 years ago. 40 years! 50000 pornographic violent chanting skinheads looking for blood swaying as one standing massed tsunami gobbing their fury at Peter Houseman. And after the match away from The Shed End raiding the enemy stampeding in their 64-eyed steel capped DMs across the rooftops of parked Morris Marinas,leaving their impression on Austin Allegros sensing blood slinging their sharpened coins. Giving Old Bill something to do. Yesterday it was a taxi rank of massed chauffered latte swigging smoked windowed four by fours waiting in a shiny queue for their smartly dressed crew. Great match though.And the best goal of the lot was Theo Walcott's. He dribbles the ball in from the right wing falls over the ball stumbles through a group of Chelsea defenders having a natter as if at a day time creche, the ball half left behind but Theo manages to regain his balance at the same time as renegotiating a deal with the ball who joins him on his mesmerising path to glory and launches the sphere the missile past the leather capped Peter Cech bulging into the net. Genius.

Five minutes.

2011-10-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Holt.A twee small town in the county of Norfolk. Stuffed with estate agents. Stuffed with craft shops. Stuffed full of grandparents with children looking to pass the time in search of gift wrapped Giclee prints of oil paintings on canvas, signed HARRIS. Didn't hang about.

Hotel de Paris, Cromer. Norfolk. Rain. Regular Haddock and Chips. Irregular thoughts. Save The Cromer Crab. Caught a bit of BBC Radio 4 documentary on 70 years of Classic Comics. Moby Dick. Treasure Island. The Iliad. Didn't hear all of it-found a parking space. Time was tight.

Dexter had a haircut. He's up for anything now.

Going for a pow-wow, for a pint at The Dove to smoke the peace..

BRIAN CLARKE.

2011-10-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

6.50am Got up. Just. Made a cup of tea. Fantasied of giving up. Stopping. This. That. Drawing. Illustration. Especially illustration. Switched on the laptop. Checked the email. No response. Half looked at TV Breakfast News. I suppose I mean with one eye like Cyclops. Swop. One Israeli for 1000 Palestinians. Switched off. Went to iplayer. Nothing worth a view. Then Clicked on Brian Clarke An Artist Apart. Gobsmacking. Inspirational. Breathtaking. The genuine thing. Leonardo Da Vinci.

Now back to the Iliad.

Greek Unorthodox.I perpetuate the artistic lie. Back to the mediocre.

A HARD DAYS NIGHT:2

2011-10-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

We waited for hours. A surge. I was shuvved violently against the perfumed Wilfred Brambell. George winked and he was gone. Twickenham Film Studios a long time ago.

Birgitta Sif

2011-10-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Birgitta Siff. Walker Books stand Frankfurt Book Fair October 2011. Former MA student at Cambridge, only graduated this year will be on the best seller list next year. A student in an exceptional year group I was lucky enough to be involved with in a small way. A course run by Martin Salisbury and specialising in picture book illustration and writing.

NICK THIS:

2011-10-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

Can't tell a joke: Take two.....

Think. Idea. Draw. Scan. Post. Pocket picked. Ideas, can't copyright an idea can you? Depressing. Hands off. Stop this nonsense. These drawings. These childish self conscious expressions of ink. Normal service. Sleep.

60 is the new - 40. Fuck off. Golf. That's it dedicate myself to reducing the handicap.

Invite to Vienna. I said how good is that? Wonderful he replied. An offer of 75% less than the previous project. Absurdly high expectations he said.

Another publisher sent a royalty statement for the period January 2011-June 2011 they sold eleven books. Just the £4230.20 to break even. I could do that in an afternoon sell eleven Hot Dogs. Why don't you? Arsehole. Because it is by Sandy Turner and Sandy Turner is dead. The price of the airmail statement cost more than the Cool Cat Hot Dog royalties of eleven sales.

I sold Hot Dogs at The Gaumont Cinema. Richmond. Tore in half admit 1 tickets, skewered their other half on a spike. Ushered couples to their viewing positions,shone a torch on their row number. I sold choc ices in the interval. Short changed customers in the dark. Saw Charlie Bubbles. Whom The Gods Wish To Destroy. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 63 times. One couple who followed my torch-beam to their seat in the stalls was Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave. And another was Nicol Williamson.

SENDAK: Signed

2011-10-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

In 1992 I was invited to meet Sendak along with other notable illustrators including if I can remember correctly, Angela Barrett, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham and Shirley Hughes. I had driven down from Manchester with Jill Barton, I missed the cup final to go. It was for a meal hosted by Walker Books in his honour at The Ivy restaurant. He was in London to promote I Saw Esau edited by Iona & Charles Opie, beautifully designed by Amelia Edwards and decorated by his illustrations. It was all very polite and reverential until I got up from the long table and I produced my copy of Where The Wild Things Are for him to sign and then it suddenly became more relaxed and every one else also produced various Sendak books for him to sign. As he left at the end he gave me some sound advice. "Don't let the bastard's fuck you up!"

Courtney Pine:EUROPA

2011-10-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

I might play some Miles Davis I might listen to some jazz influenced tracks but last night I witnessed a breathtaking performance by Courtney Pine and his band featuring a mesmerising pianist Zoe Rahman. Artists at play. The pity there wasn't a larger audience to witness his genuinely human presence his conversation his virtuoso playing of a bass clarinet. Genius. I said I would do a drawing. I did. And you know what? It's crap.

Dog Goes to Market.

2011-10-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

Bert Jansch, 67 has died. Dexter attracts the freaks. The market place draws them in. Earwigs round an ants nest. I got an offer today.

A HARD DAYS NIGHT:1

2011-10-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Charitable.Drawing without reference. Without blinkers. Didn't have time to sit for me. Drawing from memory. No photographic aid. 45 minutes duration. Partial Soundtrack:Thou Shall't Always KIll: Dan Le Sac Scroobius Pip/Land Called Home: Jim White just to give a flavour. Dog asleep in the doorway. Sky turned grey. Heatwave has withdrawn.

S E N D A K:

2011-10-03T03:06:00.000-07:00

Today's Guardian Newspaper, interview with Maurice Sendak. Worth a read. Honest. Funny. Shame there ain't more. I think it wasn't until I was in my first year Foundation course that I was aware of Sendak. 16 or 17 years old I saw a copy of Where The Wild Things Are, it belonged to Jonathan Briant. Of course later it became one of the influences on my work.

SOUNDTRACK: MAX RICHTER - INFRA

Film Title?

2011-09-25T08:52:00.001-07:00

Auto-drawing. Autumn. Sunday. Bar b q. Squashed plums. Home made Tomato ketchup aroma.

SPEED OF LIGHT?

2011-09-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Twenty degrees? Twenty two? Twenty three? Twenty five this afternoon? Twenty. 3pm. sat in the sun outside the studio door glass of red wine. A mob of Long Tailed Tits making a racket in a plum tree. Don't want to work.

Earlier a courier who bore an uncanny resemblance to Albert Einstein, he got it wrong at first, went next door, knocked at my door. David Hughes? Yup. Sign at the bottom. I scrawled an autograph across his mini screen. Unsealing the packet to find a magazine for which I was asked to contribute. 'Britain, Hometown of Picture Books'. South Korea - God Bless You. I know if I remember correctly that I said something along the lines of 'what do you expect, bloody Beatrix Potter...' in the interview. I like to think their designer has a keen sense of humour, even if they did manage to crop off/amputate the feet of I presume John Bull. What am I doing amongst this company? Kate Greenaway, Beatrix Potter, Charles Keeping, Shirley Hughes, Quentin Blake, John Burningham, Oliver Jeffers, Sara Fanelli, Harriet Russell, to name a few....surely some mistake. Brilliant. Genius. Cheers. Long live the dog! Buy it now, let's hope the translator has a keen sense of humour too. Can't trust no one least of all Albert Einstein.

4 0 4

2011-09-22T11:01:00.001-07:00

Compulsion. This compulsion with the computer. Facebook. BLAH. Sketchbook. Cheap drawings. Waste of ink. Taste of drink. I woke up. It's Wednesday. 7:40AM. Bins? She said. Bins she repeated it's bin day today. Have they been? Have you put the bin out? It's Wednesday. I said. No it's Thursday she said. She was right it was Thursday. Bin day. Grey bin day. I lost a day. Lost the argument.Do you really care. Fish pie tonight. But fish pie should be served on Friday. I am in a state. Football used to all kick off at 3pm on a Saturday.

Putting On The Ritz

2011-09-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

Just the usual Tuesday afternoon followed by a stroll across St. James's Park. The life of the illustrator.(retired). Bumped into Binky Chambers outside Lock & Co.hadn't clapped eyes on him in 30 years. Recession? Life's a riot isn't it darling. Nibs, oh yes the drawing implement of choice, personal preference of course is the Gillott 404. Don't leave home without it. Carry a supply just in case. Now where's the Hansom Cab?

The Angel

2011-09-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Doodle. Not very good Doodle.

Out of gas. Devoid of energy...... Who....tea at The Ritz tomorrow funny life Slow worm legless as a lizard a couple of days ago. Buzzard today.

CRAZY GOLF

2011-09-12T03:37:00.000-07:00

You should wear white socks with tailored shorts..................................................................I was invited to a round of golf in deepest leafy Surrey on Saturday. I haven't played a full round for at least three years. I managed not to make a complete idiot of myself I even parred two holes. My friend Ian partnered me. We were up against another team also Ian and David, which made life simple. Dave was a builder, Ian a chippie (carpenter) . Dave told us he had recently played a round of golf with a disabled player and was impressed by the man's ability to hit a golf ball. I remarked you should've asked what his handicap was. But the comment flew over the heads of the alternative Ian and David, just like one of my wayward hacks. It was such an obvious comment to make I couldn't resist. Still my partner Ian laughed.

Another friend hit's sixty. God it's depressing. Celebration in a restaurant in Holland Park. I met up with Ronnie a former editor of Hello. I don't really know her that well but we meet up at intervals of I don't know of five maybe even ten years but I always enjoy seeing her. We first met in the offices of Options magazine in the early 80's I was working at Granada Television Studios in Manchester and she was suitably impressed that I knew several members of the cast of Coronation Street at the time. When I say knew it was more like I can remember exchanging small talk to Len Fairclough in the next urinal cubical one afternoon, I think he was later arrested at his local swimming baths............... chatting with Vera Duckworth in the bar while she fed the fruit machine that sort of thing......... Ronnie was a fan, so I think we hit it off. Somehow it seemed the perfect position for Ronnie when she was offered the editorship of Hello Magazine several years later. Not before she had worked in a funeral parlour for a number of years, interesting CV.

Sunday morning made a pilgrimage to Cookham to see Stanley Spencer and his war paintings of shipbuilding on The Clyde. Interesting small exhibition but I was disappointed with Cookham I expected to see resurrected souls clambering from the graveyard, spotty Dalmatians peeing up against lamposts fat naked torsos lingering behind upstairs net curtained windows. Instead mobs of daytrippers every other one talking into their mobiles. And a head full with blank intervals of the previous night and serious self hatred.........I was going to inflict my memories of that day 10 years ago but really who cares what I think.

SOLD

2011-09-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

It isn't Vicious...

2011-09-08T02:10:00.000-07:00

Photo: Jake Abrams.

Fish of Fukushima -Wish you were here..........

2011-09-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

First postcard drawing: Did this lot fetch a decent price? Was it a bargain? Did the auctioneer give it a good hammering. Did he bang his gavel? Does the bidder keep tropical fish? This morning, weather a bit wet, a bit windy. Dog a bit damp. So you punch your victim's mobile number and if it goes to answerphone you punch 191 and you can hack them, you can listen to their messages? Simple is it really that simple or did I miss hear? I am deaf. That's how you retrieve your own messages......am I thick? He did mumble. It makes you concentrate. It's getting depressing more and more of my acquaintances, friends even are reaching the sixty year mark. Still that bodyboarder had both legs bitten off by a Great White that's worse.

Absalom Feavearyear.R I P

2011-08-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

I've lost a follower. I've stopped being followed. This is a photograph of Folkestone. Kent. Today I took a trip to a grave yard in Norfolk. Surrounded by fields. Buried in the grave yard are several souls of suicides. One was named Kevin. The man who has lived in the village for all his 79 years, a retired farmer, looks after the graveyard, filled me in on some of the details. It was very quiet. I imagine it won't be long before he's laid in his plot. There used to be a school. It closed down last year.

I blame the parents:

2011-08-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Looting. Don't do it. Don't say you are inspired by me. Dog's and their owners. Inspired by: You are just copying. There is no apprenticeship. No understanding. Lazy. I am not impressed. I am depressed by it. It has to stop. All the tics and mannerisms. Mike Yarwood. Phil Cool. Rory Bremnerisms.

Solko

2011-08-11T01:16:00.000-07:00

Gig in the park. Halesworth. Solko - tight unit. Unique. Best on the bill by far. Should be headlining in the near future. You read it here first. I have run out of serious muso cliches for now...oh the drummer looks 12 - don't be deceived, he's played with John Coltrane and Wilson Pickett.

OLYMPIC FLAME:

2011-08-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

I must not make jokes at others misfortune. I must try harder. I must not be cynical. I must be a picture book illustrator. I must not attempt to draw political type cartoons. I am not a cartoonist. I must feel a sense of pity for the estate agents of London. Next target Richmond? Teddington?

Broadstairs:

2011-08-09T01:58:00.001-07:00

A lovely day yesterday in Broadstairs on the coast of the Garden of England. How tranquil, how English....

Amy. 27

2011-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Middle name Jade? You should've been Rita. This hasn't come out as I wanted. It started with a quickly drawn right eye the left as you look at it and then the pen went it's own way. Far too big. What about the hair do. What about the black why not colour it in black. Don't know. It's a failure. But it's done. And I'm putting it up here. Amy Rita Winehouse was cremated today. Bloody sad.

So as many a critic/fan has pointed out she joins a club of similar icons. I think you could lay the blame at the feet of that great late cabaret singer Matt Monro - Born Free - From Russia With Love- the Camay soap advert. Before Matt hit the big time he drove the Teddington Bus and guess what.....it was the number 27. Matt died prematurely too I think at the age of 54. No significance there just that 54 is twice 27.........

N O R W A Y:

2011-07-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

Hi David:

2011-07-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

Spot looks great. Would like more focus on the megaphone for the opener. Anyway to make this more dynamic?

I got feedback form the design director for you. He is concerned that

these are feeling a bit dark. Is there anything to be done to lighten

the spirit of these? I think you should try infusing more humour in

them. Although I like having a woman and I definitely think we need

women for diversity maybe Maria's quote is too dark and sensitive for

the DD.

Hi David, Actually we have opted to art this differently. Thank for trying to take on this impossible task. Hope we will work together again soon.

3 DRAWINGS:

2011-07-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Egon Schiele. David Hockney. Hans Holbein.

Today is Sunday the rain is torrential the sky dark it is beautiful. I have completed 6 drawings in progress, deadline Wednesday. I've listened to Desert Island Discs. I've tuned into Danny Baker on Radio 5. He is a genius. Now I listen to the rain.

I am washed away with the flood. I MUST NOT ATTEMPT TO BE A POLITICAL CARTOONIST. I MUST NOT ATTEMPT TO BE A POLITICAL CARTOONIST. I MUST try something different..............

CHELSEA HOTEL

2011-07-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday. The flood. Like the sketches the rat (anagram) director emails, can you make the opener more dynamic...I should be trying to make the opener more dynamic instead I've been side-tracked YouTube-ing various versions of Leonard Cohen's song Chelsea Hotel. When I was 17 Leonard Cohen was girls music but I admired some of his songs in secret. I even swapped a John B. Sebastian LP for Songs From A Room circa 1970. I have to do a magazine commission. It's perfect weather for working. But all I want to do is watch Youtube. On my first visit to New York in 1989 I stayed in The Chelsea Hotel. I didn't use the elevator. If I drove the elevator maybe I might have met Patti Smith or Kris Kristofferson instead I climbed the staircase and met the spirit of Dylan Thomas sliding down the bannister. I found on Facebook an old friend who I haven't seen since 1973 and the clue to her was Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen is the only music she lists on her info page. So it had to be her. She introduced me to Leonard Cohen in 1969. I bought Pearl in 1970. Janis Joplin was according to the song the girl in the song. It is a beautiful song.

esther pearl watson:

2011-07-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Just received a Design Arts Daily email with an interview with illustrator Mark Todd who is married to another illustrator Esther Pearl Watson , an artist I am not aware of (not so unusual for me ) so I clicked her website I love this painting what a beautiful sky there's others too anyway I'd better get on with my assignment I keep putting off the moment, I've cleared and polished the desk top. It is very stuffy close clammy atmosphere I can't breathe the day is slipping past ........

M E D U S A :

2011-07-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

Drawing in hindsight. I took the Murdoch half crown, drawing a weekly portrait for nearly three years in the early nineties for his newspaper Today. It was unusual in that I would be told it could be Jeffrey Archer one week, Billy Connolly another, Princess Anne and so on. I would be free to interpret the subject, draw the victim how I saw fit. I was free to do what I wanted. On occasions my drawing would appear castrated in print, censored frequently but it was a regular earner. I am a tart. I would often get angry-threaten disembowelment and similar then I'd have a week to get over it til the next time. It always travelled Red Star except during industrial action and then it might get lost in transit by carrier pigeon. Besides I liked my editor Christopher Wilson, who would write the copy for the column Poison Pen. He was a fan of my work. He first clapped eyes on my illustrations as part of a small exhibition in a basement bar at Waterloo Station, a bar that previously had housed the gents toilets, so quite an appropriate setting to hang illustrations and cartoons. He tracked me down phoned me up and told me he had been invited to edit a weekly 8 page insert into the main paper. He would like to run Poison Pen a full page. So that's how it started. It ended abruptly. I have just googled it, November 1995. Thursday, the day the last Poison Pen appeared, I have a horrible recollection that the last drawing may have been of David Hockney God knows why he had been selected I love the man personally, so it was impossible to produce a drawing that attacked the subject. I suspect it was a gentle apologetic excuse of a drawing. I know it was a gentle apologetic piece. I couldn't do it. If nothing else a bad drawing serves as a spur to draw a better one next week. I am in my studio. It is nearly 5 o'clock. I have music playing, probably Jeff Buckley or if I was really miserable, Bjork. My daughter walks into shot. My memory makes her about 7 years of age in fact, she must've been thirteen. "Dad," she asks "is it true that tomorrow's edition of Today will be it's last?" I think I hear her right. "Pardon." I say. "Say that again." "Is it true that tomorrow's edition of Today will be it's last?" She says. "Where did you hear that?" I ask. "It was on John Craven's Newsround, just now." This is 1995 before most of us were getting our instant up to the minute information from the internet. I eject Jeff Buckley. Switch to the BBC Radio 4, just in time for the 5 O'clock news. First headline. The Queen Mother is comfortable after an operation to remove a fish bone from her throat. Second item: Leah Betts's life support machine is switched off.......and in the bronze medal slot: Tomorrow's edition of Today Newspaper will be it's last. I phone Christopher Wilson's direct line. No answer.

The following week I eventually get a call from Wilson. He was on holiday in Devon apparently unaware of the the sudden closure of the newspaper. When he heard the news he was having lunch with TV chef Keith Floyd. I don't know why I've added that piece of information. It turned out that despite Today having a healthy circulation, it was haemorrhaging massive sums of money. So Murdoch took the decision to shut it down with immediate effect. According to Wilson there was an enormous swindle being carried out by many of the employees who were bleeding Rupert dry, secretaries, office staff on a major expense scam, on the fiddle. Fuelling luxurious lifestyles. But that is a tradition of the newspaper industry I imagine. Me I did get paid what I was owed, but several original drawings mysteriously went awol, including one of Rolling Stone Keith Richards, it's probably hanging on some journalist's toilet wall who in his spare time is a guitarist in a Rolling Stones tribute band. Helps him memorise guitar licks as he wipe's his arse to Satisfaction..............

Wilder Shores of Love

2011-07-13T02:32:00.001-07:00

This postcard delivered by Royal Mail. A postcard from a friend. Brian. Not so usual these days. To get something in the post, personal signature and a message. Much appreciated better than a bank statement or junk mail selling insurance. Nowadays it's a facebook thumbs up or an email. Brian's message was handwritten with a fountain pen. Cy Twombly died last week. An artist I don't know much about in fact I know damn all about him. Now he's dead I'll begin to appreciate him. Roy Orbison. Marvin Gaye. Arthur Worsley. I think I remember reading somewhere that Paul McCartney owned a Cy Twombly. I like the name Harper as well. Cy whats that short for? Resignation?

Brian tells me it is impossible to post a comment on this bleedin' blog Flogging the dog he says it's more like floggin' a dead bleedin' horse......anyone else having the same problem because I don't appear to get much reaction but maybe that is because of the dull nature of my waste. I do feel like knocking this on the head.

I-SPY:

2011-07-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

COMIC STRIP:4

2011-07-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

COMIC STRIP

2011-07-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

45rpm after five a side on astro turf............crude drawings done just now on an early Friday evening 7pm. Love will tear us apart

Night & Day

2011-07-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

Drawing finds a home in the online pages of magazine Night & Day courtesy of editor Tom Avery. P.G.Wodehouse. Graham Greene. Osbert Lancaster. Evelyn Waugh. T.S. Eliot and me...

PEEPING TOM:

2011-07-07T02:44:00.001-07:00

Tap Dancing. Cold water tap. Plumber's mate. Tap on the shoulder. Visit from The Grim Reaper.

SHARK LENS:

2011-07-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

POLAND

2011-07-03T12:55:00.001-07:00

I did a drawing of designer James Boughton yesterday from life. I wonder if you can tell. Three times larger than life. He sat very still. Meanwhile this is a drawing of an empty bottle. Sunday. Eleven and half inch x sixteen and half inch.

Bird Spotting: The Greenfinch.

2011-07-02T04:01:00.000-07:00

Drawing room. Beware French Windows. Farce. Man with trousers down around his ankles. Very unfunny. Greenfinch unclose your eyes.

Sex On Fire.

2011-07-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

The White Stripes? The Carpenters? Sam & Dave? Nina and Frederick?

Physiognomy:

2011-06-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this man? He can out draw you. He will blow out candles. He can eat cake.........

JELLYFISH.

2011-06-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Compulsion to stick sketches on here. Reason to draw. Deadline. But. Death to copycat thieves. Man O War. Drowned in Oporto. She was waiting for it to happen she sat sipping afternoon tea from a bone china tea set. A lone customer sat in a grand cafe on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean she witnessed the fool at the end of the jetty nearly succumb to the serpent's wave. It was hilarious. The fool was sodden. He joined her after. She laughed and said I sat here I watched you I was waiting for it to happen and it did. The fool didn't speak Portuguese. It was dark. There was a chill in the air as the fool made his way back to room 43.

Al Pacino: DNA GER OF DEATH

2011-06-28T04:13:00.000-07:00

Cycle ride. Filmed a telegraph pole. Birdsong went silent as I filmed. Camera shy. The Empire Strikes Back - inspiring book of Indian and Pakistan's contemporary art. I turned it's pages this morning my head a book mark between the sheets. Two slices of toast spread with butter and Homemade Redcurrant and Rhubarb Jam and coffee for breakfast. I have to produce a square drawing for someone I met eleven years ago in Oporto. Can't remember. But they have some signed books of mine, must be true. Like a tennis match played Claudia Schiffer at chess. Checkmate. Claudia was in good form.

HAUNTED AIR:

2011-06-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

Half an hour ago a second courier knocked at the door with a large cardboard box. It's like my birthday. It was too hot for the dog to bark. The box contained four books sent to me by editor Tom Avery as a thank you as a bonus for my contributions to his on line magazine Night & Day. I had no idea what his selection would contain. One book the smallest stood out. Haunted Air. A collection of Anonymous Hallowe'en Photographs. America c.1875 - 1955. Ossian Brown. Three photos from the book published by Jonathan Cape. Trick or Treat? Treat. Beautiful.

4 DOUGLAS FRANCES 3

2011-06-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Book covers are tricky. For me. This is not a book cover. This is a sketchbook. Paint. It is very hot I must have a fever. Africa winter. Hippos in the garden. I met him in Legnica on a diet of fried spinach and vodka. Olive Oil tipped onto a hot bar b q stinks like diesel. The Association of Illustrators are looking for entries for next years exhibition and Images book. They haven't returned the artwork from last years show yet, it's still warm. I don't think I will be entering. Look out for an on line magazine called Night & Day issue 2 out shortly maybe week after next, it features some work from this blogger.

Just to add it's two hours later (approx) watched 30 minutes of Glastonbury, saw some Paul Simon by chance. Diamonds On The Sole Of Her Shoes, You can Call Me Al, I hadn't played those songs/tracks for years as mentioned in last weeks post and now he's playing Glastonbury even if you find Paul Simon a bit sweet (I do) you can't deny that he can produce some classic stuff a great band playing with him too, Ry Cooder territory. It is such a bright and sparkly evening it is vintage champagne well did you ever that was a track on Desert Island discs this morning Sinatra and Crosby High Society. I should have kept up the piano lessons.

A Case of Satyrykon:

2011-06-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

It turned up. The case. A ribbon for identification. Yesterday was a Monday of excess. Not excess baggage. Excess. Champagne chased by Polish vodka. Many chases. A bar b queued banquet a feast to celebrate my daughter landing a two month job at short notice in South Africa as an aid/charity worker. Skyped interview. She made them laugh. She flies out Thursday. So any excuse and you can't beat sitting around a table eating drinking. A soundtrack of eighties music inspired by Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al which reminds me I smoked almost an anagram - a camel or four. Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes. SOULS? I had to dig out the Panasonic ghetto blaster to play the Graceland tape. Fine Young Cannibals. Bronski Beat. I met Popeye in Poland. Living breathing spinach chopping apparition of the cartoon. I forgot we had been introduced the previous evening when I introduced myself to him the following day Popeye said but David I know you. He was right. I fished out his card from my shirt pocket. Wojciech is a Chief Curator not a sailorman in his day job. In Warszawa.

Lufthansa Lost My Suitcase:

2011-06-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

More sketches of travellers in airport departure lounges. Not enough drawing of Legnica's cartoon festival Satyrykon. I was going to post some of the work that I saw, but the details are in the missing suitcase, except to repeat that Professor Zygmunt Januszewski's Warsaw Academy students stole the show. Such refreshing provocative and challenging work that will sweep away the old school crosshatching cliche ridden tribe of beer bellied flushed whiskery male dominated cartoonists of the world. It was beautiful to sit and swop stories with the united nations of 1970's illustrators and cartoonists but the Warsaw uprising will guarantee that this fine established cartoon festival of satirical art will survive and prosper in the years to come.

They found my hat in Tel Aviv....

2011-06-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

This is a portrait of a privileged lunatic asylum inmate, who serves traditional lemonade to the spectators at the annual cricket match against the local Rotary Club. The inmates and nurses having declared....he has been a patient for thirty eight years.

The hat was purchased on a day release trip in the early nineties from a hardware store in Southwold. The sweat stain from his head has designed a map of East Anglia on the inside of the hat and you can just about make out Southwold just above Walberswick, but it is not advisable to rely on it for accurate travel pointers.

Status Quo Pictures of Matchstick Men.

2011-06-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Not everyone's cup of Stewart Lee. Maybe a little incy wincy bitty bit crude but it's funny. I can't tell a joke. I can't remember a joke. Something to illustrate in these dark days. I must not attempt to be a political cartoonist. I must not attempt to be a fine artist. I must not attempt to be a childrens book illustrator.......

Cull The Labradors:

2011-06-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

D O G G O :

2011-06-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Music to Watch Girls By - Andy Williams.......sums it up, what a crap title. Declined an overnight job - deadline, about now. Sort of depressing. Substitute a 'sketch' of the faithful pet. Hobby: Watercolours and bird spotting. Can a blind dog play the blues?

PAUL KLEE:

2011-06-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Creative vandalism: Power screwdriver. We could remove this in less than 30 seconds. It would make a perfect contemporary frame for a medieval triptych painted by yours truly. Back at midnight...........

WHAT KATY DID NEXT......

2011-06-07T02:58:00.001-07:00

UNCONSCIOUS:

2011-06-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

22INCH X 46INCH Charcoal drawing from life:

Lack of models not ego driven subject. I must draw more from life. I must draw more from life. I must draw more from life. I did think I should draw a cucumber.

This morning up about 100 yards in front over the other side of the hedge laying in the road. A beast. It's fur the colour of venison. A large deer. Lying still. On it's side. The road was empty no traffic.It was about 9.45am. As I got closer. The deer lifted it's head and looked right at me. There was no signs of blood. I muttered oh god or similar. I wasn't carrying a mobile phone. And gradually the deer rose to it's feet very calm and with a single bound leapt into the woods bordering the opposite side of the road and was gone.

TREBLE 20

2011-06-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

E X I T :

Change My Name:

2011-06-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

Ten inch square actress drawing: Rabbit ears. Bunny Girl.....it ain't a bunny girl the ears just sprouted and I followed. Hare.

An email arrived in the inbox yesterday from American Illustration, attached to it was a slide show of the latest selection of the golden shiny chosen few. I was not among them although I never bothered to enter anything but it is obvious even if I did send anything in, I don't reckon I would have stood a chance. The standard is inspiring. So the artists that caught my eye in American Illustration 30 on a first look through, several new names to me dotted around the familiar faces - Elizabeth Baddeley, Serge Bloch, Maros Chin, Vivienne Flesher, Alessandro Gottardo, Olaf Hajek, Takahisa Hashimoto, Tatsuro Kiuchi, Veronica Lawlor, Ted McGrath, Franziska Neubert, Emiliano Ponzi, Brian Rea, Edel Rodriguez, Guido Scarabottolo, Yuko Shimizu, Aimee Sicuro, Gary Taxali, Blair Thornley, Riccardo Vecchio, Frank Viva.... too many to name. Pull my finger out. Pull my pen out. Put my tongue back in. Don't pull no punches.

E Y E T E S T :

2011-05-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Circa 1989. In a Stockport antique/junk shop just about to walk out spied an odd glass topped dark wood cabinet, this chart was in a drawer along with a complete set of the optician's paraphernalia. I swopped it for the price of a Bruce Springsteen pencil and charcoal portrait. So when times are hard I can amuse myself as an optician. A very intimate pastime eyeballing up close, a stranger.So someone placed a five pound bet yesterday on the England cricket team beating Sri Lanka in the first test...at odds of 9,999 - 1. Not a bad days work. Beats an optician's pay.

Fashion Statement.

2011-05-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Gil Scott-Heron has died. 62. I drew a life size sketch today in charcoal on my hands and knees in 45 minutes flat, 6 foot high. Eleanor. 34 weeks 2 days pregnant. I need to practice. I was pleased with myself. Then the critical eye gave me a slap.

VOLCANIC ASH:

2011-05-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

What's that racket you're playing? Babs hanging out washing. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Begging letters to the Messiah. Waiting on a decision. Yes/No/ Don't Know. Charity begins at home. Injunction. Up The Junction. Poor Cow. Nell Dunn. Carol White. Potters Music Shop. What's That racket you're playing? History of Otis Redding. Richmond Bridge. The Israelites.

TONGUE

2011-05-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

The scrap of paper (Eschewed) was buried in the debris of my drawing desk it floated on to the sketch, the drawing, the cartoon it was a piece of paper that caught my eye many years ago and I stuck it somewhere, now it's stuck on this and has nothing to do with the idea but it fits. State of mind. State -side on view: Start with the eye. How come I should enjoy eating strawberries. I let down so many people when I confess my dislike of the strawberry. Mush and water. My brain. We drove from Norfolk yesterday morning, I squashed a young rabbit under the wheels of a Toyota Rav 4 at the first roundabout near Harleston. It didn't stand a chance. I almost stood on a stoat this morning or could it have been a mink. The colour of it's fur would favour the mink. I am putting off the moment. I am putting off the moment. I am putting..... I am playing golf. I am white washing a window. I am blocking out the light. I am drawing an illustration. I am an illustrator. What's an illustrator said the police sergeant as he inspected the contents of my wallet the day John Smith suffered a massive fatal heart attack. See that little piece of folded up newspaper, unfold it and that is what I do.DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? Do not copy this artw ork thal't shall not steal. It is a bout 9 and a half inch square. Day job. Better return to the day job.

I left my hat in Tel Aviv:

2011-05-18T07:41:00.001-07:00

In ancient times. Anniversary of the catastrophe 15 May 1948.16 May Shenkar University. I wondered what you would look like. She asked to touch my jacket, she placed her hand lightly on the right lapel. She gasped 'linen'. Monday:11 speakers about a portrait. I talked a self-portrait. I got interviewed. I read on the net you were a postman once. Ate a last supper with 7 artists in a garden, drank wine and mixed it with whisky smoked a cigar. Got given a drawing. I left a drawing in a bar. I recovered the drawing in a bar. I left my hat in room 109. Took nearly 2 hours to get through security at Ben Gurion. Fell asleep at Gate 29 Zurich: Swiss Air landed at London City Airport. Fell down an up escalator Liverpool Street underground station. It hurt. An American Asian pressed the stop button just before my head was about to be re-cycled. He carried my bags to the summit. Cut my arm. Bashed the laptop. We shook hands. I thanked him. On my return Dexter wagged the tail. Spun round six times and served me one large gin and tonic. I couldn't stop talking Hebrew.

Economy Class:

2011-05-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

First Drawing:

15.28 Thursday

2011-05-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last drawing.