Hallowe'en Special: Pumpkin Carving!

In the spirit of Hallowe'en (if you'll excuse the terrible pun) I thought I'd share with you the photographs of the pumpkins Wendy and I carved today. I designed both carvings and drew them onto the pumpkins, then Wendy carved the cat and I carved the dinosaur. Enjoy and happy Hallowe'en, folks! Don't let the ghosts and ghouls get ya!

Girl with teddy stages 3 & 4

Right, yesterday's technical difficulties having been resolved for the time being (I get the feeling my technical difficulties will never be more than temporarily resolved until I can afford to buy a new computer and a new camera) I can now share with you the next two stages of the 'girl with teddy' painting. As you can see, I'm laying down some colour onto the canvas now, in the background area. Looks pretty awful, doesn't it? Fret ye not; this is just a temporary phase. What I'm doing here is building up a background that will be painted over.

If it's going to be painted over, you might ask, why am I bothering to do it at all?

Well, when I go in with a brush, I'll be applying the paint in layers in such a way as to retain a certain degree of translucence. When the top layers have been applied, you will just about be able to get a hint of the colours I have laid down here (with the scrubbing brush you can just about see in the bottom right hand corner of the image) which will prevent the background looking flat and lifeless. I don't always do this on a painting, but it really helps give pictures with large open areas on them a sense of vibrancy that they might otherwise be lacking.

Below, you can see that I've gone on to add a second layer of colour over the top of the red. The red and the blue clash pretty badly at this stage but when I've shown you the next stage, I hope you'll be able to see how they bring a certain something to the image now you know they're there.

P.S. - If any photographers reading this could advise me on how to eliminate this kind of 'fish eye' effect when I photograph my canvasses for the website, I'd be eternally grateful! I never used to get it with my old SLR, but I can't seem to get rid of it with the digital camera. It's not too much of an issue for intermediate stage photographs like these, but it drive me mad when I'm trying to photograph a finished piece.

Techno Loathing

Because that second Golden Age IS coming, right? Right? RIGHT???

Today's post was brought to you today by the artist's ever-increasing frustration with technology and several words far too rude to ever be used on Sesame Street.

Normal service will resume tomorrow once Paul has replaced his brain with a less angry one.

From the vault: Changing Direction

I'm not going to get a chance to get on with any artwork today, folks, due to my day being divided between paperwork, shopping, hospital appointments and socialising with friends this evening. So as not to leave you dangling with nothing to look at today, I've decided to post this piece from the vault. I decided to show you this particular piece today as we're rapidly approaching Hallowe'en and it's somewhat ghoulish in nature. It's called 'Changing Direction' and it's a piece I painted in acrylics and ink a couple of years ago after an extremely frustrating day attempting a photography project in Maidstone that just would not go right! I painted this when I got home that evening, very much as an exercise in blowing off steam...
Other than sheer frustration, the main influence for this was the work of Yoshitaka Amano (although, as is often the case when I'm influenced by somebody, I was influenced by the feel of his work rather than his technique). I had also been reading quite a bit of H.P. Lovecraft at the time, so that probably influenced the slightly... other-worldly feel of the piece (again, despite the fact that it was by no stretch of the imagination an attempt to actually paint one of his bizarre creations).

One of the most frustrating things, for me, about sharing my work with you all over the Internet is due to the fact that my work tends to be very textural in nature. You gain almost as much from running your hands across my canvasses as you do by looking at them and this textural aspect to my work is completely lost if all you can do is look at a photograph of it. I suppose you always get more from a work of art if you can look at the genuine article rather than a reproduction though; that's why going to galleries is such a rewarding experience.

Movie review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

I'm a little barometric with Wes Anderson's movies. I loved 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums' but really couldn't stand 'The Life Aquatic'. The fact that Anderson's latest project was a cinematic version of a beloved childhood favourite of mine, Roald Dahl's superb 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', worried me... particularly after seeing the trailer countless times before other films. I have to say that the trailer made this movie look simply awful... if it wasn't for the fact that I love the original book so much, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near this movie based purely on the trailer. On actually watching the movie, however, I found that it's actually a rather delightful film. It is very respectful of Dahl's original story without being too slavish to it (much like Danny DeVito's great version of Dahl's 'Matilda') and successfully mixes Anderson's sens of aesthetic without ever losing the Roald Dahl sense of magic and wonder. When you see the film as a whole, you understand the approach taken to the animation and start to love it (I did, anyway... as always, your mileage may vary). In the trailer it just came across as overly jerky and stilted. My one complaint about the movie is George Clooney's channeling of Hawkeye's whistle and click (that's Hawkeye from 'M.A.S.H.', obviously; not Hawkeye from 'The Avengers'). It was extremely annoying and added absolutely nothing to the movie. Overall, this film is subtle, understated and really quite beautiful, but has been saddled with one of the worst trailers I've ever had the misfortune to sit through. If you have any interest at all in seeing this film, don't let the trailer put you off.

Book review: The Liar

I've just finished reading Stephen Fry's first novel, 'The Liar', for the second time. I first read it back in 1994 (fifteen years ago! Good grief!) and absolutely loved the way it unfolded with each new chapter revealing something new. Re-reading it and knowing the ultimate outcome all along really made me appreciate what a wonderful demonstration of what can be achieved using the unreliable narrator it is. As the title would suggest, you can't really believe that anything being recounted to the reader at any point in the narrative is the 'truth' of the story... possibly not even the ultimate revelation that comes right at the end of the book. Fry's use of the language he obviously loves so much is, as you would expect, superb and the book is a delight to read from beginning to end. Needless to say, it is very, very funny, but it also manages to be quite poignant and deeply touching in places. If you're a fan of the man's television or film work but you've never read any of Fry's fiction, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this book a try. (What a clumsily written, cliche ridden review... Mr. Fry would surely be horrified! My only excuse is that I'm still rather ill at the moment...)

Movie review: The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

The second review for today (I told you I'd still be writing a fair few of 'em) is a movie. Terry Gilliam's new movie 'The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus' to be precise. As you may have noticed from my review of 'Jabberwocky' a few weeks ago, I'm a pretty big Gilliam fan and wasn't too worried about the well-documented fact that this production was stricken by some major setbacks (not least the death of one of the stars, Heath Ledger) as, like anybody familiar with Gilliam's career will know, major setbacks in production are pretty much par for the course with Terry's films. His latest effort is a real corker; a sumptuous fantasy tale dealing with how the worlds contained within our imaginations can lead to either redemption or damnation.

I love it when story-tellers tell stories about story-telling and how it can influence reality (the whole art reflecting life reflecting art thang) and this is a great example. What initially seems like a relatively simple modern fairy tale of good versus evil soon becomes far more complex as all the myriad shades of grey of the characters' personalities are gradually revealed. As in all truly good stories, nobody here is one hundred per cent good and nobody here is one hundred per cent evil... even the devil himself, who is played wonderfully by Tom Waits. Waits' devil, known in the movie simply as 'Mr. Nick' but it's pretty obvious who he's supposed to be, is the standout character for me in this film; risking giving too much away here, by the end of the movie I was left thinking that perhaps I should have been rooting for him all along.

While most of the cast give good performances, the star of the movie as far as I'm concerned is the visual effects panorama created for the realms of the imagination. Gilliam has created a kind of hyper-reality here, reminiscent of the kind of off-the-wall surrealism he used to create for Monty Python, that literally left me slack-jawed. This movie has had a lot of press attention due to the passing of Mr. Ledger who, and believe me when I say that I'm not just saying this because he's dead, actually gives one of the best performances of his career in this movie, but you shouldn't go and see it because of this. You should go and see it because it's a wonderful movie that is like nothing else on our screens at the moment. I'm seriously considering going back to see it again.

Orc stage 2 (or 'HOORAH! The camera's working!')

Well, after much gritting of teeth and cursing, I have finally managed to make the digital camera work. This means I can share with you stage two of the delayed orc painting. The photograph below is of the 40x30 inch canvas (propped up on my sofa) with a rough compositional guideline sketch drawn in with a 2B pencil. (It occurs to me that my international readers might not know what I mean by a '2B' pencil. I believe this grade of pencil is also known as a one and a half in some countries, if that helps. It's softer than a standard writing pencil ['HB'], but not one of these artist's pencils that's so soft it's almost charcoal [anything up to 9B].) I've tinkered with it a little in Photoshop so that the pencil lines can actually be seen (you may need to enlarge the image by clicking on it to see them properly). It's immediately obvious that this sketch is a lot less detailed than the original sketchbook doodle, as the only reason for doing this is to very loosely scribble down the placement of the figure. This is more representative of the kind of canvas sketch I normally do (if I do one at all; sometimes I just go straight in with the paint) rather than the more worked-up canvas sketch of the portrait of the young girl and her teddy bear.

As you can see, I've already altered the composition slightly, as I changed my mind and decided to do the painting on a rectangular canvas rather than a square one as I'd originally intended. I changed my mind about the canvas shape because I thought a rectangular canvas would help create more of a sense of depth for the cave.

I've also drawn in the Fibonacci lines on the canvas. I don't usually do this (I've been doing this for so many years I'm usually pretty good at just 'eyeing it') but I thought you folks might like to see that this painting, despite being drastically different from the portrait I used to illustrate the use of the Fibonacci number in composition in yesterday's post, also uses a variation of the Fibonacci type of composition. In this case, rather than using the focal point to emphasise the subject's face as in the other painting, I've used the focal point to emphasise the head of the mace. This is mainly because, if you were the unlucky adventurer who had stumbled across our fearsome friend here, I think the brutal looking, multi-spiked mace head might just catch your attention. You can't tell from this rough sketch, but I'm also intending on putting the mouth of the cave in this focal area to further emphasise the potential power of the weapon and really try to give the painting a sense of energy.

Anyway, now the camera issues have been resolved, I can get on with the painting the darn thing... see you soon (with any luck) with another update.

P.S. - I've had quite a bit of positive feedback about the new format of the website. I'd just like to say I'm glad so many of you approve and that I hope those of you who haven't said anything are enjoying it too.

Book review: The Little Green Imp And Other Stories

Well, I told you all on Saturday that the Weekly Round-Up was going to be replaced with 'as-and-when' type reviews and, true to my word, here's the first one.

'The Little Green Imp And Other Stories' is, as the title would suggest, just one of Enid Blyton's many, many short story collections for very young children. The stories contained in this volume are mostly of the fairy tale variety, in the classic sense of the term. Pixies, brownies, goblins, fairies and wizards abound (there are even cases of sentient snowmen and grandfather clocks) and they all get up to varying degrees of, mostly harmless, mischief. The stories are written in such a way that they are simple enough for young children to understand but are never patronising. Blyton involves her readers (or listeners, in the cases where an adult is reading the stories aloud to their children, which is probably the best way to enjoy this book) by actually asking them questions in the text (not exam type questions, you understand; they're more along the lines of 'I feel a bit sorry for the pixies, don't you?).

As an aside, the copy I have is illustrated by Peter Dennis and, speaking as an artist myself, I have to say that his illustrations are simply beautiful. There is one black-and-white ink drawing per story and they are phenomenally good. If you have young children of your own, nieces and nephews or even just babysit other people's kids, I can virtually guarantee that reading this book to them would be a most enjoyable experience.

Putting the sketch onto canvas

I'm still having technical difficulties with showing you the orc painting (the blasted camera's still not working) but, while I try and sort that project out, I've moved on to the next stage of the portrait I showed you the initial compositional sketch for in my last post. As this is an A3 painting, or nearasdamnit, I can actually fit half of the painting under my A4 scanner. (You really don't need to see the other half of the canvas at this stage... as it's blank.)

Not a lot more to add, here, to be honest, but I said I'd show you this stuff step-by-step and so I shall! What you're looking at here is a slightly more detailed, but still very rough, sketch. The main difference is that I've come out of my sketchbook and transferred the image onto canvas. Hmm... That sounded like I've got some highly technical/magical way of transferring an image from the sketchbook onto canvas... what I actually mean is, I've redrawn my sketch onto the canvas, sticking with the 2B pencil for now, using both my sketchbook doodle and the original photographs supplied to me by my client for reference. (Note that that was photographS, plural... it's absolutely great when a client provides you with more than one reference photo'; it stops you having to be a slave to just one image and really helps the artist create a truly unique painting, rather than just a copy of a photograph in paint.)

The fact that this sketch is slightly more detailed than the last holds little significance, by the way. Oftentimes, my rough sketch on the canvas is actually less detailed than my initial sketchbook drawing, as the only function it has is to act as a loose guide as to where the figure is going to be when I start slapping the paint on; it's going to be completely covered up in the end, after all. The only reason there's more detail on this particular occasion is that I got a bit carried away when I was doing it. That often happens with me when I draw... I go into a bit of a trance and a subconscious part of my brain that's more directly linked to my hand seems to take over. This is why I tend to shrug when people ask me why I draw so quickly; it sometimes doesn't actually feel like it's me doing the drawing. On the times when this feeling of being slightly possessed doesn't occur, it's usually a sign that things are not going well.

Using Fibonacci in composition

You'll have to wait a little longer for the second stage of the orc painting, I'm afraid, as I'm having technical difficulties (the poxy digital camera isn't working and a 40x30 inch canvas is a little too large to fit under my scanner). In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the beginnings of another piece I'm working on at the moment (I'm seldom only working on one piece at a time).

This portrait is a commission I'm doing of a young girl and her teddy bear. What we've got here is the initial composition sketch, done in 2B pencil in my sketchbook.

I'm going to get an ickle bit technical here, folks... or as technical as I tend to get, anyway. One of the questions I've been asked a lot over the years is 'what makes a good composition?' and I'm going to have a stab at answering it here. There are a lot of elements to composition but the one I'm going to talk about here is the placement of the principle subject of the painting. If you've looked at art at all in your life, you can't have failed to notice that most artists don't tend to place the subject of the drawing/painting/photograph etc. smack bang in the middle of the canvas. You may have wondered why... particularly since digital cameras (grr...) often have software built into them that help the snapshot photographer place the subject of their photograph smack bang in the middle of the viewfinder. You see all those faint lines I've overlayed in Photoshop across the sketch? (They aren't there on the actual doodle in my sketchbook, of course; they've been added here for illustrative purposes only, don'tchewknow.) Well, the more mathematically aware among you will probably recognise that they subdivide (roughly; I didn't use a calculator) according to the Fibonacci Ratio. If I've lost you completely here, you might be interested to read this article on the Fibonacci Number.

Back? All right, let's get on with it then. As you now know, the Fibonacci number/Golden ratio is quite literally everywhere in nature. There is a school of thought that it is so hard-wired into our brains on a subconscious/unconscious level and so omnipresent in the world we live in, that we cannot help but find an image composed upon the lines of the Fibonacci ratio/spiral aesthetically pleasing. I have to say that, whatever the reason is, I always find pieces composed in this way pleasing to the eye, so I use it a fair amount in my work. The next time you're taking a photograph and that little box pops up on the viewfinder showing you where the exact centre of the image is, you might want to think about ignoring it.

This isn't the only reason I've used it here, however. (Warning: it's about to get even more arty farty in here!) I chose to use the Fibonacci method of composition here because, in a portrait of a young child, the open space to the right of the image nicely symbolises the great expanse of life opening up before her like a realm of near-infinite possibilities... it's the space into which she will have to choose to make her first footsteps along the path of her life. Her shadow angling off into this space also works really nicely in this respect; I may even decide to exaggerate the shadow in the painting to increase this symbolism.

I'm not overly comfortable talking about this kind of thing, as I'm aware that it sounds laden with pretension and that's not really what I'm about, particularly at a surface level. Part of this new more-journalistic blog is to document my thought processes when creating a piece and I'd be lying if I tried to say that I don't think about this kind of thing at all. All this type of thing is very much bubbling away under the surface, though... I'm not the sort of artist who drinks absynthe in a smoky room, harping on about their misunderstood genius while wondering which body part to cut off.

I really have to emphasise here that this is only one way of composing an image; there is no hard and fast right and wrong in composition (and anybody who tries to tell you otherwise is either a moron themselves or they think you are) and the world of art would get boring very quickly if every single piece was composed using this Fibonacci method. The 'fried egg' method of placing the subject exactly in the middle of an image even works sometimes, so don't be too quick to dismiss it. I may well talk about some of the other ways of composing an image in future; I just thought you might get a kick out of learning about this one.

Step 1: Sketch the bugger...

All right, let's get the ball rolling on the new-style art journal...

Due to the demands of the vocal Orc Party (you know who you are), I've decided to try a large-scale fantasy-type painting this week. To give you a behind-the-scenes look at my artistic process, I'm going to post it stage-by-stage, as I do it.

My inspiration for doing this (apart from the aforementioned Orc Party vote) is twofold. Firstly, I've been doing a lot of small-scale stuff lately (up to about A3 size) and I'm itching to do something BIG, BOLD and DYNAMIC. I have a very large canvas collecting dust upstairs and I think I may have to fill it. Secondly, I was reading Sam Logan's great webcomic Sam & Fuzzy yesterday and, in the Q&A section, Mr. Logan mentioned that he enjoyed drawing tunnels. A little light bulb went off over my head and the thought rushed into my mind 'I could paint a picture of an orc guarding the mouth of a cave tunnel, about to smash the crap out of some hapless dungeon-crawling adventurer!' Did I mention I was a geek? I think I probably did...

Anyway, rather than just starting to paint straight off (which I often do), I decided I wanted to doodle a little reference sketch, just to work out my composition. Below is said doodle. As you can tell, this doesn't even come close to being a finished piece. It's literally just a quick scribble with a 2B pencil to block out my composition and play with ideas re: weapons, pose, facial expression, etc. Don't be surprised if some (or possibly even all) of these elements change at the next stage. I'm already having doubts about the top-knot and the little skull hanging from the end of the mace. Additionally, I'm wondering if I've made a rod for my own back by making the business-end of said mace so complex...

Anyway, I'm hoping to be able to post the next stage of this piece later today, so I'll see you later, folks.

Weekly Round-Up #6: The Final Countdown...

Well, it's time for the final Weekly Round-Up. That's right, the sixth and the last. This website will still contain reviews in the future, but they'll be appearing in a slightly different way... as will the entire website. Read on after I've finished reviewing for more (or if you just can't wait that long, or don't give a flying fig about the reviews, just skip to the bottom now).

Movie-wise, I have two romantic comedies and two horror movies for you this week (although the first of the two 'horror movies' barely qualifies, really). The first of the 'rom-coms' is the ensemble piece 'Couples Retreat'. If ever a movie deserved to be next to the word 'average' in the cinema dictionary, it's this one. The movie looks good, it's got a reasonably original premise, the cast all do their thing perfectly well, it's not especially predictable, but... it's just not funny. The cast have a pretty good ensemble chemistry but, for some reason I couldn't quite identify, all the gags fall flat on their faces and the entire movie just fizzles out as a result. This was a real shame as I usually like Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau's work (separately, I mean... as far as I know this is the first time they've written together), so I had been looking forward to this one. Never mind; I suppose you can't win 'em all. Moving swiftly on...

I went to see 'Love Happens' for two reasons, really. The first is that I have a lot of time for Aaron Eckhart, mainly due to the incredible 'Thank You For Smoking'. The second is that I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. I'm that rare thing: a heterosexual male who cries at chick flicks. This being said, 'Love Happens' was extremely disappointing. They open the movie with one of the biggest cliches in the world (I know it was supposed to be an ironic use of the cliche, but it just didn't play, folks; sorry!) and then proceed to pour cliche after cliche after cliche on top until the entire thing just collapses under its own weight. It's entirely predictable, to the extent that I even found myself saying the next line of dialogue before the actors did. The shame is, the actors all give pretty good performances... but why, oh, why did they feel the need to attach themselves to such a clunky, done-to-death plot? If you know what's good for you... avoid.

While not the disappointment that the two previous movies were, 'Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant' was exactly what I was expecting it to be; a cash in on the current popularity of the 'emo vampire'. Don't get me wrong; I really enjoyed 'Twilight' (the movie, that is... I haven't read the book yet) but this just feels like too much too similar too soon. I am also a huge fan of Anne Rice's saga, 'The Vampire Chronicles', and this movie just feels like 'Lestat Lite'... or perhaps, if I'm going to use diet fizzy drink metaphors, more accurately 'Lestat Zero'. Not to be too very negative, this film isn't entirely bad... in fact, if you ignore its total lack of originality, it's a pretty decent production. It certainly looks good and the acting's not bad... but you just can't get away from the fact that you've seen this story before and when you saw it before it was significantly better. Basically, if you're not a teenage girl who gets wet at the thought of hunky vampire boys, don't bother with this one.

Oh, thank goodness! It took four trips to the cinema this week, but we finally have a decent film! I have been continually impressed by the 'Saw' movies, and 'Saw VI' is no exception. Like the last movie in the series, this new installment focusses more on story than on gore, which is just fine with me. There's still plenty of gore for those of you who like that sort of thing, but it's not gore for gore's sake, which gets the thumbs up from me. What I like so much about the 'Saw' series is that they have managed to add something new with each installment and have also managed to tie all the films together into one completely seamless story-arc. This is so refreshing after putting up with countless horror franchises where the sequels are virtually just the first movie all over again but with different teenagers getting bumped off. I'm certainly not convinced by all the talk about this being the final 'Saw' movie, though; there is clearly a need for another part in the story... and it's so nice to be able to say that about a series of horror movies rather than just sighing in despair every time another sequel is announced.

Those of you who know me, or even have just read my previous music reviews, can't help but have spotted that I'm very much a child of the '80s. I was born in the '70s, of course, but the 1980s were very much my formative years. A band that are very much part of my growing-up-in-the-'80s experience are Living In A Box. I played the Hell out of their second album, 'Gatecrashing', back then and still enjoy it now. I've been looking for a copy of their eponymous first album for, literally, decades, so imagine my delight when I found one the other day in a second-hand record shop! Having given it a couple of listens, I have to say that it's not as good as their second (and last) album, but it is a cracking piece of '80s pop for those of us who are nostalgic for that sort of thing. Singer Richard Darbyshire has a voice that is simply superb; now I finally have both Living In A Box's albums, I may have to track down a copy of his post-LIAB solo album.

I bought Maroon 5's first album 'Songs About Jane' for my better half's birthday this week, so, needless to say, I've heard it a few times over the last few days. Maroon 5 are one of those bands who I had a passing familiarity with but, being the type of person who'd rather bung on a CD than listen to the radio, I probably wasn't as familiar with their stuff as most people. Having now given it a proper listen, I've actually found that I like it quite a lot. Nothing ground-breaking here, but they're clearly not afraid of mixing up different musical styles and they have a heartfelt, hook-driven approach to song writing. The singer has a decent enough voice and, while they'll never be my favourite band, I'm sure I'll get to like this album quite a bit once I get to know it.

My first reaction when a mate thrust a copy of Bryan Talbot's graphic novel 'Grandville' into my hands was 'Steampunk? Really? Hasn't that been done to death?' but I'm glad I pushed this initial feeling aside and read it anyway. The first thing you notice is how beautifully bound and designed this book is. I don't normally care one way or the other about the presentation of a book; it's the words inside it that are important to me; but this book is just so stunning that I can't let it go without comment. Talbot's art is also stunning. The guy can really draw and he certainly provides a lavish backdrop to this particular story. Yes, steampunk may be a little old hat these days but Talbot does it so well that he breathes new life into the genre. This book is so evidently a labour of love; in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's a love letter to all his various influences, which he wears very proudly on his sleeve. There's nothing crushingly original here, but it's all executed so superbly that it really doesn't matter. As for the downside, well, it has to be said that Talbot appears to be addicted to terrible puns... I'm a sucker for puns myself, but the sheer volume of them in this book was a bit much even for me. I found myself groaning in pain at how bad some of them were. Also, Talbot lists Quentin Tarantino as one of his major influences for this project and I can certainly see why; it's not just because he has an 'ear-cutting' scene a la 'Reservoir Dogs', it's because, like Tarantino, Talbot is so fond of putting in multiple references/homages to his favourite works that you begin to wonder what, if anything, you'd be left with if you were to take all the references out. Despite these two grumbles, this is a wonderful book and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody who is a fan of the graphic novel format. (Oh, if you're a fan of the 'Tintin' books and have ever wondered what became of his dog Snowy... you might not want to read this; it could upset you.)

I read most of Jules Verne's more famous works when I was younger ('20,000 Leagues Under The Sea', 'From The Earth To The Moon', 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth', etc.) and enjoyed them a great deal, so when I saw his first novel, 'Five Weeks In A Balloon', in the bookshop I decided to give it a go. While it's not quite up to the standard of his more popular books, 'Five Weeks...' still contains Verne's unbridled enthusiasm for both science and adventure that he is famous for. The book is somewhat haphazard structurally speaking, though, and it does have 'first novel' written all over it, but you can definitely see the first shoots of his future brilliance here and the pace seldom slackens. One thing I will say is that you really have to view it as a product of the society Verne was living in at the time and make allowances; some of the racism and unthinking prejudice resultant from the class system of the time can't help but make the modern reader wince slightly, but it does help that the lead character is actually quite progressive in his views for the time the book was written. All in all, this book is not quite a classic, but is an interesting slice of early science fiction. Worth picking up if you're a fan of his more well known novels.

O.K., so that's it for the final Weekly Round-Up. If you're a fan of this feature, my apologies, but I will still be reviewing just as much stuff, just not in this format. In future, reviews will come to you as and when I write them, rather than saving it all up for the end of the week. This will fit in much better with the new website format.

What new website format?

Well, having been running this site for nearly two months, I've looked back on how I've been doing things and have decided to slightly change my method of updating the website. Rather than building up a buffer and having one picture/article auto-post at one minute past minute each night (my time... it will obviously differ for readers in different time zones), I've decided to post pictures and articles as I do them. The reasons for doing this are:

(1) To increase the 'behind-the-scenes-of-the-artistic-process' aspect of the website; you'll get a better idea of my 'artistic flow' (for want of a less pretentious-sounding term) this way. I want the website to flow more like a digital sketchpad/journal of my creativity, rather than just a series of finished images. To address this, I'm going to start posting multiple images of the same pieces, at different stages of completion. If all goes to plan, you'll see prep' sketches followed by halfway-stage images, followed by the finished pieces. My hope is that you'll find this more interesting than just being presented with a finished piece of artwork every day. (This being said, when I'm drawing I often just crank out a finished piece from scratch in about twenty minutes, so you'll not see anything in the way of prep' work in those cases. Those of you who have seen me work will know how fast I draw. I'm not bragging, here; as far as I know, there aren't many advantages to working fast, I just tend to go into a kind of scribbly fugue state when I draw, for some reason.)

(2) To stop me being lazy. One of the things I've caught myself thinking since I started this website is 'ah, I don't need to draw anything today; I'm buffered up until next Wednesday already' or 'I can have a day off drawing today; it's a from-the-vault day!' This was most distinctly not the point of this website. The whole point of presenting this site in a journal/blog style format was to try and increase my productivity, not decrease it. By posting a new image as soon as it's finished (allowing for drying time if I'm working in a 'wet' medium) I can, fingers crossed, overcome this problem. I only intend to post 'from the vault' images on days when I genuinely haven't had the chance to produce anything new, so you'll probably be seeing less of them... or, at least, you will if all goes to plan.

(3) I'm also hoping to make my written comments slightly more insightful, by offering some kind of explanation to my thought process during the creation of my artwork. Re-reading some of my old comments, I found myself cringing at their vapidity in more than a few instances!

I really hope you don't find the change too jarring and that it actually increases your enjoyment of the site and my work. To be fair, if you only drop by every few days or every couple of weeks, you'll probably not notice much difference. To my daily followers: be patient with me! There are bound to be hitches as I adjust to the new format!

See you all tomorrow when the new way of working will commence!

- Paul D. Selman: beavering to bring you a better blog!

From the vault: A whole bunch of stuff...

Apologies for two consecutive days of material 'from the vault', gentle followers, but I'm really quite ill and beyond the point of even attempting to draw or paint. The doctor has given me some pills, so I'm hoping to be well enough to have something new for you for Sunday (after Saturday's Weekly Round-Up, of course) but, in the meantime, I'm posting a bunch of doodles I did when I first got my grubby hands on a graphics tablet and stylus a few years back. These were mainly done to familiarise myself with the new hardware and see how it interacted with my trusty copy of Photoshop, so none of them are exactly masterpieces. You might get a kick out of 'em, though (I hope). First up is a quick scrawl of a zombie:

A doodle of an eye using a thick brush setting:

A quick sketch of an iconic moment from Stanley Kubrick's movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel 'The Shining'. It was principally an experiment with adding some white rendering over the top of the original black line work. Heeeeere's Johnny:

This doodle was just me trying to get a decent line variation out of the stylus:

This little doodle was a prep sketch for a painting that I never actually got around to doing. Yes, that is a pig in the car window. Don't ask me why:

A sketch of the 'Aeon Flux' movie poster, for no other reason than I like Aeon Flux (mainly the original cartoon, to be honest, but the movie was a pretty good adaptation, considering they went the live action route):

My brother is also of an artistic bent, and one of the recurring themes of his work is that of emaciated-looking women, usually with a cigarette hanging out of their mouths. This was my attempt at drawing one of my bro's 'ladies':

The last of these Photoshop stylus and graphics tablet doodles is a more fully-worked-up drawing I did for the front of a Valentine's card. All together now 'Ahhh... cute!':

After all those Photoshop created doodles, I thought I'd show you something a little bit different. I was challenged once to cast aside the luxury of Photoshop and to create something that looked good with the lowly, much-cursed Microsoft Paint and the humble mouse. This was the result. You can judge for yourself how successful I was:

Anyway, that's your lot for today. I'll be back tomorrow with my Weekly Round-Up (and, with any luck, I'll be feeling a bit better by then).

From the vault: Sweet Wrapper Fishy

This is an interesting piece I did a few years ago that I found in the cellar yesterday while looking for something else (isn't it always the way?) and thought I'd bring back into the daylight and share with you folks. It's painted with acrylics on wood, but rather than use something traditional (like, say, a brush) I decided to apply the paint using nothing but a razor blade. I think it created quite a nice effect, actually, even if I did decide to cheat in the end and put some bubbles on with the cap of a water bottle.

Yes, I know fish don't generally have a stream of bubbles from the mouth... what can I say? Call it artistic licence.

A Moment's Respite

Those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter may have been worried that, because I was ill yesterday, there wouldn't be a new post on the website today (I know, I know... you lost sleep about it). Well, you needn't have worried, for, while I had a throat that was swollen up like a melon and a temperature in the hundreds, my fevered brain decided the most logical thing to do was to get the paints out and start doodling orcs in my sketchbook.

Yes, while other people would be reaching for the paracetamol, I apparently revert back to my teenage self and think 'hurr... orcs... blood... hurr...', which is good to know. Anyway, here's the page from my sketchbook I produced in my delirium. I actually don't remember much about painting it, unsurprisingly.

From the vault: Flowers In The Rain

This was a watercolour sketch of some flowers I did a year or so ago. It was originally intended to contain a lot more flowers than this, but just as I reached this point, it started tipping it down with rain, so I had to run for cover before what I had painted already was ruined. I'm posting it today because I keep getting paranoid about there being too many black-and-white images on the website and not enough colour! I've heard about the Colour Police and I don't want them to get me...

Happy Birthday, Wendy!

A special post today, just for my lovely fiancee. Here's a sketch I did of her favourite actor of all time, John Candy (I know, it explains a lot about her choice of man, doesn't it?).
I'm not overly ecstatic about the likeness, actually, but I am pleased that I managed to capture that 'outwardly jolly yet looking like he could burst into tears at any moment' look that he always seemed to have.

Here's another drawing, this time one I did quite some time ago, of the birthday girl herself. After all, if you can't embarrass somebody on their birthday, when can you? The poor lass was very poorly with her glands at the time I drew this, so I had a captive sitter that was too weak to run away! I did this one in a mixture of pencil and charcoal. Not the most successful mixed-media experiment I ever did, but you have to try new things, don't you? (I'd never have discovered the delights of Jaffa Cakes with Salad Cream if I wasn't always trying new things and that would have been a tragedy!)
Now, off to do everything Wendy wants to do for an entire day!

From the vault: Two Landscapes

Two paintings from the vault for you today, folks. They're both landscapes painted waaaaay back in 1997 but they're very different. First up is a watercolour landscape I painted while on holiday at Center Parcs at Hallowe'en. I think I must have been influenced by the 'spooky' factor, but there was a storm coming at the time, as I recall, so the dark and stormy feel probably isn't too exaggerated. The next landscape was actually painted first (maybe I should have presented these the other way around... nah...) in the spring of '97. Where I live, at a certain time of year, you can't walk 100 yards without hitting a field full of rape (I know, I know... they really should reconsider re-naming that particular crop). I decided it would make a nice little landscape, but I wasn't content to just paint it traditionally... oh, no... I first painted the sky in acrylic using a large pallette knife, then I drew in the tree trunks with a fine black marker pen, then I put in the foliage on the trees in acrylic using the wooden end of a small paintbrush, before finally adding the field itself with acrylic paint applied with two different sized sponges.

That's today's 'from the vault' double-bill done. I'll be back tomorrow with something new...

Weekly Round-Up #5

Got to the end of my 'Star Trek: Enterprise' DVD marathon this week, with the conclusion of the season 4 box set also bringing me to the end of the entire 'Enterprise' show. I have to say that, after season 3 brought with it some serious disappointments (I'm still not over that whole ripping-off-the-Death-Star thing... grrr...) season 4 successfully managed to redeem the show. I would actually go so far as to say that season 4 outstripped even the first two seasons and became the best season of 'Enterprise'. This just makes it even more saddening that the show was cancelled at the end of this season. I keep trying to tell myself that four seasons isn't too bad; after all, the original 'Star Trek' was cancelled after only three seasons. This is cold comfort, however, when you think that 'Voyager' ran for seven seasons... and that was awful. (Sorry, 'Voyager' fans, but to this day I haven't been able to bring myself to sit through an entire episode of 'Voyager'. I'm not sure why, the show just makes me angry, for some strange reason.) Both the final episode of 'Enterprise' and the penultimate episode made me blub... and I haven't blubbed at 'Star Trek' since the end of 'The Wrath Of Khan'. Oh, well... farewell Archer and company. You were great. It may be time to re-visit the original series, now... I quite like the look of those new digitally remastered box sets with the enhanced special effects...

It's been a busy week, so I've only had time for one trip to the cinema (how decadent does that sound? Man...). I couldn't resist going to see Pixar's latest offering, 'Up'. The nasty, cynical part of me would love to be able to say that Pixar have finally dropped the ball and produced a real stinker... but, the truth is, they've done it again. The geniuses at Pixar have crafted yet another movie that is destined to be hailed as a classic. 'Up' is everything a great movie for children should be, while also being pitched at a level that provides its adult viewers plenty to engage with. The movie is very funny, it's exciting and it's also extremely moving in places. There is a wonderful montage scene near the beginning of the movie, telling the life story of the lead character, which is done entirely without dialogue and it is so powerful I was sitting in the cinema chanting to myself 'I will not cry at a kids' film, I will not cry at a kids' film, I will not cry at another kids' film...' It didn't work; I bawled like the big sack of wuss that I am. If you like Pixar's movies, you'd be a fool to miss this one.

Moving onto the books I've read this week, we find 'The Secret People'. John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris wrote books under a few different names, all of which were combinations of his own real name (John Beynon, Lucas Parkes, etc...) so it did make me chuckle when I saw the author credit for this book was 'John Wyndham writing as John Beynon', as you could argue that both and neither are his real name. You can see why they've done it that way, though: 'The Secret People' was originally published under the 'John Beynon' name, but after he wrote 'The Day Of The Triffids' he became much more famous as 'John Wyndham'. 'The Secret People' isn't his first novel, but it is notable for being his first science fiction novel (the genre he would become most famous for). Written in 1935 but set in an imagined, futuristic 1964, this isn't one of those science fiction futures where the world is so incredibly advanced technologically that it seems ludicrous. I actually think that this version of 1964 could have come to pass if it hadn't been for the Second World War changing the face of the global society. The class system is still clearly as prominent as it was in the '30s, social mores that would come to seem quaint in the face of the war are still in place, racism is still as rampant as it was before people like Martin Luther King, Jr. changed things for the better... The technological advances Wyndham does introduce are not beyond the realms of possibility: rocket 'planes could have come to pass (you can't really blame Wyndham for not realising the invention of the jet engine would make the idea of rocket propulsion for anything other than space travel invalid) and the idea of turnng large areas of desert into new seas almost seems more relevant now than it did in 1935, what with humanity's struggle to conqueur climate change being foremost in a lot of people's minds this decade. Putting the accuracy of his predictions to one side, this is a science fiction adventure that I wouldn't hesitate to place under the banner of 'ripping yarns'. It's a belter of an adventure story with lots of twists and turns and heaps of action. Some of the violence is actually very gruesome, including a horrific torture scene and something very nasty being done to a cat (poor puddy tat). Unlike a lot of these type of adventures, however, Wyndham's characters never become cliches; every character in the book has multiple aspects to their personality and nobody is entirely good or entirely evil. It's not quite as sophisticated as his later works, but it certainly shows the promise of the better writer he would become and is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of his more famous works.

'Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?' This is the question posed by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur in their book of the same name. It's actually quite difficult to review a book of this sort; there's no plot, no characters, no dialogue... not much of anything that a reviewer would normally be able to sink their teeth into. What do we have here? Well, it's the kind of comedy encyclopaedia that is basically a bunch of rants about things the author can't stand arranged alphabetically. It's not a new concept (I first encountered it in my early teens with 'The Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopaedia', which had me and my mates laughing like idiots for months) but it is one that it's possible to get a lot of mileage out of. It's basically observational stand-up comedy in book form (ironically, observational stand-up comedy is one of the things the book deems 'shit'... although I'm sure that's deliberate irony on the part of the authors). This book pretty much has a go at everything, but it does it very intelligently and manages to be very funny in the process. Some of the targets have a 'shooting ducks in a barrel' feel to them and it does occasionally get a little tiring when the authors have a political chip on their shoulder that they bang on about for just a little too long, but there are very many genuine laugh out loud moments to be enjoyed here. I even found myself laughing at entries when I completely disagreed with what the authors were saying, which must be a sign of quality, I suppose.

Oh, look! There's a second volume! Not a great deal to add after my review of volume I of 'Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?', to be honest. This sequel is really just more of the same. If you liked the first one, you'll probably enjoy this too. If you hated the first one, this one isn't going to convert you. That being said, I have to say that I didn't find this sequel as funny as the first book. Perhaps it's just because I read both books back-to-back and I was getting fatigued with this style of humour, but where I was laughing out loud a lot while reading the first volume, this one was more of the 'raising-a-wry-smile' level of humour. It wasn't quite a case of the authors scraping the bottom of the barrel, but they certainly seemed to be having to look a little further afield for their inspiration the second time around. Although I enjoyed reading the first two volumes this week, if they publish a third volume, I don't think I'll bother.

That's all for this week, folks; see you tomorrow with a couple of paintings!

Stone Pulse gig poster

Today, I thought I'd share this poster with you. I designed it for my band's first gig, so it doubles up as a look at some of my design work AND a plug for my band! I am a shameless whore, it's true! (Of course, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have a website at all, now, would I?) On the off chance you'll be in the area on the night and feel like being rocked, do pop in and help us break the metaphorical champagne over the band's head!

Oh, if you're interested, I've posted a comment over at 52 Short Stories that deals with the nature of art, computers and the human mind. It's on the end of a really great article written by the website's author, Adam DiStefano. Check it out... or join in the conversation.

Skull Beneath The Skin

A new painting for you today, gentle readers. Actually, it's more of a colour study than anything; when playing with colour (or just doodling) I often fall back on the old artist's stand-by, the skull. Skulls really are a lot of fun to draw or paint, so I'm not surprised they crop up in artwork a lot. I've just called this one 'Skull' in my sketchbook, but if you want a longer title you have my permission to call it 'Skully McSkullskull Feeling Particularly Skully On National Skull Day In Skull Town'. Or not. Whatever. I done it in acrylics, guv'nor...

From the vault: Pre-Natal

After yesterday's trip into 'Aliens' territory, I was reminded of this Giger-esque piece I did a couple of years back. It was actually the background for a poster I designed for a Rock 'N' Rant gig, but I've always thought it stands up well as a piece in its own right, once you've removed all the type (as I've done here... I no longer have a copy with the type still in place). Heavily inspired by H. R. Giger's designs for the movie 'Alien' (obviously), this was drawn from scratch with a mouse and the airbrush setting in Photoshop. It's called 'Pre-Natal', for some strange reason...

Crossovers You'll Never See - 1: Aliens Vs. Thor

The first of a new semi-regular (translation: I'll do one whenever I feel like it) feature on the website: Crossovers You'll Never See! Credit where credit's due: the idea for this feature came from Brad Harmer of Emotionally Fourteen. If you like this stuff, I'm sure he'd consider a visit to his website a great way of saying thanks! If you hate it... well, you know who to blame! The basis for this feature is to draw a scene from an inter-company cross-over you'll probably never see any other way. First up, it'd make a damned good movie or a mighty fine comicbook, but you'll never see either: Aliens Vs. The Mighty Thor! Enjoy!

Drawing this really took me back some years; when I was thirteen, the main way your artistic mettle was tested was by whether or not you could draw a decent alien!

Suggestions for future crossovers are more than welcome; leave 'em in the comments section or e-mail me with them. I'm not promising I'll draw all of them, but I might!

My First Interview: Ross Horsley

As announced over the weekend, I have something rather special for you this fine Monday: an exclusive interview with the twisted but brilliant Ross Horsley, the warped comedic mind behind the staggeringly hilarious blog My First Dictionary! Ross took time out of his extremely busy schedule to answer some of my, sometimes quite bizarre, questions, so I'll waste no more time and get on with the interview:

PDS: Good morning, Ross. How are you feeling today?

RH: Hello Paul! You sound just like my therapist. He’s always asking me how I’m feeling, so I just tell him to read ‘My First Dictionary’ and take a guess... Then I remember I don’t actually have a therapist, and that’s when I get really worried.

PDS: I first encountered your work when ‘My First Dictionary’ was recommended on another blog I read. I instantly fell in love with its subtle, yet extremely warped, sense of humour. What inspired you to create such a wonderfully twisted blog?

RH: Why, thank you! Truth is: I was inspired by a dusty old children’s dictionary I came across in a charity shop. Something about its determination to present life in the simplest of terms got me thinking about how life just ISN’T simple – it isn’t clear-cut or straightforward. It occurred to me that it would be easy to twist the author’s intentions quite dramatically (and, to my mind, amusingly) by changing the definitions of the words. There was already something slightly sinister hiding behind the book’s narrow worldview and it wasn’t hard to play off that, especially as the illustrations are so evocative in the first place.

PDS: After initially discovering ‘My First Dictionary’, I then found that you actually write some other blogs as well. How on earth do you manage to find the time to be so productive as well as holding down a day job? Why is blogging so addictive?

RH: I don’t manage to find the time, to be honest. My original blog, reviewing TV movies and horror films, has fallen by the wayside as ‘My First Dictionary’ has grown and started taking up most of my time. I’d like to update it more often, because watching trashy films sometimes feels like a waste of time without an outlet to gripe about them. Another blog of mine, showcasing the strange snippets my colleagues and I sometimes unearth at the library, is mainly scans of newspaper articles and books, so that doesn’t take long to maintain. Is blogging addictive? I guess it is. I suppose you’re making yourself feel important – telling yourself that people are hanging off your every word. Literally, in the case of ‘My First Dictionary’.

PDS: Does it worry you that some misguided idiots may be using ‘My First Dictionary’ to teach their small children to read? What would you say to these folks?

RH: I wish someone had shown me ‘My First Dictionary’ when I was a small child. It would have explained a lot... Especially Uncle Derek’s strange habits and the whereabouts of a dog I owned that supposedly went to live on a farm. I know people worry about stealing kids’ childhoods away from them but, really, what IS childhood anyway, except for confusion, fear and paranoia, with a few fits of giggles and incontinence thrown in?

PDS: You’re obviously a big fan of horror movies. What’s your take on the current tide of remakes of classic horror movies?

RH: It’s a tide I wish would go out, to be honest. The horror genre isn’t one that’s known for it’s originality in the first place, so why not make a film with a similar theme to an existing classic and just give it a new name? That’s what most of these remakes are doing anyway, even the good ones like ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Having said that, I’ll probably be first in line to see ‘Halloween II’ at the weekend.

PDS: Does your love of movies extend to other genres as well, or is just the horror genre that floats your boat?

RH: It’s all genres. I go through phases, although I’ve seen so many movies by now that the phases tend to be quite niche, like ‘Icelandic romantic comedies’ or ‘recent Hollywood comedies that are actually funny’.

PDS: What would you say your favourite movie of all time was... and why?

RH: ‘Jaws’. That film manages a balance of human drama and killer-shark action you simply won’t find anywhere else. Apart from maybe ‘Jaws: The Revenge’.

PDS: One of the interests listed on your profile is ‘staying up late’. Were you forced to go to bed unreasonably early as a child and has this left you with a burning need to rebel in your adulthood, or are you just a serial killer?

RH: Actually, I was forced to stay up unreasonably late. At an early age, my family lived in a local shop that didn’t close until 10 o’clock each night, so it was only by staying up late that I got to spend time with my parents. Come to think of it, that’s also where the love of horror films comes from. We did video rentals and I’d be in the living room glued to ‘Poltergeist’ or something until the shop closed. Everything about the mindset behind ‘My First Dictionary’ is falling into place now, isn’t it!

PDS: Do you get tired of everybody asking you what you’re going to do when you run out of pictures from the ancient children’s book you use as source material for ‘My First Dictionary’? What would you like to do to the people who ask you?

RH: I don’t get tired of people asking, really – it’s a valid concern. One day, I will run out of pictures and I’m not sure what I’ll do. Perhaps it’ll be a sign that ‘My First Dictionary’ has run its course. Someone complained recently that I was running out of ideas, and they might have a point. I don’t want to kill the joke.

PDS: Is there any truth to the rumour that you’ve been bought by Disney?

RH: No, although I did provide an early draft of the new animated movie ‘Up’. I envisaged it as more of a thriller – about a boy scout trapped in a flying house with an old paedophile – but they ultimately decided to take it in a slightly different direction. Less sexual violence and more talking animals. It’s still in 3D, though. There’s no hard feelings.

PDS: According to your profile, you work at a library. Is reading as much of a passion as film for you, or is the whole library thing just a means of paying the bills? Do you have any particular books you’d like to recommend?

RH: The kind of library I work in is more of a family history research centre, so I spend a lot of time helping people with their family trees. In other words, I search for dead people all day. I do have a passion for books, though. If you want a recommendation, read anything by A.M. Homes.

PDS: If there was a special circle of Hell for Internet trolls (and we like to think there IS), what would you like their eternal punishment to be?

RH: I’d make them watch my early version of ‘Up’. Or star in it.

PDS: If you had five minutes with the entire population of the world watching you, what would you do?

RH: Hide.

PDS: If you had to be a street performer, what would your act be... and would you accept your punishment gracefully?

RH: Where I live, there’s a street performer who sits in the town centre singing ‘How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?’ while his dog yelps at appropriate moments. I don’t know how the guy accomplishes this, but I heard that he was banned from a nearby city for animal cruelty so I hope he’s not standing on the dog’s foot or something whenever he reaches the end of a line. Perhaps the cruelty part is just the dog having to listen to his singing all day. In any case, if I was a street performer, I’d have a similar act, except I’d have a lemur. I’d still sing ‘How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?’ though, because I can’t think of any songs about lemurs.

PDS: If you could ‘date’ any celebrity, who would it be and why... and what drugs would you use to accomplish this?

RH: I’d skip the celebrity and go straight for the drugs. Actually, I’d date the pharmacist. We’d live in a studio apartment funded by my street performing and teach the lemur new songs whilst playing the piano and popping pills. And I’d cheat on the pharmacist with a celebrity. And the lemur. Wow, I never knew all this about myself... Thanks!

PDS: You're most welcome, Ross! Who would you say your biggest influences are, comedically, creatively and/or in life?

RH: I’m not sure I’m comedic enough to claim to have had a creative influence in that respect, but my favourite comedies are ‘Strangers With Candy’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and I also love Sarah Silverman.

PDS: As much as I enjoy reading your blogs, I have to admit that your profile picture gives me nightmares. Can you recommend a good therapist?

RH: I’d recommend mine but I’m not sure he actually exists. Also, he’s a paedophile.

PDS: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Ross! All that's left to say to my readers is I hope you enjoyed the interview and, if you're not already, start reading 'My First Dictionary'! It's hilarious! I'll be back tomorrow with some more artwork, but for now... go read the entire archive of Ross's blog.

If you liked this interview, you'll probably also like my interview with a cast member of the Quentin Tarantino movie 'Inglourious Basterds'. Check it out! (Once you've read that, please feel free to have a stroll through the rest of the archives: they don't bite! Often...)

NOTE TO ALL 'MY FIRST DICTIONARY' FANS: If you add yourself as a follower of http://www.pauldselman.com/, I will leave you my entire stuffed lemur collection in my will! (Disclaimer: Paul D. Selman's stuffed lemur collection numbers somewhere between -1 and 1.)

All material from My First Dictionary © Ross Horsley 2009