Felis Silvestris Catus

My newest drawing is about cat love and here's what Mark Twain said about cats-
“Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”
― Mark Twain
It's true.
If you get the right cat, life is complete.
Cat's treat you with enough disdain to keep you coming back for more, like one of those push-pull relationships where one person is so off hand and uninterested that the other one becomes desperate and needy.
Push and pull.
Retreat and advance.

A cat gives YOU what YOU think that cat gives you.
The cat gets EVERYTHING in return.

And on that note, there was a cat under the car in front of my house this morning.
I'd seen it yesterday and it looked hungry, it's white fur dirty, as if it had spent so much time outside and never gotten to be anywhere inside clean to lick itself.
I gave it some food and it purred and hung out on the porch with me.
So this morning it was back.
So I gave it more food.

See?
Cat love.
Manipulative little shits.

Go to spikyheart.com to see more and buy.

The Family Portrait in black line

 This is a portrait of the Babic-Labovitz family.
It's A3, made with a mix of gel roller ball, sharpies and print.

The process is that I ask the client for some imagery-family photos, places they've visited, kid's favourite toys etc.
Then I ask them to provide some quotes from the kids or things they like doing, important dates, birthdays and so on.
Then I compile a base image, using the provided photographs, in Photoshop.
Then when I have the photographs placed I take the image to a printer and have it printed on some nice paper.
Then I draw in the rest.
I use several stamp sets for lettering and imagery, a spirograph set and tippex, or white-out.

I think of these as a pictorial illustration of a family a mix of the Cole's Funny Picture Book, a glimpse into the family photo album and an encyclopedia or timeline of the family.
They can be read rather than just looked at.

Out of all of the art forms I do these portraits are probably the most pleasurable.

Get in touch to commission a portrait or see more of my art.

At the market at Langdale Hall Gilly and I are sitting behind the table talking about life

At the market at Langdale Hall Gilly and I are sitting behind the table talking about life when a woman comes past and starts laughing at my cards.

She picks some up from the box on the table and looks at them and laughs. This makes me laugh too.
There's a man with her who isn't laughing.
'These look like my student's drawings,' she says.
She keeps on looking through the cards, laughing at the pictures on them.
'How old are your students?' I ask her.
'16 and 17,' she says.
'Oh, nice,' I say.
'They're special needs,' she says.

Free Art from my website.

Here, look, I'm offering free interactive and fun art.
I've written a little comic book, which you can download in PDF format, print, and with the help of the instructional video I have made, have your own piece of my free art.
I'll be releasing a piece of free art every week or so, so if you'd like to be ALERTED when a new piece is available, sign up on the FREE ART page.

ENJOY!

I've done the illustrations for Allison Wright's Scatterling. It's the illustrated story of her life so far.

Late last year I wrote a comic book version of my life-Pictorial Recollections of a Life Partly Spent.
It's short and and sweet (unlike me), 80 vignettes of memorable events such as the one where, at 9 years old  on our way home from netball training, a man showed me and my friend his penis.

Now, just about ready for publication is Allison Wright's memoir- Scatterling for which I've done the illustrations.
It's the third set of memoirs I have worked and a proper happy-making experience at that.

Allison and I met online, guess where? Yeh, Facebook.
I've always found Allison interesting and eloquent and funny so when she asked me to do the illustrations for her memoir I got all excited.

We worked online on Allison’s life and now, after all the drawings and stories and conversations, I know Allison well enough to know that I really want to get to know her better. And go to Portugal where she lives.

Because drawing someone’s life isn’t just a job.
You get involved.

Big Bang

This morning, while I was walking the dog, a slow moving green and white Volkswagen Combi van came down the road from the opposite direction.
In the drivers seat was an elderly man.
He was wearing a long grey beard, a brightly coloured scarf in his hair and had a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
Next to him, in the passenger seat was (apart from the beard) an almost identical female version of the man, cigarette included.
And as they passed, waving, I saw that slinking its way with some trepidation across the Combi van's dashboard, was an ancient looking Siamese cat.

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Big Bang Volcano Drawing
A5 gel roller ball and stamps on brown paper with a thin coat of white paint on it.

This morning, while I was walking the dog without the dog, a young man called me from across the street.
He was dressed entirely in ochre, and his hair and beard were long and he had a very full backpack on his back.
'Hey,' he said as he got close to me, 'you have a lot of tattoos,'
'Yes,' I said.
'Bea-uuuuuuutiful,' he said in an accent that sounded like Spanish.
'Where are you from?'I asked him.
'THE NOW,' he shouted out, and we both laughed.

Then he hugged me, and because he gave good hug, not one of those insincere cheek to cheek, hands hung loosely on the shoulder style hugs, I hugged him sincerely back.

Then, as we unhugged, he said-Hey, what have you got to teach me?’
'Uh,….dunno, not much I don't think,' I said, frowning and thinking.
Then he took my hand and started looking at the tattoos on the inside of my left arm and asking me if I ever felt bad for getting tattoos.
'No, and wait, wait,' I said, 'because I do have something to teach you,'
And, because I have the words ‘feed the good wolf’ tattooed on the inside of my left arm, with a coloured stripey arrow that points to a wolf’s face on my wrist, I told him the story of the good wolf.

He looked puzzled for a moment or two after I finished and then said to me-
'But what if the good wolf ever get in pain?”
'Hmmm,' I said, 'I dunno but I think a good wolf in pain needs to eat even more.'
'YES.' he cried out, smiling and putting his arms around me again and giving me a good Amy Waters-style hug*, which I returned.

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2 new drawings-
Look Beyond!
But how far and to where?
Only you and your eyes can decide, but if you like, let me know what you see!

These Are The Games That The Grown Ups Play.
Read in to it what you will!
Can you work out what music I was listening to while drawing this one?

Both 70x100cm.
Black ink, felt pens and gel rollerballs and Tippex and colouring pens and pencils on white paper.
Price on application.

*My friend who taught me to hug with sincerity and intent