Paul and Dorothy

Paul Mccartney and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz playing the Ukulele together. This is the center piece to page of song chords for my Ukulele booklet. I didn't mean to make Dorothy so nervous looking, but then I'd be nervous if Paul was looking at me that way...


I should explain, to the left is a page which has the chords for the song "Let it Be" and to the right will be a page of chords for "Somewhere over the Rainbow."

Self-Portrait

Getting back into the watercolours. Here's a portrait of me looking moody :) 

The Ukulele Tree - Mark 2

There is a Mark 1, but it's rubbish, literally! Mark 1 is a mutilated umbrella and is nowhere near finished. I found some abandoned tree branches left behind by council tree surgeons, and in a day I turned it into the Mark 2.

The Ukulele Tree

One of the many prongs my Final Major Project is taking. This is the cover for a chapbook/zine I'm producing to promote the Ukulele and The Ukulele Tree.

The Poison Bullet - a 24 Hour comic

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

My 24 page comic book I produced for in the 24 hour comic book challenge at uni. Locked in the library with a few illustrators, we had 24 hours to produced a 24 hour comic book.

I knew it would be tough, not so much the staying awake that long, but actually doing one focused task for that long. There wasn't time to be leisurely, I knew I'd have to keep on top of time, so I didn't allow myself to relax or take any breaks. I ate while I worked, stopped only to go the toilet. I took a walk about the room twice in the night just to stretch my legs. Unlike the other people taking part (who steamed on ahead without any and made up the comic as they went along) I chose to spend the first 2 hours doing some basic character designs and planning the layout of the comic. I knew what frame shapes I'd use and what would happen later in the comic, and how it would. This put me behind everybody for a few hours, but I knew what type of art I'd have to be producing hours in advance. This allowed me to adjust my pace - I knew some pages would take longer than an hour, and I knew some could be done very quickly. I managed to get ahead of everybody after a few hours, and finished with 4 hours to spare. I would suggest to anybody doing a 24 hour comic, spend the first hour planning your layout! Don't make it up as you go along.

Anyway, I wanted to explore the pain-body, Eckhart Tolles concept of the inner demons that we feed with our negative thought spirals that he talks about in the power of now.

Recent Work

A Musical Journey (This is what I like spending my spare time doing...)

It all started many months ago, when a friend recommend I start watching the US TV show "Weeds". The season 2 finale (which can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WZgzYGbBkc ) contained a cracking piece of music. I looked it up. 

This lead me to Dengue Fever, psychedelic trans-american-cambodian rock band. Cambodian rock? 

This lead me to read up on "Cambodian rock". It seems in the 60's there was a bit of a rock and roll invasion in Cambodia, and a beautiful fusion was born. This lead me to Cambodian-Elvis Sinn Sisamouth and a song named "Prous Teh Oun" (Because of You). The drumming is sick!

This lead me to Hong Kong singer turned actress Betty Chung. As far as I can tell the song originated with her and spread to Cambodia and beyond. It's been very difficult to find info on her accept she was a singer in the late sixties, released a couple of records and then went on to act in Enter the Dragon. Also, she's beautiful and her voice gives me shivers. Maybe I'm a smitten. 

At this point English goes out the window, and I'm left to the mercy of related videos, with no idea of the English names of these artists.

This lead me to, a slower, higher version. Not sure I like this version.

That lead me to this cute, later version. Embedding disabled. http://youtu.be/XhoxZlHIPQ8 

This lead me back to Felicia Wong, a chinese folk singer from the 70's. Around the same time as Betty Chung she also released "Because of You" in 1968. It doesn't have the power or the technical skill of Betty Chung (or maybe thats just a judgement of my western ears) but it is very sweat. Interestingly she uses the precise musical arrangement as Betty Chung. 

It is obvious I am obsessed with that melody...