a test

this is just to see why my blog isnt functioning as it should do.

Illustration Friday - "Zoo" No.5

Madame Yna Vlatska runs the Kafe Darwina.


She likes to pretend her mother was French, but in truth she came from Havakistan.
She's knows everything that goes on in the Zoo,
and for many miles around it.
One thing she doesn't know though is that Magda Pypevska is the daughter she had to give up for adoption when she herself was a teenager.

Devilled eggs is a speciality of Klodznán.

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HELP! Can someone tell me why clicking on this Image downloads it into a window in Preview, rather than just another page on my blog?!!

Illustration Friday - "Zoo" No.4

This is Old Varek.

He doesn't work at the Zoo.
In fact he hates people and animals.
He comes everyday with a bag of walnuts
sits on his favourite bench
and dreams about his long-dead wife Jenka
whom he misses dearly

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Illustration Friday - "Zoo" No.3

This is Klodznán Zoo's handyman Jirzy.

He's a simple country boy, from the Schlavka Mountains in the south of Kasmirovja.
He's a hard worker too, just back from Military Service, with a huge hunger and a thirst for hard liquor to match.

Illustration Friday - "Zoo" No.2

Here's Magda

She works in the same Zoo in Klodznán.
She's a nice girl and has quite a thing for the handyman Jirzy.

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Illustration Friday - "Zoo"

Ok, here it is, a genuine IF* entry!

The stressed-out Zoo-Keeper of a fictional Eastern European zoo.

This was a scratchy biro sketch I did in a Soho coffee-house yesterday afternoon.
This morning I tried to reproduce it using a dip pen and ink
Only to find, yet again, that the original had more life,
so, here it is, as was, coloured up in PS.

I'd love to get people's opinions on this
as, careerwise, I'm at a bit of a crossroads
and am finding myself increasingly drawn to
crazy scrappy scratchy doodlings
but workwise, I'm more known for a polished
style that doesn't give me much joy these days

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Guardian Sport 28 Nov 07

A piece connecting Electoral Success (or failure) of the county's Premiers
with Sporting Victory (or Loss, respectively)

I think I've captured a good likeness there, but in case anyone's unsure,
that's UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

To IF*ers, I know this has nowt to do with zoos (well, poetically, perhaps?),
I just haven't had a chance so far this week. Sorry

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Antiscrap "All I Want For Christmas Is My Library"

A Christmas card design
I was asked to produce for protest group Antiscrap
to highlight, in this instance, local council Waltham Forest
(motto; Can't See the Wood For The Trees!)'s
proposed closure of libraries in the borough and their
incredible but true loss of thousands of titles
during the civic library re-build.

Check out
http://www.keepourmuseumsopen.org.uk/
for more info

Here I've shown local boy and personal hero William Morris
(whose former home and current Musuem/ Gallery
is under threat from local government cuts and mismanagement)
as Old Winter himself, Dicken's Ghost of Christmas Present.

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Guardian Education 20 Nov 07

Another article by Philip Beadle
This time on the subject
of the use of Keywords
in Education

Bucket is mentioned a number of times

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Illustration Friday - "Superstition" No.2

That thing we're told as kids,
That if you swallow an orange pip/ apple seed/ olive pit, etc
A tree will grow in your stomach

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or
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Illustration Friday - "Superstition"

Bad luck to open an umbrella indoors?!
What's that about?

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Reader's Digest - Jan '08

5. quadriceps n -A: funny bone.B: leg
muscle. C: belly button.D: arm muscle

5. quadriceps - [B] Large four-part muscle
at the front of the thigh that extends the
leg. Latin (four-headed).

A piece I did recently for the lovely chaps at Reader's Digest.

It's for the Word Power section.
A number of words are given, with four possible meanings for each,
only one of which is correct.

My task was to chose one word
(the terms were all medical/ anatomical)
and create 2 images,
the first to combine all four possible meanings
and the second
to illustrate the correct sense of the word.

Click on the Images to ENLARGE

Guardian Finance 10 Nov 07

A piece for last weekend's Guardian.

The article was about a person's misgivings about the waste,
expense and hollowness of giving Xtmas presents, with other
people writing in with suggested alternatives, from making jam
to sponsoring an endangered animal ( the example given was
a pair of owls).

so here is the famous
Partridge in a Pear-tree
(the ultimate in pointless and excessive over-gifting!?)
with the eponymous game fowl
replaced by a brace of baby owls.
Ahhh!

As ever, click to enlarge

Guardian Sport 31 Oct 07

A piece by Simon Hattenstone
about the heartbreak and stoicism
of being a Manchester City fan
and in particular
after a 6 - 0 defeat at the hands ( or feet) of Chelsea

A reworking of the Club's Crest
based on this;



Click on Image to ENLARGE

Illustration Friday - "Scales" No.3

A third scaly friend
or fiend
The Cockatrice
or Basilisk
a rooster's egg (huh?!)
hatched by a viper or a toad,
noted for it's vile breath (hey cockatrice mouth!)
and its petrifying gaze,
only capable of being killed by its own horrific reflection
or ...er...a weasel
(look, I don't make this stuff up!).

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or my Name at the Top to View entire BLOG


Here's a red alternative
which I think perhaps I prefer

Illustration Friday - "Scales" No.2

Another scaly friend
this time
that old tail-devouring alchemical snake
Ouroborus

Or is he
Jormundgander
the Asgard Serpent of Norse Mythology?

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Illustration Friday - "Scales"

My first post in a wee while
a few black clouds over my head
starting to clear

This is the Lambton Worm
a legend from the North-East of England
set at the time of the Crusades
about a knight who as a youth throws a worm into a well
only to return from the Holy Land years later
to find the Worm a huge Dragon
terrorizing the town

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Letter To A Friend

It's been a while since I've been on here, Life got in the way.

I wrote a letter to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge

For Sheila
A very dear friend
over in Co Sligo, Eire