No one said it would be easy...

but then, no one said it would be this hard either.

I've had a bit of a break from the studio for a while. In fact the last time I went was a couple of weeks before Christmas. During this time, though, I've still been busy, working up ideas and concepts for new work for when I did, finally, return to print making. Also in the interim period there has been a show at The Beetroot Tree which, completely by accident, I was a part of. Just a modest sample of my work. An image called 'repeat'.

To my surprise this piece sold. Yay me!

I returned to the studio last week, bolstered with a new found confidence that someone other than my wife would consider giving one of my pictures house room. I usually only get to spend one day a week there. In fact not even that, just five hours at a time is all that my schedule will allow. Those five hours are a precious commodity that I need to spend wisely and productively. So, when I have 'one of those days' when nothing goes right. I can become really despondent and down right pissed off with myself.

I'm a very hard task master when it comes those things which I consider I am competent in. When I start a job, be it a piece of art, D.I.Y. or whatever, I have in my head exactly what needs to be done, how those things should be done and when those things should accomplished by. I'm a planner, it's true...

Then it all goes wrong. As it did last Thursday at Green Door Studio. From the moment I set foot in the place fate conspired to slap my in the face with one cock up after another. I left feeling very deflated. Not to worry though because I'd booked three five hour slots this week. So I had a bad day, so what, I would make up for it this week. Except I didn't. Yesterday was just as bad.

I don't get it. I know what I want, need, to achieve and I know exactly what I need to do make sure that these things happen. So why the hell does every thing go belly up sometimes? There is nothing I detest more than wasted time.

But what of today? O.K. you be the judge. This is called, predictably enough, 'City Boy'.

And day three? That has had to be cancelled. Aargh!!

I'd heard about this book a while ago and swore to myself that if ever i came across it, it was going to be mine. For anyone with more than a passing interest in comics then Studio Space by Joel Meadows and Gary Marshall is a must have.
Growing up reading comics gave me an appreciation for the medium that a casual interest could not accommodate. I knew the names of every top fight artist on every book that I'd buy with my meager pocket money. I'd copy over and over the poses on the pages, often blowing up a two inch frame to fill an A4 sheet of cartridge paper. I tried to learn all the nuances of the trade by visual decoding alone, often wishing that there were someone or something that would let me in on this secret world, the exclusive club of the comic book artist.

Well, it was a thirty year wait but that something has finally arrived. Joel Meadows and Gary Marshall have put together an exquisite book, brim full of secrets, not only of the comic book artists trade but secrets and revelations of those artists that I admired so much in my youth. The greats are all here; Brain Bolland, Frank Miller, Howard Chakin, Dave Gibbons, Walter Simonson et al. plus some of the modern masters with who I am now getting acquainted. This is a true fanboys dream. Yes, I used the word fanboy, because in all us 40+ comic book fans lurks a stary-eyed twelve year old.