And we'll watch Christmas TV.

It's been a while, I will admit. I was a bit hesitant about doing a post on Christmas Eve, since I reckon most people have no time for this sort of thing, but apparently I did it last year so we might as well ignore sense and make it a tradition, yes? Yes. (Incidentally, what a different a year makes, that Father Christmas is just plain embarrassing).

I drew this back in September/October-ish. I intended it to be a Christmas card, but it never really worked out. It can be my digital card to you, if you'd like. 

I've been obscenely busy the last couple of months, what with one thing and another, and with the exception of that quick Sherlock Holmes thing I posted previously, I did not draw a single thing. This was my first effort, and it came out better than I could have hoped. It's default drawing territory, but I like it. 

FilmFour are having a bit of a Studio Ghibli trip at the moment (incidentally I highly recommend having a gander at the little ad they put together for it. Brilliant.), and Porco Rosso is amongst my favourites. The Miyazaki films in particular have a habit of depicting flight as it is in my head: full of magic and freedom and....being alive; rather than the dull, soporific airport realities of it all. You can't see it, but I'm making swooping motions with my arms as I type this. 

Mike and Antonia get married next month. Today they finish moving into their new home. I drew this, mostly, because why not?

And then we close on one more festive one, and one more friend one. This is Rebecca, and rumour has it she dresses up as Father Christmas even in July. I suspect that the rumour is true. 

A Scandal in Bohemia.

I picked up a book from my bookcase at random. I then opened the book, also at random. I drew a comic based on the page it opened at.

You can click on the image to make it larger if you need. 

I don't draw comics often because, as much as I quite like to write them, I find them endlessly frustrating to draw.

I travelled among unknown men.

Updating weekly died a bit of a death didn't I? I do apologise, but life got hectic in all sorts of ways. It still is, and still will be for a while. I haven't really drawn at all, asides planning sketches for a job I later had to cancel.

I drew this mid-September, but I didn't want to do a post with a single image, so I have been waiting for other pictures to materialise. I really want to do a Rivals series, so, for now, I refer to this as Rivals I:

(As an aside, I could watch Messi play football all day.)

With the exception of a Christmas card (yes, already), I didn't draw anything in colour for a month and a half. To get back into the swing of things I did this:

And then, as I love Tintin, I did these:

I regret the second one a little bit, as it steals the humour from a great character. Let's just pretend it's from before Haddock's first meeting with Tintin.

At this rate there probably won't be another update until December now, but here's hoping there is more to come.

Maybe "Boutique" would be classier.

You may have noticed that at the top of the page I've added a "Shop!" link. With a single click you will be redirected to a veritable Aladdin's cave of wonders, and prints, and iPhone cases...and so on.

I think there's a decent selection to be going on with for the moment, but if there's any picture you are particularly eager to get your hands on that isn't currently available, then just drop me an email and I'm sure something can be arranged!

I am not going to try and sell the goods to you by pointing out how lovely the prints would look on the walls of your home. I certainly won't mention that one or two would look especially grand near the door in your kitchen, or behind the sofa in your living room. I clearly, furthermore, don't need to suggest how much nicer (and safer!) your phone would be if it was adorned by one of the beautiful cases on offer.

I will, however, mention that I am a poor and destitute student who would be grateful of any meagre additional income though. Because I love a good bit of guilt.

One thing I'll add is that, because the shop is US-based, shipping to the UK is currently dearer than I would like. Hopefully I will be able to find good alternatives in the future.

"You've got to see the dream through the windows and the trees of your living room."

This blog is over a year old! I originally started it as a way to force me to improve. Looking at those early scribbles I think it's fair to say that there's been a marked changed for the better. Hopefully I'll continue to grow in the coming year.

I have started my studies, which have been nice and gentle so far (plenty to do mind), but I suspect I will be getting very busy, very fast. You can still expect drawings, I hope, but my descriptions are likely to be shortened, if not completely omitted.

As ever, my Tumblr updates more frequently as well. I'll frequently have very rapid, nonsensical, scribbles going up on there.

This is the second time I have tried to draw Amy Pond. I couldn't get the face right, again, but I liked everything else about this. It's nice and clean. 

Ryan Beckwith! One of very few characters John Allison has chosen to carry over to Bad Machinery from both Bobbins and Scary Go Round. I'm not going to say that Ryan is like me, but I will say that there are parallels in our respective growth. Weird, bizarre, almost simultaneous, parallels. 

He's one of my favourite characters ever. 

I think sometimes you just want to sit in a tree. 

P.S. I know that this is nothing at all to do with drawing, or art, but you need to watch this, it's incredible.

P.P.S. It's my birthday tomorrow. I'm old.

You haunt me with your violent heartbeat at night.

Every so often I'll take a long, hard, look in the mirror and say "Liam, you're getting stale. You need to up your game."

For a moment I'll look quizzical, confused even, before forcing determination into my face. I will then say something along the lines of "Liam, you need to draw...a bicycle".

And lo!

There are also days when I decide that certain people just need to lighten up, to chill out. Sometimes the people in question are fictional. One person that really needs to calm himself down is Batman.

Finally, my friend Amanda (previously seen twice in this post) got in a fight with the sun this time last week. It's fair to say that she lost, and has since sacrificed the use of her legs to the burn god. She is, essentially, half-mummy. 

Bonus track! Unfinished panel of short secret comic: 

To a rainbow like you.

I've been trying out a couple of new things this week, some of which have been pretty successful. (Remember that you can click on images to make them bigger).

I have a tendency to shy away from drawing backgrounds, as I am wont to overcomplicate things before losing interest. Here I kept things intentionally simple, leaving me free to try out some new things with colouring. For the most part I'm extremely pleased with how this came out. 

Twice these week I've decided not to colour a drawing. This was the first, and it was largely because I wanted to mess about lines-for-shadow a bit. This, like the majority of my pictures, was drawn in Manga Studio. 

This, on the other hand, was drawn straight into Photoshop. I usually use Photoshop just for colouring, and after this experiment it is likely to stay this way for a while to come. Despite messing about making brushes and so on, I just found the whole drawing and inking process incredibly laborious. I know of several people that work exclusively in Photoshop, and I wish I knew their approach! 

As a wee lad Luke Skywalker was my favourite Star Wars character. It seems obvious really; after all, he was the hero! The jedi! No amount of whining can detract from the classic farmboy-to-saviour role when you're a child. 

I’ve never much understood the people who say (claim) that, for example, Boba Fett was their favourite. You’re talking about Star Wars friend, it’s not gonna make you cooler no matter how you approach it. 

Han Solo is, of course, entirely understandable. 

I've got sunshine, on a cloudy day.

I've had these pictures sitting around for about a week, but life kept getting in the way of me sitting down and actually putting them in a new post.

It was my brother Ben's birthday* last week, so I drew him this:

It's good to see that I'm improving at this scribbling lark, considering that last year I drew him a picture based on this (I've lost the final version):

The last pictures on here are based on photos I am afraid. Just stuff to try and keep me fresh. The first one was based on this photo and, I think, was a bit of a success:

The second was from Calivintage, and I didn't half have problems with it. Looking at it now I know some minor alterations I'd make, but I think I'll just move on. The first colour looked like this and was such a mess that I decided on a very stripped back recolour. 

My summer job finished today, so hopefully you can expect some more pictures soon.

*alliteration station

"Organizer of public gaiety, curator of a richly encrusted happiness"

 Saturday Special!

I really love the Instagram app. This isn't just because of the various filters, which are excellent, but also because of the way in which it lets you share your images so easily to various social media accounts whilst maintaining its own community.

In any case, I recently decided to stick a through of my recent drawings through it and see what come up. Some, I think, worked better than others, but all are pretty interesting!

"I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt."

The cricket in the last week has been pretty exciting eh? You...you do watch cricket, yes? No? Oh well, just take my word for it.

In any event, here is a drawing of a cricketer:

Sadly this was the only "proper" drawing I had time for this week, so the following three are all quick little numbers: 

This is a super-rapid drawing of Emma Watson, based on this photograph. I love just scribbling sometimes. 

A scowly young lady. 

Just messing about with a new way of drawing/colouring. Not bad for a quick picture! 

See you all next week. 

With a smile on your face, and a tear right in your eye.

You have probably noticed that the blog looks a bit different. I've also redesigned my tumblr and twitter pages. Still not certain if this is a final design yet, so you might see it change further before too long!

The really neat idea I had the other week still isn't finished, mostly because I got myself a second job, so ended up much busier than expected. In any event it's coming along nicely. In the meantime may I present to you the following:

I have a confession, I mispronounce Rapunzel all of the time. I am corrected every single time. I will then proceed to say it wrong the next time it comes up. 

In retrospect it's surprising how often Rapunzel comes up in conversation. Huh. In any event here is a picture of the lady in question. She's a bit grumpy because, well, wouldn't you be? 

I also thought I would share with you the original line work, since I was very pleased with it. Particularly the hair. For whatever reason I always really like drawing hair. 

This is a picture of my friend Anna. Anna is enormously cool for a number of reasons, but a prime one is that she runs a bookshop. She also really likes olives, which is why there's a glowing bowl of them here. It made more sense at the time, I swear. 

This is a five minute doodle of a situation I found myself in when I got home the other day. It was so hot.  So hot. I let Stephen Fry read me stories for a bit whilst I just stood there, unable to finish getting changed, just sort of laughing at myself. 

Finally here are some free tester business cards I had made from moo.com! They seem really good, so I'm going to look into perhaps buying some. Need to finalise what goes on them though. 

"Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!"

Hey everyone! I hope you've all been enjoying the manic sunshine/crushing rain.

I'm pretty pleased with my offerings this week, I have to say.

I drew a Harry Potter in a cynical bid for Tumblr popularity. It didn't work out even a little bit, but I do not mind. I'm extremely happy with it. One of those moments where I feel I've "moved forward" a step.

I'd love to tell you that this is a damning social critique, but really it's just something that would absolutely terrify me. I don't think I could cope if I woke up one morning as a puppet. 

I made some slight changes to the colouring on the Middle-Aged Superman from the last entry. I think it looks better like this. 

I'm working on something as I type that I wish I could share with you, as I think it will be pretty good when it's finished, but there's no way it will be done this evening. Hopefully for next time! 

I guess every superhero need his own theme music.

Cartoon of an old friend of mine. Pretty natty if I may say so myself.

This is a sketch of a lady called Stephanie. Really pleased with how this came out. 

Finally, here's a Superman. An old Superman. 

The following is copied directly from my Tumblr, which you really should check out. 

"I drew a Superman. 

So far as I can remember I have never read a superhero comic, with the exception of Neil Gaiman’s Eternals, which was alright, and Watchmen. If that counts. This isn’t me being pretentious, it’s just never happened. 

To a degree I suspect that this is a cultural thing. No-one that I knew whilst growing up read superhero comics. I don’t even know if you were able to buy them. We grew up on The Beano and The Dandy and so on. Since then I’ve never really got around to it; I have gone into bookshops with the express intention of buying something superhero-y, but have invariably walked out with a regular book or some other form of comic. 

That said, I’m fascinated by Superman, and it’s not like I grew up completely divorced from this titanic cultural symbol. I had a book about Superman, I remember that. Lois & Clark was also on the television when I was a wee man, plus of course there was always the movies. 

For a long time the idea of Superman bored me. Perfect, invincible, unstoppable, and so American (often “American” was a dirty word to me when I was growing up. I’m over it now), but my opinion has changed over time.

I have an idea for a Superman story. As I’ve never read the comics I don’t know if it’s been done before, and honestly I don’t know if it’s even any good, but it seemed interesting to me. I might as well give you the background to it; it’s not like I’m in a position to do anything with it. 

From what I understand Superman ages somewhat more slowly than regular humans, yes? I hope so, because if this is wrong, the whole thing falls down. In any event, I’d quite like to see Superman’s world as though time had progressed normally since his appearance in the 1940s. The story would be set in the present day, he’d be a bit greyer, a bit tireder, but still, you know, super. Lois, Jimmy, Luthor will all be long dead, of old age or whatever, and now Superman’s dealing with the passage of time. Living in a world that’s better off than it would have been, but still imperfect enough to leave him slightly disheartened. A world that’s evolving rapidly, as our own world has evolved since the 1940s, and a man of steel in the middle of at all that has to constantly has to evolve and rethink his own position. 

It would absolutely, one hundred per cent, not be a dark story. It might occasionally have dark elements, but dark does not mean “grown up” or “intelligent” and I am not holding with it even a little bit. It would ultimately be a story about hope and goodness, because so far as I can tell that’s what a Superman story should be about. 

Obviously there’s a plot too, but I ain’t gonna tell you that. "

Congratulations if you reached the end of that. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week! 

All our most brilliant friends are doubting themselves.

Hello all! How the devil are you this fair Tuesday? I am decidedly comfy. Here are some pictures for you.

This is the first time I've used paint in well over a year, I think. Exciting! 

This is a sketch of the extraordinary burlesque dancer, Vicky Butterfly. Eventually I'll clean it up a tad and colour it. 

Finally, here's some hard-boiled type. I suspect that he has Woes. 

Allow me to sweep the dust off the place.

I've been terrifically busy lately, which I would like to think excuses the lack of drawings, and the updating of the blog.

Except that it doesn't. I'm always terrifically busy, it's just a different sort of busy at the moment.

What actually happened was that I got really really sick of the internet, and by extension my computer. I deleted my Facebook (which I actually highly recommend. To my surprise I do not miss it at all.), turned off Skype, everything. Except twitter. I stopped drawing too, though this just may be because "drawing" has become synonymous with "Wacom tablet" for me these days. I've started messing with a sketch book again though, and I'll be back doing colourful things soon enough I am sure.

In any case, here are some pictures that'll get me into the swing of things. I've taken a good look at my work lately, and I know exactly what I want to improve, and why. The how is proving a tad more difficult but hey ho.

Carey Mulligan, yo. 

This last image I'll replace with a decent scan when I get an opportunity. They're Tintin characters, lest you're unfamiliar, doodled during a lunch break. 

See? I'm trying to start using a sketchbook again.