BZZZZT

With a bang and a fizz my PC died this morning.
I'll have access to email but not regularly.
Catch you all later in the week.

Homeless Man

When I was at Uni there were several homeless folks living near campus.
One of them was a bloke we called The Cunt Man, because whenever you came near him he'd croak "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh ya farkin cunt" in his drunken broken way.
He didn't look much like this though.

Gosh!

A Quickie

If you head over to here you'll find an interview with Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, and my absolute favourite animated series ever, Futurama.
For those who watched some of Futurama and didn't like it - screw you, watch it again.

More Blackcoat Again, Again

Autumn

This year in Tasmania, we had no Autumn.
One day it was 25 and lovely, the next it was cold.

Poppies

Off Ya Tree

More Blackcoat Again

BOOM 2

North Coast

Yesterday Robyn, Gracie and I headed up the river to the coast - a place called Greens Beach.
This is at the top of the state, facing Victoria, my home state.

BOOM

More of this to come...

The End As We Know It

Today I resigned!
How nice.
Now then - just to prove that I'm not always a complete arsehole, I present for you my letter of resignation.

Dear Louise,

It is with sadness but not regret that I resign from WIN.

The sale of my house has obviously been a big change in my life and I’m going to take that change a step further.

I have long regretted letting my illustration career fizzle away and have decided to relocate myself to the UK and see if I can revive it there.

I can’t thank you enough for my time here.

You’ve been a terrific boss and WIN has been very good to me, especially when taking a chance and hiring me in the first place.

Whilst I may not be in the same state (or country for that matter) I will be available via email and would be more than happy to help out my good friend Damon with any technical matters that should arrive, and indeed anything that may be helpful for the team in the north.

I have also made it abundantly clear to Nadia that she can continue to rely on my support and help for as long as she needs it.

As per our conversation only minutes ago, I’ll be with you until May 12^th.

Thank you very much once again, and I wish you all the best.

Regards,

Elliot Cowan

You how fucking nice I can be?
You see?

More Man-Gran

More to the tale...

More Blackcoat

I mentioned a few days ago the achievements of Mr Francesco Francavilla, this is another piece of fanart based on his Blackcoat comic.

Bill

All About Eve

Does anyone know anything about this?
Eve was apparently printed in the Tatler during wartime - I assume it was enjoyed by soldiers out in the field.
I don't actually like the drawings that much, but it's a record of a particular time and place and that is interesting in itself.
There's a Queen Victoria 2 pence stamp tucked into the pages too which is pleasing also.
There is no indication of when it was printed, and the it credits Fish and Fowl as the writers, illustrators, which is clearly silliness.
I picked it up from a jumble stall at a fete sometime when I first moved here.

To The Point

Someone once noted that the less I draw the better my images are.
I think this is true.

Sit Down Children

Easter Tour

I visited Hobart for a bit this Easter, as I've posted images from there before I didn't take anything new.
Hobart is at the bottom of Tasmania.
On the way back I headed up the east coast .
The Australian countryside it dotted with run down old farm houses, and I love them.
They are often infested with huge blackberry bushed but none were on this trip.
There were several stunning places I would have liked to have stopped to take pictures but the roads are very narrow there and there's nowhere to pull over.
I've broken these pictures into sets, click on them to see bigger versions as per usual.


These are the beaches just before Swansea, where I was heading to meet a friend.
It was a rough day and very atmospheric.
In the distance you can see The Hazards, giant rock mountians I was heading too.
At the bottom there is an out of focus shot of some kind of anenome.
It looked like a little collection of anuses.
It's out of focus mostly because the tide was coming in at rather a pace and I didn't want to be swept out to see (it is very fucking cold and full of sharks I would imagine).


It is the dream of many Tasmanians to build a "shack" on the east coast.
Once apon a time that's exactly what they were - shacks.
These days a shack can sell for several million dollars (but not this one).
The thing that struck me most about this place (owned by the mother of my friend Jo) was how much it reminded me of the Moominhouse, with it's 3 floors and spiral staircase.
How lovely it was.
You can also see the added accomodation - a rennovated bus right next to the house.
From the top floor window The Hazards loom closer.


The Hazards themselves are located in Freycinet National Park.
On the way through Freycinet I stopped at The Friendly Beaches.
I have been here many times and it's a spectacle whether it's fierce or calm.
Today it was calm and wasn't especially friendly.
It is a very long beach and it's easy to imagine dinosaurs trudging it's length.
There is something very primitive and primeordial about the place.
The beginnings of life in the rock pools....
Also included is me doing my impression of Robinson Crusoe (at least when he first was shipwrecked and well fed by him mother).


And finally.
You can see The Hazards long before you get to them.
These happy snaps do nothing to show the menace and majesty they project as they peek from behind the trees.
I stopped at the Lodge to take some snaps there - I stayed there once and it was stunning.
It's hard to tell just how vast The Hazards are - huge great granite structures.
It's possible to walk up them (and I have) - a jolly 5 to 8 hour stroll if you're in the mood.


This is probably the last time I'll be in these places in quite some time.
Someone asked if they could buy my house last week and I told them that would be ok.
I will say my goodbyes properly to this amazing place when the time to leave arrives.

Bully

I like to write the name of the drawing if it has a name, but I hate not having a title on the post.
I also hate doubling up on it.
The trials of life...

Nice Girl

Regular readers may recall me waffling on about the work of Francesco Francavilla.
He has finally created a website to show off his considerable mostly black and white comic book skills.
Francesco has a grasp of lighting, anatomy and genuine base drawing skills that is lacking in so much illustration these days (including my own I do not hesitate to add).
Further to that, he is a truly delighful fellow and full of unpretentious, useful advice.

He did not draw the cartoony girl above - that's one of mine

Say It

I believe that as an image maker I am have an obligation try and say something meaningful when commenting on something important.
I do not think that it needs to be especially deep, or even necessarily poignant, but if I need to say something, then I bloody well say it.
I think as a whole anyone creating images and ideas should be doing the same.
The other side of that is that I think if you don't have anything to say about something important, then shut the hell up until you do have something to say.
This is of course a personal opinion.

Also - red is not the best colour to be using for jpgs....

And another version...

Marc Ribot Revisited

Big thanks to Earsindc who points us to the website of Marc Ribot where it is revealed he pronounces his name REE-BOW.

Great Leader

This is Australian Prime Minister John Howard being asked to make a complicated decision.

And this is him smiling in his sincere way.
It is interesting that even though, many years ago, he had his teeth fixed and his eyebrows trimmed, everyone still draws him with fuzzy-wuzzy eyebrows and big teeth.

Dog Dog Dog

Acme?

He Has Potential...

I am rather preoccupied with other things at the moment so apart from the busted stylus, this is what you get.

Colour Monkeys

My Wacom stylus is still fucked so until such time as it's repaired I'll be doing these simple things.

At The Peak of Ones Game

All Ears

Up In Arms

The Eyes Have It

Some Old Stuff

Here's an interesting thing.
I was supposed to be making commericals for an insurance company.
By some miracle, one of the executives had seen Bill Plymptons 25 Ways to Quit Smoking, and was keen to do something like that.
I had a series of vaguely Plymptony things where people were maimed horribly.
Beheadings. Buildings collapsing on people. Pianos dropping - nonsense like that.
Ads were all approved and then 9/11 happened (or 11/9 as it would have been here) and they decided that amusing ads where people died were not funny any more.
So it was canned and I did some shit with some mummys and daddys walking on beaches with kiddies and no cartoons at all.
Fuck 'em.

I had living with me for some time, a great big german shepard called Monty.
I post this mostly because I rarely draw any real traditional cartoony stuff anymore and it seemed worthwhile showing that it can happen.

Here are some of the good bits from a highly pretentious piece I was working on last year.
The thing as a whole was just awful but these chunks are ok.

BBQ B'fast in the Bush

There is another piece of paradise not far from where I live - a large reserve.
As this morning was my open home day, I took Ella, Alex and myself out there to bbq some bacon and have it in yummy rolls.
I got the bacon from some nice German folks who have a deli near my home - it's lovely and meaty and not like eating a slab of salt.
I had it cut a little thicker than normal and we had it on rolls from a local bakery.
It was a little early for beer, but it would have been a perfect accompaniment.

This is the fire that we miraculously got started (I'm not really an outdoorsy type and it was very windy).
You can see my roll - it's upsidedown.


Harris adopts a typical Australian pose, sans beer.


Bushland...



The mighty Tamar.
Actually, it's not that mighty. It's a lot smaller than it looks here.
In the summer it is pleasant to swim in.



And this is my best friend in the whole world.


And that ball is her best friend in the whole world.
She is annoyed because someone has stopped throwing it endlessly in the opposite direction.