Sunday, February 14, 2010

Phebruary 14, 2010


U2 - 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'.
I'll be honest - I don't much care for U2. I just don't. But this song in particular is pretty great. The Living End do the most amazing cover of this - so much so that the original pales in comparison. If it's not obvious, I'm trying to depict someone on the sore end of a firing squad. Anyway, with this picture it's the usual inking and pens, only I forgot to splatter it with red ink before I scanned it, so I found some digital brushes and made the bloody effect. Also went the colour-route, even though it never ever ever turns out well. I'm going 30 hours without sleep, so pardon if it's weaker than the usual standard of weakness.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Phebruary 13, 2010


The White Stripes - 'The Union Forever'.
'Citizen Kane'. A movie that means so much to me. Changed the world of storytelling for eternity. And Orson Welles was only 25 years old at the time. I remember being so shocked when I was listening to 'White Blood Cells' and hearing this tribute song using lines from the movie as lyrics. This was all before 'Seven Nation Army' and all that, so it was difficult for me to share with anyone just how awesome these guys are. Here we have Charles Foster Kane, with his unfinished Xanadu, and the snowy scene with his childhood sled. I shaped his hlking mass to mimic the snowglobe-shape that starts the movie off. Anyway, this one took me just under 10 hours to do from scratch. Haven't inked in the longest time, so it's a bit sloppy. Longest part was cleaning up all the crap that appeared when I scanned it at a higher resolution than all the others. Though it's much clearer, so I'll prob keep doing it that way. Exhausting, but hey, what isn't.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Phebruary 12, 2010


Silverchair - 'Freak'.
Just a quick job with ink and a brush. I'm really behind with these so I'm churning them out pretty quickly - it's the scanning that's taking so long. Discovered how to stretch font without damaging its quality, though, which is how I got the large words there. I wish my foam looked more like foam, though.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Phebruary 11, 2010


Pink Floyd - 'Pigs'.
Okay, so I'm still tooling around with things I know nothing about. Like drawing animals. And using photoshop. And, well, art in general. Meh, You can see where I was going. Pigs in ink, the rest all computerness. Bad-ass song, and I'm pretty sure they say the f-word, which is, well, bad-ass. Actually, it turned out pretty cool the more I look at it.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Phebruary 10, 2010


Radiohead - 'Weird Fishes'.
Once again, I try something different and it didn't turn out very good. Frown. I know I should just stick to the black and white ink jobs - they seem to be the best ones - but I get so bored and wanna stretch my legs with other stuff. This for instance is my lame attempt at watercolours and fishy shenanigans. Pretty rushed... Anyway, great song from a great album, I've always imagined a scene like this whenever hearing those opening lines.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Phebruary 09, 2010


Prince - 'Raspberry Beret'.
Probably about as 'lifelike' as my sketches can get! A bit sexy, eh? Well it had to be oozing in hormones if it was on a Prince song. Did this with thick black marker, smaller tips for the face, and Photoshop for the colours and font. Is also a big sexy dedication to Karen for her 22nd sexy birthday which was on the 9th of Sexy. Enjoy yourselves!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Phebruary 08, 2010


Simon and Garfunkel - 'Cecilia'.
This one was a gimme - the perfect song about a guy so enamored with a low-down rotten girl that he excuses all her behaviour as though he isn't good enough for her. Just a simple ink job. I have a copy of this fully coloured, but I chose the black and white instead - my crappy colouring just seems to distract the eye.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Phebruary 07, 2010


Youth Group - 'Skeleton Jar'.
This one I drew while on the phones at work. Actually, all of these were at least designed or doodled while I've got a headset on. But this one I did completely at work, then re-inked when I got home, and scanned it. I was going to colour it, but I thought, 'why ruin it?'. Youth Group are possibly the most underrated Aussie band out there, and their album 'Skeleton Jar' is easily one of the world's best made in the past decade or so. It came before their popularity with 'Forever Young', but is far superior. I always get melancholy with memories of early years at uni from it. Everyone must have some sensation when listening to this album.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Phebruary 06, 2010


Nirvana - 'Milk It'.
Again, another roughly knocked up one (aside from the newspaper cutting-and-pasting, whew). I didn't think I'd be getting contextual with these, but what the hey: I pretty much loathe the journalistic media. I'm not gonna ramble on though. Mainly because I'm still rushing because I have an actual job to go to. The song is quite wicked, especially the part where Cobain almost chuckles before screaming into the chorus. Oh, and 'In Utero' is better than 'Nevermind.' But only just.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Phebruary 05, 2010


Mastodon - 'Colony Of Birchmen'.
Was gonna originally do this in charcoal or crayons or something - I wanted to give it a really nightmarish look, but in the end I couldn't find any, so I just made it kinda cute-Where-The-Wild-Things-Are-ish. I used ink and a brush and coloured in digitally. The song's probably my favourite off Mastodon's 'Blood Mountain' album. I probably should have added more Birchmen, though.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Phebruary 04, 2010


Pixies - 'This Monkey's Gone To Heaven'.
I totally did this whole thing in texta, trying to give it some sort of effect. Didn't quite pan out, but you get the message. Very cool song, though I like the version they did live on Letterman last year best of all - Pixies are as good as they've ever been, which is astronomical. Also got to see them live a month or so later, *explosion of awesome*.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Phebruary 03, 2010


The Beatles - 'Eleanor Rigby'.
This is a really rough one - I have to go out tonight so I didn't get to fine tune it or anything. Almost positive I'm ripping off Frank Miller from Daredevil in this somehow, but can't picture where. Anyway I wanted it stark and white and snowy and a lone guy, presumably Fr. McKenzie, rugged up and walking away. Duh. For this I just used a fineliner and digitally - crappily - coloured his coat. The way I see it, yeah it's rough, but basic is better when it comes to something like this one. Eleanor Rigby is just about the most perfect strings ensemble song out.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Phebruary 02, 2010


Led Zeppelin - 'Immigrant Song'.
I had such grand designs for this one - a silhouette of a lone Viking on top of a peak, thunder crashing all around him in the background, the stony mountain containing the epic lyric of the warrior's divine announcement. I inked it with a brush, then scanned it to colour on the computer, and thought I could do lightning bolts on Photoshop, but it sucked and now we are without. One of the more 'Norse' Zep songs, Immigrant Song thunders out like Thor's hammer itself.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Phebruary 01, 2010


Colin Hay - 'I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You'.
I was gonna ink it and then colour it digitally, but I wanted it to have a 'warmer' feel, of sorts, so I just used Derwents. It didn't really work. The guy and his coffee were done in fineliner. Possibly the greatest and most heartwrenching break-up song ever, Colin Hay is a timeless guru, and I'm lucky enough to have seen him live (that said, he plays at The Corner basically once a year).