Guild of Ghostwriters

Movember Doodle Muzzy #12: petunia petalbaum

2009-11-17T13:42:00.003Z

Once again, we turn to the Petalb(a)um clan for a muzzy doodle of the day.
Please donate to Movember.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #11: papa petalbaum

2009-11-16T14:13:00.002Z

Following an unplanned weekend off (unforeseen consequence of bouncing Czechs), it's back to work with Papa Petalbaum (who, in my haste to get these done, I forgot to check and so didn't discover that the family in question is called Petalbum. Well, not until the error was committed to gouache - hey ho!). Please take some time to find out more about Movember and donate.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #10: the king

2009-11-13T12:22:00.004Z

This morning, the King gets the Movember muzzy makeover. The King of South Yorkshire and the Peak District, aka Ghostwriter #96, is sporting an imperial styled moustache, much as one might expect. Ghostwriter #96 lives in a story that has been stranded in a state of flux and redevelopment for several years, a picture story based on a short prose story from which this blog derived it's name. If you can't be arsed to click any of those links, please please please click this one to find out more about Movember and make a donation. Ta.

Liverpool Scandinavian Seamen's Church Facing Renewed Threat of Closure

2009-11-13T00:09:00.002Z

I'm adding some new links to the sidebar and particularly wanted to point out the most important at this time. Liverpool Scandinavian Seamen's Church faces renewed threat of closure as SKUT (Svenska Kyrkan i Utlandet, the Swedish Church Abroad) attempts to sell what isn't theirs to sell, and to evict the congregation and other users of this distinctive old building. A member of the congregation and accomplished blogger has started a new blog detailing the campaign against closure as well as day to day activities at the Church. Save The Scandinavian Church in Liverpool is the blog, written in English and Swedish.

The Church is the hub of a thriving ex-pat Scandinavian community scattered across Merseyside and beyond, and which may as well be scattered to the wind without the Church and its activities binding them together. This closure must be stopped. I urge everybody, especially Liverpool and Merseyside based bloggers, to read, link, promote this blog. And more importantly, make use of this important cultural centre, participate in its activities, while you still can.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #9: pallo poika

2009-11-12T10:25:00.002Z

Pallo Poika (finnish, pallo=ball, poika=boy) sporting the kind of muzzy most self respecting footy players wore until the late 1980s. Pallo Poika was born when a finnish child tried to teach me finnish in 2005. Read more of Pallo Poika here. Find out about Movember/donate here.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #8: GoG ghost

2009-11-11T11:43:00.002Z

This morning one of the GoG ghosts, them scary little doodles what can be seen all around here pointing the way and making the place look ~~ghastly~~ ghostly, has been selected for the moustachio makeover. Click to find out more about Movember and donate.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #7: heavy plant

2009-11-10T21:31:00.003Z

More archive dipping and moustache make-overing. This time it's the turn of the heavy plant who once upon a time had something to do with this story and now sports a soupstrainer in aid of Movember. To find out more about Movember, clicky clicky. Ta.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #6: retro me & inner critic

2009-11-10T19:01:00.003Z

Struggling for ideas, I turned to those who haunted here in its heyday, with a view to giving them a moustachio makeover. In this one, retro cartoon me as I was in 2004 accompanied by the ever faithful inner critic. To find out more about Movember and donate, click here.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #5: must dash

2009-11-09T11:37:00.001Z

Please donate!

Movember Doodle Muzzy #4: ink pencil?

2009-11-08T18:25:00.001Z

Please donate!

Movember Doodle Muzzy #3: pencil pencil

2009-11-08T13:36:00.003Z

Please donate. Movember is an annual event where chaps spend the month formerly known as November growing moustaches to raise money for and awareness of prostate cancer in men. Click the link to find out more and make a donation. I shall post pictures of my own Movember muzzy in due course.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #2: sharpie facespanner

2009-11-07T17:42:00.001Z

Please donate.

movember twitter wallpaper

2009-11-07T16:24:00.003Z

By way of simultaneously announcing that I am a twit, where I am twittering and what I shall be wearing while twittering about Movember:

(ie this is my home made Movember themed twitter wallpaper...)

I suppose I should count these towards my moustache a day task for the month of Movember. But I won't. Unless of course I flounder and struggle to make up the muzzies in which case, start counting.

EDIT: please let me know your twitter ids so that I can follow you.

Movember Doodle Muzzy #1: sharpie toothbrush

2009-11-07T14:56:00.001Z

To mark Movember I shall be doodling a muzzy a day. Except I only thought of this today and I'm consequently already in arrears to the tune of 7 muzzies but shall endeavour to catch up over the next few days. It goes without saying that I am growing a Movember moustache as well. PLEASE DONATE!!!

the killer who calls

2009-11-07T13:44:00.002Z

The Caller Who Kills from first take on Vimeo.

In October I attended a film making one day taster course provided by Liverpool filmy people First Take. On top of learning the basics of shot selection, camera, sound, etc, we had to make a film lasting about a minute and using roughly 10 shots. All this in 6 hours. The Killer Who Calls is the result. The main guy you see was a sterling team member who came up with the main idea in seconds and stepped in when our original suave hero type got camera shy and did a runner. Special mention to the woman you see as well because she was as eager to act as I am to go to war and have babies but she acted nonetheless. I'm very pleased with the results - as well as making a cameo appearance at the end, I shot a couple of the scenes and held the boom for most of the rest of it.

Afterwards we were invited to apply for a six month course film making and I was interviewed yesterday. Following the interview, a director of First Take gave me positive feedback but there's a problem with my location. The course is only happening because of some regeneration funding that stipulates the parts of Liverpool participants must come from. First Take are double checking whether this can be relaxed but I live in L18, which includes affluent Allerton and millionaire Mossley Hill, so I'm holding a scant hope but not my breath.

stations of the Niall #1

2009-07-26T12:42:00.003+01:00

This is a very hastily scribbled 30th birthday doodle for Niall. On the day of his party, which I briefly attended in order to read the last rights to my medication destroyed liver with a sip of champagne (I kid you not - one or two sips and I've been doubled up ever since, me belly swollen like a paris lip), we scoured the bookshops in search of our preferred gift but it wasn't there and this was our last resort. When I first met Niall, he told me that his plan for the following day was to go slipper shopping with his housemate, hence this doodle.

Cartoony Fackheeds Take A Hike (#2)

2009-06-29T14:55:00.001+01:00

This is actually their third outing but I was struggling to translate the original #2 to scouse/tyke and moved onto number #3 instead. This has been sitting unfinished on my painting desk for ages because I was unhappy with the tree background and wasn't sure whether to chuck it and start again, which is somewhat against the spirit of this exercise.

Cartoony Fuckheads #1

2009-06-04T22:51:00.001+01:00

Cartoony Fuckheads first found their way onto the page about a decade ago. They were wrought of ink from my beloved, now nibfuckt, Rotring 900, indelibly smudged onto grubby typing paper. They found their way onto the webpage soon after the original Guild of Ghostwriters went pictorial in early 2004. I recently decided to try a 2009 remix using my modern equipments and devices and so they are wrought of drip pen and ink then dirty gouache applied with my beloved kolinksy brushes. I also decided to change the ethnic origins of Lefty and Righty (the two who populate the panels) to more closely resemble my own experiences. The original Lefty & Righty spoke like characters from Walt Kelly's Pogo, the reborn Lefty and Righty speak scouse and tyke respectively - me being a sort of tyke who now lives in the land of scouse and probably doesn't have too strong a hold on how either really speaks. Hey ho. There are 9 or 10 of these to remix, then I might see about doing some new ones.

Sometimes the Story

2009-04-11T19:24:00.003+01:00

red van in the morning...

2009-03-22T10:34:00.000Z

three white vans, all in a row...

2009-03-16T19:07:00.001Z

2009-03-16T13:30:00.002Z

I've been not working on something I started and which I expected to have finished before now. But I thunk wrong. And so, to tide me over until it's done, here's this sneaky preview of something from the undone thing...

Northern Lights

2009-03-03T11:53:00.002Z

In Finland, the truth about the northern lights is well known and has been spoken of since the earliest days of Väinämöinen. A fox ran across a benighted fell, a deep, fresh cover of snow reflecting moonlight and illuminating the night. Fox swept and beat the snow with his brush, sending sparks into the sky, and this is how the northern lights are formed, and why in Finland they are called revontulet - fox lights.

This is an illustration I did for a teaching pack on scandinavian culture. I posted the unpainted version ages ago but never got round to posting this because I'm not altogether happy with how it turned out. I perhaps tried to be too literal in my visual interpretation of the lights. Now I come back to it after several months, it is better than I thought but, if there was time, I'd try to redo it. It will probably go in the teachers' pack as is though.

Kitschener: all occasion card design

2009-02-22T11:28:00.003Z

I'm pretty rubbish at remember special occasions that require cards, and at remembering to buy things like cards that are required on the special occasions that I've only just managed to not forget. So I wanted to design a card that I could quickly print off on any special occasion that I have only just in time managed to remember and this is it. The idea is that I write whatever the occasion might be inside the card so that, for instance, the front will read 'I WANT YOU' and the inside 'to have a happy Thursday' which the recipient will feel duly warmed by as they read it. On Friday at the earliest.

Petunia Petalbum & the Quest for Knowledge

2009-02-20T10:32:00.002Z

This was a book I did for my daughter's birthday a few years back using the wonderful lulu.com. I didn't post this here at the time because I hoped to sell copies. However, selling has never been one of my talents. But I do think it deserves a wider audience and so I've decided to give it away here. Don't let that stop you buying a copy should you feel moved to do so - just clicky clicky (and get the plastic out).