World Cup 16 Series – No.13: England

The character you see below, Airbury's Jezebel, got assigned England which is kind of annoying. Too much red, no contrast, my eyes, my eyes, etc. However, I prefer England's red 'away' strip to the white 'home' one. Red is a more commanding colour on any sports field. Got that? In return I offer a little incentive.

World Cup 16 Series – No.14: Mexico

Mexico today...Rosey is a character from Palace Club who always has a broken arm. Normally this would disqualify her from playing, but here at Nonesuch Blog, it doesn't matter.

World Cup 16 Series – No.15: United States

Okay, this one's a bit rushed. Give me a break, I stayed up until 2 a.m. to see England not only get eliminated, but denied an equalizing goal thanks to the incompetence of the moronic FIFA referees. I'm not whinging that England lost. They were beaten by a superior team on the day, and that's that.

What I don't like, however, is how FIFA can continue using legally blind linesmen and put off using video replays for judgement. Too expensive? You sell soccer shirts for $160, you rich sods. If video replays are not in use by 2014 I shall personally visit the head of FIFA and insert a vuvuzela up them.

World Cup 16 Series – No.16: South Korea

Here we go with the first of sixteen daily characters, each representing a World Cup Top 16 nation! I should point out that the nations assigned to each character are completely random. Except Gertrude of course, since she's supposed to be German, so I had to give her Germany.

South Korea is up first, since they got eliminated first. The character is called Miss Evy, an airheaded teacher in the Airbury Academy series. I haven't decided where she's meant to be from. Malaysia perhaps.

World Cup 16 Series

Been watching the World Cup? I have, that's why the posts for June have been sparse. But fear not – I have just been set a challenge. There are 16 days from the day Group H finishes and officially decides the Top 16, to the day of the final (July 12 my time). My challenge is to draw 16 of my characters, one per day, each dressed in the kits of one of the Top 16 countries. Would you like to see that? Of course you would.

With any luck, and some judgement on my part, the last of the 16 drawings to go up will be the team that ends up winning the final. And if that happens, you owe me a doughnut.

Disclaimer: If by any chance Italy make the Top 16, their corresponding picture in my list will be skipped.

Well, see you when the Group matches wrap up. In the meantime have a look at some stylish World Cup shop signage. I took this photo in KLCC Mall, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December 2009 when the official jerseys went on sale.

China 5 Song Release

At long last – Quickstar Productions has released their compilation CD Vs The World Volume 4 which includes China 5's song "Crocodile", the first to get an official release! The album features unsigned artists from widespread countries such as Spain, France, Brazil, USA and others. Have a look at the cover art and tracklisting:

(Cover art © The Kitsch)

I received my fifty copies by mail today. The boxes arrived in a blue plastic sack, which you see below. A few weeks ago, for some reason, it was in Frankfurt, Germany. Now it's in the corner of my room. Ah. Technology.

Go nose around on iTunes and preview some of the tracks, why don't ya. Alternatively (if you live in Melbourne [south/eastern suburbs, not you western suburbs scum]), fork over ten of your AUDs and I'll furnish you with a shiny, shrink-wrapped copy. Support the struggling artistes! And hear some innovative music from far-off lands.

Umbrellas In The Back Alley

Here's an unusual street art installation – someone stood on a milk crate in the back alley off Hosier Lane in Melbourne to hang 17 or so black umbrellas from a cable (one fell down, as you can see).

Here's the view from the back end of the alley, which is a place where pretty much anyone can come and contribute to the street art. Spray, stencil, paste-up, or just nail something to the wall. And do it at night, when there's no one around.

Blur Logo Oddity

Anyone notice that the logotype for Blur, the Xbox 360/PS3 game (above) looks a lot like that used for the band Blur on most of their cover art (below)? Both using lower-case sans-serif similar-looking fonts?

So, what is this? Coincidence? Conspiracy? Blatant plagiarism? Will the truth ever be revealed? Will it? Huh? Huh??

Huh?!???

Melbourne's Sun

Who says the big stars never come to Melbourne? From June 4 to July 4, the Sun will hover over Federation Square. A model of the Sun, made by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer titled Solar Equation. Lit from within and suspended from cables, it really looks like a massive sun ten or so metres from the ground.

My photos of it are pretty crappy (except this one). That's what happens when you try taking pictures with a digital camera at 11pm without a flash. However this installation is one of many works of pulic art you can see in Melbourne city for a brief time before they are replaced with something else.

Next time – umbrellas in the alley.

Stages Of A Drawing

Page 0101 of Constantinople is a full-page 'splash panel' of a cityscape which is basically the first page of the story. I took photos to show how this thing was put together.

First of all, the pencil stage:

The image was drawn in curvilinear perspective. This basically involved drawing a circle inside a square, marking off equal measurements along the square and then using a compass to draw arcs from the top and bottom outwards, and diagonal axes through the centre point. The buildings were then pencilled in along these lines.

Why bother? Well, I wanted the opening visual to be unusual. You can't see it too well but that's me (the 'pencil' character) falling in from the top. I've used some pretty cheap yellow transparent paper, which isn't recommended, but it's all going to be scanned anyway.

Moving on to the ink stage:

Now it's all inked in with fineliners, except for the lettering on the signs and buildings. As you can see, it gives a spherical effect that isn't used much in comics (because it takes so long). The whole scene is cropped in by the circular border so you can't see the ground, which made things a bit easier.

Here's how the final image looks:

Not too bad – minimal shades of grey and hardly any shading, which would make it look more like a ball. Text added in and a black background, and there you have it. One page down, only a zillion more to go.

China 5 Album 5

Since today makes 8 years since I started my band China 5, I'm posting one of our music videos here for you to watch. It's a song called "Spank The Eighties" and the video, made last year, explores the wonderful world of puppetry. Enjoy!

Below is a preview of the cover image for the fifth China 5 CD, due for home-made release on 10/10/10, if we get it finished by then. You can also see it here as part of my deviantART gallery, added last August. You'll notice there is no title put in yet because I haven't decided on a typeface. It's called Iran in my dA gallery, but the real album title is being kept secret for now. We're all mysterious like that in China 5, you see.

For more about China 5, head on over to our Myspace Music page, why don't ya.

Gertrude In A Yukata

Continuing the colour image series of Airbury Academy characters, here's Gertrude in a yukata, which is kind of like a summer kimono in Japan. This drawing will probably be used in an upcoming story set at a night festival called Shutdown, which will be the final story in Volume III.

So why would a German girl be wearing a yukata in a country outside of Japan? Same reason she was wearing a French maid costume in the Evenfall story last year. It's definitely more interesting to draw, and it makes a change from drawing the characters in the same clothes each time.

I have no idea what to draw the others in. Nothing as glamorous as this, though.