Beastie and the big black cat

Page structure as recommended by how to make comic strips book:

1. Beastie sits on woodshed roof trying to catch birds - fails

2. Beastie notices red paw prints on top of woodshed roof and follows them into the open shed and finds a tin of paint spilled on the floor. Beko sees Beastie in the shed and scolds him

3. Beastie goes home and waits patiently for food, everyone gets fed first and Beastie gets cold meat and biscuits

4. Night time Beastie goes on patrol while everyone's sleeping, he fails to catch a bat and a mouse and he taunts a dog in it's kennel. He is scared by a big black cat, hisses and runs away

5. Morning time, Coco goes and feeds the babes, Beastie monitors Beko's movements trying to trip him up. get out of bed, in bathroom, go downstairs, make tea. Beko gives Beasties cold meat and biscuits and then makes his lunch which Beastie prefers to watch.

6. Cat flap goes and Beastie sees that all his food has gone, he looks out of cat flap and sees black tail going around the corner. Beastie begs for more food but doesn't get any.

7. Disconsolate, Beastie goes upstairs to find nappies being changed. he bites a babies foot and is screamed at by everyone and is kicked out.

8. Over the road, Beastie sees the black cat looking in the window of house opposite. He sees black cat run into tree as woman leaves with a puppy and puts up a sign on the lamppost. Beastie goes over and spooks puppy.

9. Beastie sits on fence terrorising dogs as they go past and then goes home to get fed. When he's about to eat, he looks out of the cat flap and sees the big black cat staring at him Beastie swipes at the black cat and runs away

10. Beastie looks out of the window and sees the black cat sitting on the woodshed roof and sees him catch a bird. Beastie plots black cat's downfall.

11. Beastie goes outside and finds dead bird on the doormat and feels threatened he goes over to gate and sees black cat sitting outside the same house all puffed up. Beastie goes over to have a look and then there is barking from in the house. Puppy throws himself against window and scares black cat who scares Beastie.

12. Beastie goes home and a missing cat poster is put through the door. Beastie tries to tell Beko who thinks he wants food, tries to tell Coco who tells Beko off for not feeding Beastie, tries to tell Bebes who stare blankly back at him.

13. Beastie looks for black cat in the tree, and on the woodshed and in the shed where Beastie finds him big, burly, black and hissing and growling

14. Beastie sees the owners carrying in their shopping and tries to tell them they think Beastie needs to be fed 'poor starving cat'. Beastie steals sausages and they chase him over to the woodshed where they find the black cat and pick him up and hug him.

At the gate

"Hello! The city welcomes exceptional candidates! Your bank details before we start, thank you, Okay, so that's processing, how can I help?"
"Yes, I'd like to visit the city, I was told that this was the entrance."
"Yes, this is the first gate, I'm sorry, I don't recognise you, are you meant to be here?"
"Oh, well, I've never been here before, but I've been investing in it for years and I've travelled a long way to get here and I'd like to look around."
"Hmm, well, I'm afraid that unless you have a valid pass, I can't let you in. It would be a security risk"
"Ah, of course, so who do I need to speak to to get a pass?"
"Well, there are scouts that go out regularly to find candidates and they issue passes, or you could apply to get yourself noticed, but, excuse me for saying this, if I may make a suggestion, it would save you wasting your time...."
"Go ahead, of course! Thank you!"
"Well, I've been around here quite a while and I've seen quite a lot, and I can tell you straight out, that you're not going to be issued a pass, so you might as well give up. I just don't think that 'the city' is the right place for you." 
"Oh! Wow! well that seems a bit harsh! you've only just met me and you don't know anything about me!"
"Don't be so ungrateful! I'm just trying to help! I can tell by looking at you, you're just not exceptional. Everything about you seems mediocre."
"I'm not mediocre, I have exceptional talents, I'm unique, everyone tells me so, I'm special, I feel it in my bones and I believe that I should be in the city....I've seen it in my dreams."
"No, you're exactly the same as everyone else and the fact that you're even asking for a pass to  the city clearly demonstrates how unlikely you are to get one - no one who asks to visit the city is issued a pass to the city. The city comes to you. The city welcomes exceptional candidates."
"But I have so much to offer, I have raw potential, and I want to be play an active part in this world!"
"Oh, is that all? But of course you can play an active part! Why didn't you say that! you can pay for a 'city experience'. I mean all of us benefit from the existence of the city, so of course you can experience it. You just can't go there!"
"I don't understand, what's a city experience?"
"Well, you can pay to have a makeover to look like a real city dweller and have your photo taken next to models of famous city monuments, We can even produce a personalised sample diary for you of what you would have experienced   if you were to have visited the city, and of course, you can pay to have dinner with a host of city dweller look-a-likes....that's just part of it"
"That sounds great, but I really do feel that I would prefer a real pass to the real city. Can you tell me, how do I apply?"
"Hmph, well, you can pay a non-refundable fee for a copy of the application form and additional fee for a copy of the person specification. this changes on a day to day basis, so you can set up a standing order to receive a copy by bulletin at the end of each day. you can pay top meet an advisor who could coach you in your application, but it's very expensive, it's probably 4 times as much as your paying me."
"Yes, I meant to ask about that - I'm not really happy about having to pay just to be turned away. I think I'd like a refund for the charges so far."
"I'm just doing my job, we all benefit from the city and I'm sure you'd agree that it must be protected. you wouldn't want any old riff raff to be let in would you? Besides, I'd be out of a job if I told you how to get in. I've gone out of my way to help you and  well you don't expect me to work for nothing do you?" 

Holli Zollinger makes fab designs

I really like Holli Zolliger's work and I also really like Spoonflower!
for someone as picky about fabric as I am, it is really refreshing to find a site which I feel relatively confident I'll find something I like!

Bibliography

Books, films and programmes that have informed my view of the world, my ideas on creativity and my approach to life.


LI Jan 2012 - The Glass Bead Game (Vintage Classics) by Hermann Hesse


WI Jan 2012 - The Killing - Season 1 [DVD] Starring Mirelle Enos, Joel Kinnaman, Billy Campbell, et al. (DVD- 2011)


WI Jan 2012 - Sherlock - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttws


WI Jan 2012 - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-story-of-film-an-odyssey
Gorillas


WI Jan 2012 - How Art Made the World [DVD] (DVD - 2005)
We like exaggeration, we are persuadable, art comes from magic? bring people together to work on the same thing, feed them and water them, logo, costume, money, stamps, posters, make people think of you.


LI Jan 2012 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and Howard Jacobson 


RI Jan 2012 - How to Draw and Sell Comic Strips by Alan McKenzie
dip pens, typical story structures


RI Jan 2012 - How to be an Artist by Michael Atavar


WI Dec 2011- Rivers And Tides - Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time [DVD] [2001] (DVD - 2006)
Natural obsession leading to material understanding - reminds me of James Gleick's biog of Newton


RI Dec 2011 - Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice by Matthew Syed
Natural talent is less important than10,000 hours of practice, aim just beyond your reach, praise hard work not cleverness.


RI Dec 2011 - Breakfast At Darcy's by Ali McNamara 
Samhain, step by step, rely on the wonderfulness of others


RI Nov 2011 - The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Entrepreneurs, poets and the mysteries of success 


WI Nov 2011 -BBC Imagine - Grayson Perry and the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016ycnn 


RI Aug 2011 - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell


RI Feb 2011 - Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell


RI 2010 - Narcissus and Goldmund (Peter Owen Modern Classics) by Hermann Hesse
Different routes to knowledge


RI Nov 2010 - Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton 
The value of the crit


RI 2010 - The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron
Some approaches to overcoming blocks to creativity


RI 2009 - Isaac Newton by James Gleick
Innovation from observation

2011 Greetings Cards

New year's resolution 2011 - produce my own greeting cards

Top Cat - created for Carrie to congratulate her on her new job :-)

Thank you card for Christmas 2011 - Could have different messages in the thought bubble - could have different pictures for different personalised cards - good for thank you cards or wedding cards :-)

Door mouse - message inside - Please accept this small mouse as a token of my love - idea for a valentines card.

Excerpt from White Tiger

He was an old Muslim, with a ptich black face that was bedewed with sweat, like a begonia leaf after the rains, and a long white beard.

I said: "Can you read Urdu?"
He opened the book, cleared his throat and read, "'You were looking for the key for years but the door was always open!' Understand that?" He looked at me, wide furows on his black forehead.
"Yes Muslim uncle."
"Shut up, you liar. And listen."
He cleared his throat again.
"'You were looking for the key for years but the door was always open!'"
He closed the book. "That's called poetry. Now get lost."

"Please, Muslim uncle," I begged. "I'm just a rickshaw-puller's son from the Darkness. Tell me all about poetry. Who wrote the poem?"
He shook his head, but I kept flattering him, telling him how fine his beard was, how fair his skin was (Ha!), how it was obvious from his nose and forehead that he wasn't some pigherd who had converted but a true-blue Muslim who had flown here on a magic carpet all the way from Mecca, and he grunted with satisfaction.

He read me another poem, and another one....and he explained to me the true history of poetry, which is a kind of secret, a magic known only to wise men, Mr. Premier, I won't be saying anything new if I say that the history of the world is the history of a ten thousand year war of brains between the rich and the poor. Each side is eternally trying to hoodwink the other side: and it has been this way since the start of time.

The poor win a few battles (the peeing on the potted plants, the kicking of pet doogs, etc.) but of course the rich have won the war for ten thousand years. That's why, one day, some wise men, out of compassion for the poor, left them signs and symbols in poems, which appear to be about roses and pretty girls and things like that, but when understood correctly spill out the secrets that allow the poorest man on earth to conclude the ten thousand year old brain war on terms favorable to himself. 

Now, the four greatest of these wise poets were Rumi, Iqbal, Mirza Galib, and another fellow whose name I was told but have forgotten. (Who was that fourth poet? It drives me crazy that I can't recal his name. If you know it send me an email.)

From the novel The White Tiger by the Indian novelist Aravind Adiga, 2008 The Free Press, a division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.

Oh Boys!

31st October 2011 - Hector James and Felix Jack my sons are born


Paradigm shift - I can only feel, I don't have words to describe it. I have relied on others to do so for me.


Thank you to Marisa for saying 'suddenly it seems that everything in the universe is suddenly exactly where it should be'
Thank you to Tim for saying that 'suddenly it seems that there is an extra dimension in the world'...I am reminded of the experience of seeing a magic eye picture for the first time, except that the picture is my life, it is the experience of seeing my life in an extra dimension, not just an external image.
Thank you to Kate Bush for Aerial. Hector and Felix are my sea and my sky. They are my suns. and Aerial has given me a frame to that moment so that I can revisit it.