Year Zero
I can't really delve a lot much FURTHER BACK when it comes to excavating my earliest, paid-work, acceptable-level-professional artwork, as the examples seen here account as part of my first-ever paid cartoon assignment, back in December 1982 [I was very young and innocent then].
This was a mural I done for the GEORGE HOTEL, High Street, Dunbar, East Lothian-------it was a favorite watering-hole for young people, with a cramped, Cavern-like basement that used to blare out punk and new wave tunes over a few beers.
The hotel is long gone---it was derelict for a few years, and today it is converted into modern flats so the drawings I done on the walls are long gone.
I think my natural style is still evident even this early on in the game: yes I can draw a lot better today, but quite rightly so as I have a lot more experience since, what with having stuff published, joining a large film studio, and what-have-you........it was a great feeling to finally be paid for my drawings, though---much appreciated. I have done many thousands of pro-level drawings since 1982, so naturally there is bound to be improvement and change in my stuff.
The World of 1982:
Channel 4 just started up this same year: the pop-music charts [remember that ?!] were full of stuff like ABC, Captain Sensible, Bananarama and Echo and the Bunnymen.
The Falklands War started this year, and at the pictures, Blade Runner was released to not-much-fanfare.
Anyway: maybe I will tackle an updated version of the dragon design at some point: a more recent , full-color dragon [great subject] of my design can be seen on here, under 'Widescreen Classics' .
Plate One: all that remains of the dragon mural [it was around 9 or 10 feet wide, I reckon] are a couple of low-tech analogue pictures I took at the time---better than nothing, though, and enough to make a point.
Plate Two; my amigo seen here alongside my drawing gives a better sense of the scale involved: King Kong has been an endless source of inspiration for me, even as far back as this---my new Kong drawings are more accomplished, as should be the case.
Plate Three: Your Humble Narrator in 1982, out buying home beer brewing kits in Boots Chemist [!] : back then, despite the consumer-purchasing seen here, I was a bit of a bohemian hippie anarchist with a strong anti-system bias [so what's new?]
I STILL have a healthy disregard for monolithic, mindless , unimaginitive organizations: there is no doubt about that!
This was a mural I done for the GEORGE HOTEL, High Street, Dunbar, East Lothian-------it was a favorite watering-hole for young people, with a cramped, Cavern-like basement that used to blare out punk and new wave tunes over a few beers.
The hotel is long gone---it was derelict for a few years, and today it is converted into modern flats so the drawings I done on the walls are long gone.
I think my natural style is still evident even this early on in the game: yes I can draw a lot better today, but quite rightly so as I have a lot more experience since, what with having stuff published, joining a large film studio, and what-have-you........it was a great feeling to finally be paid for my drawings, though---much appreciated. I have done many thousands of pro-level drawings since 1982, so naturally there is bound to be improvement and change in my stuff.
The World of 1982:
Channel 4 just started up this same year: the pop-music charts [remember that ?!] were full of stuff like ABC, Captain Sensible, Bananarama and Echo and the Bunnymen.
The Falklands War started this year, and at the pictures, Blade Runner was released to not-much-fanfare.
Anyway: maybe I will tackle an updated version of the dragon design at some point: a more recent , full-color dragon [great subject] of my design can be seen on here, under 'Widescreen Classics' .
Plate One: all that remains of the dragon mural [it was around 9 or 10 feet wide, I reckon] are a couple of low-tech analogue pictures I took at the time---better than nothing, though, and enough to make a point.
Plate Two; my amigo seen here alongside my drawing gives a better sense of the scale involved: King Kong has been an endless source of inspiration for me, even as far back as this---my new Kong drawings are more accomplished, as should be the case.
Plate Three: Your Humble Narrator in 1982, out buying home beer brewing kits in Boots Chemist [!] : back then, despite the consumer-purchasing seen here, I was a bit of a bohemian hippie anarchist with a strong anti-system bias [so what's new?]
I STILL have a healthy disregard for monolithic, mindless , unimaginitive organizations: there is no doubt about that!
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