We Made It part 3

Boxing Day we had a huge cooked breakfast and went for a walk in the local park where we saw not one but THREE squirrels!
On the way home we popped into the off liscense to buy more beers. The night was spent watching Eternal Sunshine On A Spotless Mind and Top Gun!

Day after Boxing Day we were awoken by a txt from Pommy Dan. "It's SNOWING!" And indeed it WAS!

Backyard view:

Front view:


The snow falling stopped at around midday and melted away not long after. The London Girl and I traveled up to Kentish Town (in north London) to meet an old friend of mine, Bel. From there we walked to Hamstead Heath ( one of Londons' huge parks).

It was feezing and there were still patches of snow around.


But we had views right over London and the sunset was lovely:




As it got dark we descended from the hill to the out door ice-skating rink. As we were waiting to get on the rink, it suddenly started to snow again!!





And then we SKATED!


AFter about an hr we retired to a nearby pub for a few warming pints!
To cap off a lovely Christmas period The London Girl and I headed back home. On our way we dropped in to pick up a pizza. While we waited we nicked across the road to another pub to make use of the facilities and enjoy a nip of scotch!

THE END!

We Made it Part 2

Xmas Day:

We did not wake to a winter wonderland of snow. Instead it was a lovely sunny day.
Presents were opened. Santa was praised for finding us Johnny and Jenny Foreigners.

Me playing with my xmas yo-yo and wearing my xmas robe and Craig David beanie:


The guests were due to arrive at 1pm, so it was all systems GO in the kitchen! We had to whip up 3 courses plus nibblies!! The D and Ains did most of the work. I did the baked veges and the lamb.:


With the food sorta under control we were able to relax and get on with the socialising and drinking.
Me and The D:


The Xmas lunch crew (minus Pommy Dan who's behind the camera and David who came later):


The xmas day celebrations went well into the night till after 2am. We drank and ate alot more! We played pictionary and poker. We spoke to friends around the world. I remember at one stage holing up poor Mike in the kitchen for about 30 mins telling him about the virtues of the film Conan The Barbarian while playing the soundtrack. (I really should stop myself talking about that film when I've been drinking).

There are some photo's of me trying to box someone- but luckily they're lost.

We ended the night with a sing-a-long jam till the wee hours. Mike and Jaymee are music teachers, Ains is a trained singer and The D and Pommy Dan are also singers.
And then there is me.
The United Nations have passed international law forbidding me to sing. For the sake of humanity.
So I played harmonica and beat on a tea tin.

We made it!!

If you are reading this, then you TOO made it through Christmas!

Well Done! Mine was actually pretty darn good!

Here are some pictorial evidence of the period:

Xmas Eve day. The London Girl and I went to Putney for some last minute shopping. We then walked to the Thames Rr.


Then we had lunch at a very nice pub that sat right on the river. This far up the Thames is actually... sorta... clean. There were ducks atleast.

The pub and the view out the window:





Xmas Eve, night!
The London Girl baked food and then she made a curry with the help of Pommy Dan, while The D and I chilled in the front room. Since we are all Johnny and Jenny Foreigners we were aiming ti stay up late so's we could speak to our families.

As we are in the inter-web age and have high inter-web ninja skills, we hooked up lots of interweb connections and cameras and skype and ... stuff.

Then we kicked back and drank. A lot.

Merry Xmas and all that....

I was going to post 2 x-mas themed animated gifs that I did a while ago. (I've moved into a re-cycling-crazy household. So expect re-cycled artworks, jokes, posts and spelling mistakes).
But I cannot seem to link them.

One was of Santa ripping off his clothes- male stripper style- and then doing a nude jiggle.

The other one was a "Xmas... sux!" message. It had a boy pulling out socks from a wrapped package.

I was going to say that this years xmas will be a little of both for me this year. It's my first ever Christmas away from my family. In the last 5 years I've always managed to make it back to Sydney but coming from London is just a tad expensive and far to travel- especially since i am poor and I've kinda only just arrived.

Xmas posts and xmas whinging is boring. But I am missing my family a lot. I actually really enjoy my family's company, and I enjoy this time of year in Sydney. To me Xmas doesn't mean presents, santa, birth of Jesus, caroling or any of that. It means the one day in the year that I get to break bread and enjoy my families company and also taking a few days off to reflect on the year gone in the "comfort" of my childhood home.

So it's all different for me at the moment.

We will not have a white xmas. The weather in London is actually really lovely and sunny. Friends are coming over for a big lunch. I hope to get really pissed. I have a lovely songbird in the kitchen right now baking. I have some presents under the tree from my mum. I have a pretty good idea that they ARE socks! (But I also think there is the first DVD season of Deadwood which I am DYING to watch!).

So it's not the end of times, and I really don't have any reason to be a Bah Humbug!

So have a happy and safe festive season from everyone here at Diggsville!

See you on the other side!

"Disney exit won't hurt local animators"

..... like hell it won't!!!

"It is a blow to people ... I wouldn't say it is to the industry,"

So, putting 200 animators out of work won't affect the industry?

In an industry that is already severely under serviced? Under paid and under-respected?

I have no love for Disney products or their sweat-shop mentality. But it has been a place where young animators get some fantastic training (if they can survive the experience) and where some of my pals have been able to pick up some descant freelance gigs.

Besides those 200 people now out of work, it also affects all the other animators in the country. There are now 200 more people competing for the very, very few gigs around Australia at the moment.

You SUCK, Disney!!

(full news article here.)

Sometimes... when I'm alone....

.... this is what I think:

Johny Foreigner

The London Girl and I have a mission and that is to have amazingly great sundays. So far we've been doing most excellantly!!
I'll write about our sunday adventures soon, but I need a rest from the screen.
The above photo was taken at a tea room in Hamstead where all sorts of Euro-trash and upper class tweed wearing English toffs and Lords hang.

It's the perfect place for machivillian plotting and raising of ones eyebrows and displaying impressive facial hair.


It's going to be my local.

Mobile Media Revolution

In the process of tidying up/re-jigging my website (it's pretty much done- go check it out) I came across this interview with my old Blue Rocket boss, David Gurney. He's talking to Mo: Life about the mobile media revolution.
Quite interesting considering alot of creative arts is leaning towards that direction.

Also of personal interest to me was this bit:

mo:life:
Your 'Bang the Cat' character was born as mobile content, but word is that it has been picked-up for broadcast – can you tell us how that came about and what bang the cat’s fate is?

David Gurney:
"Bang the Cat" was a mad idea in the first place. I was thinking about minimising a concept down to the smallest thing it could be and ended up with: "There's a cat. It blows up." The idea really hit the spot and started selling well for mobile. Then Canadian broadcast distributor Canamedia expressed interest in taking it to television as interstitials (short form cartoons) and it's gone from there.

I was one of the animators (of 2) on Bang The Cat. 30 secs of madness. About a cat..... that blows up. I wasn't aware of the current progress in it's distribution.

So keep an eye out for it!!

IN OTHER NEWS: Sour cream DOES NOT make a good replacement for milk in ones coffee. Trust me. I know.

Thumbs.

In updating and generally tidying up my professional website (www.sdfraser.com) I've generated some thumbnails of work I've done:


(clicky-click 4 bigger view)

IN OTHER NEWS: I've fulfilled a life long ambition and gotten myself the equivalent of a $5 Haircutt!!
Normally I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for with haircuts- but for some reason I took the plunge and walked into one of those old skool barbers!
I was shit-scared during the whole process, but after ONLY 15 mins in the chair, I walked out with a pretty good haircut!!

Harry Potter : A Movie review

Saw Harry Potter and teh Goblet of Fire last week.
I don't read the books- they be for kids. But I do enjoy the movies. They have a lot of flaws- owing to the book2film translation and the fact they're (in the past) kids movies- but i think I enjoyed this one the most. Possibly cos it was aimed at an older audience.
It's the same by-the-numbers plot. Harry bumbles through not having a clue whats happening- especially since each year there is some new tradition that EVERYONE else knows about- except Harry. Harry has challenges- cos he's Harry Potter, but he always comes out on top. There is an evil teacher disguised amongst the faculty.
Just like the other movies.

But despite some stilted acting from the main cast of children, I did enjoy this.

I am very intrigued to see how the overall plot will unfold, and I think Professor Snape is an excellent character! He was underused in this film- he kinda just waved around in the bgd looking suspicious at everyone. I'm told his character gets even more interesting in the following editions.

Having said that, there are some major elements about the whole Harry Potter thing that rub me the wrong way.
1. I don't like magic. In terms of Fantasy genre, wizards are my lest interesting troupe.
2. I don't like the English boarding school/private school mode of education. And for that matter- the bullying and laughing at others misfortune.
3. The silly "magical" things bug me. Stuff like the quidace (sic?) game and spending so much screen time on stupid lollies and silly magical do-dads that only slow down the momentum of the story.
4. The lack of Free Will.
Only those born (by random?) with the magic can be something truly wondrous, while those others (poor pleb humanity) will only be nothing but plain "muddles"- or whatever. It's all about the class system- and there's nothing ANYONE can do about it to rise above their station.
The house selection process- The hat chooses what house they go into, right? Everyone who goes to Sliveren are evil. Those that get into Griffadore are heroes. Once again- no free will and no chance of being other then what you are put into.
These are very young children we're talking about here- who, it seems, never even have a chance......

Style Wars 2: The Realism Strikes Back!

Heres another redo for 'da agent.

The original brief:

"Illustration: Cartoon of a burglar asleep. He should have an empty bottle of cognac in his hand and be behind the sofa in a respectable house. A little boy is peering at him from round the sofa."

Version 1:


Version 2:


(once agin, clicking on the images will reveal a larger and more detailed view)

Thanks to Tonia, Jones, Jen and Robin for your comments, advice and, well ....for.... showing that you CARE!!

(It was of great help!)

* In other news, while walking in town today with The London Girl I imagined eveyone was a zombie. The scary thing was NOT that I'm a 30 year old man acting like a zombie in public, but that it took very little imagination to believe the people around me WERE zombies!

Style Wars!

I think I mentioned previously that I'm talking to an Illustration Agent. They've been pretty positive (but a tad hard to pin down), and based on my portfolio, they're pretty keen to work with me.

While they like my cartoony-skills, it's the style I did that "Bevvies" piece in that they're particulary interested in.
So they gave me a test.
The Brief: A cartoon showing a man dressed up in a gorilla costume questioning a very perplexed smartly dressed young couple on the streets of New York: a speech bubble coming from the Gorilla with the words: "Do you know where the party is".
(this is for a kids educational manual- or something)

It's a small paying gig, so the agent told me not to spend too much time on it.
This is what I turned in:

(clicking on image will open it up in another window at proper size)

After 3 years working in kids animation, this has become my natural style- espically for a quick turn around.

But the feed back I got from the Agent was it was too cartoony. He said the market is flooded with that kind of style. So with that in mind, I've had another crack at it:


(clicking on image will open it up in another window at proper size)

I haven't sent it off yet as I'm still unsure about it. I was using it to test some photoshop textures, but I'm in two minds about it. Have I over done it? It's hard trying to get the results I want with the technology at hand.
I was told years ago by a creative director- "Don't let the software dictate what you do. Work out what you want to do first, and then use your tools to achieve it."

Feed back appreciated.

Prophets of Rage

Los hombres back in the Old Country are taking their righteous internet sedition to a whole 'nother level!
Keeping tabs on the Homeland state of affairs. Keeping it leftie, socialist and 15 shades of pink-o!


THE B0ARD.

Fight the power G! And...er...D... and C!

What with me be being a Johny Foreigner- a citizan of the world, I can only read and hope that they keep the home fires burning.

Who's looking after me? A man without a country.

The Watch

A few years ago, back in 1999/2000 I was approached by Christian Read to co-create and draw his superhero story The Watch. It was to be the first book published by phosphorescent Comics, a company being started up by Christians' mate, Ben Howard.

I did the first 2 issues to mixed results. If I was to be honest and fair, everyone involved were still very much learning on the job. Sparks of brilliance and newbie mistakes!

I don't have anything to do with the book or phosphorescent anymore. (except there is a picture of me on the website). I have almost total emotional detachment from these characters that I helped create. I used to have a credit of co-creation in the books, but from memory thats gone. Both Christian and I (and the following artists) have no ownership on any of our creations. Christian has become a really close friend and one of my favorite creative-partners. The book, The Watch, has gone from strength to strength. Same with Ben's company. I actively buy their products as they're pretty rad!

But I read on C-mans lj that former Friends star Matt LeBlanc (Joey) is producing a sci-fi horror movie set in the second world war called The Watch. The name of the bad guy in the comic (Abaddon) is the same as in this movie.

Coincidence???

Tune-age

Here are some of the albums I've bought recently:

Verschiedene Interpreten- A Boy Named Sue Johnny Cash Revisited

Picked up this one in a cool record store in Berlin. Cash spent a number of years stationed in Berlin when he was in the army, and I guess he has had a big impact on muso's there. This is a tribute to him from a wide variety of German groups that ranges from country, rock and electro/dance.
Highly wunderbar!

Spontaneous Human Combustion- The Prodigy

Bootleg remix album bought from Campden Markets in London. Not bad for a bootleg. The Prodigy have a new Best Of.. album out at the moment with a bonus remix/rariety disc on the special edition that I had a listen to the other day. Not bad. This is almost as good and for a fraction of the cost!

Rum Sodomy & the Lash - The Pogues

I just HAD to listen to "Dirty Old Town" and "London Girl", so I got this album. Simply brilliant. Espeicially since there are a bunch of songs about London and a few about Australia.

Teenage Mojo Workout- 5,6,7,8's

Got this one from that record store in Berlin. 3 hot Japanese chicks doing crankin 60's surf rock and soul! This is probally their best album.

Complete Madness- Madness

Needed some British ska/type rock.And this was cheap in the store. 5 quid! Reminds me of when I was young and I used to watch The Young Ones. I really dig the song "The Prince". It's about an old skool ska dj/muso (?).

Ray Collins Hot Club- Honk My Horn

Only had a quick listen to this one, but it's pretty rad! Was given this by Toby, a swing/rockabilly dj I met in Munich.

Space Cadets- Astro-billy Rockin

Also was given this by Toby. Haven't had a listen to it yet. English rockabilly group who sing about space and peform in astronaut suits!

I've also got a Stone Roses live bootleg that I've misplaced somewhere and an old skool Louis Armstrong album I picked up in a 2nd hand store in East Berlin. The Louis album was a bit scratched but came in a rad metal tin case!

In other music news I'm currently listening to some Hoodoo Guru's. Man. When they were good, they were pretty fucking good!

Shaved!

I can't believe this is the third time I've had to write this post! I keep on losing it! It's like trying to catch lightning in a jar!!

But fuck, I just want to get this narscism out of the way so we can ALL move on! (it's your fault for encouraging me! Or do you just enjoy watching me make a fool of myself??!)

So here is the Conclusion to the Shaving adventure. This all took place about a week and a half ago.

Here's a reminder of what the beard looked like the day before:


When shaving off alot of facial hair, it's important to play around with differant styles. It's also important to note that NO ONE under the age of 35 can seriously pull of a moustache!


To distract Duncan from the warm fuzzy feeling in his pants caused by his close proximity to a half-naked sex god, I put on a Pixies song. Note how a pinko-artskool-lefty-smackie-hippy-commo-Pixie-lover looks like a junkie on the nod when they hear a Pixie song?


It's (very, very occasionally) semi-important to try and see what the evilist minds in history were on about.
Maybe bad facial hair styling = pure evil?

(note to self- "Kraut", "Jerry", "The Hun" and "Nazi" jokes are not funny when in Europe.)

The end result:

A younger, non-hobo Frase!

But that was awhile ago. The Beard is back now.
--------------------------------------------------------

To come: Probally some new artwork & more exciting narcism (cos I got a new laptop that has a camera! RAD!)

"You're Nicked!"

douglas says:
how did your illos go?
scott fraser says:
not bad. Still got 2 more to go. A bit rusty on the quick draw plus had some distractions.
douglas says:
ladies?
scott fraser says:
I'm out at an internet cafe. The internet at the hoe is BUSTED!
scott fraser says:
ehm, yeah. Ladies. Plus the POLICE!
douglas says:
WHAT?!?
douglas says:
interpol finally caught up with you!?
scott fraser says:
the flat I'm staying at the moment- the police were using it for a STAKEOUT!
douglas says:
holy AWESOME!
scott fraser says:
they were set up with their donuts and binoculars in the living room (where I like to do my work)
douglas says:
you're kidding...what they actually did a stake out WHILE YOU WERE THERE?!?!?
scott fraser says:
yep. I was in the bedroom. They were in the living room.
scott fraser says:
they told the girls that they were there to bust a stolen mobile phone ring
douglas says:
what were they staking out!??
douglas says:
crack dealers? numbers? Money laundering?
scott fraser says:
well... they said they were trying to pin youths on bikes stealing phones from peoples hands. But the view from the window dosen't show the street, so we were all suss.
douglas says:
hmmm
scott fraser says:
Then I nticed that across the road was a Criminal Soliciters.
douglas says:
ooooh
scott fraser says:
I thought they might have been keeping tabs on who went in.
douglas says:
awesome
scott fraser says:
OR they might have been watching the dodgy Australian party house above the solicitors.
douglas says:
did you help them out? I've read Elmore Leonard guys i know how these things go down.
douglas says:
want me to bust some heads?
scott fraser says:
yeah! And I did a donut run!
douglas says:
jump across the table grab them by their big fat heads and say "I'm not going to jail for YOU or ANYBODY!??!"
douglas says:
hahahahahahahah
douglas says:
A DONUT RUN!
douglas says:
cops ACTUALLY eat Donuts
scott fraser says:
krispy kremes from Tesco's.
scott fraser says:
Plus tea. The poms like tea.
douglas says:
hehe
douglas says:
YOU like tea you gayer
scott fraser says:
tea makes the morning liveable. Beer makes the afternoon livable. Scotch makes the night liveable.
douglas says:
word that
douglas says:
have you ever had Tea with scotch in it?
scott fraser says:
YES!
scott fraser says:
or was it coffee? I think it was coffee.
douglas says:
crazy
douglas says:
i used to drink tea but i decided i didn't like the warm milk aspect
scott fraser says:
you drink it black?
scott fraser says:
or hippie tea?
douglas says:
i only drink coffee now
scott fraser says:
how many sugars?
douglas says:
black as night
douglas says:
with 1 and a half sugars
scott fraser says:
Is that 1 and a half buckets?
douglas says:
by buckets you mean trucks right?
douglas says:
i should say lorries
scott fraser says:
you're not happy unless the spoon stands upright.
douglas says:
no no...only 1 and a half...jen bought some sort of nutra sweet sugar that you only need like a tea spoonful of cause it's super sweet
scott fraser says:
sounds a bit.... feminate!
douglas says:
it might be...i've started holding my mug with a pinch and my little finger in the air...is that weird?
scott fraser says:
it's a bit... non-blokey.
scott fraser says:
but that dosen't bother me. I love you for YOU!
________________________________

To Come: The Shaving Adventure conclussion (with Pictures!)

Scorpio Brthdays!

It's come to that time of year. The Scorpio birthday season!

I've written somewhere here about my love for scorpio women.
But I also know a few scorpio men.
So happy birthday:
Sam
Doris
Kara
Iris
Tee
Corrine
Jaymie
Simon
Dad.

Beardo- Part 1

I'm thinking of shaving my beard this morning.
The GOOD= I get to have sideburns back. I get to show off my handsome jaw line. I'll feel less like a hobo. I'll look younger.
The BAD= I'll bleed. It's cold and windy outside & my face will be exposed. I won't look as tough. I won't look as old. The London Girl likes the fuzziness.

What do the readers think?

Star spotting!

It seems like the week for starspotting!


Last night we saw James Cromwell eating dinner above the cocktail bar we where at.

Among other things James was in 6 Feet Under, played Dudley Smith in LA Confidential and was in all 3 Revenge Of The Nerds films. He played Lewis' father.

Tales From The Tube

THE GOOD:

*I saw Stone Roses frontman/solo artist Ian Brown!
He was getting on the tube as I was getting off at Baker Street station.

*I'm reading a good book: "Cat Chaser" by Elmore Leonard.

The UK editions of Elmore Leonards'books feature cover illustrations by Tim Marrs. He's got a pretty cool style. Check it out.


*A lady sat opposite me wearing the ninja-like muslim robes. While I'm not down at all with the sexual opression of fundamental islam, it was enlightning to see the dress in real life instead of an image on tv. Also reminded me of the diverse multi-culturism in London.


THE BAD:
*The Man has forced P.T goers to sign up and use a credit card like system called The Oyster Card. I resisted for aslong as I could, but they stopped issueing normal paper tickets for weeklys.
Basically, The Man can track where you go and when. It also dosen't show you when you bought your ticket, so for a weekly pass, you will sometimes forget when you need to renew it. Like this morning.
I wasn't sure if it expired today or tomorrow so I scanned it in, and the gates opened.
Cool, I thought.
But when I went to go on the tube again, it wouldn't work.
Turns out my card expired yesterday, and it debited me for my ride this morning.
So not only did I have to renew my weekly (21.40 pounds), but I had to pay an extra quid for the ride this morning.

*Someone smelt like dog pooh on my tube from Baker St to Totnahm Court Road.

Sluggers call it a day.

Sydney neo-swing band, The Louisville Sluggers are calling it a day.


I've written an entry about this twice already, but this computer kept crashing.

So, simply, I dug 'em.
They've appeared in my pally's and mine comics. We named our radio show, "Well Swung" after one of their songs. I spun their songs on my radio show.
The manager, Michelle "The Boss" Scott is a cool chick who slipped me free cd's, put my name on the door at gigs and gave me good advice about where to find cocktails in Las vegas.

The band members look like they're up to exciting and big things. Cocktail lounge gigs in Dubai, skateboarding tv shows for Aus.

Best of luck Sluggers and thanks for the tunes!

Bevvies

I've lost my password to my website, so I'm hosting this new piece here.

Whipped it up the other day.

Illustrator?

Couple of questions for the professional Illustrators out there.
I'm currently talking with a few London based Illustrator Agents. I've spent too much time in the last couple of years working in animation to be out of the loop.

What has been your experiance with Agents?

Anything I should be looking out for or be wary of?

And on a related note, after ages I've just had a look at Illustration Friday. This week they have 450 contributers.

Are people still doing stuff over there or is it just too big now to bother?

Come on now.

Give.....

From The C-man

This was like a gift from The C-man. One of the most beautiful things mine old eyes have gazed upon.

Freaky Deak In Germany- a teaser...