From the Idol Scribbler – The Strangefish Project

July 7, 2019 ~ Hannah ~ Leave a comment

Hello Idollers everywhere! Today I am here to tell you about one of my other art projects. Before I start, however, a quick PSA about Idol Scribblings.

From this week onward Idol Scribblings will be posting new deities weekly. I am aiming for these to be posted on Sundays. I have now almost caught up on sharing the earlier cartoons. I have a few in reserve so I can have the odd week off if needed.

The Strangefish Project

Over the last six weeks I have been working on another project for the superb Prog Rock Band Strangefish. They are celebrating 30 years together as a band this year, and I have been a fan for about 18 of those. Even more so since Kris (my sparring partner) joined them on bass guitar last year. Their music innovative, intricate and whimsical, and is that rare and beautiful combination of both cleverly complex, yet thoroughly pleasurable. They are also one of the most entertaining bands I have ever seen live. Every show has immense energy and lots of silly shenanigans. You can find out more about them here https://strangefish.band .

This project started as a silly caricature of one of the band members, and developed into a set of six portraits to celebrate their anniversary. It was great fun unlocking each band member’s inner strange fish. They are drawn using pointillism technique, and each one took about 15 hours to produce. That is considerably longer than I can afford to take on my deity cartoons.

There are a limited number of sets of 6, 6×4 prints of these pictures for sale. They will be going on the band’s merchandise page shortly.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and also discovering the music of Strangefish. If you are in a band or other creative project, and would like to commission some artwork from the Idol Scribbler, please drop me a message via the contact page .

Dave Whittaker – Drums

The Rocktopus’ eight prehensile limbs and unnatural rhythm make them ideal Prog Rock drummers and it’s three hearts make it quite bold (or in some cases, bald). It warms up using four of it’s eight arms and uses suction cups to hold onto sticks. If the stage is perfectly level, they will squirt ink from both sides of their mouth. Although they are of a naturally cheery disposition, don’t pick a fight with a Rocktopus. They are always well armed and will give you a good vibraslapping.

Joanne Whittaker – Vocals

Found in the waters off the west coast of the UK, this species of chelonian is so famed for it’s singing performances that its other common name is, “The Turn Turtle”. It lives on a diet of tropical cocktails. When not singing they have been observed schooling large groups of young fish.

Bob – Guitars

The most mysterious of all sea creatures, the Jellybob says little but expresses much through their guitar playing. In their natural habitat they have to patiently endure constant harassment from exuberant singing cuttlefish. Although mildly venomous, the Jellybob will only sting when it fancies having a good laugh watching someone try to wee on themselves.

Paul O’Neil – Keyboards

The male Keyhorse has a very small territory, about half a square metre. This is very useful when venues are small or other musicians want more stage. They are able to use their tail to hang on to things when faced with strong ocean currents or nutty singers. They can change colour almost instantly, during courtship or after playing a bum note.

Steve Taylor – Vocals

Scuttlefish are sometimes known as the chameleons of the sea due to their ability to rapidly alter the colour and pattern of their skin or, in this particular species, the colour and pattern of their shirt!

Kris Hudson-Lee – Bass

The Kristacean is a Rock Lobster, found off the shallows of the North East coast of England. It’s can often be found playing the Sea Bass. It’s never seen a Tuna though.

From the Idol Scribbler – Meet the Hive Mind

July 7, 2019 ~ Hannah ~ Leave a comment

Carrie-May Mealor

I first met Carrie-May in a muddy field some time in the later half of the fifteenth century. Well, not really, but we were doing a jolly good job of pretending. She is a woman of many passions and varied skills. She can serenade you on the cello, calligraphy a beautiful passive aggressive note to your neighbour, excavate the remains of your ancestors, massage your head or shoot you down like a mangy dog with a longbow with equal finesse. She is also a superb artist, you can check out her creative work at Closer to the Hedge.

Carrie-May suggested Senna – Goddess of Regular Occurrences and Wantoo – God of Sound Engineers.

If you were a deity, what would you be the god of?
God of Multiple Interests, Unfinished Projects and the Easily Distracted

What should your worshippers leave as an offering on your altar?
My worshippers should leave me half finished drawings and unused craft supplies. They might also play hymns on musical instruments they are not very good at.

What would your sacred animal be?
My sacred animal would be a magpie (make of that what you will!)

I challenge you to a duel! Choose your weapon!
My weapon of choice is a blunt craft knife and a badly played cello for ranged attacks.

From the Idol Scribbler – Meet the Hive Mind

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019 ~ Hannah ~ Leave a comment

I would very much like to introduce you to some of the original Idol Scribblings Hive Mind who helped come up with the names of some of the first comedy deities.

They are, truly the loveliest bunch of odd-balls anyone was lucky enough to call “friend”. Their wit and unconventional wisdom has saved me from crushing ennui more times than I can count. Today I am going to introduce you to four of the crew. (I will introduce you to some more of them in future). As you will see, they are all extremely interesting people.

Should I be worried by the fact that everyone’s answers to the bread question included an exclamation mark?

Wendy Barrows

Wendy Barrows is one third of the team behind the music and video gaming channel “The Pickle Jar”. You can follow them on Facebook here.

She is also a keen amateur musical theatre performer, and strives to keep Yorkshire cultured with the help of the Maltby Musical Theatre Group. If ever Wendy appears to be unhappy, please give her a cat to cuddle. If this does not work immediately, just keep adding more cats. Wendy has an impressive property portfolio, in Minecraft. She manages to tear herself away from the consoles now and then to do her “proper job” in education. If she can find enough coffee to achieve lift-off that is.

Wendy’s contributions to Idol Scribblings include coming up with the name Idol Scribblings. This suggestion won a poll of the original Hive Mind Members to become our title.

If you were a deity, what would you be the God of?
The God of Sarcasm. Obviously.

What should your worshippers leave as an offering on your altar?
Large bars of Mint Aero and fluffy pajamas.

What would your sacred animal be?
The domestic house cat.

What is the correct name for a hand sized, spheroid, bread product?
A bread roll, or just a roll, as that is the correct term!

A biopic film of your life is being made. Who should play you?
Joan Cusack.

Adam Broadhurst

Adam Broadhurst is the lead singer of the truly excellent folk-metal band Under a Banner *. When not rocking hard he can usually be found up a mountain, in the rain, with his dog. He can probably be best described as a traditional dark, brooding, English romantic poet, in a camper van. When forced to perform penurious servitude for material gain, he teaches English in the West Midlands (and therefore I blame him entirely for the accent).

Adam is one of the most prolific contributors to Idol Scribblings, of the Deities shared so far he has contributed:
Futon – God of Temporary Sleeping Arrangements,
Madhur – Goddess of the Great British Curry,
Quinoa – God of Faddy Diets,
Anaglypta and Artex – Gods of Failed DIY Projects (jointly),
Low Key – God of Bassists (jointly).
There are a few more genius ideas still to come from him. He has also been a fantastic cheerleader and advocate for Idol Scribblings, and I cannot thank him enough for all the encouragement, proof reading, shares and likes.

If you were a deity, what would you be the God of?
The God of Rain.

What should your worshippers leave as an offering on your altar?
A soggy OS map.

What would your sacred animal be?
A soggy, oily Shag.

What is the correct name for a hand sized, spheroid, bread product?
That’s a cob if hard and a bap if soft!

You are going to star in a movie fight-scene. Choose your fight-scene soundtrack.
The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams (this would be a very non-violent fight)

* My band Ethryll will be supporting Under a Banner in Sheffield on the 28th September. Details here .

John Kennard

John Kennard is one of the few drummers I have known who can read a book without getting a blister on the end of his finger. He is also a tenor (ladies!) and chorister with Chandros Camber Choir. You may have seen him at one of the BBC Proms concerts performing as a penguin impersonator. This is especially impressive as in real life he is a Racing Hippo. Should you ever need to win John over as a friend, invite him round to play board games. John’s superpower is his ability to unknot giant nests of tangled cables. Seriously, this guy would make Gordias sweat.

When he needs to eat, John works as a Technical Architect. John is great at pointing out a genius joke or pun opportunity that I have missed for a deity. He has contributed to the writing of Semolina – Goddess of School Dinners, Piccaeolus – God of Wind Musicians and Houmous – God of Dips. All of which are coming soon.

If you were a deity, what would you be the God of?
The God of Atheists

What should your worshippers leave as an offering on your altar?
The blue pills, (they should be taking the red ones).

What would your sacred animal be?
The Babel Fish (cf Oolon Colluphid).

What is the correct name for a hand sized, spheroid, bread product?
A very large dough-ball!

You are being abducted by aliens and taken to their home planet. They will let you take one luxury from your home town (Worthing) to introduce to their world. What are you going to take?
A horde of creakily-rampaging geriatrics.

James R Turner

James is a music reviewer, critic and journalist who is very highly regarded on the Progressive Rock, Folk and Alternative Rock Music Scenes. He writes for Spirit of Progressive Rock website, and he also works in Public Relations for Bad Elephant Music. James R Turner is known to his friends as “The Big T” (well, that’s what we call him when Mr T is in the room). He was, allegedly, the inspiration for one half of Waldorf and Statler. Once, James and I brewed a cup of tea on a fire tornado made using white spirit and a Trangia (DTTAH).

James lives somewhere in the South West with a lot of animals. When not working at things that are actually interesting, James works in banking. James has been a great supporter of Idol Scribblings, he has contributed a hilarious deity which is to be published this week (No spoilers).

If you were a deity, what would you be the God of?
The God of Indecision

What should your worshippers leave as an offering on your altar?
CDs and Real Ale.

What would your sacred animal be?
The West Highland White Terrier.

What is the correct name for a hand sized, spheroid, bread product?
Bread cake!

If you had to pick one celebrity voice to narrate your inner monologue for the rest of your life, who are you going to choose?
Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker.

From the Idol Scribbler.

April 27, 2019April 27, 2019 ~ Hannah ~ Leave a comment

Idol Scribbling has now been public for a month. I thought I would put together a little “behind the scenes post” to mark this little milestone, and to say thank you to everyone who has been reading, liking and sharing. It means the world to me that you are enjoying this and passing it on.

How far, so far?

Having had a peek at the handy Word Press stats, I found out that Idol Scribblings has been viewed in 29 Countries around the world! Hello and thank you to my readers in…

…France, Taiwan, Greece, Romania, Austria, Belarus, Denmark, Sweden, Peru, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, Thailand, Spain, Australia, South Korea, Philippines, Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, India, Switzerland, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, Ireland, Canada, USA and of course the UK.

Don’t be so shy folks! Come and say hello in the comments. Maybe suggest a deity?

Doing the Drawings.

Before I began posting these publicly, I had done around 60 deity drawings. I am now posting them in no particular order, even though my drawing has definitely improved. This has in no small part been thanks to the excellent Anthony Carroll and his art workshops at The Coterie Gallery in Rotherham. The workshop also helps me set time aside every week to work on a new drawing.

Thank you Anthony for putting up with me doing my silly cartoons whilst everyone else does proper art. If you are in Rotherham I can highly recommend visiting The Coterie Gallery. You can find it in the Riverside Precinct.

The drawings start out as pencil sketches, which I then ink using Uni Pin Fine Line pens. I then scan these and tidy them up using Photoshop Touch on my Samsung Tab S2 tablet and add the boarders, text and watermarks. Although they get started at the workshop, they are usually finished sat on the sofa at home.

In the early stages, I did consider adding colour. However, I had a few friends who were enjoying printing them off and colouring them in. So I decided to keep them monochrome. I may do a coloured-in special someday. Until then, I would love to see your colouring in.

This is all about deities, so what do you believe?

I very much like the theory that if someone believes in a deity, then that deity exists. That what Deities, Gods and Goddesses are, is a focus of belief. I first read this idea in one of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books and thought it seemed about right. I have not found any evidence to the contrary so far.

The nice thing about this theory is that I find it helps me to be open minded about other people’s faiths. If they believe in a deity, then to you, their deity is real purely because of their belief. If you are atheist and you don’t believe in gods, but you know that other people believe, then you can appreciate that their deity is real for them. If making humans creators of gods seems a bit of a stretch, I advise you not to underestimate the power of mankind’s imagination.

By the way, the paragraph above (and this entire blog) would have probably lead to me being forced to drink hemlock in 399 BCE. Hey, I like to live dangerously.