Winter Tips

It's damn cold in Glasgow. Damn cold. So cold I've had to improvise a Magic Mouse compatible glove. The whole city is covered in a frozen layer of ice and snow and people are terrified.

Some winter top tips:

1. Woolly Hats
Marks & Spencer are selling pretty decent turn-up beanies for a fiver. They are a good size and comfortable. I only mention this because I'm quite particular about my woolly hats - these are nice and plain with no adornments. Available in black and navy.

2. Transport
Both Scotrail and First Buses in Glasgow have a pretty good Twitter service. Transport is messed up right now and if you're in doubt about what's going where, send them a question and they'll get back to you surprisingly quickly. While they often get bad press, particularly in times of bad weather, I think they're both doing a good job with this (even if your train is cancelled).

Check them out here: @ScotRail / @FirstinGlasgow

3. Not Falling On Your Arse
When walking on slippery ground, LEAN FORWARD! Forward for Christ's sake. If you're gonna fall, it's better to take a little tumble that-a-way rather than cracking your bum/back/neck/head/wrists by near backflipping straight onto the ground.

4. Computer Games
You can connect an iPod to an Xbox! I know this isn't exactly a winter tip but I guess you might be cooped inside for a while playing games. Plug it in the USB at the front and you can either play music through the dashboard or via the Xbox button ingame pop-up menu thing. The Xbox totally recognises your iPod with all your playlists, genres and everything. Good eh? Turn off game music (sfx still work) and you're all set. Particularly nice if you've got decent speakers - slap on the visualiser and you've got a wee remote controlled mp3 soundsystem on the go.

For more exciting tips like these, follow me on Twitter: @davidgalletly. Stay warm friends!

Christmas Shopping

Here's a gentle reminder that, hint hint, I've got a little online shop with all sorts of prints and things and, hint hint, it happens to be December. Catch my drift? *winks like a loon*

Urgh, I feel dirty. A bad salesman through & through. Anyway, yes, there's some stuff in my shop that might be up your street this festive season. Maybe your aunt likes decapitated dogs? Maybe your granny is after for a great big screenprint for her wall? Maybe that guy you fancy likes coco-pops and a nice wee Gocco would finally get him under the mistletoe? Have a look and see if there's anything you like.

As a special winter incentive to the present buyers out there, I've decided to throw in a wee set of 4 badges with every order throughout December (while stocks last). How about that? Buy a gift for a friend, keep the badges for yourself! Or, do it the other way about! Or, keep it all for yourself! I don't mind! Here they are in a video:

I guess I should mention delivery dates... hmm. I'm not too sure on how the postal times work but glancing around at other online shops, I'll try my damnedest to get stuff to you before Christmas if you order within these dates:

UK: Monday 20 December

Western Europe: Monday 13 december

Eastern Europe, Usa & Canada: Thursday 9 December

South/Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle east, Asia, Far East (inc. Japan), Australia & New Zealand: Monday 6 December.

(dates nicked outright from the fantastic hellojenuine - check out her wares too)

If that doesn't get you reaching for your wallet, nothing will. You can find my shop right here. Nah, honestly, have a good time this Christmas. Try not to stress - it's meant to be fun. Big thanks for having a look. I love you x

Materialising Hills

This morning I woke up to on-and-off heavy snow showers and spent a good while running around with my camera taking little videos. I noticed that the hills in the distance (the Campsie Fells) would vanish and reappear really quickly whenever the clouds rolled by. The next time I spotted a hint of blue sky, I pointed the camera in their direction and hoped they'd materialise from the gloom.

I got lucky! If I'd started maybe 30 seconds earlier then the hills would have been completely invisible at the beginning of this clip. Ah well, nevermind. I took my first foray into the mysterious world of After-Effects to speed this clip up to double time - the original just took a little too long to expect anyone to sit through it. I like clicking back and forward to see how much the view changes in such a short space of time.

Music is 'King Creosote's Wineglass Symphony' from the album 'Concubine Rice' by Lone Pigeon.

Here comes December..

Carolyn Alexander

Carolyn Alexander is one of my very favourite contemporaries*. A Scottish illustrator living up a big mountain in France who draws brilliantly sweary figures and self-portraits. Carolyn's work always makes me laugh - there's an effortless wit to her style and use of language that really stands out amongst the other stuff out there in illustratorland. Her drawings are funny without resorting to cutesyness or geeky pop-culture nods & winks, personal without getting sentimental or twee and proudly Scottish without ramming 'hilarious' slang down your neck. Makes me sick.

Amongst many things worth mentioning, there's: Carolyn Alexander Is Giving Up Smoking (a blog full of drawings made as cigarette substitutes), Haughty Bitches (a book of girls telling you to piss off), frequent attempts to learn French and Carolyn's amazing contributions to the what-I-wore-today 'thing' (best face captions going).

If that's not enough, she's recently set up a Facebook page, her website has just been overhauled and her blog is very good. If you're on twitter, follow @ocarolina too. Jesus, this is why I don't write about people more often - posting all these links makes you feel like a right creeper. It's a bit like discovering someone you occasionally nod 'hello' to has a tattoo of your face on their back.

Carolyn is also currently hosting a giveaway - if you enter before December the 1st you can win an original drawing - check out the details here.

The plan is to do a few more posts about other people this week. So, if you've not subscribed already, please do and I'll try my very best to point you towards some stuff I think is good. As always, any links, retweets, mentions or comments are very much appreciated.

* bit wary of that word. Apart from sounding wank - it, dunno, implies a lot doesn't it?

Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles

Here's a quick poster I've made for the fantastic Kid Canaveral and their Christmas party / gig / event type thing, Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles. Really chuffed to have been asked to do this - I've seen KC (and a bunch of the other bands on the lineup) a good few times over the years at various Fence things and I'm a big fan. I'd thoroughly recommend getting a copy of their recent Shouting at Wildlife record, it's top of the pops.

As far as the poster is concerned, I had a wee false start with this one and completely changed direction at the last minute. The mashed-up Radio Times Christmas listings is my, very British, nod to Art Chantry, who I'm a great fan of. I'm gathering quite a collection of really weird vintage clip-art these days.

Anyway, the gig will kick off at 2pm at The Lot in Edinburgh on Saturday 18th December. If you can make it, you definitely should. Great music, great food, great fun. Great! Thanks to Kate from Kid Canaveral for getting me on board. Here are the full details for easy reading and for the old search engines:

Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles
What?: A festive party with live music
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Where?: The Lot, Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2JU
When?: Saturday, 18th December from 2pm
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Who?: Ballboy, King Creosote (solo), Kid Canaveral, Come On Gang! Cancel the Astronauts, The Last Battle and Gummi Bako + Song, By Toad & Straight to Video DJs
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How?: For tickets, visit kidcanaveral.co.uk or nip in to Avalanche Records in Edinburgh.

If this sounds like it's up your street (or up the street of people you know), give it a mention wherever you can. That would be magic. Christmas is really creeping up, eh? Jesus Christ.

Lego Mansion

Sometimes you're just blown away by a thing. This burned-out Lego mansion by Mike Doyle is one of those things. Damn, damn, damn. As far as I can tell, it's 100% legit, as in it's made completely from normal Lego pieces. You can view more pictures of the project on his blog, here.

I do get quite nostalgic for Lego. It was probably my favourite toy growing up (the old, old Robin Hood stuff being my fondest memory) and from time to time, I'll have a look at what's going on in the Lego 'community'. Usually it doesn't really do it for me. Too many men building too many big mech robots and spaceships. Not my scene, dogg. Discovering Doyle's mansion on the other hand completely made my day and (somewhat) justified my hour of skiving-off on geeky messageboards.

Nine New Views

I know, I know, another video. Sorry. Well, should I apologise? I dunno. I presume most people who read this blog are mainly interested in drawings and not whatever boring crap I point my video camera at. Ennyyyway...

This is a short post to promote a slightly longer post over here. What it is, is a collaborative blog to accompany a collaborative group exhibition in Philadelphia in which I'm participating. The show, called the 'World's Fair' features work by a few artists from all over the shop - visit the blog to find out all the details. The video (kinda) makes sense when you see it in context.

I'll try to post some exclusive content up there over the coming weeks, if that's any incentive to subscribe. You probably need to be a bigger bigshot than me for 'exclusive content' to mean anything but hey, read it anyway.

Oh yeah, the track used is 'Looks Like A Sunrise' by Billy Pilgrim on Fence.

The Kitchen Gallery

I've opened a small gallery called 'The Kitchen' in Shawlands, Glasgow. The first, currently untitled, show features work from a variety of different artists.

Above is a little preview video of the space. Right now access to you, 'the public', is severely restricted. I can't have any dirty beggar wandering in now, can I? Hmph, I should think not. Strictly for those in-the-know I'm afraid. Should you wish to exhibit here, please contact me and we'll see if we can come to some sort of arrangement.

The first show includes: A print by Sanna Dyker 'All Will Come Out In The Washing', a print by Gemma Correll, 'I Like It When We Share', untitled bunting by Christopher Bettig, an untitled drawing by Robert Hanson, a print 'Teacups' by Kate Sutton and a collaborative installation 'Washing Line' by Alex Horne and David Galletly.

Fence Hallowe'en Party

For the past, jeez, 10 or more years now I've been a big fan of Fence Records, a record label and collective of musicians based in Fife, Scotland who make some very good music and put on some very good events. This month, they're having their annual Hallowe'en party in Glasgow and I was very happy to have been asked to design the poster.

I think it turned out pretty good. The deadline was quite short on this one, so I kinda just went a bit nutty grabbing all sorts of odds & ends and mashing them into shape. Looking back at my sketchbook, the only planning I really got done was writing 'cowboys + sci-fi + vintage horror + Fence' in the corner and a couple of quick scribbled layouts. Sometimes it's better just to have fun and cross your fingers that a few ideas will jump out at you along the way.

Anyway, the party is sure to be a belter. If you can make it along, you should. Can you think of anything better to do on Hallowe'en than a full day of live music, djs, fancy dress (fency dress), drinking, dancing and general goodness? I doubt it. It's like a mini-Hallowe'en festival for Christ's sake. They've even set the great wee theme of 'wild-west 3010: space cowboys & aliens' to get your costume ideas a-flowin'. How nice not to be bombarded with a million folk kitted out as The Joker, a 'sexy' cat or the ever-hilarious Borat*.

The important details are as follows:

Fence Hallowe'en Fancy-Dress Party

On: Sunday, October 31st, 2pm - 2am
At: Stereo / The Old Hairdresser (which is the building across the lane from Stereo)
In: Glasgow
Remember: Fancy dress is mandatory, so no spoilsports
Tickets: are available at fencerecords.com, £25 for the full day.

I'll hopefully do a little reminder post shortly or perhaps write a little more about Fence for anyone who isn't familiar with who they are and what they do.

If you could, please promote/post/tweet this poster and details of the event. That would be great. There is a larger version here if you need it. They'll be up around Glasgow and beyond shortly. Hopefully there might even be a few for sale at the gig. Big thanks to Johnny Pictish for getting me on board.

* not hilarious

The List Student Guide

If you're a student, and in particular, a student in Scotland, keep your eyes out for the new Student Guide magazine by The List. They should be around in all sorts of campuses (campi?), unions and other student-friendly places. I was asked to provide a few drawings for the issue, including that fella above.

I've not actually seen a copy myself but I've heard reports that it's out there now. Inside is all sorts of useful information about student life and stuff to do in Scotland (wear a kilt, play bagpipes, smoke heroin etc). I think it's free but don't quote me on that. Check before you stuff it in your bag and end up in the jail.

I now have an updated page showing both character illustrations.

Movin' On Up

I am moving house! As of tomorrow, Alex & I will be staying in Glasgow in our own little place. The last few days have been a crazy pack-a-thon / insurance-a-thon / internet-provider-a-thon, and I'm just about ready to hit the road. Moving cold sucks when you're a hoarder.

So in terms of art / illustration stuff, I might be a little hard to get hold of. We'll have tons to do and I don't expect I'll be online properly for at least a week. In the meantime, if you email and I don't get back right away, it's because I'll need to nip out to a coffee shop for wifi. Items in my shop have been temporarily removed from sale as they'd take forever to sort out at the moment.

Glasgow people - if there's anything going on, jobs / projects / collaborations / whatever, I'll be around and looking for things to work on. Please contact me if something might be of interest. That would be awesome. If anyone wants to follow my riveting moving-in updates, I'll still be updating my twitter from my phone. Here we (Glas)go(w)!

Odds & Ends

Recently I've been trying to clean out my hard drive a little, deleting all the junk that builds up over time. iPhoto is one of the worst offenders. Because it just magically sucks all the photos from a camera, arranges them nicely and is generally headache-free, I never, ever delete anything. Pure black photo from when my camera went off in my bag? What the hell, keep it. Blurry photo of the carpet? Yes please! Back of a complete stranger's head? Don't mind if I do. Well, no more. I've been sorting through it, trying to delete all the garbage.

One thing I've found, which I'd totally forgotten about, is a few stop-motion animation sequences. I guess there's been occasions over the past couple of years where I've felt the urge to take a bunch of snaps with the intention of slapping them together later. So, as part of my clearout, I chucked them into an editing program and slapped a bit of music over the top.

I know the end result isn't exactly mind blowing but, for me at least, it's quite a nostalgic little video. Maybe stop-motion does that to everything, gives it that Wonder Years, old-home-movies kinda feel. I dunno. It's nice anyway. Nice to see these fairly boring pictures from days I'd forgotten about come back to life. The music, once again is from the album John's ABC by the Fence Collective.

Blackpool

This is just a little video made from the few odds & ends I shot while I was away in Blackpool. Nothing particularly amazing but I felt if I didn't edit these clips together, they'd just sit on my computer and never get looked at.

I filmed these on the new still camera that Alex got me for my birthday (a Nikon Coolpix s8000 - I almost bought Alex one for her birthday last month but got her a bike instead). The quality isn't quite up to my other camcorder videos, but a wee compact still camera shooting HD is pretty awesome. Click it up to 720p to make it a little easier on the eyes. Youtube should really have the option to let the uploader chose the default resolution.

Blackpool was, of course, tacky, funny, nostalgic, scary and weird but that's why you go. The photos I put on Flickr probably show it off a little better but, as I say, I had to do something with the video clips. A good holiday.

Rain

Earlier today I was planning on nipping to the shops to pick up some stuff. The rain came just as I pulled on my shoes. It reminded me of school holidays. I used to get so angry any time it was wet because all I wanted to do was go skateboarding.

So, stuck inside, I made a tiny video from the window. The music is a track called 'G' from the compilation album 'Johns ABC' by Fence Records. An hour later it was sunny. Scotland, eh.

9 Empire Biscuits

So I finished a job, saved it and sent it away. I figured, what the hell, I'll take the last hour of the day off. I've earned it. Reckoned I'd play a game or something. Just as I was closing down the last few windows in Photoshop, I started mucking about with little shapes and, almost completely without thinking, spent 20 minutes making 9 little empire biscuits. Why did I do this? What a weirdo.

To be honest, I am pretty obsessed with the damn things. The Galletlys have a particularly sweet tooth and I have spent my life surrounded by cakes and biscuits. My problem is that as soon as I've eaten something savoury, an unshakable craving for something sweet kicks in. It niggles away like having one shoelace tighter than the other. This means I eat chocolate after cereal, cakes after lunch and ice cream after dinner almost every day.

Empire biscuits are my new lunchtime fix. It's the icing. The icing is the best. I'd eat solid blocks of it if they wrapped it up like a chocolate bars. I'm lucky I'm not fat. My insides must be suffering in some other horrendous way. The shop in town sells giant empire biscuits. The staff keep them aside for me and everything. When they started stocking smaller, inferior ones, I complained.