Accidental Tech Podcast - John Siracusa Paper Doll

The John Siracusa Paper Doll that I posted on Monday was a talking point at the start (like, 0:45 seconds in) of episode 145 of the Accidental Tech Podcast hosted by Casey Liss, Marco Arment and John Siracusa himself. I'm chuffed about this.

ATP is one of the biggest (certainly amongst those with an Apple bent) and best tech podcasts around. I've listened from the start and have followed the work of each of the hosts for years. Hearing them talk about one of my dumb drawings was weird (in an embarrassing, everyone-is-looking-at-me kinda way), but mostly really cool*.

Have a listen, subscribe if you haven't already. There's a good chance you'll like it.

So big thanks to the ATP guys and hello to any new readers / followers that I might've picked up. I look forward to irritating you until you eventually unsubscribe.

* Casey pronounced my name correctly too. That doesn't happen often.

John Siracusa Paper Doll

This is the nerdiest thing I've ever done.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of Reconcilable Differences, a podcast on Relay.fm hosted by Merlin Mann and John Siracusa.

During a conversation about clothes on episode 14, Merlin suggested to the audience that they maybe make a paper doll of John so that he could get a makeover without actually getting a makeover. John didn't seem too thrilled with the idea but it sounded like fun so, y'know, sorry John*.

These days, most of my illustrations exist as thoroughly layered Photoshop files - keeping things flexible can be useful when a client asks you to move things around. I figured that a paper doll would be a natural fit for this way of working and, with the exception of a few fiddly bits, it proved pretty straightforward.

So I battered out an unflattering drawing of J-Sir (again, sorry!) and spent an hour or two on the lightbox fitting him with some clothes and things. Scan it all into Photoshop, add a bit of colour and that's a pretty productive Saturday night right there. I know how to party when I need to.

I had planned to add more outrageous items of clothing to the collection but, honestly, I was already plenty embarrassed that I was playing dress up with a man from a podcast. Putting him in a Darth Vader suit wasn't going to make either of us look any cooler. Most of the clothes are things described in the episode, I guess the makeover will have to wait.

You can download a PSD version of the paper doll over here (there's a fully knolled-out illustration on that page too). Turn different layers on and off to create different outfits. Feel free to add to it and share it around.

If people like it, I'll probably revisit the Siracusa doll sometime in the future. Drawing more clothes doesn't take long and it might be cool to try out some different ideas. If you have any requests or feedback, let me know on Twitter or in the comments below and I'll see what I can do.

* A note to JS - if you see this and really don't like this stupid thing that I've made, I'll take it down right away. I know it's weird.

Guilty Pleasures Podcast

In this episode Glasgow based artist David Galletly nervously tells us his guilty pleasures!

I did a podcast.

A week or so ago I had a wee Twitter conversation with Philip Larkin about his appearance on the Guilty Pleasures Podcast. Shortly afterwards, Stuart Tompsun (the host) got in touch to ask if I'd like to record an episode. I would like to record an episode, thanks very much.

You can listen to it via the embedded Soundcloud player above, on the Guilty Pleasures Soundcloud page itself or, best of all, by adding it to your podcast app of choice via searching or on iTunes.

While I'm not particularly pleased with my performance (I didn't hold the mic properly, I ramble, my voice is torturous), I am proud that I was brave enough to have a go. I listen to a lot of podcasts and kinda felt like I had to, I dunno, live up to something rather than just have a chat.

Anyway, that's by-the-by. Though I don't care about what I have to say, you might. And if you do, you'll maybe be looking for more information on the stuff we talked about. Not being one to let an opportunity for painstakingly gathering links pass me by, here are extensive show notes from episode 10 of the Guilty Pleasures Podcast:

Our Stuff

• My animation for Pringle
• Some of my illustrations for Wired
• My stop-motion video for Kid Canaveral
• Stuart's stop-motion video for Shambles Miller
• One of the many Skate 3 videos I made.
• The Survival in the City post I wrote a while back

Animation

• It’s Such a Beautiful Day by Don Hertzfeldt
• The Red and the Blue - Italian animation, not French. My mistake. Also nothing to do with Pingu.
• Don Hertzfeldt’s Simpsons couch gag
• Banksy’s Simpsons couch gag
• Sylvain Chomet’s Simpsons couch gag
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On - I had seen this before. Forgot in the heat of the podcast.
• Piece and Pound Coins by Swatpaz (above)

People

• Swatpaz - the best, Jerry.
• @KatoAbes aka TheBoldKato, aka Mrs. Swatpaz
• Limmy on Vine
• Philip Larkin on Vine
• Lizzy Stewart - illustrator based in London

Muppets & Puppets

• Jim Henson making puppets
• Jim Henson's memorial
• Kermit And Fozzy Meet Cows
• Elmo makes Holly Willoughby cry
• Big Bird learns about death
• Ricky Gervais and Elmo
• Zig & Zag
• Mr. Blobby with Wayne Sleep
• Barry Killerby
• Blobbyland, the abandoned theme park
• Gordon the Gopher
• Ed the Duck with Andi Peters.

Music

• Murder on The Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis Bexter
• Jonnie Common - Crumbs
• Carbs - Life Drawing (above)
• Lil' Dicky - Bruh
• Inquisitive Podcast #50: Favourite Album: Bryan Irace and 'Kid-A'

Misc

• Presstube screensaver - I use this on my computer
• French Girls - Take selfies, get drawings.
• All This Mayhem - Tas Pappas Documentary
• Tony Hawk - The 900
• Gizzi Espresso in Shawlands

Think that's all of them.

Guilty Pleasures is a great wee podcast - Stuart does a brilliant job at getting his guests to open up. As a good starting point, have a listen to this week’s episode with David Ferguson (aka Swatpaz). He's less painful than me.

Saying that, now that I've taken my first step, I'm tempted to have a go at making a podcast of my own. It'd probably be good for my growing inability to talk to other people. Would anyone out there listen (if I got better at it)?

*crickets*

Cheers Stuart for having me on.

Reconcilable Differences Podcast

Reconcilable Differences is a new Relay.fm podcast hosted by John Siracusa and Merlin Mann. It launched yesterday. I was so excited that I drew a picture.

John Siracusa, who I've drawn before, is a longtime favourite podcaster of mine. I first heard him on Hypercritical and have followed him through Neutral to ATP. He's a picky guy (by picky, I mean two whole episodes on video game controllers and a 3 hour conversation about Goodfellas picky) who talks a lot of sense.

Merlin Mann's Back to Work was incredibly helpful to me when I had a job I really hated. I don't think I'd have had the confidence to go full-time as an illustrator without listening to episodes like Failing with Style on my miserable morning cycle to the office. His other podcasts, You Look Nice Today and Roderick on the Line are also great.

John and Merlin have occasionally talked about things like Totoro and Toy Story over on the incomparable, um, The Incomparable podcast, but having them together on the regs is gonna be a treat. Cheers to the folks at Relay for making it happen (co-founders Myke and Stephen seem like the nicest dudes in the world. I'm stoked for them).

Reconcilable Differences is pencilled in for 10 episodes over the summer and episode 1, We All Ruined It Together is a brilliant start. I'm already hoping that they'll keep going longer. Give it a listen.

ps. There's a big version of the artwork over here.

Hypercritical Ends

One of my very favourite podcasts, Hypercritical, hosted by John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin on the 5by5 network is due to end in a few weeks time when it reaches episode 100. On hearing the news, I felt motivated to draw a little illustration of J-Sir climbing a mountain*. To infinity and beyond, John. To infinity and beyond.

Hypercritical is a tech podcast of sorts. Each week, everything from Apple to Pixar to toaster ovens is tackled (and often torn apart) by Siracusa in his particularly, um, hypercritical manner while Dan gently steers the ship. Their insights are consistently interesting, surprising and funny, even when I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about (both hosts have backgrounds in development, I most definitely don't).

It's nerdy and no mistake, but that's not a bad thing. Clever people talking with enthusiasm (and going into very specific specifics) on topics that they really care about is something I have a lot of time for, even if I'm too dumb to keep up. When a topic does come along that I know something about, it's the best. The best, Jerry, the best. The more detail the better.

If a 3 hour discussion about Goodfellas sounds like a very good thing and not a very bad thing, hello, take a seat, you're amongst friends.

Although I'll be sad to see Hypercritical go, the archive lives on. I recommend the aforementioned toaster oven and Pixar episodes as well as Siracusa's two part history of video game controllers (my personal favourite) as good starting points for non-technically minded folks. He also continues to semi-regularly co-host the very good geek culture podcast The Incomparable on 5by5. Elsewhere, Siracusa has a blog and famously reviews Apple's operating software for Ars Technica.

Big thanks to John & Dan for the many (many) hours of entertainment and good luck for the future.

* I gave Siracusa glasses - I think he wears glasses despite being glassesless in my, um, extensive Google Images research. Ach, even if it's inaccurate, it looks funnier.