A few months ago I made this image of a Guitar Devi on a whim and it proved to be quite popular. Recently I changed my profil epic on twitter to match it (I get tired of looking at my mug now and then) and was reminded that some people would like a version specifically made for their iPads. So here you go!

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I recently acquired a new old lens, a Pentax SFX-era F1.4 50mm autofocus from the 1980s. While it is a lens ideally suited for night photography, I recently had the chance to give it a whirl while out and about. Here are a few of the good photos I got.

The Index is one of my favourite buildings to look at in Dubai, and not only because a friend of mine lives there. This Foster & Partners building is perfect for the Dubai landscape, with its pleasingly retro angles and box grater shape, its use of textured materials. And yet it's completely different to the chrome and glass towers that make up most of the city's skyscrapers. Chief among them is the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world, of-late Tom Cruise's personal dangling venue of choice. I'm fairly indifferent to its design, though I guess it could have been a lot worse.

Despite the modern image of the Emirates being a glass & chrome metropolis, drive a little out of the city and you'll end up on a road that looks very much like this, no matter where you go...

...and once you get bored and decide to return to the cities, chances are you'll end up in a traffic jam that looks very much like this, no matter where you go!

It's a small concession that once every couple of years, when you do get stuck in a traffic jam you at least get to see some aerobatics. (Also, I really, really need to clean all the dust spots from my camera sensor.)

The lens, by the way, performs admirably, even shooting straight into the setting sun. You can't see it at this size and treatment, but I can read the number plates on most of the traffic in this shot.

These last two shots further demonstrate how marvelous this lens has turned out to be. Both of them are shot through a very dirty window, with harsh corridor lights behind and above me casting all manner of reflections on the glass. The second one, in fact, was taken at a sharp glancing angle to the glass. It's a wonder I managed to get anything at all!

Needless to say, I'm only scratching the surface of what this lens can do, and future experiments will follow.

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More Bollywood badge graphics! I went a little overboard with this -- no pun intended -- and so it's actually twenty-days late (eep!), but luckily @kaymatthews's Kapoor family celebration goes on for the whole month of June!

Not executed at the level I was hoping for, but about half the figures look like the people they're supposed to be, and the boat doesn't look too bad, I guess. Need to work on better line quality & composition in future.

I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts. Most of these are radio programs from the BBC that are handily delivered through RSS, but over the years I've found that while cooking, drawing or sitting at the computer plugging away at a design, nothing works quite as well to pass the time and alleviate work tedium than a bunch of people talking.

My go-to Bunch of People Talking podcast for years used to be Around Comics -- sadly they're semi-officially ended (though they do bring out a show every month or two), but for the past year or so I've been listening to the Sarcastic Voyage, a fun hour-or-so of general geeky banter. Run by two very funny hosts, SV is the kind of show that doesn't need to be about anything to be entertaining, and before long you will be sucked into it, and will pick up its lexicon of in-jokes. That the hosts and many fellow fans are on twitter also helps, like some kind of perpetual fan convention.

I'm also a huge fan of Futurama, so when I heard that Sarcastic Voyage was doing an episode about it, I basically talked them into letting me do an illustration for the cover. That image is what you see above, but overachiever that I am, I was thinking a little bigger. How big? This big:

(Click here for a Wallpaper version at 1920x1080 resolution*),

This handy wallpaper-sized illustration isn't quite as grand as I intended -- the monster isn't as elegantly bloodcurdling as I would have liked -- but I did manage to successfully:

1) Make Futurama robot versions of the hosts (even though they're just Bender & Hedonism Bot with wigs -- er, metal hair... um...)

2) Make a bad pun on the guest's name

3) Include one SV-specific in-joke (a very large, cupcake breathing-one, in fact)

4) Insert myself as a giant statue head. I have always wanted to do this in an illustration.

Here's a couple of WIP shots:

Above are the pencils for the main figure set. I drew the image in stages on four separate A4 sheets -- it was a relief when they all sort-of fit together in perspective (the cartoony quality of the image helped). You can also see corner right the smudgy bit where an other discarded version of the Chris Pager-bot was drawn, then hastily rubbed out to make room for this one. Also, the shape and course of the rope kept changing as figures moved around and were drawn in.

Here's a little shot showing the pencils in-progress, as well as my initial rough sketch. A lot changed in-between; many poses were tightened up, character designs too, and the overall ambition of the piece was brought down to fit the deadline. Ideally I could have worked on the piece for days and days (this took me about 8 hours over two sessions).

Coloured in inkscape, of course, since I'm not very confident in colour theory and like mucking about with things until the very last minute.

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*(I would be arsed to provide further resolutions for other aspect ratios and iPads and whatnot, but I am lazy -- gimme a shout out on twitter.)