Mat Cross

[matcross]

Hooray - all 56 spreads and cover complete! 🤪 Next, some typographical tweaking and a bit of writing. Here are the last 10 spreads minus the text. At this point I should probably mention that the long-running family joke is that the world will come to an end when I finish this project, so without tempting fate, I'll just say I'm definitely closer to the end than the beginning. 👍

#catastrophicclimatechange #JollyPessimisticFlickBookLyricBook

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#fireinthesky #sketchbook

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A slightly-bigger-than-a-postage-stamp doodle of a busy 9-to-5iver working from home for a change.

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#WIP - a crop from the last spread for song number 7 - 37 spreads down, 18 to go!🤪

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#WIP - a crop from spread numero XXXIV, for track numero VII: FEEDING TIME 🦁 #JOLLYPessimistic

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#WIP The last spread for song number 6, Anthropocene - a #JollyPessimistic number about climate change -> 🌎 + 🔥= ☠️

#BLUEMONDAY

[matcross]

A costume change for song number 6 - here my character is dressed as a Victorian, burning fossil fuels and making steam. Since the last #JollyPessimistic #flipbooklyricbook post I’ve gone black and white + cream, and experimenting with a cut-out look and blurry backgrounds. I may have all the props dangling on strings.

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Happy Winter Solstice MMXXV!! ☀️

Tune: The Smallest Weird Number - Boards of Canada

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#WIP Here are some page spreads for track number 2’s lyrics - a song about climate change and the lack of ringing alarm bells. 😬

#JollyPessimistic #flipbook #lyricbook

[matcross]

I’m pretty confident I’m now working on the final iteration of my #JollyPessimistic flick-book lyric-book 🤞. It’s up to 50-odd spreads, with me juggling loo rolls on the right-hand pages (changing costume and character each time!) superimposed over a mini sequence for every song.

I’m now just deciding whether to use real paint or digital paint… or a mix of both. 🤔

Anyway, here are some brainstorming doodles from version 4.6271 (in track-listing order) - a few of which ended up feeding into the final compositions.

[matcross]

#WIP Been busy constantly blowing my nose (2.5 weeks and counting 🤧) - and now rotoscoping banana fingers juggling loo rolls for a #JollyPessimistic lyric flip book.

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Some tiny wobbly sketches from yesterday's Race Day at Shuttleworth aerodrome. I found myself continually attempting the double finger tap undo shortcut on the sketchbook page, it's been a while! 😬

#shuttleworthairshow

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Here’s the new album cover design, based on a previous supermarket-carpark-sketch-illustration - now with added toilet roll panic buying! I’m still undecided whether to use a pseudonym or my name... 🤔 The next task is to try rolling back some over-zealous vocal de-essing, and (runny nose permitting) re-singing a couple of tracks.

[matcross]

#WIP #JollyPessimistic After drawing lots of plastic chairs and the beginnings of a band I ended up putting this composition to one side, though I should be able to use it for something else album related. I’ve since been revisiting a #supermarketcarparksketch inspired doodle I made a while ago, and trying my best not to over polish this new expanded version… I’m currently drawing people panic buying toilet roll.

#Maslowshierarchyofneeds

[matcross]

#WIP #JollyPessimistic Some crops of album cover rough workings - I think I’ve settled on a faux-lithographic cut-out approach. Now I’ve got to draw a lot of plastic chairs. The band are only naked because I hadn’t drawn any clothes yet… though with a raging apocalyptic fire in the background, maybe it’s a little on the warm side? 🤷

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Yesterday’s sketch in Verulamium Park. I only managed 3/4 of the trees yesterday, and finished the rest off today. In the wind I could hear a fantastic blues band playing from the pub beyond the trees… #stalbans #Verulamium

[matcross]

Here’s a snippet from one of my tracks, Feeding Time – a tongue-in-cheek critique of UK politics, inspired by the Bullingdon Boys.

One line goes: 'Posh private schools producing privileged fools, politicians moulded from a cast…'

I wrote it a few years ago, but it’ll probably apply to whoever’s in power in the UK until the end of time. Just think of the current ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ LAWYER / GENOCIDE situation. 🤯

I quickly realised drawing 10 full comics would take forever, so I’m back to making an illustrated lyric book.

This is a rough sketch for Feeding Time. The banner in Latin reads:

'SERVE WITH HONOUR OR YOU WILL BE SERVED COLD.' 🦁

This part of the song follows the chorus - with some hammy acting: here I’m playing the politician, the crowd, and the lion (roaring into a toilet roll tube). Listen out for the electric piano solo!

#WIP #JollyPessimistic #musicmaking