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When I saw this vintage Boston Terrier pull toy I just had to illustrate it. My favorite nickname for Annabelle is LuLu. I hope Barky doesn’t mind.

Looking forward to maybe someday hanging out with pals again...

'Good Morning' quick sketch from my sketchbook showing my morning chicory / barley coffee with new morning #quaratine routine. A stared series of quick everyday sketches about mixing everyday food with the ideas of cosmos and universe. Not sure which direction it will go, but the main purpose of it is to draw and draw more especially after sucha long break in drawing....!

“Cosmic moggy” by Barrie J Davies 2018, mixed media on canvas, unframed, 50cm x 60cm.

This is old, but I've always liked it and want to include it here

They gather around, grateful, sending prayers up just to thank. (Directed at the man selected to be in the tank.) Who knows why that man is bare in there, and to be frank- They're thankful that it's him, not them. You can take that to the bank!

The summer is now over. The warm and sunny days are gone. Ink on water color paper.

An article/rant/annotation to an illustration. A #Hackney bar and its flies. This picture is not as sad and blue as it might at first seem, I promise. It is early in the week and the pub becomes the territory of the most outspoken drinkers. Raised somewhere between Churchill and Harold MacMillan, a night such as this is time for them to spin out a yarn of nostalgic fantasy. Encouraged by the lack of a crowd and with space to fill, statements start to fly. In the opening rounds the barman athletically hits back with factual blocks and reality-check haymakers; statistics and personal experiences are given. Two histories cross examined, one where 1982 means Thatcher and the Falklands, the other renders Reagan and the AIDS crisis. Stoicism and national pride vs mental health and realism. In the latter rounds the barman is fatigued, swaying on the backbar, glasses begin to stack up as form begins to drop. The older men seem stronger than ever. The barflies come in close now, they scrutinise his generations work ethic and make wild political comments on poverty, immigrants and the minimum wage. The barman is close to sheer bloody despair, he maintains his defence and focuses on breathing while maintaining his professional stance. But at the end of the night the barman knows HE will ring that bell, they will politely leave and they will return again in a week and maybe, just maybe there will be a change, common ground or maybe at least polite silence. But what these interactions have given despite the salt in the eye is community and an exchange between generations, culture and class of those participating. No home is ever straight forward, no relative without their good and bad traits and in a world where we often slide into echo chambers online or in our physical environments, the pub is still a place where society is family, face to face, pint to pint. Or maybe it's just a room with alcohol on tap?

Print available in my Etsy shop. Made on my iPad Pro.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/66951945/BITE-MEAL-snack-bar-package-design more about the project it was used

Quirky Botanicals and Friends Colouring Book. My first colouring book, all hand-drawn illustrations that started off as doodles -- as a way of destressing and relaxing, taking breaks from 'real life' and work. My form of joyful creative therapy! It's available at Amazon worldwide and Barnes and Noble online.

Playing around with digital stained-glass effects, and thought it would be fun to portray tropical summer vibes in a medium where you don't usually find them. Shout out to Lisa Bardot at bardotbrush.com for the basic digital technique.

Bronwyn lounging on the leather Barcelona chair looking bored. I really don't like drawing feet, which is why I forced myself to draw her feet.

Have you ever woken up from begging "I wanna pee-pee" whimpering closely to your ear? Or from a barking alarm because the birds are singing loudly outside? Yea-ah, dogs are the best alarm clocks... We're sure you'll have a woof-derful week, guys!⁠

Did you ever have a page in your sketchbook that was so bad and so embarrassing that you tore it out and chucked it? This was one of those pages that made me cringed every time I came to it. So today I said to myself, "ENOUGH!" and ripped it out of my moleskine. But something wouldn't let me throw it in the can. Now, I'm not one of those artists that can't bring himself to throw away any of his stuff because each and every piece, good or bad holds some kind of sentimentality or sense of importance. This particular page was a result of a crappy angst filled day and stuff poured out of me. For some reason, it felt like I was throwing away some piece of my soul. There were parts that were overworked and others that were painfully too personal. So I decided to cut it up and put it back together in no particular order, however it seemed best. As I was pasting the pieces down it occurred to me that this had a comic book feel so I scanned the final and added the black borders in photoshop which I really dug. I like that it is cryptic and jumbled up like my brain can so often be. This reminded me of the awesome @johnhendrix who said something in his book, Drawing Is Magic that stuck with me. He said, "Don't worry about doing anything wrong. If you're hoping your sketchbook turns into a glossy display of only your best drawings, you are not carrying a sketchbook, you are carrying a portfolio." In other words, explore, take chances, loosen up and have fun. Try your best to go at it like an uninhibited child. In so doing, you will stretch as an artist by avoiding repetition and predictability. We all know how to do what we already know. To sum up, I created a bad page, and whether or not I was able to fix it, it expanded me. So, follow your pencil, pen, or whatever and let them take you to places you never imagined when you started. Then, maybe you will end up staring happily at the final and with childlike wonder, say, "man, where did that come from?"

BEING GREEDY CHOKES ANANSI From Favorite Folktales around the world by Jane Yolen. One time, Anansi lived in a country that had a queen who was also a witch. And she decreed that whoever used the word five would fall down dead, because that was her secret name, and she didn’t want anyone using it. Now, Buh Anansi was a clever fellow, and a hungry one too. Things were especially bad because there was a famine, so Anansi made a little house for himself by the side of the river near where everyone came to get water. And when anybody came to get water, he would call out to them, “I beg you to tell me how many yam hills I have here. I can’t count very well.” So, one by one he thought they would come up and say, “One, two, three, four, five,” and they would fall down dead. Then Anansi would take them and corn them in his barrel and eat them, and that way he would have lots of food in hungry times and in times of plenty.

Super Kate Print by Barrie J Davies 2019 - unframed Silkscreen print on paper (hand finished) edition of 1/1 - A3 size 29cm x 42cm.

London - from the bar on level 6 of tate modern and from inside borough market

“Hocus Pocus” by Barrie J Davies 2016, mixed media on canvas 90cm x 90cm, unframed.

荒川線鐵道旁的理髮店 (日本, 東京) A tiny barber shop Ishikawa in tokyo, Japan.

Meadhbh sitting on a bar stool and twisting to her right. Bic4 Ballpoint Pen on Archival 9” x 12” paper. Model: Meadhbh (Maeve).

Inktober 2023 Day 26 Barn Owl ballpoint pen

A pen and ink and colored pencil depiction of a line from a John Prine song.

I drew this in my Baron Fig Portals sketchbook while on the plane. We were flying on Turbulent West Airlines.

Bars tend to change people. (Felt-pen. 2012)

Some LGBTQ+ members of the community can’t openly love who they want to love, so the bars represent that barrier. The fabric, with all its complex folds and creases represents sensuality, desire and love. Love, in all its forms is a complex thing of beauty.------------- The companion piece to my previous post ‘Ecstasy.’ Agony and Ecstasy were always meant to be a diptych. The issue for me is that there is a two-year gap between the completion of the two - there is a noticeable difference in the the way both were drawn. Faber Castell pastel pencils, Black and White Generals charcoal pencils on 9” x 12” Strathmore Toned Grey sketchbook paper.