Hagaki no.4: Pig! Pig! Pig!

Oink Oink

In Japan pigs go ‘bu bu’. Whatever language they speak, they’re still delicious.

Pig! Pig! Pig!

Hagai no.3: Bunny Love

Pyon Pyon

Compared to other ethnicities, a rather high proportion of Japanese women remind me of rabbits. I’m talking faces – and teeth – here, not costume or bedroom habits. かわいいな〜。

Bunny Love

Hagaki no.2: Saru

Monkey business

Only two cards in and you may have noticed a theme. I only have three types of paint at the moment: burnt umber, cadmium red and titanium white. Mix them, you say. Damn you all to hell, I cry back.

Saru

Hagaki no.1: The Bruna

Dick & Me

I love postcards. It’s a small pleasure to write or receive them from far flung places around the world. Beyond that, they’re a wonderful little artistic medium. And they make swell bookmarks.

So without further ado, I’ll introduce the first card I knocked up now that my tools and materials have finally arrived from Japan.

The Bruna

xxxHOLiC

In the witching hour

I picked up the first volume of xxxHOLiC by the manga collective Clamp. The series begins with a high-school student, Watanuki Kimihiro, who is plagued by spirits, and the witch who offers to help him for a price.

Tonari no Totoro

歩くの大好き

Of all Miyazaki Hayao’s films, this is the one for me. Neither flash nor overly complex, it explores the emotions and imaginative world of childhood. And the Totoros are just ace.

Scrivener

Scribble scribble

Being of a certain age, I do much of my writing on a computer. A two and a half year old 15“ Mac Powerbook, since you ask.

A few months ago while slogging through a redraft, I snapped. Traditional word processors (Word and NeoOffice) were driving me nuts. For longer pieces they were too cumbersome.

That’s when I found Scrivener.