Sunday Post

Doodling... I have done little else this week. Sketching knobbly naked nobodies with misplaced limbs, odd hairstyles and crooked hands... now that's what I'm talking about! There's something so tremendously satisfying creating a new person from scratch, without thought, just letting them appear through your pencil.

As much fun as all this is, it doesn't leave me with much to write about. So instead of trying to pluck something interesting to say from the ether, I'm going to let my six favourite (thus far) doodled oddments do the talking...

 

 

If you like 'em, jump ship to my Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts, where nudie folk are uploaded daily. 

There'll also be more 'Compact Discovery' and society6 uploads throughout the week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Sunday Post

It’s been a balanced old week here at ‘Wou-Wou...’ HQ. On Wednesday (my fun day) nothing seemed to go quite right. I finished the odd job off, but when it came to anything creative I turned to pot. 

Par exemple, top of my list of things to achieve was the fettling of the first instrumental, whose chords, tempo and time-signature were all decided by chance, using a system I’ve coined ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ - an elaborate creative randomiser, that utilises dice, coins, and hats to make those all important creative decisions.

The track in question is called ‘The Moist Go Between’ and is the first of 45 tracks created using ‘The Buskers’ Bamboozle’ to varying degrees. Recording it was a total joy, but mixing it has been a total nightmare, and I don’t feel as if I've got any closer to the sound I want for it. 

Nothing I’m sure a bit of swatting up and time won’t fix, but by the end of Wednesday I was feeling flat and woozy from staring at the computer for hours.

Thursday evening I had the idea to bring back the short-lived Major Gubbins fixture ‘Compact Discovery’ for my latest instrumental ‘King Skirmish’. I’m rather happy with how the paper CD cases look, especially as they're done using my cheap-o printer...

The same can’t be said for the CD’s...

But it’s only meant to be a bit of fun, so until I find a cost-effective way of printing onto CD’s, I’m not going to sweat over it.

Yesterday was possibly the best day in ‘Wou-Wou’s...’ short history, as not only did the ‘Make It Ugly’ paintings go up on the ‘Wou-Wou...’ society6 page, but ‘King Skirmish’ was played on BBC Sheffield Introducing! I’ve never been played on the radio before, so it was a massive high, especially considering that I uploaded the track on a whim.

Well that’s about it. More daily doodles, ‘Compact Discovery’ and society6 uploads over next week.

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Music Monthly - King Skirmish

All hail 'King Skirmish', the very first track in what I'm aiming to be a long standing monthly music making commitment. A fun little challenge to blow the cobwebs off if you will.



Enjoy!


- The Wormling

Sunday Post

This week I decided enough is enough, it’s time to knuckle down, sit up straight, pull that finger out and wash it in hot soapy water. Cos things have gotten a little slack and stale around here, and so have I. 

I’ve set myself some goals. A little contrived maybe I know, but I’m coming to learn that in my current state of mind I’m more inclined to stare at my guitar instead of play it and chew a pencil instead of running it around a piece of A4. So something had to change, cos not being creative feels so very numbing.

At the beginning of the month I started my "daily doodling" which is slowly helping me and my pencil establish a better, more rounded relationship. And starting tomorrow I’m hoping to rekindle with music in a similar fashion, with ‘Music Monthly’ - a new experimental track using various found sounds, samples, stabs, beats, licks and homemade instruments every first Monday of the month.

Hang on, what about all that stuff to do with chance?...

It’s coming, but I’ve decided not to rush it, so I’ll be working on it regularly and methodically in the background until the new year is upon us. It’s around that time I see the first examples being ready to share. But with that said, I do plan to write a weekly ‘Sunday Post’, much like this one, sharing a little about the week I’ve had and what I've been working on. So I imagine that more light will be shed on my fumbles with chance then.

On top of monthly music and chance based creativity, I’ve also been busy smartening up my ‘Make It Ugly’ cat paintings and a small number of my doodled portraits ready to put up for sale on society6. The upload date is set for Saturday (and continuing most Saturday’s thereafter), but I’ll be sure to do a special post once something’s been added to my shop.

So to recap: new music coming tomorrow, with the first stock going into the ‘Wou-Wou & The Wormling’ society6 store Saturday, and updates of my chance experiments (along with everything else) every Sunday... lets see how long I can keep this up ‘ey!

Happy thoughts, 

- The Wormling

Progress

Progress is slow, painfully so, but that’s okay, I didn’t set out to bolt through these experiments at lighting speed, nor was I naive enough to think that there’d be no challenge involved in their execution. So I plod along, doing what I can, when I can, which for the last few weeks hasn’t equated to much. But July’s commitments are behind me now, and my full focus can float back over to chance once again.

I'm now over halfway through the "chance phase" of these experiments, I can say with great hopeful glee, that chancy music, lino-prints, poems, short stories, collages (etc. etc.), are soon to be crafted and fettled.

Till then, I'll do my best to keep this underused space a bit more occupied.


- The Wormling

Q&A

I'm guessing you're here for the experimental Q&A? Well, take a seat and make yourself comfortable.

All I need you to do is answer the twenty questions below with as much panache as you can possibly muster. Once you've done that, you're done! Your answers will be kept safe until Wednesday 9th July, when the actual experiment will take place (the full details of which I'm keeping under my hat for now).

The more creative your answers are, the better the experiment will work. So don’t hold anything back; let your inner poet out. This is your excuse (like you need one) to be as vulgar, exuberant or as silly as you like. Even telling the truth doesn’t matter. There are no right or wrong answers, only your own interpretation of what they should be. And no one will be directly linked to their answers, so you really can say whatever you like.

Right then, ready? Lets begin.

Question Set A.) - (Using no more than a sentence for each) 

What do each one of these words represent to you?

Love:

Money:

Nature:

Sex:

Meat:

Home:

Friends:

Technology:

Nostalgia:

Question Set B.) - (Using no more than a sentence for each) 

Now for memories. You don’t have to be detailed, a vague description’ll do just fine...

Your First:

Your Happiest:

Your Saddest:

Your Proudest:

Your Most Vivid:

Your Dimmest:

Your Darkest:

Your Most Rose-Tinted:

Your Most Recent (that isn’t answering this question):

Question Set C.) - (In any order) 

List

Which three words do you find the most putrid?: 

Which three words make you giddy?:

So if you wish to take part, please send your answers to: ‘wouwouandthewormling@gmail.com’ or private message me via the ‘Wou-Wou..’ facebook page, before Monday 7th July.

Happy thoughts and many thanks,

- The Wormling

The Furry Gamble - Part Two

In order for these ramblings to make any sense, you'll probably have to go to the first 'Furry Gamble' post here. But if you've already read that... 

Make it pretty:



I have to admit, I was hoping for make it ugly when it came to this one. I could hear it: detuned guitars and feedback all the way to buggery... But that didn't happen, I got make it pretty instead.

Oof, how was I going to do something interesting with this chord progression, and make it pretty?

I spent hours fiddling around with my delay pedal, hoping there'd be some magic setting that would make the I-V-vi-IV progression twinkly and new, but it was to no avail, it still sounded bland.

Another few hours and a computer malfunction later, I had reached some sort of compromise.  By reversing the chord progression I had this roomy backdrop to work with. It wasn't pretty per-say, but added an eeriness that sounded sort of beautiful, to me at least. And after that was down, I just noodled around with it for a bit, adding things, taking them away. So on and so forth.

Overall, I wouldn't say it turned out that pretty, but it's been a fun challenge, and I learnt a few lessons on the way... most importantly: save, save, save.

Make it ugly:

This had to be easy. Do an ugly portrait of my cats. My inability to paint has that one covered already. It wasn't 'til I sat down and gave it some "proper thought" that I realised that I had absolutely no ideas. Zilch. Nowt... 

Then after a ruminate:

"Oh hang on, I'll just draw my face on my cats bodies. Yeah, that sounds ugly enough. I could have it so I'm licking my arsehole! Hohoho..."

 

 

...Erm, no. 

I have this knack of going with the first, daft idea I have. Take the easy way out for a cheap laugh that never comes. So I pulled myself together and went back to the drawing board, and these are what came out.

These monochrome fighting felines where partly inspired by Georg Baselitz's simple but energetic silhouettes, and 'Two Fighting Insects' by Tadek Beutlich, which we're lucky enough to have in our dining room. The ugly experience of my own brawling moggys also acted as inspiration I'm sure.

Y'know, they're messy, they're inaccurate, some of the cats look like dogs, some like blobs, but the more I live with them the more I enjoy them being stuck on the wall. And it's because of 'The Furry Gamble' that they exist.

All-in-all, 'The Furry Gamble' works! However it still gives me a lot of creative freedom. What if that was diminished, or even removed all together? What if I had no control over the outcome?

Hmmm...

- The Wormling