Hey Coo Kids,
A fairly important part of playing live, for me anyway, is doing a poster for the gig I'm going to play
I decided quite a while ago (not entirely independently, I'll admit) to start doing gig posters (or 'live notices' as I file them as, or 'Coo Cards' as they are popularly known) and decided to do one for every gig
I've currently done about 393 of them, so it's been an undertaking!! But it's also been an immense pleasure as it's a creative side I can let out with very minimal worry about pleasing anyone else or worrying what people think
To explain and do justice to them in 12 images is fairly insane due to how many there are but as the title says, it's a brief history and if you require further investigation you can see all of them, the good, the bad, and the ugly on the Coosticks website's gallery.
So here we are with the last batch coming up to date:
Again, some honorable mentions:
I like the silliness of 00440 - just a load of chat with the date of the gig in the middle!
00447 was done in Illustrator and Procreate and is quite pleasing to me (love a ruff)
00450 is Photoshop overload but I'm really pleased with it, partly because of the weird perspective of a wall that is much smaller than you think. The part you see is about the height of two heads, not a full body, and, believe it or not, the goldfish weren't there.
00465 - such a lot of work!! A Coosticks word search! Sometimes I don't give myself an easy time!!!
00446/00449/00457/00458a
Maps!
Four of them.
The first one at Chaplin's, then a live Facebook stream, then a quiz night for my friend Rich Baxter, then outdoor shenanigans with my Outlandish band-mates.
I thought a map was a good thing to emulate for a poster, but then I decided to make one big map and cut it into four and when the pieces are put together... not sure if anyone realised!!
00456
Some of my Coo Cards get used and then the night doesn't happen or the card doesn't seem right for the venue. This one kept getting used then not used, time and time again. When another Green Room Live appeared on the horizon, I was determined to be there and to use this card for it as it had been semi-shelved but it was also one of my favourite images.
The Green Room Live nights are wonderful, lovely sound, an amazing room to play in and Forest Arts Centre in New Milton is a great place for art and music. I didn't feel confident this night, made a mistake or two, but got very warm and positive feedback
The card may look straightforward - it wasn't. It's another one that took a long time to do, to get the shapes and the feel right. I had long wanted to save it for playing at the Green Man in Wimborne for obvious reasons but they never matched up unfortunately.
Very pleased with this, it feels out of place here as I must have originally drawn it about 4 years previously, and I like the little detail of the rogue leaf.
A few more notable cards to mention:
00467 - so pleased with how 'Operation-Coo' turned out00468 - just love how it all turned out, one of my very favourites, might have to revisit this in the future
00480/00481/00482/00483 - a linocut image I did and used for my second time at Ventnor Fringe, which felt, at times, kind of triumphant
00486 - just love this image so much - someone commented, 'are you transitioning?'
00487 - love this cheeky guy too
00472
I had done card 00471 for a visit to the Isle of Wight playing at Quay Arts Centre which is another place I have craved playing for a while.
I had been in touch with the organiser, Chris, and I met him on the night and he was amazing, friendly and so welcoming and it was such a pleasure to play there. After the music, Chris asked me how long I was on the Island for. I told him I was there for the week and he invited me to an open mic that he runs. I went along and had the most fantastic night.
The place was rammed, Polish sailors were dancing to the music, everyone was singing along, it was so joyous.
But I didn't have a Coo Card!
Usually these days I make sure one is done before the gig, well before if I can but here I was stumped. I had no access to computers and nothing with me but a sketchbook and pencils. So that's what I used and this is one of the rare Coo Cards of today that has different boxes on it (because I hand-drew them) and it might be the single only Coo Card that doesn't have the Coosticks logo on it which makes it a one-of-a-kind.
I hope you've enjoyed this brief visit through my creative madness. As I say, if you want the whole overload, they are pretty much all up on the website (except 00103 and one I haven't finished yet for someone's wedding a few years ago based on a Coke can, I'll get back to it, promise!)
Take care now x