Mat Cross

#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.

Look what came today - ulnar drift keyboard woes be gone! 🎉🙌 #orchid @telepathic.instruments

Some tiny wobbly sketches from 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! 😬
#sketchbook #shuttleworthairshow

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

15th September: #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

31st August: #JollyPessimistic Some crops of album cover rough workings - I think I’ve settled on a faux-lithographic cut-out approach. 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? 🤷

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

Realised 10 full comics would take forever, so I’m back to an illustrated lyric book. Rough sketch for Feeding Time - a song about the state of UK politics. Banner reads: Serve with honour or you will be served cold. 🦁

#WIP #JollyPessimistic

#WIP #storyboarding – Working on a sequence for song 2, OMG — first of 3 about climate change and the COLLAPSE of EVERYTHING (the album title Jolly Pessimistic comes from one).
Testing a scene in #MentalCanvas: a family watching climate news.
Wordless vid, speech bubble book? 🤔💭 #dOom

#WIP #storyboarding - that’s the storyboard for song number one done, just 9 more to go…

#WIP #storyboarding - spread number 2 for song number 1: Black Mirror. 🤳 I was thinking I could put song time markers in key panels so the sequence could be read along with the song, like a low-tech music video? 🤯

Hooray!! I’ve finished my album, Jolly Pessimistic, here’s a little snippet of a song called Black Mirror. I’m now in the process of making an accompanying comic book… so it might still be a little while before the album is released into the wild...

#WIP #musicmaking

Aww, thanks Eve 🙌

Pencil sketch of a bandstand in Abington Park, Northampton, surrounded by trees and small groups of people. A person on a mobility scooter is depicted in the foreground on the left. Several figures are shown standing and talking near the bandstand on the right. The bandstand is ornate with decorative railings and a domed roof. Trees in the background are heavily shaded, creating depth. A handwritten note at the bottom reads: “25.05.25 16.29 ABINGTON PARK NORTHAMPTON.”

A trip down memory lane.
#AbingtonPark #Northampton #sketchbook

08.03.25
under a yew tree
the homeless
sleep with the dead

#micropoetry

☀️ Happy Winter Solstice! ☀️

More AI devilry - a rare photo of me in my SUNday best, perched on my solstice viewing chair.

26.09.24
after deciding not to mask—
a cough sweet
on the optometrist’s breath

#covid
#micropoetry

02.11.24
my knee—
ballooning
over sleepless nights

#1hr26minssleep
#hopefullynotlongcovid

28.11.24
synchronised shopping—
the self-service checkouts
speak in unison

#micropoetry

#inkyfingerpainting on an old iPhone

23.11.24 from the café window reflected lights decorate the tree 21.11.24 a note to self— the lead breaks on the period 18.11.24 after rush hour dry patches in empty parking spaces 15.11.24 on a stepladder a decorator on the phone —raising his voice 02.11.24 finding the way out of the budget hotel —a drowsy fly

Some recent #micropoems

I was chuffed to find this Ravilious-esque ‘tailors dummy’ pebble on Hastings Rock-A-Nore beach this time last week. We’ve got quite a good collection going now, mostly found by Mrs C, though I have to say this one is my new favourite.

HIGH STREET, J.M.Richards, Eric Ravilious
#lithographicpebbles

AKA Ringo!

My talented art school pal!

Thanks Adriano! 🙂

Random bits from my #sketchbook, which atm is mostly filled with audio related notes and daily To-Doooos.

The first image is the design for the album cover - a wooden puppet stood knee deep in flood water in front of a dilapidated band stand dressed as a Victorian undertaker playing a ukulele.

Mini sketches of Hastings dry harbour from the café in Hastings Contemporary. Afterwards went for a stroll on the beach and found lots of sad faced dogfish and some exotic looking shea shells shea shells on the shea floor.

FREE CHEESE! FREE CHEEESE! Vote for me please!! 🎉🧀 More #AI devilry.

Mat Cross on Instagram: "A sonic doodle + an AI generated astronaut #midjourney #lumaai" 1 likes, 0 comments - mat_cross on June 13, 2024: "A sonic doodle + an AI generated astronaut #midjourney #lumaai".

A sonic doodle + an AI generated astronaut

#midjourney #lumaai

www.instagram.com/reel/C8KF9fh...

Mat Cross on Instagram: "A sonic doodle + AI Devilry" 1 likes, 0 comments - mat_cross on June 10, 2024: "A sonic doodle + AI Devilry".

A sonic doodle + AI Devilry

www.instagram.com/p/C8CH9fIqak...