Sunny Afternoon

"Sunny Afternoon"; pen and ink; 22" x 28" Bristol board; 1980/1981.

Back in 1980, when I was 16, I went and bought a pair of jeans -- probably the first time I ever went and bought an article of clothing for myself.  They were dark navy blue, which I didn't like, but there weren't a lot of choices where I came from, not at that time.  The next morning, when no one else was around, I decided to throw them in the washing machine and fade them.  I'd never used the washing machine before, either, but I reckoned I could handle it.  I threw in the jeans -- no water -- poured Javex bleach directly on the jeans, made a few calculations, then started up the machine.  Well, what I had was a pair of jeans, only slightly faded, with a big splash of white down the side of the left leg, looking something like the Milky Way.  Not wanting to waste a new pair of jeans, I wore them anyway.  I felt like an idiot, at first, but then I grew to liking them.  They were unique!

It was around this time that I started working on this picture.  A giant battle scene, with humans, aliens and monsters.  Visually, it's confusing.  The detailed line work was influenced by Philippe Druillet and Enki Bilal, and all those figures are hard to untangle -- but not impossible.

I did it a little bit here and there, when I had time, since I was also working on other projects.  It took me half a year to complete.  Unfortunately, I spilled ink on the left side of the drawing about halfway through.  It was devastating.  I painted over the black blot with white watercolour, I think, then had to redraw the damaged part -- except I couldn't remember what I had originally drawn.  But I managed, drawing something and matching up the lines.  The correction is most visible.

But there was still more devastation.  I was wearing my unique, white-flecked jeans on that occasion, and the ink splashed all over the left leg.  Now I had a mix of black and white splashes on the same leg.  But I got over the initial disappointment the next day, when I realised no one else in the world had a pair of jeans like mine!

I named the drawing after the Kinks song.