New Years Resolution: Start Singing Again

Ansa Back: Telling Jokes Behind Amy's Back - Photography © Mark L Jones
Ansa Back: Telling Jokes Behind Amy's Back - Photography © Mark L Jones
Ansa Back: Telling Jokes Behind Amy’s Back – Photography © Mark L Jones

Resolutions aren’t something I usually bother with, but this year I want to start singing again. I used to have so much confidence – regularly singing Les Miserables tunes in the playground (mainly Castle on a Cloud) and, more embarrassingly, odd bits from S Club 7 (my friend knew all of the dance routines but didn’t like singing), and I was perfectly happy having various solo singing parts on stage at about age 7 – I’m not sure where that confidence went, but some of it’s started coming back already and it’s time to catch the rest before it decides to go on holiday for another decade!

This summer (maybe as early as easter) I’ll be singing and playing harp in the middle of Salcombe, for fun and confidence, and will make a real effort to play more solo gigs.

This year, most of my singing has been performing backing vocals for lively 8-piece band Ansa Back (when I’m not playing flute). I know it looks like there’s some sort of secret joke going on behind Amy’s back, but it actually Greg (lead guitarist) waiting for a cue from our drummer. Thanks to Mark Jones for the photo!

Ants & Ogden Nash

Leafcutter Ant by Hannah Sterry
Leafcutter Ant by Hannah Sterry
Leafcutter Ant Illustration

‎”The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.

So what.

Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid.”

~Ogden Nash

I have to write some music to accompany this. It might be my favourite assignment of the year (Ogden Nash has written so many brilliant, short, witty poems).

The picture on the right is a pencil sketch I did a few years ago; ants (and other insects) are good fun to draw.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you all and hello to any fellow Open University students!

~Hannah

Life is Changing: Crafts, Cartoons & Live Music

AnsaBack Poster

Hello again!

Life has been changing fast, which has meant that I’ve not drawn and uploaded the cartoons that I aimed to have completed by now. Here’s what’s been going on:

Christmas Cartoon Sales!

The Musical Compliments cartoon still seems to be doing really well. After thousands of sporadic shares on facebook, people seem to be going  mad with t-shirt buying! If you’ve got a musical friend, who loves puns, it could make a really nice complimentary gift!

Musical Compliments - Music Cartoon by Hannah Sterry. Comic shows some music notes complimenting each other. Text reads: "Liking the natural look!" "Thanks! You're looking pretty sharp yourself!"

‘Musical Compliments’ is available on cards, mugs, t-shirts and bags over here: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/hannahsterrycartoons

Music

My sister has been involved in my most recent recording and I’m absolutely desperate to share it, but it’s not finished yet! Would love to hear any band name suggestions for dark, electronic, synth rock with flutes and a female singer… leave me a comment if you have any ideas!

On Wednesday I went to a few of the cafe’s and galleries in town, to ask whether they’d be interested in some live harp music and had a really nice chat with the people in The Art Cafe and The Harbour House. By complete chance, I bumped in to a few people I knew and had played for before and they gave me some really nice, on-the-spot references – it’s a small town! 🙂

The Weekly Gigs:

Tomorrow – I’ll be playing music with Hamer & Isaacs at East Portlemouth Village Hall, 8pm.

Tuesday (11th) – Ansa Back will be playing at The Hideaway Speakeasy, Kingsbridge, 8pm.

Here’s a poster I made earlier!

Ansa Back Poster

[Click for bigger picture]

Thursday (13th) – Ben Carr will be playing at The Kings Arms, Kingsbridge (I’ll be guesting on flute).

More live music dates on the Gigs & Events page.

Education

In addition to all of this, I’ve got an Open University deadline on Tuesday and I’m desperately trying to learn some new Grade VIII standard flute pieces. The driving theory hasn’t even been looked at!

Really glad to be busy, meeting so many people and doing so many things!

Hope nobody minds the lack of cartoons too much (they take a surprisingly long time to draw/perfect). I’ll release more as soon as I’m happy with them!

Hannah x

Hang out on Sterry Cartoons facebook group!

Musical Compliments - Cartoon by Hannah Sterry


    There is now a Sterry Cartoons Group over on facebook.

    So feel free to hang out over there and share in the friendly banter!

    I’ll post the occasional cartoon and we can all have a bit of a laugh.

Live Music

There are a few gigs coming up in December, where I’ll be performing as guest jazz flautist with Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band. They’re a brilliant group of musicians playing lively Django-style jazz and really good fun to watch, so if you get a chance to see them – Don’t miss it!

The dates I’ll be joining Hamer & Isaacs are:

8th December    – East Portlemouth Village Hall, 8pm

18th December – White Horse Inn, Launceston, 8pm

They’re playing a lot of dates in Devon and Cornwall in December, so it’s well worth having a look on their shows page to see if they’re playing anywhere near you.

Also remade the header photo for the website (below). What do you think?

Musical Compliments - Cartoon by Hannah Sterry

 

 

Just a quick post today – Hope you’re all well!

Hannah x

 

Bedford: Pink Pianos, Escaped Orangutans & Bewildered Birds

Lazy Orangutan in Bedford Park

For the past week I’ve been travelling, meeting new people and exploring the town of Bedford. The orangutan just happened to be

Here are 3 photographic highlights from the break:

Pink Pianos

Travelling through St. Pancras Station on Monday…

Pink Piano at St Pancras International Station, London. Played by Howard Kahn.

Bedford also has musical tiles in the town centre! We weren’t quite brave around to stick around and work out how to play a tune on them, but thought that they were a brilliant idea!

 

Autumn Leaves

The autumn colours were wonderful and there seemed to be geese absolutely everywhere!

Bewildered Birds

Some very suspicious pigeons eyeing us up in the park.

I think they just wanted to attack us for some bread!

I enjoyed my time in Bedford and met some wonderful people.

It’s good to be back, but I’d love to visit again at some point!

Hannah 🙂

Life just got busy!

Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band by Scott Calnon Photography

Life just got busy!

I haven’t disappeared off the face of the internet, I promise! The past few weeks have been a scrambled mash of work, First Aid at Work courses, rehearsals, Open University deadlines, music lessons, driving lessons, Halloween fundraisers and gigs. I’ve hardly had time to turn around!

Anyway, I just got back from a lovely gig with Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band (pictured above).

And thought I’d share their music with you: http://hamerandisaacs.com/discography?id=2673

After this week, hopefully I’ll have a little bit more time for cartooning and recording, but in the mean time, have a good one and enjoy the music! x

Sterry Cartoons: Desperate Cats

The Cats Were Getting Desperate! - Cartoon by Sterry Cartoons

This is a sketch from a while ago, but I thought I’d release it to the wild, wild internet.

The Cats Were Getting Desperate! - Cartoon by Sterry Cartoons

Hope you like it!

Other News

Friday: Had a lovely evening playing blues (on flute) with Ben Carr at the Kings Arms Hotel. Really friendly atmosphere & buzzing with people!

Saturday: Day job in the morning, but spent another afternoon looking at some of Ben Carr’s cartoons and artwork. If all goes to plan, I’ll be collaborating on some new cartoons and animations with him soon! 😀

After leaving Ben’s, I had an hour to wait before the next bus so I popped over to The Harbour House to have a look at their Open Exhibition. The theme this time was “Blue” and it was brilliant to see so many pieces from local artists (including a few from one of my work colleagues, Ian)! I highly recommend a visit. Entry is free and the quality of work is amazing!

Sterry Cartoons: Crotchety!

Crotchety Crotchet - A music joke cartoon by Sterry Cartoons.

It’s been a productive cartooning day… sorry to end it on such an angry note! 😛

On the subject of notes, I’d really appreciate it if I could have a few more likes on the Sterry Cartoons facebook page. Sorry to ask – I’m hoping to get enough people involved so that we can have some really good competitions and giveaways!

Hope the cartoons keep you smiling!

All the best,

Hannah Sterry x

Sterry Cartoons: Are ewe my mum?

Q: Are sheep just clouds with legs? A: In illustration, yes. Hannah Sterry Cartoons.

Sheep are really clouds with legs.

Q: Are sheep just clouds with legs? A: In illustration, yes. Hannah Sterry Cartoons.

This is an idea I’ve had for a while, and I’m sure someone else must have done it, but I thought it would be good drawing practice anyway! Feel free to comment with links if you’ve seen/drawn anything similar. 🙂

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