Autumn Days

Well i haven't blogged in forever so i decided it's time to get my lazy arse into gear! I always seem to get more productive when the nights get darker, I'm never sure why that is. Probably cause I'm practically nocturnal anyway.

So I've been doing some small amounts of drawing, nothing major and it just seems that i haven't gotten any further forward with my portfolio at all. Which isn't what i was hoping for by this time of the year. One thing i have been doing some work on is designing my own book cover for Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland'.

Not sure how i feel about it yet, but colour is definitely one of things i struggle with most so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. A lot of my crazy ideas never get beyond the pencil, I've always found applying colour painful to do.

Since I'm being honest one of the other things i struggle with is time; I draw painfully slow (as anybody whose ever watched me draw will no doubt have noticed). A friend of mine recently turned me onto http://www.posemaniacs.com/ which has a brilliant 30 second drawing tool, which I'm finding a big help on that front. When i eventually get round to blogging again perhaps I'll share some of the vaguely human squiggles that result from it. But for now i have a desk to tidy before i can take anything any further, and that looks like it may take some time!

Tyneside Metro Station

Got a camera film back today from Boots, and it had these photos from the metro station at Tyneside in it. I remember visiting there way back before last summer whilst still at university, i was totally captured by the decay and rust; the colours in these photographs are beautiful. I wonder if it's still there, a lot of the station was bordered off when i went, they were busy getting ready to redo it which would be a shame because i love it just the way it is.

I think at some point i'm going to have do some work from these photos, either developing a colour palette for another piece, or drawing and sketching...or maybe something abstract (which i never do) just trying to get down on paper the feeling of the place.

You'll Never Take Me Alive!

Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
i've been drawwwwwwinnngggggggggggggggggggggggggg!
And it made me really happeee! Like 2yr old on a giant orange space hopper happeee, like i wanna take all my crayons and stick em up me nose happeee, like i drank far to much tizer than should be humanly allowed happeee!
And i currently have nothing else to proclaim other than that :) xx

A Moment on the Lips...

...a lifetime on the hips, isn't that what they say?

For xmas i got a chocolate making set, and this is my first attempts at one of the recipes; chocolate truffles. I'm planning on doing a different recipe every week, it's quite challenging as the extent of my cooking abilities is cheese and toast thanks to my days as a student. Seeing as all the recipes involve chocolate in some form i can see it being very rewarding! The only downside is sitting down drawing all the time and eating lots of chocolate aren't a good combo, and being more active is supposed to boost your concentration isn't it? Which would benefit my drawings, no? So i need to find some activity i actually like doing, besides walking the dog or having the dog take me for a walk.



I had a go at drawing my daily portrait earlier but it went squiffy...so i attempted to save it with some coloured pencils, so it's not exactly a portrait in the traditional sense, but thankfully it's not a total disaster either. It needs working into a bit further, fill more of the white space, might try some other mediums in there...shake it up a bit...

Is it Supposed to be a Cartoon?

...those were the exact words that came out of my little sister's mouth while peeping over my shoulder at my work, and no the intention was not to draw a 'cartoon' as she so aptly put it. Sometimes i just have no control over what or how i draw, and this was the result. Not quite a cartoon (not in my eyes anyway) but really that realisitc either, kinda reminds me of a caricature only not exaggerated enough.

Well i may have to get the lightbox out tomorrow and try inking up a few, to see what they look like.

Maybe I'll Be Done By Easter...

Okay, well i have been drawing (honest!) just i dislike most of it muchly, so i thought i'd share this with you instead. This is a rabbit that i was supposed to finish about a year and a half ago as part of a print making module i took at university. On it are screenprinted photos of my family and our various childhoods, underneath that is some monoprinting on the cloth (a old set of pjs i cut up). And while i was banging my head against a brickwall trying to draw something half way decent the purple box file it's been living in all this time caught my eye. So i'm thinking when i need to take a step away from working on some drawing/painting/piece finishing this rabbit would help me destress a bit. So that is what i'm gonna do...

Alice in Wonderland

Okay, had quite a busy day today, got up late this morning and had to leg it to work, came home went into town, then to the library, then for fish and chips and now i'm currently curled up in my room next to the radiator in an attempt to defrost my toes. I bought this beautiful necklace in town and just had to share it (in the photographic sense only i'm afraid), it totally reminds me of 'Alice in Wonderland' it was just to whimsical too pass up.

And i suppose this could be classed as 'wonderland', this is my room, my little space where i do the vast majority of my drawing, painting etc. Just thought it might be of interest...

My good friend 'billy joe' keeps me company, he's a cute furry rodent that sadly was far to sleepy to be in this photo. Sandwiched in the middle is my trusty lightbox should i screw up (and i frequently do), with my cds and cd player on the other side, and a lamp (i love lamp!) for extra light. There's also a random assortment of junk, pencils, books and action figures sprinkled quite liberally over the area.

Finally, this is where my battered make do drawing board rests (currently with my much battered sketchbook) and where i sit is just in front of it, which is where i'm off to now. I still have a portrait and life drawing to do today and zero excuses not to do it, now that i offically have two 'snow days' friday and saturday so...watch this space!

Snow White

Well i've done something creative today, even if i haven't managed one life drawing and one portrait, but i am definately going to be starting that up tomorrow or should that be today (seeing as it's 2o'clock in the morning).

I did do these scribbles though, they were based on some ghd adverts that i came across whilst mutiliating old magazines for collage material. If you missed the advertising campaign, they were basically subverted fairytales...hence snow white. I have no idea who the other figure is she just fell out of my head (like so many of them do) in response to the adverts in general.

Kinda like it but messed up with the ink when i started out (far top right) so i went back to trusty coloured pencil.

A Happy New Year?

Well...happy new year!

Or at least that's what i'm hoping for, because honestly the last one was ridiculously awful not that it was all bad, things can always be worse don't get me wrong i'm not being an ungrateful moron or anything... but in short, yeah i'm hoping for a better year this time round. So i've made a few small resolutions to help me get the ball rolling...

one is to draw at least one portrait and one life drawing per day,

the other is to teach myself book binding (which will hopefully come in handy)

and the last is to have my portfolio completed by the end of the year (not so much a resolution but a target).

Oh and i should probably take better care of this blog too!

I feel more content when i'm doing something that's both productive and creative, so these resolutions should make me feel happier i guess, unless i get frustrated with my inability to draw which does happen occasionally, blank pages can be so daunting.

I'm also starting up weekly projects, the first and crucially this weeks, is fred and bob (from a previous post) i never did get them finished so i'm gonna be doing that for the rest of the week...and yes building a snowman does count as doing something creative!

So...have a great 2010!